Heading Across America to See What We Shall See

Come Sunday morning, Elisabeth and I head out for a road trip across the continent. While we visit interesting cities and beautiful parks, we want to learn what different people in America are doing now to prepare for the future.

We hope to bring back ideas we can implement here in North Carolina and share with those we meet strategies that have made NC great.

So we will leave our home in the loving care of two of our adult children, Lysandra and John, reinforced by our dog, Bonnie, and our two cats, Zoe and Cosette.

I am testing out the Blogger app on my phone with this post. If it works, stay tuned for more.

It's time to pay the piper.

Belews Creek Power Station from nearby cove. Photo jkm.

"All of the company's [Duke Energy's] waste ponds — sometimes referred to as ash basins or ash ponds — are in violation of state or federal clean-water laws, leaching or discharging potentially toxic heavy metals into surface water or groundwater.

"Among them is the Belews Creek power plant's massive, unlined ash pond filled with the waste of spent coal. These ponds typically host potential contaminants such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, chromium and selenium. Health risks posed by these elements include cancer and neurological damage. Conservation groups have warned for years that these unlined pits contaminate groundwater — a risk, they say, that should raise red flags in Stokes County, where many households use well water."

Click here to read Bertrand M. Gutierrez's entire piece in the Wednesday, April 23, 2014 edition of the Winston-Salem Journal.

IT IS TIME TO PAY THE PIPER

As I pointed out in my issue statement on Natural Resources, the North Carolina Constitution sets forth the policy that state has a duty to protect the state's air and its waters from pollution, such as those coming from Duke's coal fired plants.

North Carolina consumers have enjoyed relatively cheap power for decades and utility shareholders excellent dividends for decades, but in doing so have been poisoning our air, water and farmland resources.

See hill of coal (at bottom) waiting to be burned. Photo jkm.

The big question now before the courts, the State Utility Commission, and the legislative and executive branches of state government will be who pays for the cleanup and how much cleanup is necessary? Should Duke and its shareholders bear the cost? They certainly avoided many costs and earned great investment returns from selling abundant, cheap power.

Should the state taxpayers bear the burden? Over the years, regulators had a cozy relationship with the utilities and approved many of the processes used to provide the power. To charge the company, when it was following the rules, would be considered by many unfair and perhaps even unlawful. (As an aside, the company should be required to pay the full cost of any cleanup, remediation, and costs to towns and farmers affected by failures to comply with laws and regulations.)

That leaves the businesses, homeowners, renters and farmers -- the ratepayers -- who benefitted for decades from receiving power below its actual cost, if adequate air and water protections had been in place. But wait, these folks relied on the state and the utilities to create the power in a safe manner. They paid their power bills. They invested in water heaters, homes, and heat pumps based on existing power rates.

This situation came about because of the cozy relationships among: Raleigh politicians who relied on big donations from millionaire investors and utility PACs for re-election; regulators in the

Duke Coal Ash Pond after spill, Photo Gerry Broome, AP.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the State Utilities Commission who were
urged or commanded to go easy on utilities whose low power rates helped attract business and industry to the state; and citizens who pushed cutting government and leaving regulation to free market forces.

The one thing we should not do is leave the solution to this dilemma to the crowd of Raleigh politicians who feed at the corporate trough, who give big tax breaks to millionaires and mega-corporations while raising taxes on (and cutting benefits to) working and middle class families. We can be pretty sure where those politicians and their cronies will come down.

As one can see, the answers are not simple. I can only promise you that I will do my best to develop and support a fair and balanced approach to protecting our air, water and land resources, protecting our workers and consumers, all the while making North Carolina the best state in the nation in which to live, work, and do business.

Link to John Motsinger for State Senate web site.

Here's the text of my letter published today in the Winston-Salem Journal:

A higher common ground

Cal Thomas in his Feb. 10 column “Christian film gets shabby treatment in Hollywood”
noted that the film “Alone Yet Not Alone” gives a “message about God not abandoning people in distress.” He continues, “Does the secular left fear such a film might lead some people to rely on a power higher than the federal government?”

The Feb. 9 Moral March on Raleigh brought together what USA Today estimated as 80,000 to 100,000 people. While there, I saw thousands of clergy and congregants from across the religious spectrum, secular and religious humanists, and social action group members who, because of their faiths, want our state government to not abandon people in distress.

