Obtuse? Insensitive?
I just don't know how to describe a business that batters us with ads about the great prizes and money we could win if we patronize their establishment at the same time that their employees are striking for a liveable wage.
Hey, McDonalds. If you really want my business take that money and give it to your workers so they can spend more than 0 on heat or $20 on health care each month - or maybe even quit that second job you assume they have to live while working for you.
I mean really!
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Guilty
Since the Zimmerman verdict, the thing that has been said that I most agree with is that there are two realities in play here. The one juror who has spoken has made it clear that in her reality, 'George' is a sympathetic character and Trayvon was not.
That is a reality I do not share. Everything I know about Mr. Zimmerman is that he was angry, prejudiced and ready for violence. Everything I know about Trayvon is that he liked tea, smoked pot sometimes and was walking home minding his own business.
Zimmerman assumed he didn't belong there (prejudice), blamed him in his mind for doing something wrong and went out to accost him against the explicit advice of the police. What is sympathetic about that??????????
No clear story of what happened has emerged. Witnesses differ, Zimmerman's story is inconsistent and there was no recording of the encounter. Perhaps the jury thought there was reasonable doubt.
But for me, the crucial fact was that Zimmerman left his truck and followed a young man simply walking home. Everything that happened after that is on his head because of that. Even if Trayvon confronted him, even if he got violent, none of that would have happened if he had taken the police's advice as he should have.
And can we really think that Zimmerman didn't contribute his own share to the conflict, whatever it was? After he spoke the way he did on the tape, after he disregarded the police, after he went out with a gun? Does anyone think he spoke to Trayvon calmly and rationally, asking him if he had a good reason to be there?
Very doubtful.
Worst case is that two hostile people met and one ended up dead. Which wouldn't have happened if he had stayed in his truck.
His unwarranted actions ended in a death. He is guilty.
That is a reality I do not share. Everything I know about Mr. Zimmerman is that he was angry, prejudiced and ready for violence. Everything I know about Trayvon is that he liked tea, smoked pot sometimes and was walking home minding his own business.
Zimmerman assumed he didn't belong there (prejudice), blamed him in his mind for doing something wrong and went out to accost him against the explicit advice of the police. What is sympathetic about that??????????
No clear story of what happened has emerged. Witnesses differ, Zimmerman's story is inconsistent and there was no recording of the encounter. Perhaps the jury thought there was reasonable doubt.
But for me, the crucial fact was that Zimmerman left his truck and followed a young man simply walking home. Everything that happened after that is on his head because of that. Even if Trayvon confronted him, even if he got violent, none of that would have happened if he had taken the police's advice as he should have.
And can we really think that Zimmerman didn't contribute his own share to the conflict, whatever it was? After he spoke the way he did on the tape, after he disregarded the police, after he went out with a gun? Does anyone think he spoke to Trayvon calmly and rationally, asking him if he had a good reason to be there?
Very doubtful.
Worst case is that two hostile people met and one ended up dead. Which wouldn't have happened if he had stayed in his truck.
His unwarranted actions ended in a death. He is guilty.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
The America Dream
These days it seems everyone is either an unquestioning 'patriot' or a jaded cynic about America and its history - even in other countries.
You either think America is the greatest country on earth or a hypocritical fraud.
It seems to me the most radical position one can take is that it is neither - and both.
The truth is there IS greatness in America. When it was founded, it was revolutionary in a spiritual sense and not just a political one. There was a spirit of noble rebellion throughout the developed world of the time, a real leap in mankind's progress. And America was the perfect place to put these new theories to the test. If one was a believer, one could make a case that America was founded and created just for that test. Men created equal? Government answering to the people? These WERE radical ideas then.
And then and now, they were hard ideas to live up to. So we failed over and over. But that same country that was genocidal to the natives and brutal to the Africans WAS a beacon to many huddled masses all around the world. Land was taken from the natives, but given to many who never would have had a chance at it back home.
One could also make a case that possibly there would have been more revolutions and more progress overall if those masses HADN'T had the escape valve of America. Would the world be better off that way?
Too late now.
But many of those countries have now accepted the same ideas and in their own ways have instituted them. In some ways those countries have even passed us, so the claim that we are the greatest is dubious. But our founders would have LOVED that. Replication of our experiment would have been their fondest hope.
