Today’s the day

November 6, 2012 a world of progress, letters, progressive living No comments

Nothing could stop Lucille from being at the polls handing out literature for her sister, Michelle Pace Wood.

I started off the day at Democratic headquarters making phone calls to remind people to get out and vote. Most of the people I spoke to had voted already. One older gentleman happily told me he had voted for the “Obama-rama ticket!”

As with all phone banking, you get lots of hang-ups and some nasty people. I got called a commie-socialist-Marxist Democrat. Another woman told me it was none of my damn business whether she had voted.

But I soldiered through a couple hundred calls before I took the camera out and shot some photos of volunteers outside the polls.

At the Crossroads Assembly Church, the brother of a candidate was there with his infant daughter. On her stroller was a sign asking people to vote for her uncle, Drew Reisinger, for Register of Deeds.

Outside of the next place I went was the sister of Buncombe County Commission candidate Michelle Pace Wood, handing out voter information. She had an injured foot and was hooked up to a machine that was pumping medication into her. She has breast cancer, but today was too important to stay home.

At the third place I went, an elderly veteran in a wheelchair was handing out Republican slate cards.

It was cold and drizzling, but these people braved it because voting is our most precious right as Americans.

At one polling place, a woman volunteering for the Republicans hollered at almost everyone walking in, “Remember your freedoms!”

I’m sure she meant that the Dems would take those freedoms away, but I hollered, “Indeed! And thanks for exercising your freedom to vote!” She and I looked at each other and smiled.

One young man asked whether the Democratic slate card I handed him contained candidates with Christian values. I told him I thought they all did, considering Christ himself placed a great deal of importance on serving the poor and marginalized.

I spent most of my adult life working in newsrooms, not for candidates or for a party on Election Day. It had its benefits, but I feel like I’m making more of a difference answering people’s questions and helping them make decisions.

This election I can talk about the importance of health reform and social programs that help alleviate poverty. I can talk about the benefits of early childhood education and nutrition programs. I can talk about the morality of the decisions made in Raleigh and in Washington and how those decisions affect everyday Americans.

I can debunk myths instead of repeating them as “the other side of the story.”

I still haven’t decided if I’ll join the Democrats at their post-election party or if I’ll go home and watch TV by myself and relax. I think I’m leaning toward the party, though, because this day seems like a holiday to me.

 

The politics of disaster

October 31, 2012 a world of progress, letters, progressive living No comments

This man is not looking for canned peas, Mitt.

Mitt Romney isn’t backing off. He said last spring that the federal government shouldn’t be helping people in cases of disaster. He said it’s immoral, and that he would privatize FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Instead of standing firm in the aftermath of the worst storm ever to hit the Northeast, he just refused to answer questions.

He organized a “disaster relief” rally, where he sold anti-Obama T-shirts and “collected” canned foods for the people affected by the storm (Turns out he bought $5,000 worth of supplies and had people”donate” it back to him). He told the story of how he once helped clean up a football field after a storm, as though that could be compared to what people all along the Northeast Coast are facing. It would have been better if he had just stayed home.

Now, the American Red Cross doesn’t accept clothing or canned goods in the aftermath of a major disaster because people who have just lost everything have no way to open that can of Beanie Weenies, no way to heat it up and no utensils to eat it with.

I have covered major floods and other disasters. I have volunteered to go and help. Believe me, people who came into the Hearts With Hands camp in Ocean Springs, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina weren’t looking for canned goods.

We assembled boxes with cleaning supplies and toiletries — and a Bible. Normally, I wouldn’t think it appropriate to evangelize under these circumstances, but we were in the Bible Belt and the Bible was the first thing most people picked out of the box.

We gave out cases and cases of bottled water, tons of diapers and wipes, towels and washcloths, but no canned food.

We had a mountain of old clothes that we couldn’t use and we had boxes and boxes of canned food that people just didn’t need or want.

When your home has been destroyed and you’re in a shelter — a high school gymnasium or a church hall — you don’t need canned sloppy joe mix; you need counseling, you need assurance that things will return to normal one day. You need a hot shower and a warm bed. You would like some privacy, although that’s not possible.

