go vote

I tried finding a good list of reasons to vote. I couldn’t find a good complete list without coming across at least lame stereotypical reasons like “It’s your right to vote” or “Let your voice be heard.” Frankly, if you want your voice heard there are much better ways of going about that. So, I’ve tried to make up my own list. And no promises that I don’t have my own lame stereotypical reasons to vote. Here’s a few reasons to go vote:

1. Democracy works when its citizens participate.
I.e. Democracy – noun: government by the people.

2. The issues involved probably affect you directly.
I.e. education, war, health care, etc.

3. Voting affects your neighbor.
I.e. immigration laws, capital punishment, equal rights laws, welfare, etc.

4. It does affect the outcome. Every vote counts.
I.e. Richard Nixon, not John F. Kennedy, would have become President of the U.S. in 1960 if one person from each voting place had voted differently. Or, Bush only won by 537 votes in Florida in 2000.

5. There are many reason not to vote - don’t let those discourage you from still voting.

6. It’s not just about the president. There are other important positions and issues to vote on in each election.

midwest love: presidents of the midwest

Let’s take a look at the Midwest. There have been eleven presidents that were either born or have had a political career in the Midwest. And it wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President, that there was a Midwest presence.

Here is a brief synapses of the eleven that have become president.

Abraham Lincoln, originally from Kentucky, was born in 1809. Lincoln’s family moved from Kentucky to Indiana, and eventually to Illinois in 1830. Lincoln served four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives. Lincoln was elected president in 1860.

In 1868 Ulysses S. Grant was elected President. Grant was born in 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio. Grant’s family lived in Galena, IL before Grant went off to serve in the Civil War.

Rutherford B. Hayes was born in Delaware, OH, in 1822. Hayes was elected president in 1876 following Grant in office. Hayes practiced law in Cincinnati, served in the Civil War. After the war, Hayes was nominated as Governor of Ohio and served from 1868-72 and 1876-77 before becoming president.

James Garfield was born in 1831 in Moreland Hills, OH and was elected president in 1880 after Hayes. Garfield was assassinated six months into office. Garfield is the only president to serve as a clergy (which only lasted the course of two years) and would eventually be elected as an Ohio state senator before serving in the Civil War.

In 1833 in North Bend, Ohio, Benjamin Harrison was born. Harrison would move to Indianapolis to become a state politician. Harrison would also serve in the Civil War. Before Harrison’s presidency he served in the Indiana State Supreme Court, and served in the Senate from 1880 until he was elected president in 1888.

William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, elected in 1896. McKinley, born in 1843 in Niles, Ohio, served as governor of Ohio from 1892 to 1896. McKinley was also a captain in the civil war.

William Taft was born in 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio. An interesting fact about Taft was that he was a Unitarian all his life. Taft’s political career includes being appointed the Governor-General of the Philippines, Secretary of War. In 1908 Taft was elected president after serving under Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency.

Warren G. Harding, the last president to be born from Ohio, was born in the city of Blooming Grove. Harding was part of the Ohio State Senate and US Senate before being elected as president in 1920.

Herbert Hoover was born in 1874 in West Branch, Iowa. Hoover served as a mining engineer and consultant for almost twenty years. Hoover was Secretary of Commerce for Roosevelt and Harding. Hoover was elected president in 1928.

Gerald Ford served as president from 1974 to 1977 after Nixon had resigned. Ford, originally from Omaha, Nebraska was born in 1913. Ford in his childhood would move to Oak Park, IL, and eventually to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ford went to college at the University of Michigan and played football there. Ford served in WW II. He would go on to be in the House of Representatives in Michigan. Ford also worked on the Warren Commission. Ford became vice president under the election of Nixon in 1972.

