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Can You Hear Me Now?

  • Posted on September 20, 2010 at 5:32 pm

Out in Main Street America the "Right" and the "Left" are a lot closer than most people think.

Unfortunately, I keep thinking about that old commercial for Verizon.  You know the one that keeps asking, “Can You Hear Me Now?”  This one with the mosquitoes takes the cake for representing the Democratic Party and what ails them.

Those pesky mosquitoes could be the Tea Party people but they are really those angry Democratic voters that are planning on staying home this November.  My mother always used to tell me to be careful what I wish for because you might get it.  The Democratic Party has brought on much of these problems themselves.  By moving to the right when they should have moved left when that pesky mosquito was biting them, they lost their momentum.  The party has governed with President Obama at the top much like the old party headed by GW.  I can’t be the only one that feels like this.

The Tea Party people would have us all believe that the country wants to go conservative and right.  I personally don’t believe that.  I think there is a lot of confusion about what we should do as a country.  People definitely want some direction.  Right now there is a lack or failure of leadership.  It’s like being out on a boat and stormy sea comes up and you realize no one on the boat really knows much about sailing.  It could be like when the airplane pilot has a heart attack and we’re all looking at each other to see if anyone can take the controls.  Either way we are screwed!  We want someone to take the helm and lead us out of this storm.  So far we have someone that says pretty things on occasion and then is so TIRED, he has to go on vacation.  I remember when GW was president.  He always said, “It’s hard work.”  Oh, please, we all work hard and most of us don’t get much of a vacation.

I cannot tell you how many issues the Democratic Party went “right” on when they should have moved left, but I will mention a few.  Guantanomo….yep, still in place, a very Republican thing to do even though our constitutional amendments mentions things like a right to a speedy trial,  blah, blah, blah, stuff we keep ignoring.  Yep, last I noticed we are still fighting two stupid wars and not to mention spending lots of money there.  We could really use a “left” move there.  Health care…..people have labeled it “Obama Care” which does kind of piss me off as they did the same thing with Hillary.  However, it’s a shitty plan that didn’t even consider “single payer” or the “public option”.  I could go “Blah, blah, blah, again!”  They definitely should have gone “left” on this one.  If they had educated the masses on what these two ideas really mean, I think most people would get it.  I’ve had conversations with Republican friends that don’t cringe when I talk about it, so I know it’s all possible.  Education!  Oh, yeah, we now have “merit pay”!  It’s unbelievable that this was brought in under a Democratic president.  Merit pay has always been “union busting” talk from where I stand.  They definitely should have gone left on that one.  There is always that pesky question of who determines what is meritorious!  This could be a great opportunity to bring in Joe Blow’s kid when he graduates from college.  You know Joe Blow, the guy that sits on the school board.  If his kid needs a job, I’m sure we can make room for him.  There must be some teacher we don’t really like that is a bit of a “rabble rouser”, you know, not a “team” player, that we can get rid of for their less than stellar performance.  Wow, definitely should have gone left on that one!   Now here is a real “right” move that should scare a lot of “lefties”.  President Obama has sanctioned the killing or assassination of an American citizen.    http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/30/assassinations/index.html

I really think they should have gone left on that one.  I cannot even fathom a real Democrat doing this.  It’s like were in some kind of strange new world.  Most people don’t even know about this because it’s not really out in the main stream press.  As you can see, I could go on and on about the fact that the Democratic Party with President Obama at the helm has definitely moved right instead of left.  This is why he is losing so many of us out in the real world.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/09/president_obama_criticizes_the.html

Many question the Tea Party movement.  I know some of it is fired up by Republicans but there are a lot of people that are angry out here that just don’t understand what is going on with our country.  They thought they were going to get this big “CHANGE” when all they go was some shitty t-shirt.

I guess the “Yes, We Can” ones really meant we CAN be more like Republicans!  We are left hoping a real Democrat will start leading.  The mistake has been that swing to the right when I think we should have swung to the left.

Most Americans simply want government out of their lives.  I thought it was interesting a few weeks ago when I heard Tom Hartman refer to a Libertarian as a conservative Republican that wants to be able to smoke dope and get laid.  I thought it was funny when I heard it, but it resonated with me because most people are far more liberal on social issues than many of them even realize.  Most people just don’t want you or the government “in their face” telling them how to live.  Even those Tea Party people could fall under this category.  For all of the talk about those social issues like gay marriage and abortion, the real concern is money.  If those Tea Party people and the rest of America had jobs and the economy was booming they wouldn’t be so interested in those other issues.  Those “wedge” issues have been used for years by both parties to keep us apart in our vision for the country.  This keeps the masses wrapped up in these social issues that become almost like a bait and switch.  People think they are voting for one thing and then they get something else.  It’s a game these two parties are playing as they both are “right” of center.  There is no “left”.  When I’m saying President Obama and the Democratic Party should have moved left, they are “playing’ us and telling us that it just isn’t possible because the Republicans are such obstructionists.

The truth is the Republicans are obstructionists but both parties want it that way.  They really are working for the corporations, not us.  They are trying to privatize every piece of government they can get their hands on so their buddies, you know their “real” constituents can make more money.  The public school as we know it is done.  Both parties have done everything they could to get private companies in the schools.  These are “for profit” companies.  They only care about the bottom dollar.  This has happened in our defense spending as well.  It’s across the board in every area of government from the federal to the state.  My son lives in Illinois.  They have private companies that sell the license for your vehicles.  It’s expensive.  Look at all the toll roads that have been sold to private companies.  This has been slowly happening.  Our government is serving these special interests so they can make more money while the rest of us are treated like serfs to the kingdom!

If this country is going to revolutionize and get back to what we really stand for someone has to convince the masses that as much as we all think we are so different, we are really alike.  You know the stuff about how the Tea Party people are “crazy” and those “lefties” are just a bunch of left over “Hippies” crap, that’s used to divide us.  I bet we have more in common than we realize.  If we could ever get together and talk and realize that as much as we think we are different, we are the same, we could maybe take back our country!  I cannot sit by and watch my party of my youth, the Democratic Party, become such an elitist, narrow party for the corporations without screaming my head off about how crazy it is that we have come to this!  We the people are Tea Party and Lefties.  We all want the same things.

We want to be able to raise our children in a place we can be proud of where they can grow to adulthood in peace, get a good education without it costing a life of servitude to the banks, be able to get a job that pays a living wage, have health care without going bankrupt over some terrible disease, have our personal freedoms kept safe, and always have the constitution to protect our differences.  The two parties have used everything they could to divide us but most of all it is FEAR.  We must stand up and embrace our differences so that we can actually sit down and have a real discussion about how to repair the problems in our country.  These two parties work hand in hand to help their corporate buddies.  They play games with us and keep us separated.  I have conservative family members.  They think very different than I do.  I know in reality we all want the same thing.  It’s all about everything I mentioned above.  I’m tired of being played and the Democratic Party should have moved left when they went right.  It’s all a game and the American people have been kept “stupid” about the game that’s really being played.

Republicans and Democrats that are our elected officials are largely corporatists.  They both are more concerned with keeping corporations happy then serving the needs of their true constituents.  The corporations in the meantime have inserted themselves in every aspect of our lives including our schools.  As a country we are really left of center, we just don’t know it yet!  Whether we are from the Tea Party crowd or liberal America, we are not being served well by the people that we voted into power.  Their master is business.  We should all be alarmed by how we are systematically being told that things will run better if they are run like a business.  This includes our government and even our education system.  The business class, you know the corporations have taken over our voting process.  They have given us dumb and dumber to vote for and we just keep on fighting with each other trying to convince each other that we are right.  We have no real power any more.  Business has it all and they will keep it as long as we keep voting and putting in their people.

