RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS

I needed a lift this week and I got one, but first why I need the lift. Beyond the heart wrenching stories out of Japan, the tension of possible nuclear disaster and ongoing turmoil in the Mideast, three articles in Wednesday's Minneapolis Star Tribune gave me more upset than a serious case of stomach flu. The first was a story on the increase in child poverty in Minnesota; it has grown 14% since 2009. The second article that caught my eye was a report from Bloomberg news that the number of U.S. millionaires grew by 600,000 in 2010. The third was a report on the initial results of the angel investor tax credit program started last summer in Minnesota. Wealthy investors who put money into to start ups got $7 million in tax credits but only 47 jobs were created as a result. Yup $7 million in tax credits for the creation of 47 jobs.  For anyone who is counting, that’s a tax credit of $148,396.17 per job created.  It is also nearly 4 times the median U.S. family income in 2010.

The contrast of these stories highlights which citizens are really "sharing the pain" of the great recession, puts the lie to the GOP line that tax cuts create jobs, and blunts their criticism of Democratic policies for not creating enough jobs. Growing 600,000 millionaires in one year, while the unemployment rate declined by the slightest fraction, and more children fell into extreme poverty is clear evidence that we need to enact public policies that indeed spread the wealth, not policies that let people (read the wealthy) keep more of what they earn in their pockets as the GOP is fond of saying.  Obviously the wealthy are doing just that—keeping it in their pockets or taking it out only when they can reap immoral profit. All this on top of the continuing war on women in the Congress and in our state legislature, the vote to defund PBS and NPR and, and, and…it was enough to make a body weary and this woman’s heart heavy.

The lift came in an unlikely place and from a simple exchange. I did my "big" monthly Costco shop Friday so my cart was quite full and the lines long.  Immediately behind me was an older couple with just a few items and behind them a gentleman with just three items.  I gestured for both the couple and the gentleman to go ahead of me.  The couple said thank you, the gentleman said, "Are you sure?"  I said yes and proceeded to say that with the state of the world I had committed myself to do at least one random act of kindness each day. He said he was shopping for a church pot luck, and that we would all be better off if more people showed kindness. "Yes," I said, "we would and I just think of it as 'paying it forward' and being a small part of making a better tomorrow." 

Now, Costco is collecting contributions to send to Japan, with 100% of every contribution going to the Red Cross relief effort in Japan. The gentleman looked at the flyer, asked the clerk if he could contribute if he was putting his purchase on a card, the clerk said yes, he said he wanted to give $10, turned back to me and said, "Well I paid it forward."  I don't know the gentleman's name, where he worships, or who he votes for, but I do give thanks to the spirits for putting him behind me in the line at Costco, for nudging me to speak about kindness and for the gift of seeing it paid forward right then and there. My belief that kindness does beget kindness was reaffirmed, and I was reminded that amidst all the angst, a simple act can bare unexpected fruit. Now if we can just get the 600,000 new millionaires, the millions of already millionaires, the billionaires and the mean-spirited GOP to buy into some random acts of kindness.

REFLECTIONS

First a prayer for those who have perished in Japan-

You are journeying across the dividing water that

Lies between this world and the next, carried away

by ferryman on your way.

Look ahead of you, do not look behind.

Look ahead of you, where your destiny lies.

Do you see them? They are there, ahead of you on the other shore.

Slowly, they become visible to you; the shining ones

Appear out of the concealing mists.

Clearly they appear to you, though hidden from our eyes.

Go to them, they welcome you.

Go to them, not stopping for farewells.

Holy Ones in the world beyond,

Open wide your arms to receive these who are journeying to you,

Make them a home, bring them to rest.

Farewell, those who have loved you wish you a good journey.

Celtic prayer for the recently passed

For all those who remain I hope the care, prayers and aid of people around the world will help carry you through this, bring you some small comfort, and smooth the path forward just a bit.

The discipline, stoicism and caring for one another  of the Japanese people has been as remarked upon as has the devastation, and the ongoing emergency at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Although I have restricted the amount of news I watch on this, I have been struck over and over by the reports that limited provisions (food and water) in the hardest hit areas are being rationed to the very young, the very old and the disabled first.

It has struck me because here in the United States where our crisis is like a gnat by comparison to what is faced by Japan, the GOP, where they have majorities in state legislatures, hold governorships and in the US Congress have targeted the provisions for the young, old, the disabled, and the poor for deep cuts while giving heaping rations to the rich.  Just look at what the top earning groups got in return for a bit more than crumbs for 90% of us in the tax cut extension. There is an excellent interactive graphic at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/business/comparing-the-tax-plans/ that illustrates who got what out of the tax cut extensions.