The last president from the Midwest is Ronald Reagan. Born in 1911 in Tampico, Illinois, he would soon become famous by his radio and film career. From 1967 - 1975 Reagan was governor of California. Reagan served two terms as president, first elected in 1980 and again in 1984.

leviticus, politics, and the year of jubilee

Redistributive change. It’s the latest charge from McCain against Barack Obama. It’s a claim that in this capitalist country when Obama referred to such ‘redistribution’ about the civil rights era that it was therefore taken out of context and he is called a socialist, Marxist, and a communist. It’s not a new tactic for the McCain campaign, since they have done their best to slander Obama since he became the presidential candidate for the Democrats, but it does bring an interesting subject to hand - redistribution.

Redistribution is a hard thing to think about as a white person in the U.S. Mainly, it is hard because white people today didn’t put people into slavery or almost obliterate an entire race, the tribes and people of the First Nations. It’s a thing of the past. Yet, there are still marks of slavery and genocide of tribes today. And those marks are continued because of systemic racism. Even if we were not a part of it, whites today continue to benefit from it.

Besides it being hard to think about, it is just plain hard to comprehend undertaking such a task. What kind of redistribution would it be? Would it be income redistribution or property redistribution, or both? Who would get it? And, how would you figure out who would get it? How much land or money would each individual or family get? If land is redistributed wouldn’t that then be taking land away from some people and money away from others? It just doesn’t seem a like a possibility in today’s world. No wonder these options have never really been explored in seriousness. No vast amount of people would give up their money or give back land that once belonged to someone else.

In all this though, let’s consider the year of jubilee. It’s out of Leviticus in the Bible. It was a radical idea in Biblical times and it is a radical idea today. Some of the key aspects of the jubilee year were that slaves were to be set free, everyone is to return to their own property (i.e. people who had been driven by poverty to sell it), and a Sabbath for the soil. It’s a call to love our neighbor, the earth, and God. It gives hope to the poor, freedom to the enslaved, and rest for the earth.

Whatever either candidate meant or said or did, God is calling us to a higher call to love the earth, love our neighbor, and love God.

an alternative: sustaining

The economy has seemed to hit the bottom around the world and seemingly keeps plummeting. It seems to be the biggest issue on everyone’s mind and that is clear as the election is right around the corner. The economy is always the biggest determiner in electing a president though. So, what about the rest of it? Specifically, I am thinking about alternative energies. About a year to six months ago when gas prices were much higher than they are today people all of a sudden wanted to find an alternative or better ways to use energy; whether that was in cars, businesses, or even towns. With that came the awareness of eating organic, not using plastic bags, etcetera. Once again though, these ideas have been thrown to the wayside as a mere fad. The greater good has been taken over once again by the greater me. I’m not saying do not look out for yourself. But on the other hand we are really talking about serious issues of sustainability.

The issue of energy independence keeps coming up. The U.S. uses a lot of oil. I mean a lot of oil. This issue is beyond drilling off-shore and in Alaska. It isn’t just about finding alternatives. Although in some cases it is. The alternatives can be as simple as creating automobiles that use less gasoline, more mpg, or practical cars that don’t even use gasoline. Unless the U.S. completely changes its mode of transportation we will always be in some way dependent on cars in some form or another. What else? How about wind and solar power. Yes, they are expensive for one individual or family, but when money is pooled together say in taxes it can be used for towns, states, and the country for wind and solar.

The only problem is that the market isn’t ready for it. With the economy down, the last thing on people’s mind is finding alternatives, when just fixing the crisis is at the forefront. But we cannot forget about sustainability in the midst of crisis. Living in a community that is more sustainable in fact in the long run will be stronger and more prepared for crisis after crisis.

division and race in politics, understanding joe the plumber

I read an interesting article today in the NY Times. The article talked about the real Joe Plumber that was brought up by John McCain in the third presidential debate. McCain voiced that Joe, the unlicensed, back-taxing, plumber would be hurt by Obama’s tax plan because his business would make over $250,000 a year. When I first heard McCain say this, my first thoughts, jokingly, were “I’m in the wrong business.” Jokingly, because although I am sure there may be a few plumbers that manage to make that amount of money in a year, the average in Ohio, like Joe, is much lower, $47,930. Joe is going to have to triple his business that he can’t have legally because he doesn’t have a plumber’s license to do that.

