I stand with Richard Martinez

May 28, 2014 a world of progress, letters, progressive living, progressive media center No comments
Richard Martinez holds a picture of his son, who was killed by a gunman over the weekend.

Richard Martinez holds a picture of his son, who was killed by a gunman over the weekend.

You might think your vote doesn’t matter, but it does.

When you stay home instead of going to the polls, the lobbyists and the big corporations get the people they want — people who won’t pass ANY gun safety laws; people who support fracking; people who will slash basic safety net programs and who refuse to expand Medicaid.

Yesterday, Richard Martinez, the father of a young man who was killed by an angry young man with three legally obtained semi-automatic weapons, said he will spend the rest of his life working for change.

He choked through tears that he wants this gun madness to stop, and he said, “My son is dead and there is nothing they could do to me that is worse than that.”

I’ve been saying that since my own son died from neglect because he couldn’t get access to health care, and I have worked for expanded access to health care.

Now Richard Martinez will work for sensible gun laws, and I am with him. He said he fears nothing because the worst thing that can happen to anyone has happened to him.

But every time it looks as though we might get just one piece of sensible legislation through, it falls flat.

What do get passed are laws allowing guns anywhere — in malls, in parks, in fast-food restaurants. And as soon as those laws are passed and signed, we see semi-automatic weapons strapped to people in line at Chick-fil-A and Sonic. A woman was shot at a Walmart when someone’s gun went off accidentally, although I hardly think of it as an accident when someone purposely takes a loaded gun shopping.

I am tired of the pro-gun talking points:

“Guns don’t kill people; people do.”

Answer: People with guns kill more people than anything else. In domestic disputes, if there’s no gun handy, it rarely ends in murder. If people with active mental illnesses couldn’t gain access to semi-automatic weapons, Richard’s son still would be alive, as would all the children in Newtown, Conn., not to mention the people who were in the theater at Aurora, Col., the people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and on and on and on …

“Well then, why don’t we outlaw knives and cars? They kill people too.”

Answer: First of all, they don’t kill nearly as many people as guns do, and secondly, they have other uses; they are not manufactured solely for the purpose of killing people.

“I have a Second Amendment right to my guns.”

Answer: Not so much. The Second Amendment has been interpreted — after much lobbying by the gun industry — as meaning we all can have as many guns as we want, but the the amendment reads: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

That part about the well regulated militia? I don’t often hear mention of that when people argue the amendment gives all of us unfettered access to whatever guns we want to play with. The amendment was adopted because the United States had no standing army at the time and George Washington didn’t want one. The amendment should have been repealed when we established a standing army.

“We just need to keep guns out of the hands of people with mental illnesses.”

The young man who killed Richard’s son was deeply troubled. His family tried to intervene, but to no avail. He wanted to stop taking his medications, so he did. He was over 18 so no one could force him into treatment. And despite the young man’s history, he was able to buy three semi-automatic weapons. Maybe we could keep them out of the hands of people who have psychiatric issues, but we don’t.

The lack of willingness on the part of Congress to pass any kind of gun safety legislation because of their fear of the NRA and gun manufacturers speaks loudly about how important it is that we get out and vote for people with the guts to stand up to these greedy bastards.

I have said it again and again: I don’t object to people who want to hunt or target shoot owning guns, but I do want to see someone charged with murder every time a child is killed while playing with a gun. It’s no accident if there’s a loaded gun in the house and a child is killed while playing with it; the charge should be manslaughter, if not murder.

One final talking point:

“You’ll have to pry my gun out of my cold, dead hands.”

Answer: OK.

 

 

A year ago today

May 13, 2014 a world of progress, letters, progressive living, progressive media center 3 comments
This was taken May 13, 2013, the night I got arrested.

This was taken May 13, 2013, the night I got arrested. The woman singing is my friend, Yara Allen. We sang together all the way to jail.

On May 13, 2013, I was arrested for the first time in my life.

I was in a public building, trying to exercise my Constitutional right to speak to legislators and I was charged with second-degree trespass, carrying a prohibited sign into the General Assembly Building and “chanting and loud singing.”

