.
Earlier this year, I made a sort of early New Year’s Resolution to drive no faster than the speed limit. I have a lead foot, you see, and all too often look down to find I’m going way too many miles over the limit. It’s the major reason I use cruise control almost obsessively, including in the city. Before, I set it at the speed limit plus 10%, but now I set it at exactly the speed limit.
One of the nicest parts of this policy is that I rarely have to overtake someone going my way on the highway. To the contrary, on my way back from Nevada on Sunday, I often found myself being overtaken.
Because I consider overtaking to be the moment when I am in most danger of having an accident, I always try to pull to the right to give the driver of the car behind me as good a look at oncoming cars as possible. Then, when they pull out to pass, I tap the brake and slow down until they pull back in front of me before I re-engage the cruise control.
Now, this doesn’t seem like a very big deal to me. It’s just one of those things I do as a matter of course. But the other drivers often seem flummoxed by it. Even though I pull over, they still ride the center of the road to peer around me. If I touch the brakes too soon and they can see the brake lights go on, they slow down, too, which defeats the whole purpose. Afterwards, however, many of them give me a big wave of thanks.
What I find interesting is that I’ve almost never seen any other driver do either part of it.
When I was a child, I often read stories with a “do unto others” theme. None of the stories involved large acts. I remember one in which a boy and his uncle were traveling on a train and the uncle showed the boy that he should wipe down the sink in the toilet so it would be clean for the next traveler’s use. All these stories could also be said to fall under the heading of good citizenship.
In high school, I took courses in both the United States and Missouri constitutions. In both of them, we learned about voting and free speech, the right to assemble and freedom of religion. We learned how each branch of the government operated and what departments did what.
But none of that is nearly as important as the little things we all can do to make life easier for one another.
.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Waiting in Line
.
I went to the recycling center today. I had packaged everything up one day last week and forgot to go. I thought it would be a good idea to get it all out of the house before the New Year begins.
Evidently, so did everyone else in Wichita. There were cars lined up in the driveway, down the block, and around the corner.
After I had been sitting for more than half an hour, another car approached from the other direction and sat there with its blinker going. The driver actually thought that one of the cars in line would make way for him. Eventually, he gave up and got in the back of the line.
Now, here was a person doing the right thing – recycling instead of dumpstering – who thought he could get away with doing a wrong thing – cutting in line instead of waiting his turn. One wonders if he was conniving or merely oblivious.
People who think they should get special treatment always amuse me. Sometimes they get downright huffy when they can’t get their way – like I am the one in the wrong. It’s amazing how often they get away with it, too.
Getting away with it is the problem, of course. They’ve gotten away with it for so long that they think it’s their due. They forget that, in America, they are merely equal, not better.
That kind of thinking is what’s behind the people who insist that affirmative action discriminates against young, white men. They’re so busy being upset that someone might be getting something they’re not getting that they don’t open their eyes to see that maybe they’ve been getting something for nothing all their lives.
This is the worst kind of entitlement thinking, the outlook that the world owes us something. Americans were once known for NOT thinking that way. We were known as the self-reliant, independent sort. We’re still independent, but it too often takes the shape of being bull-headed and unwilling to listen to anyone else’s views, let alone do what we’re told.
We insist that things should be done OUR way, but we can’t all be leaders in our personal army. If we don’t back up the leaders we have, we pretty soon won’t have any army at all. I’m hoping that we can remember all that this coming year as the leaders we have chosen try to dig us out of this hole.
I’m not suggesting we should go back to the day when we duck our heads and tug our forelocks, but maybe we need to re-learn a little humility.
And stop cutting in line.
.
I went to the recycling center today. I had packaged everything up one day last week and forgot to go. I thought it would be a good idea to get it all out of the house before the New Year begins.
Evidently, so did everyone else in Wichita. There were cars lined up in the driveway, down the block, and around the corner.
After I had been sitting for more than half an hour, another car approached from the other direction and sat there with its blinker going. The driver actually thought that one of the cars in line would make way for him. Eventually, he gave up and got in the back of the line.
Now, here was a person doing the right thing – recycling instead of dumpstering – who thought he could get away with doing a wrong thing – cutting in line instead of waiting his turn. One wonders if he was conniving or merely oblivious.
People who think they should get special treatment always amuse me. Sometimes they get downright huffy when they can’t get their way – like I am the one in the wrong. It’s amazing how often they get away with it, too.
Getting away with it is the problem, of course. They’ve gotten away with it for so long that they think it’s their due. They forget that, in America, they are merely equal, not better.
That kind of thinking is what’s behind the people who insist that affirmative action discriminates against young, white men. They’re so busy being upset that someone might be getting something they’re not getting that they don’t open their eyes to see that maybe they’ve been getting something for nothing all their lives.
This is the worst kind of entitlement thinking, the outlook that the world owes us something. Americans were once known for NOT thinking that way. We were known as the self-reliant, independent sort. We’re still independent, but it too often takes the shape of being bull-headed and unwilling to listen to anyone else’s views, let alone do what we’re told.
We insist that things should be done OUR way, but we can’t all be leaders in our personal army. If we don’t back up the leaders we have, we pretty soon won’t have any army at all. I’m hoping that we can remember all that this coming year as the leaders we have chosen try to dig us out of this hole.
I’m not suggesting we should go back to the day when we duck our heads and tug our forelocks, but maybe we need to re-learn a little humility.
And stop cutting in line.
.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Warm or Cold?
.
Most experts tell us that the human body is most comfortable in an environment of about 72 degrees Fahrenheit. That temperature allows the body to cool neither too quickly nor too slowly.
I would agree, but . . . 72 degrees is too cool in the winter and too warm in the summer.
Huh?
I know, it doesn’t make sense, but it’s true. In the summer, I am happy only when the air conditioner is cranked up high enough to keep the temperature down to 70 degrees. In the winter, I want 75 degrees to feel warm. I know neither temperature is really needed, that this is a trick my mind is playing on me, but I can’t help it. I change the thermostat.
Pondering this earlier today, I began to see it as a metaphor for other experiences, especially political philosophy. To the conservative, the world is too hot and we need to bring the temperature (whether domestic or foreign) down. To the liberal, the world is too cold and an injection of heat is required.
Right now, we’re trying to find the right temperature for the economic situation, and it’s proving fairly difficult.
Nearly every economic “expert” is advocating a massive government stimulus package to get money moving from one set of hands to another.
If the banks are too afraid to lend money to developers to build houses and shopping malls, the federal government will give the construction industries work building roads and schoolhouses. If consumers can’t find financing for a new car, the feds will let GMAC turn itself into a traditional bank so it can get some of the $700 billion bailout package and make those loans and keep the assembly lines running. If people are losing their health insurance, the feds will expand Medicare and Medicaid to cover more families and keep the nurses and technicians and ambulance drivers on the job.
All of these sound like good ideas to me. The economy is in danger of freezing solid, so the feds should light a few bonfires to raise the temperature a little – for a while. The only question in my mind is how to define “a little” and “a while.” A great deal of the American public seems to agree.
The traditional conservative response to such a stimulus would be to worry that we would be overheating the economy, leading to “runaway” inflation. We’re not hearing much of that lately, although there have been some rumblings of opposition from the Republican leadership of the Congress. With any luck, those rumblings will stay just that, but if they don’t, the Democrats need to find some way to include the rumblers in the process without giving in to political tricks.
It’s very important that we find our way back to an economic 72 degrees, but we have to do it without mind games.
.
Most experts tell us that the human body is most comfortable in an environment of about 72 degrees Fahrenheit. That temperature allows the body to cool neither too quickly nor too slowly.
I would agree, but . . . 72 degrees is too cool in the winter and too warm in the summer.
Huh?
I know, it doesn’t make sense, but it’s true. In the summer, I am happy only when the air conditioner is cranked up high enough to keep the temperature down to 70 degrees. In the winter, I want 75 degrees to feel warm. I know neither temperature is really needed, that this is a trick my mind is playing on me, but I can’t help it. I change the thermostat.
Pondering this earlier today, I began to see it as a metaphor for other experiences, especially political philosophy. To the conservative, the world is too hot and we need to bring the temperature (whether domestic or foreign) down. To the liberal, the world is too cold and an injection of heat is required.
Right now, we’re trying to find the right temperature for the economic situation, and it’s proving fairly difficult.
Nearly every economic “expert” is advocating a massive government stimulus package to get money moving from one set of hands to another.
If the banks are too afraid to lend money to developers to build houses and shopping malls, the federal government will give the construction industries work building roads and schoolhouses. If consumers can’t find financing for a new car, the feds will let GMAC turn itself into a traditional bank so it can get some of the $700 billion bailout package and make those loans and keep the assembly lines running. If people are losing their health insurance, the feds will expand Medicare and Medicaid to cover more families and keep the nurses and technicians and ambulance drivers on the job.
All of these sound like good ideas to me. The economy is in danger of freezing solid, so the feds should light a few bonfires to raise the temperature a little – for a while. The only question in my mind is how to define “a little” and “a while.” A great deal of the American public seems to agree.
The traditional conservative response to such a stimulus would be to worry that we would be overheating the economy, leading to “runaway” inflation. We’re not hearing much of that lately, although there have been some rumblings of opposition from the Republican leadership of the Congress. With any luck, those rumblings will stay just that, but if they don’t, the Democrats need to find some way to include the rumblers in the process without giving in to political tricks.
It’s very important that we find our way back to an economic 72 degrees, but we have to do it without mind games.
.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Home for the Holidays
.
I’m going home for the holidays.
Home being a relative term, of course. While it’s in the same town, my mother’s house is the third she has lived in since I left home 38 years ago. I’ve never lived in it for more than a few days at a time.
But it’s the people who make it home, right? In the past seven years, however, the people have gone, one by one. First my grandmother, then my brother Nick, then my father. That leaves my sister Sharon, my brother Jack, and my mother. But my sister and brother and I have grown apart to the extent that I often visit Mother and never speak to them, even though my sister lives in the same town and my brother in the same house. There’s no animosity, just indifference.
So that leaves Mother. Mother is 80 years old. She’s in pretty good health, but she is increasingly frail in both body and mind, and I know the end is coming, not soon, but eventually.
And when she dies, I will no longer have a family home to return to.
My husband is already an orphan, having lost both his mother and father more than ten years ago. We talk about how strange it is to be on our own, to be approaching the time when our home is the home our son and, hopefully, his family will visit at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
But for this year, I can still go home for the holidays.
-------------------------------
Because I won’t have access to an Internet connection for the next five days, I won’t be able to blog. I’ll be back on line next Monday evening. I hope your holidays are merry and festive.
.
I’m going home for the holidays.
Home being a relative term, of course. While it’s in the same town, my mother’s house is the third she has lived in since I left home 38 years ago. I’ve never lived in it for more than a few days at a time.
But it’s the people who make it home, right? In the past seven years, however, the people have gone, one by one. First my grandmother, then my brother Nick, then my father. That leaves my sister Sharon, my brother Jack, and my mother. But my sister and brother and I have grown apart to the extent that I often visit Mother and never speak to them, even though my sister lives in the same town and my brother in the same house. There’s no animosity, just indifference.
So that leaves Mother. Mother is 80 years old. She’s in pretty good health, but she is increasingly frail in both body and mind, and I know the end is coming, not soon, but eventually.
And when she dies, I will no longer have a family home to return to.
My husband is already an orphan, having lost both his mother and father more than ten years ago. We talk about how strange it is to be on our own, to be approaching the time when our home is the home our son and, hopefully, his family will visit at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
But for this year, I can still go home for the holidays.
-------------------------------
Because I won’t have access to an Internet connection for the next five days, I won’t be able to blog. I’ll be back on line next Monday evening. I hope your holidays are merry and festive.
.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Wanna Join?
.
