Mom, Bill Maher, Larry David and Thomas Jefferson: The Lessons They Teach

Thomas Jefferson

My late, great mother, Barbara Page, likely wouldn’t approve of comedian Bill Maher’s words -- his language is too "colorful" for her -- but she’d smile at his actions, seeing them as far more powerful than meets the eye.

 

If you think today’s American politics are terrible, to me they seem similar to 1980, when the electorate found itself in a surly mood, having watched helicopters evacuate the country’s last diplomats, Marines, and members of the former South Vietnamese government five years earlier to U.S. Navy aircraft carriers in the South China Sea just prior to the country collapsing to the Communist North’s military forces. 

 

Adding to the fractious temper was the newest international imbroglio: More than 50 of the country’s employees – diplomats and military personnel from our embassy in Tehran – were Iranian government hostages – and their release didn’t appear to be assured.

 

The country's inflation rate wasn't doing Americans any favors either. At nearly 15%, it was the highest it had been since 1947. And, then, there were the gas lines of 1979, with drivers lined up for hours, perhaps even miles in some cases, waiting to fill up their cars. I was one of them.

 

As the Congressional Budget Office saw the U.S. economy in July 1979, “inflation has been considerably higher than projected … largely because of an unexpectedly sharp rise in food and fuel prices.”

 

Sound familiar? 

 

The country’s unemployment rate was also challenged, increasing from 5.9% in January 1979 to a peak of 7.8% in July 1980, and only just dipping to 7.5% by the November presidential election.

 

Those two benchmarks provided politicians with a relatively new talking point, the "Misery Index," which gauged the daily hardships Americans faced. Calculated by the adding the inflation rate (about 15% in 1980) to the unemployment rate (7.5% in 1980), it was over 20%.

 

These issues put people into one of two camps – either thinking the United States could return to greatness, make its power felt around the globe, including among its adversaries, or see the country as a has-been superpower, hobbled by a crippled economy, lacking the determination, tenacity and, potentially even the ability, to fight off a third-rate country in Iran let alone its only competing peer, the Soviet Union, which invaded Afghanistan days after Christmas in 1979 -- and was met by a U.S. response that didn't force an immediate withdrawal of Soviet forces.

 

As the days, weeks and months ticked closer to the presidential election, the country was vexed by its two choices: Either vote for change with former California Gov. Ronald Reagan as the next president or stick with what it knew, the incumbent, Jimmy Carter, who, despite his efforts, gave every appearance of being unable to control or improve events, international or domestic, especially the economy.

 

Making the presidential campaign intriguing – because he could be a spoiler for either Reagan or Carter – was a third choice, U.S. Rep. John Anderson (R-Ill.), for those deciding Carter didn’t earn a second term or that Reagan was too old or too extreme.

 

1980 was the first time I saw adults divided over the country's leaders, candidates and its future.

 

Perhaps the only thing separating them from today's adults was that they smoked and drank together – despite their differences. All too often what I witnessed, when my parents hosted these cocktail parties, was that, despite their opposing views, they agreed on the problems and their solutions were closely aligned, too. Better yet, their discussions were friendly. That alone might be the reason to bring back the cocktail parties of yore. 

 Cocktail Party -- 21st-century version

Long after these parties were over, I often asked my mother about the exchanges of differing views. 

 

“If we’d just learn to listen, we could learn something from one another,” she replied. “And we’ll also discover we’re not that far apart.”

 

That might be considered brilliant by today’s standards.

Barbara Page 

But today it’s too easy to isolate ourselves behind a phone, a laptop, tablet, or desktop to dish out insults to friends, frenemies, family and those we don’t know and never will, especially when it comes to politics.

Bill Maher

That was Bill Maher’s point when he had dinner with President Trump a few weeks ago in the White House. 

 

A self-described centrist, possibly a registered Democrat, Maher didn’t suddenly go MAGA. He and his friend, Kid Rock, share “a belief that there’s got to be something better than hurling insults from 3,000 miles away,” he said.

 

What was the point of the dinner? To exchange views civilly.