Where Cal Thomas sees division, I see a higher common ground arising from the moral imperatives reflected by religious teachings and by political and economic philosophies. Do we not agree that society should enable all people to maximize their inherent potential while providing a safety net for those in distress? By agreeing on the moral imperatives, we can come together to find solutions based not on ideology or party, but on what works in practice. As a mediator, I have witnessed how agreeing on goals instead of wrangling over methods often leads to better, previously unthought-of solutions.

JOHN K. MOTSINGER SR., Walkertown

I just heard a piece on NPR about using haiku for commercial purposes, The following is not a haiku, but it popped into my head while listening to the story.

In a fight?
Fix it right.
Mediate.

Hey mediators out there. You are free to use the ditty with full attribution and link back here. Yes, this is subject to common law copyright 2013.

370 Days

That's right. I last wrote a blog post 370 days ago. In the meantime, I had a stroke on May 15, 2012, one week after primary election day here in North Carolina. The neurosurgeon released me after a couple of months, recovered.

The year flew by, as I worked as Legal and Compliance Director and Treasurer of Elisabeth Motsinger for Congress. Along with our great and diligent bookkeeper, Kathy Milby, we are finishing the regulatory paperwork and closing up the office.  The campaign was a truly remarkable experience, although it consumed us day and night for 14 months. We kept it clean, did very well in a heavily GOP district against an entrenched representative, and made a great number of new friends.  To us, it was a win!

Back to the real world now. Now I can say "yes" to clients who are looking for a better way to resolve life situations such as arranging how to care for elder family members or how to end a marriage without devastating court fights over kids, property and money.  You know, handling the situations as rational, caring adults.

There's still much to do and I must get back to it to meet our January 31 deadline. So this one ends, but I'll have a new post "directly," as my grandmother used to say. As my stalwart Kathy says, "Bye, now!"

Tired? Need motivation to go the distance? NPR can help.

SOURCE: NPR.org 

    

    The holidays are behind us. The Elisabeth Motsinger for Congress campaign has swallowed up my time. I have gone days between workouts and long runs seem a thing of the past. (Actually they aren't, Just fewer and farther between.) To keep up my energy, however, I find it necessary to get out a few times each week to the gym or to run around Salem Lake.
    NPR has made getting and maintaining momentum a little easier. So I have shared below some links that inspire me to keep going when the going gets tough. Check out the stories, video and music below and see if it might help you, too. jkm

Music can help you in going the distance. NPR story tells why music helps and listeners submit suggestions for the NPR Ultimate Workout Mix.   
Read and listen. 
What Makes Newton-John Get 'Physical' At The Gym?  

Listen to and read the whole story from NPR

Or just watch the Olivia Newton-John's video without the story and other suggested music.

And keep it going with The Ultimate NPR Workout Mix

Listen to the Mix Streaming

Read the story and see the playlist

On being unprepared for the long run

A TRAINING DAY FROM THE OTHER PLACE

          It was March. I was halfway through my training to run some marathon or other that coming May. I had set out to run part of the course that morning, As I approached where the start would be, I saw a crowd of hundreds of runners. My panic rose as I realized the event was today--in March--not two months off on the same date in May. I had to run unprepared. Grabbing my number from the table and pinning it on as the starting gun went off, I tried in vain to explain the situation . . . .

          I snapped awake. The "unprepared" nightmare again. Another time I had been unprepared for a trial I had suddenly learned was scheduled for later in the morning.

THEN THE DREAM COMES TRUE

          This morning I was parking the car outside Krankies coffee house in Winston-Salem when my cell phone rang. I answered, the voice asked "Who is this? I was trying to reach Elisabeth Motsinger. This is Travis Fain from the Winston-Salem Journal and I heard she is running for Congress."

          Panic time. I did not even pinch myself to test for wakefulness. I told the reporter he had reached my cell phone, but that I would I would give Elisabeth the message as soon as I saw her.