I’m thinking about starting a church.
This may sound like a wacky idea coming from a basically a-religious person like me, but a church is the only way I can think of to accomplish my goal.
I’d like to create an institution that brings people together on a regular basis, perhaps weekly, in a building set aside for the purpose. There they will hear a short speech laying out a facet of a philosophy on how people can better live together, as well as take part in a meeting that lays out courses of action to improve the institution and the lives of the people it touches. I want this institution to be a living, breathing thing because the people who are part of it really believe in the importance of its existence and the work that is done in its name. That work should include charity, education, and support, not only of the people who belong, but also of other people in the community nearby.
That is a fair description of the best of the churches run by the religious right. The weekly service brings people together, where the sermon and the music give them a thought for the week. The Sunday school classes provide education about that thought and often are also committees that band together to take action, whether that be volunteering for a shift at the local food bank or getting a group together to picket a funeral. The offering provides funds to run the church, reach out to prospective members, buy the supplies they need, pay the preacher, and even give a few dollars to a family facing hard times.
And in and among the music and the light shows that seduce people into paying attention to the religious message, they drip, drip, drip into their ears the political philosophy of the Republican Party.
There are, of course, many churches that take no stand on politics and even some where parishioners are more likely to vote Democratic than Republican, but I know of none that unabashedly supports Democratic candidates and referenda in the way that the churches of the religious right do. And I don’t see how we build the kind of support the Republicans have without a similar institution that does.
So I’m thinking about starting a church. Wanna join?
.
I’m thinking about starting a church.
This may sound like a wacky idea coming from a basically a-religious person like me, but a church is the only way I can think of to accomplish my goal.
I’d like to create an institution that brings people together on a regular basis, perhaps weekly, in a building set aside for the purpose. There they will hear a short speech laying out a facet of a philosophy on how people can better live together, as well as take part in a meeting that lays out courses of action to improve the institution and the lives of the people it touches. I want this institution to be a living, breathing thing because the people who are part of it really believe in the importance of its existence and the work that is done in its name. That work should include charity, education, and support, not only of the people who belong, but also of other people in the community nearby.
That is a fair description of the best of the churches run by the religious right. The weekly service brings people together, where the sermon and the music give them a thought for the week. The Sunday school classes provide education about that thought and often are also committees that band together to take action, whether that be volunteering for a shift at the local food bank or getting a group together to picket a funeral. The offering provides funds to run the church, reach out to prospective members, buy the supplies they need, pay the preacher, and even give a few dollars to a family facing hard times.
And in and among the music and the light shows that seduce people into paying attention to the religious message, they drip, drip, drip into their ears the political philosophy of the Republican Party.
There are, of course, many churches that take no stand on politics and even some where parishioners are more likely to vote Democratic than Republican, but I know of none that unabashedly supports Democratic candidates and referenda in the way that the churches of the religious right do. And I don’t see how we build the kind of support the Republicans have without a similar institution that does.
So I’m thinking about starting a church. Wanna join?
.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Gifts
.
I wrapped the last two Christmas presents this afternoon. For some years now, I’ve found it hard to muster up any Christmas spirit, but this year I did manage to buy something for the five great-nephews and great-nieces at least. They’re all under 10, which is still young enough to be excited about opening presents.
I know people who give presents at the drop of a hat. My sister, Sharon, is like that. She loves buying things for other people, especially other people’s children. If you go shopping with her (an activity I avoid like the plague), you have to stop every time she sees something she thinks would be “perfect” for someone she knows. Of course, given that I live 180 miles away, the someones she knows are hardly ever someone I know, so all I can do is nod and smile when she says “Don’t you think . . . would just love that?”
The truth is, most of what she picks up to admire is something I wouldn’t be caught dead buying for myself, let alone for someone else. I have ‘way too much stuff and don’t want any more.
I’ve thought for a long time that Americans in general have too many things. Too many of us have too many clothes we never wear, too many specialty appliances we never use, too many things that do nothing but sit on tables and counters and shelves.
That’s what keeps our economy going, however, and the experts all say this is no time to be cutting back. They say we should keep shopping, not only to save the jobs of the clerks who sell things to us or the truck drivers who transport them or the people who make them, but also to keep our jobs as those people buy our goods and services.
There’s something wrong with that picture. Oh, not that we are dependent on one another. Of course, we are. No, the part that’s wrong is that we’re dependent on so much that is so meaningless.
My father took a great deal of pride in being a letter carrier. He made sure that he knew the names of all the people who lived in every house on his block. He could recognize most of them when he saw them on the street, and they all could recognize him. When he talked about his work, he talked about delivering paychecks and family letters and important documents. As the years went by and he delivered more and more junk mail, he grew disillusioned.
How much pride, I wonder, is taken by the people who make chotchkis we don’t need? I know that little pride is taken by the people who stand behind the counter at fast food restaurants selling us burgers that makes us obese. When I think of the dumbing down of America, the first image that comes to mind is the icons instead of numbers on the cash registers at McDonald’s.
If we are heading into another Great Depression, I’m hopeful it will have a silver lining. As we learn to adjust to having less money to spend, we’ll also have to take stock of what we think is important.
And that could be the greatest gift of all.
.
I wrapped the last two Christmas presents this afternoon. For some years now, I’ve found it hard to muster up any Christmas spirit, but this year I did manage to buy something for the five great-nephews and great-nieces at least. They’re all under 10, which is still young enough to be excited about opening presents.
I know people who give presents at the drop of a hat. My sister, Sharon, is like that. She loves buying things for other people, especially other people’s children. If you go shopping with her (an activity I avoid like the plague), you have to stop every time she sees something she thinks would be “perfect” for someone she knows. Of course, given that I live 180 miles away, the someones she knows are hardly ever someone I know, so all I can do is nod and smile when she says “Don’t you think . . . would just love that?”
The truth is, most of what she picks up to admire is something I wouldn’t be caught dead buying for myself, let alone for someone else. I have ‘way too much stuff and don’t want any more.
I’ve thought for a long time that Americans in general have too many things. Too many of us have too many clothes we never wear, too many specialty appliances we never use, too many things that do nothing but sit on tables and counters and shelves.
That’s what keeps our economy going, however, and the experts all say this is no time to be cutting back. They say we should keep shopping, not only to save the jobs of the clerks who sell things to us or the truck drivers who transport them or the people who make them, but also to keep our jobs as those people buy our goods and services.
There’s something wrong with that picture. Oh, not that we are dependent on one another. Of course, we are. No, the part that’s wrong is that we’re dependent on so much that is so meaningless.
My father took a great deal of pride in being a letter carrier. He made sure that he knew the names of all the people who lived in every house on his block. He could recognize most of them when he saw them on the street, and they all could recognize him. When he talked about his work, he talked about delivering paychecks and family letters and important documents. As the years went by and he delivered more and more junk mail, he grew disillusioned.
How much pride, I wonder, is taken by the people who make chotchkis we don’t need? I know that little pride is taken by the people who stand behind the counter at fast food restaurants selling us burgers that makes us obese. When I think of the dumbing down of America, the first image that comes to mind is the icons instead of numbers on the cash registers at McDonald’s.
If we are heading into another Great Depression, I’m hopeful it will have a silver lining. As we learn to adjust to having less money to spend, we’ll also have to take stock of what we think is important.
And that could be the greatest gift of all.
.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
More Tolerance
.
I love hearing that people like what I write, but I really like it when people disagree with me. That’s when I know I’ve made them think deeply, at least deeply enough to write me back. I wasn’t getting much of that, and I wondered what I would have to write about to get that kind of reaction.
Now I know.
Most of you know that I grew up in Nevada, Missouri, a small town where the closest thing we had to an ethnic minority was Catholics. Because my parents didn’t deal in hate, I grew up believing in equality as the philosophy that made America great. I often find that, having witnessed so little of it when I was a child, I really don’t know what inequality means in a visceral way.
There were no black people in Nevada. There surely were gay people, but I wasn’t aware of any. There were occasionally rumors, but I didn’t know any of the people the rumors were about, and I thought the people who spread them were just the kind of people who try to make their own lives more exciting by imagining and spreading scandal. Gays were people who lived in big cities, I thought.
So the first time I met somebody I knew was gay was in college, and my foremost emotion was curiosity -- curiosity tempered by the good manners I had been taught that you don’t pry into other people’s private lives. If they want you to know something, they will tell you. You don’t ask.
So, as one commenter said, I don’t really know how Obama’s invitation to Rick Warren hurts gay people. I can understand that it does, but I can’t feel it, any more than I can really feel what it is like to be discriminated against because of the color of my skin. I’ve experienced some sexism, but no one has ever threatened to beat me up just because I am a woman.
When I said that I wasn’t sure that Obama was wrong to stand his ground and not un-invite Warren, I was not trying to say that the gay community should not be upset, nor that they should be quiet about that upset. I was trying to say that I believe Obama’s choice of Rick Warren is not necessarily a rejection of them or a deviation from the message he has been spreading for the past four years.
His intent, I believe, is not, as papabear67218 said, to “throw the gay community under the bus” but rather to remind us all that getting to tolerance is a journey and that we’ve come a long way on that journey, even though we haven’t reached our final destination.
This afternoon, my husband and I went to see Milk, a movie I had been looking forward to for a long time. Like Artemis, I was strengthened in my quest for equality for the LGBT community. The movie reminded me of what it means to be a member of a despised minority. But it also reminded me how much has changed since the days of Harvey Milk.
How did we get from a time when the San Francisco police felt free to literally beat up on gays, just for the hell of it, to the day when the Mayor of San Francisco decided to unilaterally begin issuing marriage certificates to same-sex couples?
We got there step by step, feeling our way, working on one freedom at a time, reminding the Anita Bryants and, yes, the Rick Warrens that gays are people, too, that they are citizens and that they have the rights of all citizens.
Each of my three respondents focused only on Rick Warren’s opinions about gays and abortion. I suspect that Obama remembers that Rick Warren has been vocal in his desire to see evangelicals set aside these struggles – as important as he thinks they are – for the fight against poverty and hunger, both here and abroad. Obama remembers that Warren is concerned about people having access to health care and education. He remembers that Warren urges his flock to support mission work in Africa to prevent the spread of AIDS.
Warren believes that Christianity must be about more than who goes to bed with whom. He is on record as saying that gays should be allowed to live in peace, free of coercion. He may disagree with them, he may think they are sinful, but he has no desire to visit violence on them. Compare that to the stands of James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Fred Phelps. Surely Warren’s attitudes are ones we should be encouraging.
Does any of that make his opinions on gay marriage and abortion any less objectionable? Of course not. And the LGBT community should continue to argue against those opinions. But you can’t change someone’s mind if they think you’re rejecting them out of hand. Liberals, at least, know that there is no one so deaf as someone who thinks you’re out to get them. We’ve been on the wrong end of that paradigm too many times to forget the lesson.
The inauguration of a President is a solemn occasion. It is a time when the whole world is watching. It is a time that should include as many Americans as can be included, to remind everyone that our system protects all of us, no matter how venal or vile others find us. It is not a time to gloat.
The Republicans shut me out at the past two Inaugurals They made it clear that they didn’t want to hear what I had to say. They built a wall of religion against my kind. That was a mistake, a mistake for which, in my opinion. they have not yet been required to pay a sufficiently high price.
But our shutting them out now would be just as grave a mistake. If they think we have built a wall of anti-religion against them, they will retreat behind their own walls and create an echo chamber that reinforces all the worst in their natures until it breaks out in violence.
I want them voicing their opinions in the open so those opinions can be debated and they can hear not only that we disagree but why we disagree and how that disagreement does not mean that they must live “our” way, but only that they must not try to force us to live “their” way.
As I said in the original post, these disagreements are not going to go away entirely. There will always be homophobic evangelicals in this country, just as there are still racists of all religious stripes. We can’t kill all these germs, but we can drag them out into the light of day and let the sunshine be a natural disinfectant.
