Unhappy holidays to the millions who are being screwed by Boehner, et al

December 21, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living No comments

The Republican Caucus in the US House of Representatives has left the nation’s capitol without allowing an up-or-down vote on the deal brokered in the Senate that would extend the payroll tax cut — and extended Unemployment benefits — for two months.

Speaker John Boehner says he wants the extension to be for a year, even though he originally thought the deal was good for Americans.

So, what’s the deal? I would guess he’s afraid of a challenge to his leadership from the Tea Party Caucus. Lord knows Eric Cantor would love more power.

Meanwhile, though, this unhappy holiday gift from the Tea Party will piss off a lot of Americans who can’t afford to take another hit. We don’t see the logic in letting the wealth trickle up when so many Americans are desperately trying to stay in their homes.

This is good news for Preident Obama, who has tried his best to work with the GOP and has been thwarted at every turn. He gave up the public option in health care. He gave up on raising taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. He gave up on closing corporate tax loopholes. He gave up on preserving Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Now he has stopped caving in. Or at least I hope he has stopped.

His reaction to the latest Boehner tactic is to walk away. Fine, John, have it your way. Be an obstructionist. The American people know who stopped this deal. Let’s see how it pays off come Election Day. I’m sure those 3 million people who are counting on their unemployment benefits to pay their bills and buy groceries will admire your tenacity as they face foreclosure on their homes.

As Boehner walked out of the House chamber, Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, shouted at him to return and do what’s right for the American people. Boehner ignored him.

According to an article in today’s New York Times, the average length of unemployment is 41 weerks — the longest average in 60 years. Taking benefits away from people isn’t the way to “offer incentive to return to work,” as conservatives like to say. I’ve seen people looking for work — people who were laid off from $40,000-a-year jobs and been forced to take part-time work at $8 an hour and hope it becomes full-time.

I know people who are living on half the income they had a year or two ago, or less, because so many of the decent jobs have been shipped overseas and they can’t find anything better than an $8-an-hour part-time job.

Meanwhile, Eric Cantor is salivating in the wings. He has backed Boehner into as corner and now he can challenge him for the leadership. The only problem is that I don’t think Cantor has the votes. Actually, that’s not a problem for me.

 

Bring on the clowns

December 7, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living No comments

 

From my friend and former colleague, Matt Davies.

Right now I’m thinking Rick Santorum is the clowniest clown of all the candidates.

The other day he said people don’t die from a lack of health insurance; they die from bad choices.

Yeah, my son made some bad choices when he was 16 to 22 — most of us do. It’s called adolescence. But his death didn’t come from any of those choices. His death came from the fact that he couldn’t get insurance because a birth defect is a pre-existing condition. Without insurance he couldn’t get care and so he died.

There was one choice involved; one that I made when I was eight weeks pregnant and the doctor told me I should have an abortion because I had a virus that could cause birth defects. My choice was to have my son.

But Santorum thinks the emergency room is access to care. Perhaps his access to care should be limited to the ER and we’ll see if he doesn’t change his view the next time he needs care.

He also believes gay sex isn’t equal to heterosexual sex, although I couldn’t figure out his logic there except that he’s homophobic. That’s why he believes gay people shouldn’t be able to get married or to have children.

He also believes President Obama shouldn’t have told the world Osama bin Laden was dead for at least 24 hours because spilling the beans at the end of the successful mission shows he can’t keep a secret.

Huh?

Meanwhile, Rick Perry’s wife has admitted it was “very painful” to watch her husband forget the third government agency he intended to close during a debate a few weeks ago. He jokes about it in a recent ad, closing with, “I’m Rick Perry and ,uh, what was that line? I’m Rick Perry and I approved this ad.”

Perry also says he’ll end President Omaba’s “war on religion,” which I didn’t even know was being waged.

Michelle Bachmann was taken aback this week when an 8-year-old approached her and after a little coaxing, he said, “My mommy — Miss Bachmann, my mommy’s gay but she doesn’t need fixing.” Bachmann shot the mother an icy look as she and her son walked away.

