Send congratulations to the marketing gurus for upping their game; they've managed to move up the ladder. They couldn't be satisfied with figuring out more creative ways to market cigarettes, otherwise known as "coffin nails," to children and teens. They've decided to up the ante and go for bullets."Now there's something with real marketing appeal! Bet we'll make a fortune off this gig!"
This morning's New York Times carries an investigative article revealing how gun manufacturers, always in cahoots with the most radical fringe of the NRA, you know, that branch of an otherwise respectable organization that thinks it's perfectly acceptable to put an Uzi in the hands of a twelve year old and send her off to middle school with instructions to, "Remember sweetie, if you see a bad man with a gun, remember to squeeze rather than pull." But I digress. The article reveals how the gun manufacturers have chosen to market their wares to teens. According to the article, one ad even portrays a fifteen year old girl holding an assault rifle implying how great it would be to wake up Christmas morning to find good old Santa had brought you one of these!
This, when, as Nicholas Kristoff pointed out in his New York Times article of December 16, that Americans between the ages of five and fourteen are thirteen times, yea, thirteen times more likely to be killed with a firearm than their counterparts in countries. The only exception is countries where there is all out war. And as Ezra Kline of Newsweek pointed out only a couple of days before in his article, fifteen of the last twenty-five mass shootings in the US involved assault weapons.
The NRAs answer is more guns, and better mental health care. Okay, so better mental health care is a winning idea. Certainly a most needed improvement for our society. But how would we work this out? I mean, are we all supposed to be watching one another now? Which brings me to the question, "Where do you draw the line between thinking your neighbor a bit odd and reporting him or her to the local constabulary as a potential mass murderer?"
Just the other day my local paper carried yet another letter to the editor in favor of arming teachers so that "violence will be answered by violence." The couple had been on one of those evangelical mission trips to Guatemala and were praising the presence of armed troops in the streets on every corner. They felt much safer and hoped for the day that the US would catch up with Guatemala by arming teachers. So lets just turn our schools into free fire zones.
News flash. The troops in the streets of Guatemala are not there to protect the citizens but to suppress and intimidate citizens on behalf of the government. Great. So these yahoos want to turn the US into a third world dictatorship. That will solve a lot of our problems.
Senator Feinstein has proposed a bill banning assault weapons. Unlike the previous bill that has already expired, the Feinstein bill gets specific and bans more than one hundred types of these weapons of mass destruction. It's worthy of our support.
Limit the guns. Limit the slaughter of the innocents.
The Jawbone.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
Newtown: Beneath the Surface
More than a half century ago, the desperado stood on the veranda, red cowboy hat pulled down to shield the sun, showing off his fringed vest and chaps, his six-shooters at his side, ready for action. Hey, even at five, I was a cute little guy!
No one thought anything about it. Not my parents or my aunt taking the black and white picture with that old look down through the top view thing Brownie camera we still have around here somewhere. We live in a gun culture. And our indoctrination begins early.
I am not anti-gun. A few years later my father and grandfather would begin teaching me the difference between those toys and the real thing in the fields and forests around the ancestors' farm in Lithia. My first "real" gun was a bolt action .22. We would put the beagles in the car and rabbit hunting we would go.
Guns weren't toys. Somewhere along the way we learned the difference between playing bang-bang in the back yard and safely handling the real thing. We knew after the backyard games were over everyone would get up and go home when Moms called us in for dinner. With the real thing we knew it didn't work that way.
But things have gotten way out of hand. Maybe a deeper look is necessary.
First, we need to admit we live in a culture that glorifies violence, particularly gun violence. Ours is a culture that revels in revenge. Tv shows, video games, and movies are designed to move us to stand up and cheer when some fake hero blows away the bad guys. Mayhem is the order of the day.
The NRAs answer is to arm everyone, even public school teachers. Give everyone a weapon and let's just all go freakin' at it. I really don't think more guns in school or anywhere else is the kind of answer we're looking for. Even Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, and Doc had enough presence of mind to demand all the cowboys turn in their guns at the edge of Tombstone. Maybe they were on to something.
We certainly don't need civilians having access to assault weapons. An AK isn't designed for deer hunting. No more firearm sales of any kind without proper federal background checks, proper training, licensing. No more gun shows where any escaped felon can buy an Uzi. There is something to the argument that less guns will mean less gun violence. With the possible exception of countries at war, Americans have more guns than anyone else and we kill one another more often than anyone else. But we all know the stats. We've spent the days since Newtown reading them.
I suggest we look a bit more deeply. We tend to define violence as the use of the fist, the knife, or the gun. But that's only just the surface of things; the outward manifesting of something deeper.
In the middle of the last century, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, writing in, if memory serves me, Moral Man, Immoral Society, pointed out there are two kinds of violence: overt, and covert. The overt violence of the gun, the fist, the knife, he wrote, is but an outward manifesting of covert violence. Covert violence like dehumanizing poverty, for example. Granted, Niebuhr was writing about a much larger scale of violence; the causes of WWII and other armed conflicts. But his work leads me to ask whether the same thing might be true of school shootings.