Don't you agree that would be a step forward?
.
I love hearing that people like what I write, but I really like it when people disagree with me. That’s when I know I’ve made them think deeply, at least deeply enough to write me back. I wasn’t getting much of that, and I wondered what I would have to write about to get that kind of reaction.
Now I know.
Most of you know that I grew up in Nevada, Missouri, a small town where the closest thing we had to an ethnic minority was Catholics. Because my parents didn’t deal in hate, I grew up believing in equality as the philosophy that made America great. I often find that, having witnessed so little of it when I was a child, I really don’t know what inequality means in a visceral way.
There were no black people in Nevada. There surely were gay people, but I wasn’t aware of any. There were occasionally rumors, but I didn’t know any of the people the rumors were about, and I thought the people who spread them were just the kind of people who try to make their own lives more exciting by imagining and spreading scandal. Gays were people who lived in big cities, I thought.
So the first time I met somebody I knew was gay was in college, and my foremost emotion was curiosity -- curiosity tempered by the good manners I had been taught that you don’t pry into other people’s private lives. If they want you to know something, they will tell you. You don’t ask.
So, as one commenter said, I don’t really know how Obama’s invitation to Rick Warren hurts gay people. I can understand that it does, but I can’t feel it, any more than I can really feel what it is like to be discriminated against because of the color of my skin. I’ve experienced some sexism, but no one has ever threatened to beat me up just because I am a woman.
When I said that I wasn’t sure that Obama was wrong to stand his ground and not un-invite Warren, I was not trying to say that the gay community should not be upset, nor that they should be quiet about that upset. I was trying to say that I believe Obama’s choice of Rick Warren is not necessarily a rejection of them or a deviation from the message he has been spreading for the past four years.
His intent, I believe, is not, as papabear67218 said, to “throw the gay community under the bus” but rather to remind us all that getting to tolerance is a journey and that we’ve come a long way on that journey, even though we haven’t reached our final destination.
This afternoon, my husband and I went to see Milk, a movie I had been looking forward to for a long time. Like Artemis, I was strengthened in my quest for equality for the LGBT community. The movie reminded me of what it means to be a member of a despised minority. But it also reminded me how much has changed since the days of Harvey Milk.
How did we get from a time when the San Francisco police felt free to literally beat up on gays, just for the hell of it, to the day when the Mayor of San Francisco decided to unilaterally begin issuing marriage certificates to same-sex couples?
We got there step by step, feeling our way, working on one freedom at a time, reminding the Anita Bryants and, yes, the Rick Warrens that gays are people, too, that they are citizens and that they have the rights of all citizens.
Each of my three respondents focused only on Rick Warren’s opinions about gays and abortion. I suspect that Obama remembers that Rick Warren has been vocal in his desire to see evangelicals set aside these struggles – as important as he thinks they are – for the fight against poverty and hunger, both here and abroad. Obama remembers that Warren is concerned about people having access to health care and education. He remembers that Warren urges his flock to support mission work in Africa to prevent the spread of AIDS.
Warren believes that Christianity must be about more than who goes to bed with whom. He is on record as saying that gays should be allowed to live in peace, free of coercion. He may disagree with them, he may think they are sinful, but he has no desire to visit violence on them. Compare that to the stands of James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Fred Phelps. Surely Warren’s attitudes are ones we should be encouraging.
Does any of that make his opinions on gay marriage and abortion any less objectionable? Of course not. And the LGBT community should continue to argue against those opinions. But you can’t change someone’s mind if they think you’re rejecting them out of hand. Liberals, at least, know that there is no one so deaf as someone who thinks you’re out to get them. We’ve been on the wrong end of that paradigm too many times to forget the lesson.
The inauguration of a President is a solemn occasion. It is a time when the whole world is watching. It is a time that should include as many Americans as can be included, to remind everyone that our system protects all of us, no matter how venal or vile others find us. It is not a time to gloat.
The Republicans shut me out at the past two Inaugurals They made it clear that they didn’t want to hear what I had to say. They built a wall of religion against my kind. That was a mistake, a mistake for which, in my opinion. they have not yet been required to pay a sufficiently high price.
But our shutting them out now would be just as grave a mistake. If they think we have built a wall of anti-religion against them, they will retreat behind their own walls and create an echo chamber that reinforces all the worst in their natures until it breaks out in violence.
I want them voicing their opinions in the open so those opinions can be debated and they can hear not only that we disagree but why we disagree and how that disagreement does not mean that they must live “our” way, but only that they must not try to force us to live “their” way.
As I said in the original post, these disagreements are not going to go away entirely. There will always be homophobic evangelicals in this country, just as there are still racists of all religious stripes. We can’t kill all these germs, but we can drag them out into the light of day and let the sunshine be a natural disinfectant.
Don't you agree that would be a step forward?
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Friday, December 19, 2008
Tolerance
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When should we exercise tolerance? What opinions and behaviors are so bad that we cannot tolerate them? What is so bad that we should pass laws to prevent it?
These three inter-twined questions are facets of the central question of government: Who decides?
In our heart of hearts, we all would like to be the one who decides. In fact, most of what liberals dislike about the religious right is the right’s tendency to express their opinions on these questions so loudly, coupled with their efforts to turn those opinions into law.
My husband likes to say, “Don’t like abortion? Don’t have one.” But if you think that abortion, even the morning-after pill, is killing a human being and that human life is sacred, that attitude is literally obscene. So we’re never going to be able to bring people who believe that into a circle of others trying to find a compromise.
What brought this to mind is the furor over Barack Obama’s invitation to Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inaugural. Warren is not only anti-choice, he believes that homosexuality is beyond the pale. He strongly supported Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that rescinded the right of homosexuals to marry, a right that had been recognized by the state Supreme Court only months before.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-gendered communities are understandably up in arms at this invitation. To them, Warren’s opinions and actions are so bad that they cannot tolerate them. And they’re asking Obama to prove that he’s on their side by un-inviting Warren. So far, the President Elect has refused.
And I’m not sure he’s wrong.
I suspect he invited Warren in an effort to make it clear to evangelicals that he will listen to them with respect. In return, he will ask them to listen to other opinions with respect. With respect, he hopes, will come tolerance. With tolerance will come an understanding that the problems that cannot be fixed should never be used to prevent resolution of the problems that can be.
This is a core belief that Obama has articulated many times. In that wonderful speech four years ago that introduced us to his soaring belief in the American character, he said that there was more that united us than divided us. That we were not red states or blue states but the United States of America. That we have to find a way to get beyond the toxic politics that are poisoning our society.
That’s the change he promised us.
I hope we have the wisdom – and the courage – to help him bring it about.
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When should we exercise tolerance? What opinions and behaviors are so bad that we cannot tolerate them? What is so bad that we should pass laws to prevent it?
These three inter-twined questions are facets of the central question of government: Who decides?
In our heart of hearts, we all would like to be the one who decides. In fact, most of what liberals dislike about the religious right is the right’s tendency to express their opinions on these questions so loudly, coupled with their efforts to turn those opinions into law.
My husband likes to say, “Don’t like abortion? Don’t have one.” But if you think that abortion, even the morning-after pill, is killing a human being and that human life is sacred, that attitude is literally obscene. So we’re never going to be able to bring people who believe that into a circle of others trying to find a compromise.
What brought this to mind is the furor over Barack Obama’s invitation to Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inaugural. Warren is not only anti-choice, he believes that homosexuality is beyond the pale. He strongly supported Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that rescinded the right of homosexuals to marry, a right that had been recognized by the state Supreme Court only months before.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-gendered communities are understandably up in arms at this invitation. To them, Warren’s opinions and actions are so bad that they cannot tolerate them. And they’re asking Obama to prove that he’s on their side by un-inviting Warren. So far, the President Elect has refused.
And I’m not sure he’s wrong.
I suspect he invited Warren in an effort to make it clear to evangelicals that he will listen to them with respect. In return, he will ask them to listen to other opinions with respect. With respect, he hopes, will come tolerance. With tolerance will come an understanding that the problems that cannot be fixed should never be used to prevent resolution of the problems that can be.
This is a core belief that Obama has articulated many times. In that wonderful speech four years ago that introduced us to his soaring belief in the American character, he said that there was more that united us than divided us. That we were not red states or blue states but the United States of America. That we have to find a way to get beyond the toxic politics that are poisoning our society.
That’s the change he promised us.
I hope we have the wisdom – and the courage – to help him bring it about.
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Thursday, December 18, 2008
Talk Me Down
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I really like the “Rachel Maddow Show.” It’s kind of a guilty pleasure for me. After all, Rachel does for liberals what the people at Fox News do for conservatives – except Rachel doesn’t lie.
One of my favorite parts of the show is “Talk Me Down,” when Rachel brings up a topic she doesn’t understand (or that outrages her) and a guest tries to explain it to her. It’s rare that the guest actually manages to get her talked down.
Well, I need to be talked down about interest rates. Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve lowered one of its most important interest rates to 0.25%. This is supposed to get banks lending money again. I guess the theory is that if banks can borrow money cheaply from the Fed, they will borrow that money and lend it out at a higher rate, also low, so that the economy can get going again.
My problem here? If I were a loan officer in a bank right now, I would be terrified to lend money out to anyone. The news has been full of one well-known corporation after another going into bankruptcy or getting bailed out by the Federal government. Who can I trust to be in good enough financial shape to pay me back any money I lend?
People trusted Lehman Brothers – it had been around for more than a century. People trusted Bernard Madoff – he once ran the Nasdaq and he made money every quarter. People have always trusted Ford Motor Company and General Motors to be blue chip stocks – they were the bedrock of the American economy.
So how does our mythical loan officer trust the real estate developer down the street? How does he trust the local retailer? How does he even trust another bank?
So, in my opinion, giving him cheap money to lend is not going to get him to lend money. In his opinion, the risks far outweigh the rewards.
So how DO we get him to lend money? Simple. We increase the rewards until they are so alluring that he can’t resist.
If I were the local manufacturer, desperate for $20,000 to buy materials, I’d be offering that banker a percentage point higher than anybody else. If I were the car dealer trying to help people buy that fuel-efficient auto, I’d be telling my clients that they’ll have to pay two points higher to get that loan. If I were Ford or GM, I’d be asking the bankers how high I’d have to go to make their mouths water.
Now, if I were the banker and I was getting that money cheap, I’d find those offers even more tempting. But I’d have to hear the offers first, or I wouldn’t borrow the money to lend.
Now talk me down.
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I really like the “Rachel Maddow Show.” It’s kind of a guilty pleasure for me. After all, Rachel does for liberals what the people at Fox News do for conservatives – except Rachel doesn’t lie.
One of my favorite parts of the show is “Talk Me Down,” when Rachel brings up a topic she doesn’t understand (or that outrages her) and a guest tries to explain it to her. It’s rare that the guest actually manages to get her talked down.
Well, I need to be talked down about interest rates. Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve lowered one of its most important interest rates to 0.25%. This is supposed to get banks lending money again. I guess the theory is that if banks can borrow money cheaply from the Fed, they will borrow that money and lend it out at a higher rate, also low, so that the economy can get going again.
My problem here? If I were a loan officer in a bank right now, I would be terrified to lend money out to anyone. The news has been full of one well-known corporation after another going into bankruptcy or getting bailed out by the Federal government. Who can I trust to be in good enough financial shape to pay me back any money I lend?
People trusted Lehman Brothers – it had been around for more than a century. People trusted Bernard Madoff – he once ran the Nasdaq and he made money every quarter. People have always trusted Ford Motor Company and General Motors to be blue chip stocks – they were the bedrock of the American economy.
So how does our mythical loan officer trust the real estate developer down the street? How does he trust the local retailer? How does he even trust another bank?
