Treat migrant farm workers as your neighbors

A few weeks back I was shopping with my family at a local grocery store. It happened to be payday for a local farm or two as 20 migrant workers from Jamaica were there cashing their checks and buying their necessities.

While the store workers treated them with the utmost care and respect as they would any customer, the “regular” customers did not. There was a palpable discomfort or fear over the workers being there, with the local residents shopping with a sense of urgency, guarded caution, and spiteful glances.

If I was noticing the ire being cast their way, I know for sure the Jamaicans were, too, and, worse yet, they had to be feeling it.

This was not the first time, nor will it be the last, that I’ve seen migrant workers treated poorly.

It’s disgusting. Is that any way to treat our neighbors?

Yes, our neighbors.

For 2 to 10 months out of the year, longer than many snowbirds, these gentlemen from afar are living in our communities in quality housing provided for them by their employers. They travel our roads, share our parks and shop our stores.

And, most importantly, they provide services that Americans won’t.

They are here because, even in a bad economy, able-bodied American men won’t come off lifestyles of public assistance or parental benevolence to pick fruits and vegetables. A job that pays $12 to $15 per hour goes wanting and has to be outsourced to workers from another country because we’ve created a society that believes farm work is just too hard, unacceptable, and something fitting a lesser people. People have to work with their hands and get dirty? Pshaw!

Luckily for all of us, the migrant workers don’t have that pitiful view. They see the value in honest work and physical labor and show something that decades ago we once considered to be “the American work ethic.”

Because they do what we once did and what we won’t do now, we aren’t starving. They bust their butts to put healthy, nice-looking produce -- things that farm machinery can’t pick or sort -- in our stores. Ironically, the very same people who looked at the Jamaicans with ire were buying the fresh goods that those men had picked days earlier.

Who knows where the disdain for them comes from: Is it because they look and sound different from most of us, or is guilt by association because of a deserved narrative against illegal aliens (which these men aren’t) who do bad things (which these men don’t) in our southern border states?

Almost all migrant farm workers in Niagara County are here legally, holding H-2A visas which allow them to be here up to 10 months at a time. When they are not here, they are back home reveling in the rewards of their hard work – that is, seeing their families living in humble homes and going to better schools that are atypical to the dead end squalor of their homeland. They are doing back breaking work to ensure that their kids aren’t and to help them rise out of a second- or third-world existence.

That’s commendable work. That’s commendable fathering.

Yet, why do we only want them to have some shadowy existence, almost off the grid, out of sight and out of mind, while they are here toiling and making good on their promises to their families?

We should be treating them as we would anyone who lives and works in our towns and villages. Not only do they deserve a passing smile at the grocery store, but they should be invited and welcomed with open arms to our churches and community events. They should made to feel like they belong.

They might be part-time neighbors, but they are good neighbors, hardworking souls who by their very nature represent the ethos that once defined the greatness of America.  

                 

From the 17 October 2016 Greater Niagara Newspapers 

Have you thanked your favorite teacher?

In elementary school and the early years of high school, I had a good but not great understanding of mathematics. I knew just enough to be dangerous and to get only above-average grades.

But, then, something happened in the eleventh grade.

It was like I had discovered the Rosetta Stone to higher math. The floodgates opened and even relatively complex arithmetic become easy. It was an acquired skill – a new mindset -- that then allowed me to prosper not only in college but in my professional life as well: As any good businessperson will tell you, their career revolves around numbers and you’d better have a very good understanding of them or it will be the death of your business.

So, what was it that led to my awakening?

Was it intellectual maturity? Was it the subject material being taught? Did years of schooling create a foundation that I was now able to build upon?

The answer is “maybe, to some small degree,” to all of the above.

But, without a doubt, the biggest reason I was able to go to the next level was my teacher, Kerry Finger.

Mr. Finger’s style of teaching changed the way I saw math – what I had once considered useless number science only befitting textbooks and the mundanity of the classroom was transformed under his watch to something useful that I could capitalize on to make complex decisions in day-to-day life. He continually walked us through real world examples, teaching us himself rather than having a boring book do it. He made us master the minutiae and the significant. He made it entertaining, too -- his approach of using good-natured ribbing to goad excellence out of the students did just as it was intended. 