The authors of Rampage, the Social Roots of School Shootings, published in 2005, would tend to agree Dr. Niebuhr was on to something. The editors of the Jan. 7/14 issue of The Nation do a good job of boiling down this research to its essentials. Shooters are responding to the covert violence of social isolation, bullying, exclusion, ridicule, rejection, etc.--pretty much the stuff experienced by those kids in high school that never seemed to fit in very well. You know, the outcasts.
Nothing like Newtown or Columbine happens out of the blue. There are signs. Increasing withdrawal. Depression. Despair. Acting out on an escalating scale. Hostility to authority and a host of others. Rampage... and studies like it need to become part of our curriculum for teachers, students, clergy, counselors; maybe for all of us.
Though I do think assault weapons should, and will, be banned, by itself that will not solve the problem. But less access may stop a few; and less access to large clips and assault weapons will at least limit the carnage.
But we have to do more. What we need to do is, to paraphrase an old source, become a bit more conscientious about becoming our brother and sisters' keeper. We can educate ourselves to the warning signs. We can summon the courage to speak up before the shooting starts. We can resolve in this new year to reach out to the outcasts among us; to the kids who are silently screaming for help. We can teach our teenagers and young adults to be more sensitive to the kids who don't fit the magazine image of masculine or feminine good looks or dress or sex appeal. We can learn to reach out. Because no one--no one--suffering that much emotional pain has the ability to reach out for help on their own.
These issues are complex. And I have only skirted the surface. They are not easily solved. Answers are multifaceted. But it seems to me that the foundation upon which any real solutions must be built is the simple knowledge taught by all the world's faiths. That the answer to the question, "Am I my bother/sister's keeper?" is supposed to be, "Yes."
The Jawbone.
No one thought anything about it. Not my parents or my aunt taking the black and white picture with that old look down through the top view thing Brownie camera we still have around here somewhere. We live in a gun culture. And our indoctrination begins early.
I am not anti-gun. A few years later my father and grandfather would begin teaching me the difference between those toys and the real thing in the fields and forests around the ancestors' farm in Lithia. My first "real" gun was a bolt action .22. We would put the beagles in the car and rabbit hunting we would go.
Guns weren't toys. Somewhere along the way we learned the difference between playing bang-bang in the back yard and safely handling the real thing. We knew after the backyard games were over everyone would get up and go home when Moms called us in for dinner. With the real thing we knew it didn't work that way.
But things have gotten way out of hand. Maybe a deeper look is necessary.
First, we need to admit we live in a culture that glorifies violence, particularly gun violence. Ours is a culture that revels in revenge. Tv shows, video games, and movies are designed to move us to stand up and cheer when some fake hero blows away the bad guys. Mayhem is the order of the day.
The NRAs answer is to arm everyone, even public school teachers. Give everyone a weapon and let's just all go freakin' at it. I really don't think more guns in school or anywhere else is the kind of answer we're looking for. Even Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, and Doc had enough presence of mind to demand all the cowboys turn in their guns at the edge of Tombstone. Maybe they were on to something.
We certainly don't need civilians having access to assault weapons. An AK isn't designed for deer hunting. No more firearm sales of any kind without proper federal background checks, proper training, licensing. No more gun shows where any escaped felon can buy an Uzi. There is something to the argument that less guns will mean less gun violence. With the possible exception of countries at war, Americans have more guns than anyone else and we kill one another more often than anyone else. But we all know the stats. We've spent the days since Newtown reading them.
I suggest we look a bit more deeply. We tend to define violence as the use of the fist, the knife, or the gun. But that's only just the surface of things; the outward manifesting of something deeper.
In the middle of the last century, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, writing in, if memory serves me, Moral Man, Immoral Society, pointed out there are two kinds of violence: overt, and covert. The overt violence of the gun, the fist, the knife, he wrote, is but an outward manifesting of covert violence. Covert violence like dehumanizing poverty, for example. Granted, Niebuhr was writing about a much larger scale of violence; the causes of WWII and other armed conflicts. But his work leads me to ask whether the same thing might be true of school shootings.
The authors of Rampage, the Social Roots of School Shootings, published in 2005, would tend to agree Dr. Niebuhr was on to something. The editors of the Jan. 7/14 issue of The Nation do a good job of boiling down this research to its essentials. Shooters are responding to the covert violence of social isolation, bullying, exclusion, ridicule, rejection, etc.--pretty much the stuff experienced by those kids in high school that never seemed to fit in very well. You know, the outcasts.
Nothing like Newtown or Columbine happens out of the blue. There are signs. Increasing withdrawal. Depression. Despair. Acting out on an escalating scale. Hostility to authority and a host of others. Rampage... and studies like it need to become part of our curriculum for teachers, students, clergy, counselors; maybe for all of us.
Though I do think assault weapons should, and will, be banned, by itself that will not solve the problem. But less access may stop a few; and less access to large clips and assault weapons will at least limit the carnage.