 

“I've had so many conversations with prominent people who are much less connected, people who don't look you in the eye,” Maher said, describing his meeting with Trump during a recent show. “People don't really listen, because they just want to get to their next thing. 

 

“None of that was him, and he mostly steered the conversation to, ‘What do you think about this?’ I know your mind is blown, so is mine,” Maher added.

 

“There were … moments when I hit him with a joke, or contradicted something and no problem,” Maher said. 

 

“At dinner,” Maher said, “he was asking me about the nuclear situation in Iran in a very genuine, ‘Hey, I think you're a smart guy. I want your opinion,’ sort of way. And I said, ‘Well, obviously you're privy to things about it I'm not, but for what it's worth, I thought the Obama deal was worth letting play out because we made Iran destroy 98% of the uranium and they were 15 years away from a bomb.’ 

 

“And then I said to him, ‘But we got rid of that. You got rid of that.’ He didn't get mad or call me a left-wing lunatic. He took it in. I told him I thought parts of his plan for Gaza were wacky, but that I … supported the idea that Gaza could be Dubai instead of hell,” Maher added.

I suspect Maher has many thoughts and observations about Trump, maybe even a few fears, too. 

But as he suggested on a recent show, if you want influence, it's imperative you converse not only with the people who agree with you but also with those with whom you disagree. Otherwise, you're curtailing your power and your leverage.

 

What Maher did at the White House involved more than just a nice talk with the president. It was a reflection of those who wrote the Constitution, especially the Preamble.

 

If We the People of the United States of America want better communities, a better country, one that solves its problems, one that's a shining example to the world of how democracy, tolerance, freedom, and rule of law work, and one that continues well into the future, we need more people like Bill Maher. He’s an outstanding example of a man who will meet, speak and dine with someone whose views are contrary to his, which is something Larry David might keep in mind. (Although, all told, I found his op-ed in The New York Times funny.)

Larry David

 

We have a choice: We can be the people our preferred political party and politicians want us to be – divided, ruthlessly insulting and demonizing those with whom we disagree and dehumanizing them, too, in the name of a scorched-earth victory that pulverizes any chance of reconciling with those who vote differently. 

Or we can be better: People engaging respectfully with one other – and listening too – whether the subject is politics, faith, sexual preferences, healthcare, the government’s role in society, taxes, economics, business, civil rights, China, Russia, and Iran, etc. The list is endless.

 

With the conservatives, I always feel like a liberal; with the liberals, I always feel like a conservative. In other words, I’m always in the middle, right where my mother was, hopefully always engaging with both sides respectfully and amiably. 

 

I’ve traveled through 47 states and met people on both sides of the political divide. After meeting men and women in those many states, big cities, small towns, and remote locales, this is what I've noticed: We have a great country.

 

It’s due to our people, our fellow Americans, no matter their creed, ethnicity, gender, identity, political views, so forth and so on. 

 

It’s found in Bill Maher, someone who can talk with Donald Trump, and many others with whom he disagrees, perhaps passionately so, and still be civil.

 

Maher's wisdom is rooted in Thomas Jefferson, who wrote:

 

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. during the whole of the last war, which was trying enough, I never deserted a friend because he had taken an opposite side; and those of my own state who joined the British government can attest my unremitting zeal in saving their property and can point out the laws in our statute books which I drew and carried through in their favor. however, I have seen during the late political paroxysm here, numbers whom I had highly esteemed draw off from me, insomuch as to cross the street to avoid meeting me. the fever is abating, & doubtless some of them will correct the momentary wanderings of their heart & return again. if they do, they will meet the constancy of my esteem, & the same oblivion of this as of any other delirium which might happen to them.

 

~ Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to William Hamilton, April 22, 1800

 

Can you be more like Bill Maher and Thomas Jefferson?

 

I think you can. I think we better. 

 

 

The Thoughtless Future: Coming to a United States near you?

If you read the stories yesterday or happened to catch them today, you may have noticed reading scores among U.S. 4^thgrade and 8^th grade students declined on the latest exam given by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Results from the test, given in 2024, show 30% of 8^th grade students scored at or above as proficient in reading, while 31% of 4^th grade students did so. 

