I took a short vacation last week and had some time to think some different thoughts as my wife and I spent time just relaxing. There were also some quiet hours in the car as we drove the entire breadth of the state on our trip. I'm a bit of a political nut so as the miles passed by I got to thinking about all the political theatre taking place in the Republican party right now. To be fair, the Democrats would be doing much the same if they didn't have a sitting President. But there will be no Democratic primary so the media can focus all its love and attention on the Republicans.
I concluded at this stage in the game this is far more "Entertainment", than news. Given that we have several 24-hour news networks in addition to the usual news sources, it stands to reason that they just have to have something to say all day-everyday. But what we're getting isn't real substance. Therefore, I've decided the only way to interpret this junk is as "Entertainment". I view it that way because it's just not real. It's like a situation comedy-or sometimes an engaging drama, or a made-for-TV mini-series, even a day-time soap opera. Sometimes it makes us laugh. Sometimes it makes us cry. It can titillate or annoy. But in the end we just have to appreciate the entertainment value, then turn it off and wait till the next episode. With that in mind, let's look at a few past episodes.
In 2010 the Republican contenders started lining up. You'll remember the early acts. Tim Pawlenty actually started running in 2008 when his name was bandied about as the VP for John McCain. McCain went with Sarah Palin because he thought all those women who voted for Hillary Clinton in the primaries couldn't tell one woman from another. Man, he was wrong. But Pawlenty got this name out there. Then there was Haley Barbour, the Boss Hogg look-a-like Governor of Mississippi. Here was a guy with serious Republican credentials and national connections who could pull the party together after the disastrous defeat in 2008.
Next, the word was Mike Huckabee was going to be the guy. Huckabee made a strong run in 2008 winning the much ballyhooed Iowa caucus. He was strong with Tea Party types and has particular appeal with right-wing Christians. In November 2010 Republicans won 80 crucial seats in the House of Representatives. This gave control of the House to the Republicans. So as 2011 came, the Republicans believed the rest of the Government was theirs for the taking in 2012. Here comes the avalanche.
Mitt Romney announced, as expected, and suddenly he was christened the front runner. He was only the front runner because the press and a few obscure Republican pollsters said so. But old Mitt happily accepted the title. Here's where it gets interesting! Both Mike Huckabee and Haley Barbour pull out, each claiming they were instructed to directly by God. (please make note of this for later). Of course in Huckabee's case if he had decided to (actually) run he wouldn't have been able to keep his job with Fox (news?) And he really needs a job. I hesitate to call Fox News news. It's more like a big conservative, anti-Obama, anti-science, anti-everything, big corporation infomercial. But suit yourself.
Front runner Romney had the Tea Party-ers wetting themselves because he's not conservative enough. Speculation now grows that Michele Bachman will throw in. But, just for fun, Donald Trump announces his intentions. He got a lot of press resurrecting the racist "birther" nonsense and promised his people were uncovering very big things on Obama's past. Stay tuned and all will be revealed. Establishment Republicans were actually saying that Trump could be a serious contender. He and his hair (two separate entities) were on the news shows for two solid weeks claiming to know the President was a Manchurian Candidate, who probably cheated in college. That all ended over one weekend when the (Harvard Law Review) President stooped to show his birth certificate- crucified The Donald at a Press Club Dinner, and the next day announced the death of Bin Laden. Trump never formally withdrew- we just changed the channel. Poof, The Donald is gone. We never saw those "big things" either.
Things really heated up when Jon Huntsman entered the race. (not!). This guy was the one Obama was really afraid of, so they said. A moderate Republican with good looks, money and brains. The press made him out to be the next coming of Christ. Poor Mr. Huntsman totally botched his announcement speech, handed out campaign material that misspelled his own first name, and mistakenly loaded his press corp on a plane headed out of the country- all in one day. Jon is mired in a 1% approval bog. Next came Michele Bachmann- the real Tea Party candidate. She shot into prominence during a Fox (?) sponsored debate with plain talk and folksy charm. She managed to keep "the crazy" under wraps. She couldn't undo Romney because she didn't have any ideas, but she looked like the one to watch. She got that goofy picture on the cover of Newsweek and then took the Ames Iowa Straw Poll. All the while, the party regulars kept hoping somebody else would run. Long suffering Pawlenty gives it up after the Iowa butter festival. Ever present Libertarian Ron Paul is also in the mix. But he's a Libertarian, so who cares?
