My niece has a blog. She has expressed her opinions regarding the upcoming election and I felt compelled to respond to her. I just read my comments to a Republican friend who said they thought I should post on my blog. Here you go:
There are many people who are very angry right now. I do not think that is healthy for the individuals or the country. Life is never black and white...it is always living color.
When I was your age, I got pregnant unexpectedly. I was married. My husband and I both had bachelor degrees and he was working on a masters--going to school to become a pastor. Did you know we qualified for food stamps? Did you know that my girls got their immunization shots at the Health Department because we couldn't afford them at the doctor's office?
Sometimes there are assumptions that all people who are poor are lazy and/or stupid.
After being married for 23 years I suddenly found myself going through a divorce with no income. Your grandparents and your folks gave me a hand and I got back on my feet again. Did you know that? (Boy is your mom going to be mad at me for telling…) Sometimes we need to help the least the last and the lost.
I have always tithed (10% to church and non-profit organizations) and paid taxes because I believe those of us who are blessed and able have a responsibility to those who are not.
And that may mean that I am paying for some people who are "working the system" but I don't even have a lot of heartburn with that because I have seen other "systems" being worked...you have, too. You know someone who knows someone which gets you an interview for a school or a job. That's working a system, too. And sometimes it leads to those really good paying jobs that aren't available to people who have worked really hard to get by, make do, get the grade, in the face of unbelievably difficult situations.
I hate debt. $10 trillion makes me crazy. It is not social programs that have run up that debt. I am a Christian pacifist that believes that there are alternatives to guns and bombs. I am also a Human Resources Manager who went to a conference last week and learned from an insurance professional that PricewaterhouseCoopers has released a study saying that of the $2.2 trillion we spend in the US every year on healthcare costs, $1.2 trillion of it is waste that could be managed through behavior modification, clinical efficiencies and operational competence. We aren’t talking about socialized medicine, just some controls for accountability to shrink that incredible waste.
I am proud to be an American. It is a good thing to be able to consider differing views and be able to vote our conscience. What I hope for is a time of healing. When we sit around a table and figure out what needs to be done to help our fellow Americans get to the next level. Yep, I’m an optimist and an idealist who is hoping for and working for a better tomorrow.
Peace and love, Auntie M
5 comments:
Ideology can prevent a very smart person from seeing reality and what needs to be done. (Wayne)He was talking about Alan Greenspan's response today, but I thought it applied here, too.
I care. Thank God you have a safety net. Soon, for the rest of America!!
After reviewing comment made on my sister Mary’s blog http://the-unencumbered-life.blogspot.com/ and our niece Natalie on her blog http://thenataliepaige.blogspot.com/ , both offering opposing views regarding a few issues prevalent in this election year, mainly dealing with the respective tax proposals offered by Senators McCain and Obama, I would like to offer this viewpoint.
Both Natalie and Mary offer logical and factual arguments for their respective candidates of choice. Natalie summarizes the standard argument that the rich already pay too much in taxes, and Mary points out that stereotypes about the poor are often inaccurate and misleading. Both offer, on the surface, what seem to be compelling arguments for their positions.
Neither argument, however strikes at the heart of the problem; Greed is not a virtue, and we all are obligated to the national interest. McCain supporters complain about the “socialist re-distribution of wealth” that Senator Obama would oppress US with. I assert that Supply-Side economics has resulted in one of the largest re-distributions of wealth the world has ever seen (upwards out of the middle class into the hands of the top 5% of income earners.)
The concept of Supply Side Economics, as envisioned by Milton Friedman and enacted by every sitting President since 1980, is fatally flawed, and was doomed to failure because it ignored the fundamental truth that capital markets, especially in the financial sector, must be regulated in order to function properly. Regan championed the idea that taxes are evil and destructive, that Government is oppressive and archaic, that government regulations are destructive, and that, in the words of Calvin Coolidge, “The Business of America is Business.”