The second and third charges were dropped because the building rules were so vague as to be unconstitutional. I would have protested the second charge anyway because the only thing I carried was a photo of my late son.

I was found guilty and have appealed, but my lawyer tells me it could be 3-5 years before my case is finally dealt with.

I have been to court six times now and I have another court date June 2, but my case isn’t likely to be called then. So much for my right to a speedy trial.

I didn’t have to fight this. I could have paid $180 and done 25 hours of public service, but that would mean admitting guilt and I didn’t do anything wrong.

As I said on the stand, I did not go into the General Assembly Building for the purpose of getting arrested; I went because I was desperate to be heard.

Five to eight people are dying prematurely every day because we refuse to expand Medicaid. Estimates for the annual death toll range from 1,500 to 2,800.

I had tried to speak to legislators. My representative in the House, Tim Moffitt, just blew me off. The last time I went to see him, he said, rather peevishly, “Yes, I know about your son.”

When I went with Rev. Barber to try and talk to Thom Tillis, he literally burst out the back door of his office and ran away. There’s video proof of that somewhere, but my own video of the event plays over and over in my head.

If you know me, you know health care is my primary issue, but it doesn’t stand alone; no issue does.

That’s why I have joined with tens of thousands of others in this Forward Together Movement. I have met and been befriended by some amazing people, and the experience has changed my life for the better. I feel so alive when I’m with my fellow protesters and activists. I feel a part of something bigger than any of us.

This bunch of fools in Raleigh has done all it can to dismantle the entire safety net, not to mention education, voter rights, LGBT rights and the environment. My fellow activists and I will continue to fight them.

I will continue to go to Moral Mondays as they start up again next week. I will continue to speak out for economic and social justice as long as I have a voice.

I am not afraid of jail, although I prefer not to be arrested for asserting my Constitutional rights again.

No one can hurt me more than the unnecessary death of my son has hurt me already, so I am particularly dangerous to those who would silence the Moral Mondays folks. People with no fear really do scare them because they can’t cow us into submission.

I want a better world for my grandchildren and my great-granddaughter, and I won’t stop working for it.

 

 

The result of apathy

May 12, 2014 a world of progress, letters, progressive living, progressive media center 7 comments

tom hill

So the primary election is over and in the 11th Congressional District of North Carolina,  I fear we made a big mistake.

We gave the nod to Tom Hill, who knows little or nothing about politics. He spent much of his campaign against Cecil Bothwell two years ago with his foot in his mouth. He calls himself a moderate, but he hates all Muslims. He is anti-marriage equality.

From his Facebook page, in response to a John Boyle column:

“The article is neither “beautiful” nor “well said”. It completely misses the point that society as a whole defines the forms of marriage it will approve, irrespective of what the Old Testament may say on the subject. Our society does have a strong undercurrent of Christian teachings, but our culture would not approve of polygamy or incest, for example, regardless of its religious bent. The same is true in non Christian countries such as Japan. There are no such entities as “gay rights”. There are only human rights, and in this country all gays have the same human rights that the rest of us have. What the homosexuals want is a special right to marry a person of the same sex and to procreate jointly, which is a physical impossibility. No other person in this state has the right to marry a person of the same sex, and we are not going to make a dispensation for gays and lesbians, many of whom have voluntarily selected that lifestyle. Just ask the actress Cynthia Nixon. I am not “ashamed” of my state’s common sense response to Amendment One, and I would like to contribute a dollar to the “Send John Boyle To A Gay/ Lesbian Marriage-Approving State” movement.”

And we chose this man to oppose Mark Meadows. So, we get another two years of Meadows. I plan to write in a name, perhaps Keith Ruehl or Cecil Bothwell.

I can’t vote for someone who thinks marriage equality isn’t about equal rights. When he says that many have “voluntarily selected” that “lifestyle,” it makes me cringe.

But he won the primary because too many people didn’t do their homework, and voter turnout was a mere 14 percent.

I suppose we get what we deserve as a nation, but what about those of us who do care and do vote?

It doesn’t take very much time to learn about the candidates, and it’s an important part of living in a Democracy.

I spent a good part of Saturday canvassing for Brian Turner, a local business owner who is getting into politics because he sees the damage being caused to our state by extremists in Raleigh.

