Who gets to be called “Doctor” anyway?

I am curious why Jill Biden is frequently referred to as Dr. Biden in the media. I know that she had a doctoral degree in education (Ed.D.) so it is clearly proper for her to be so addressed. Michelle Obama also has a doctoral degree (J.D.). Why is she not referred to as Dr. Obama in those instances when she is not referred to as the First Lady of the United States?

The local and now retired school superintendent has for years had the personalized license plate of DOC DON. Is there something about educational professionals with doctoral degrees touting their terminal degrees?

Then there is NPR’s Doctor Science--“I’m not a real doctor; I have a master’s degree in science.” What about Kermit The Frog? He at least deserves an honorary doctoral degree. I really like the title: Dr. K. T. Frog. I would suggest that Dr. Frog’s degree be in Humane Letters, which is exclusively an honorary degree. That way I don’t offend any more folks with this posting, except for all those folks who have been awarded honorary degrees in Humane Letters.

Sometimes even presidents have questionable ideas--at least in my judgment.

The suggested criteria for selecting a college and by inference that must also include the choice of major, minor, and/or dual major has become "getting the most bang for the buck." We have come a long way in assessing value of post-secondary education, and the way travelled has not been on the road to a very desirable place--again in my judgment.

Estimating the lifetime earnings of every 18-year-old incoming college freshman must be easy, if you are the president and have a cadre of MBA's from Wharton Business School, Yale, and Harvard providing support. What are the careers that will be the goldmines for earned personal income over the next four decades? If word gets out that pea-picker is an up and coming career choice with promise of a 6 digit annual income until 2053 and beyond, what is the effect of US and foreign colleges and universities producing twice as many pea-pickers as global industries can absorb? Let's see. Pea-pickers will be working half-time; half of the diploma clad pea-pickers will be out of pea-picking work; pea-pickers working in their chosen field will be working for credit at the company store. Then there is always the possibility that a pea-picker with a secondary major in mechanical engineering will develop a robotic pea-picker that puts the pea-picker dudes and dudettes in unemployment lines and eligible for retraining for the latest up and coming goldmine career.

Another challenge in sizing up the bang of the buck is the impact of a college or university education apart from the academic field of study. Certain academic institutions are able to significantly add to the success of their graduates based on the network of alumni and a reputation that may or may not evidenced in any particular graduate. Would Clarence Thomas or Sonia Sotomayor be US Supreme Court justices, if they had not gone to Yale Law School? (I am glad that they did, and they are.) I suspect their legal careers would have unfolded very differently, if they were graduates of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, MN. Would either be a less competent legal mind, if they had?

Does the medical profession provide us with an example of the unintended consequences of chasing the big bucks? Forty years ago, the advice was to go to medical school, if one wanted to make big bucks. The evolution of health care and the development of medical specialties with questionable claims to higher rates of reimbursement has left us with a void of family practitioners and pediatricians and other socially less sanctioned specialties.

Recent reports on MBA careers may be another example.

This country needs more good lawyers, physicians, and bankers than can ever be absorbed by Washington, DC legal firms, for-profit cardiac surgery centers, or Wall Street banks. Come to think of it, this country needs good high school chemistry teachers, automotive mechanics, and philosophers--to name just a few--again in my judgement.

The use of the term “God-given-rights” and its application to the contemporary socio-political scene are problematic for me. My first read of the term includes both universal and irrevocable qualities. If these rights are in fact “self-evident” and “unalienable” as so stated by the drafters of the Declaration of Independence, these rights must precede their embodiment in the documents, which form the basis for any organized society and government. In addition, they must apply to all members of the human race irrespective of where folks reside either on this planet or on the international space station. Any national government that proposes to curtail such rights based on residency and/or membership in a specific national state, i.e. citizenship, would appear to be guilty of overreach. If one’s faith tradition posits a Creator Deity, who has so “endowed” creation, how is that we creatures can deny that gift to fellow human beings based upon either their national identity and/or physical location? Do accidents of birth modify an individual’s rights as a human person?

The recent release of the Department of Justice memo outlining a supporting rationale for targeted killings, i.e. drone strikes, is the motivation behind this posting. I have been stewing over the matter for some time. Many of the actions discharged under the umbrella of the so-called war on terror seem to be defended with this same inconsistent logic and internally contradictory speech.We need to be intellectually honest and rationally consistent, even when our short term interests will not be served and a convenient course of action will be called into question—serious question.

 Despite claims of “self-evident” and “unalienable” rights, our practice and the practice of nation states down through the ages speak to a much more mundane origin of and utilitarian application of civil liberties. At any given time and in any given place, these liberties are what a given group has sanctioned at that time and in that place. In cruder terms, civil liberties are what the powers-that-be have decided what will be in their best interests at the time. Claims of historical precedence, divine sanction, and self-evidence are often nothing more than poorly founded claims of legitimacy.

When this is the view from my window, it is so easy for me to imagine that I am someplace else. Then again, it is not someplace else. It is here. It may be that I am some place else. I only need to return here--to get back to where I am, that is, to where I always was, since I had never really left to go some place else. I only thought I was someplace else.