However, as Christ taught us, greed is one of the most destructive of all human traits, and must be controlled. Kenneth Galbraith uses an analogy of the free marketplace that always made a lot of sense to me. He likened it to a freeway on which goods and services could be freely exchanged. However, if you remove all traffic laws, speed limits, lane indicators, and if you have the traffic cop look the other way, you end up with a bloody mess. That is exactly what happened in the 1930’s when unregulated capital markets were overcome by greed, and it is happening again now, as we speak.
Teddy Roosevelt understood that if the banking sector ever got enough power, it could destroy our democracy and our republic. That’s why he recognized that monopolies, especially in the banking sector, must never be allowed. He also understood that only the rich would ever be able to shoulder the burdens of National Interests. This, I think, is the crux of the problem; under the cowboy economics of de-regulation, we have un-learned the hard truth that private interests are not national interests, and that national interests must be preserved at the expense of private interests.
Since 1980 we have become accustomed to the complete abrogation of responsibility by the corporate class to national interests. Is it in the national interest to dismantle our manufacturing base (and the blue-collar middle class with it) in the name of cheap slave labor overseas and the extreme profits that accompany that shift? Is it in the national interest to allow corporations to headquarter offshore in order to avoid supporting the national interests? Is it in the national interest to have 43 million people without health insurance and to have the most expensive health care system of any “industrialized” nation (along with some of the highest profits of health care corporations on earth)? Is it in the national interest to engage in wars to protect corporate profits and to secure foreign oil reserves instead of developing energy independence at home? Is it in the national interest to engage in two simultaneous wars without having a general draft to man our armies, or to expect the civilian population to also sacrifice by actually taking responsibility for their financial obligations by paying higher taxes to finance these wars? Is it in the national interest to pile up trillions of dollars of debt to Communist Red China, while telling the richest of our citizens that they are over taxed?
No, it is not. Private interests are not national interests. Corporate values are not family values. Greed is a vice, not a virtue, and we all have obligations and responsibilities to the Nation if we are to have a Nation. If the United States is to exist, it must be of, for, and by the People of the United States, and not just a loose confederation of unregulated corporate states operating in their own self interests. You cannot build a healthy economy in a democratic country from the top down. It must be built from the bottom up. No democratic nation can exist without a strong, healthy middle class. Trickle-down was a lie. Trickle-On was the reality.
For anyone who is concerned about the tax obligations imposed on the wealthiest of our citizens, I would just offer this; who else can pay? TR correctly recognized that the wealthy would always have the ability and means to meet the obligations of the National interests, while the middle and poorest among us never would.
Most American families have an income less than $60,000 per year. That means that most people live on less than $3,000 or $4,000 per month. With that they are expected to pay for housing, insurance, food, clothing, insurance, a car payment, to save for their children’s college education, for their own retirement, and often for their own healthcare. The middle class (and that’s who I’m talking about here) hasn’t had a decent raise in income since 1980. We have been choked and squeezed and had our jobs shipped out from under us, and seen the cost of home ownership skyrocket to the point that it is damn near impossible for most of us to actually own a home in many American markets.
Consider these contrasting messages in times of crisis; during the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill told his people that he could only offer them, “blood, sweat, toil, and tears” , while G.W. told the American people to go out and shop after 9/11. For me, those two statements perfectly illustrate how far we have gotten away from our sense of unity in obligation for Country, which has been replaced with greed and self interest.
It is time for trickle-down to die. It’s time for a New Deal. Change is coming. Buckle your seat belts, it might be a bumpy ride.
http://www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/index.html
Please review this front page article which provides an insight into the nature of John McCain, as he casually advises that "If I were in charge, I'd nuke them (Iraq)."
Uncle David
http://www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/index.html
Please review this brief description of an encounter with John McCain taken from the referenced web page. It provides real insight into his nature and character. If he is elected, may God protect US all.
(This shocking account was written by Ana Dubey, who has a PhD in psychology and has a private practice in San Francisco. Ana's husband is currently a Managing Director of a private equity firm in the Bay Area. Ana and her husband are not political activists and don't have any personal ax to grind. In fact, in writing this account of her experience with John McCain, Ana is acting outside of her own economic self-interest as she and her husband are among the top 3-5% of our population who would benefit from the McCain tax/economic policies.)