Mr. Finger personally delivered my mathematics wake-up call and I was fortunate enough to have him as a teacher in my junior and senior years. He changed my life for the better.

As the years went by and I applied what he taught me to work (and even these columns), I developed a sort of guilt that I hadn’t properly thanked him for that when I was in high school. Then again, maybe I couldn’t have at the time because I wouldn’t have had the proper perspective of how important his lessons would become to me.

So, I looked him up, but found that Mr. Finger had moved out of Western New York. He had gone to the Chicago area. Luckily, as Facebook became vogue, I found his wife online and then had a way to reach out to him. So, I penned him a heartfelt thank you and made sure he understood the impact that he had on my life. It was a “thank you” that he appreciated.

At the past June’s commencement ceremony at my alma mater of Royalton-Hartland, I told the graduating class that they should take the time to thank their teachers and their parents for making them who they are. I wonder now in retrospect if maybe I should have told their parents to offer a “thank you” of their own to their Roy-Hart teachers of old. It’s meaningful dialog to have with the men and women who dedicated their careers to changing lives and I think it means more coming from a former student from long ago because that student now has, as I had mentioned, the perspective necessary to understand who they were, who they have become and where they are going as a result of the education and life lessons given them.

My challenge to you, dear reader, is this: Thank your favorite teacher.

Your teacher will savor it…and so will you.      

 From the 10 October 2016 Greater Niagara Newspapers

EXPLORING THE NIAGARA FRONTIER: What is your “go to” fishing gear?

Heading off to one of our family vacations in the Adirondacks, I -- of course -- had to include fishing gear on the list of necessities.


When it comes to such a trip, I have to pack wisely – the family’s luggage takes up a lot of space in the truck and, on top of that, I really can’t take a massive tackle box out in the kayak with me. Any tackle that’s going on the water has to fit into my life vest.

That really limits what can go. I must focus on lures that I find reliable, no matter the water, no matter the species. In the Adirondacks, just like anywhere in upstate New York, I might find myself targeting trout on one cast and bass or pike the next. I have to be diverse and prepared to catch anything.

This is old hat to me. I’ve been vacationing in the Adirondacks with my wife for a dozen years and I’ve been small boat fishing longer than that. So, I already have my old stand-bys that I stuff into life vest. It just so happens, they are the very same lures that I keep with me no matter where I might fish, be it Alma Pond near the Pennsylvania border or Glenwood Lake in Orleans County.

So, just what is in my life vest?

Here is my “go to” fishing gear:

• 7.5” black plastic worms: I won’t fish any bass pond without a handful of these effective baits. Rigged Texas style -- that is with a bullet weight and a hook made weedless in the body of the worm -- they can be fished in shallow waters, along deep weed edges, or dragged across the top of the thickest mats of moss. Fished with touch and nuance, they are deadly lures for largemouth bass. 
• 3” tube jigs: I use only the smoke colored tubes shown in the photo with a ¼ ounce jig inside of them. Smoke is a neutral color that mimics many species of baitfish, making them useful for any body of water and any species of fish. They can be fished shallow or to depths to 20 feet and in lakes or fast moving rivers. They are incredibly versatile and I’ve caught everything from salmon to pike to walleye on them.
• 3” white Mr. Twisters: Many longtime anglers may have given up on these lures as they became more “serious”. I haven’t. They are productive and, to me, they are just as fun as they were when I just started to fish. On one roadside Adirondack lake I’ve used Twisters to catch a 20” bass and a 30” lake trout from my kayak. Those aren’t slouches on any waterway in New York. I always keep two sizes of jigs handy – 1/8 ounce for jigging in shallow water (15 feet or less) and a heavy one – ¼ ounce -- for deep-water jigging (up to 50 feet). 
• Live worms: Those same jig heads that I use on Mr. Twisters are also used on live worms. Many fishermen might think I’m a heathen or an amateur for using nightcrawlers, but I’ll tell you what – they catch fish. When I’m stymied on smallmouth bass lakes, I put on worms and start catching fish. Likewise, many a jigged crawler has tempted tasty panfish, walleye, and trout. Plus, earthworms always lend themselves to surprises – you never really do know what’s on the other end of the line when you set the hook. I’ve even been caught off guard by two snapping turtles, a real shocker when you are in a kayak.      