The news reminded me of a column I wrote over 15 years ago for News & Tech magazine. The column is reprinted below. Permission was sought and granted by the magazine’s former CEO, Mary Van Meter. The magazine has since closed.

There are some recent literacy statistics available. But they’re not backed up, at least on the website, with any evidence. I’ve reached out to the person connected with the website and hope to report more on this soon. There’s another study, too, but the information is at least 10 years old.  

 

Thank you for reading.

 

 

After great pain, a formal feeling comes

 

 

After great pain, a formal feeling comes

The nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs

The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,

And Yesterday, or Centuries before?

 

The Feet, mechanical, go round

Of Ground, or Air, or Ought

A Wooden way

Regardless grown,

A Quartz contentment, like a stone

 

This is the Hour of Lead

Remembered, if outlived,

As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow

First – Chill – Then Stupor – then the letting go

 

~ Emily Dickinson, 1862

 

 

The Thoughtless Future: Coming to a United States near you?

 

By DOUG PAGE 

 

Master the poem on this page in one of Mark Bauerlein’s Emory University English classes, and you’ll likely find yourself in a minority – one of just 13% of American adults rated as “proficient” in reading.

 

If you comprehend this poem, then it’s more likely you’ll be inquisitive and, as a result, read books, magazines, hold a top-paying job, be an active citizen, and, if the newspaper industry is lucky, read a paper every day.

 

But the conundrum facing the American newspaper industry is that the audience that should buy a paper is shrinking.

 

According to the most recent adult literacy study – conducted by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Adult Literacy – the percentage of adults holding proficient literacy skills, meaning they comprehend anything they read, fell from 15% to 13% between 1992 and 2003 while the percentage of adults considered illiterate or showing difficulty understanding what they read increased from 42% to 43%.

 

In other words, out of 225 million U.S. adults, only 29 million are proficient readers while 96 million are “below basic” or “basic” readers, says the NAAL.

 

It’s no better when studying U.S. high school students. According to research from the National Endowment of the Arts, the percentage of high school students judged as proficient readers dropped from 40% to 35% between 1992 and 2005.

 

This downward trend, says the NEA, is showing up in the labor force, with 81% of employers reporting high school graduates lacking basic writing skills and 28% of employers reporting their four-year college graduates often have the same problem.

 

Post-literate society

 

There’s concern that the United States is in the fast lane to the post-literate era. What’s this mean? According to the experts, video will supplant reading as the dominant medium from which people will consume information. And that will happen by mid-century.

 

Reading, if it’s around, may be considered a peculiar habit of the aged, educated and society’s few concerned citizens, says University of Toronto lecturer Mark Federman.

 

There’s a chance, in this pending post-literate era, that not only will language skills continue to slide but so will the ability to master complex topics, dense prose, a foreign language or anything requiring critical thinking skills.

 

This means that the capability to evaluate evidence, create or diffuse an intricate, multifaceted argument, assess right from wrong, or understand ideas regardless of their discipline could be seriously compromised.

 

What this outcome holds for society at large is anyone’s guess. But there’s a reason to be nervous.

 

“Being raised in a literate tradition means learning how to think about things that are complicated and important,” said retired Brown University History & Education Professor Carl Kaestle. “If you’re able to keep 20 or 30 variables in your mind and consider other people’s welfare as well as your own, then you’re able to think critically about a complicated matter, like health care reform.

 

“If you look at the power elite, they know how to read books, analyze dense prose and produce lengthy reports,” he added.

 

Distinguishing knowledge from info

 

Christine Rosen, senior editor at technology journal The New Atlantis, fears that literacy’s decline will affect future generations’ ability to distinguish knowledge from information.

 

“Google is the perfect example of this,” said. “You glean information from millions of sources. What it cannot do is apply critical judgement to what is true and false and what is worth knowing. 

 

“It simply adds more factoids,” she continued.

 

“I think it’s key for journalists to be interested in school literacy programs,” said Saint Michaels University Journalism Professor David T. Z. Mindich, author of the book Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News.

