red state, blue state...

I live in a blue state. But here on Cape Cod it’s a little more conservative. So much so that I frequently hear people say, “Oh, that Obama - he’s a jerk.” There’s no evidence surrounding the claims of course. It is a mere comment after some extraneous other comment. You know, like liberals exclaimed for five years – “There are no WMD in Iraq. Why are thousands of people dying over this? Why are billions of dollars being spent over this? Bush is a jerk.”

The biggest complaints I hear though are why liberals are liberals: healthcare, environment, education, and difference on economic viewpoints. Point number one: healthcare. “Obama’s a jerk because he is taking my hard-earned money and using it for someone else’s healthcare.” Unfortunately, in today’s society not everyone is able to afford healthcare. Should they not be able to have check-ups every year? Should they forgo the same rights as people who can afford healthcare? Do we dare play Darwin with other human beings?

Point number two: environment. “Obama is a jerk because he won’t let us drill every inch of the United States to unearth oil.” Well, as Republicans often ask their Democratic colleagues, ‘Do you want our grandchildren and great-grandchildren left when this debt?’ Well, do you want to leave Plant Earth destroyed for an unsustainable resource for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren? 

Point number three: education. “Obama is a jerk because he pays those teachers so much money.” With Republican Governors and state run governments it looks like people may not have much longer to complain about teachers’ pay being “too high”. Although, I find it ironic that the rally cry to rein in teachers’ pay is led by Glenn Beck who made $32 million in 2009. If Glenn Beck can make $32 million for speaking on the radio and tv, I think it is okay for a teacher to make $30-40K for educating our children.

For me, I am thankful that Obama hasn’t found any yellowcake. I’m thankful that he sees education as a key to our future, and thankful that his wife finds educating people about healthy eating a key issue as well.

help wanted, no benefits, no pay

The Middle East is making history - erupting over freedom and economic opportunities. Egypt, among other countries, is fighting for its jobs and rights. The U.S. - who since 1776 has declared freedom and democracy - is fighting for the same thing in Wisconsin today. In Wisconsin, and soon to be other parts of the U.S., teachers will be fighting for their rights like Egyptians have been for weeks (many for years).

For years teachers have been at the bottom of the pay scale. Also for years unions have been fighting for teachers’ rights. Now, in Wisconsin the Republican Governor is trying to take on the last great union – teachers. The economy is bad and we are attacking teachers? Forget the banks. Forget the Bernie Madoff’s. Forget the housing problem that is not even close to being fixed. Forget unemployment. Forget China taking over the #1 spot in the world. Forget country after country ranking better than the U.S. in education. When did teachers become the problem for our economic woes? Why do teachers get to sacrifice when banks get a bailout? Knocking down the teacher is not going to improve our educational system.

Somehow, by a miracle, the universal healthcare law passed through the government. Our society is proving though, through the TEA Party and budget crunching Republicans that indeed we don’t want universal healthcare. As a society we would rather have a few of us pay really well for excellent healthcare while the rest don’t have any. This fight in Wisconsin is the same fight. A fight to continue to have great public education throughout the United States so good teachers can continue to teach everywhere. We can’t continue to have teachers sacrifice while the Bernie Madoff’s of the world are ruling the world. Otherwise our education is going to be great for a few of us while the rest of us don’t have any.

a difference of opinion

One of the biggest conversations on racism in my college sociology classes was whether racism still existed.  The professor would show the class for forty-five minutes how racism still existed today and how for people of color it is harder to get a quality education, job, car, you name it, than someone that is white.  Of course the last five minutes of class a person who raise their hand say “I grew up in a poor family and I pulled myself up by my boot-straps”, completely ignoring the discussion of the previous forty-five minutes.  

I used to think that person was just one person in a mix of an overwhelming majority of people who saw existing racism and wanted to do something about it.  It seems as though racism, although still existing, was not as bad.

And it’s not.  There is no slavery or Jim Crow laws.  But over the past decade or so persisting prejudice and overt racism against illegal immigrants (most coming from Mexico) and people of Middle Eastern decent (Muslim or not) is getting worse.  Maybe it has been a big problem before that, but this is my perspective.  The classic case of this is from just last month when NPR fired their news analyst Juan Williams, who on said on Fox News made several blatantly prejudiced comments about Muslims.

I’m not here to discuss whether NPR was right or wrong to fire Williams, but whether we should be tolerating what Williams said, how he acted, and accept a culture that promotes racism against other human beings.  