These shelters are supplied by food stores, government surplus food and restaurants. They have institutional kitchens where meals for hundreds of people can be prepared. Almost always, someone who owns a demolished restaurant staffs the kitchen.

Now, Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King is saying the government should be careful how it spends disaster relief money because people will just go out and buy Gucci bags with it. He claims that’s what happened along the Gulf Coast after Katrina.

I was on the Gulf Coast after Katrina, and I didn’t see any Gucci bags. I did see people being shortchanged by insurance companies, paid pennies on the dollar for the value of their homes so they couldn’t afford to rebuild. Once the land was abandoned, the banks sold it to developers who wanted to build resorts. That’s how the private sector works.

I saw block after block of disaster like I never imagined could happen. I saw x’s on what was left of door frames or concrete steps. In the lower right, if there was a number, it signified the number of bodies found there. I spoke to a school teacher who had driven by the houses of her students and found numbers in the x’s on two of them.

Disaster relief should not be political. This has to be about getting people back on their feet, about helping families get over the trauma and rebuilding devastated communities.

Party shouldn’t matter when people are in need.

Someone asked New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie whether he would invite Mitt Romney to come tour the disaster area, and Christie, a Republican, shot back that this was not the time for political showmanship. He is worried about the 2 million people in his state who don’t have power and the tens of thousands whose homes have been damaged or destroyed. He’s worried about the gas leaks that could cause massive explosions and fires.

Then he did something that really surprised me and gave me hope that some things can be seen as above politics: he praised President Obama for being there, for being on the phone with him in the middle of the night and for rushing through the disaster declaration. That took courage in today’s political climate.

Want to know how you can help? Donate to the American Red Cross. They’re experts at working in disasters. Or you can donate to Hearts With Hands (which does accept non-perishable foods), a first-responder agency based here in Asheville.

This disaster will take months, if not years, to clean up. Let’s hope whoever wins this election has the compassion to do the work necessary to get it done.

Why do we keep paying attention to them?

October 26, 2012 a world of progress, letters, progressive living One comment

Why do we pay any attention to this man?

Donald Trump offers President Obama $5 million for his favorite charity if he will release his college transcripts — which no president as ever been asked to release — and the media are all over it as though it were news.

Ann Coulter called the president an epithet for a person with developmental disabilities and refuses to apologize.

Sarah Palin talks about the president’s “shuck and jive.”

John Sununu, who works for the Romney campaign, says Gen. Colin Powell only endorsed the president because they’re both African-American.

All of them are all over the news, although Sununu did walk back his comment. Still, he said it, and it’s obvious he’s only sorry it made the news, as it should have, since he works for the Romney campaign.

But the other three, Trump, Palin and Coulter, don’t ever deserve to have a camera or a microphone pointed in their direction. They are celebrities only because we insist on paying attention to them, and their contributions to the political conversation are all negative and only for self-aggrandization.

Trump is an arrogant, self-centered rich bastard with an incredibly bloated sense of his own importance. The media should refuse to fuel it.

Coulter is a shrill, mean-spirited and rude “pundit” who has never held public office. Her only claim to fame is that she can out-shout other people on talk shows.

Palin is a half-term governor who lost her bid for higher office and insists on hanging around to deliver her mindless drivel on Fox News.

Why are they even in the news? It likely stems from Americans’ love of celebrity. These people are celebrities because we continue to pay attention to them.

The best thing we can do is refuse to participate. Don’t forward their antics in your e-mail; don’t share their bull on Facebook; write letters to the editors of newspapers that continue to pay attention to them and ask that they stop.

They do not deserve our attention; we don’t have to give it to them.

Tired of the hate toward poor people

October 16, 2012 a world of progress, letters, progressive living One comment

I just saw a meme on Facebook asking people to “like” it of they get pissed off at seeing food stamp recipients smoking cigarettes, watching cable TV or talking on a cell phone. One of the people who shared it was the daughter of a friend, a woman I’ve known since she was born.

It broke my heart just a little to see it.

Earlier I saw a post asking if the insanity at 7 a.m. at Home Depot involved (epithet for Latinos) standing in line waiting for day labor.