So, in my opinion, giving him cheap money to lend is not going to get him to lend money. In his opinion, the risks far outweigh the rewards.
So how DO we get him to lend money? Simple. We increase the rewards until they are so alluring that he can’t resist.
If I were the local manufacturer, desperate for $20,000 to buy materials, I’d be offering that banker a percentage point higher than anybody else. If I were the car dealer trying to help people buy that fuel-efficient auto, I’d be telling my clients that they’ll have to pay two points higher to get that loan. If I were Ford or GM, I’d be asking the bankers how high I’d have to go to make their mouths water.
Now, if I were the banker and I was getting that money cheap, I’d find those offers even more tempting. But I’d have to hear the offers first, or I wouldn’t borrow the money to lend.
Now talk me down.
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Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Sneak Preview
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I guess we’re going to get to get a sneak preview of what life will be like if we let the auto industry shut down. It was announced today that all three automakers will be extending their usual two-week Christmas break at many of their plants.
Ford will extend the break to three weeks at 10 plants, everywhere but at Claycomo, MO, and Dearborn, MI, – where the Ford F-150, the Mercury Mariner and the Ford Escape are built. That’s right: a pickup and two SUVs.
General Motors will close down 20 North American plants and halt construction on the new plant in Flint, MI, which is to build the hybrid Chevrolet Cruze and the electric plug-in vehicle, the Chevy Volt.
As for Chrysler, it's closing down all 30 of its plants for an extra two weeks. That includes all its Jeep plants. It’s not clear whether they will have enough cash to open them up again. A total of 46,000 employees will be affected.
If you’re wondering how this will fly, watch the news out of Ohio and Indiana.
I did some quick Internet surfing, and came up with about 1,300 hourly workers at General Motors’ Toledo Powertrain plant, 2,700 others at the Jeep assembly complex in North Toledo, and another 1,000 at a parts machining plant in nearby Perrysburg Township. Chrysler operates three transmission plants and a casting plant in Kokomo, Ind., and employs about 5,300 people there. Outside Cleveland, Ford's Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, employs 2,300 people and the Chrysler stamping plant in Twinsburg about 850. There don’t appear to be any plants near Cincinnati or Indianapolis.
And these are only the ones who are employed directly by the Big Three. I’m sure that many parts manufacturers will be idle, waiting to find out if their parts are needed after January 20, when most of the plants are scheduled to reopen. Plus, every restaurant, movie theater, Wal-Mart, grocery store, shoe store, furniture store, clothing store . . . well, the whole state will suffer.
And that includes the states themselves, of course. Just as tax revenues are down in Kansas, they are down in Indiana and Ohio, plus their unemployment trust funds are already nearly depleted. Just think how bad those balance sheets are going to look after a month of everyone trying to stretch their family budgets.
Both Indiana and Ohio have one Democratic Senator and one Republican Senator. I wonder how their people are going to feel about their Republican Senators voting against the auto industry bailout this time next month?
.
I guess we’re going to get to get a sneak preview of what life will be like if we let the auto industry shut down. It was announced today that all three automakers will be extending their usual two-week Christmas break at many of their plants.
Ford will extend the break to three weeks at 10 plants, everywhere but at Claycomo, MO, and Dearborn, MI, – where the Ford F-150, the Mercury Mariner and the Ford Escape are built. That’s right: a pickup and two SUVs.
General Motors will close down 20 North American plants and halt construction on the new plant in Flint, MI, which is to build the hybrid Chevrolet Cruze and the electric plug-in vehicle, the Chevy Volt.
As for Chrysler, it's closing down all 30 of its plants for an extra two weeks. That includes all its Jeep plants. It’s not clear whether they will have enough cash to open them up again. A total of 46,000 employees will be affected.
If you’re wondering how this will fly, watch the news out of Ohio and Indiana.
I did some quick Internet surfing, and came up with about 1,300 hourly workers at General Motors’ Toledo Powertrain plant, 2,700 others at the Jeep assembly complex in North Toledo, and another 1,000 at a parts machining plant in nearby Perrysburg Township. Chrysler operates three transmission plants and a casting plant in Kokomo, Ind., and employs about 5,300 people there. Outside Cleveland, Ford's Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, employs 2,300 people and the Chrysler stamping plant in Twinsburg about 850. There don’t appear to be any plants near Cincinnati or Indianapolis.
And these are only the ones who are employed directly by the Big Three. I’m sure that many parts manufacturers will be idle, waiting to find out if their parts are needed after January 20, when most of the plants are scheduled to reopen. Plus, every restaurant, movie theater, Wal-Mart, grocery store, shoe store, furniture store, clothing store . . . well, the whole state will suffer.
And that includes the states themselves, of course. Just as tax revenues are down in Kansas, they are down in Indiana and Ohio, plus their unemployment trust funds are already nearly depleted. Just think how bad those balance sheets are going to look after a month of everyone trying to stretch their family budgets.
Both Indiana and Ohio have one Democratic Senator and one Republican Senator. I wonder how their people are going to feel about their Republican Senators voting against the auto industry bailout this time next month?
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Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Slow Day, Lazy Thoughts
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Nothing that happened today seems worthy of much comment.
Oh, the Vice President not only said that Guantanamo was a success -- “The results speak for themselves,” – but also blithely admitted that he had not only approved torture but helped the people who wanted to torture get their ideas “through the approval process.” It was clear he was proud of this.
What is there to say that hasn’t been said before?
In the Mideast, the street has taken to their hearts the journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush. He’s considered a hero by anyone outside the al-Maliki government. President Bush has laughed it off, but anything that unifies the Arab world probably isn’t a good thing for our troops.
On the other hand, if I had experienced what this journalist has experienced, I might throw my shoes at the leader of the country that led the “Coalition of the Willing” into Iraq.
Closer to home, the state is having trouble meeting its financial obligations. When the education plan was passed in 2005, everyone knew that it was cutting things pretty close, revenue-wise, so it’s not surprising a fall-off in tax collections would dunk the state in hot water. I wonder if the Republican legislators who prided themselves on negotiating that deal without even a modest tax increase are having second thoughts.
Probably not. They still think tax cuts heal all wounds.
The low prices we’re paying at the pump are causing oil companies to shut down some drilling projects, causing displacement of the oil riggers and other workers who were going to put them up. I wonder, don’t the oil companies ever put aside some of those obscene profits they make to get through a rainy day?
Or have their savings have gone the way of the savings of the rest of us?
.
Nothing that happened today seems worthy of much comment.
Oh, the Vice President not only said that Guantanamo was a success -- “The results speak for themselves,” – but also blithely admitted that he had not only approved torture but helped the people who wanted to torture get their ideas “through the approval process.” It was clear he was proud of this.
What is there to say that hasn’t been said before?
In the Mideast, the street has taken to their hearts the journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush. He’s considered a hero by anyone outside the al-Maliki government. President Bush has laughed it off, but anything that unifies the Arab world probably isn’t a good thing for our troops.
On the other hand, if I had experienced what this journalist has experienced, I might throw my shoes at the leader of the country that led the “Coalition of the Willing” into Iraq.
Closer to home, the state is having trouble meeting its financial obligations. When the education plan was passed in 2005, everyone knew that it was cutting things pretty close, revenue-wise, so it’s not surprising a fall-off in tax collections would dunk the state in hot water. I wonder if the Republican legislators who prided themselves on negotiating that deal without even a modest tax increase are having second thoughts.
Probably not. They still think tax cuts heal all wounds.
The low prices we’re paying at the pump are causing oil companies to shut down some drilling projects, causing displacement of the oil riggers and other workers who were going to put them up. I wonder, don’t the oil companies ever put aside some of those obscene profits they make to get through a rainy day?
Or have their savings have gone the way of the savings of the rest of us?
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Monday, December 15, 2008
So what?
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He admitted it.
President Bush said, in an interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz, that there were no Al-Qaida cells in Iraq until we invaded.
Then he said, “So what?”
So what? That’s what a snot-nosed kid says when his older brother calls him to account for breaking his favorite toy. That’s what a pimply teenage boy says when his buddies find out he lied about getting to second base with a girl. It’s what a slick wiseguy says when things don’t go the way he said they would and everyone ends up in jail.
It’s not what the leader of the free world says – under any circumstances.
So what?
So what if 4,000 American families are missing a son or daughter, a husband or wife, a father or mother? So what if 100,000 or more Iraqis have died? So what if Al-Qaida is stronger now than it has been since we went into Afghanistan seven long years ago? So what if we’ve wasted those seven years trying to find a military solution to a law enforcement problem?
So what?
My older brother’s answer to that question was nearly always “I’ll show you so what!” before he jumped on me with fists flying.
If only George W. Bush had had an older brother!
So what?
Pffft!
.
He admitted it.
President Bush said, in an interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz, that there were no Al-Qaida cells in Iraq until we invaded.
Then he said, “So what?”
So what? That’s what a snot-nosed kid says when his older brother calls him to account for breaking his favorite toy. That’s what a pimply teenage boy says when his buddies find out he lied about getting to second base with a girl. It’s what a slick wiseguy says when things don’t go the way he said they would and everyone ends up in jail.
It’s not what the leader of the free world says – under any circumstances.
So what?
So what if 4,000 American families are missing a son or daughter, a husband or wife, a father or mother? So what if 100,000 or more Iraqis have died? So what if Al-Qaida is stronger now than it has been since we went into Afghanistan seven long years ago? So what if we’ve wasted those seven years trying to find a military solution to a law enforcement problem?
So what?
My older brother’s answer to that question was nearly always “I’ll show you so what!” before he jumped on me with fists flying.
If only George W. Bush had had an older brother!
So what?
Pffft!
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Sunday, December 14, 2008
Daily News
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Today’s 500+ page report tells us how badly the reconstruction effort has gone in Iraq. It seems that the Bush Administration has poured more than $117 billion, including $50 billion of U.S. taxpayer money, essentially down a rathole. Is there no end to their incompetence?
According to a report by the New York Times that was printed in today’s Wichita Eagle, we not only have not rebuilt Iraq, “the U.S. government has in place neither the policies and technical capacity nor the organizational structure that would be needed to undertake such a program on anything approaching this scale.”
In other words, we started out doing it wrong and we haven’t learned from our mistakes and set things up so we can do it right in the future.
Most of the original fault for this lies with officials in the Pentagon, but where was the oversight from the Republican Congress? There are those who think Republicans can’t govern because they think government is a bad thing. It’s certainly a bad thing in their hands.
I think the current bunch of Republicans can’t govern because they can’t see beyond the “What’s in it for me?” attitude that makes them so eager to blow up an industry critical to the economic health of our country just to eviscerate a union they don’t like.
I suspect it’s that same attitude that led them to allow Lehmann Brothers to go into bankruptcy. After all, Lehmann Brothers was the only major financial institution that actually made political contributions to Democratic candidates. They contributed to Republican candidates, too, but this current group isn't interested in being fair -- only in taking revenge, that being how they define winning.
You’d think they would have learned from the results of that decision, but there are days I’m not sure they are capable of learning anything. Today's one of them.
I wonder what the news will bring us tomorrow?
.
Today’s 500+ page report tells us how badly the reconstruction effort has gone in Iraq. It seems that the Bush Administration has poured more than $117 billion, including $50 billion of U.S. taxpayer money, essentially down a rathole. Is there no end to their incompetence?
According to a report by the New York Times that was printed in today’s Wichita Eagle, we not only have not rebuilt Iraq, “the U.S. government has in place neither the policies and technical capacity nor the organizational structure that would be needed to undertake such a program on anything approaching this scale.”
In other words, we started out doing it wrong and we haven’t learned from our mistakes and set things up so we can do it right in the future.