Finally Rick Perry holds a stadium prayer meeting and later announces that he will be the next President. This is big. The Messiah has arrived. Here's a guy who wants to preside over no Federal Government, and if elected will probably succeed from himself. Romney is no longer the front runner and Bachmann drops like a rock in the Republican polls. Remember that God also spoke directly to Bachmann and Perry telling them both to be President. Whereas, he told Huckabee and Barbour to hit the showers. There are three possibilities here: 1) God is a Democrat and a prankster; 2) God is a confused Republican; or 3) that voice they heard was in their own heads.
That should catch you up on our show so far. Each one of these folks has risen in the public's eye, then faded just as fast. They were just the flavor of the month, propped up by the press one month and ignored the next. But stay tuned-there could be more. Chris Christie and Sarah Palin might still be the next big things. Chris is just a big guy, and Palin has an ego as big as the state she quit being Governor of. I could be wrong, but I believe Sarah Palin will go for it. She just won't be able to help it!
A couple of things are clear to me. The Republican party is just as fractured and disorganized as the pundits claimed after the whippin' they took in '08. Don't let that quirky off-year election last year fool you. The candidates don't even sound like they're in the same party- with the one exception of truly hating our President. They will wreck this country to prove their hatred, and ask you to elect them after they do. Oh, good strategy people! Its really working out well for Republican Congressmen. Have you seen their approval ratings lately? Another thing is clear- not one of these chosen people has floated a solid policy idea yet. The President looks vulnerable now, but as any one will tell you- it's hard to beat the incumbent. Just ask Reagan or G.W Bush. Each had lower approval ratings than Obama's at this point. As for now, I think I'll just sit back and enjoy the show.
Thanks for looking in.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
So Long Borders Books
After a weekend that included Lee's folks staying with us and a big family dinner to coincide with the visit, we found ourselves alone and doing a bit of shopping to finish off the weekend. As you may know Lee is an educator and a Director of a large child care facility. As such, she is always on the look-out for educational materials and books for the Center, and of course for our grandchildren. So there was a quick suggestion that we head over to Borders Book Store.
If you've been following the business news lately you know that Borders is finally going out of business after years of struggling to stay afloat. Last year they closed about one third of their national chain of stores. That was not sufficient. So a few weeks ago Borders announced that the entire chain was closing down with amazing deals to be had until everything was liquidated. Being very astute shoppers, we joined the pack to pick over the bones of this failing enterprise- and had some success. Both the grandchildren and the students benefited from our outing.
Whenever an establishment has a going-out-of-business sale these places seem to have a different kind of energy. There is an urgency to shopping that you usually don't see- particularly in book stores. One of the great things about book stores is the laid back atmosphere of people browsing and seeming more cerebral, polite, and content. Not so this time. Eyes were darting and scanning the quickly emptying selves, while hands were at the ready to grab that last edition if your brain gave the signal to pounce. Everybody had their game-face on.
I was mostly along for the ride, so I had a chance to think about book stores in general, which led me to thinking about the future of the written word. I was a bit sad at first to think that Borders' fate was a harbinger of the fate of all bookstores. It's kind of a sad trend to have books disappear, but it seems that's the direction. I'm not a great reader myself (mostly because I'm a slow reader) but I've always felt that books were venerable and honorable instruments to be preserved and respected. But, as I watched this place of venerable objects take its last dying breaths, being devoured by bargain hunters, I realized this isn't the death of the written word. I realized this is just the transformation of the written word to another form.
I thought about the first of these blogs, called "Getting Started". In that poor beginning I talked about my initial resistance to the notion of Blogging because it seemed to run afoul of my ideas about full expressiveness in the written word. But I accepted that writing isn't disappearing- its just showing up in different ways. Take newspapers as another example. They, like the bookstores, are dying. I've concluded they're dying because it's their time to die. They only come out once a day and anything new they had to impart showed up the day before in the digital world of the Internet. All the great journalists have migrated to the new electronic mediums. The newspapers that still exists have devolved into a collection of advertising. As a news source, they're obsolete. Books stores, in general, won't last much longer either. A book, in fact practically a whole library, can be downloaded to a Kindle or a Nook or some other devise instantly though the airwaves, and stored in your pocket.