I work with people every day who qualify for food stamps. They do not live in the lap of luxury.

Did you know that food stamps provide less than $5 a day? Could you eat on that?

As for the people in line for day labor, plenty of them are not Latino, and they can’t find work elsewhere. In addition, undocumented immigrants do not qualify for any government benefits. Look it up.

As for what people deserve, did you know that people with certain mental illnesses almost always smoke cigarettes? No one seems to know what the connection is, but it is there.

Cell phones are a necessity for people who can’t afford a land line. Most of the people I serve have cheap WalMart cell phones and they buy a couple hundred minutes a month. When their minutes run out, they go without a phone for the rest of the month. I have yet to see a homeless person with an iPhone.

Most people who live on disability get less than $800 a month. Try to live on that.

How’s this for a story? One woman replied to the Facebook meme saying she is home all day because of a disability, and she smokes cigarettes. The government has decided she is too disabled to try to rehabilitate, in her words. She watches cable TV because there is nothing else for her to do. Even if she could get out, she couldn’t afford to do anything.

For every poor person I’ve ever known there is a story. The people I serve are NOT lazy; they are not bums and they don’t want to be on government assistance.

But if you start out poor in this country, despite the “American dream” myth, you likely will remain poor.

Nowadays, if you start out middle class, you’re likely to sink into debt and even into poverty.

Let’s say you have a good job as an art teacher. With the funding cuts to schools these days, art is one of the first programs to go. If you get laid off, what other skills do you have? Will you be able to find another job at the pay you’re making now? Not likely. Will you be able to maintain your lifestyle on half the pay you were making — or even less?

Since you can’t go out to dinner or the movies, does that mean you don’t deserve ANY means of entertainment, even basic cable? Does it mean you don’t deserve a telephone?

Very few of us are more than six months away from financial disaster. When you see someone  who is poor and talking on a cell phone, remember you could be in that same situation very easily.

Wrong again, Mittens

October 12, 2012 a world of progress, letters, progressive living One comment

I couldn’t stay away from the Civic Center yesterday. Mitt Romney was coming to speak and I had to be there to counter his “the emergency room works fine” lie.

See, Mitt believes people can get the care they need at the emergency room and that they won’t get a bill.

Wrong and wrong, Mitt.

My son’s story is proof.

Mike was born with a birth defect that left him vulnerable to colon cancer — a pre-existing condition. Since no company would sell him health insurance at any price, he was left to fend for himself. It wasn’t a matter of wrong choices as those on the Right would like to believe; it was a matter of no choices for him.

He tried the emergency room four times. But they don’t have to find the cause of your problems, they only have to address the symptoms, in Mike’s case, pain and constipation. So Mike was sent home with the wrong medications and a bill four times. By the time anyone was willing to do anything for him, the cancer had spread and it was too late to save his life.

People need to know Mitt Romney is wrong, especially since he’s been repeating the emergency room lie a lot lately.

So, I stood with other protesters across from the line of people waiting to get in. One man jeeringly asked me what emergency room had turned my son away, so I told him. It was Memorial Health Center in Savannah, Ga. He sneered at me and turned away, so I went closer to the line. A police officer started to step in front of me and I told him I had no plans to cause trouble.

“Excuse me,” I said to the man. “I see you have a son. You need to know that the emergency room only has to stabilize someone. It’s not a solution.”

He sneered at me again and turned away.

“I do what I do so your child won’t die the way mine did,” I said as he walked away.

One woman read my sign and looked me in the eye.

“Do you have children?” I asked.

“I do,” she said. “But I take care of them.”

Does she really think my son died because I failed to take care of him? I wanted to tell her how desperately I tried to get help for him and how deep into debt I went doing it. I wanted to tell her how much I loved him and how pissed off I was when his heart stopped and mine didn’t. I wanted to tell her how I still cry almost every day because my heart is still so shattered.

But I just stood there, shocked at her answer, as she walked away.

Several people laughed at me. They looked at my sign and laughed. I asked a few of them why they would laugh.

“What about this is funny?” I asked. But they walked away.