Right now there are some rich business people running for governor across our country.  In my own state of Michigan we have the business guy that refers to himself as the “nerd”, Rick Snyder, who wants to come in and treat the government like a business.  I guess we’ll be seeing government jobs outsourced to China and India pretty soon if these guys get in!  We have been programmed to think that everything should be run like a “business”, so we are all buying into this stuff without really thinking about it.  It probably started with Reagan but it has been continued by both parties.

The Democratic Party can’t hear us because they are too busy listening to their master, the corporations.  The Republican Party has the same master.  As much as these two parties try to tell us one is left and one is right, they are both corporate.  They keep us in a state of confusion and fighting about right and left.  Democrats think Tea Party people are crazy wing-nuts and Republicans think people like me have a screw loose.  We need to realize, as I have said, we all want the same things.  We aren’t going to get it with these two parties as they are currently made up.  We must change them before it is too late and we end up looking like some third world country without a pot to piss in and a window to throw it out.  We are falling off a cliff but we’re holding on by a thin tread just from our sheer stubbornness and will to survive.  We want what is our right.  This includes the “pursuit of happiness” which we will never have until the heavy yoke of the corporate master is removed from our two political parties.  Democratic Party can you hear me now?  Do you know what I’m thinking?  There are a lot of dissatisfied Democrats out here wondering what in the hell happened to our party.  You have to start listening to us or we may end up voting for some crazy Tea Party person just to spite you!

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September 11th and Liberty

  • Posted on September 11, 2010 at 2:09 pm

It’s hard for me to wrap my mind completely around September 11th memorial celebrations.  I didn’t have anyone that perished in the towers or on the planes.  I don’t even know anyone that knows someone that did lose someone. That being said, I just want to say I think these times have been used this year mostly for political reasons.  The build up to the memorial celebrations have seen a month of anti Islamic sentiment seen all over our country.  This too, I see as political.  This November the Republicans are expected to take control of Congress.

The reason for all of this is not exactly clear.  They certainly aren’t being “rewarded” for their competency as they have done nothing the past two years.  We could say Democrats may lose for their lack of competency as well as they have managed to spend a lot of time on everything but the most important issue, jobs and the economy.  One thing is clear about both of these parties.  They both use September 11th as a time when they can declare their love of country and determination to one again feel the pain of every American and attempt to draw us all back into a time of “unity”.

However, there is no unity for the unemployed or those first responders suffering without complete benefits and recognition for giving their “best” to their country.  Politicians grab the spotlight and shine it on themselves in an attempt to garner votes and goodwill for largely their own purposes.  Behind the scenes are innocent Americans waiting for their unemployment check, a job or hoping their cancer treatments will work and if not, their country will step up and secure their family’s future.

I have to admit September 11th is still a mystery to me.  I remember when it happened.  I was in my classroom with my middle school students.  Our school principal got on the loud speaker and wanted us all to turn on our television sets.  Everything I witnessed at that time seemed very surreal, like it really wasn’t happening.  I think we all were in a state of shock.  I remember they announced that as many as 50,000 people may have died.  Over the course of the years since that time the amount of people that died has been stated to be around 4000, then 3000, and today on CNN as 2752.  The reason I mention the number is that it was used to really prepare us for war.  The higher the number, the angrier we became about being “attacked”.  Imagine my surprise today at the “new” number I heard.  I acknowledge the fact that if you lost someone, the number doesn’t matter.

What’s troubling me about September 11th now is the way that it is being politically put into our psyches as the day of remembrance for all time.  It’s hard to know what to make of all this.  On one side are the conspiracy theory people that think the buildings were imploded and the government played a part in allowing this to happen.  On the other side sits the government and their version that does seem to change as time becomes history.  This is evidenced by the continually changing numbers of victims but also by the continual mind manipulation of the American people.

As a youngster I remember the assassination of President Kennedy.  For me that was a frightening memory that stayed with me for years.  However, we, as a people, were not continually indoctrinated with memorials and tributes that I can recall.  Today with September 11th, I feel that much of the memorial presentations are used through the media to keep us under control.  They serve as a reminder of hatred and who we should continue to hate so we will continue to wage war, even if it is really an “undeclared” war.

Yes, I know the government has labeled it “THE WAR ON TERRORISM”.  However, we have not declared war, so this “war” can go on forever and have no “end”.  We can fight this thing called terrorism and call it a war and keep everyone scared and frightened for as long as the government chooses to do so.  That is kind of scary as we continue to follow rules like sheep that are herded to and fro without questioning any kind of authority.  Ever so often the government has to step in and remind us what we are fighting for because we are a people with a limited attention span.  We aren’t in the middle of the fight, so we tend to forget about Iraq and Afghanistan.  It’s real for the soldiers, their families and the people from both of those countries but for most of us, it does not affect us on a daily basis.  President Bush said we’re fighting them over there, so we don’t have to fight them over here.  Everyone likes that sentiment because no one wants to fight “them” in their backyard.

This past month with all of the crazy anti Islamic sentiment, one thing has been made clear to me.  There are many people in this country that really think the Muslims are going to take over the United States of America and declare “Sharia” law.  When I look up what Sharia law is, I find all kinds of varying information.  I know the people who think the Muslims are taking over the United States have a distinct version of Sharia law that includes anti women and children sentiment.  I know this is why my two brothers think we are in a “Holy War”, a war based on Christians and Muslims.  It seems to me that there is a “right wing” faction that is currently manipulating people through the media to keep their base in a “state of hate” to insure getting that base out to vote.  What they’re voting for is beyond comprehension, returning to power the very Republicans that took us to the brink of disaster with our economy and war.  What is more troubling is the breeding and spreading of this hatred.  We have all heard about the possible book burning that ended up not happening.  This man was nobody, but he was elevated by constant media attention.  On the left people were proclaiming him as being “crazy”.  However, the right wing base now knows what they have to do.  They have to get out and vote.  Vote for the right wingers, the Tea Party people, anyone that fits into the mold that they have carved out as being “right” on the issues.

I’m scared for our country.  September 11th with its self proclaimed “unity” has divided our country completely.  On one side are people like my brothers and on the other side are people that think “they” are crazy.  In between all of this sits the clueless masses that don’t think politics affects them.  They go on with their every day lives doing what they do on a daily basis without any thought given to all of this.  They continue to board planes like sheep.  They will stop and let the police search their cars for no reason.  They do their jobs and pay their taxes and hope that’s enough for serving their country.  They won’t read this.  Most won’t even think beyond what the government has told them to think.  They will live productive lives raising children, working and living life as they see fit.  Maybe they are better off not thinking about all of this, but for me I think about the unemployed.  I think about endless wars.  I think about dishonest, corrupt politicians.  I think about a compromised government.  I think we can be better than we are currently being.  I think about liberty and the cost of doing nothing.  I think about freedom and the price and toll it takes on our country.  Most of all, I think I have as much right as an American to express myself as that crazy Koran burning, nut job, in Florida!

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The Economy of Fear and Scare

  • Posted on September 9, 2010 at 10:26 pm

I’m tired of the same old recycled scare tactics I keep reading and hearing about.  Under President George W. Bush we all had to worry about our neighbors, who could be terrorists.  We spent many years wondering how we might possibly be blown up by some half crazed terrorists that hate us for what we stand for.  If you are a teacher you even helped in this mass indoctrination by jumping through hoops at your school to assure school safety.  You may have had to listen to police officers explain to you how easy it is for a terrorist to enter your school even if you live in the middle of no where land.  In fact you were probably told they like those places the best because it would be so unexpected.  We have been wrapped up in this fear for almost ten years.  In those years we have agreed to be checked and prodded in lines like cattle, scanned like a piece of meat at the grocery store, and put under the watchful eye of “Big Brother” through numerous well placed videos all in an attempt to keep our “freedoms”.