Bill Cosby once said; “Hurt people, hurt people.” I truly wonder who, or what hurt the members of today’s GOP so much that they are so willing to hurt so many while rewarding the few, who by the way did not create many jobs in the 8 previous years they had these tax breaks. What will it take for us to really care for one another including everyone any of us think of as “those people” and to see that concentrating near all the wealth and resources in a few hands could lead us to a place where only the few survive? For that matter what will it take for the GOP to focus on legislation that creates, not eliminates jobs?

Regarding the issue of nuclear power, there is so much yet to be known, but I will point out that two nuclear power plants in California sit ever so close to the San Andreas fault and the sea, and that it was the tsunami, not the earthquake that did the damage at Fukushima. There were concerns that the tsunami would hit our West Coast and fortunately the impact was minimal. I am however reminded of a t-shirt worn by opponents of the now demolished Trojan power plant in Oregon—Every Woman Knows A Trojan Is Only As Good As The Man Behind It. I sincerely hope there are very good men, and women, behind Diablo Canyon and San Onofre Unit 2 nuclear power plants in California. What I do know is that crashing wind generators and solar panels or leaking bio-fuel from algae will make messes but there is zero risk of radioactive release. What will it take for us to get behind the President’s call to take the $45 billion in subsidies to oil companies that are currently raking in BIG profits and target this to development of renewable energy resources and strategies over the next 10 years? The oil companies can have fair shot at developing alternative sources, they just can’t charge as much for the wind and the sun.

For now, and in honor of the example being set for us by the Japanese, let’s conserve on all the forms of energy we use each day, give what we can to the recovery effort in Japan, reach out to our own citizens in need, and commit just one act of random kindness a day for the rest of this year. 

I Am Woman

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day and it is the Global Centenary Year, or in plain language the 100th anniversary of the celebration of International Women's Day. This piece is in honor of all the women across the country, and the world that will gather, march and observe this day. It is most particularly for those who will do so in the Mideast, especially the women of Iran. Bravery and courage barely describe their characters. (They will be marching from 6-8 PM Iran time which is about 7-9AM CST)

The theme the UN has set for its marking of this day is, "Equal access to education, training, and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women." Yes decent work would be a good thing as we know that the majority of those in poverty, or marginally above poverty, are women and children.  As noted on 60 minutes last night, 23% of those homeless in this country are children, and given that it is primarily women who do the job of rearing children, it means their moms are homeless too. Shameful, but I digress.

Hail to all women, we hold up half the sky, we make the peace, we are most ravaged in wars and despite it all we keep on keeping on building a better world in our own corner of the world. I hope you will find inspiration in this quote from Sojourner Truth, at the First National Women's Rights Convention, October 1850. "Sisters, I'm not clear what you be after. If women want any rights more than they've got, why don't they just take them and not be talking about it." So let us go forth into the next 100 years armed with all we have done, propelled by our passion, steadied by resolve and strengthened by a sisterhood that stretches across not just a century but millennia.

I dedicate this piece to my dear sister Louanne who left this earth walk in 2007, and to my sisters of the heart whose love, caring, and support keeps me keeping on.  Louanne gave me a plaque that reads, Chance Made Us Sisters, Hearts Made Us Friends.  Well dears, hearts makes us friends and sisters, and I hold you all close in mine.

A Brief Venting and Serious Thoughts

This was going to be a venting statement piece about the “war on women” the radical reactionary right has been waging on women in state legislatures across the land and in the U.S. House of Representatives. I held off publishing out of concern that it was too over the top and the point would be lost.  Then the heart of my anger, frustration and distress crystallized as I watched hearing replays on C-SPAN.  The hearings were held in the House Committee on Appropriations with Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen and in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with Secretary Clinton. ((http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/StateDepartment2  http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Year2012Budge  To get a view of statesmanship go to the last 15 minutes of Clinton hearing-bravo Lugar Corker and Clinton, and for a view of vacuous political posturing, watch segments of questioning by Rubio and DeMint.))

What hit more clearly than my brain has allowed to this point, is how messed up the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the complexity of decisions on who, what, when and how with respect to U.S. action in relation to the revolutions in the Mideast and North Africa. I have grasped the seriousness of the threat to middle class regular American people of the assaults on workers rights and budget cuts that will affect millions of us in favor of concentrating yet more wealth and power in the few hands that already have far too much. I have grasped the seriousness of the proposed pieces of legislation focused on oppressing women and the incredibly frightening proposals in South Dakota and Iowa to make it legal to use deadly force (i.e. killing) against doctors and healthcare workers to protect a fetus. I for sure get the seriousness of GOP efforts to re-define rape. PLEASE! 