But we have to do more. What we need to do is, to paraphrase an old source, become a bit more conscientious about becoming our brother and sisters' keeper. We can educate ourselves to the warning signs. We can summon the courage to speak up before the shooting starts. We can resolve in this new year to reach out to the outcasts among us; to the kids who are silently screaming for help. We can teach our teenagers and young adults to be more sensitive to the kids who don't fit the magazine image of masculine or feminine good looks or dress or sex appeal. We can learn to reach out. Because no one--no one--suffering that much emotional pain has the ability to reach out for help on their own.
These issues are complex. And I have only skirted the surface. They are not easily solved. Answers are multifaceted. But it seems to me that the foundation upon which any real solutions must be built is the simple knowledge taught by all the world's faiths. That the answer to the question, "Am I my bother/sister's keeper?" is supposed to be, "Yes."
The Jawbone.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
And So This is Christmas
President Obama is decisively ensconced in his second term. With a slight few more Progressives, Democrats retain control of the Senate. The House remains in the hands of the loyal opposition, but, thankfully, with a few less reactionaries. So this is Christmas 2012. And we are standing in shit rear-end deep to a tall giraffe.
I'm going easy here. This is an excessively tall giraffe.
We have serious problems and we need serious people from both sides of the aisle to solve them. Yet with every passing news cast we are entertained by herds of psycho-pathetic lemmings blindly charging toward the fiscal cliff. Barring the intervention of, say, a particularly vicious large dog that just plain doesn't care for stupid beasts governed by herdspeak that will stand at the edge and bark back the fury tide, the carnage will be considerable. One could argue that we would all be better off if we just let the idiots go over. Problem is they're dragging my economic well being behind them and for the life of me I can't figure out a way to cut the rope.
To say the working people are getting screwed over is an understatement. As I write this, around 10k of my brothers and sisters are gathering at the Michigan capital to protest the governor's signing the Republican right to work for less pay law. And this in an age when executive pay has risen by 275% to the workers measly 18%. Heads have rolled for less than this.
But it's not just the workers. 22% of children live below the poverty line. That works out to around 15.1 million kids. We were always fortunate enough to put something under the Christmas tree for our girls. I can't imagine being a parent, out of a job for a year or more through no fault of his or her own, trying to figure out how to explain to a six year old why they didn't get that $200 video game. So the next time you get a chance, toss a little something into the Toys for Tots bin or write a check to a local organization that's going to help out these families. And as my grandfather was fond of reminding me, "Never pass by a Salvation Army kettle son. Folks need our help."
8.2 million of us are involuntarily part-time workers. We'd like full-time work but, say the bosses, business isn't good enough, despite record profits in some sectors, like the home improvement company I work for--part-time.
There are more systemic concerns. Our highways are plagued with potholes large enough to swallow a Volkswagen. It's not a bad idea to increase your speed when heading for a bridge; if it starts to crumble beneath you the extra speed may help you make it over, EvilKneval style. And this tidbit just in: our electrical grid ranks 32 in the world, just behind Slovenia, for reliability. Stock up on batteries and candles. Air out your sleeping bag and make sure the air mattress doesn't leak. You next camping trip could be to your family room.
Evidence is mounting that all those ads from the natural gas people telling us fracking is safe are outright lies. Check out Elizabeth Royte's feature article in the December 17 edition of "The Nation." In "What the Frack is in Our Food?" she recounts incidents of dead cows, deformed calves, befouled drinking water, and contaminated soil were chemicals used in the process to extract natural gas could well make their way into our food chain. And the FDA as yet is not monitoring any of this. Bon apetite!
So this is Christmas, 2012. Traditionally a time of hope and expectations of something better. But neither hope nor solutions fall from heavenly skies. If there is hope it will come from within the rank and file of workers who are mad as hell and who just plain aren't going to put up with shoveling shit for the top 2% or the fascist corporations who tried to buy every politician in sight. It's time to turn this around.
Signs are good that a turn around just might be coming. It's been a long, long time since this many people have taken to the streets to make their voices heard. And to the voting booth. Despite, thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizen's United decision that allowed democracy to go to the highest bidder; the people fought back with good old fashioned grass roots organization. And we beat the bosses at the polling places. As James Carville said of the billionaires in a recent "Rolling Stone" interview; "never have so many paid so much to get so little."
There are other promising signs. A fledgling movement to amend the constitution to abolish all corporate money in politics. Maybe we should call it "the people's amendment." For the first time a majority of House Democrats will be made up from women and minorities. The states of Washington and Colorado have taken the first steps in getting rid of our ignorant, always doomed to fail, antiquated drug policies by legalizing recreational use of marijuana. Stopping it is impossible. So why not treat it like booze? Regulate it. Tax it. And toss the extra cash into the public coffers. Uncle Sam could use a bit extra.
So this is Christmas; and there is hope. So I'm hoping to head for D.C. on Inauguration Day with a few friends. Sure, it's an historical day. The second inauguration of the country's first Black president, itself a sign that something dramatic has changed. The face of the people's government is no longer all white or even all male or all Christian or Jewish or whatever have you. A good sign that we are finally beginning to live up to the inclusiveness we profess to believe in.