When Bush was in office we all heard about the many color coded terrorist threats.  I cannot even remember what they all mean any more but much like a thermometer as the color went up so did the threat of a terrorist attack.  For as many “second in command” for Osama Bin Laden that we have killed in these two wars, there were always more we were supposed to worry about.  They were like a never ending supply of rats.  Where there was one, there must be many more.

Today we don’t hear so much about this threat.  Now we have new threats, usually related to our health and well being, to worry about.  If we aren’t hearing about eggs and salmonella, Swine flu, or some other disease then we are worrying about bed bugs and other insect carrying diseases.  It’s a good thing they passed the health care bill because by the sounds of it, we should all be ready for an epidemic of mass proportions.  We were all encouraged to get our flu shots, the H1N1 and the regular one because we were all going to be falling down in the streets dying like flies.  A few years ago we were even worrying about “SARS”.

This all makes me think about fear.  FDR always said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  The truth is we have everything to fear in a society filled with fear mongering.  The government has tried everything they could to keep the masses under control.  They did a pretty good job using the churches for this for many years, but since most people don’t go to church on a regular basis any more, the churches haven’t been doing the best job of keeping us compliant and complacent.  In comes mass media to make sure we are kept on our toes about the next big thing to fear.  If we are kept fearful we are less apt to make any waves.  It just makes sense that we aren’t going to rock any boats about much of anything, if we fear everything.

Today I would have to say most people are fearful about the economy and what the future holds for them.  This type of fear is really powerful because it can even get normally powerful unions to bow to the acceptance of nothingness.  No, don’t make any waves because the next wave could be the loss of your job.  We will be compliant little workers doing what we’re told and jumping through hoops to do the best darn job we can do.  We will make ourselves irreplaceable, even though that just isn’t possible, by working harder for less and pretending to love every minute of our self proclaimed diet of hard work.  We will be compliant and complacent because we saw what happened to the last guy that opened his mouth and said something.  This economy is good for business because it makes sheep out of workers.  George Bush always had the philosophy that expected more but paid less.  This is what has happened in our society.

With so many people out of work or working at a job that is beneath their skill set, many are left just hanging on and working hard to be productive workers.  This is good for business.  Business gets far more from their workers when the workers are afraid of losing their jobs.  No one wants to be the last one, because the future is so unsure.  It also helps if you have friends in high places.  This is a good time to “know someone” on the inside.  Nepotism is the wave for any job opening today.  It can get your foot in the door even if you aren’t the most qualified person for the position.  However, you will usually still have to do the job once you get it.  None of this sounds fair and of course it’s not good for the worker because the worker is stuck just taking what he can get.  It makes it a tough time to ask for a raise or any increased benefits because you’re going to hear that old line about how times are tough.  You know they’re tough as you’ve been living those tough times.

This is the state of our economy.  It is the economy of fear.  The government wants to keep us compliant and complacent.  We can’t mass protest anything that really matters these days because what really matters is putting food on the table for your family.  No one wants to draw attention to themselves to the point where they may lose their job, so any real protests are going to have to be done by the unemployed.

While all of this is happening, the government continues to tell us our children are not educated.  Our children won’t be able to compete in the future because they don’t know enough science and math.  We are living in a global economy, so our technology jobs have to go to India where they are so much more educated.  This once again is                  indoctrination.  Our children have to stay in school because there are no jobs for them.  When they graduate from college they usually have to take a job that is beneath their ability, so they can pay for their student loans.  They may go to grad school because they can’t find adequate work.  They may go work in the family business because face it, that family business is going to take care of their own first.  It is difficult for young people today.  If they go to college, they may not find adequate work and if they don’t go to college they obviously won’t find adequate work.

So what is the answer to all of this gloom and doom about the economy and fear of everything?  I admit I don’t necessarily know the answers.  However, I do know when something smells foul, it probably is spoiled.  When the government and the mass media continually beat that dead horse about young people being uneducated, I will continue to put on my thinking cap and think about what might really be happening.  There is a shortage of jobs right now and every year young people are graduating from high school and college looking for work.  If the old were to retire earlier then there would be more jobs.  That was part of the philosophy here in Michigan when incentives were made for early retirement for teachers this past year.  Of course the government ended up putting the cost of this onto the backs of employed teachers by requiring them to pay 3% more into their retirement without any included benefit for that “tax”.

Many economists have falsely claimed that social security is broken, needs fixing, etc.  They of course want to privatize it.  There are easy fixes involved for this by taking the cap off social security but also instead of requiring workers to work longer, there could be incentives made to retire earlier.  If that happened, maybe there would be more work for young people.  Now, I’m just throwing this stuff out there because the mass media seems to do a good job of throwing enough crap at us until something sticks, so I thought I’d play that game as well.

The government hasn’t been able to find a way to solve this economic problem that we are facing.  We need to think about other alternatives to getting our economy moving again.  If people retired earlier, they would spend some of that retirement money and get it back into the economy.  They’d take trips, maybe buy a second home and of course have to furnish that home.  All of this would tie into getting this economy moving again.  The young people would also be spending money and buying homes and having families because they have a JOB and can now be productive citizens of society.  Too often the government is worried about giving anything to the masses, so they probably won’t consider my plan.  They’d rather spend all the money on bailouts for banks and corporations; you know their “peeps”.  However, if you took that money that was used to bailout the banks and had given it back to the people, I bet there would have been more movement with the economy.  My son bought a place because of the tax incentive.  His dad bought a car because of the tax incentive.  Those were incentives that helped some people but of course not those without jobs.

I think we need to look at this picture a whole different way.  We must find a way to get out of this recession, depression or whatever the government chooses to label it.  All I know is this is a bad time for our country and we need to find answers that work.  Some will say my idea is crazy but at least it’s an idea.  Lately, it seems like those in government just aren’t doing anything at all and hoping the problem will heal itself or will simply go away.  I don’t think that is going to happen.  One thing the government needs to stop is all of the fear mongering.  I’m tired of being told to fear everything from my neighbors to the food I eat to even my job.  If we are to solve our economic problems we are going to have to work together for the good of all.  That means Democrats and Republicans need to quit playing these “fear” games and start pushing programs that will benefit the economy.  This doesn’t mean tax cuts for the wealthy either.  We have to pay for these two wars that have been unfunded and we have to boost the economy.  That isn’t going to happen with cutting those taxes.

So my basic idea is to give incentives for early retirement for Social Security.  It is the opposite of course from what we are being programmed to think!  This is plain and simple enough in its concept, but of course we would have to remove the cap on Social Security so those making much more money would be expected to pay more into it.  When Social Security was originally developed it was used to help take care of the elderly and of course provide more jobs for the young through the retirement of the elderly and the administration of the program.  This would be the same concept as before.  We are at a time in our history when people are struggling.  Some people that are unemployed are very close to retirement age, but not close enough.  We could lower the age for those people or we could give incentives for people that are older, so they don’t have to wait until they’re 70, to get enough money to live on.  We have been bleeding jobs out of our country for years.  If people are expected to work longer and longer until they’re 70 or so, how on earth can we, as a country, make up the jobs that need to be replaced?  If the old are expected to keep working, we will continue to struggle with providing enough jobs for everyone.  In a perfect world the same amount of people that retire are replaced with new workers.  In our world, we are expected to work longer for less.  Young people are magically expected to find some new job that probably doesn’t exist in our country.  If we had a growing economy, this might be possible, but as it is right now we are not creating enough jobs to fill these needs and of course many of our jobs have gone overseas.  I personally think this could help a lot of people from the young to the old.  Of course the people making the big salaries will have to pay more for this to happen.  I think it’s time for the wealthy of this country to ask not what this country can do for them, but what they can do for our country!

http://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html

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Dating Politics 101

  • Posted on September 4, 2010 at 11:20 am

The Republican and Democratic Parties remind me of dating.  You’ve been dating a couple guys for awhile now but it’s time to get serious.  One guy seems nice enough.  He takes you to all the right places.  He wines and dines you and you feel special but alas, when the credit card bill comes, you realize you’ve been footing the bill.  The other guy takes you to fun places too, but you’re a little worried that he’s spending over his limit.  It seems almost too good to be true.  There’s something a little off about both of these guys but you can’t quite put your finger on it.