Bottom line is that America's promise is truly wonderful and it floats above and ahead of us forever. It isn't perfect, it may or may not be the best country on earth, but how good it is in the end is up to all of us. Neither unquestioning patriotism or cynical defeatism will help in that effort. We need to see what is wrong and believe it can be better. Then act on that.
You either think America is the greatest country on earth or a hypocritical fraud.
It seems to me the most radical position one can take is that it is neither - and both.
The truth is there IS greatness in America. When it was founded, it was revolutionary in a spiritual sense and not just a political one. There was a spirit of noble rebellion throughout the developed world of the time, a real leap in mankind's progress. And America was the perfect place to put these new theories to the test. If one was a believer, one could make a case that America was founded and created just for that test. Men created equal? Government answering to the people? These WERE radical ideas then.
And then and now, they were hard ideas to live up to. So we failed over and over. But that same country that was genocidal to the natives and brutal to the Africans WAS a beacon to many huddled masses all around the world. Land was taken from the natives, but given to many who never would have had a chance at it back home.
One could also make a case that possibly there would have been more revolutions and more progress overall if those masses HADN'T had the escape valve of America. Would the world be better off that way?
Too late now.
But many of those countries have now accepted the same ideas and in their own ways have instituted them. In some ways those countries have even passed us, so the claim that we are the greatest is dubious. But our founders would have LOVED that. Replication of our experiment would have been their fondest hope.
Bottom line is that America's promise is truly wonderful and it floats above and ahead of us forever. It isn't perfect, it may or may not be the best country on earth, but how good it is in the end is up to all of us. Neither unquestioning patriotism or cynical defeatism will help in that effort. We need to see what is wrong and believe it can be better. Then act on that.
Monday, July 1, 2013
What's next?
Time was summer was slow and relaxing, but this one has started off with not one, but several bangs.
The U.S. has taken some steps forward and some steps back on civil rights, thanks to the SCOTUS, the do nothing congress is actually making progress on a big issue, a real shocker, the people are rising up all over the world - Turkey, Brazil, Texas, and now Egypt, as governments forget that there are people out there who care about what they do and may not like it, and more and stronger evidence of climate change is in our faces every day.
It's hard to say who's coming out ahead in all this, but I do believe in the arc of history tending towards justice, so I'm hopeful overall.
But heat and humidity not withstanding, the struggle continues.
Stay tuned.
The U.S. has taken some steps forward and some steps back on civil rights, thanks to the SCOTUS, the do nothing congress is actually making progress on a big issue, a real shocker, the people are rising up all over the world - Turkey, Brazil, Texas, and now Egypt, as governments forget that there are people out there who care about what they do and may not like it, and more and stronger evidence of climate change is in our faces every day.
It's hard to say who's coming out ahead in all this, but I do believe in the arc of history tending towards justice, so I'm hopeful overall.
But heat and humidity not withstanding, the struggle continues.
Stay tuned.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Where will it end?
Seeing what I did of the rally in Washington followed by the defeat of the Farm Bill by those who thought it didn't punish people for being poor enough, that's what I had to ask myself.
To listen to the speakers at the rally, you would think people not only chose to be poor, but aggressively demanded it.
This picture they draw of an imaginary group of people spending every waking hour figuring out how to waste their lives and scam and steal from all the hard workers
is false, unethical and dangerous.
Contrary to what Margaret Thatcher thought, we DO live in a society. History has shown us time and time again that we ARE all in this together and society cannot really advance properly if we leave some people behind.
Part of this is unseen, as in who knows what inventions or advances those who are not given the chance might have come up with? But part of it is merely unrecognized, as in what victims of crime might have been saved if the criminal was given a different path in time?
You may not see how it affects your life, but the effect is there, nevertheless.
Somehow we MUST get past this false dichotomy. There are not, not in the way it is getting presented, good and bad people. There are people who get breaks and people who don't, there are people who respond to situations differently, maybe better and worse, but ultimately, we are all human beings and God has put us all here for a reason. We need to look at each other with compassion and try to figure out what that reason is.
If instead we allow a small but vocal group to divide us and create distrust and hate, things will get worse.
The ending of this is in our hands.
To listen to the speakers at the rally, you would think people not only chose to be poor, but aggressively demanded it.
This picture they draw of an imaginary group of people spending every waking hour figuring out how to waste their lives and scam and steal from all the hard workers
is false, unethical and dangerous.