Newt Gingrich, a serial philanderer (although he has married two of the women he’s had affairs with), talks about “morality” with a straight face.  He served divorce papers to his first wife while she was in the hospital getting treatment for uterine cancer; his second wife learned of his affair with his current wife and his desire for a divorce just after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I guess the take-away from this is that you should never get sick if you want to stay married to Newt Gingrich. A yearlong investigation by a Congressional ethics committee found him to be ethically challenged at best. He wasn’t charged with any crimes, I’ll give him that.

And Mitt Romney doesn’t even know how to be a regular guy, although he’d like us to believe he does by telling us he’s unemployed, too. That’s great, Mitt. I wish I had your millions to fall back on when my job went away. This week, Mitt had a “grass roots” event with valet parking.

And yesterday, that bloviating, pompous ass Donald Trump said he still might get into the race as an Independent.

Clown music just keeps playing on and on in my head.

 

‘I’ll do anything’

November 28, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living No comments

A rainy Monday in Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC. Occupiers believe they're about to be evicted and arrested, even though they were told they could stay for four months just a few weeks ago.

I drove some winter tents and heaters from a military tent surplus store near my house to Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, last week. As I was in the office arranging to have my U-Haul loaded, a man came in, cap in hand, and asked if the company was hiring.

“We might be soon,” the woman said. “But it’s really hard, heavy work.”

The man looked to be in his 40s.

“That’s OK,” he said. “I can do that. I’ll do anything.”

He hadn’t worked in a year, and because the job he had before that — setting up mobile homes — was as an independent contractor, he wasn’t collecting unemployment benefits.

That’s a trick contractors play often. You can work for the same place for years, be there on time every day and work hard, and still not be able to collect when you get canned. They avoid paying benefits and they avoid having any responsibility if something happens to you.

The man had applied to several home center stores, but was turned away because he had bad credit. That’s right, Home Depot does a credit check on you when you apply for a job and then turns you away if your score is too low.

He’ll stop back in at the tent surplus company and maybe they’ll have a job for him. They won’t do a credit check, either.

It stiffened my resolve to stay involved with the Occupy Movement, and to be more involved with the one here in Asheville.

The 1 percent is getting out its big guns to get rid of us, though. Reportedly, the federal Department Homeland Security has been advising mayors on conference calls about how to break up the camps. Here in Asheville, ours has moved a couple of times and dozens of people have been arrested.

Occupy is not going away, no matter how many camps are broken up. We will gather elsewhere. We will gather on private property if we have to — there are churches and other organizations that support what we are doing. We will continue to educate people about the many ways the 1 percent is screwing us. We will continue to have direct actions.

This movement is not fading away as the media would have us believe. There were more tents in Freedom Plaza when I was there than there were when I left six weeks ago, and McPherson Square is even more crowded. Both camps have received notice that they will be broken up, but neither is moving. No one is afraid of being arrested because we all are committed to making meaningful change.

The media keep demanding a list of demands. We keep telling them what’s happening to Americans and they say we’re unfocused. Perhaps it seems that way because there are so many things wrong. We all have our favorite issues — I have worked toward quality health care for all Americans, others have worked for a living wage, safe and affordable housing, labor rights, education, mental health and disability rights, a cleaner environment and a move toward sustainable and renewable energy sources. None of us has made much headway on any of these justice issues. The 1 percent’s corrupt money is like a brushfire. No sooner do we put it out in one place than another flame pops up.

Under the banner of the Occupy movement, we are working together now, and we are not going away.

Happy Thanksgiving, especially to the Occupiers

November 24, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living No comments

I was in Washington this week to deliver some military tents to the folks at Freedom Plaza. It looks a lot like it did when I left last month, except the stage is gone and in its place is a huge blue “fort,” the creation of Joe Singleton.

“It’s Fort Snoopy,” he said. “It’s the fort I always wanted to build as a kid but couldn’t. ”

Fort Snoopy stands two stories tall, and it’s cavernous. But it’s a place to keep dry in the wet weather — better than staying in your tent, which many occupiers did during Tuesday’s steady, cold rain.