But I'm not going to endure massive crowds, long walks, and god only knows what kind of port-a-potty lines to support the regime I voted for. I'm going to say, with voice and presence, I, and we, are here not merely to support, though that is important. We are here to push, to raise some hell along with some expectations. It's time to turn words and ideas into policies and concrete actions. Get the corporate brigands' cash out of politics. Provide jobs. Make sure those down on their luck aren't sleeping in the street and that our children have a roof over their heads and can at least set down to a plate of beans and wennies a couple times a day. Fill in the potholes and fix the damn bridges. Make sure when I flip my switch the lamp comes on.
November 6th, the people gave their stamp of approval to much of the Progressive agenda. But we are not stopping here. We're going to bring the full-court press. Get it done. Ignore us at your peril.
The Jawbone.
I'm going easy here. This is an excessively tall giraffe.
We have serious problems and we need serious people from both sides of the aisle to solve them. Yet with every passing news cast we are entertained by herds of psycho-pathetic lemmings blindly charging toward the fiscal cliff. Barring the intervention of, say, a particularly vicious large dog that just plain doesn't care for stupid beasts governed by herdspeak that will stand at the edge and bark back the fury tide, the carnage will be considerable. One could argue that we would all be better off if we just let the idiots go over. Problem is they're dragging my economic well being behind them and for the life of me I can't figure out a way to cut the rope.
To say the working people are getting screwed over is an understatement. As I write this, around 10k of my brothers and sisters are gathering at the Michigan capital to protest the governor's signing the Republican right to work for less pay law. And this in an age when executive pay has risen by 275% to the workers measly 18%. Heads have rolled for less than this.
But it's not just the workers. 22% of children live below the poverty line. That works out to around 15.1 million kids. We were always fortunate enough to put something under the Christmas tree for our girls. I can't imagine being a parent, out of a job for a year or more through no fault of his or her own, trying to figure out how to explain to a six year old why they didn't get that $200 video game. So the next time you get a chance, toss a little something into the Toys for Tots bin or write a check to a local organization that's going to help out these families. And as my grandfather was fond of reminding me, "Never pass by a Salvation Army kettle son. Folks need our help."
8.2 million of us are involuntarily part-time workers. We'd like full-time work but, say the bosses, business isn't good enough, despite record profits in some sectors, like the home improvement company I work for--part-time.
There are more systemic concerns. Our highways are plagued with potholes large enough to swallow a Volkswagen. It's not a bad idea to increase your speed when heading for a bridge; if it starts to crumble beneath you the extra speed may help you make it over, EvilKneval style. And this tidbit just in: our electrical grid ranks 32 in the world, just behind Slovenia, for reliability. Stock up on batteries and candles. Air out your sleeping bag and make sure the air mattress doesn't leak. You next camping trip could be to your family room.
Evidence is mounting that all those ads from the natural gas people telling us fracking is safe are outright lies. Check out Elizabeth Royte's feature article in the December 17 edition of "The Nation." In "What the Frack is in Our Food?" she recounts incidents of dead cows, deformed calves, befouled drinking water, and contaminated soil were chemicals used in the process to extract natural gas could well make their way into our food chain. And the FDA as yet is not monitoring any of this. Bon apetite!
So this is Christmas, 2012. Traditionally a time of hope and expectations of something better. But neither hope nor solutions fall from heavenly skies. If there is hope it will come from within the rank and file of workers who are mad as hell and who just plain aren't going to put up with shoveling shit for the top 2% or the fascist corporations who tried to buy every politician in sight. It's time to turn this around.
Signs are good that a turn around just might be coming. It's been a long, long time since this many people have taken to the streets to make their voices heard. And to the voting booth. Despite, thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizen's United decision that allowed democracy to go to the highest bidder; the people fought back with good old fashioned grass roots organization. And we beat the bosses at the polling places. As James Carville said of the billionaires in a recent "Rolling Stone" interview; "never have so many paid so much to get so little."
There are other promising signs. A fledgling movement to amend the constitution to abolish all corporate money in politics. Maybe we should call it "the people's amendment." For the first time a majority of House Democrats will be made up from women and minorities. The states of Washington and Colorado have taken the first steps in getting rid of our ignorant, always doomed to fail, antiquated drug policies by legalizing recreational use of marijuana. Stopping it is impossible. So why not treat it like booze? Regulate it. Tax it. And toss the extra cash into the public coffers. Uncle Sam could use a bit extra.
So this is Christmas; and there is hope. So I'm hoping to head for D.C. on Inauguration Day with a few friends. Sure, it's an historical day. The second inauguration of the country's first Black president, itself a sign that something dramatic has changed. The face of the people's government is no longer all white or even all male or all Christian or Jewish or whatever have you. A good sign that we are finally beginning to live up to the inclusiveness we profess to believe in.