Although white people have mailed bombs through the mail, bombed world trade centers, and murdered hundreds of people in the United States there is no racial profiling against white people – yet people today not only think but are acting to perform racial profiling for illegal immigrants and people of Middle Eastern descent to the point of detrimental heartless acts and death.

It makes me sick to my stomach the way we treat others in this country and people around the world.  Only education, awareness, and building relationships with people that are different than us will truly make the world a better place – a place full of peace and well being.

libraries and healthcare

Headline: “Government leaks to public that public libraries are a socialist idea. Libraries are shut down across the country!”

It sounds crazy, but is it? In today’s world in the U.S. the rich are buying books. It doesn’t matter if it is the hard copy first edition, the second edition soft-cover a few months later, or the $1.00 book at the used bookstore. The poor? Well - they are going to the library. And what about computers? The rich: they have one or two or three in their home. Or for the most frugal using the computer they use everyday at work. The poor? There is not a computer they are working on, because the work they are doing doesn’t involve a computer. And since the cost of computers is so high (even when they are priced in the low hundreds) that certainly the poor who are barely making ends meet what with paying for rent and food for the week can’t afford even the cheapest computer. So – where does someone go that can’t afford books or a computer? The library.

Books and computer may seem just like a form of entertainment, but they are as essential as food and health in today’s world. Well, at least if you want to pick yourself up by your bootstraps. (That is if you have any.) It’s hard to find jobs without the computer these days. You certainly can’t write a resume or cover letter without one. And books? Well, they are the foundation of education, of course. Enough said.

But the library doesn’t sound crazy. And giving access to free books and computers doesn’t sound socialist. Then why is it so crazy to also use public money for maybe the most basic need next to shelter and food – healthcare? Is health a right or a privilege?

As the world seeks to be more progressive and good, why then is it so far away from helping the most basic needs of the ones that can’t afford to help themselves? Would it not be more progressive and good to help instead of hinder and divide? Are we just regressing to a society of kings and serfs?

nickel and dimed review

I just finished Nickel and Dimed. The book is about a journalist’s sojourn into the working class. For me, it was a reminder that I am not working class. I have college degrees, networks (as small as they may be sometimes), a support system, some money saved up, a car, and a plethora of other variables. The book is a must read for anyone that doesn’t have to live in motel day-by-day or a small apartment on weekly rent.

The book was written ten years ago and you can already tell that it is outdated. There are no 9/11 experiences. When Barbara Ehrenreich wrote this book there was a labor shortage. And of course she was not dealing with a recession. Housing prices have skyrocketed since she wrote the book and I presume rent has as well. There is one other thing that has changed. Universal health care is now trying to make its way into law.

At the end of the book, Ehrenreich talks about how the poor have no longer been discovered, but just the opposite forgotten. And now people no longer feel that the poor are there because they are lazy, drug addicts, and thieves. She states that “disapproval and condescension no longer apply” and that guilt doesn’t go far enough, but it is shame in ourselves that kicks in when we think of the poor.

I don’t think shame is the right emotion here. I think she gives people far too much credit, and I think she wants people instead to feel shame. Just as with slavery, people’s minds were changed: from condescension, to guilt, to shame. Those same steps still need to be taken today for continuing class and racial barriers. Ehrenreich does not give enough credit to the social system in place of the individualistic capitalist society we live in. We still live in a society that says the individual is the key to their own success and there are no systems in place to keep people poor.

Maybe the most constructive aspect of the book is that Ehrenreich shows that even a highly successful women with a Ph.D. can’t really “make it” when she is left in the same predicament as the working poor. Ehrenreich really proves that there needs to be some changes with affordable rent, cost of food, salaries, and healthcare. Until then the rich will continue to ride on the backs of the poor. Whether they feel condescending, guilty, or shameful is up to them.

three cups of tea, education, and the urban city

I recently finished Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. And it is a must read for everyone. The book is about one man’s journey to bring a school to a poor community in Pakistan. The book is inspiring. It gives life to the people of Pakistan, to Afghanistan, and the Middle East. It gives a hope for peace that is not through war, power, and death, but through a road less traveled.

The book gives an alternative view to the way life has been lived out since 9/11. It’s a view that involves less U.S. taxpayer money, less death, less destruction of towns and villages in Iraq and Afghanistan, and less fear of terrorism.

Just as the U.S. wages war in the Middle East, the country been raging war domestically since it’s conception. Cities such as Detroit, MI and Gary, IN, and in poorer neighborhoods in cities such as Chicago or Boston were not always poor, dangerous, and places to avoid rather than seek. All these cities have history. Many of them can trace the growth of unrest from their beginnings, to the industrial revolution, to events as recent as white flight around the middle of the twentieth century. These places of course are hit hard with violence and theft. Locals who could get out did. The working class and poor just kept on working.