The beautiful thing is that they’re still there. There were as many tents as there were when I left. The place looks a little more fortified, what with the addition of the big blue tent. The Media Tent is enclosed now, and people are there most of the time to make sure nothing grows legs.

There have been a few thefts, but Joe suspects they’re coming from people who aren’t part of the movement.

“You’ll see somebody come in and walk around and then leave,” Joe said. “You won’t see them again. It’ll be somebody else who comes in and takes stuff.”

I was so glad to go back, even though I couldn’t stay long. I took my friend Sarah Skinner along for company (it was our fourth trip to DC together) and we left Asheville about 3 p.m., the U-Haul fully loaded with tents, poles and heaters, and arrived in DC about 12:30.  We dropped off the U-Haul, took a cab to a hostel and then back to Freedom Square for a couple hours before we had to pick up rental car and start home.

If it hadn’t been for the holiday, we would have stayed longer. Next time, I’ll plan on staying for three or four days.

I know the Occupiers here are planning a turkey dinner today, and I’m pretty sure they have turkey cooking in the tent at Fredom Plaza.

No matter what the TV news and other mainstream media are saying, the movement is not falling apart. People are building community, and the movement is growing. Freedom Plaza is just as thriving as it was a month and a half ago, and McPherson Square is jam-packed with tents as well.

I’m thankful to be part of the 99 percent today, and I’m ready to keep working for social and economic justice. If you’re going near an Occupy site today or in the coming days, they need food, kitchen supplies, socks, tents, blankets, sleeping bags, coats and batteries, among other things. Remember that this movement has taken in a lot of people who were homeless and have nothing. Please show your gratitude with something they need.

Thanks.

Where the stage was is Joe's "Fort Snoopy," a two-story PVC pipe and blue tarp structure that serves as warehouse, meeting place and watchtower of sorts.

Sex in the news hits close to home

November 10, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living No comments

Jerry Sandusky, left, with his good friend, Penn State football Coach Joe Paterno.

Fans of Penn State are feeling a little shattered as news of a sex scandal breaks and more details ooze out of the slime.

Coach Joe Paterno had every reason to know children were being molessted by his friend Jerry Sandusky, who ran a program for vulnerable children. Instead everyone involved just pretended nothing was happening. Even when victims came forward, nothing was done to stop Sandusky’s access to children.  A district attorney declined to prosecute even though there was plenty of evidence. I will say, however,  that after several incidents, including a rape that was witnessed by another person, Sandusky was told he couldn’t bring children into the football building.

In other words, he was free to continue his reign of terror outside the football building.

Let me tell you what happens to the victims of child sex abuse. I know the story well because I am a survivor, and I feel the effects to this day.

My molester was someone my family knew and trusted. He started the abuse when I was 3 and it continued until I was 11, mainly because no one talked about it in the 1950s, and no one would have believed me. My attacker was a pillar of the community. He was beloved because he was so good with children.

I can still see my chubby fingers closing around the quarter that was my hush money.

As I got older and finally gathered the courage to tell him no, I knew I was giving up being his “favorite.” But I also knew I was a dirty little girl. No one had to tell me that; I felt it with every fiber of my being. I never dared to tell anyone, and I still don’t talk in public about who my abuser was.

But when I was in my early 30s, my sister confronted me, admitting that she knew what was going on. I had never even told my husband, who was pretty shocked by the revelation.

Children who are molested almost universally have low self-esteem. Molesters tend to “groom” them carefully by allowing them to do or have something they’re not allowed to have or do — having beer or other alcohol or drugs, watching a forbidden movie, taking money. They’re told to keep it a secret. Gradually, the secrets get bigger and bigger until the abuser has power over the child — or at least the child believes he (or she) does. Often, the abuser is someone who others in the community adore — like the coach who runs a program for disadvantaged kids. That, too, is a form of power. Who will believe the accusations of a troubled child over the word of a trusted community member?

