Be not afraid of labels, particularly Republicans shouting, socialist, Marxist or communist. Labels do not matter to those who care for others. It is not Obamacare; Barack cares about the affordability of heath care and so do I. This is what I want for all Americans: affordable health care, a living wage, good jobs for all who want them, a rising standard of living, affordable higher education, infrastructure that is not crumbling, peace with our neighbors, reduced recreational use of drugs, decent affordable housing and respect for each other. If these goals spell socialism to some, so be it. To me, they are what every citizen is entitled to.
To obtain the American dream, some play the lottery because they cannot hope to achieve it in any other way. But you are more likely to be struck by lightning than to win big in a lottery. Others hope to succeed in business and some do. But I want a decent life for every American, not just some. There may be other ways to achieve that goal, but I can think of only two, government and unions. After WW2, unions brought middle-class life to millions. As their membership was whittled down, the dream of middle-class membership receded for many. Government big enough to protect you and me from the whims of big business is the other method of achieving middle-class status for many. Big business is opposed to (big) government and unions for their own reasons, not because they care about you and me.
Economics is sometimes labeled the dismal science. I agree with dismal, but I dispute the term science. Economics deals with people and their behavior and there is no way to perform scientific experiments with people when so many factors can vary. True science requires holding most variables constant and trying change with only one or a few variables at a time if reliable results are expected.
Barack must try to deal with the economy when so many others have an input to the results and some are working at cross purposes to him. It is a wonder that the President can influence the economy at all with its inherent complexities. At best, he can inspire confidence in his leadership. If the public believes that the economy is improving, they will make it so by spending with confidence. If the public believes that the economy is getting worse, they will make it so by saving more and spending less. Public perceptions are self reinforcing in this area.
Nadir is a low point. One advantage of a nadir is the only way forward is up. We have reached a nadir in Barack's first term with the Massachusetts election and the recent Supreme Court decision giving corporations free speech and the right to spend unlimited amounts to influence our democracy. One commentator suggested that like athletes, Congressmen and women should start wearing the logos of their corporate sponsors on their outer garments so that we can more easily see who is influencing them.
It will be up to Barack to chart our course when he speaks to Congress. I hope that this year's session will be more polite than the outburst of last year. But truly it is up to us, his supporters, to ensure that this election year marks a true upsurge from the recent nadir. On the near horizon is likely to be a protracted fight on Justice Paul Stevens's replacement if he announces his retirement as expected from the Supreme Court. He is a liberal justice, part of the minority on a 5-4 divided court. We must ensure that the Court does not seat another conservative making the split 6-3.
This is an answer to Sarah Palin's question, what does a community organizer do? I plan to read Saul Alinsky's book Rules for Radicals, but I have yet done so.
The following is from David Sirota's book, The Uprising.
"I flip it open to a random page. And right there is an underlined sentence blaring Alinsky's most sacred principle of all:
'A belief that if people have the power to act in the long run, they will, most of the time, reach the right decision.'
The belief that people-- not dictators, not elites, not a group of gurus--should be empowered to organize and decide their destiny for themselves seems so simple, and yet is far and away the most radical idea in human history."
Until I read The Uprising by David Sirota, I had never heard of fusion voting. Widely available in most states until the 1890's when the Republicans decided it helped the opposition too much, it is still available in a few states: New York, Delaware and New Hampshire. Recently there has been an effort to reclaim it in Montana and Oregon, so far to no avail.
Fusion voting makes a third party viable and worth working for since it can hold the balance of power between the two major parties. Here is how it works. A candidate for office can be listed on the ballot under two or more parties. If you don't want to vote for candidate A as a Democrat or Republican, whichever it may be, you might be willing to vote for candidate A if he/she is listed for a third party. Fusion voting allows all the votes for candidate A to totaled as one total. This allows and encourages voters to vote for a specific candidate even if they oppose one of the party labels he/she appears under.
Fusion voting is working in New York as the the Working Families Party is gaining in strength. It supports a limited number of issues such as increased wages. Their support is highly sought after in close races. It is a way to influence incumbents who are reluctant to listen to the voters in gerrymandered districts. It is an option that I would like to see more widely available. The Working Families Party web site can be found at www.workingfamiliesparty.org.
As January 19, Martin Luther King day, approaches, it is not too early to consider what type of service you want to perform on the first anniversary of Barack's call for an act of national service. I have recently expanded my cleanup effort from 1/4 mile of road to 1/2 mile along that road on local BLM land. I trash spot some of the road from my car and walk the rest with a trash bag or two in hand. I am now within a short distance to the entrance to a bowl in the land used by local shooters for target practice. It is a MESS.
I am looking forward with trepidation and anticipation to what I can do to reclaim the area. What can just one person do? Well I intend to find out. I feel a sense of accomplishment over the half mile approach to the area. It only took about 30 minutes once a week to cleanup and maintain it that way. The target practice area is covered with makeshift targets filled with bullet holes and empty shells and cartridges. I think that if the Founding Fathers were writing the Second Amendment now, they would say that the right to bear arms is contingent upon cleaning up after oneself.