The alternative is education. A radical idea never used before. Education is the same thing that many people, myself included, have thought for years would help inner cities of the United States. Of course here in the U.S., compared to such places as in Three Cups of Tea, there are actually schools – for the most part. The quality and opportunity of education, of course, are vastly different. Most urban schools are given half the money that a suburban school is given. A quick Google search will confirm this. The administration? What administration? If anyone has dealt with bad school administrations in the ‘burbs or rural area – just try a poor urban community. And what about the quality of teachers? All you have to do to figure this out is to go to a teacher’s job fair in Chicago. The lines for the suburbs are out the door. For the North Side expect to wait an hour to speak to a representative from the school. For the South or West side of Chicago: wait time - zero minutes. It’s an area so desperate for good teachers, yet no one wants to work there.

Just as thousands of miles away education is an alternative to war, violence, gangs, and a life of terrorist groups, Three Cups of Tea provides a realistic alternative for those of us eager to make a difference in the U.S.. We don’t have to sentence our cities to a life of poverty, injustice, and violence. There are peaceful options, if we are brave enough to embrace them.

stewardship of a paid education: part 1

This is part one of a two day blog on an article I read from Real Simple magazine. In the article a woman was interviewed and asked how much money, total, she would need for the rest of her life. The answer to that question and the bulk of the article will be tomorrow. For today I am just going to write on one part of the article. In the article she stated that she would want $100,000 to go toward her child’s education. (A.K.A. her child’s education is paid for. They are granted at least a free bachelors’ degree in life.)

Now being asked the question how much money would you need to live on for the rest of your life, of course you would include your child’s education into the mix. In reality, though, almost everyone has to earn their own money. In turn when this question is brought to mind in real life, should we be paying for our children’s education?

What does it do to a child when everything is paid for including one of the most prized assets someone can have: a college education? I myself have a Bachelors’ and Masters degree. Along with a trail of college loans to be paid off. That trail got me up for 8:00 AM classes. It made me go to night classes when I would rather be at the University basketball game. It made me appreciate the cost of books and the cost of food. But what if that was all paid for. I wonder how many 8:00 AM classes I would have missed or how many basketball games I would have gone to?

Would the luxury of free school made me not appreciate it as much? In general when someone’s education is paid for is the appreciation there? Is there good stewardship in having a free education? Is it teaching our children to live in the real world when that happens? When someone else has to pay for it? I’m not sure if there has ever been a study on this before, and I don’t have the means (a University Library) to find out. Just thinking about it though: 1) it would be hard to determine, and 2) would the test results come out the way I think they would.

When we talk about stewardship if we compare a student with a free education to a student that had to pay for their education (almost all of the time) the person that had to pay is going to have more debt - whether school or credit card. So, already stewardship may be screwed. Maybe spending habits could be looked at, though. And savings accounts probably are skewed too. A person who doesn’t have to pay for college has a better ability to build a savings account.
What about overall degree. Well, if someone has a free education they may have a better ability to have a bigger and better degree where someone paying for all of their education may only be able to afford a community college, an associate’s degree, or a smaller, less powerful college.
And what about appreciation? Is there a way to study this? It’s easy to mark on a survey when asked “Do you appreciate the free education you received?” Yes. In reality, though, does the person really appreciate and understand what it means to receive it and understand what people go through to have the same education?

My personal history, in undergrad and graduate school, would suggest that indeed people whose education is paid for by their parents or from a scholarship from sports, etcetera are not as appreciative. Their understanding and stewardship of money are often twisted and blind, and often marks of superiority are there. Of course there are plenty of exceptions. Many of the exceptions that I saw were in undergrad - in students who grew up with no chance of going to college and were given a scholarship because of their low socio-economic status and given a chance. In the whole though I wonder if this is just an experience I have seen, or is universally true.

smc: 6/1/08

The Far Side by Gary Larson

"Mama said there would be days like this..."

pride (in the name of love)