Meanwhile, you’re busy trying to keep these two guys separated because if one finds out about the other, the jig is up.  Any way you look at it, this is a dishonest relationship.  If you sneak around and go dancing with the Republican Party, you are going to pay in the morning.  He isn’t apt to forgive you for fooling around with a “Democrat”, so you better get used to the dirty looks and “God fearing” lecture you’re going to get.  And trust me; you will get a lecture, just like your dad gave you when you backed that car up into the mailbox.  You are going to hear every tirade in the book about “responsibility”.   We all know what “superficial responsibility” is.  It’s that responsibility “word” Republicans always use when they talk about “personal responsibility”.  It seems like a Republican always has that mantra of “When in Rome do as the Romans do, just don’t get caught.”  Personal responsibility means you talk about living with a moral compass and God being your guide but secretly you could be dating your next wife while your current poor wife is in the hospital with cancer. JUST DON’T GET CAUGHT!  Now, if he does get caught, he will need to have his “come to Jesus” moment and beg for forgiveness.  After all the American people are pretty stupid but they do like to forgive those that come crawling back for their vote.  If you date the Republican long enough you might start thinking like he does.  When you catch yourself berating the poor bloke that can’t find a job by telling him to “pick himself up by the bootstraps”, you will know that some of those Republican ways are rubbing off on you.

In the end, after all of the dating, you will get the bill.  It will be in your tax statement filed under “personal responsibility” after the November election.  While you’re busy figuring out what went wrong with the relationship, he’ll be off making sure to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.  He’ll soon forget you as in reality he was really into Bush in the first place.  That’s his first love.  Then he’ll go to work on social security and of course try to privatize it as he never saw a government program that couldn’t use a little privatization.

Dating the Democrat hasn’t been any easier on you.  You thought you knew what you were getting.  You thought you could count on that guy.  He seemed so clean cut and all American.  What’s not to love?  However, you’ve been living a nightmare trying to figure out who this guy is.  On one hand he seems to be really into you, but sometimes you catch him giving a glancing eye at that Republican girl friend of yours.  It could be your imagination but you’re kind of wondering if something is up between the two of them.  You aren’t used to guys that don’t give you their undivided attention on a date.  He acts like he’s really into you until that Republican friend of yours walks in and sits down.  Boy does he show her a lot of attention.  You can’t quite figure out if he secretly is a Republican or he just admires them”?  What could it be?

You are so confused by all of this but a decision has to be made by November.  Do you dance with the guy that brought you to the party or do you take off with the new guy.  You really wish you had another choice but alas you know that third guy just couldn’t swing the vote.  So you sit down and go through your priorities.  If you vote for the Republican, you know you’re going to get screwed because he has to pay for extending the Bush tax cuts some way and if you vote for the Democrat well, at least, hopefully, he won’t extend those tax cuts.  Now, he still could extend the tax cuts because he still keeps eyeing your Republican girlfriend.  However, you are hopeful that he’ll leave your social security alone.  This decision is so bad.  With the Republican, you know what you are going to get and with the Democrat, you’re not exactly sure what you’re going to get.  However, you know that he won’t be quite as bad as the Republican.  So vote for and dance with the Democrat and hope he stops eyeing your Republican girl friend!

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The Real John Boehner

  • Posted on August 25, 2010 at 3:47 pm

So my brother was offended by a piece I wrote a few days ago and he said I should look up the word “diatribe”.  To humor him I did and decided I would write a real “diatribe”.  (As a noun:  A forceful bitter verbal attack against someone or something.)  Well, hello Representative John Boehner!  Welcome to my version of a diatribe about you!  If you don’t know who John Boehner is he is a representative from the 8th district in Ohio and he is the current House Minority Leader.  If the Republicans have their way in November he is expected to become Speaker of the House.

Now to the juicy stuff!  This is something “snarky” (Oh there’s that word again.) that Lynn Samuels said about him on Sirius left radio the other day.  I thought it was hilarious.  She was talking about Area 51 and Roswell.  Someone phoned into her show and they were saying how some people think there are aliens living among us.  She referred to Rep. John Boehner and his eerily non human form and skin color.  For all of you that haven’t noticed he has the strangest tan around, sometimes he appears quite orange on the talk show circuit.  He’s the current threat to the Democrats.  You know he’s a threat when the next talk show I’m listening to is “Big Eddy” and he’s talking about John as well.  “Big Eddy” is my loving term for Ed Schultz.  Big Eddy played a commercial on his program against Boehner that was pretty funny.  Big Eddy said he was thinking of playing it every day.  This was on the radio so I thought I’d find that commercial on You Tube to see what it was like.

The commercial is put up on You Tube by the Blue America Pac.  It is “priceless”!  When I was listening to Big Eddy he went on to talk about golfing and Boehner’s huge amount of time devoted to it.  Big Eddy loves golf himself so I know much of what he was saying is probably true.  He said for a guy to play golf a hundred or so times a year means he must be thinking about it all the time.  He’s talking about it with his friends and frankly he isn’t doing the work of the American people.  I frankly can’t see how Boehner’s constituents continue to vote for him.  Here is another commercial by the National Sierra Club.

If you look at his votes for 2010 you can see why many people have labeled the Republican Party the party of “No” as most his votes are “NO”.  However, I did notice that he voted “Yes” for a “Congressional Cost of Living Pay Increase” in April of this year.  I wish I could vote myself a cost of living pay increase.  Don’t you?  By the way, the Ohio unemployed might like to know that he voted against extending unemployment benefits in the same year he voted to increase his own pay.  In the same month he voted for his pay raise he had a “NV” which means not voting for extending unemployment benefits.  He made sure he was there to vote for his own pay but either skipped voting or wasn’t even present to vote for his unemployed constituents!  Some of us would call that a “Dick Move”!  Wow, if you look closer, you will notice he used to vote “Yes” a lot until the Democrats came into power.  So, it is obvious that he is an obstructionist although he does vote for defense spending under the Democrats and Republicans.  There doesn’t seem to be a defense bill he doesn’t like.  Even though we all know there is a lot of waste in defense spending.   Here is Rumsfeld once again looking for that defense money!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rRqeJcuK-A&feature=player_embedded

John also has gone all out in his attempts to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70.  He’s wealthy what does he care?  He can golf a hundred times a year as though he is already “retired”!  While he’s off golfing the work of the American people isn’t getting done!  Raising the retirement age to 70 basically means that you will get less for Social Security because most people aren’t going to be teaching school, policing our towns, or doing any of their jobs until they’re 70.  They will be forced out of their jobs before that and eventually apply for Social Security early and take a big cut.  It’s not hard to see what this is really all about.  John Boehner, like many politicians, doesn’t have to worry about money.  He is a millionaire.  Strangely enough if you look at this chart he is pretty much “average” among house members in income.  That should be telling us something about all of these politicians not just this man.  http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/CIDsummary.php?CID=N00003675&year=2008

I share John’s Catholicism but we are worlds apart in our politics.  John, as a Catholic, could never speak for me but it does explain his abortion issue voting.  It doesn’t necessarily explain his defense record as Catholics are taught social justice and solving things in a manner like Jesus which involves making peace.