We have progressed to new technologies in almost every aspect of our lives. To mention only a few: Motorized vehicles with incredible technological wonders transport us instead of animals. The smoke house, the root cellar and the canning jar have been replaced by refrigeration. Entertainment is now nearly unlimited via the satellite and the cable. Practically the entire store of human knowledge is available with the touch of a finger to a computer. Medical science and technology has extended life (for some) of the human race to unimagined lengths.
When it comes to the written word and the imagination of man, I don't worry. I see some keepers of the human experience dying (like the book stores) but I know the new forms will surely come to replace them and will probably be even better. In the end, it's not the form-but the substance of expression that will always move us forward. So anywhere we can use writing to describe beauty- tell a story- expose injustice- inspire us- or elevate our spirit, writing will find a way to be there for us. Writing is the ordering and the recording of ideas- an expression of the human experience. Writing itself will never go-out-of-business.
Thanks for looking in.
If you've been following the business news lately you know that Borders is finally going out of business after years of struggling to stay afloat. Last year they closed about one third of their national chain of stores. That was not sufficient. So a few weeks ago Borders announced that the entire chain was closing down with amazing deals to be had until everything was liquidated. Being very astute shoppers, we joined the pack to pick over the bones of this failing enterprise- and had some success. Both the grandchildren and the students benefited from our outing.
Whenever an establishment has a going-out-of-business sale these places seem to have a different kind of energy. There is an urgency to shopping that you usually don't see- particularly in book stores. One of the great things about book stores is the laid back atmosphere of people browsing and seeming more cerebral, polite, and content. Not so this time. Eyes were darting and scanning the quickly emptying selves, while hands were at the ready to grab that last edition if your brain gave the signal to pounce. Everybody had their game-face on.
I was mostly along for the ride, so I had a chance to think about book stores in general, which led me to thinking about the future of the written word. I was a bit sad at first to think that Borders' fate was a harbinger of the fate of all bookstores. It's kind of a sad trend to have books disappear, but it seems that's the direction. I'm not a great reader myself (mostly because I'm a slow reader) but I've always felt that books were venerable and honorable instruments to be preserved and respected. But, as I watched this place of venerable objects take its last dying breaths, being devoured by bargain hunters, I realized this isn't the death of the written word. I realized this is just the transformation of the written word to another form.
I thought about the first of these blogs, called "Getting Started". In that poor beginning I talked about my initial resistance to the notion of Blogging because it seemed to run afoul of my ideas about full expressiveness in the written word. But I accepted that writing isn't disappearing- its just showing up in different ways. Take newspapers as another example. They, like the bookstores, are dying. I've concluded they're dying because it's their time to die. They only come out once a day and anything new they had to impart showed up the day before in the digital world of the Internet. All the great journalists have migrated to the new electronic mediums. The newspapers that still exists have devolved into a collection of advertising. As a news source, they're obsolete. Books stores, in general, won't last much longer either. A book, in fact practically a whole library, can be downloaded to a Kindle or a Nook or some other devise instantly though the airwaves, and stored in your pocket.
We have progressed to new technologies in almost every aspect of our lives. To mention only a few: Motorized vehicles with incredible technological wonders transport us instead of animals. The smoke house, the root cellar and the canning jar have been replaced by refrigeration. Entertainment is now nearly unlimited via the satellite and the cable. Practically the entire store of human knowledge is available with the touch of a finger to a computer. Medical science and technology has extended life (for some) of the human race to unimagined lengths.
When it comes to the written word and the imagination of man, I don't worry. I see some keepers of the human experience dying (like the book stores) but I know the new forms will surely come to replace them and will probably be even better. In the end, it's not the form-but the substance of expression that will always move us forward. So anywhere we can use writing to describe beauty- tell a story- expose injustice- inspire us- or elevate our spirit, writing will find a way to be there for us. Writing is the ordering and the recording of ideas- an expression of the human experience. Writing itself will never go-out-of-business.
Thanks for looking in.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
People I Know From Work
Most of my adult life I've worked in the field of social work. That experience has been in child welfare, with an additional seven years as a manager in a large state public assistance office. In my current position I got a new assignment around the first of the year. The agency where I work received funding to address financial management with some of our clients. It's a new, and long overdue, trend in social work. My background lent to this assignment. But this week's offering isn't about my work, it's an opportunity to have you meet some of the people I've met and gotten to know as a result of this assignment. Please come along as I introduce to folks you probably wouldn't get a chance to meet otherwise.