A reporter asked me how I felt as he watched it happen.

“It comes from fear, I think,” I said.

Very few of the people in line yesterday are more than six months away from poverty. What if they lost their jobs and could only find part-time work that didn’t have health benefits? Then what would happen if they got sick? If it’s true that the emergency room isn’t the solution, then what happens to them?

So, as a self-defense mechanism, they have to believe it can only happen to people who make “wrong choices.” Looking at my son’s photo and hearing his story bursts that bubble unless you dismiss it with a nervous laugh and walk away.

Then there was the woman who caused me to lose my cool.

“You need to read your Bible,” she hollered, pointing at me.

“I do read it,” I said.

“You’re a liar!” she jeered.

I snapped.

“Who would Jesus deny?” I yelled back. The police officer in front of me stepped away as though he was hoping I’d slap her miserable face.

“Do you think God let him die because I didn’t pray enough?” I yelled. “Tell me! Who would Jesus deny?”

I took a deep breath and stepped back in among the protesters, ashamed that I had allowed someone to get to me like that.

Getting angry at mean, spiteful, self-righteous, ignorant people doesn’t do the cause of health care for everyone and justice.

But she got to me. How dare she think that I didn’t care enough about my son to do all I could? How dare she judge my level of religious faith?

Looking back on it, though, I have to believe she is one scared, ignorant and helpless-feeling human being. I don’t believe anyone can be that mean without some fear and helplessness mixed in.

 

 

Too crazy

October 10, 2012 a world of progress, letters, progressive living No comments

Rep. Paul Broun from Georgia, says he believes people existed with dinosaurs. He is on the Science Committee in Congress.

A generation ago, someone who doesn’t believe in evolution wouldn’t have been on the Science Committee in Congress, and someone who espouses the death penalty for sassy children would have been laughed out of the public eye.

A generation ago, the media might have called Mitt Romney out on his lies during the debate instead of declaring him the winner. And a candidate who was caught in the number of flat-out lies and scope of deception of the Romney campaign would have been shamed out of the campaign long before the convention.

We used to have something called common sense that helped us weed out the crazies; now we seem to welcome them with open arms.

The guys who claim women can’t get pregnant from “real” rape get to stay in the race and maybe even win the election.

We who fought for women’s rights in the 1960s thought we had won some of these battles — like the right to access to contraception and safe abortions, and the right to keep our jobs regardless of whether we’re on the Pill and not married.

I can actually remember when a woman could be forced to quit her job if she got pregnant because she belonged at home with her baby. It wasn’t her decision to make; her boss could make it for her.

Blatant lies like the ones put out there about the Affordable Care Act — the death panels, the $716 billion “theft” from Medicare — used to be dispelled by the media, which now repeats them over and over as “the other side of the story.”

Our previous president lied us into war, tortured prisoners and suffered no consequences for his war crimes. Our current president kills innocent people with unmanned drones on a regular basis and it doesn’t even make headlines.

Instead, we get to hear all about which celebrity is looking at jail time for drug abuse, who is divorcing whom, who wore the lowest-cut dress to whatever awards ceremony last week, cute fuzzy-puppy stories from Middle America and sports, sports, sports.

We are obsessed with Honey Boo-Boo and America’s Got Talent, but we can’t be bothered with the real issues long enough to demand that the corporate media explain the real ramifications of public policy instead of giving equal weight to the truth and the lies.

Instead of a media that searches for truth, we get a lying sack of crap declared the winner of a debate because he looked “sharper.”

I worry about this country’s future as people lose access to real information about real issues. Even the president is out there talking about Big Bird. Drop it already and talk about how we lower our military spending, make huge corporations behave and pay their share of the public load, regulate their greed-induced ill behavior and invest in education and other things that ensure a stable future for our children and families, not to mention our nation.

 

“Wonky?” What about the lies?

October 5, 2012 a world of progress, letters, progressive living One comment

Today’s paper had a headline on the front page: “Debate reveals Romney’s wonky side.”

I don’t know if I would call it wonky to stand up there and lie for 90 minutes.

If you look for the headline online, you won’t find it, but it’s there in the print edition.