 

To build the daily newspaper-reading habit, Mindich hosts lunches with college students to talk about current events.

 

“People bring a copy of their paper, and you get a surprisingly informed group of students,” he said. “Young people talk with each other and the conversation often drives consumption of the news.”

 

What relevance does Emily Dickinson have in a trade magazine? In a nutshell, literature illustrates not only the human condition but also the condition of an industry, and that’s the key task of any trade publication.

 

Her “main focus is the numb feeling that follows trauma of some kind,” said Professor Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.

 

“She doesn’t detail the experience but only how her heart shuts down. Life from then on is ‘mechanical,’ just a sequence of moments with no climaxes and no goals.”

 

What better way to describe a future that should be feared, one without books or newspapers and a society inexorably incapable of thoughtful contemplation.

 

 

Editor’s Note: The column was originally published in the December 2009 edition of News & Tech magazine, a newspaper trade book, which has since closed. Permission to reprint my column was provided by former News & Tech publisher (and United Press International colleague) Mary Van Meter, who, like her editor, Chuck Moozakis, always encouraged me to write about topics our trade magazine competitor, Editor & Publisher, rarely, if ever, covered. 

Belittled and Betrayed

The problem with big business and other institutions, whether large, small, multinational or local, is the people running them. Too often, they speak out of both sides of their mouths and then are utterly gobsmacked when hit with evidence that few trust them.

 “Ninety percent of business executives think customers highly trust their companies … only 30% of consumers actually do. That gap of 60 percentage points is greater than the 57 points we saw in both 2023 and 2022,” says a recent report from PwC, a management consultancy.

 

While I can’t speak for every reason customers’ faith in companies dwindles, part of it must be the fact that there’s little authentic communication. Every organization, or nearly every organization, is armed up with a battery of attorneys and a team of communications experts, which seems ambiguous since I’m hard-pressed to know what a “communications expert” is. 

To make sure the official utterances are mealymouthed? 

 

Perhaps.

 

My most recent experience was with Hilton Hotels. At one of their locations everything that could go wrong went wrong. The heat didn’t work in two of their rooms and, at one point, when walking to the front desk to change rooms for the third time, a mouse skedaddled in front of me – and that was near an area where guests can buy food.

 

To rectify the problems, I wrote what I thought was a very diplomatic yet direct letter to the CEO, Christopher Nassetta, suggesting he investigate this location because the building was iconic and could serve the brand well, perhaps even enhance its reputation, to use some “communications speak,” as those “experts” in corporate communications might call it. 

 

Here’s my letter:

 

December 2, 2024

 

                                                                        

Mr. Christopher J. Nassetta

President & Chief Executive Officer

Hilton Hotels & Resorts

7930 Jones Branch Dr.

McLean, VA 22102-3388

 

Dear Mr. Nassetta:

 

First paragraph removed for this version.

 

I’ve stayed there many times, and this previous time, on Monday, Nov. 25th, was the last.

 

I was originally checked into Room 177 and noticed the heat didn’t work. I was then sent to room 294, where the heat did work, but there was a problem with the door. The system that allows the card key to unlock the door needed to be repaired. The engineer wasn’t sure how long it would take, so rather than become a prisoner in my own room, I asked to be and was transferred to room 290, where the heat also didn’t work. Instead of complaining, I remained in the room because, by that time, it was around 11 p.m., and I had an early start the following morning.

 

And, if that wasn’t bad enough, at one point that night, while walking to the front desk to get another room, I spotted a mouse scrambling across the corridor near the hotel’s convenience store, where food is displayed.

 

This isn’t the first time I’ve had an issue with the heat at this hotel. It’s happened with other rooms in other parts of the building, too, and every time I’ve transferred to another room. 

 

The staff was very kind and amenable, but it’s the last time I’ll stay there. At the Marriott hotels in the area this has never happened. 

 

I strongly urge you to visit this location. You’ll notice a building that’s an architectural gem but requiring work. Lots of work! It could serve your company so much better if someone would improve it. The rooms are okay but often the furniture and the bathrooms are scratched. The same goes for the elevators. 