My job is to educate, coach, instruct, or otherwise help our clients do a better job of handling their money, and hopefully guide them toward a more self-sufficient life. Of course, I can't use any real names- but I assure you the people and their circumstances are 100% real.
Let me introduce you to "Kathy". Kathy is in her late twenties, and has two children- ages nine and two. Kathy was raised in an abusive home with a a very impaired and addicted mother and two sisters who are now drug addicts. Kathy didn't finish high school. Kathy worked a few low-paying jobs in her early twenties. She got involved with an abusive mate who led her to alcoholism and drug abuse. He eventually became so violent that he seriously injured Kathy, causing her to be hospitalized and needing a surgically repaired jaw and later, spinal surgery. Needless to say Kathy doesn't possess many skills and was rendered somewhat unattractive with her displaced jaw.
Kathy's been involved with Child Protective Services for a long while due to her negligent parenting during the dark period described above. She regained custody of the two kids but requires constant counseling and intervention to help her and the children overcome the trauma in their lives. She still lives in constant pain from the neck injuries. Kathy doesn't get TANF (Welfare) money anymore. Our state finally enforced a five-year lifetime limit rule. The rule has been there for fifteen years-but the recession finally forced the state to use it in this budget crisis. She does get food stamp benefits and medical coverage. She lives on $200.00 a month (child support for one of the kids). She lives at the Salvation Army Housing Program. They only charge 30% of your cash income for rent. Trouble is she has to leave next month because those dark forces have returned. Constant physical pain and deep despair led her back to drinking and mental health problems again.
Next, meet "Jane". Jane is a very bright, articulate twenty-eight year old woman. Jane has her high school diploma and some post HS education. Jane has worked in the medical field for some time as a nurse's aid and held responsible jobs in hospitals. Jane fell head-over-heels in love with a young man who gave her two children. They are eight and three. Mr. Wonderful didn't turn out so well. He fell on hard times with his employment, then turned to drugs. He convinced Jane to join him on this path. She began using Cocaine with him to save the relationship. She lost her jobs- then he lost his temper. More drugs, more crime, and then violence. She got out with fewer injuries than Kathy, but the mere idea of seeing him can cause a panic. Along the way one of his friends sexually abused their daughter. Jane managed to get unemployment compensation, but it's less than two hundred bucks a week. Jane can't afford her own place with two kids because she wasn't lucky enough to find subsidized housing. She's on the waiting list for Section 8 Federal Housing Assistance, but it's going to be nine months to a year, if at all. (demand is higher than ever) She and the kids live with relatives in a small house. She is doing well in treatment and her eight-year-old daughter is getting treatment to help her deal with being raped. Jane has the skills to return to work, but this recession isn't good for job seekers- particularly ones who have other obligations like Jane does.
Please meet "Sally". You'd like Sally very much. She is highly personable- genuinely charming and engaging. She is outgoing and devoted to caring for her one year old baby. Sally is in her late thirties. She has other children who live out of town with their fathers. She came here to escape the life of drug abuse and violence she experienced in her home town. She stays in touch with the other kids and does her best to maintain a relationship with them. Sally helps other women in her group- and fiercely guards over the babies of other women. She has been free from heroin for well over a year now. However the legacy of that period is damage to her brain that prevents her from having a useful short term memory or completing many intellectual tasks. Sally lives on about $340.00 a month from TANF. She tried to make it in an apartment subsidized by the YMCA Housing Project, but couldn't manage it financially. She and her child are back in the shelter program again. She is planning to go to school in the fall with the help of federal Financial Aid programs, but schooling won't repair her brain; though she might get SSI because of the brain damage.
I could go on introducing you to people I meet- like "Dan and Jenny". This couple has a severely disabled child who needs both feeding tubes and breathing assistance (birth defects). The child is so medically fragile she must live in a specialized foster home.They both have jobs now. Dan is working part-time at McDonald's and Jenny's working one day a week at Wal-Mart. It took each of them five months to get those jobs. Having to drop everything to go to the hospital for the child's near death episodes jeopardizes their meager jobs. I also know "Sandy" who was raised in foster care herself, and is now trying to learn how to parent her child. She's never had a lasting, supportive, or stable relationship in her whole life, and just doesn't know how to parent, let alone cope with the complicated world we have to navigate.