Children who have been molested tend to become depressed adults, and they are plagued by low self-esteem. They often marry abusive partners because they feel they don’t deserve to be loved and treated well. They are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, to have unprotected sex, even to be promiscuous because in their experience, sex gets you love.

Without help, their rates of suicide are much higher. Even with help, what was taken from us will never be returned, and we will never again be who we were.

At worst, the abuse will define a person; at best, we will intergrate it into who we are. In any case, it is there always, ready to be brought to the surface when we hear about it happening to someone else.

I still have to look myself in the mirror every now and then and tell myself I was the victim of a crime.

This is what these children face. They will never get over the fact that Sandusky was allowed to abuse them at will and nobody would do anything to stop it.

So, do I feel sorry for Joe Paterno because his legendary reign at Penn State will be tainted?

No. Not one bit.

And now to Herman Cain

In another case of “trust me, I didn’t do anything inappropriate,” Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain wants us to believe all five of the women who have accused him of inappropriate sexual conduct are lying, even though two of them received settlements from the National Restaurant Association.

Sorry, Herman, I’m going with what the women are saying. Too many powerful men (and once in awhile, women) abuse that power by demanding sexual favors. “You do want a job, don’t you?”

I think most women have encountered something of this behavior, especially older women. We Baby Boomers ventured into a hostile workplace in many cases.

I once left a job because a colleague kept pressing me to have sex with him (I was much younger and cuter then). I couldn’t get him to stop. I complained to the boss, who laughed and said, “That’s our Bob.” I started a search for a new job and was ready to quit in a couple of weeks. My letter of resignation detailed the inappropriate behavior, although I’m sure the boss threw it out.

I didn’t leave quietly, though. First I called Bob’s wife and told her the story. Apparently I wasn’t the first. I don’t know what happened after that, and I don’t really care. I only hope Bob got what was coming to him.

When a woman comes forward to say a man has behaved inappropriately with her, I tend to believe it, especially when there are five of them. Most women won’t do it because they get dragged through the mud (remember Anita Hill?). They just want to get on with their lives and put the harassment behind them.

So, Herman, I with all due respect, I believe you’re a lying sack of crap.

Whose park?

October 26, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living No comments

People from Occupy Asheville have a moment of silence after City Council voted to oust them from their camp on Lexington Avenue. The city had 16 uniformed police officers there to keep us in line.

Last night, Asheville City Council voted to boot Occupy Asheville out of the space under I-240 on Lexington Ave. as of Friday.

We had an hour to offer comments, and I suggested that this movement is democracy in its purest form and that members of City Council had a chance to be on the right side of history as part of the 99 percent. We pay taxes to create and maintain public parks, and we deserve the right to occupy a piece of public place as long as we remain peaceful and keep the place clean.

Councilman Cecil Bothwell was the only one who voted to allow the camp to remain; the others voted to be on the wrong side of history. Bothwell made a motion to offer the movement another public space, but no one offered a second.

The space the city gave Occupy Asheville as a temporary camp wasn’t the best — there are air quality issues, and it had been a place where people drank and did drugs. But it has become a space where people look out for each other and there is a real sense of community. It’s decorated with potted chrysanthemums and peace flags. and everyone willing to abide by the rules of the nonviolent Occupy movement is welcome to stay.

One member of that community is Wayne McWreath, a homeless man who hasn’t been part of a real community for a long time.

McWreath choked back tears after leaving the City Council meeting, as he talked about finding a place to call home and people to call friends. He has found respect and caring, people who care whether he lives or dies, whether he has enough to eat and clean clothes to wear. He feels fully human again after a long, long time being treated as trash.

After the meeting many of the 35 or so people who attended with Occupy Asheville were angry.  Really angry. I don’t blame them; I was too. But a nonviolent movement has to find a way to respond without uncontrolled anger.

We stood outside City Hall and worked to regain our calm so we could deal with the situation in a level-headed way. We gathered into a circle and voted to have a moment of silence and then to burn off some energy chanting, “Tell me what Democracy looks like … THIS is what Democvracy looks like!”