          I then went on into Krankies to the meeting with Elisabeth and campaign manager Carissa Joines to continue preparing for the official announcement and media conference intended for January 17, yet a week away. Our web site was not ready, just a placeholder page. We had no Facebook or Twitter pages. I had just that morning put the (almost) finishing touches on an ActBlue secure donation page. Clearly we were not ready to go public--but the beans had been spilled as the cat had sprung forth from the bean bag.

 FROM PANIC TO ACTION

          After a quick synchronized panic attack, we regrouped. Elisabeth called back Travis Fain, introduced him to campaign manager Carissa Joines, and I followed with more information. Apparently, Jerry Williamson, a blogger from Watauga County had somehow discovered that we had filed to get a candidate number from the Federal Election Commission. He published the finding in WataugaWatch this morning. Fain picked up the story from the blog, confirmed it with us and published it on the Journalnow Facebook page a few hours later.


THE SUPPORT ROLLS IN

         Within a couple of hours, Carissa, Elisabeth and I had gotten the basics together, all the while answering phone calls from friends and supporters of Elisabeth as a two-term school board member. The news was going viral, shared on Facebook and elsewhere by dozens of individuals. By 10:00 in the evening, the online donation page recorded 11 separate donations. Elisabeth received messages from across the district from numerous people wanting to throw fundraiser and "meet the candidate" events in their communities.

          Clearly, Elisabeth has enjoyed a strong groundswell of support from across the 5th District and the state for her campaign to win the seat now held by conservative Republican Virginia Foxx. After the panic, the reality has set in: Elisabeth can win the primary and, if anyone can, Elisabeth's supporters can and will turn the 5th District from red to blue in November. But to go the distance, we must go from a quartet of planners to a much larger volunteer force and do it quickly.

         If you have some time to invest in a better tomorrow for the 5th District, some space to donate or rent, or can support Elisabeth in other ways, please contact us at connect@nc5th.us. Due to the large outpouring of interest, it may take us awhile to get back in touch. But in touch we will be, because Elisabeth knows the seat belongs to you, the real people of the 5th District, not to any officeholder or big corporate special interest, not to any pollster or any party.

-- John Motsinger

DISCLOSURE: I am currently Legal and Compliance Director/Acting Treasurer of the committee Elisabeth Motsinger for Congress. Contributions and gifts to Elisabeth Motsinger for Congress are not tax deductible. This blog post was my own and not authorized by the candidate.

After going the distance . . . find "liberty and justice for all."

Finally went the distance.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

The past: Kiawah

     The big day came and went two weeks ago. After running and raising funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for four months, members of the Triad's Team in Training group successfully ran and walked their full and half marathons! We collectively raised over $35,000. We each ran hundreds of miles, suffered aches, pains, cold mornings, rain. But we did it.

          My wife and honored hero, Elisabeth, and I awoke that Saturday morning at about 6:00 to prepare for the marathon.  High 30s was the forecast for the 8:00 start, rising into the low 50s with little chance of  rain.  So I donned running tights and multiple layers of technical fabric shirts to keep warm.  I stepped out onto the balcony at the Sanctuary. It felt a little warm. By 7:30 (when the LLS staff took the team picture), the temperature had risen into the 40s, with scattered clouds. Great running weather--but not for heavy layers and tights. In a quick trip back to the room, I doffed the extra layers and proceeded to the starting corrals.

          Five and a half hours and 26.2 miles later (I never claimed to be fast), I had gone the distance, urged on by Team in Training coaches, by my wife who biked along the route after the half-marathoners had left the course, by LLS staff members, and by Dave York's wife Melissa who also rode a bike.  (Last winter, Dave sat out the Disney half to take care of the kid so Melissa could run with us. Melissa sat out this season.)

The future: ?
          There's always somewhere to go, some new challenge to take on, some distance to go.  Having challenges is part of being human. And it's part of being human in society.  Sometimes the problems coming from living socially grow so big as to demand change. Sometimes we know society needs fixing, but we don't know exactly how we want it fixed. That sense of malaise turns to frustration, to fear, and, for some, to action. Any action,  Even if it's only to join Peter Finch in telling the world that "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this anymore."