As I say, I could go on with the introductions, but I just wanted you to meet some of the people I see almost daily. Anybody in my line of work could tell the same stories. I'm not asking you to make any judgements about how they each got to this place. Surely, a lot of these wounds are self-inflicted. They made mistakes, and some made bad choices. Some simply had bad luck, or trusted the wrong people, or were born to the wrong kind of parents themselves.
Making judgements is often the kind of thing that keeps these people down. We have a tendency to judge people not on what we know, or who they really are- but on assumptions about their value as people. There is old tradition in the Christian world (Calvinism) that says the poor are that way because God doesn't favor them. But I, for one, cannot know the pain and trauma some of these folks have suffered. I cannot know the huge barriers they face being born into poverty- poverty that, more often than not, is a self-fulfilling destiny for generations to come. But I'll tell what I have found. In getting to know these people and really hearing their story, I've found that I like them. In some ways I admire them. Can you imagine going from our relative comfort to having to live on $340 a month? Can you imagine knowing you can never buy that coffee drink, or know that buying a toy for your child is a major financial decision? I admire how they stretch a dollar in ways I never thought of- or the way they form their own networks to survive.
Our country is in trouble now. The Great Recession has reduced our 401K's and caused our homes to lose value. It has caused more unemployment and uncertainty in the future. At least Kathy, Sally, Dan and Jenny and the others don't have to sweat out uncertainty. Their whole lives have been a Great Recession, and it will probably be a Recession for them and their children as far as they can see; so there's little uncertainty for them. But as we debate our future we have to keep in mind that the poor are still there- that they are real people with real hopes, real heart-aches and real needs. They too want a better life for their kids, but they don't have the means to provide it. We've all heard the stories of those who have overcome lowly or disadvantaged beginnings, and we applaud them. But there are far more stories of those who will be trapped forever by the circumstances of their birth- or the those who have victimized them along the way.
The discussions of late have focused so much on the taxes on the rich and measuring our finances in trillions of dollars, that we tend to forget the poor. The middle class is shrinking not because more of us are joining the rich, but because more of us are joining the poor. The poor make a good target for anger and blame. But when we know their stories it's much easier to see them as people. From our RVs, boats, and lake cabins our view of them can be obscured. I'm just asking that we remember the poor are there-and there are many more of them than most of us realize. If we allow our leaders, or ourselves, to simply turn our heads from these people, we do so to our own detriment. It's not so important whether we see them through the eyes of scorn or pity- just that we see them.
Thanks for looking in.
My job is to educate, coach, instruct, or otherwise help our clients do a better job of handling their money, and hopefully guide them toward a more self-sufficient life. Of course, I can't use any real names- but I assure you the people and their circumstances are 100% real.
Let me introduce you to "Kathy". Kathy is in her late twenties, and has two children- ages nine and two. Kathy was raised in an abusive home with a a very impaired and addicted mother and two sisters who are now drug addicts. Kathy didn't finish high school. Kathy worked a few low-paying jobs in her early twenties. She got involved with an abusive mate who led her to alcoholism and drug abuse. He eventually became so violent that he seriously injured Kathy, causing her to be hospitalized and needing a surgically repaired jaw and later, spinal surgery. Needless to say Kathy doesn't possess many skills and was rendered somewhat unattractive with her displaced jaw.
Kathy's been involved with Child Protective Services for a long while due to her negligent parenting during the dark period described above. She regained custody of the two kids but requires constant counseling and intervention to help her and the children overcome the trauma in their lives. She still lives in constant pain from the neck injuries. Kathy doesn't get TANF (Welfare) money anymore. Our state finally enforced a five-year lifetime limit rule. The rule has been there for fifteen years-but the recession finally forced the state to use it in this budget crisis. She does get food stamp benefits and medical coverage. She lives on $200.00 a month (child support for one of the kids). She lives at the Salvation Army Housing Program. They only charge 30% of your cash income for rent. Trouble is she has to leave next month because those dark forces have returned. Constant physical pain and deep despair led her back to drinking and mental health problems again.