So, that’s it. That’s all you will find in my life vest. My selection might seem simple. Maybe it is. But it works.

And, I should probably tell you that with that gear I always use a two-piece medium action rod with 12 pound test on a spinning reel. That line diameter allows for a nice slow, subtle drop of tube jigs and it gives me the strength I need to horse a bass out of weeds.

This begs the question: What are YOUR “go to” lures and baits?

If you were stuck in the wilderness and had just a handful of lures to stay alive, what would you hope you had with you?

I’m curious what you would choose and why. Comment on this story on Facebook and Twitter to keep the conversation going.   


From the 06 October 2016 All WNY News

The college bubble is ready to burst

The bursting of the housing bubble was the unquestioned cause of the Great Recession. After years of unprecedented growth in the housing market that saw home ownership and home values rise dramatically, the collective bad decisions of homebuyers, banks, and government finally caught up to the economy at large.

The supply of easy money that led to the ersatz prosperity –- financial institutions foolishly gave, and government foolishly backed, mortgages for almost everyone, despite the risk – proved to be the bane of the same. It didn’t take some homeowners long to figure out that easy money really wasn’t so easy; their exorbitant mortgage payments weren’t sustainable, especially if the slightest hiccup appeared in their personal finances – such as the small scale recession that pre-dated the heart of the Great Recession. With their family budgets hit hard, they had to choose between paying for their mortgages or their survivability (food, utilities, and transportation). That choice not being so difficult, they defaulted on their loans. Housing prices plummeted and the financial sector suffered immensely.

Our economy still hasn’t fully recovered 8 years later (household incomes are still below their 1999 peak!) and likely won’t before the decade closes. If the ship is ever righted to the heights that we remember, it won’t be long before another bubble is ready to burst.

On the horizon is one that has numerous characteristics eerily similar to the housing markets’ -- the college bubble.

Easy access to money defines the modern college experience. Such is to be expected when you consider the federal government has been one of the largest lenders in the college loan market. From 1965 to 2010, it issued subsidies to lending institutions to fund their student loans while assuming all the risk. In 2010, Congress acted to eliminate the middle man and now the government deals directly with the debtors.

So, whether being the lender indirectly or directly, Uncle Sam has always demanded and/or strived to give out funds ad nauseam under that wanton desire to be benevolent that drives Big Government, especially since government has what is believed to be unlimited backing (the taxpayers and Federal Reserve) to make good on bad lending decisions. The federal government currently backs 90% of new student loans. 

With the ability to borrow the capital necessary to fund their degrees, Americans have taken to the classroom in numbers. In 1965, at the start of the government’s lending efforts, only 23 percent of the middle class had received any education beyond the twelfth grade. Now, more than 3 in 10 have a degree, while a whopping 70 percent of young Americans enter college within 2 years of their high school graduation. 20 million Americans attend college every year. Just like it seemed as if everyone in 2006 was a homeowner (prior to the bursting of the housing bubble), it seems like everyone is college student.

And, just like construction firms, realtors, resellers and the like fed off of a freewheeling mortgage market at the turn of the century, driving up housing prices (it was not uncommon to see 80% to 150% increases across the country from 2000 to 2006), universities are capitalizing on the freewheeling student loans and the widely-held misconception that everyone needs a college education (which minimizes the value of vocational skills and the trades). Knowing that everyone – the poor, middle class, and rich – all have access to funds and will buy their product, they are charging what they want and whatever the market can bear.

Because of these factors, education costs have grown at a rate beyond inflation. Tuition and fees at public and private universities in New York State have risen by a whopping 50 percent since 2005. Student loan debt in New York grew to $82 billion last year, up from “just” $39 billion 10 years earlier. The average college graduate here owes $32,000 in student loans.

It’s not a problem unique to the Empire State, either. Student loan has debt has tripled across the country over the past decade, surpassing $1.2 trillion. In a moribund economy, it has been difficult for workers to pay that back: Nearly 7 million Americans have gone at least a year without making a payment on their federal student loans.

As it was with housing in the Great Recession, the financing of and demand for higher education isn’t a sustainable economic model – easy money creates more demand, but said easy money ultimately creates unaffordability, less demand, default and a badly damaged economy.

It won’t be long before this college bubble bursts…and bursts badly.

From the 03 October 2016 Greater Niagara Newspapers