1.     Robin Hood and Her Merry Women

2.     A Not-So-Divine Comedy, Part 12

3.     Announcements

4.     Fun Facts about Montana

5.     The Flashback Quarterback:  Ignorance Is Bliss?   

6.     Beware and Share:  Are We Being Lied to?

 7.     About Montebello E-News and “My Montebello”

Robin Hood and Her Merry Women  

Robin Hood is a figure in archetypal English folk tales, whose story originates from medieval times. In popular culture he is painted as a man known for robbing the rich to provide for the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny.  From Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood.  

It does not matter whether Robin Hood would be a man or a woman.  What is of interest is whether we would see the rise of a person in our modern times who would go beyond the law to redistribute wealth in our market-driven economy.  

As we have seen in the essay “A Not-So-Divine Comedy,” capitalism has many deficiencies.  These deficiencies lend credence to the saying, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”  It is hard to compensate for these deficiencies because there are those among the wealthy who like for laws, systems, and customs to stay as they now are, because the status quo is good for maintaining or increasing their wealth.  

It is interesting that England had “courts of equity.”  There was a recognition that the law was not always fair, so the English had a court which dealt with fairness.  I had a professor at Cal State Los Angeles in the mid-seventies who said, as I remember, that there was a victim for every law.  

Might we see the rise of a modern day Robin Hood, be that a man or woman?  To some extent, we have computer hackers who take righteous revenge through their Web work, but that is not to say that every hacker is righteous.  Far from it.  But it would not be a surprise if the twenty-first century Robin Hood were a hacker, transferring large sums of money from large banks to community organizations, schools, and micro-lending institutions.

If you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2007 by a local nonprofit organization.  

1. What was one activity for which Robin Hood was reputed?

(a) His profligate lifestyle.

(b) Robbing the rich and giving to the poor.  

2. Why should we not be surprised by the emergence of a modern-day Robin Hood?

(a) Laws are not strict enough to prevent theft.

(b) There is a growing disparity in wealth and the means to redistribute wealth are inadequate.

  No one can earn a million dollars honestly.
William Jennings Bryan, 1860 – 1925,
an American lawyer, statesman, and politician, three times the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States.

The decadent international but individualistic capitalism in the hands of which we found ourselves after the war is not a success. It is not intelligent. It is not beautiful. It is not just. It is not virtuous. And it doesn't deliver the goods.
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Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest [sic] of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
John Maynard Keynes, 1883 – 1946,
a British economist whose ideas, called Keynesian economics, had a major impact on modern economic and political theory, as well as on many governments’ fiscal policies.  

So far, we have noted many deficiencies in the capitalism which we practice.  The purpose behind such a look is to encourage thought and action about how to make capitalism work better.  So we look at more deficiencies. 

The problem arising from the clash of values between capitalism and health care is profound, and examples abound.  Below, a physician writes about the problem.  

The Corrosion of Medicine
Can the Profession Reclaim its Moral Legacy?
by John Geyman, M.D.  

Medicine can no longer deny the extent to which unbridled self-interest has eroded its professionalism. As documented in earlier chapters, these excesses are pervasive throughout the profession, for all to see, involving patient care, education and research as well as academic medical centers and many of the profession's organizations.  The extent of deprofessionalization makes clear that the cause extends well beyond a few "bad apples." If medicine is to restore its professionalism, the profession must accept responsibility for letting down the public trust, recommit itself to service over self-interest, and build effective mechanisms of self-regulation which can gain the public's confidence.  

Whether medicine will give up its customary defensive mode and respond positively to its moral and professional challenges is an open question. Despite its long struggle to maintain its independence, the profession has lost much of its autonomy as it increasingly serves corporate interests. In a more proactive stance, medicine may recognize a larger role of government as a potential force to support the context within which it can restore its professionalism. Business as usual will not serve the profession or the public well. The profession now has a window of opportunity to expand its vision and lead toward better health care for all Americans. To do so, it must involve itself with rebuilding the capability of public health and with advocacy for real health care reform, which leads us to the last chapters. http://www.commoncouragepress.com/index.cfm?action=book&bookid=384

The state boasts the largest breeding population of trumpeter swans in the lower United States.  

At the Rocky Mountain Front Eagle Migration Area west of Great Falls, more golden eagles have been seen in a single day than anywhere else in the country.  

North of Missoula is the largest population of nesting common loons in the western United States.  

The average square mile of land contains 1.4 elk, 1.4 pronghorn antelope, and 3.3 deer.  The elk, deer and antelope populations outnumber the humans.  

In 1888, Helena had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world.  [What might have caused that?  Cattle raising?]  

Forty-six out of Montana’s fifty-six counties are considered “frontier counties,” with an average population of six or fewer people per square mile.  

At Egg Mountain near Choteau, dinosaur eggs have been discovered supporting the theory that some dinosaurs were more like mammals and birds than like reptiles.  

Montana’s rivers and streams provide water for three oceans and three of the North American continent’s major river basins.  [Three oceans?]  

The first inhabitants of Montana were the Plains Indians.  Just south of Billings, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his troops made their last stand.   Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument features the Plains Indians and United States military involved in the historic battle.  

Montana has the largest grizzly bear population in the lower forty-eight states.