But, this isn’t about Joe, directly. It’s about the tactics and divisions. The article is written by Paul Krugman, a Democrat. So, you might think this is biased. Except that Paul is also the Nobel Prize winner in Economic Science for 2008. So, I also think he knows what he is talking about. Krugman goes on to state how McCain is using the same divide and conquer tactics that Richard Nixon used to win votes. Nixon and company thought, as Krugman says, that by exploiting the divisions over the Vietnam War, cultural divisions, and most of all racial divisions he could win the election. Nixon explained to the regular, working white guy, “hey these changes suck and I can help”. Nixon, instead of having the regular working white guy get mad at him too, decided to create division and have the regular white guy get mad at the divisions of the political left, people of different cultures, and people of different races.

Of course Nixon didn’t create this idea. I am sure it has been going on for thousands of years. It has been going on in America for hundreds of years. In 1676, Bacon’s rebellion was poor white and blacks rebelling against the elite of the Virginia colony. The ruling elite in Virginia instead of spreading the wealth, creating jobs (you get the picture), decided to pin the poor whites against the poor blacks. This did two things. It stopped the rebellions against the rich and it caused the poor whites to be divided against the poor blacks. Some experts say this actually created racism in North America. I would certainly not go that far. There is too much history that says otherwise. But it certainly did create racial problems along with laws that were enacted soon after the rebellion.

Krugmans point in his article was clear: the GOP is not the working class, but the party of plutocrats. The elite GOP and the white working class America are together, but only because of the division and politics that have been created. Joe may not like Obama, but the candidate that Joes likes certainly doesn’t like him.

it's just good buiness...wrong!

So, I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End this weekend. It’s a good movie. Not as good as the first two, but good. I would recommend it. It is definitely no Jurassic Park 3. Wow, was that a bad movie! If you’ve seen it you know what I mean. If you haven’t, don’t waste your time. In any case, towards the end of the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Jack Sparrow, an eccentric pirate, and Cutler Beckett, who is head of the East India Trading Co, meet up to strike a deal. In the movie Jack fulfills his part of the bargain. Beckett does not. As you find out that Beckett is not going to keep up his part of the bargain he prophetically says, “It’s just good business.”

It really is good business. Beckett got everything without having to give anything in return. What a deal. Beckett’s greed has created a surplus of wealth and power for him and none for others, especially pirates. In the end though, the pirates set a trap for Beckett. His ship is surrounded and as Beckett’s men wait for Beckett to give them a command he is in shock by his blunder. It is really a great scene as two ships fire canons into Beckett’s ship. The ship is destroyed. As the ship is being torn apart from canon fire Beckett’s last words are, “It’s just good business.” In the end Beckett lost his own life, his crew’s lives, and the empire of the EIT Company.

The prophetic line and greed of Beckett reminded me of the greed of companies, banks, and governments. Greedy executives are running their companies into the same mess as Beckett did in the movie. Just look at AIG or WaMu. Even after AIG was ‘bailed out’ they still mustered up the courage to host a party that cost $440,000. And we wonder how we got to this crisis in the first place. And what about the $700 billion dollars? I’m not going to go into whether the $700 billion was the right thing to do. Mostly because I don’t know if it was the right thing to do or not. Just think about these amounts of money towards AIDS, wells for water, education, the environment, energy, etc. It’s just good business, right?

rock the vote: with knowledge

The last debate for the presidential election is on tonight. It’s been a long road for both candidates. At one point McCain’s campaign was broke, only to sore through the Republican primaries and win. Obama, he’s been fighting stereotypes and tough competition. McCain seems to be fighting to win the election now, after what seemed to be a 50-50 battle for a while with Obama. If McCain wants to win the election he is going to have to come out fighting tonight. His supporters have been calling on him to be tougher with Obama. Other critics suggest quite the opposite, that McCain’s attacks have actually been hurting him in the polls. Obama has been fighting critics on his own.