Maybe what I long for is a different time, a different decade, or even a different century. It is so easy to romanticize the past. I simply select those bits and pieces, which I find attractive and blow them out of proportion and take them out of context.

The present is the present; presence is the gift.

The new pack basket arrived on Monday. This was timely. I had used the old one Sunday to pack a chili and cornbread lunch out to a friend's cabin. It literally came apart, though I managed to make it back to the trail head without spilling the contents. I salvaged the sternum strap that I had fabricated for the old pack and put it on the new pack. This is more than an attempt at continuity between the replacement and the one being replaced. There is also something to be said for making a personal modification to any new piece of equipment. I think it is what campers and backpackers are compelled to do. Mainly, I find that a sternum strap steadies the pack so that it doesn't move as freely side to side. A shifting pack makes me very unsteady on my feet. Couple that with an uneven surface, and it can look like I am about to fail a field sobriety test.

I haven't yet brought myself to put the new pack basket with the other camping equipment under the stairwell in the basement. It is sitting in my home office. I like looking at it. Its presence may well incentivize me to make appropriate use of it in the near future. I certainly hope so. I will resist any urge to use it as a newspaper or magazine rack--even an outdoor magazine and camping catalog rack.

 

 

 

 

I ordered a new pack basket this week to replace the Chinese made facsimile that I had been using for several years. I used it as if it was the genuine black ash or cedar strip version. It has now become barely serviceable despite several attempts to repair and strengthen it. The new one, which has yet to arrive via parcel post or UPS, is made of some space-age material and comes with a lifetime guarantee.

I took notice of the lifetime guarantee on two accounts. First off, my present basket is at the end of its days, and I am not at the end of mine. (My current basket also didn't come with a guarantee of any length.) Secondly, as my 67th birthday approaches later this month, a lifetime guarantee doesn't have the same saleable commodity as it did when I was, say, 45. Maybe there is a way to add significant value to such a guarantee. I have two grandchildren, who will be celebrating their first birthdays later this year. Talk about a lifetime guarantee of investment grade quality. I could claim that everything that I purchase is really for a grandchild, and that I am simply holding onto the item, until he or she grows into it.

The old basket has used primarily to pack supplies to and from the sugarhouse early in the syrup season, when the road in is impassable. It has carried its share of water, fuel, tools, lunches, extra clothes, and trash. I am not sure how to lay the old one to rest as I transition to the new one. I suppose I could simply hang it on a nail out at the sugarhouse. If it should end up in the firebox of the evaporator one day, that would be a fitting end, in my judgment. More than one pair of gloves, which no longer served their intended purpose, have ended up that way. Come to think of it, the firebox on a large commercial evaporator could even accommodate an old syrup maker should the question of what to do with one, who is no longer able to serve any useful purpose--flannel shirt, bib overalls, and packboots included.

An end of the year post would appear to be in order. I have been remiss in making regular posts the past few months. I even failed to shout out a Christmas greeting to my readers. My reflections of late have not lent themselves to be the subjects of posts. I could make the excuse that I was waiting for the fiscal cliff matter to be resolved by our elected officials so that I could comment on the resolution that will be forthcoming. It seems like we will have to wait another week or two before that matter is resolved. "Set aside" may be a more accurate term to describe the outcome, since it appears little will be resolved with any degree of completeness and longevity.

I have come to the conclusion that we are what we read. I recently read Backes' biography of Sigurd Olson, which caused me to reread Olson's "Reflections from the North Country." During a Christmas visit, my daughter made mention of the desire for a Boundary Waters canoe trip at some time in the future. Being already primed with the Olson reads, the mere mention of a trip at some yet to be determined future date inspired me to pull the canoe country maps out of the dresser drawer--their longterm storage site--in order to identify possible routes. When we checked in with the Forest Service before heading out on our 2004 trip, a Forest Service staff person suggested the Granite River as a possible trip. I don't recall her reasons. We could put in at Gunflint Lake and follow the Pine and Granite Rivers to Saganaga Lake taking out at an outfitter at the end of the Gunflint Trail. Gunflint Lake, the Pine, and the Granite are actually on the US and Canadian border. This area was burned in the 2007 Ham Lake fire. I have gleaned from various blogs that the fire burned hot and fast in some areas and totally avoided others. Even in the badly burned areas there has been significant regrowth, which makes for some prime moose habitat. River travel itself presents some challenges with various rapids, some of which are described as easily runnable, and others, which must be portaged.

I don't plan to spend the upcoming winter months planning summer canoe trips. I fully intend to complete a few winter hikes and at least one campout before the start of the 2013 maple syrup season. The North Country Trail section, which lies between Mellen and Drummond, WI, deserves either a repeat visit to places experienced in years past or a visit to places not yet seen.

These thoughts make for a much more positive approach to the new year in stead of ruminating on the fiscal cliff, the array of possible ramifications upon one's personal finances, and the seemingly perversion of representative government.

I wish all thoughts of creative endeavors for the new year.