Peter Finch in Network

          Time magazine just chose The Protester as its Person of the Year. From Tunis to New York to Tripoli to Winston-Salem, people took to the streets, to the squares, to city parks, to roadway sidewalks to protest. They protested dictators. They protested banks. They protested the far too influential role money pays in politics. They protested the loss of freedom.  And the lack of freedom.  And the exercise of freedom by others who hold different points of view.

         My emerging challenge is and must be political. Working within "the system" to change those elements that deny average Americans the freedoms and liberties that made America great. Elements like politicians that heed the call of big corporate lobbyists, while ignoring the best interests of their own constituents because they need money to mount increasingly expensive re-election campaigns. Elements like party bosses who put party above people.Elements like businesses that foul everyone's air and water supplies for private gain, passing on the costs to everyone as a hidden tax. Elements like the legislators and bureaucrats who pass the laws and regulations making these spoliations absolutely legal.

          The protesters have effected change in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Politicians are taking notice in Morocco, Syria, Myanmar and Yemen--some implementing changes to forestall a breakdown of the social order while others use violent repression to maintain the status quo. In the United States, the "occupy" movement, ill-defined as it is, has brought hope to students, the unemployed, working professionals, grandparents and just everyday folks that change is possible. That they are the agents of change. A belief is emerging that if we, collectively, go the distance, we can make right what is wrong with, America even if we don't yet know how.

            So I invite you to join me in going the distance to restore to Americans a nation that lives up to its promise of providing "liberty and justice for all."

          May the blessings and the promises of your winter holy days give you, and us all, the strength of purpose to be agents of change in 2012.

          John Motsinger

Marathon day is Saturday, December 10, 2011!

AT THE START ON RACE DAY

See my Team in Training web page for news about the marathon event I run in this weekend at Kiawah Island, South Carolina.  Wish me well as I go the distance!

And thanks for your support of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. With your help, our local Triad team raised over $35,000 for the cause.

Best wishes!

John

Three Weeks to Go! Home Run 10K. Ready for Christmas? $1.20 to go.

I copied this entry from the one I put on My Team Elisabeth page. last night.

My HOME RUN 10K results

Saturday, November 19. Skies clear. 24 degrees cold in Winston-Salem at 6:00 a.m. By 9:00 a.m. race time, the mercury had nosed above freezing at the Home Run 10K at BB&T Ballpark. It was perfect running weather for me, just 3 weeks before the start of the Kiawah Marathon. Sixty minutes and a few seconds later, I crossed the finish line after the 6.2 mile event about 2/3 of the way back in the pack.

BUT, my run was fast enough to earn me second place in the males 62 to 98 years old age group.

Next Stop: Kiawah

My next event will be Saturday, December 10th on for the 26.2 mile Kiawah Island Marathon in South Carolina. Thanks to all my supporters whose lifesaving donations to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society have made my participation possible and are helping LLS provide services to patients with leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other blood cancers and to their families!

Your donation comes back home

While your donation may go initially to an upstate New York based organization, your donation also comes back home. It came home for my wife, Elisabeth Motsinger, in the form of Gleevec, the drug developed with funding by LLS that saved her life and those of 85% of the chronic myelogenous leukemia patients who can now survive by taking a daily dose.

Last week, members of the Triad Team In Training met with dietitian Julie Lanford for a nutrition clinic. Julie works cancer patients through Cancer Services in Winston-Salem. LLS helps fund Julie’s work as a cancer dietitian with patients who have leukemia and other blood cancers, as well as other cancer patients. She teaches people how to use diet and nutrition savvy to prevent cancers, to fight cancers as an adjunct to other therapies, and to help deal with side effects of chemotherapy and other treatments.

And, she has wonderful recipes we all can enjoy. Check out Julie’s web site - CancerDietitian.com - for tasty, healthy recipes and menus and a lot more information about nutrition and your health. Like how to avoid gaining weight over the holidays in her November 17 entry. Julie points out that “NOT GAINING is like losing it in the first 3 months of 2012.... only easier!” and decries that Congress last week declared pizza a vegetable for school lunches!

No more free drafting of documents

Thanks to those who took me up on the offer to draft legal documents for you in exchange for a donation to LLS. You helped boost the fundraising to over 99% of its goal. Alas, the offer expired on Friday, November 8. Thanks to all whose generosity has helped raise $3248.80 (including checks in transit to LLS) out of the $3250 goal. Just $1.20 to go! If you're in for $1.20 to help save lives from blood cancer, click here.