It was just before John McCain's last run at the presidential nomination in 2000 that my husband and I vacationed in Turtle Island in Fiji with John McCain, Cindy, and their children, including Bridget (their adopted Bangladeshi child).
It was not our intention, but it was our misfortune to be in close quarters with John McCain for almost a week, since Turtle Island has a small number of bungalows and their focus on communal meals force all vacationers who are there at the same time to get to know each other intimately. He arrived at our first group meal and started reading quotes from a pile of William Faulkner books with a forest of Post-Its sticking out of them. As an English Literature major myself, my first thought was "if he likes this so much, why hasn't he memorized any of this yet?" I soon realized that McCain actually thought we had come on vacation to be a volunteer audience for his "readings" which then became a regular part of each meal. Out of politeness, none of the vacationers initially protested at this intrusion into their blissful holiday, but people's buttons definitely got pushed as the readings continued day after day.
Unfortunately this was not his only contribution to our mealtime entertainment. He waxed on during one meal about how Indo-Chine women had the best figures and that our American corn-fed women just couldn't meet up to this standard. He also made it a point that all of us should stop Cindy from having dessert as her weight was too high and made a few comments to Amy, the 25 year old wife of the honeymooning couple from Nebraska that she should eat less as she needed to lose weight. McCain's appreciation of the beauty of Asian women was so great that David the American economist had to move his Thai wife to the other side of the table from McCain as McCain kept aggressively flirting with and touching her.
Needless to say I was irritated at his large ego and his rude behavior towards his wife and other women, but decided he must have some redeeming qualities as he had adopted a handicapped child from Bangladesh. I asked him about this one day, and his response was shocking: "Oh, that was Cindy's idea - I didn't have anything to do with it. She just went and adopted this thing without even asking me. You can't imagine how people stare when I wheel this ugly, black thing around in a shopping cart in Arizona. No, it wasn't my idea at all."
I actively avoided McCain after that, but unfortunately one day he engaged me in a political discussion which soon got us on the topic of the active US bombing of Iraq at that time. I was shocked when he said, "If I was in charge, I would nuke Iraq to teach them a lesson." Given McCain's personal experience with the horrors of war, I had expected a more balanced point of view. I commented on the tragic consequences of the nuclear attacks on Japan during WWII - but no, he was not to be dissuaded. He went on to say that if it was up to him he would have dropped many more nuclear bombs on Japan. I rapidly extricated myself from this conversation as I could tell that his experience being tortured as a POW didn't seem to have mellowed out his perspective, but rather had made him more aggressive and vengeful towards the world.
My final encounter with McCain was on the morning that he was leaving Turtle Island. Amy and I were happily eating pancakes when McCain arrived and told Amy that she shouldn't be having pancakes because she needed to lose weight. Amy burst into tears at this abusive comment. I felt fiercely protective of Amy and immediately turned to McCain and told him to leave her alone. He became very angry and abusive towards me, and said, "Don't you know who I am." I looked him in the face and said, "Yes, you are the biggest asshole I have ever met" and headed back to my cabin. I am happy to say that later that day when I arrived at lunch I was given a standing ovation by all the guests for having stood up to McCain's bullying.
Although I have shared my McCain story informally with friends, this is the first time I am making this public. I almost did so in 2000, when McCain first announced his bid for the Republican nomination, but it soon became apparent that George Bush was the shoo-in candidate and so I did not act then. However, now that there is a very real possibility that McCain could be elected as our next president, I feel it is my duty as an American citizen to share this story. I can't imagine a more scary outcome for America than that this abusive, aggressive man should lead our nation. I have observed him in intimate surroundings as he really is, not how the media portrays him to be. If his attitudes toward women and his treatment of his own family are even a small indicator of his real personality, then I shudder to think what will happen to America were he to be elected as our President.
WOW... I was just thinking I might post something political on my blog. Glad I didn't. :-)
I just voted. I'll leave it at that. I love you all!
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