Most of the original fault for this lies with officials in the Pentagon, but where was the oversight from the Republican Congress? There are those who think Republicans can’t govern because they think government is a bad thing. It’s certainly a bad thing in their hands.
I think the current bunch of Republicans can’t govern because they can’t see beyond the “What’s in it for me?” attitude that makes them so eager to blow up an industry critical to the economic health of our country just to eviscerate a union they don’t like.
I suspect it’s that same attitude that led them to allow Lehmann Brothers to go into bankruptcy. After all, Lehmann Brothers was the only major financial institution that actually made political contributions to Democratic candidates. They contributed to Republican candidates, too, but this current group isn't interested in being fair -- only in taking revenge, that being how they define winning.
You’d think they would have learned from the results of that decision, but there are days I’m not sure they are capable of learning anything. Today's one of them.
I wonder what the news will bring us tomorrow?
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Saturday, December 13, 2008
Memorial
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My father died six years ago, but I think of him every day. It isn’t any nugget of wisdom he passed on to me that brings his image to mind, but one of the homeliest of daily activities.
I take so many medications nowadays that every so often, about once a week, I make up daily bottles, so that I don’t have to open ten or so other bottles twice a day. Each evening, I take one of these bottles out of the drawer where I keep them and empty its contents onto the dining room table. Then I separate the pills and capsules into two piles, one my evening medicines and the other those I will take the following morning.
Holding my right hand under the edge of the table, I sweep the morning pills off with my left hand, catching them in my right. Then I cup my right hand, making it a sort of funnel, hold the empty bottle under the heel of my hand, and guide the pills into the bottle.
That’s it. That’s what brings my father back to me.
Each time I do it, I remember my father showing me how when I was a child. I also remember watching him do it hundreds, maybe thousands of times, over the years. And I remember how his hands looked. He had strong hands, with long, square-tipped fingers. His hands were warm but a little hard. He did so many things around the house, from maintaining the cars to repairing anything that needed fixing, that his hands never had a chance to get soft.
Of course, once I think of him, I remember so much else. Sometimes those memories make me smile. Every once in a while, they make me cry.
Although my hands are more delicate, I inherited my father’s hands. That’s always been a source of secret pride for me. My son inherited them from me. I wonder if his children will inherit them from him.
It's not much of a memorial, but at least it endures.
.
My father died six years ago, but I think of him every day. It isn’t any nugget of wisdom he passed on to me that brings his image to mind, but one of the homeliest of daily activities.
I take so many medications nowadays that every so often, about once a week, I make up daily bottles, so that I don’t have to open ten or so other bottles twice a day. Each evening, I take one of these bottles out of the drawer where I keep them and empty its contents onto the dining room table. Then I separate the pills and capsules into two piles, one my evening medicines and the other those I will take the following morning.
Holding my right hand under the edge of the table, I sweep the morning pills off with my left hand, catching them in my right. Then I cup my right hand, making it a sort of funnel, hold the empty bottle under the heel of my hand, and guide the pills into the bottle.
That’s it. That’s what brings my father back to me.
Each time I do it, I remember my father showing me how when I was a child. I also remember watching him do it hundreds, maybe thousands of times, over the years. And I remember how his hands looked. He had strong hands, with long, square-tipped fingers. His hands were warm but a little hard. He did so many things around the house, from maintaining the cars to repairing anything that needed fixing, that his hands never had a chance to get soft.
Of course, once I think of him, I remember so much else. Sometimes those memories make me smile. Every once in a while, they make me cry.
Although my hands are more delicate, I inherited my father’s hands. That’s always been a source of secret pride for me. My son inherited them from me. I wonder if his children will inherit them from him.
It's not much of a memorial, but at least it endures.
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Friday, December 12, 2008
Sad Day for Our Country
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So the Senate Armed Services Committee finally released its report on the treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Surprise! Donald Rumsfeld, Richard, Myers, Condoleezza Rice and the whole hierarchy of the Defense and Justice departments knew about the torture, including specifics, and approved the use of it.
I have never been more ashamed of my government. I don’t say of my country, although too many Americans lusted for revenge and bought into the administration’s claims that the torture was needed to save American lives. But most of us didn’t, especially after we were shown exactly what water boarding involves. And there were career officers in the military and career agents in the intelligence community who bravely spoke up and reminded us that torture doesn’t work.
But Rumsfeld and Ashcroft reigned over their departments for four years and both left unrepentant about the torture. Even today, Rumsfeld denied the evidence turned up by the Armed Services Committee’s investigators. What chutzpah!
It distresses me to hear so many pundits say that we should allow these people to get away with it. They say no one should be prosecuted, that we should just let it go and move on with our efforts to face the challenges of a faltering economy.
Well, I don’t agree. I think we need to mount an aggressive campaign to hold these war criminals accountable. If we can’t get it done in American courts, I think we should turn the evidence over to the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague.
For, make no mistake, these were war crimes, maybe not as ghastly as the Final Solution, but war crimes nevertheless. If we don’t prosecute these criminals, we are sending a message to the rest of the world that, really, Americans can’t be trusted, that we will do anything to get our way, no matter how black, no matter how dastardly.
And we must do it to send a message to ourselves. All Americans need to see these deeds for what they were. Those of us who opposed the war and opposed the torture need closure, and the rest of the country needs to have their eyes opened to what really happened. The only way for that to happen is for there to be trials and for the convicted to go to prison. And if the evidence leads to the Oval Office, then so be it.
Our country was founded on a determination to reverse the power of red-coated bullies to break into our homes, put us in prison and keep us there without charge, and to do whatever they pleased to us once we were in there. That is why we wrote all those liberties into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And it’s why those liberties were extended not just to citizens, but to all people who found themselves within the borders of our country.
The first year of George W. Bush’s reign coincided with the 225th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was pretty much ignored then. How about celebrating it now with a re-dedication to the ideals that have made America great?
Wouldn’t that be a kick in the teeth for the terrorists?
.
So the Senate Armed Services Committee finally released its report on the treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Surprise! Donald Rumsfeld, Richard, Myers, Condoleezza Rice and the whole hierarchy of the Defense and Justice departments knew about the torture, including specifics, and approved the use of it.
I have never been more ashamed of my government. I don’t say of my country, although too many Americans lusted for revenge and bought into the administration’s claims that the torture was needed to save American lives. But most of us didn’t, especially after we were shown exactly what water boarding involves. And there were career officers in the military and career agents in the intelligence community who bravely spoke up and reminded us that torture doesn’t work.
But Rumsfeld and Ashcroft reigned over their departments for four years and both left unrepentant about the torture. Even today, Rumsfeld denied the evidence turned up by the Armed Services Committee’s investigators. What chutzpah!
It distresses me to hear so many pundits say that we should allow these people to get away with it. They say no one should be prosecuted, that we should just let it go and move on with our efforts to face the challenges of a faltering economy.
Well, I don’t agree. I think we need to mount an aggressive campaign to hold these war criminals accountable. If we can’t get it done in American courts, I think we should turn the evidence over to the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague.
For, make no mistake, these were war crimes, maybe not as ghastly as the Final Solution, but war crimes nevertheless. If we don’t prosecute these criminals, we are sending a message to the rest of the world that, really, Americans can’t be trusted, that we will do anything to get our way, no matter how black, no matter how dastardly.
And we must do it to send a message to ourselves. All Americans need to see these deeds for what they were. Those of us who opposed the war and opposed the torture need closure, and the rest of the country needs to have their eyes opened to what really happened. The only way for that to happen is for there to be trials and for the convicted to go to prison. And if the evidence leads to the Oval Office, then so be it.
Our country was founded on a determination to reverse the power of red-coated bullies to break into our homes, put us in prison and keep us there without charge, and to do whatever they pleased to us once we were in there. That is why we wrote all those liberties into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And it’s why those liberties were extended not just to citizens, but to all people who found themselves within the borders of our country.
The first year of George W. Bush’s reign coincided with the 225th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was pretty much ignored then. How about celebrating it now with a re-dedication to the ideals that have made America great?
Wouldn’t that be a kick in the teeth for the terrorists?
.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Public Servants
.
This evening we held the annual holiday party for the Sedgwick County Federation of Women’s Democratic Clubs (I know; we’ve tried to come up with a shorter name, but nothing gets a majority.). The Federation is composed not only of Democratic women, but also of Democratic men who choose to be associate members.
As I sat in the charming living room of our hosts, the conversation turned to the Blagojevich matter. I looked around and realized that I was sitting near Jim Ward, minority leader of the Democratic caucus in the Kansas State Legislature and representative for the 88th District. Next to me sat Geraldine Flaharty, Representative for the 98th District. Across the room was Gwen Welshimer, Sedgwick County Commissioner.
At one point, Oletha Faust-Goudeau stopped in. She is the newly elected Kansas State Senator for the 29th District, who is replacing Donald Betts Jr., also a member. I gave Barb Fuller, a member of the local school board, an update on my son’s career as a teacher of English as a foreign language. I was sorry not to see the eight other representatives who are members. I won’t list all their names. You’re probably already bored with the list I’ve given you.
The point here is not how many officeholders are members of the SCFWDC; the point is that I know these people. I have worked with them to achieve common goals. I have followed their careers, especially so since I started working in the Capitol during the legislative session. I cannot imagine any one of them taking money for favors. I’ll go further. I cannot imagine any of them doing something unethical.
It’s popular to make fun of politicians. The pundits like to opine that all politics is corrupt and all politicians liars and hypocrites. Late-night comedians garner laughs any time they bring up the supposed dishonesty of politicians.
But that is not my experience of politicians. The politicians I know are heroes. They are people who put their private lives on hold to read boring reports about boring policies that affect all of us every day in ways we don’t even notice.
Now and then, they get to work on something sexy, like making gambling legal, but mostly they sit in committees discussing how much money should go to each of the many boards that set standards for endeavors in everything from medicine to beauty shops. They try to find a way to express the intent of their legislation so carefully that the workers in the various state departments will actually follow that intent.
And when all the study and discussion is through, they put themselves on the line by voting “yea” or “nay” on every bill and every resolution, knowing that their vote is being recorded so that everyone who ever wants to know can find out how they voted.
I’m not saying that there are not corrupt politicians. Of course, there are corrupt politicians. There is corruption in every walk of life. But the vast majority of the people who seek public office do so in order to give honest service to their constituents. In fact, I think it’s high time we stopped calling them politicians and returned to the venerable title of public servants.
They deserve it.
.
This evening we held the annual holiday party for the Sedgwick County Federation of Women’s Democratic Clubs (I know; we’ve tried to come up with a shorter name, but nothing gets a majority.). The Federation is composed not only of Democratic women, but also of Democratic men who choose to be associate members.
As I sat in the charming living room of our hosts, the conversation turned to the Blagojevich matter. I looked around and realized that I was sitting near Jim Ward, minority leader of the Democratic caucus in the Kansas State Legislature and representative for the 88th District. Next to me sat Geraldine Flaharty, Representative for the 98th District. Across the room was Gwen Welshimer, Sedgwick County Commissioner.
At one point, Oletha Faust-Goudeau stopped in. She is the newly elected Kansas State Senator for the 29th District, who is replacing Donald Betts Jr., also a member. I gave Barb Fuller, a member of the local school board, an update on my son’s career as a teacher of English as a foreign language. I was sorry not to see the eight other representatives who are members. I won’t list all their names. You’re probably already bored with the list I’ve given you.
The point here is not how many officeholders are members of the SCFWDC; the point is that I know these people. I have worked with them to achieve common goals. I have followed their careers, especially so since I started working in the Capitol during the legislative session. I cannot imagine any one of them taking money for favors. I’ll go further. I cannot imagine any of them doing something unethical.
It’s popular to make fun of politicians. The pundits like to opine that all politics is corrupt and all politicians liars and hypocrites. Late-night comedians garner laughs any time they bring up the supposed dishonesty of politicians.