I’ll admit Obama wasn’t at his best, and if Romney had told the truth at all, I would give the debate win to him.

But he didn’t. Here’s just a sample, taken from the Daily KOS:

  • When he claimed, “Pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan.” They’re not.
  • When he said President Obama had “cut Medicare by $716 billion to pay for Obamacare.” Obama didn’t.
  • When he denied proposing a $5 trillion tax cut. He did.
  • When he said President Obama had “added almost as much to the federal debt as all the prior presidents combined.” Not even close.
  • When he resurrected “death panels.” That’s been called “one of the biggest whoppers of the night.”
  • When he stated that half the green energy companies given stimulus funds had failed. Only if three out of nearly three dozen is half.

He stood there, smirking, and called President Obama a liar after telling dozens of lies about his policies and refusing again and again to offer specifics about his budget and job creation plans.

If you want to call than wonkish, if you want to call that winning, that’s your call; it isn’t mine.

 

More lies in the mail

October 3, 2012 a world of progress, letters, progressive living No comments

My husband is registered to vote, but not in either party (I’m a registered Democrat; you could look it up). As a result, we get stuff in the mail from both parties.

The ones that get me the most are the lies about health care reform, or “Obamacare.” The latest one repeats the lie that the law will cut Medicare services by $716 billion. It will not. That is an out-and-out lie. No matter how many times they repeat it, it still will be a lie.

The Affordable Care act does NOT cut services for seniors. In fact, services should improve.

For example:

  •  As of Oct. 1, hospitals will be fined if Medicate patients are discharged and then readmitted within 30 days.
  • The Affordable Care Act closes the prescription “doughnut hole” for seniors.
  • Seniors now get their annual checkups with no out-of-pocket costs.
  • It cuts millions of dollars to private, corporate-run “Medicare Advantage” plans, which are more expensive for seniors anyway.

There’s more, but you get the drift. The $716 billion number is actually the estimated amount that will be SAVED by taxpayers over the next 10 years by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

And as for the “death panels,” that un-elected board will only be gathering data to ascertain the most efficient and effective treatments for various illnesses and disabilities. No one’s actually been doing that.

For example, one hospital in Utah studied treatments for prostate cancer in older men and found that aggressive treatment in older men actually results in worse outcomes than the “watchful waiting” tactic.

The board will not have the authority to limit any treatments but instead will allow doctors to inform patients of the efficacy of various treatments. That’s information I want to have, don’t you?

And yes, Obamacare does raise taxes on prescription drug makers, whose profits are obscene and who are not re-investing those profits back into research. We are the only country in the industrialized world that doesn’t regulate drug prices. I think the least we can do is make these companies pay their fair share in taxes.

So, there you have it, the truth about that flyer you got in the mail yesterday. If you want to know more, go to www.healthcare.gov. The truth is there for you to read.

Let’s talk about poverty

September 25, 2012 a world of progress, letters, progressive living No comments

I just took a pledge to talk about poverty.

I took the pledge at http://www.ncjustice.org/?q=budget-and-tax/pledge-talk-about-poverty because too many people think people in poverty did something bad to get there.

The truth is that people in poverty are NOT lazy. In fact, many work two or three jobs and still don’t make enough to make ends meet. All many people can find is part-time work, and those jobs don’t come with benefits like sick days, vacation time or health insurance.

More people than ever are getting government assistance. Do you know why that is? It’s because we’ve seen a dramatic decline in workers’ rights, so wages have been going down for most people. So many good-paying jobs have been shipped overseas and replaced with low-paying service jobs that people who once donated to charity now depend on it to put food on the table.

Poverty rates have risen at a record pace, and the number of people living near the poverty level has shot up as well.

The poverty level for an individual is just over $11,000 a year. Try and live on that. You won’t be able to.

Even if you work full-time at minimum wage, you only earn $15,080 a year, based on a 40-hour work week. In nearly every city in America, you need twice that to live independently.

President Lyndon Johnson believed that if we really met the needs of just one generation, we could all but eliminate poverty. But his vision of the Great Society was derailed by the Vietnam War, and no one has had the political will since to even suggest that people in poverty deserve a hand up.