 

In all the time I’ve been going there, over the last five years, the people have been fabulous, from the front desk to those in the dining room and at the bar. They, too, would be better served with an improved building.

 

I take no joy in writing this letter. I retain fond memories of Hilton, having stayed at many of your locations around the United States during my business travels and, during my youth, in Europe as well as at one of your other iconic locations, now since gone, in Hong Kong.

 

For the sake of your company’s reputation, correct the problems.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Doug Page 

 

Here’s the company’s first response via email from the address guest.correspondence@hilton.com.

 

Hi DOUG,

 

Thank you for contacting Hilton Guest Assistance regarding your recent experience at one of our properties. Guest inquiries and feedback are important and valuable to us. A case has been created for you and forwarded over to the hotel’s management team for review. Please allow 3 days for follow-up.

 

We appreciate you choosing Hilton hotel brands for this stay and hope we will be your first choice for your future travel needs.

 

As seems to be with the case with much correspondence between companies and their customers, the email was unsigned. Was it written by an actual human being or was it generated by that funky new thing called AI?

 

It’s a mystery.

 

Two days later, another email arrived, with the subject line “Your Scanned Document,” likely after someone – other than the recipient – read it. Here it is:

 

Hi Doug,

 

I am truly sorry to hear about your experiences ... I understand how frustrating it must have been to change rooms and still not have the problem resolved.

 

To make it right, I can issue a refund for your stay. Please reply to this email and let me know if this is acceptable.

 

We value your feedback and are committed to improving our services. If there is anything else we can do to assist you, please do not hesitate to let us know.

 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, [sic] and thank you for your loyalty as a Silver Hilton Honors Member.

 

Best Regards,  

 

Chari Huntzberry

 

As much as I sensed Chari wanted to do the right thing, receiving a letter from the CEO would have been better. Such a note would convey that Mr. Nassetta cares enough about his customers to take time from his busy day to communicate with them and commit to correcting the location’s problems. 

 

Allowing Chari, who’s likely far removed from the CEO suite, to handle the issue, gives off many impressions: First, Nassetta never read the letter; second, he doesn’t care about customer problems; third, he’s under the impression that all’s well at that particular location – when it isn’t! 

 

Is it any mystery why customers don’t trust the companies? Their complaints never reach the top. 

 

The refund was slightly over $100.00, and I accepted it. 

 

I compare this experience to that of my father, Robert Page, during his days as the CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times. Nearly 40 years ago, one of the newspaper’s columnists, Vernon Jarrett, caused quite a hullabaloo, when he dared to suggest that since the mayor, Harold Washington, who died unexpectedly the day before Thanksgiving, on Nov. 25, 1987, was a black man, he should be replaced by another black man. 

 

How radical!?

 

Dad’s office was flooded with letters, with many of the writers calling for Jarrett’s head. I read a few of them and some of Dad’s responses, too. One stands out: It was to a dentist in Peoria, Ill. Like many of the writers, he demanded Jarrett be terminated.

 

“I’d hate to be the next black man to come to you to get a tooth pulled,” Dad replied, going onto say Jarrett wasn’t about to be fired.

 

The dentist likely didn’t appreciate Dad’s response, but at least he received a reply from whom he wrote.

 

CEO engagement with customers, The Harvard Business Review discussed two years ago, “is a strategic opportunity for the company to reinforce marketing messages and the company’s unique value proposition in the marketplace. Such a culture of commitment, driven publicly by the CEO, is crucial for the next few years, given the unsettling trend of customer satisfaction being in steep decline.”

 

In other words, the company’s best customer service representative is the CEO.

 

By directly engaging with customers, they show the company gives a damn – and the problems will be fixed. They’re the company’s flag bearers and put the organization’s credibility on the line anytime they interact with clients and consumers. 

 

But too often no one’s home. I’ve emailed Mark Zuckerberg with questions about Facebook's advertising policies and never received a response. 

 

Say what you will about Elon Musk, perhaps Jeff Bezos, too, but at least they engage with customers from time to time. That likely explains some of their success.

 

Take note, Mr. Nassetta … and others, too.