Brian is running against Tim Moffitt for NC House, and I am going to do all I can to see that Brian wins. He is for the expansion of Medicaid, for restoring funding to schools and our higher education system, for Asheville retaining its ownership of our water supply, against the voter suppression law, against the new tax law that lowered taxes on the wealthy and increased the burden on working people … In other words, he is the polar opposite of Tim Moffitt.

Most of the people I spoke to on Saturday didn’t know Brian Turner, but after hearing he’s pretty much the opposite of Moffitt, they all wanted to vote for him.

This is why I work for candidates. It takes great courage to run for office nowadays. Brian knows that the machine behind Moffitt likely will assault his integrity — Tim told him so.

The message here is that we must vote and we MUST learn a little about the candidates before we go to the polls.

 

 

Mark has it right

May 8, 2014 a world of progress, letters, progressive living, progressive media center No comments

Mark

I met Mark Chilton the evening this photo was taken. It was in late May, 2013; Mark would remember the exact date since it was the night he was arrested during a Moral Monday protest.

Mark was mayor of Carrboro, NC, at the time, and he was standing against the hard right turn taken by the state’s General Assembly. I had been arrested on May 13 and I was volunteering to notarize appearance waivers for people who were arrested.

We struck up a friendship based in large part on our beliefs that people deserve basic rights, including the right to have their needs met — to be paid a living wage for a week’s work, to send their children to decent schools, to have access to quality health care and to vote. He is one of many, many friends I have made in the Forward Together Movement.

When Mark’s mayoral term expired, he decided to run for Register of Deeds in Orange County. In North Carolina, the office registers deeds, births, deaths and marriages.

That might not seem like a good next political step after being mayor, but Mark saw something very important he could do with the office — he ran on a promise that he would recognize — and register — same-sex marriages, even though the state has a constitutional amendment forbidding marriage equality.

In Tuesday’s primary, Mark beat out the incumbent, and since he now runs unopposed, he is just about assured of being sworn in come January.

Mark considers Amendment One unconstitutional, and since he will swear to uphold the US Constitution first and the state Constitution second, he will recognize same-sex marriages.

Marriage equality is happening with remarkable speed across the country. I think Amendment One was a last-gasp attempt to keep change from happening, and it will be declared unconstitutional.

My pastor, Rev. Joe Hoffman, is among the people who filed suit against Amendment One, using the argument that it violates his religious freedom to perform marriages of people in his congregation. The Campaign for Southern Equality is housed in my church.

I joined First Congregational UCC because of its views on marriage equality. I would never attend a church where my sister and her spouse weren’t welcome as who they were.

My sister was able to marry the love of her life before she died of lung cancer in 2006. Her spouse made all the decisions, as was appropriate. No one in my family would have tried to prevent that, but it was wonderful that they had the legal protection in case an asshole emerged from the woodwork.

I have heard horror stories of people being prevented from seeing their loved one in hospitals to loss of property after a death.

As the law stands now, my gay and lesbian friends can be married in one state and “legal strangers” in another. They have to make all kinds of legal preparations to battle that status and they still don’t have the same rights I have — simple because I fell in love with someone of the opposite gender.

The way I see it is that the only marriage that’s any of my business is my own. I actually believe my sister’s marriage strengthened mine because her inability to marry for more than 20 years taught me to appreciate the rights I have and made me want to fight for her to have equal rights.

At my sister’s funeral, the pastor — and evangelical Christian who believes God made us just how we were meant to be — described my sister and her spouse’s love as “extravagant.”

“Such extravagant love can be given only by God,” he said.

I love that line. It has given me a lot of comfort in the years since my sister died, and it has given me the conviction that every human being deserves the right to express that love and to be given the same legal protections I get.

Mark Chilton ran on a promise to recognize that right, and he won. It gives me hope that we are almost there.

Thanks to Mark — and to everyone who voted for him.

 

 

 

Another day, another gun incident

April 29, 2014 a world of progress, letters, progressive living, progressive media center No comments

gunsJust last week, Georgia passed a bill allowing guns everywhere. Gov. Nathan Deal signed it into law.