Next, meet "Jane". Jane is a very bright, articulate twenty-eight year old woman. Jane has her high school diploma and some post HS education. Jane has worked in the medical field for some time as a nurse's aid and held responsible jobs in hospitals. Jane fell head-over-heels in love with a young man who gave her two children. They are eight and three. Mr. Wonderful didn't turn out so well. He fell on hard times with his employment, then turned to drugs. He convinced Jane to join him on this path. She began using Cocaine with him to save the relationship. She lost her jobs- then he lost his temper. More drugs, more crime, and then violence. She got out with fewer injuries than Kathy, but the mere idea of seeing him can cause a panic. Along the way one of his friends sexually abused their daughter. Jane managed to get unemployment compensation, but it's less than two hundred bucks a week. Jane can't afford her own place with two kids because she wasn't lucky enough to find subsidized housing. She's on the waiting list for Section 8 Federal Housing Assistance, but it's going to be nine months to a year, if at all. (demand is higher than ever) She and the kids live with relatives in a small house. She is doing well in treatment and her eight-year-old daughter is getting treatment to help her deal with being raped. Jane has the skills to return to work, but this recession isn't good for job seekers- particularly ones who have other obligations like Jane does.
Please meet "Sally". You'd like Sally very much. She is highly personable- genuinely charming and engaging. She is outgoing and devoted to caring for her one year old baby. Sally is in her late thirties. She has other children who live out of town with their fathers. She came here to escape the life of drug abuse and violence she experienced in her home town. She stays in touch with the other kids and does her best to maintain a relationship with them. Sally helps other women in her group- and fiercely guards over the babies of other women. She has been free from heroin for well over a year now. However the legacy of that period is damage to her brain that prevents her from having a useful short term memory or completing many intellectual tasks. Sally lives on about $340.00 a month from TANF. She tried to make it in an apartment subsidized by the YMCA Housing Project, but couldn't manage it financially. She and her child are back in the shelter program again. She is planning to go to school in the fall with the help of federal Financial Aid programs, but schooling won't repair her brain; though she might get SSI because of the brain damage.
I could go on introducing you to people I meet- like "Dan and Jenny". This couple has a severely disabled child who needs both feeding tubes and breathing assistance (birth defects). The child is so medically fragile she must live in a specialized foster home.They both have jobs now. Dan is working part-time at McDonald's and Jenny's working one day a week at Wal-Mart. It took each of them five months to get those jobs. Having to drop everything to go to the hospital for the child's near death episodes jeopardizes their meager jobs. I also know "Sandy" who was raised in foster care herself, and is now trying to learn how to parent her child. She's never had a lasting, supportive, or stable relationship in her whole life, and just doesn't know how to parent, let alone cope with the complicated world we have to navigate.
As I say, I could go on with the introductions, but I just wanted you to meet some of the people I see almost daily. Anybody in my line of work could tell the same stories. I'm not asking you to make any judgements about how they each got to this place. Surely, a lot of these wounds are self-inflicted. They made mistakes, and some made bad choices. Some simply had bad luck, or trusted the wrong people, or were born to the wrong kind of parents themselves.
Making judgements is often the kind of thing that keeps these people down. We have a tendency to judge people not on what we know, or who they really are- but on assumptions about their value as people. There is old tradition in the Christian world (Calvinism) that says the poor are that way because God doesn't favor them. But I, for one, cannot know the pain and trauma some of these folks have suffered. I cannot know the huge barriers they face being born into poverty- poverty that, more often than not, is a self-fulfilling destiny for generations to come. But I'll tell what I have found. In getting to know these people and really hearing their story, I've found that I like them. In some ways I admire them. Can you imagine going from our relative comfort to having to live on $340 a month? Can you imagine knowing you can never buy that coffee drink, or know that buying a toy for your child is a major financial decision? I admire how they stretch a dollar in ways I never thought of- or the way they form their own networks to survive.
Our country is in trouble now. The Great Recession has reduced our 401K's and caused our homes to lose value. It has caused more unemployment and uncertainty in the future. At least Kathy, Sally, Dan and Jenny and the others don't have to sweat out uncertainty. Their whole lives have been a Great Recession, and it will probably be a Recession for them and their children as far as they can see; so there's little uncertainty for them. But as we debate our future we have to keep in mind that the poor are still there- that they are real people with real hopes, real heart-aches and real needs. They too want a better life for their kids, but they don't have the means to provide it. We've all heard the stories of those who have overcome lowly or disadvantaged beginnings, and we applaud them. But there are far more stories of those who will be trapped forever by the circumstances of their birth- or the those who have victimized them along the way.