But that is not my experience of politicians. The politicians I know are heroes. They are people who put their private lives on hold to read boring reports about boring policies that affect all of us every day in ways we don’t even notice.
Now and then, they get to work on something sexy, like making gambling legal, but mostly they sit in committees discussing how much money should go to each of the many boards that set standards for endeavors in everything from medicine to beauty shops. They try to find a way to express the intent of their legislation so carefully that the workers in the various state departments will actually follow that intent.
And when all the study and discussion is through, they put themselves on the line by voting “yea” or “nay” on every bill and every resolution, knowing that their vote is being recorded so that everyone who ever wants to know can find out how they voted.
I’m not saying that there are not corrupt politicians. Of course, there are corrupt politicians. There is corruption in every walk of life. But the vast majority of the people who seek public office do so in order to give honest service to their constituents. In fact, I think it’s high time we stopped calling them politicians and returned to the venerable title of public servants.
They deserve it.
.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Rescue Plan
.
We’re one step closer to a rescue plan for the auto industry today. The House of Representatives just passed the bill 232 to 170. Sadly, the vote was very much along party lines. I don’t know whether the Republican objections are to the plan itself or just to its being presented by Democrats.
I’ll agree that the plan probably has some big holes in it. That’s to be expected of legislation being developed on such a short time-line. For example, it doesn’t appear that anyone has really thought out what the “Car Czar” will do, exactly. What if the management at either GM or Chrysler goes its own way over his/her objections. Can the czar shut them down? Must they be taken to court? I don’t hear any answers.
But what are we to do? We can’t let 3.3 million people be put on the unemployment lines all at once. We can’t even allow them to be put on the unemployment lines gradually.
Think of it. 3.3 million divided by twelve is 275,000 a month; divided by 52 it’s about 63,500. That’s 63,500 additional people each week, 63,500 on top of the people already losing their jobs. Do you really think our economy can absorb those people and put them to work? Never mind that the jobs they find won’t pay as much as the jobs they left. Never mind that they won’t have health insurance. Try to imagine how many McDonald’s and Wal-Marts will be needed to employ them.
Scary, isn’t it?
So what are the Republicans waiting for? It’s just as important that we have a rescue plan for the auto industry as it was for the banking industry. Let’s get crackin’.
.
We’re one step closer to a rescue plan for the auto industry today. The House of Representatives just passed the bill 232 to 170. Sadly, the vote was very much along party lines. I don’t know whether the Republican objections are to the plan itself or just to its being presented by Democrats.
I’ll agree that the plan probably has some big holes in it. That’s to be expected of legislation being developed on such a short time-line. For example, it doesn’t appear that anyone has really thought out what the “Car Czar” will do, exactly. What if the management at either GM or Chrysler goes its own way over his/her objections. Can the czar shut them down? Must they be taken to court? I don’t hear any answers.
But what are we to do? We can’t let 3.3 million people be put on the unemployment lines all at once. We can’t even allow them to be put on the unemployment lines gradually.
Think of it. 3.3 million divided by twelve is 275,000 a month; divided by 52 it’s about 63,500. That’s 63,500 additional people each week, 63,500 on top of the people already losing their jobs. Do you really think our economy can absorb those people and put them to work? Never mind that the jobs they find won’t pay as much as the jobs they left. Never mind that they won’t have health insurance. Try to imagine how many McDonald’s and Wal-Marts will be needed to employ them.
Scary, isn’t it?
So what are the Republicans waiting for? It’s just as important that we have a rescue plan for the auto industry as it was for the banking industry. Let’s get crackin’.
.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Blah! Blah! Blah!
.
The news is full of Governor Rod Blagojevich and his desire to turn the appointment of a U.S. Senator into a windfall for him and his family. I’m already tired of hearing about it. Why does the media latch onto these stories, about which there is very little news, and beat them to death, ignoring the other news that deserves to be reported?
That is the worst of the 24/7 news cycle. You’d think it would mean that we would get more news, but actually we get less. There doesn’t seem to be any concern among the media that they have a duty to tell us about everything that happens, not just everything about the day’s top story.
What surprises me most, however, is the dearth of material we actually get. TV cameramen take miles of film (all right, gigs of pixels), but all we see is one loop, sometimes as short as 15 seconds, running over and over under the voiceover of anchors and analysts saying the same things ad infinitum, most of which is speculation about what might be discovered tomorrow. And if you watch more than one show, you see that same footage under the voices of different anchors and different analysts – who are saying much the same things..
Television brings us closer to the rest of the world, but only to the part of the world the people running it think we will be interested in. Usually, they’re right. Their audience does, indeed, want to see the umpteenth special on Jonbenet Ramsey or the latest blond college girl who has disappeared.
The Internet, on the other hand, gives us what we want to see – or at least as much of it as someone else is willing to put up there. Those websites could be a tool to show us layers and layers of information about a story. Instead, they are too often tools to provide totally slanted, often totally inaccurate “information.”
Some super-highway!
.
The news is full of Governor Rod Blagojevich and his desire to turn the appointment of a U.S. Senator into a windfall for him and his family. I’m already tired of hearing about it. Why does the media latch onto these stories, about which there is very little news, and beat them to death, ignoring the other news that deserves to be reported?
That is the worst of the 24/7 news cycle. You’d think it would mean that we would get more news, but actually we get less. There doesn’t seem to be any concern among the media that they have a duty to tell us about everything that happens, not just everything about the day’s top story.
What surprises me most, however, is the dearth of material we actually get. TV cameramen take miles of film (all right, gigs of pixels), but all we see is one loop, sometimes as short as 15 seconds, running over and over under the voiceover of anchors and analysts saying the same things ad infinitum, most of which is speculation about what might be discovered tomorrow. And if you watch more than one show, you see that same footage under the voices of different anchors and different analysts – who are saying much the same things..
Television brings us closer to the rest of the world, but only to the part of the world the people running it think we will be interested in. Usually, they’re right. Their audience does, indeed, want to see the umpteenth special on Jonbenet Ramsey or the latest blond college girl who has disappeared.
The Internet, on the other hand, gives us what we want to see – or at least as much of it as someone else is willing to put up there. Those websites could be a tool to show us layers and layers of information about a story. Instead, they are too often tools to provide totally slanted, often totally inaccurate “information.”
Some super-highway!
.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Dichotomy
.
My fear that we are reliving the late 1920s and early 1930s got a little firmer today. Today we heard of the bankruptcy of the Tribune Company and major layoffs at companies like Anheuser Busch. (I mean, beer ought to be recession-proof, right?)
I worry about all the families trying to eke out an existence on unemployment insurance payments. I worry about all the families facing homelessness, despite having a good job (often two good jobs), because they made a mistake about what kind of mortgage to take. And I worry about the business owners who are faced with the decision whether to risk everything in hopes that things will get better or go out of business before their financial situation worsens.
Which brings us to Republic Doors and Windows. In case you missed the story, this relatively small Illinois company announced to its workers last week that, having been denied access to their accustomed credit line at the local Bank of America, they were closing the plant down last Friday. They gave their 300 workers three days’ notice and indicated that there was no money to give them severance packages or even payment for accrued vacation time.
But those three days were a mistake. It gave the workers time to craft a protest. Instead of leaving last Friday, they staged a sit-in. They scheduled themselves to break up the sit-in so that there is always someone in the plant. They organized the delivery of food and drink. They made appearances in the media stating their determination to prevent the company from selling the doors and windows in the plant – doors and windows they built – before paying them what is owed them.
It reminds me of the actions of unions during the Depression that eventually led to the various laws giving unions the right to protect their members from all the dirty tricks that management engaged in to prevent the organization of their workers. It reminds me of the determination shown by the World War I veterans of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, who marched in Washington in the summer and fall of 1932, trying to get the bonus they felt they had been promised. It reminds me of how good Americans can be to one another when circumstances demand it.
And that tempers my fear with hope.
.
My fear that we are reliving the late 1920s and early 1930s got a little firmer today. Today we heard of the bankruptcy of the Tribune Company and major layoffs at companies like Anheuser Busch. (I mean, beer ought to be recession-proof, right?)
I worry about all the families trying to eke out an existence on unemployment insurance payments. I worry about all the families facing homelessness, despite having a good job (often two good jobs), because they made a mistake about what kind of mortgage to take. And I worry about the business owners who are faced with the decision whether to risk everything in hopes that things will get better or go out of business before their financial situation worsens.
Which brings us to Republic Doors and Windows. In case you missed the story, this relatively small Illinois company announced to its workers last week that, having been denied access to their accustomed credit line at the local Bank of America, they were closing the plant down last Friday. They gave their 300 workers three days’ notice and indicated that there was no money to give them severance packages or even payment for accrued vacation time.
But those three days were a mistake. It gave the workers time to craft a protest. Instead of leaving last Friday, they staged a sit-in. They scheduled themselves to break up the sit-in so that there is always someone in the plant. They organized the delivery of food and drink. They made appearances in the media stating their determination to prevent the company from selling the doors and windows in the plant – doors and windows they built – before paying them what is owed them.
It reminds me of the actions of unions during the Depression that eventually led to the various laws giving unions the right to protect their members from all the dirty tricks that management engaged in to prevent the organization of their workers. It reminds me of the determination shown by the World War I veterans of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, who marched in Washington in the summer and fall of 1932, trying to get the bonus they felt they had been promised. It reminds me of how good Americans can be to one another when circumstances demand it.
And that tempers my fear with hope.
.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Not Noticing
.
We went to the movies Sunday afternoon, and on the way out, I looked down and discovered I had lost a shoe. It probably sounds pretty strange that I had to see this loss, that I didn’t feel it, but that’s the result of my peripheral neuropathy, which makes my feet numb. It didn’t take long to find the shoe, but I’m lucky I noticed it before we got very far.
We’ve been losing something far more important without noticing it, these past eight years. We’ve been losing the American idea, the basis upon which the Founding Fathers built a governmental system that has been copied the world over, and we’ve been going right on as though the losses were not happening.
I’m talking about the inroads made into our civil rights by the illegitimate acts of the Bush administration.
Probably the worst of those is the loss of the right of habeas corpus. This is a right so fundamental that it was included in the main body of the Constitution. It didn’t have to be added by the Bill of Rights. The phrase “habeas corpus” is Latin, and that may be one reason so few Americans understand its importance.
Wikipedia describes it thus: “Habeas corpus (Latin: [We command] that you have the body) is the name of a legal action, or writ, through which a person can seek relief from the unlawful detention of himself or another person. It protects the individual from harming himself or being harmed by the judicial system. The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action.”
What that means is that the government cannot hold a prisoner in secret and must give him access to an attorney to help him/her negotiate the legal system. It has also come to be strongly associated with the right of speedy trial accorded us in the Eighth Amendment.
So how does that fit with the treatment of the prisoners at Guantanamo or the enemy combatants such as Jose Padilla? The answer is that it doesn’t. The detention of these prisoners without the right to a writ of habeas corpus is clearly unconstitutional and should not have been allowed.
I understand the panic that led to the detention of thousands of legal residents who just happened to be Muslims right after 9/11, but I don’t understand how the Bush administration talked itself and us into not only detaining these people but also denying them their basic rights to counsel and a speedy hearing. And I don’t understand how the American people not only condoned those detentions but even endorsed them when they voted to retain George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in office.
Didn’t they notice what was happening?
.
We went to the movies Sunday afternoon, and on the way out, I looked down and discovered I had lost a shoe. It probably sounds pretty strange that I had to see this loss, that I didn’t feel it, but that’s the result of my peripheral neuropathy, which makes my feet numb. It didn’t take long to find the shoe, but I’m lucky I noticed it before we got very far.
We’ve been losing something far more important without noticing it, these past eight years. We’ve been losing the American idea, the basis upon which the Founding Fathers built a governmental system that has been copied the world over, and we’ve been going right on as though the losses were not happening.