To handle about 50 people who gathered for General Assembly, the city assigned 16 uniformed police officers. This was moments after Mayor Terry Bellamy complained that the city has had to spend all kinds of money on police overtime. When we began to chant, “Give the cops a raise!” we got waves from the cops. I guess Mayor Bellamy doesn’t understand that a nonviolent movement isn’t going to start a violent protest.

Eight members of the movement spent the night in Pack Park, which has a 10 p.m. curfew; all eight were arrested. I hope there’s a lot of room at the jail because the Occupy movement isn’t going away.

We have the right to assemble. We have the right to petition to address grievances. We have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The documents that gave us these rights have been perverted by greed and corruption; we want them back. I, for one, am willing to be arrested, beaten and even to die to accomplish that, and I am not alone.

 

Who we are

October 19, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living No comments

“We. Are. The 99 percent.!”

It’s chanted in cadence. Not that we were marching in time to the cadence, but it felt good to define us as just plain people; the 99 percent who are getting screwed by the 1 percent. It might be why the cops are so cheerful and accommodating in so many cities where the Occupy Movement has taken hold.

It is a movement whose time has come, as evidenced by its incredible growth in the last month. I think a lot of folks were waiting for something to start, and when it did, they joined.

We’ve been called unfocused, loud, a mob, unwashed (there are no showers in parks, for the most part) and more.

But the movement, for all its righteous indignation, is cheerful. There’s a lot of good humor and cammeraderie, a very real sense that we’re in this together to make a better future for ourselves and our children. We are nonviolent and we are small-d democratic.

Yes, we are angry that the banks got bailed out and we got sold out (another chant). We’re angry that long-term unemployed people are being villified as lazy, that people who die because they don’t have insurance are seen as people who made “bad choices,” that unions are seen as groups of thugs, that people can work 40 hours a week and not be able to live on what they make, that the CEOs of the companies they work for make 560 times what they earn, that people’s homes are being taken away by the very banks our tax money bailed out three years ago, that our immigration policy allows mother and fathers to be torn from their children and deported, that children go hungry, that we can’t seem to stop the rape of our environment by big oil, gas and coal companies, that we’re engaged in so many wars and overseas adventures, that unmanned drones kill more innocent civilians than they do combatants …

There’s a lot wrong with America right now, and we, the 99 percent, want to restore this country to its former respectability in the world. We don’t want to be the sp0nsors of carnage and pillage. We don’t want to see the regressive policies continue.

We, the 99 percent, are patriots of the first order. That’s why you’ll see so may flags flown around the Occupy sites.

In 1969, when I protested the Vietnam War, my mother asked me why I would go against my country.

“I think it’s like warning someone you love that they’re doing something wrong,” I said. “I love this country too much to ignore when we do something that’s wrong.”

My father thought that was a good arguement, although he subscribed to the fight-’em-there-or-they’ll-be-on-our-shores Domino Theory. It was the same ploy we used when going into Iraq, and a lot of Americans believed it.

Now, 10 years after we went into Afghanistan to rid the world of terror, we have become the terrorists.

And I believe we, the 99 percent, love America too much to not say something.

Dr. Margaret Flowers confronts Wall Street robber barons

October 13, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living No comments

The message is clear

October 11, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living No comments

 

I’m in the first 9. Can you spot me?

The mainstream media have been saying our message isn’t clear. Well, I don’t know how to make it any clearer.

We want corrupt corporate influence out of our government.

Without the influence of Wall Street, we would have had strong financial reform already.

Without the influence of big banks, we would have gotten credit reform with teeth.

Without the influence of insurance, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing companies, we would have gotten meaningful health care reform.

Without the influence of the military industrial complex we wouldn’t have wars and other overseas adventures going on.

We want our Democracy back.

The word “mob” is being used to describe what we’re doing, but we are not a mob.

We are nonviolent.