Most of his voting record is tied to business, corporations and special interests.  He is continually pushing to extend the tax cuts while calling for cutting the deficit.  His thinking isn’t truly logical as it is a proven fact that the tax cuts for the wealthy haven’t helped our country.  If they had helped, we probably wouldn’t be in the shape we are in right now.  Those tax cuts came in with Bush and are earmarked to go out at the end of this year.  Many might want to ask themselves that age old question.  Are you better off today than you were in 2000?  Some people may be better off.  Many are obviously not as they fight foreclosures on their homes and battle to keep their jobs.  The extension of these tax cuts will probably only lead to a higher deficit unless we cut something else.

Boehner never saw a defense bill he didn’t like, so I expect he would cut any entitlement program he can get his hands on.  This can include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and even things like unemployment benefits.  It can also include things like school lunches, aid to public schools, financial aid to college students but trust me it won’t include tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.  If John gets to be Speaker of the House while most of us will be balancing our budgets deciding what to do in the coming year, John will be busy dismantling health care reform, extending the Bush tax cuts and cutting programs for the least among us.

Ohio voters from Boehner’s district need to think long and hard about voting for this man that takes care of himself by voting for increased pay to himself as well as golfing more than any man I know.  In Sturgis there are plenty of golfers.  I don’t know anyone that has the time to get out and golf like John unless they are super wealthy or are retired and live on a golf course!

If you consider yourself to be middle class and you want someone to vote for your best interests check out this website.   http://www.themiddleclass.org/legislator/john-boehner-31?gclid=COub1_ud1aMCFUcz5wodQQHXuQ

He has an 8% rating based on his votes from 2009.  Now all of us know that 8% is failing.  If he is failing the middle class, he’s probably failing you and me or at least his constituents in Ohio!  It’s time for people to stop listening to the rhetoric this man puts out on the TV news talk show circuit and really look at the man.  He hasn’t lived up to the hype.  It’s time to give a Democrat a chance to do something for Ohio.

Boehner recently called for the resignation of Obama’s economic team.  I have my own problems with Obama’s team as well.  However, it is disingenuous of Boehner to conclude that the current problem is generated by Obama’s team alone.  It was the Republicans that brought us to the brink of disaster but this disease has infected both parties.  No one has said it better than George Carlin (May he rest in peace.) in this clip from one of his stand up routines.  George has colorful language so if that is offensive to you take more offense to the politicians that are “sticking” it to you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GseyaEibb_4

So, when you are thinking about voting, try voting out the money and start with Representative John Boehner.  If you aren’t convinced how to vote, just check out this post on politico.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29881.html

The politician/golfer is busy spending his PAC money on none other than GOLFING!

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Have You Taken Your Hate Pill Today?

  • Posted on August 21, 2010 at 9:08 pm

You have a choice to make: Hate and fear or more of the same. This is not an easy choice.

I’ll be the first one to tell you I have no love for the Democrats because they stole my primary vote on May 31st, 2008.  However, as much as I dislike the Democrats the Republicans are infinitely worse!  If you are thinking of voting those Republicans back in power really give some thought to what it would mean to the health of this country.  They are political obstructionist that won’t pass any legislation that might get this country moving again.  They deserve to be booted out of office, period!  If you are thinking about voting for a Republican just watch this video from the 2008 election.  It’s pretty snarky but pretty true.  Think about poor BP when you watch this as some Republicans felt so sorry for them.

When Ronald Reagan was President my mother used to say, “Have you taken your hate pill today?”  The Republicans were always good at breeding hatred.  They like stirring that proverbial pot of hatred and fear.  With the up coming November election I find it very interesting that we are discussing everything except what needs to be discussed, the economy.  This past week is a fine example of the smoke and mirror politics that continues to prevail in our country.  While most people are more concerned about the health of the economy, we are busy hearing talk about September 11th and whether a Muslim cultural center should be built a couple blocks from the World Trade Center site, whether President Obama is a Muslim and whether we should repeal the 14th amendment.  I, for one, am tired of the same old scare tactics that Republicans have always used to get people in line to vote for them in the next election.

The truth is both parties have problems but Republicans brought us to the brink of disaster and it is not time to reward them for that behavior.  It was Republican policies that lead us to this disastrous economy.  We have been told for years by Republicans that old tired theory of the “trickle down” economy.  We, as a country, have been rewarding the wealthy with tax breaks and special deals in the hope that one day all of it would trickle down to the little guy.  That hasn’t happened and it never will.  Republicans are good at changing the subject during an election cycle.  Currently, we should be talking about ways to move the economy and what are we doing?  Once again we are spreading hate and fear with the help of Republicans.  It’s popular now to hate Muslims.  After all they have that crazy religion and the women all look like nuns so it’s easy to pick on them.  We also hate those cute little brown babies the illegal Mexicans give birth to just so they can stay in this country.  You know the “anchor babies”.  I wonder how long those Repubs set around thinking that one up. President Obama must be a Muslim after all his skin is dark, his father was a Muslim and his name is so different.  What if the President really were a Muslim?  What happened to freedom of religion?  Many people could care less about religion but when it comes to politics it becomes an issue.

The Republicans breed hatred and fear.  They have hated gays for years and have done everything they could to obstruct gay rights issues during the political campaign seasons.  There are many gays that are practicing Republicans such as the “Log Cabin Republicans” but in my book they are all hypocrites that help to breed hatred and fear.  The abortion issue has been settled law since 1973.  It’s about a woman’s “choice” and yet this issue has been continually used by the Republicans to get votes.  They aren’t interested in really repealing the issue as it is settled law but they are interested in getting people riled up so they go out and vote Republican.

FDR famously said, “The only thing you have to fear is fear itself.”  Republicans want you to fear everything so you will vote for them to take care of you.  We are to fear our neighbors because they might be Muslims, illegal aliens, or heaven forbid “terrorists”!  We are supposed to watch each other like psychos on the “Big Brother” show but this big brother is the government of Republicans.  We are also to fear the government as it is bad.  The government doesn’t know how to do anything.  They fail at everything they do including education so naturally you don’t want the government to do anything.  This is the plan of the Republicans.  Fear the government but make sure you keep those tax cuts for the wealthy because if you don’t you will lose your job when they fire you.  Fear that dumb voters!  Hate brown colored people and crazy pro-choice women but most of all hate Democrats because they want to tax you and take your money away.  Republicans breed hatred and fear.  I’m a positive person.  I don’t hate and I refuse to fill my life up with fear.  I know the Democrats aren’t much better than the Republicans but at least they don’t breed hatred and fear.  I can live with that.

I just had to add this today to this post!  I guess I’m not the only one that thinks the Republicans are the party of hate!

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Women, Power and True Liberation

  • Posted on July 28, 2010 at 4:03 pm

Woman of Liberty

It can be a great time to be a woman but all that has happened in both politics with Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, in the media with Mel Gibson and his wife, and in the entertainment business with the antics of women like Lady Gaga I have been questioning the direction and movement of women’s liberation.  I have concluded that while it may appear that women have come a long way, there is much more to do to secure true liberation.

When I was a young woman in the seventies I remember this “bacon” commercial for Enjoli.