I’m talking about the inroads made into our civil rights by the illegitimate acts of the Bush administration.
Probably the worst of those is the loss of the right of habeas corpus. This is a right so fundamental that it was included in the main body of the Constitution. It didn’t have to be added by the Bill of Rights. The phrase “habeas corpus” is Latin, and that may be one reason so few Americans understand its importance.
Wikipedia describes it thus: “Habeas corpus (Latin: [We command] that you have the body) is the name of a legal action, or writ, through which a person can seek relief from the unlawful detention of himself or another person. It protects the individual from harming himself or being harmed by the judicial system. The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action.”
What that means is that the government cannot hold a prisoner in secret and must give him access to an attorney to help him/her negotiate the legal system. It has also come to be strongly associated with the right of speedy trial accorded us in the Eighth Amendment.
So how does that fit with the treatment of the prisoners at Guantanamo or the enemy combatants such as Jose Padilla? The answer is that it doesn’t. The detention of these prisoners without the right to a writ of habeas corpus is clearly unconstitutional and should not have been allowed.
I understand the panic that led to the detention of thousands of legal residents who just happened to be Muslims right after 9/11, but I don’t understand how the Bush administration talked itself and us into not only detaining these people but also denying them their basic rights to counsel and a speedy hearing. And I don’t understand how the American people not only condoned those detentions but even endorsed them when they voted to retain George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in office.
Didn’t they notice what was happening?
.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
What Matters
.
Having set myself the goal of writing something, anything, at least once a day, I naturally find myself without a thing to say – at least not anything important enough.
Which brings me to the contemplation of why we consider some topics important and others not so important and still others not important at all. And why do different people have such varying opinions about that?
As anyone who knows me knows, I find politics both important and interesting. My son, on the other hand, thinks politics as a topic ranks below guessing the winning lottery numbers from a year ago. As an activity, he finds it every bit as compelling as watching fungus grow.
My husband is exactly the opposite. He liked nothing better than telling me the day’s doings on the campaign trail this summer, especially after I was forced to accept Obama as a substitute for Hillary. But you won’t catch John doing any real political work, not even walking door-to-door in our own neighborhood. He works hard and he expects to be able to relax in the evenings and on weekends.
So why is politics sufficiently important to me that I will not only read and talk about it, but also do the day-to-day grit work that builds an organization? It’s not because I want to run for office. I have almost no interest in doing that. I’ve done it twice, badly, and even though I now know how it should be done well, I know that I am not the person to be the candidate or even the campaign manager. I’m much better at being second in command.
(Not that I don’t have my moments wishing I had the abilities that would make it possible for me to take the lead. But I know, from experience, that it never works for me to do so.)
When I take a moment to think about it, the first thing that comes to my mind is the good that can be done when we have the kind of government that makes it possible for people to get through bad times. I also think that political parties need to expand themselves into the niche left by the demise of the neighborhood church that lent a hand when someone was sick or in need of financial help. I can wax philosophical about how modern life separates us and we need institutions that bring us together.
But the truth is, I just like the work. I enjoy putting together and maintaining a useful database. I delight in writing articles and copy editing the HQ newsletter. I am proud of my ability to put out a nice-looking announcement with all the relevant information on it in a readable form. And I love doing mailings.
Would I do those things in support of a cause that did not meet my definition of making the world a better place? Probably not. But I’m awfully glad that the Sedgwick County Democratic Party means I don’t have to worry about that question.
And that matters to me.
.
Having set myself the goal of writing something, anything, at least once a day, I naturally find myself without a thing to say – at least not anything important enough.
Which brings me to the contemplation of why we consider some topics important and others not so important and still others not important at all. And why do different people have such varying opinions about that?
As anyone who knows me knows, I find politics both important and interesting. My son, on the other hand, thinks politics as a topic ranks below guessing the winning lottery numbers from a year ago. As an activity, he finds it every bit as compelling as watching fungus grow.
My husband is exactly the opposite. He liked nothing better than telling me the day’s doings on the campaign trail this summer, especially after I was forced to accept Obama as a substitute for Hillary. But you won’t catch John doing any real political work, not even walking door-to-door in our own neighborhood. He works hard and he expects to be able to relax in the evenings and on weekends.
So why is politics sufficiently important to me that I will not only read and talk about it, but also do the day-to-day grit work that builds an organization? It’s not because I want to run for office. I have almost no interest in doing that. I’ve done it twice, badly, and even though I now know how it should be done well, I know that I am not the person to be the candidate or even the campaign manager. I’m much better at being second in command.
(Not that I don’t have my moments wishing I had the abilities that would make it possible for me to take the lead. But I know, from experience, that it never works for me to do so.)
When I take a moment to think about it, the first thing that comes to my mind is the good that can be done when we have the kind of government that makes it possible for people to get through bad times. I also think that political parties need to expand themselves into the niche left by the demise of the neighborhood church that lent a hand when someone was sick or in need of financial help. I can wax philosophical about how modern life separates us and we need institutions that bring us together.
But the truth is, I just like the work. I enjoy putting together and maintaining a useful database. I delight in writing articles and copy editing the HQ newsletter. I am proud of my ability to put out a nice-looking announcement with all the relevant information on it in a readable form. And I love doing mailings.
Would I do those things in support of a cause that did not meet my definition of making the world a better place? Probably not. But I’m awfully glad that the Sedgwick County Democratic Party means I don’t have to worry about that question.
And that matters to me.
.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Memory
.
As a child, I was both blessed and cursed with a good memory. Blessed because it meant I did well in school. What is arithmetic but the memorization of a set of numerical relationships? What is reading but the memorization of a cornucopia of words? What is history but the memorization of a tapestry of names, places, and dates?
But it was also a curse, because everyone said I was smart. Soon I began to believe it. And, being young, I didn’t know enough to hide my “smartness.” I gloried in knowing the answer when everyone else just looked back at the teacher with silent panic. I took it for granted that I would get the best grades. Pretty soon, everyone said I was stuck up. And I guess I was, a little.
But I was also clear-eyed enough to know that all I could do was memorize. I couldn’t invent a new way to use something. I couldn’t write a soaring poem. I couldn’t paint a beautiful picture. So I never thought my memory was a big deal. After all, if I could do it so easily, it couldn’t be that hard, could it?
When I got to college and had to master material without a textbook from which to memorize, I had a lot of trouble. But it didn’t really faze me. I had expected it. I told you I wasn’t really that smart, I wanted to say to people. But I could still remember things, and I got by, barely.
Then, a few years ago, a series of doctors began to prescribe medicines to treat the symptoms of my chronic depression. The worst of these were sleep problems. I couldn’t get to sleep at night, and if I did get to sleep, I couldn’t stay asleep. And I was miserable the next day. Sleeping pills, mood elevators, anti-depressants, anti-spasmodics, the whole kitchen sink, everything but anti-psychotics. And all of them had the side effect of drowsiness.
After a while, I was taking so much medicine that I was in a continual fog. My memory was gone. Where I had once been able to reel off the phone numbers of literally hundreds of people, I couldn’t look one up and remember it long enough to dial it. I had trouble adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. I just couldn’t make the numbers stay in my mind long enough to get the answer. Sometimes, even if I tried really hard, I couldn’t remember the subject of a conversation long enough to take part in it. I had to make my husband repeat anecdotes, sometimes even explain them to me.
It all came on me so gradually that I didn’t notice it, until one day when I suddenly realized that I wasn’t smart any more. This is what it feels like to be dumb, I thought. All those years I had taken for granted that I would be one of the most knowledgeable people in any room and now I lived in fear that other people would realize that I had no idea what they were talking about because I couldn’t remember what had been said more than a few minutes before.
Now I could see why some of my schoolmates had lost interest and stopped paying attention in class and why so many of them had simply not done the reading. If you can’t remember the names of the people and places being talked of, it’s hard to follow a narrative about them. And if you can’t follow a narrative, it’s hard to understand how it might affect you.
I began to realize how much unconscious arrogance I had had, arrogance that hadn’t been pierced by bad grades in college, arrogance so ingrained in my character that I couldn’t hide it. That was why I had always had trouble making friends, why people often didn’t like me for no reason that I could see, why people said I was stuck up. This is payback time, I thought. If only the kids I went to high school with could see me now. They would be sniggering to my face.
Luckily, about six months ago, something happened that caused the doctors to drop a great many of the medications I had been taking. Instead of sleeping pills, my doctor sent me to get a sleep study, and it was discovered that I have very, very bad sleep apnea.
When I'm asleep, I stop breathing, sometimes twice a minute, and come up to semi-consciousness long enough to start breathing again, then try to fall asleep again, only to stop breathing so that I have to come up to semi-consciousness long enough to start breathing again. I have been doing this over and over, every night, all night long, for years. It was the basis of almost all my other ills. Treatment of the apnea meant I needed even less of the medication that was fogging my brain.
Gradually, I have begun to regain my memory. I still find that if I don’t pay attention, I will lose the thread of a conversation, but I can remember numbers long enough to do arithmetic again. I still have trouble coming up with the exact word I want, but my husband tells me that’s just because I’m old. (He’s ten months younger than me and likes to make fun of me for it.)
It’s great to have the blessing of my memory back again, even if it is dimmed somewhat. But I’ll take care never to forget what I learned during those days when I didn’t have it at all.
.
As a child, I was both blessed and cursed with a good memory. Blessed because it meant I did well in school. What is arithmetic but the memorization of a set of numerical relationships? What is reading but the memorization of a cornucopia of words? What is history but the memorization of a tapestry of names, places, and dates?
But it was also a curse, because everyone said I was smart. Soon I began to believe it. And, being young, I didn’t know enough to hide my “smartness.” I gloried in knowing the answer when everyone else just looked back at the teacher with silent panic. I took it for granted that I would get the best grades. Pretty soon, everyone said I was stuck up. And I guess I was, a little.
But I was also clear-eyed enough to know that all I could do was memorize. I couldn’t invent a new way to use something. I couldn’t write a soaring poem. I couldn’t paint a beautiful picture. So I never thought my memory was a big deal. After all, if I could do it so easily, it couldn’t be that hard, could it?
When I got to college and had to master material without a textbook from which to memorize, I had a lot of trouble. But it didn’t really faze me. I had expected it. I told you I wasn’t really that smart, I wanted to say to people. But I could still remember things, and I got by, barely.
Then, a few years ago, a series of doctors began to prescribe medicines to treat the symptoms of my chronic depression. The worst of these were sleep problems. I couldn’t get to sleep at night, and if I did get to sleep, I couldn’t stay asleep. And I was miserable the next day. Sleeping pills, mood elevators, anti-depressants, anti-spasmodics, the whole kitchen sink, everything but anti-psychotics. And all of them had the side effect of drowsiness.
After a while, I was taking so much medicine that I was in a continual fog. My memory was gone. Where I had once been able to reel off the phone numbers of literally hundreds of people, I couldn’t look one up and remember it long enough to dial it. I had trouble adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. I just couldn’t make the numbers stay in my mind long enough to get the answer. Sometimes, even if I tried really hard, I couldn’t remember the subject of a conversation long enough to take part in it. I had to make my husband repeat anecdotes, sometimes even explain them to me.
It all came on me so gradually that I didn’t notice it, until one day when I suddenly realized that I wasn’t smart any more. This is what it feels like to be dumb, I thought. All those years I had taken for granted that I would be one of the most knowledgeable people in any room and now I lived in fear that other people would realize that I had no idea what they were talking about because I couldn’t remember what had been said more than a few minutes before.
Now I could see why some of my schoolmates had lost interest and stopped paying attention in class and why so many of them had simply not done the reading. If you can’t remember the names of the people and places being talked of, it’s hard to follow a narrative about them. And if you can’t follow a narrative, it’s hard to understand how it might affect you.