But I'm not going to endure massive crowds, long walks, and god only knows what kind of port-a-potty lines to support the regime I voted for. I'm going to say, with voice and presence, I, and we, are here not merely to support, though that is important. We are here to push, to raise some hell along with some expectations. It's time to turn words and ideas into policies and concrete actions. Get the corporate brigands' cash out of politics. Provide jobs. Make sure those down on their luck aren't sleeping in the street and that our children have a roof over their heads and can at least set down to a plate of beans and wennies a couple times a day. Fill in the potholes and fix the damn bridges. Make sure when I flip my switch the lamp comes on.
November 6th, the people gave their stamp of approval to much of the Progressive agenda. But we are not stopping here. We're going to bring the full-court press. Get it done. Ignore us at your peril.
The Jawbone.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Remember Gordon Gekko? He's Running for President!
Remember Gordon Gekko, that character from the Charlie Sheen/Michael Douglass movie, "Wall Street?" The guy who, according to Charlie's buddy at the brokerage firm, "had an ethical bypass at birth?" As we count down to election day, Mitt and Gordon are starting to resemble one another. Both are Ayn Rand types in that each firmly believes in completely unrestricted, no holds barred, winner-take-all, "let the people eat cake," capitalism. This disturbs me. And here's what bothers me the most.
In her book, "The Fountainhead," Rand writes of her main character, Howard Roark, "Howard Roark saw no one. For him, the streets were empty... it was only that he made people feel as if they did not exist." Neither Mitt Romney or his fictional counterpart, Gordon Gekko, really see people. And the ability to see people, I mean really to see them as real flesh and blood with real flesh and blood struggles and sufferings and joys and loves and concerns; that, to me, is one of the fundamental principles of ethics. When I hear Gov. Romney set forth his positions, I get the feeling he doesn't see me, my mother, my kids, whole groups of people but most especially those caught between the rock and the hard place. He makes me feel as if I don't really exist.
By one estimate, Gov. Romney's plan to turn Medicaid into a block grant program administered by the states, would, within a decade's time, deny health care to thirty-million kids. Does Gov. Romeny really see our children?
Under the Ryan budget, which Gov. Romney supports, a single mother of two earning minimum wage would pay $1500 more in taxes since he proposes to drastically slash the child tax credit. Does Gov. Romney see the that single mother?
What about the unemployed, the under employed? The Romney/Ryan plan, according to the Economic Policy Institute, would destroy 4.1 million jobs. Do either of these candidates really see the unemployed? Hell, have either one of these guys ever experienced, even for a week, what it's like not to have a job when you really want one and will pretty much take anything you can get even if it's flipping burgers to keep a roof over your kids' heads and a box of mac-and-cheese on the table?
Speaking of the poor, David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director, points out that the Romney/Ryan plan would end up cutting as much as 3 trillion (yea, the "t" is correct) from programs for the poor. "It's ideology run amok," says Stockman. The ideology of Ayn Rand. The ideology of an economic war of all against all where the participants never truly see those less fortunate than themselves where the rich get tax cuts and the poor are left destitute.
Tim Dickinson, writing in "Rolling Stone" a couple of weeks back, summed up this mess pretty well. The Romney/Ryan plan "would roll back clean-air protection, gut both medicare and medicaid, lavish trillions in tax cuts for billionaires while raising taxes on the poor, and slash everything from college aid to veteran's benefits." Do the Republican candidates really see any of these people? Or are we merely abstractions, statistics on a balance sheet?
Message to Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan: Neither I, my parents, my neighbors, my children, nor any of the rest of us working stiffs are mere abstractions, and we will not be reduced to statistics. And we are not invisible. We will be seen.
And come November 6th, we will also be heard.
The Jawbone
In her book, "The Fountainhead," Rand writes of her main character, Howard Roark, "Howard Roark saw no one. For him, the streets were empty... it was only that he made people feel as if they did not exist." Neither Mitt Romney or his fictional counterpart, Gordon Gekko, really see people. And the ability to see people, I mean really to see them as real flesh and blood with real flesh and blood struggles and sufferings and joys and loves and concerns; that, to me, is one of the fundamental principles of ethics. When I hear Gov. Romney set forth his positions, I get the feeling he doesn't see me, my mother, my kids, whole groups of people but most especially those caught between the rock and the hard place. He makes me feel as if I don't really exist.
By one estimate, Gov. Romney's plan to turn Medicaid into a block grant program administered by the states, would, within a decade's time, deny health care to thirty-million kids. Does Gov. Romeny really see our children?
Under the Ryan budget, which Gov. Romney supports, a single mother of two earning minimum wage would pay $1500 more in taxes since he proposes to drastically slash the child tax credit. Does Gov. Romney see the that single mother?
What about the unemployed, the under employed? The Romney/Ryan plan, according to the Economic Policy Institute, would destroy 4.1 million jobs. Do either of these candidates really see the unemployed? Hell, have either one of these guys ever experienced, even for a week, what it's like not to have a job when you really want one and will pretty much take anything you can get even if it's flipping burgers to keep a roof over your kids' heads and a box of mac-and-cheese on the table?