As if things weren’t bad enough already.

Within a couple of days, a man with a gun stalked a kids’ baseball game, claiming he could walk around armed and there was nothing any one of them could do about it.

Unfortunately, he was right. What he was doing was legal, even though it terrified the children and the adults to the point that they called off the game and left. One child asked his mother of the man was going to kill him. What kind of thing is that for a little boy to be thinking?

If the point here is about human rights, what about children’s right to be able to play a baseball game and feel safe while doing so? What about parents’ rights to sign their kids up for a baseball league without fear of having some gun nut attend and wave his weapon around?

Today, a shooter let loose in a Federal Express facility in an Atlanta suburb. The shooter injured six people, one critically, and then shot himself.

Last night, a man drove into a motel parking lot in Asheville and fired several shots into a car, then took off on his motorcycle to the Asheville Mall, where he waved his gun around in front of horrified shoppers before throwing it and running into the mall.

On April 13, a known white supremacist opened fire at a Jewish community center, killing three. After he was arrested, he could be heard shouting, “Heil Hitler!” Yeah, he deserved to carry a gun, didn’t he?

Between the massacre at Newtown Elementary School and Dec. 31, 2013, guns killed 12,042 people in the US; since Jan. 1 of this year, another 3,442 have died. More than 15,000 people. That was the entire population of the town I grew up in.

The idea that everyone should have a gun and should be able to bring it wherever he or she pleases is insane. This was not the intent of the people who wrote the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution.

That amendment predicated the right to own arms on the necessity of having a well regulated militia. These people are not part of a well regulated militia, although the shooter at the Jewish community center has been known to be affiliated with white supremacist militias.

Still, we can’t seem to get any new regulations on guns. In fact, gun laws are falling, especially in red states like Georgia and North Carolina. I’m starting to believe the red symbolizes the blood of innocents.

We seem to have lost our collective minds.

The week before last, a group of libertarian wing-nuts who deny the existence of the US government pointed guns at US government officials. This is the very definition of treason, but these people are still walking around free.

I’m certain as can be that if these men had been African-American or Latino, they’d all be dead. Instead, they’re lauded by a substantial minority in this country as heroes.

This is all driven by weapons manufacturers, bolstered by the National Rifle Association. It is not about freedom, it’s about profit.

I’m tired of trying to talk reason into people who have none. Guns do not equal safety. They MUST be regulated, despite what the NRA says.

I have never had a problem with responsible gun owners; I have a problem with giving guns to irresponsible people, to people with anger or addiction issues — to just about anyone who wants one.

You can tell me cars kill as many people as guns do, but cars are’t made with the intention to kill; guns are. Killing is the reason guns are manufactured. And by the way, cars are very regulated.

We need to put a stop to this. We must vote against people who refuse to enact more strict gun laws. We don’t live in the Old West, and the majority of us don’t want to.

Law and order doesn’t mean putting away minor drug offenders for years on end while letting anyone who wants one have a gun, no matter how dangerous they are.

We have to put an end to this.

 

 

 

 

 

Stop the gun crazies!

April 14, 2014 a world of progress, letters, progressive living, progressive media center No comments

gun kidsOK, I have tried to be reasonable, but I’m not getting anything even approaching reason from the pro-gun crowd.

Why can’t any of you even admit that there are places and circumstances where it’s not right to carry a gun?

Why can’t you admit that you don’t need to own high-powered assault rifles?

Why must you just repeat the craziness of the National Rifle Association and not think for yourselves?

These two children are from Texas. Their parents gave them these rifles to carry around a shopping district where guns are not allowed.

This is wrong on so many levels I hardly know where to start.

But let’s start with the “responsible gun ownership” argument. I agree that responsible gun ownership is OK, but this is not responsible. Children shouldn’t be walking around in public with guns any more than they should be allowed to drive a semi or a city bus. They are not mature enough to understand the ramifications of handling guns (or a huge truck).

Even an adult walking around a public shopping area with a loaded weapon is irresponsible.

I know, I know, you’re going to bring up the Second Amendment. Do you know what it says? It says, and I quote: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Do you belong to a well regulated militia? Do you understand the history of this amendment and how its meaning has been twisted?