I do need to include just one paragraph here to call for as much focus on penises and testicles as has been put on uteri and vaginas and suggest proposals that are well within the logic followed by the radical right. Let’s pass a testosterone tax to make up for the $300 billion (yes billion according to Mike Huckabee) we pay to support the children that roving inseminators sire but do not support, the $177 billion cost of healthcare to adult rape and domestic assault victims and the $75 billion it costs for state and federal inmates every year. Note that the FY11 estimated cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is $170.7 billion. While tongue-in-cheek proposals to ban males under 50 from the streets after dark, and to make high pitched tenors out of roving inseminators are good rants for my feminist soul—we really do have way bigger matters that we must attend to and it will take every bit of knowledge and energy every good citizen can muster.

The heart of the matter is that the most of the GOP are, like Nero, fiddling while Rome burns, and  the heart of my frustration, in addition to being damn tired of 30+ years of having to defend basic human rights is that women and human rights activists must yet again focus energy, money and effort on beating back these vicious and ill-conceived pieces of legislation that do nothing to solve our real problems, but do re-ignite divisive cultural wars, stoke fear and drive us apart when we so desperately need to come together, inform ourselves and resolve to act.

We must find agreement on measures that; have tangible impact on employment growth, keep people from starving or freezing to death in this land of plenty, decrease the national debt that threatens our strength now and our children’s future, measures that intervene in climate change which is bringing more severe weather-no matter the causes, and measures that get us out of the interminable conflicts in the Mideast.

Believe me when I say that I did not think I would find any Republican this dyed in wool Democrat would thank, but I did find them and I did thank Lugar and Corker via email. A small gesture, but if we can all do this (including Republicans who will thank Democrats) it will be as the final lines of Marge Piercy’s poem The low Road. “It goes on one at a time, it starts when you care to act, it starts when you do it again after they said no, it starts when you say We and you know who you mean, and each day you mean one more.

So come on people now, get engaged, get informed and for the love of your family, friends and country call your elected representatives and tell them to focus on the problems that need solving, not on things that scapegoat, that rile us up, that trade on our fear, and that drive the wedge that is already too deep in the fabric of our Republic only deeper.

ON WISCONSIN

As the fight to preserve the rights of workers plays out in Wisconsin, it is important to keep a couple of FACTS in mind.  The first is that before Wisconsin's budget went bust, the GOP controlled senate and house passed, and Governor Walker signed, $117 million in corporate tax breaks into law. The deficit in Wisconsin is $137 million, and amount only $20 million more than the tax breaks. A piece of "old" news but a very important piece to keep at the forefront when Mr. Walker talks about the dire straights that make his draconian proposals and actions warranted.

The second fact comes from a look at the results of the 2010 general election that put these folks into office. Governor Walker is fond of saying that he is not going to let a "few thousand" (there were at least 70,000 at last Saturday's rally) to drown out the voice of 6,000,000 ( actually 5,654,774 according to the census bureau) in Wisconsin who spoke in the last election.  Before getting to the actual numbers, note how he under represents the number of those opposing his actions, and over states the population in Wisconsin.

The overstatement of the population is particularly relevant because the total votes garnered by Mr. Walker in 2010, according to the official elections website of Wisconsin (http://gab.wi.gov/elections-voting/results/2010/fall-general), was 1,128,941. While this was 52.25% of the 2,160,832 votes cast in the contest for governor, it represents only 32.32% of the 3,493,306 total registered voters in Wisconsin.  To carry the analysis further the votes he got represents exactly 19.964% of the total population of Wisconsin. This meager representation of the "electorate" must be the reason he inflated the population by 345,226 people or a number equal to 30.57% of the total vote he received.

Now elections do matter, he did win, but claiming a resounding mandate based on getting the vote of less than a third of registered voters and a bit less than 20% of the entire population is the kind of hubris and slight of hand that these new Republicans are fond of using to sell their patent medicine policies. To be fair the turnout of 61%+ was a record for mid-term elections in Wisconsin, but I can't help but wonder what the outcome would have been had just another 10% showed up at the polls last November.

How many of those were disillusioned President Obama supporters who really did expect miracles?  How many were young people who defied the conventional wisdom that said they were strong enough to help candidate Obama get the nomination but would not turn out to vote in '08, and then stayed true to conventional wisdom and sat out the mid-term elections? Well as the saying goes, the chickens are coming home to roost, and as any farmer knows, chicken manure is a great fertilizer for any crop, even one that grows like crazy but does not produce any fruit.

Snookered AGAIN !

The GOP rode a mantra of jobs, jobs, jobs to a majority in the U.S. House, majorities in many state houses and state legislatures, but as we have seen with the reins of power in their hands they have been singing a much different tune. Their first actions have been to re-ignite culture wars with all out assaults on the rights of women, rights of workers, and in the case of the Congress, taking more days off than working. 