Speaking of the poor, David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director, points out that the Romney/Ryan plan would end up cutting as much as 3 trillion (yea, the "t" is correct) from programs for the poor. "It's ideology run amok," says Stockman. The ideology of Ayn Rand. The ideology of an economic war of all against all where the participants never truly see those less fortunate than themselves where the rich get tax cuts and the poor are left destitute.
Tim Dickinson, writing in "Rolling Stone" a couple of weeks back, summed up this mess pretty well. The Romney/Ryan plan "would roll back clean-air protection, gut both medicare and medicaid, lavish trillions in tax cuts for billionaires while raising taxes on the poor, and slash everything from college aid to veteran's benefits." Do the Republican candidates really see any of these people? Or are we merely abstractions, statistics on a balance sheet?
Message to Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan: Neither I, my parents, my neighbors, my children, nor any of the rest of us working stiffs are mere abstractions, and we will not be reduced to statistics. And we are not invisible. We will be seen.
And come November 6th, we will also be heard.
The Jawbone
Saturday, September 22, 2012
We Are the 47%
Not since that snake-in-the-grass Richard Nixon have we seen a more loathsome political viper than Mitt Romney slither across our political landscape in an attempt to occupy that most powerful plot of real estate. Born of the worst breed of political creatures, he is among the most dangerous and most rightly to be feared. Should he and his Koch brothers' Tea Party backers be allowed to buy the nation's highest office, they will do more damage to the 47% than we can imagine in our most vulgar nightmares. Keep your feet up everybody. It will be snakes on a plane all over again.
It's not his wealth that makes Mr. Romney so dangerous. Like Mitt, Jack, Bobby, and Ted Kennedy were also born with a golden horseshoe up their small intestines. Properly earned and responsibly managed for the larger good, wealth can be a blessing. Or it can be a curse. And it is a curse when it shields its possessors from the plight of the common folk.
If success is determined by the bottom line, then no doubt Mitt has had a most successful business career. But the question must be asked as to how that career affected the larger community. Here is where moral failure masquerades as financial success.
As a vulture capitalist, Mitt Romney was nothing more than a corporate raider, a robber baron of the first order. His tactic was to purchase companies in trouble, run them into bankruptcy as quickly as possible, close them down, then make off with whatever was left in the company safe, leaving the workers standing outside locked factory gates to wonder how someone could have so thoughtlessly destroyed their livelihood. This is public record, not hyperbole; capitalism unfettered to do its worst. This is business by the Golden Rule in reverse: Do unto others before they do unto you.
To be certain, none of the Kennedy boys were saints. Yet they seemed, because, and some times in spite of, their privileged upbringing to be on the right side of history. They were in touch with the everyday realities of those whom they were elected to serve. The working stiffs who know what it is to get up every morning, go to a job they probably don't like very much, for which they are mostly underpaid, so they can sit down at the kitchen table near the end of each month and figure out which bills will get paid and which will have to wait.
The Kennedy's were born to wealth, but Jack could identify with the black man in the South who couldn't vote or even set down for a burger and fries at an all-white lunch counter without getting the living shit beaten out of him. Bobby toured the poverty stricken ghettos and share croppers' shacks, sat at kitchen tables and talked with mothers whose children were forced by law to attend segregated schools. On his way back to the limo, he remarked to a reporter, "I'm going back to Washington and do something about this." Ted made health care for everyone the central focus of his legislative career.
To be on the side of the outcast, the poor, the sick, the hungry, the jobless, of those whom the powerful choose to exclude from the political process by systematically denying them the right to vote; this is to be on the right side of history. This is where Mitt Romney is on the wrong side of history.
We are the 47%, Mr. Romney. And very few of us are irresponsible loafers who choose not to take responsibility for our lives.We are the veterans who stand to lose 11 billion dollars from much needed assistance. We are the elderly having to choose between food and medicine and doctors visits if medicare is replaced with a voucher system. We are African-Americans who marched, demonstrated, and even died for the right to vote; a right Mr. Romney's Republican Party is hell bent to repress. We are women in need of the reproductive health care, the cancer screenings, birth control, and access to safe abortions to whom Mr. Romney would deny funding. We are the college students depending on Pell grants and low interest student loans that will provide us with economic opportunity. We are mothers on medicaid who would love to find more than a minimum wage job waiting tables so we could afford decent day care for our kids and go back to school part-time and get our degree. We are fathers who have stood long enough in the unemployment line. Mr. Romney, we are the 47%; and you right us off at your peril.
And, Mr. Romney, despite your Republican Party's desperate attempts to keep us out of the voting booth, we will show up, and we will vote. Because we are on the right side of history.