Contrary to what Margaret Thatcher thought, we DO live in a society. History has shown us time and time again that we ARE all in this together and society cannot really advance properly if we leave some people behind.
Part of this is unseen, as in who knows what inventions or advances those who are not given the chance might have come up with? But part of it is merely unrecognized, as in what victims of crime might have been saved if the criminal was given a different path in time?
You may not see how it affects your life, but the effect is there, nevertheless.
Somehow we MUST get past this false dichotomy. There are not, not in the way it is getting presented, good and bad people. There are people who get breaks and people who don't, there are people who respond to situations differently, maybe better and worse, but ultimately, we are all human beings and God has put us all here for a reason. We need to look at each other with compassion and try to figure out what that reason is.
If instead we allow a small but vocal group to divide us and create distrust and hate, things will get worse.
The ending of this is in our hands.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Get real
So the Republicans have done it again. Job legislation, or anything else that might help someone languishes while they pass unconstitutional, doomed anti-choice legislation.
One might think this is principled if such strategy was ever conducted by anyone else in similar situations, but in fact, it is a blatant effort at shoring up the insane right wing base they need to get elected, since they have lost any other voters.
Instead this is the most overtly self-interested group of legislators following the bidding of the most overtly controlling group of supporters.
True Christianity has been left behind long ago by these fanatics, replaced by an overriding need to control the lives of others in the name of religion.
In this way they are matched by the anti-religionists, attempting to control others for their own cause.
It seems almost impossible for humans to believe in or care about something without trying to force everyone else to feel the same.
Meanwhile, the important issues where they are unable to or uninterested in having control over others sit off to the side while those for whom they are vital issues continue to suffer.
One might think this is principled if such strategy was ever conducted by anyone else in similar situations, but in fact, it is a blatant effort at shoring up the insane right wing base they need to get elected, since they have lost any other voters.
Instead this is the most overtly self-interested group of legislators following the bidding of the most overtly controlling group of supporters.
True Christianity has been left behind long ago by these fanatics, replaced by an overriding need to control the lives of others in the name of religion.
In this way they are matched by the anti-religionists, attempting to control others for their own cause.
It seems almost impossible for humans to believe in or care about something without trying to force everyone else to feel the same.
Meanwhile, the important issues where they are unable to or uninterested in having control over others sit off to the side while those for whom they are vital issues continue to suffer.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Welcome to the 21st century
I am one of what seems to be the majority of Americans who is not outraged at the government 'spying' on my communications. IMO, the Boston bombing proves that surveillance helps to at least catch criminals and terrorists, if not always prevent their actions. Frankly, I don't see privacy in this sense as such a big deal. Just the keeping of this information doesn't bother me.
What does concern me is what might be done with the information at some later time. President Obama has established some safeguards, filing for warrants where Bush refused to and keeping Congress informed. This is important. It's true that future presidents could fail to do this, or even go farther in the misuse of this information.
For that reason, we need to establish limits on these programs. This is the responsibility of our legislative body. And this can be done without dismantling the necessary information gathering to keep us safe.
Another thing that concerns me is the obviously overbroad issuance of security clearances. Serious reforms need to be made in this area.
I have heard many make the claim that the American people need to make the decisions of what kind of security programs we have. Oddly, I hear no one say that if the American people know about all the security programs we have, everyone in the world will have the ability to know as well. What's the point of a security program if everyone knows about it? The global nature of information and communication today mandates that the American people NOT know about some, perhaps many, programs. I understand that and I am fine with it.
As long as it is overseen by all three branches of the government and not misused.
What does concern me is what might be done with the information at some later time. President Obama has established some safeguards, filing for warrants where Bush refused to and keeping Congress informed. This is important. It's true that future presidents could fail to do this, or even go farther in the misuse of this information.
For that reason, we need to establish limits on these programs. This is the responsibility of our legislative body. And this can be done without dismantling the necessary information gathering to keep us safe.
Another thing that concerns me is the obviously overbroad issuance of security clearances. Serious reforms need to be made in this area.
I have heard many make the claim that the American people need to make the decisions of what kind of security programs we have. Oddly, I hear no one say that if the American people know about all the security programs we have, everyone in the world will have the ability to know as well. What's the point of a security program if everyone knows about it? The global nature of information and communication today mandates that the American people NOT know about some, perhaps many, programs. I understand that and I am fine with it.
As long as it is overseen by all three branches of the government and not misused.
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