I began to realize how much unconscious arrogance I had had, arrogance that hadn’t been pierced by bad grades in college, arrogance so ingrained in my character that I couldn’t hide it. That was why I had always had trouble making friends, why people often didn’t like me for no reason that I could see, why people said I was stuck up. This is payback time, I thought. If only the kids I went to high school with could see me now. They would be sniggering to my face.
Luckily, about six months ago, something happened that caused the doctors to drop a great many of the medications I had been taking. Instead of sleeping pills, my doctor sent me to get a sleep study, and it was discovered that I have very, very bad sleep apnea.
When I'm asleep, I stop breathing, sometimes twice a minute, and come up to semi-consciousness long enough to start breathing again, then try to fall asleep again, only to stop breathing so that I have to come up to semi-consciousness long enough to start breathing again. I have been doing this over and over, every night, all night long, for years. It was the basis of almost all my other ills. Treatment of the apnea meant I needed even less of the medication that was fogging my brain.
Gradually, I have begun to regain my memory. I still find that if I don’t pay attention, I will lose the thread of a conversation, but I can remember numbers long enough to do arithmetic again. I still have trouble coming up with the exact word I want, but my husband tells me that’s just because I’m old. (He’s ten months younger than me and likes to make fun of me for it.)
It’s great to have the blessing of my memory back again, even if it is dimmed somewhat. But I’ll take care never to forget what I learned during those days when I didn’t have it at all.
.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Doing It Retail
.
I spent most of today working on the HQ database. We are changing over from a simple Excel spreadsheet with a parallel QuickBooks file for contributions to an internet-based, integrated database that will combine all the information – and more – into one file that can be accessed by anyone at any time from anywhere you can connect to the internet. What I’m doing is looking at each record, trying to fill in any blanks on it, and linking it to other records so that we don’t send two postcards to the same house when one would do. It’s painstaking and somewhat boring but fascinating, too, because I know a lot of these people, and seeing their names reminds me that, in Sedgwick County, Democrats are not alone.
The work also reminds me that 21st-century politics is returning to its 19th-century roots as a retail business, selling our issues, our Party, our candidates to one voter at a time. That doesn’t mean that there is no room for 20th-century mass marketing, but Obama has proven that that is not nearly as important as it was once thought. In other words, campaigns are no longer won with TV commercials and mass mailings but rather with neighbors talking to neighbors and helping the right ones get out to vote.
But to do that, you actually have to talk to your neighbors. That means walking door-to-door with clipboard in hand, knocking on doors and talking with whoever answers. It’s a long, slow process, but done the right way it can be a lot of fun. The right way is to get together with some friends (or at least acquaintances) and do it as a group. The right way also is to have a good database from which you can pull information about the people in each house so you know what to expect – or whether to approach that door at all – and into which you can record the salient information you learn.
Three years ago, the Kansas Democratic Party invested in such a database and they made it available to the local parties and local candidates. It’s called VoteBuilder. It’s not the database I was working on today, but Votebuilder is there, waiting for us to pull it up and use it again, once the weather gets good enough. In it are recorded the names, addresses, and phone numbers of every registered voter in the state, along with their ages, voting records (when they voted, not how), party affiliations, etc., etc. Some of them will even have info that was picked up by candidates during the past year.
But having that big database isn’t any good without those neighbors willing to talk to one another. That’s where my smaller database comes in. Over the course of the next few weeks, I hope to recruit some people who will recruit some other people who will start reaching out to the current precinct committee members and other active Democrats to sound them out about attending a training session where they will learn how to canvass – to walk door-to-door with the purpose of feeling people out about their politics. I’m hoping we can then divide the precinct committee people up into teams that will actually do exactly that.
Just like door-to-door salesmen, making their pitch, selling it retail.
.
I spent most of today working on the HQ database. We are changing over from a simple Excel spreadsheet with a parallel QuickBooks file for contributions to an internet-based, integrated database that will combine all the information – and more – into one file that can be accessed by anyone at any time from anywhere you can connect to the internet. What I’m doing is looking at each record, trying to fill in any blanks on it, and linking it to other records so that we don’t send two postcards to the same house when one would do. It’s painstaking and somewhat boring but fascinating, too, because I know a lot of these people, and seeing their names reminds me that, in Sedgwick County, Democrats are not alone.
The work also reminds me that 21st-century politics is returning to its 19th-century roots as a retail business, selling our issues, our Party, our candidates to one voter at a time. That doesn’t mean that there is no room for 20th-century mass marketing, but Obama has proven that that is not nearly as important as it was once thought. In other words, campaigns are no longer won with TV commercials and mass mailings but rather with neighbors talking to neighbors and helping the right ones get out to vote.
But to do that, you actually have to talk to your neighbors. That means walking door-to-door with clipboard in hand, knocking on doors and talking with whoever answers. It’s a long, slow process, but done the right way it can be a lot of fun. The right way is to get together with some friends (or at least acquaintances) and do it as a group. The right way also is to have a good database from which you can pull information about the people in each house so you know what to expect – or whether to approach that door at all – and into which you can record the salient information you learn.
Three years ago, the Kansas Democratic Party invested in such a database and they made it available to the local parties and local candidates. It’s called VoteBuilder. It’s not the database I was working on today, but Votebuilder is there, waiting for us to pull it up and use it again, once the weather gets good enough. In it are recorded the names, addresses, and phone numbers of every registered voter in the state, along with their ages, voting records (when they voted, not how), party affiliations, etc., etc. Some of them will even have info that was picked up by candidates during the past year.
But having that big database isn’t any good without those neighbors willing to talk to one another. That’s where my smaller database comes in. Over the course of the next few weeks, I hope to recruit some people who will recruit some other people who will start reaching out to the current precinct committee members and other active Democrats to sound them out about attending a training session where they will learn how to canvass – to walk door-to-door with the purpose of feeling people out about their politics. I’m hoping we can then divide the precinct committee people up into teams that will actually do exactly that.
Just like door-to-door salesmen, making their pitch, selling it retail.
.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Miracles
.
This afternoon, I sat in an office in Wichita, KS, and talked to my son in Moscow, Russia, while he led me through the process of creating this blog. If that is not a miracle, I don't know what is.
We have come to accept such miracles as commonplace. That, too, is a miracle.
But if we can communicate with anyone in the world, almost any time in the world, why is there so much mis-communication going on? Why can't we listen to one another with respect and discuss our differences without resorting to name-calling? Why is there sometimes less understanding among people who speak the same language than there is between people who do not speak one another's language at all? And why do these problems lead to violence?
The events last week in Mumbai have reminded Americans once again that the world is a dangerous place and that some, just some, of the people in the world are determined to prove to the rest of the world that they are filled with rage, justifiable or not, and that they don't care what inhumanities that rage leads them to commit or whether the people they hurt are the ones who hurt them.
In other words, to quote an old movie, they're "mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more!" At the end of that movie, a television network hires a team of home-grown terrorists to assassinate the character who said that -- on network television. The movie is a "black comedy," and its makers thought that was a joke. I didn't laugh.
I wish I knew better how to make use of our miracles of communication. All I can do is start with this blog and see where it leads.
.
This afternoon, I sat in an office in Wichita, KS, and talked to my son in Moscow, Russia, while he led me through the process of creating this blog. If that is not a miracle, I don't know what is.
We have come to accept such miracles as commonplace. That, too, is a miracle.
But if we can communicate with anyone in the world, almost any time in the world, why is there so much mis-communication going on? Why can't we listen to one another with respect and discuss our differences without resorting to name-calling? Why is there sometimes less understanding among people who speak the same language than there is between people who do not speak one another's language at all? And why do these problems lead to violence?
The events last week in Mumbai have reminded Americans once again that the world is a dangerous place and that some, just some, of the people in the world are determined to prove to the rest of the world that they are filled with rage, justifiable or not, and that they don't care what inhumanities that rage leads them to commit or whether the people they hurt are the ones who hurt them.
In other words, to quote an old movie, they're "mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more!" At the end of that movie, a television network hires a team of home-grown terrorists to assassinate the character who said that -- on network television. The movie is a "black comedy," and its makers thought that was a joke. I didn't laugh.
I wish I knew better how to make use of our miracles of communication. All I can do is start with this blog and see where it leads.
.
Setting the Record Straight
.
Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon responding to a long article in a local independent newspaper that quoted at length from an "article" from World Net Daily (WND) that quoted an "article" from Investor's Business Daily (IBD) that quoted "Obama Nation" by Jerome Corsi.
You remember Corsi. His book was so inaccurate and distorted that even Fox News stopped ballyhooing it. Several ultra-conservative think tanks bought thousands of copies of it so that it would appear at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for at least one week. Obama's campaign posted a refutation of much of the book on its website that ran to 42 pages.
Both WND and IBD are far-right websites that latch onto any negative information they can find about Obama, give it a new twist, and spread it to the world. In the case of this article, they had latched onto two topics, conflated them, then interpreted their conflation to fit their world view.
The two topics are Obama's desire to create a "Universal Voluntary Public Service" cadre and his once-stated and never-repeated idea that there should be a civilian national-security force "as powerful, as strong, and as well-funded" as the military. IBD turned these two nebulous ideas into a plot by Obama to suck our youth into a Hitlerian organization that would enforce conformity with the tactics of the Brown Shirts.
They took "well-funded" to mean "equally funded," which is, of course, ridiculous. A civilian national-security force would not need to be as large as our military, as it would not cover the whole world but only the land within our borders, nor would it need expensive equipment like jet fighters or Tomahawk missiles to engage in the kind of police work and intelligence gathering that is the only way to combat terrorism.
Whenever I see material like this, I try to respond to it. It is important to fight the lies and distortions with the truth. Democrats failed to do this during the Clinton years, and it led the Republicans to be so arrogant that they wasted all that time and money impeaching the President when they knew they could not convict him. I don't want ever again to see the country divided the way it has been for the past couple of decades. We need to pull together.
But to do that, we can't let negative statements stand -- or they will be taken as fact.
.
Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon responding to a long article in a local independent newspaper that quoted at length from an "article" from World Net Daily (WND) that quoted an "article" from Investor's Business Daily (IBD) that quoted "Obama Nation" by Jerome Corsi.
You remember Corsi. His book was so inaccurate and distorted that even Fox News stopped ballyhooing it. Several ultra-conservative think tanks bought thousands of copies of it so that it would appear at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for at least one week. Obama's campaign posted a refutation of much of the book on its website that ran to 42 pages.
Both WND and IBD are far-right websites that latch onto any negative information they can find about Obama, give it a new twist, and spread it to the world. In the case of this article, they had latched onto two topics, conflated them, then interpreted their conflation to fit their world view.
The two topics are Obama's desire to create a "Universal Voluntary Public Service" cadre and his once-stated and never-repeated idea that there should be a civilian national-security force "as powerful, as strong, and as well-funded" as the military. IBD turned these two nebulous ideas into a plot by Obama to suck our youth into a Hitlerian organization that would enforce conformity with the tactics of the Brown Shirts.
They took "well-funded" to mean "equally funded," which is, of course, ridiculous. A civilian national-security force would not need to be as large as our military, as it would not cover the whole world but only the land within our borders, nor would it need expensive equipment like jet fighters or Tomahawk missiles to engage in the kind of police work and intelligence gathering that is the only way to combat terrorism.
Whenever I see material like this, I try to respond to it. It is important to fight the lies and distortions with the truth. Democrats failed to do this during the Clinton years, and it led the Republicans to be so arrogant that they wasted all that time and money impeaching the President when they knew they could not convict him. I don't want ever again to see the country divided the way it has been for the past couple of decades. We need to pull together.
But to do that, we can't let negative statements stand -- or they will be taken as fact.
.
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