When Obama first began to run for president and for most of his run I thought he would have a tough time winning the election because of his ethnicity. He’s black in America - and racism however invisible it is, is still there and very powerful. I think it has played a pivotal role, but may not have hurt him as much as I thought originally. However, I think his race has hurt him in another more prevalent way and that is very visible in the news and elsewhere. It is the fact that Obama is being associated as being a terrorist. No exaggerations here. To think that people could actually think that a person running for president could actually be a terrorist is absurd. That not only insults Obama, but Secret Service Agents, the Senate, the FBI, CSI, for somehow letting a terrorist though. But it happens, even at McCain rallies.

Living in Illinois and Chicago I am surrounded by Obama supporters. I don’t get to hear a lot from supporters of McCain. Four years ago, I was also in a heavily supported Kerry city, but was also surrounded by Bush supporters to the point where I was a minority voter. I was often asked why I was voting for him. I would give five to ten reasons why, depending on how well they were listening. People usually don’t except people to be knowledgeable about those things. I would usually voice some concern about Bush as the Plame case was in the midst. I asked after I was done why they were voting for Bush. Most of the time I got three answers. Either the subject was then changed after listing to me, that Bush is ‘pro-life’, or Kerry was a flip-flopper. I don’t think any of those reasons are good enough to vote for someone. I was disappointed at the quality of knowledge people had about their candidate. On the verge of this next election I hope you not only know who you are voting for, but also the reasons why.

Additional resources:
Barack Obama
John McCain

PBS Election Guide
NY Times Election Guide

One Vote 08
Select Smart
Open Secrets

happy fall

I still can’t believe that it is October. It’s starting to get a little colder and the leaves every little bit are changing color. The temperature was in the mid sixties over the weekend. In October this allows for a wide variety of dress. Most people are in jeans and a light jacket. But, if you keep looking there are those people who are so excited for the sub-freezing days of December, January, and February that they are wearing scarves, winter hats made for the South Pole, and ski jackets. It’s as if people are saying with what they are wearing, “I’m tired of the hot summer and I am so excited for winter, yay!”

It’s not too unusual to see a scarf in October in the mid sixties. I don’t think people really need a scarf to stay warm in that temperature, but it is done anyway. (And if they do need a scarf they might want to think about moving to warmer weather real soon.) But, people really like the feeling of ‘bundling up’. So, people wear them. The ironic part of all this is that in April and May when it is in the mid sixties people won’t have jackets and scarves on, but shorts and bathing suits sunning themselves on the grass or at the beach. With all of this change: happy fall.

september round-up: camping all around

Woah! September is over already. Did anyone else have a fast September? I did go camping two of the weekends in September, the other two – in Chicago. All the weekends were kind of busy.

The first weekend of camping was actually a visit to Ann Arbor and Saline, Michigan. Possibly one of my last visits there as I have no more family there. Saturday we went to a Michigan football game which I chronicled in a blog. After the game we drove around Saline - my home town - and then went out to eat at Gabriel’s Cheese Steak Hoagies in Ypsilanti. Best hoagie I have ever had. We went camping that night. It rained all night, of course. However, the next day ended up being sunny and warm. Sunday was mostly spent driving around southeast Michigan doing basically genealogy research.

The last weekend in September was up near Rockford, IL, at Rock Cut State Park. The park is huge. Plus, you can swim, boat, fish, hike, bike, ride horses, or basically anything you want. The State Park is obviously one of the most used and well known parks in the state. They have plenty of electric sights for campers, but they leave the best spots for the tenters by the lake. Almost all the tent sights were being used over the weekend. This is impressive for late September. We all hiked on Saturday, as well as geocached. There were also plenty of people kayaking, which of course made me jealous. On Saturday we also played Kubb! It’s Swedish and fun. On Sunday we all went apple picking and had donuts and cider. It was wicked awesome. It’s definitely the one thing I have to do every fall.

It was a great month!

Camping at Rock Cut State Park

Curran's Orchard, Rockford, IL