It actually is pretty silly.  Women were supposed to have it all and be it all.  Women and men expected a lot from women.  This commercial says we can have it all and our man too, as long as we can still cook, clean, take care of him and still look and smell wonderful!  Women’s liberation was all the talk.  We knew we were going to pass the equal rights amendment.  It was our time, or was it?  Civil rights legislation had passed so it was our turn, right?  Between Roe vs. Wade and the sexual revolution the times had to be changing.  During the seventies Title IX was passed.

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance…

—United States Code Section 20

So of course the equal rights amendment would pass too.  To my surprise the equal rights amendment was never passed.  It needed 38 states to ratify it.  It fell short by three states.  http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/ Many are still hopeful that it can be passed!

In my opinion the seventies were a time of real growth for women through education and their own spiritual awakening.  I grew up in a large family of 14 children.  I had much more opportunity in the seventies than my two sisters that were ten and twelve years older than me had in the sixties.  I knew I was going to college.  That thought wasn’t as clear for my sisters.  Part of it was probably because I was the youngest of those 14 children.  My parents were teachers through much of my real formative years and part of it was that my parents were financially better off in the seventies as opposed to the sixties.  However, a big part of it was because of the expectations of young women in the early sixties were different than in the early seventies.  The seventies also was a time of absolute turmoil with the Watergate scandal and the oil embargo.  However, it was a time when I was able to discover art and who I am as a person.

I went to Michigan State University and I had more freedom than I had ever known as a small town girl growing up in Kingston, Cass City and Maple City.  I met many different people from very different cultures than my own and I learned about tolerance, acceptance and understanding.  These really are the backbone of what I believe as a person today.  We are not all the same and that is the beauty of the human race.  I learned to embrace other people and to try and keep my mind open to the possibility that I wasn’t always “right” about everything.  MSU was a Utopian society for me.  Even though it was actually going through a crime spree of rapes during some of the time I was there, I was kept blissfully dumb about most of what was going on with that type of stuff.  I was ever the optimist and thought this was what the real world is all about.  The Utopian society of college where everyone wants to learn and the mind is like a sponge was where I was at.  I felt like I was doing something big, something real.

The real world is not the utopian college world of the seventies.  In the real world women were still subjected to the same degradation with commercials and advertising and general life that has always been present.  Today it seems like a lot of women are working but not because they are seeking their life dream but out of necessity for the family good.  Unfortunately, women are still getting paid less than their male counterparts.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/38281/20100726/wage-discrimination-by-gender.htm

http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/panelists/2010/07/pink-ghettos-fighting-for-equal-pay.html?hpid=talkbox1

For men this is also a problem because with the current economy it is cheaper to hire women than men!

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/breadwinner-role-for-one-woman-in-three-but-pay-gap-at-its-widest-1.1042404

I’m also perplexed by the modern woman image that is often portrayed in advertising, movies, etc.  The modern woman of today is still very much dependent on her visual appeal to a man.  The modern woman is beautiful, fit and oh so sculpted by surgery and botox treatments.

The modern woman is a poor sister to the seventies woman as the modern woman has grown up thinking that she is absolutely equal in the eyes of the law and everyone else when the truth has so many more deceptive layers.  The modern woman is still subject to the same forms of degradation that her ancestors faced.  http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/herstory/herstory.html

Women may think they have come a long way and perhaps in some ways they have but in the area of abuse, power and control I think “We have miles to go before we sleep.”  Women are still subject to the laws made by men.  In our country where women make up 50.7% of the population we are still far behind in our political representation.  http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/05/18/comparison-of-percentage-of-women-in-state-legislatures-2008/

Some may think I am being picky here but it is time for women to be given the same rights as men.  The only way this can really be accomplished is through political representation.  As long as men are writing the laws from a man’s perspective, some areas that pertain to women will always be overlooked.  Politics is powerful.  There has to be a reason that politicians will raise millions of dollars for a seat that pays much less than the cost of running for it.  As much as we hear about all of the altruistic reasons these politicians run for office, the truth is politics is powerful and it is a magnet for money and more power.  Men have known this for years.  Women haven’t given enough thought about running for office for a variety of reasons.  Maybe they’re too busy raising their children or maybe they don’t have the confidence to run for office but it is time for women to stand up and be counted in the political arena.

If we are ever going to have the first woman president, we must engage more women in the political process.  Otherwise, that glass ceiling will never truly be broken.  I learned a lot during the 2008 election.  Both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin were subjected to systematic abuse by the media and even other politicians.  I don’t know why men are afraid of these women but it was pretty evident throughout the election cycle.  Both Chris Matthews and Tucker Carlson were afraid of a Hillary Clinton presidency.  I remember Tucker talking about crossing his legs in reference to Hillary.  I guess he thought she was one “castrating bitch”.  Chris wasn’t any better and of course he had such a fondness for Barack that he had a special “tingle” up his leg.  He also said on many occasions that Hillary wouldn’t be where she is today if it wasn’t for her husband.  He never once thought about the fact that Bill might not have been president if it wasn’t for Hillary.   Hillary was referred to being a “bitch” so many times that I have lost count and we all heard so much about her “cankles”.  Where Palin was concerned there was much emphasis on her looks and many sexual innuendos were made in regards to that.  She had her legs photographed sans her body.  I cannot imagine a man being photographed that way.  Men on the other hand can be bald, fat and ugly and still run for office and make it.

This is such a double standard that it is not hard to understand why many women may fear running for office.  However, I believe until we get that proper representation we will always still be second class citizens in many ways.  I hope there are women out there that are brave and willing to step up and run for office.  We must support these women as they run for office.  We must have true representation in our political system.  It cannot be a “good old boys” club that is unattainable by women.  In order for true equality we must win in politics as well as our own personal lives.  I encourage everyone to support women in politics.  They are your mothers, wives, sisters, friends but most of all they are your equal even if the law doesn’t fully recognize this.



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Sarah, Sarah, Sarah

  • Posted on April 22, 2010 at 2:40 pm

When I first heard about Sarah Palin during the 2008 election I had much curiosity.  I had been bullied by the Democratic Party during the primary, so I kept an open mind about Sarah.  When the Democrats started treating Sarah much like they treated Hillary Clinton I became even more curious.  I found myself drawn to her for many reasons.  When the Democrats made fun of her down to earth attitude and folksy voice I was amused.  No she didn’t have an “ivy league” pedigree but I kept thinking “thank God”.  I’m really tired of the attitude the Democrats have taken against these two strong women, Sarah and Hillary.  I found Sarah to be a breath of fresh air, someone that seemed willing to tell it like it is and not cater to certain groups of people, like wealthy Republicans!  I listened intently to her speeches and found them to be more against corruption than anything else.  This was something I grew to admire as I think there is much corruption in government that leads to government waste.  I even admired the way she held her baby in one hand and managed campaigning with phone calls and all with the other hand.  Fast forward to the Republican convention and this electrifying speech:

I liked what I heard and I was totally annoyed with the Obama team anyway.  I continued to like and to be drawn to Sarah, even after the election.  I continued to follow her and even bought her book, Going Rogue.  I enjoyed the book until I got to the all powerful, all important, Ronald Reagan, section.  I couldn’t believe this woman that I had admired could herself so admire Ronald Reagan.  I kept thinking this must be for her base, you know those crazy Republicans!  I still liked Sarah’s take charge attitude and her willingness to remain a fairly “normal” person.  I could even over look many of her faults and found her interesting even though many of her ideas were diametrically opposite my own.