The fundraising account will close on November 28, so those of you who are still planning to make a year-end tax deductible contribution may do so. In any event, 98% is a great showing and more than enough to allow me to run as a North Carolina Team In Training member.

I plan to make my next (and last) post about Team In Training after the race.

But, I plan to share with you important and exciting news of a much different kind sometime shortly after Thanksgiving weekend. Check back in here, or on my blog entitled Going the Distance, or on my Facebook page sometime Tuesday, November 29 or shortly thereafter and be the first in your crowd to know the news.

Until then, have a great delicious, nutrition, and auspicious Thanksgiving.

John

PS - Don’t forget to visit my brother Alfred’s Christmas Tree Farm in Roaring Gap to choose your own tree in the fields where I grew up. Enjoy a walk in the mountains, hot cider, and a chance to get Christmas present made by local artists, while you choose your special tree! Click here to see more.

Long time no post

Sometimes it feels as though I am sprinting an ultra-marathon distance (that's anything MORE than 26.2 miles). As my law and mediation practice gets busier and I approach the 25 miles run mark in my training for the Kiawah Marathon, politics is heating up here in  Forsyth County and in the 5th District of North Carolina. I'm in the middle, yet on the periphery.

Sprinting is not my forte. Never has been. In high school, I ran anything from 440s to 2 mile races on the track team. Went off to college and discovered legal addicting drugs (coffee, alcohol, food, tobacco) and gave up the high school lifestyle for more sedentary pleasures. After a couple of decades, I aged out of tobacco and spirits, took up some short distance running of five to 10 kilometers for several years. Got married into a household with two kids. (Talk about learning how naive I was; I thought I knew about parenting.) A little over a year later, John Jr. joined the family, I went into private practice and gave up exercising.

Almost two decades later, with the 2008 economic crisis heating up, I went back to the gym and again took up running.  My wife, Elisabeth, talked me into marathon training to raise money to defeat leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. (I hope you can help. I have reached 93% of my personal fundraising goal. Click here to read about it. If you're from North Carolina, there's even a chance to get me to prepare legal documents for you as a gift for donating to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.)

No, sprinting is still not my forte. I just run a few minutes, walk a minute, and run some more, and walk, etc. There's no way to get lost. I simply follow the 60 to 70 percent of the crowd ahead for more hours than I like to admit. Till the end.

So now, I'm still going the distance and in doing so have met some really interesting folks. For instance, Chad Nance who writes for the blog Weird Load Nation. Read his take on the Tea Party and the Occupy movement, for example. As for Occupiers, I certainly understand some of their concerns. A dysfunctional financial system, too much money buying politicians' votes in Congress and the White House. Attorneys like me have an obligation to give back to the community by doing some legal work free. So I have counseled with members of the local Occupy group on how to keep their movement within the bounds of the law while still being able to get their voices heard. So far, the local group has done it right, even working with the municipality to assure safety and legality. (My big fear is that some outsiders may try to cause trouble that gets blamed on the Occupiers.)

Anyway, keep me on your radar over the next few weeks. There may be some interesting developments. I expect you'll learn more about Chad, John, Jr. and others in this space. Until next time, Blessings,

John

Update on Kiawah Marathon Training

My "Team Elisabeth" Fundraising Page

Introducing myself . . . to blogging. My first post ever!

So everyone now is either a blogger, was once a blogger, contemplates blogging, thinks blogs waste time and web capacity, or really doesn't care.

So why do I blog? Because I have something to say and decided that blogging is one good way to say it. We'll see, won't we?

I am an attorney, mediator, and arbitrator by trade. I have taught undergraduates at places like Guilford College, High Point University and Randolph Community College. I have taught family and divorce mediation to mid-career professionals including accountants, attorneys, mental health folks, and volunteers at mediation centers. So I may be able to give you, my reader, some perspectives on the law, on the justice system, on politics, and on going the distance. More on going the distance later.

So now it's done. A first post. Hang on, there's more to come. But please send me your questions and give me your feedback. Substantive, grammatical, stylistic, whatever. You can help me improve by letting me know what you want from this blog.

John