The Jawbone.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Why I Will Continue to Support the Salvation Army
I was about seven or eight, if memory serves, and my GranGran and I were walking across a parking lot through an early December snow when we heard the familiar ringing of the bell and saw the uniformed young lady standing beside the little red kettle. "Never pass by the Salvation Army," my grandfather said. "They do a lot of good for folks who are down and out, really poor. Always give them what you can, even if it's only a little." So he'd reach into his pocket and pull out a couple of wrinkled dollar bills, give me one, and we'd each put one into the pot. GranGran would tip his hat to the lady; she'd nod a thanks, and we'd be on our way.
Years later I'd relate that same story to my two daughters as we were walking across some snowy New England parking lot, reach into my pocket, pass out the dollars, or quarters, as I was able, and we'd give what we could. "They help the poor," I'd explain. "People who don't have enough to eat tonight, and maybe even their kids; people without a roof over their heads won't have to sleep out in the cold tonight because you cared enough to help out."
This is the background I bring to the annual controversy that pits the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community against the Salvation Army. A controversy that runs down a two-way street. You see, the Salvation Army is a very conservative Christian organization that firmly believes the LGBT lifestyle is contrary to the SA's interpretation of certain Scriptures. Naturally, the LGBT community holds the opposite view, and calls upon me to withhold my cash in protest.
I happen to have long advocated, in the various denominations I've served as minister, the full rights of inclusion for the LGBT community. And we've made a great deal of progress as witnessed by the Episcopal Church, of which I'm now proudly a full member, having been confirmed by the Bishop just a couple of weeks ago. A few years back the Episcopal Church elected Gene Robinson Bishop of New Hampshire. Bishop Robinson is openly gay. Quite a step forward. Progress is often slow. But progress is made.
Yet not every Episcopalian would agree with me. Every year at our annual gathering there is that vocal minority who will get up and rant and rave against ordaining anyone who isn't straight. No doubt it will be so again this year. Equally certain is that their anti-gay agenda will get voted down. Seems the controversy, like the poor, is destined to be always with us.
I think the Salvation Army's stance on LGBT is wrong. But I'm not going to withdraw my money any more than I would withdraw my money from my Episcopal Church. I've seen first hand the good the SA has done and continues to do each year. I don't agree with them on this issue, but if I pulled my pittance out of every organization I can find something to disagree about I'd end up never giving a dime to any charity. So I have to make choices. Or kids sleep in the car and pregnant mothers don't eat.
Change comes from courage within and pressure from without from those who disagree. So I will make my protest known, and encourage a more enlightened approach. Then, some day, probably before long, some long time member of the Salvation Army in good standing will come out of the closet and set off a bonfire of rethinking all the attendant issues. Never fails. So I choose the way of the loyal opposition. That feels like it has more integrity, for me anyway, than the I'll take my dollar and go home approach.
I want that hungry guy on the street corner to have a soup kitchen to go to tonight. And the mom and two kids some chickenshit bank foreclosed on and put out in the cold; I'd like them to have a shelter, and for the kids to get a couple presents this Christmas. I'm funny that way.
The Jawbone
Years later I'd relate that same story to my two daughters as we were walking across some snowy New England parking lot, reach into my pocket, pass out the dollars, or quarters, as I was able, and we'd give what we could. "They help the poor," I'd explain. "People who don't have enough to eat tonight, and maybe even their kids; people without a roof over their heads won't have to sleep out in the cold tonight because you cared enough to help out."
This is the background I bring to the annual controversy that pits the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community against the Salvation Army. A controversy that runs down a two-way street. You see, the Salvation Army is a very conservative Christian organization that firmly believes the LGBT lifestyle is contrary to the SA's interpretation of certain Scriptures. Naturally, the LGBT community holds the opposite view, and calls upon me to withhold my cash in protest.
I happen to have long advocated, in the various denominations I've served as minister, the full rights of inclusion for the LGBT community. And we've made a great deal of progress as witnessed by the Episcopal Church, of which I'm now proudly a full member, having been confirmed by the Bishop just a couple of weeks ago. A few years back the Episcopal Church elected Gene Robinson Bishop of New Hampshire. Bishop Robinson is openly gay. Quite a step forward. Progress is often slow. But progress is made.
Yet not every Episcopalian would agree with me. Every year at our annual gathering there is that vocal minority who will get up and rant and rave against ordaining anyone who isn't straight. No doubt it will be so again this year. Equally certain is that their anti-gay agenda will get voted down. Seems the controversy, like the poor, is destined to be always with us.
I think the Salvation Army's stance on LGBT is wrong. But I'm not going to withdraw my money any more than I would withdraw my money from my Episcopal Church. I've seen first hand the good the SA has done and continues to do each year. I don't agree with them on this issue, but if I pulled my pittance out of every organization I can find something to disagree about I'd end up never giving a dime to any charity. So I have to make choices. Or kids sleep in the car and pregnant mothers don't eat.
Change comes from courage within and pressure from without from those who disagree. So I will make my protest known, and encourage a more enlightened approach. Then, some day, probably before long, some long time member of the Salvation Army in good standing will come out of the closet and set off a bonfire of rethinking all the attendant issues. Never fails. So I choose the way of the loyal opposition. That feels like it has more integrity, for me anyway, than the I'll take my dollar and go home approach.