The 2010 census will be the basis for redistricting US Congressional districts as well as other state level districts. Here in Utah there is a ballot initiative attempting to be placed on the ballot called the Fair Boundaries Initiative. If you are a Utah resident, I ask for your support of the measure. If you live in another state, please look for a similar measure in your state. The Fair Boundaries Initiative seeks to influence the Utah legislature to draw Congressional boundaries that are more representative and not Gerrymandered.
I think that Congressional districts should be compact and competitive. I want my vote to count. Why vote if the district is lopsided? Why vote if your candidate is guaranteed to win or guaranteed to lose? Too many of our present representatives in Congress represent safe districts. If we really want to see change in Washington, we must be able to elect members of Congress who will respond to their constituents. Congressmen and women from safe districts lack incentive to represent us rather than special interests.
If you wish to see the boundaries of your Congressional district, Google Earth is a good resource. I chose Utah and clicked on Government in the layers section. By checking the US Representatives box, Congressional districts in the state were outlined in red. By zooming in, stars appeared in each district. The stars were half blue and half red and white stripes. Clicking on the star produced a box containing the name of my representative and links to information about him.
In short, I'm worried. I'm worried about the future of my medical care options. I'm worried about continuing to owe money for medical bills I already can't afford to pay for--with a co-pay which is currently less than $10, I'm still unable to manage it on a regular basis. You see, I have no income of my own.
But if nobody is really interested, then the Obama plan will never come to fruition.
(There's more on the blog post: I didn't want to post the whole long diatribe to every list, so please click the "read more" URL below if you're interested in my line of reasoning and argumentation.)
Walt Whitman was Lincoln's favorite poet. This a quote of one of Whitman's poems."I Hear America SingingI hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,The delicious singing of the mother, or the young wife at work, or the girl sewing or washing,Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,The day what belongs to the day--at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs."
Song is one of the things missing from the current American scene. I try to put song back into my work with silly little jingles for each different xray exam: this hand is your hand, B.E.(barium enema) brings good things to life, ERCP to the tune of YMCA, let's all go to the trauma and it's a small bowel after all. Silly though they are, they make my co-workers smile. And a smile does make the work easier and more fun.
When I was a resident of California, there was a small, niggling payroll deduction called, SDI, State Disability Insurance. I wasn't sure what it was for, but it wasn't much, just another reduction in my net income. Then I found out that it was an important part of the safety net provided by the state of California. I needed eye surgery to save my sight in one eye. I had developed a macular hole that required out-patient surgery. The surgeon charged $9000 and the hospital where I was employed billed me $17,000 for the 4 hours I was in the hospital. I received both bills in the mail the same day while I was recovering. I remember that day very well. My employer would not allow me to return to work for 6 weeks since my surgery required limiting my weight lifting to 20 pounds or less. No income and huge bills that my insurance at the hospital where I worked would cover only in part. It was then that I learned how essential a part of the safety net SDI was. It paid me about 75% of my take home pay for the time I could not work.
When I moved to Utah and was between jobs, I was injured in an auto accident and then fell and broke a leg. Utah has no equivalent to California's SDI, at least that I am aware of. Eight months later I returned to work at a new job and deeply in debt. I am not poor, but I skated on the edge of the abyss. The bills come in and I pay them. Recently I decided to add up just the monthly interest charges on the various debts. $1400. That money buys me nothing useful. Just think what I could do with an extra $1400 per month. That money just goes to the banks making them richer and me poorer. It's not fair and it is not right.
Poverty affects all of us, whether or not we experience it directly or indirectly. Two thirds of Americans use the safety net at some point in their lives. Poverty makes it hard for children to learn. It makes it difficult for our fellow citizens to contribute their time and thoughts to the community. Participation in our democracy is limited or made impossible for the poor who lack a permanent address. How much freedom do the poor have? Some make freedom and democracy a rallying cry. Is it to be freedom and democracy for some, or do we want freedom and democracy for all? In his July 27, 2004, keynote speech in Boston to the Democratic convention, Barack stated, "It's that fundamental belief--I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper--that makes this country work."
How do we lessen or eliminate poverty? We create more good paying jobs so that all who want to work are amply rewarded for their work. At this time there are not enough good paying jobs for all who want to work and some of those jobs are being shipped abroad. We can and should limit the export of jobs by means of our tax laws. Improving one's skills is not a sure-fire route to a good paying job.
As an analogy, I like to describe the good-jobs market as a carousel, a merry-go-round. There is a capacity for only so many riders on the horses, the benches and standing room. The unemployed and the holders of poor paying jobs are standing in line waiting for a vacancy to appear on the carousel so that they can step aboard. When the ride stops, some of the riders may switch places on the ride, sitting on a bench when someone else stands or switching one horse for another. No one waiting on the sidelines can get on the carousel of good jobs unless someone else gets off because of injury, illness or retirement. No matter how much the people waiting for a ride improve their skills, they cannot get a good paying job unless someone else gives one up. Creating more good paying jobs is analogous to making the carousel bigger or building more of them.