Are you not moved one tiny bit by the deaths in schools, theaters and houses of worship?

I know, now you’re going to bring up the kid with the knives who went slashing through his school last week. No one died in that attack, though, and I hate to think of the carnage that would have resulted if he’d had access to a gun.

The NRA has bought our government and has convinced sportsmen and women that owning a gun is a more precious right than the vote. The resulting carnage means nothing to them. They are the mouthpiece of gun manufacturers who are only looking to make more profit, no matter how many people die as a result.

You’ve been hoodwinked, and you’re no safer as a result. More people are killed with their own guns that actually stop an intruder or attacker.

I have shot guns at targets and it’s fun, but I could have just as much fun with a BB gun. I don’t need to handle something that can kill just to have a good time.

My father owned a gun and he used it to hunt deer (although I don’t remember him ever getting one).

I’m not saying everyone should lose their guns, even though I don’t on one and likely never will, but I would like to see the pro-gun crowd budge just a little. Background checks would be nice. Banning guns from most public places also would be appropriate.

You can’t be a responsible person if you are unwilling to give an inch on anything.

 

Happy Equal Pay Day

April 8, 2014 a world of progress, letters, progressive living, progressive media center No comments

equal pay

Equal pay for equal work. Is that really too much to ask?

Today is Equal Pay Day, the day women’s earnings since Jan. 1, 2013, catch up with men’s earnings for 2013.

I fought this back in the early 1980s, when I discovered a man with the same experience I had, who was doing the same job I was, made 30 percent more than I did. He lived at home with his mom and I was raising two kids.

I went to the publisher to complain about the inequity, and he gave me a raise to equal what my male colleague was making. Then he called my male colleague into his office and gave him a raise, too. I wasn’t supposed to know about it, but I decided to be happy with my raise and not risk getting fired because I needed the job.

Once, when I interviewed for a job, I was told I wouldn’t be hired because I had children and this boss wanted to be my top priority. Again, I could have pressed it, but I didn’t want to work for someone like that.

When I was a child, a woman still could be fired for getting married or for having a baby. Women were passed over for promotions because they might get pregnant or because they had children, plus everyone knew they would be useless at least one or two days a month because of “female problems.”

Women could be bank tellers but not bank presidents; we could be nurses but not doctors; secretaries but not lawyers. If we chose to pursue a career, it was understood that we would sacrifice having children.

It took a lot of fighting to get past that crap, and we still haven’t achieved equality. We earn, on average, 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls that not an accident, but discrimination, and she’s right.

I have a bumper sticker on my car that says, “I can’t believe I’m still protesting this crap!” People often snap pictures of it in parking lots.

But I have been protesting for women’s equality since the 1960s. As early as 1958, I was thinking I was as smart as any of the boys in my class — and smarter than most of them, but I was being told my possibilities were limited. I find it appalling that it’s still true on so many levels.

My granddaughters are coming of age in a time when women are still paid only about three-quarters of what men make; I can only hope my great-granddaughter’s reality is a little better.

 

The very definition of insanity

October 21, 2013 a world of progress, letters, progressive living, progressive media center No comments

A definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, each time expecting a different result.

Well, House Republicans have voted 41 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and the law is still in place.

In desperation, the GOP shut down government, trying to de-fund the law and make it impossible to implement.

That didn’t work either, although it did cost us $24 billion, according to a Standard & Poor estimate.

So now, what’s the plan?

Well, Ted Cruz, the freshman senator from Texas, says he wants to shut down the government again.

And here at home in NC Congressional District 11, our representative, Mark Meadows, has been called the architect of the shutdown because, back in August, he reportedly wrote the letter calling for the shutdown unless “Obamacare” was de-funded.

Economist Steve Morse of Western Carolina University said the shutdown cost people in this district about $1 million a day in lost tourism revenues.

October is the busiest time of year here because of the changing leaves and mild climate, and the shutdown cost people in the tourism industry half their October business.

Meadows has backpedaled on his insistence that the Affordable Care Act be de-funded, probably because people in this district were so angry at the closing of the national park and at his role in bringing about the shutdown (which he now denies, by the way).