I want that hungry guy on the street corner to have a soup kitchen to go to tonight. And the mom and two kids some chickenshit bank foreclosed on and put out in the cold; I'd like them to have a shelter, and for the kids to get a couple presents this Christmas. I'm funny that way.
The Jawbone
Monday, November 7, 2011
Swearing Preachers and the Hijacking of Democracy
"That," as my grandfather was fond of saying, "would make a preacher cuss." As a brief aside to those who have a rather shallow view of our profession, let me say this: If you ever meet a preacher who can't, when the situation warrants, string together a chain of profanities that would make the saltiest drunken sailor hang his head in crimson-faced shame---find another church. Come Sunday morning, only the swearing preachers have anything meaningful to say regarding the political and economic shit storm swirling around us.
In that intentionally irreverent spirit I will go my polling place tomorrow. I go for two reasons. One, voting gives me the right to bitch and generally raise hell about the hijacking of what used to be our democratic process. Two, this is a local, state house, election. What may be the last bastion of something remotely resembling democracy, although that too is disappearing.
My hope for local, state house elections is that they may not be quite as infected with corporate money. I remain idealist enough to still believe that there is, on the local level, at least a chance that a citizen can run for office on a very small budget and still have a chance to win. Rare. But it remains within the boundaries of possibility.
On the national level that is not the case. Here democracy is a thin veneer covering a completely corrupted system. Where is the democracy when both sides are bought and paid for by their corporate pimps? Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that allows companies like Bank of American and United Health Group and the Koch brothers to purchase candidates with massive amounts of cash. No matter who you vote for, you've already been sold out.
The result is a system made up of two subspecies: whores and whore mongers. The whores need the cash to get elected, but have to sell their votes in the process. The whore mongers are more than happy to provide the cash in exchange for the privilege of screwing the middle class and the poor with impunity. The game is rigged. Which side gets elected is making less and less difference.
Solution? A constitutional amendment overturning the Citizens decision that would ban all corporate money from all elections. No more shadow Koch brother front organizations. Complete transparency and financial accountability. Limit the size of contributions from individuals. Something not likely to happen since the whore mongers will pay their whores ever larger amounts of cash to prevent.
Unless there is a massive public movement against the sham system. The current Occupy Movement has the potential to put together the popular non-violent uprising that's desperately needed. Whether it can evolve into this kind of movement remains to be seen.
The hope lies in the fact that more and more people are realizing voting is not enough in a broken, rigged, system. People need to be in the streets for the whores and whore mongers to fear, and pay attention. The Movement has to grow in size and influence until a tipping point is reached; the point where the whores fear us more than their corporate pimps.
Occupy. Vote. Raise some Hell. Take your hard earned cash elsewhere. Petition. Bring the pressure. Bring the outrage. Demand to be heard, and heeded. There is strength in numbers. And there are more of us than there are of them.
The Jawbone.
In that intentionally irreverent spirit I will go my polling place tomorrow. I go for two reasons. One, voting gives me the right to bitch and generally raise hell about the hijacking of what used to be our democratic process. Two, this is a local, state house, election. What may be the last bastion of something remotely resembling democracy, although that too is disappearing.
My hope for local, state house elections is that they may not be quite as infected with corporate money. I remain idealist enough to still believe that there is, on the local level, at least a chance that a citizen can run for office on a very small budget and still have a chance to win. Rare. But it remains within the boundaries of possibility.
On the national level that is not the case. Here democracy is a thin veneer covering a completely corrupted system. Where is the democracy when both sides are bought and paid for by their corporate pimps? Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that allows companies like Bank of American and United Health Group and the Koch brothers to purchase candidates with massive amounts of cash. No matter who you vote for, you've already been sold out.
The result is a system made up of two subspecies: whores and whore mongers. The whores need the cash to get elected, but have to sell their votes in the process. The whore mongers are more than happy to provide the cash in exchange for the privilege of screwing the middle class and the poor with impunity. The game is rigged. Which side gets elected is making less and less difference.
Solution? A constitutional amendment overturning the Citizens decision that would ban all corporate money from all elections. No more shadow Koch brother front organizations. Complete transparency and financial accountability. Limit the size of contributions from individuals. Something not likely to happen since the whore mongers will pay their whores ever larger amounts of cash to prevent.
Unless there is a massive public movement against the sham system. The current Occupy Movement has the potential to put together the popular non-violent uprising that's desperately needed. Whether it can evolve into this kind of movement remains to be seen.
The hope lies in the fact that more and more people are realizing voting is not enough in a broken, rigged, system. People need to be in the streets for the whores and whore mongers to fear, and pay attention. The Movement has to grow in size and influence until a tipping point is reached; the point where the whores fear us more than their corporate pimps.
Occupy. Vote. Raise some Hell. Take your hard earned cash elsewhere. Petition. Bring the pressure. Bring the outrage. Demand to be heard, and heeded. There is strength in numbers. And there are more of us than there are of them.
The Jawbone.
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