In Congress, and in my state of Minnesota where the GOP has control of both houses of the legislature, there is yet to be one measure of substance introduced related to job creation.  Instead we see measures that will mean the LOSS of jobs, cuts that will most affect children, elderly and those living in poverty. No cuts to oil company subsidies even thought they, individually and collectively, had record profits last year. I have not heard one speech from Mr. Boehner or Mr. Cantor about innovations or strategies to create jobs.  Nothing new from them-they are staying with the trickle down theory of economics. As Hubert Humphrey once said about trickle-down economics, well when the cows have enough to eat, eventually the birds will too. I guess the GOP thinks they can staisfying us by just serving up more cow pies.

Although a large majority of economists, left, right and center agree that curing deficits requires a combination spending reductions and tax increases, the GOP refusal to even consider tax increases has reached near zealous proportions.  Mr. Boehner says, "read my lips, there will be cuts" with not one hint of embarrassment for being a major player in exacting tax cuts for the well-to-do that added billions to the current deficit, will continue to increase the national debt and are equal to what most of us make in a lifetime.  So much for bringing rational consideration to the fore and as Michele Bachmann likes to say, saving our way of life.  Little did we know that it is about saving the way of life for those of privilege, while the rest of us snarl at one another over the crumbs.

The lesson of this is that the promises from the GOP to stand for the people really meant only some people and for sure not "those people".  I am one of "those people", a woman into my 6th decade and what I see is that those who gave their votes to the GOP were snookered into believing that because the Republican and Tea Party candidates, talked plain and simple, and were not elites, that they really would stand with the people and everyday joes.  I say we were snookered because no matter what they say, there is nothing about working for the common person in their agenda, and everything about more for the real elites-the 1% who hold most of the wealth.

The only way they are standing with the everyday joes is to stoke the fires of anger, blame and fear while they are emptying our bank accounts and our children’s piggy banks to put even more money and privilege into the hands of the few.  Amazing that there is so much ire directed at public employees who show up everyday to keep the wheels of our society moving, and such support for the GOP majority in the Congress who have scheduled floor sessions for less than 20% of the days of the current Congress. 

Elections do matter and it is unfortunate that a majority of us stayed home for the last one and gave these scoundrels the reins of government.  As the saying goes, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.  I hope we have finally learned the lesson that going after children, elderly and disadvantage only makes all of us more impoverished in wages, work and spirit.

BACK TO THE PAST

There was a chant that arose out of the nascent anti-sexual assault movement in the1970's-"Women Unite Take Back the Night." We put it on t-shirts, signs, organized take back the night marches, and chanted the chant through the streets, and into the civic centers of cities across the country.  While it focused on making the street safe for women after dark, it was the cry that heralded women claiming a basic human right; the right to freedom from sexual violence.  It was the cry that said, we would no longer accept blame for the criminal behavior of sexual abusers. With all that is coming out these days from the GOP (local, state and nation), their cheerleaders in the reactionary right, and for sure from ill-informed, ignorant, and downright detestable bloggers, I offer a friendly amendment to the chant-"WOMEN UNITE, STAND FOR YOUR RIGHTS."

Little did we know in the 1970's that breaking through the myths, and raising consciousness about rape, incest and child sexual abuse would lead to the open discussion of these crimes and routine reporting about sexual assault on national media outlets, it was our aim, our hope and our dream, but believe me we never thought we would get here. We didn't think we would get here, because the kind of victim blaming that has come from some in response to the news story about the assault, in Egypt, on CBS reporter Lara Logan, was commonplace back then, even in courtrooms from the mouths of defense attorney's.

But again we had hope because women came together, young and old, rich and poor, black and white, and, wait for it-Republican and Democrat to educate, illuminate and legislate. Of course back then we were not many years down the road from woman not being able to get credit without a male co-signer, or not being able to freely choose a career outside homemaker, nurse or teacher, or from being able to plan a pregnancy and prevent unplanned pregnancy, or from...you get the picture. We were however committed to, in the word of the song, not letting anyone turn us around.  We kept on walking, we kept on talking and we did start a brand new day.

Well with the legislative initiatives from GOP majorities in Congress, and many state houses, with the attempt to re-define rape as means of legitimizing forced pregnancies, with the likes of Michele Bachmann ridiculing a tax break for working moms who are breast-feeding an infant, and with the sickening victim blaming of Lara Logan, it seems from my old eyes that not only are women getting turned around, we are getting turned out, put down and threatened with once again being considered chattel. Time to call a halt-WOMEN UNITE, STAND FOR YOUR RIGHTS.
Like the saying from that old series of horror flicks-they're back. The scary part of this movie however is that they have names like, Michele Bachmann, Ann Coulter, Debbie Schlussel and Sarah Palin and although they look like real women, I think they must be female impersonators. WOMEN UNITE, STAND FOR YOUR RIGHTS. I can see the streets and corridors of power filling now, and I can hear the crescendo of voices chanting, WOMEN UNITE STAND FOR YOUR RIGHTS, WOMEN UNITE, STAND FOR YOUR RIGHTS. Can you hear it? Can you see it?