The discussions of late have focused so much on the taxes on the rich and measuring our finances in trillions of dollars, that we tend to forget the poor. The middle class is shrinking not because more of us are joining the rich, but because more of us are joining the poor. The poor make a good target for anger and blame. But when we know their stories it's much easier to see them as people. From our RVs, boats, and lake cabins our view of them can be obscured. I'm just asking that we remember the poor are there-and there are many more of them than most of us realize. If we allow our leaders, or ourselves, to simply turn our heads from these people, we do so to our own detriment. It's not so important whether we see them through the eyes of scorn or pity- just that we see them.
Thanks for looking in.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
The Better Angels of Our Nature
During those times when I'm feeling troubled by the events of the day, and this is one of those times, I tend to look back to our history to find a perspective that will give me some grounding. The last few weeks have given us plenty to be troubled about. From my perspective we have seen our government at its worst. We have seen partisan bickering, posturing, and antagonism nearly put us over the edge of financial ruin. We have seen a small faction of the government seemingly disregard all that we have as a nation just to make a point. We have seen people so entrenched in their political dogma that would have committed suicide not only for themselves, but gladly committed the rest of us to undeniable destruction. In the end, we have seen the very nature of our Republic rocked by the tyranny of this minority.The result of this shameful charade is a solution that doesn't fix the problem or provide an ounce of justice for the working class, the poor, or the elderly of this country. Only the rich came out untouched and unaffected-again.
So, it is here I retreat into history to search for some sense to it all. In doing so, I believe I discovered a point of view that is very different from the common rhetoric of the day. Today, the media would have us believe that we have moved permanently towards more conservative political values. The latest skirmish in the political wars of Washington politics might suggest the media is correct. But, I don't think that's true- and don't think it was ever true.
Even though there are times when the pendulum seems to swing to the right, I believe that progressive values always come through in the end to move our country forward. Let's start with the very beginning of this nation. The conservatives of the mid-eighteenth century grumbled about Great Briton's colonial policies, but never moved to toward independence or liberty. Our nation was born out of the Enlightenment. Our founders were great believers in the ideas of the Enlightenment as it came out of Europe. The great thinkers and philosophers of this period valued reason, human liberty and the common good for mankind. It was the progressive movement of the century. Some of our political leaders today misquote and misinterpret the Founders- but there is no mistaking that they were the liberals of their time and they created this country.
The next great movement was the formation of our government. You will remember that our current form of government was not our first form of government. We tried smaller, decentralized government as some suggest we should have today. Our first constitution was called The Articles of Confederation. It was vastly different that today's constitution- but very similar to what a number of conservatives are calling for again. It failed because smaller decentralized government could not regulate trade or currency, provide common justice under law, or provide for the general welfare. Our current constitution created the stronger central national government we have today because it was necessary in order to have a nation. The progressives of the late 1780's created our current Constitution.
Our nation struggled against its own ideals over the existence of slavery. In the 1850's a new political party was born to stand against slavery. It was the Republican party. You would not know it by today's definition, but the Republican party of the mid-nineteenth century was the progressive party of its day (the liberal/ abolitionist party) and it remained so until the first decade of the twentieth century. The election of Lincoln, the progressive candidate, led to the rebellion in the southern states, and the civil war that ended slavery and eventually preserved the nation. The election of Lincoln is perhaps the greatest example of how progressive policies have shaped our nation. They turned out to be tragically painful because of the war that resulted, but undeniably the most important event in American history.
In the early twentieth century (after a shameful period of westward expansion at the expense of the American Indian) we saw the suffrage movement intended to make women full-fledged citizens. This worldwide movement was the result of progressive (enlightened) efforts towards economic and social reform. The movement's introduction to the U.S. was seen as extremely liberal, even to the point of being called "subversive", by the social and political conservatives of the day. Progressive values won the day,and every woman needs to understand it was the progressives who brought about this change.
After the conservative Republican policies of Coolidge and Hoover drove us into a horrible Great Depression, the progressive policies of the Roosevelt administration turned the economic fate of the country around. The programs instituted during the Roosevelt years form the basic framework of social safety net today. Yet there are those who would have us move in a backward direction. Ask any elderly person today if they would give up the programs we have today-social security from the liberal Roosevelt, medicare from the social liberal Johnson- and I would guess they would not. That's why they call it "security". These are progressive ideals.