Recently, I have had to give up on Sarah.  It seems the Sarah that I was drawn to has disappeared and been replaced with a new Sarah.   The new Sarah is more about making her own money than helping others make and keep theirs.  The new Sarah is making crazy statements at Tea Party events that I find terribly troubling.  We live in a violent society.  People that are seemingly at their wit’s end because of the economy or whatever else is ailing them don’t need someone encouraging them to act out with violent actions.  Sarah can say that her words mean something else but most of us see that as just more political double speak.  Words do have meaning and saying things can have an effect on people at their most vulnerable times.  The new Sarah has embraced the most right wing of the Republican Party.  It is unfortunate that the Republican Party has encouraged her behavior because it’s good for their business.  They like the money she can bring in at these events.  They are banking on these Tea Party people voting for them.  Many of those Tea Party people will probably vote Republican but it isn’t because they liked GW and how he spent money.  They are banking on the Republicans becoming more conservative with their money.  However, it defies logic how anyone can view these Republicans as being fiscally responsible.  They bank rolled these two wars on the future taxes of our youngsters.  They’re good at spending money on war and pretty much nothing else.  Sarah speaks with that same old rhetoric when she talks about our soldiers.  She creates this picture of such noble, greatness when the truth is neither of these current wars could possibly be described as being noble or great.  The soldiers are doing their job and sometimes their job requires extreme bravery.  This is noble.  They sacrifice much but the Republicans that put them there are anything but noble.  They would send anyone’s child to war but not their own.  Of course there are exceptions to this.  We know that both Sarah Palin and John McCain have children in the military and are willing to send them off to fight but there are many that had better things to do with their time as Vice President Cheney claimed during the Vietnam War.

I am deeply troubled with the antics of the new Sarah.  I can’t embrace the verbal assault that she continues to make about the Obama administration and the federal government in general.  I want a solution driven Sarah, one with ideas, not violent tinged rhetoric.  As far as the Obama administration goes they have yet to earn my trust.  However, it would be foolish for any American to want them to fail in any way.  We are at the center of a storm.  We must work together creatively for a solution to the problems we face.  Democrats and Republicans should be working together for the common good of our nation.  The economy is in dire straits.  While some of the losses have been recouped from the stock market crash of 2008, much of that wealth has not spread to the little guy.  Sarah has much new found wealth but I fear with her wealth she has lost touch with the rest of us.  I can see that President Obama may be trying to make some changes to the banking industry.  I see this as a plus.  The verdict is still out on his administration but it is still far superior to the Bush years.  Those years have left our nation in a world of hurt.  For anyone to want to revisit those years they would have to be insane!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp89-6_7Zsk

The two parties missed a great opportunity to help our nation during the health care debate.  Instead of real reform we ended up with some washed down version.  People and businesses would have all been better off if this reform had included a single payer option.  The cost of insurance is just mind boggling and I don’t see this changing with this watered down plan.  Sarah was against all of this.  On a personal basis it should be noted that her children and Todd already have health care because they are Native Americans.  Sarah doesn’t have to worry about health care for her children.  Unfortunately, most Tea Party people don’t know this information about Sarah.  When Sarah talks about death panels she omits the death panel that visited my sister that didn’t have health insurance.  My sister had her own death panel when her doctor made it very clear that she wasn’t “worth” much to him.  She didn’t have the true care that she deserved because she didn’t have insurance.  When my sister had insurance she doctored.  When she didn’t, she avoided going because it cost too much.  When she finally was forced to go it was late in her cancer, treatment was expensive and that in itself was a death panel!

I’m no longer looking to politicians for anything insightful.  I thought John Edwards was insightful but he was so busy screwing up his own life that he lost track of that insight.  He was a common man that I thought really cared about me.  John changed.  Sarah had something special.  She had a way of communicating to the common people that made us want to believe that she is one of us and that she cared about us.  She has lost all of this appeal.  She no longer interests me.  She has grown up into a full fledged millionaire that just doesn’t care about us little guys.  The Tea Party people need to figure this out.  Ronald Reagan was never one of us like so many tried to convince us.  George Bush wasn’t one of us either.  These politicians were wealthy people that were powerful and made to look common but were not common.  Sarah was common and powerful now she is wealthy and powerful but she doesn’t really speak the truth of the common person any more.  It is more Republican rhetoric and talking points.  Her power holds no truth and it is dangerous to have power and no truth!

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The State of Michigan Needs Inspiration

  • Posted on March 30, 2010 at 10:00 pm

This is the time of year when schools look at their budgets and program offerings for the coming school year.  At Sturgis Middle school we recently found out about our MEAP scores.  Each year we hold our collective breath waiting for the results.  The MEAP doesn’t follow an individual class through their time in school but focuses on grade level.  This means that scores can go up and down sometimes based on the type of class that is currently being taught.  It has been my experience that some years we have classes that are challenging, usually behavior issues are the problem, and some years we have classes that are exceptional both in their behavior and their ability to pass the MEAP.  This year we all have let out our collective breath with a big “Hooray!” as our scores were very good.  We can only hope these scores will continue to be high in the coming years.  I know that everyone at our school is part of the team to help students pass these tests.  This year students, that needed extra time, were given extra “lab” time with their core teachers.  This was accomplished through much effort by the exploratory teachers.  Exploratory teachers were asked to develop a “split” time class in which they would have students for 25 minutes out of 50 minute period.  This has been a difficult thing to accomplish but exploratory teachers rose to the moment and did what was necessary to help make this program a reality.  Most days classes were normal but some days individual students were kept back for more lab time in math, science, etc.  This can be very challenging for any exploratory teacher working with project based media as the student can fall behind in that class and other students will get bored if they spend too much time waiting for the behind students to catch up.  There are often times teachers are pitted against each other based on being a “core” teacher or an “exploratory” teacher.  Core teachers always get the respect from everyone simply because they are teaching what most people see as being necessary for an education, “reading, writing, and arithmetic.”  Some core teachers see themselves as above exploratory teachers by virtue of their placement of importance in the system.   In my nearly seventeen years of teaching at Sturgis a well rounded education has been of utmost importance to Sturgis school district.  Unfortunately, with the current money problems I think many schools are being forced to make cuts to their programs.  Whether it is art, music, drama or extra curricular programs all will be judged regardless of their merits.  At Sturgis we have been able to maintain our programs.  I believe it helps us with the “school of choice” program but as people flee Michigan for other states where they hope to get a job, the outlook for our school is also dim.  The funding coming from the state is less and less each year while the costs for everything from staff to energy continue to rise.  This is forcing larger class sizes and the reduction of services just like what is happening to our state government.  It’s time for our state to develop some new ideas for funding and for surviving our current crisis in our schools as well as all other aspects of our lives.

Our state is in a crisis that can and has to be fixed.  We need more revenue coming into the state to fix these problems.  Either we must create more employment through industry of some type or we must raise taxes on those that are still here working.  The fact is we are going to see a reduction in services across our state in our schools, road work, police, secretary of state’s offices, and anything else that the state touches, if we don’t do something now.  Many people are tired of being taxed and feel it’s gone far enough but many don’t realize the perilous position the state of Michigan is in.  We have such a beautiful state.  I personally think it’s ridiculous that our state should be in such bad shape.  We have natural resources that are the envy of other states.  We have great universities where people come from all over the world to get their education from.  We have terrific hospitals across our state.  We have so much to offer for recreation all through the year from the lakes in the summer to the skiing in the winter.  Unfortunately, for many years we put all of our eggs in that one basket of the automobile industry.  It’s time for new industry to grow and prosper in Michigan.  I love our state.  I think it is an absolutely beautiful state.  We need to develop our commodities to attract people to the state.  We hear about the problems in Detroit but it isn’t just Detroit.  The problem is all across our state.  If you go to the thumb area it is just as depressed as Detroit.  It’s just a smaller population.  Here is Sturgis we too have lost business and of course the people that work in those businesses.  Yet, we have a beautiful little city that could be doing more to get people to stop and shop here and build our local community.  I find myself running to Coldwater and Three Rivers to get things because we don’t have the stores that those communities have to offer.  I’d like to keep my money local but I’m not willing to shop at the loss of choices in products.