We are acting by consensus, and that’s very hard to do.  It takes painstaking detail and total agreement on each action. In Washington that first night, we spent an hour discussing whether people would sleep in Freedom Plaza, which is illegal, or on city sidewalks, which is legal. The decision came down to stay on the plaza.

Yesterday, after the October 2011 permit expired, the police told demonstrators they won’t interfere for four months.

There has been no violence at Freedom Plaza, although there was the Smithsonian incident where an editor for the American Standard infiltrated our march and shoved a security guard, leading to the pepper-spraying of dozens of marchers. Even after we were hit with pepper spray, several of us walked around calming protesters and reminding them that this is a nonviolent movement and that goes for verbal expression too.

The thing that makes us look muddled is that advovates for a dozen different issues finally have come together. My primary issue is health care; others are working for an end to our wars, an end to the use of unmanned drones, true finance reform, education, poverty, justice system reform, and end to the death penalty, a real living wage … So you’ll see any number of signs.

But we all want the same thing: to get corporations out of government and have it work for the people again.

What scares the 1 percent is that we, the 99 percent, have come together. We are one for economic, social and civil justice.

 

What they say vs. what I saw

October 9, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living No comments
Security guards pepper-sprayed protesters as we tried to enter the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.

I was with the protesters at the Air & Space Museum today. We had marched there from Freedom Square, probably a mile or so, hundreds of us, chanting and waving. We got to the museum and I was pertty close to the front, perhaps 10 feet back, when I saw people in front of me start to fall down and others running away. My eyes, nose and throat started stinging, but my journalistic instincts kicked in and I ran toward the door with my camera.

I was close enough to the front to know there was no warning. No one asked us to move back in a voice loud enough to hear 10 feet away.
Someone might have pushed a guard although I didn’t see it. I did see guards knock over an older man who was carrying a camera. He was pushed with enough force to fall down and lose his glasses.
We had planned to go into the museum to the drone exhibit and have a “die-in,” meaning some of us would lie down under the exhibit. When we were told to move, only a few of us would remain (the ones willing to be arrested to bring more attention to the use of unmanned drones, which kill civilians).
The guards claimed at first that we were the ones who used chemicals first, but that wasn’t true. No one had any chemical spray of any kind. I heard no one tell us to move back; I only saw people in front of me dropping or running, covering their faces and coughing.
We did not perpetrate any violence. In fact, we all signed a pledge of nonviolence and several of us calmed frightened protesters who were cursing at the guards.
I think the guards themselves were frightened. I’m certain they haven’t had to deal with hundreds of protesters asking to come in.
The Smithsonian spokesperson told the media that we had sprayed first and that they closed the museum because there had been a bomb threat. The truth? They closed the museum because so much pepper spray had been used that you couldn’t get near the door without feeling it.
Hours later I can still taste it, although it no longer stings.
The crowd did NOT disperse, contrary to what the spokesperson said. We sat down and waited for word of the three people who had been detained. We talked to each other, sang, did some improv puppet theater and waited. Some chanted, “Whose museum?” “Our museum!”
When we heard the 19-year-old who had been detained had been taken to jail, a couple dozen of us walked the two miles to the jail and sat on the lawn outside, waiting for her release, which we were told would be within two hours.
When she came out, we decided to take the Metro back to Freedom Square rather than walk. Most of us were pretty tired.
As we waited in the train station, we sang again, and as the train approached, we chanted, “Whose train?” Our train!” The other passengers were supportive, waving, giving us the thumbs-up or peace sign. At our stop, we chanted, “Whose stop?” Our stop!” as the other passengers laughed.
We marched back to the plaza, chanting, “We are the 99 percent!” and arrived to a cheering crowd.
During all our marches, we have been met with enthusiastic support. I think the American people are frustrated with a government that ignores their needs and their wishes just to kiss the butt of corporate donors.
The three days here have felt like something really historic is happening. The crowd has grown each day and people are enthusiastic and positive.
I hate to head home tomorrow.
But I will hook up with the Asheville occupation once I get home. This is just the beginning.
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