So, perhaps Meadows now sees the folly in his obsessive hatred of the Affordable Care Act. His constituents don’t want to lose their businesses over it; they don’t want another government shutdown — hell, they didn’t want the first shutdown.

Cruz was elected because he claimed he could bring government to its knees, which he did, briefly.

Now he claims he wants to be president. Well, let him run and see how far he gets. The American people overwhelmingly disagree with his far-right stands and we are not amused by his antics.

Cruz could still cause trouble, but it’s doubtful he can orchestrate another shutdown and it’s even more doubtful he could take the White House.

Cruz has shown his hand and it’s a loser.

 

A class in genocide

May 10, 2012 progressive living, progressive media center No comments

Muslim women break the fast of Ramadan. US soldiers have been taught by the military that civilian populations of Muslims are fair game for attack.

Future leaders in the United States armed services have been taught by the military that Muslims must be wiped out through “total war” before the terrorist threat to America is erased. In classes, they were told that the US needs to use “Hiroshima tactics,” killing not just soldiers, but entire cities and that civilian populations were fair game. It’s true that there are Muslims who hate us; it’s also true that there are Christians who hate all Muslims. Neither religion can boast the love for humanity that both faiths call for, but neither should be condemned as being all evil, either. The Pentagon has cancelled the classes, which were held at held at the Defense Department’s Joint Forces Staff College, but hundreds of young officers have been told that the official position of the US military is that Muslims are all terrorists, and that does real damage to our position in the world. If you want to turn more Muslims into terrorists, then treat all of them as terrorists. The problem here is that millions and millions of Muslims are peace-loving people who have no interest in killing Americans. The ones who hate us are led by hate-filled people, not by God. The same is true of Christians. If you are a Muslim child in a predominately Muslim country with no Christians among your circle of friends and family, you’re not likely to understand that most Christians don’t want to make war on you. We can be painted as villains because we are the unknown. Here in the United States, Muslims are in the minority. After 9/11, we tended to blame all Muslims for the actions of a violent minority and we punished those we knew to be followers of the teachings of the Prophet, Muhammad. But how many of us have spent time with people of the Islam faith? Until I covered religion for a newspaper in New York, I knew little about the faith, just what I could recall from a course in world religions I took many years ago. In 1993, I spent a day of Ramadan with the people of a small mosque in Chestnut Ridge, NY, and it turned out to be one of the most profoundly spiritual experiences of my life. I rose before dawn to eat breakfast and fasted all day, then broke the fast with my new friends at the mosque. The food was fabulous and the company even more so. After dinner, I spent the evening with the women, talking about faith and family, and it was there I learned the real meaning of sisterhood. The experience shattered my feminist delusion that women and men are really the same. We are different, but equal. Our two faiths are more alike than I had ever dreamed. We talked about God’s mercy and grace; we talked about our children and our hopes and dreams. We had much in common. As I rose to leave, one of the women called out to me. “I just want to tell you something,” she said. “The word Muslim means lover of God, and you, my sister, are Muslim.” I have never been paid a higher compliment. A few days later, as the story was about to go to press, a group of fanatic Muslims tried to blow up the World Trade Center. My editor asked me to call my Muslim friends and ask them about the truck bomb. “OK,” I said. “As long as someone calls a Christian and asks about David Koresh and the mayhem in Waco for the Easter story.” He didn’t think the two were the same. After all, Muslims are known to be violent. I pointed out the Crusades, the Inquisition and other well known examples of Christian violence, and he agreed to talk about how we might cover this without offending people. “We need to educate our readers that most Muslims are appalled by this,” he said. The solution was for me to call the Imam and talk to him about the violence in the city and allow him to condemn it, apart from the story on Ramadan. “These are not people who are inspired by Allah,” he said. “These are people who are inspired by earthly power.” The military officers who gave this class in genocide need to meet some of the Muslims I know, and the Christians who condone this hatred need to look into their own hearts to see the reflection of what they’re saying about their Muslim brothers and sisters.

Welcome back, Keith

June 20, 2011 progressive media center Comments Off on Welcome back, Keith

For those, like me, who don’t get Current T.V. …. a snippet and the link.

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