Our current government continues to use the same old tactics and behaviors that they have been exhibiting for the past sixty years.  That is the Republicans want to argue about cutting programs and lower taxes and the Democrats want to maintain programs but don’t have the where with all to create the funding for them.  Neither of these approaches really seems to be working.  We need something new and daring to happen.  The same old politics just isn’t working.  Geoffrey Fieger was on a local television program and he was talking about being “inspired”.  He said, “We need someone that will inspire us.”   I couldn’t remember the last time a politician actually inspired me.  Maybe when I was a kid and learned all about John F. Kennedy I felt inspired.  As an art teacher I know that inspiration can lead to all kinds of wonderful thinking and problem solving.  I think maybe our politicians need to be inspirational to bring out the best in their constituents.  My sister is always talking about the “genius among us”.  These are every day people that come up with fantastic ideas and solutions to problems.  Many of them are over looked as being “kooks” or just flatly ignored but there may be somebody out there with great ideas for our state that is just being ignored and overlooked.  I think maybe our current government needs to go to the people for fresh, new ideas.  We need a suggestion box for the government just like those old suggestion boxes we used to see at restaurants.  Someone in Michigan has a great idea for this state and how to turn it around.  I just don’t think it’s a politician.  He or she may be sitting next to us with a wonderful imagination and a desire for change but not the where with all to make it happen.  The state of Michigan needs to set out the suggestion box to get this conversation moving.  Enough of the fighting over budgets and everything else, it’s time for new ideas for funding this state and developing it to its fullest potential.

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Student Loans and the Cost of an Education or “This is the best day of my life!”

  • Posted on March 13, 2010 at 11:49 pm

I kind of miss the days when my son could get excited about his day.  For many years I could always count on my son to say, “This is the best day of my life!”  These days for Josh happened quite frequently.  They usually happened when he got something he really wanted.  They always made me laugh because each one was the best day of his life.  In recent times I haven’t heard that saying from Josh.  He seems to be mostly preoccupied with student loan debt.  His goal in life is now to be free of his student loan debt.  This will take some time as the cost of college has become astronomical.

I remember when I went to college back in the seventies.  I received my B.F.A. in 1977 and left Michigan State University with $3600 in student loans.  At the time I lamented the fact that I would be paying it off over a period of ten years.  I think I paid something like $41 a month.  It wasn’t a lot whatever it was.  Today our children are swamped with bills that are many times what we paid as young people.  My son has student loans that are way over ten times what I paid.  He had grant and scholarship money but the cost of an education today is enormous.  This is the current information from the University of Michigan where my son went to school:

Estimated Budgets for Fall/Winter 2010-2011 (September – April)

Tuition & Fees* Room Board** Books & Supplies Personal & Miscellaneous Total Budget
Michigan Residents
(In-State)
LOWER DIVISION
(Freshmen/Sophomores)		 $11,659 $5,424 $3,500 $1,048 $2,090 $23,721
UPPER DIVISION
(Juniors/Seniors)		 $13,141 $5,424 $3,500 $1,048 $2,090 $25,203
GRADUATE STUDENTS $17,525 $11,762 $1,192 $4,092 $34,571
Nonresidents
(Out-of-State)
LOWER DIVISION
(Freshmen/Sophomores)		 $34,937 $5,424 $3,500 $1,048 $2,090 $46,999
UPPER DIVISION
(Juniors/Seniors)		 $37,389 $5,424 $3,500 $1,048 $2,090 $49,451
GRADUATE STUDENTS $35,183 $11,762 $1,192 $4,092 $52,229

* Note that the distinction between lower division and upper division is made on the basis of the number of credit hours you have completed (including AP and transfer credits), not on the basis of the number of years you have attended.
**Based on the 150 Block Meal Plan

As you can see the cost of an education at the University of Michigan is tremendous for most working class people.  If you have money or are fortunate to have a lot of scholarship money, this might not seem too bad.  However, if you are like my son, raised by a single parent, but not at the poverty level and not a minority, you will probably graduate with a boat load of debt.

The government isn’t really helping the situation.  At the federal level money to the states has been cut and at the state level states can’t afford their budgets so they are slashing education costs.  This includes the costs to state universities.  Across the country students are protesting the increased costs of tuition.  Many students are staying in school longer and getting graduate degrees because they know there aren’t any jobs for them at this time.  They are delaying the inevitable onslaught of their own demise of student loans.  Hopefully, they will be able to get high paying jobs when they get out as they will need it to pay off their student debt.

The future outlook for these young people is a bit scary in my opinion.  In the teaching field young teachers are really getting the shaft.  They are probably going to end up with a far reduced retirement package just like what they can expect from their social security.  The country keeps borrowing money for these two wars we are involved in to the detriment of our young people.  I imagine many young people today will start their lives out in debt and remain there for most of their lives.

I like to watch HGTV.  I watch shows where young people are buying their first homes.  The amount they are paying for these homes is huge.  I always wonder what jobs these kids have on these shows.  Many put little or nothing down.  The shows were probably filmed awhile ago.  It really explains a lot about what was happening with the housing market in the last few years.  I saw a young teacher just yesterday on a show buy her first house and she had a payment of $1900 a month.  That is totally ridiculous as no young teacher could afford that.  She said something about getting a roommate but it still was a strange show to watch.  I think I know a bit about money and most teachers’ salaries wouldn’t support such an amount.

If young people have huge student loans and outrageous housing costs they are going to have to make tremendous amounts of money to support both of these or live with mom and dad and pay off their student loans.  The days of the sixties are really over.  I have brothers that went to college in the sixties and they had every break in the book when it came to the cost of both their education and housing.  It is this generation that is now retired and living large that is sucking the life out of our young people.  My son can’t get over why old people get a break on everything from free city bus passes to discounts for every other thing in life.  My answer to him is the fact that old people vote.  The government can always count on old people to vote so congress will listen to them.  Old people may be half way in the grave but they will get out and vote unlike the young that may have better things to do that day.  The laws have been written for the old for years.  Of course years ago the aging population was a mess.  Thanks to FDR that has been turned around.  Of course we all know plenty of old people that aren’t living large and that are living from paycheck to paycheck just like most of working America.  Life for them wasn’t as rosy as it was for my brothers.

As Americans it doesn’t do any good to divide all of us and feel resentment to the old or to the youth.  The truth is all people deserve to live without worrying about their jobs, healthcare and wondering how to make enough money to take care of ourselves.  The pursuit of the American dream shouldn’t be so scary that we spend our lives in debtor’s prison paying off our student loans and our house.  My son should be able to say, “This is the best day of my life!” even when he’s twenty six and living on his own.   He and others like him shouldn’t feel the overwhelming weight of endless debt just because he chose to further his education.  An education shouldn’t be just for the wealthy, minorities and the poor.  An education should be for everyone that dreams of the American dream.  If I was making the laws an education would be free for anyone that wanted to learn.  I wouldn’t make an education so expensive that life becomes more about the dream of making money than the dream of true fulfillment.  In my mind an education should be about opening your mind to the possibilities of living a fulfilled life that includes art, music and the humanities.  Life is too short to spend chasing dollar signs and paying off student loan debt.  I know for my son, Josh, he will once again tell me, “This is the best day of my life!” when he is free of the weight of his student loan debt.  Unfortunately, I expect that day to be far into the future!

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