It was the young liberals and the progressive movers who fought against racial segregation in the fifties and sixties; who fought against the Viet Nam war in the sixties and the seventies; who fought for equal rights for women, and now fight for human rights in on many different fronts.
Each time America has taken a step forward toward our true ideals of justice, equality, and economic security, progressive thought and progressive political action has been the driving force. Inevitably though we become complacent and allow, for a time, the forces of greed to push us backward toward a reduction in our freedoms, or halting the advancement of the people. But this look back at our history gives me renewed hope that we will rise up as a people and move forward again. I suppose we only move forward when we have become fed up with injustice, the tyranny of corruption, and the greed of the privileged few- only then we do listen to "the better angels of our nature", as Abraham Lincoln called on us to do.
Thanks for looking in.
So, it is here I retreat into history to search for some sense to it all. In doing so, I believe I discovered a point of view that is very different from the common rhetoric of the day. Today, the media would have us believe that we have moved permanently towards more conservative political values. The latest skirmish in the political wars of Washington politics might suggest the media is correct. But, I don't think that's true- and don't think it was ever true.
Even though there are times when the pendulum seems to swing to the right, I believe that progressive values always come through in the end to move our country forward. Let's start with the very beginning of this nation. The conservatives of the mid-eighteenth century grumbled about Great Briton's colonial policies, but never moved to toward independence or liberty. Our nation was born out of the Enlightenment. Our founders were great believers in the ideas of the Enlightenment as it came out of Europe. The great thinkers and philosophers of this period valued reason, human liberty and the common good for mankind. It was the progressive movement of the century. Some of our political leaders today misquote and misinterpret the Founders- but there is no mistaking that they were the liberals of their time and they created this country.
The next great movement was the formation of our government. You will remember that our current form of government was not our first form of government. We tried smaller, decentralized government as some suggest we should have today. Our first constitution was called The Articles of Confederation. It was vastly different that today's constitution- but very similar to what a number of conservatives are calling for again. It failed because smaller decentralized government could not regulate trade or currency, provide common justice under law, or provide for the general welfare. Our current constitution created the stronger central national government we have today because it was necessary in order to have a nation. The progressives of the late 1780's created our current Constitution.
Our nation struggled against its own ideals over the existence of slavery. In the 1850's a new political party was born to stand against slavery. It was the Republican party. You would not know it by today's definition, but the Republican party of the mid-nineteenth century was the progressive party of its day (the liberal/ abolitionist party) and it remained so until the first decade of the twentieth century. The election of Lincoln, the progressive candidate, led to the rebellion in the southern states, and the civil war that ended slavery and eventually preserved the nation. The election of Lincoln is perhaps the greatest example of how progressive policies have shaped our nation. They turned out to be tragically painful because of the war that resulted, but undeniably the most important event in American history.
In the early twentieth century (after a shameful period of westward expansion at the expense of the American Indian) we saw the suffrage movement intended to make women full-fledged citizens. This worldwide movement was the result of progressive (enlightened) efforts towards economic and social reform. The movement's introduction to the U.S. was seen as extremely liberal, even to the point of being called "subversive", by the social and political conservatives of the day. Progressive values won the day,and every woman needs to understand it was the progressives who brought about this change.
After the conservative Republican policies of Coolidge and Hoover drove us into a horrible Great Depression, the progressive policies of the Roosevelt administration turned the economic fate of the country around. The programs instituted during the Roosevelt years form the basic framework of social safety net today. Yet there are those who would have us move in a backward direction. Ask any elderly person today if they would give up the programs we have today-social security from the liberal Roosevelt, medicare from the social liberal Johnson- and I would guess they would not. That's why they call it "security". These are progressive ideals.
It was the young liberals and the progressive movers who fought against racial segregation in the fifties and sixties; who fought against the Viet Nam war in the sixties and the seventies; who fought for equal rights for women, and now fight for human rights in on many different fronts.
Each time America has taken a step forward toward our true ideals of justice, equality, and economic security, progressive thought and progressive political action has been the driving force. Inevitably though we become complacent and allow, for a time, the forces of greed to push us backward toward a reduction in our freedoms, or halting the advancement of the people. But this look back at our history gives me renewed hope that we will rise up as a people and move forward again. I suppose we only move forward when we have become fed up with injustice, the tyranny of corruption, and the greed of the privileged few- only then we do listen to "the better angels of our nature", as Abraham Lincoln called on us to do.
Thanks for looking in.
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