People in poverty often lose hope, and once someone has lost hope, they care a lot less about the rights of the wealthier people who seem to flaunt their good fortune.

Poverty causes crime. It breeds diseases that could be eliminated by proper nutrition (such as Type 2 diabetes).

People in poverty have shorter lifespans because of the stress they endure trying to provide for themselves and their families — not to mention their lack of access to health care.

People in poverty are not lazy; they are not mooches. Any one of us could land in the same place in a matter of months. Few Americans have enough savings to last longer than six months without an income.

Imagine if you got sick and it took a year to get approved for disability. This is not far-fetched; it took my son three years to get disability. You likely would lose your house if you’re lucky enough to own one. And even with disability, you income would be reduced drastically.

Imagine your job was shipped overseas and the only job you could find paid just half of what you used to make. How long could you survive at your current level?

How about if that new job didn’t have health benefits and you got sick? Would you be able to find a doctor who would bill you? If so, how long do you think that doctor would wait to be paid?

Meanwhile, how do you afford new clothes for your children as they outgrow the old ones?

Then what happens if your son falls down and breaks a tooth?

Now your auto insurance is due and you need that car to get to work, but you’re two months behind on your utility bill. Which do you pay?

You’ve already maxed out the credit cards in hopes you can pay it all back when a better job comes along.

Then the car breaks down and you fall another month behind on the mortgage.

Are you a lazy bum?

None of this scenario is far out. I know people these things have happened to. I have seen people foreclosed upon in similar circumstances.

I’m really tired of hearing we can’t afford to make people’s lives better. There is plenty to go around. Right now, the people in the top 2 percent are hoarding far more resources than they need to have. Their greed has become a pathology, and it needs to be addressed.

We need to make noise — a lot of noise — about poverty and our desire to eliminate it.

Please, go to http://www.ncjustice.org/?q=budget-and-tax/pledge-talk-about-poverty and sign the pledge. Then talk about poverty and the damage it is doing to human beings who deserve better.

 

 

 

 

He’s not interested in people who need help

September 18, 2012 a world of progress, letters, progressive living 2 comments

 

Mitt Romney isn’t going for the votes of people who need help paying their bills, buying food, getting health care or keeping a roof over their heads in the face of falling wages and high unemployment.

Mitt cares only about the wealthy who are hoarding America’s financial resources and contributing to the needs of the rest of us rather than helping to solve the problem.

That 47 percent of America that pays no income taxes still pays sales taxes, gasoline taxes, school taxes and more. And the reason they don’t pay income taxes is because their wages are being held artificially low.

The 1 percent has gotten wealthier and wealthier, and none of what they’re hoarding is trickling down to help that 47 percent who can’t even meet their most basic needs without help.

Should such things as health care, nutritious food and a roof over one’s head be considered basic human rights? Well, here’s where I differ with Mitt and his cronies — I believe these things should be seen as rights.

There is enough to go around. In fact, there’s plenty for everyone; it’s just that the 1 percent won’t be satisfied until the rest of us are their indentured servants.

Somehow, the oligarchs have convinced millions of Americans to vote against their own best interests. Just look at the map. You’ll notice that the places that pay the least taxes are also the places where the schools are the worst and critical-thinking skills the lowest.

Thirty years ago, the salaries and bonuses CEOs are paying themselves today would have been unconscionable. There was a moral aversion to such theft and greed. Somehow, though, they’ve convinced Americans that they’re worth it, even though they led us to the brink of worldwide financial disaster.

Mitt’s lack of compassion for fellow human beings is appalling. The people I work with, most of whom can’t work because of illness or disability, are deserving of the dignity of having their needs met. Perhaps Mitt and cronies believe people who can’t “contribute” should be put to death. I suppose that would leave more money for them.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz details the economic inequality in our country in his latest book, The Price of Inequality. And while conservatives think the economists on the Right who espouse “trickle-down” economics know what they’re talking about, I’ll go with the Nobel Prize winner.

I’d say he knows more than I do, and apparently, a whole lot more than Mitt Romney and his advisors.

 

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