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis. King would have been seventy-nine today. I wonder if he would still have the same tenacity, boldness, and influence now as he did at the time of his death. I’ve been to the hotel, now a National Civil Rights Museum. The place has an aura about it, much like the place in Dallas where Kennedy was assassinated. You just know something happened there.
Much has changed in forty years. With few exceptions (Jena 6) today, marches and protests do not make national news. For much of the United States, the Civil Rights era was the end of racism. It’s doesn’t take long to know that this is how people think, and it also doesn’t take long to realize that racism actually does still exist.
Equal rights? Let’s start with some examples: Affirmative Action, the NBA, and politics. There are many examples to show why people think racism is over. These aren’t even the best or most appropriate, but make for a simple example. Affirmative action. It’s an idea that focuses to promote access to education, jobs, housing for certain people - usually minorities and women. If you look at recently polling (or just ask the average white person), white people think that affirmative action is no longer needed and is actually racist against white people. The NBA and basketball in general today is seen as a black sport and that very few whites actually are able to make the NBA and millions of dollars. The third example is politics. I’ll just give a simple sentence that I have heard over the years many, many times: “Well, they [meaning black people] have Colin Powell.” The basic mindset is: if someone actually has an advantage to get an education or a job, can make millions of dollars, and is able to be in a political position, then of course everyone is on equal standings. These ideas don’t really begin to get to the idea of equality and racism today in America. For that I would recommend Divided by Faith by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith.

The examples of racism today that people do take the time to notice are the few and the extreme. You’ve seen them, the people with the white hoods who are riding down the middle of main street on a horse. College and Affirmative Action are one of those funny things. (And by funny I don’t mean funny.) As I’ve said, a majority of white people think that Affirmative Action should be done away with, especially when it comes to college admittance. Many young white (I would also add male, but not necessarily) high school and college students feel as though they have been ousted out of getting into a better college because a black student got in instead of them. They believe that if Affirmative Action was done away with that they would have gotten into their college of choice. I attended a second tier college that was 90% white students and I experienced this first hand with students each day. The only problem when you take out Affirmative Action is that it doesn’t only affect the color line. It also affects women. Ethnicity and sex are seen as the two biggest determinates, but other people are affected as well. Let’s look at my home state, Michigan for example. Who else would be affected? Athletes? Indeed, athletes would no longer have a leg-up to get into college, and in many cases on a free ride. Native Americans? Although an ethnicity, African American is usually what people think of as impacting Affirmative Action. Yoopers? That’s right; people from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan would even be affected.
So where is racism? The simple example of this is to go to your local store and see what color Band-Aids are. Are you or are you not living near a landfill? Who lives on your block or town? Who does not live on your block town? Why is this? For more information I encourage you to read this article by Peggy McIntosh.
King will forever be immortalized with museums, streets, memorials, and even a holiday. King strove for all people to have rights, equality, and justice. Forty years later may we continue to strive for King’s dream and hope.

A couple of MLK Jr’s letters and speeches:
Letter from Birmingham Jail
I Have A Dream Speech

bhm: a little history on education

It’s just about the middle of February. Many months today are made special by coining them with a special subject, awareness, or theme. The most well known title for February is Black History Month. I’m no longer is school anymore, where these months were usually celebrated. School was a great place to celebrate such things as Black History Month, Women’s Rights Month, and etcetera. The first thing I noticed about not being in school (and without cable) is that I totally missed at the beginning of the month that it was even Black History Month. I tend to do this with any month. In my white world it had totally escaped me.
That is the thing about being white. We don’t have to think about our ethnicity and what it means to be that ethnicity on a daily basis. My post today however is not on the topic of white blinders. I want to briefly comment on what W.E.B. Dubois thought was most important – education. In 1823, Alexander Twilight became the first African American to graduate with a B.A. from an American University. He graduated from Middlebury College, a small liberal arts college, in Vermont. There is small timeline of African American history in the U.S. at infoplease.com.
Today, in the U.S., education is still unequal between blacks and whites. The reasons are endless and historically rooted from the beginnings of slavery. During Black History Month (and beyond) I encourage everyone to read a little African American history. There is always something to be learned, and gained: whether it is history, friendships, or understanding of diversity and equality. Below I have created a small book list of titles I would recommend. If you want to just check out a website I suggest going to biography.com. The website is basic and easy to navigate.
Book list:
Africa: A Biography of a Continent
African Americans: A Concise History
Divided By Faith
More Than Equals
Race Matters
Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools
The Souls of Black Folk
When I Was a Slave
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

super: bowl, tuesday, change

As far as weeks go, this is going to be a super one. On Sunday is the Super Bowl. Two days after, on Tuesday, is Super Tuesday. The Super Bowl, where thousands of people host parties and watch a football game. It is a day where the sports mecca is at its highest. A thirty second commercial for the Super Bowl costs three million dollars. Companies are willing to pay that much because they know so many people will be watching. And when there are that many people droned to the television they know they can reach more people with their product.
What about Tuesday? The debate for the candidates has turned from the war to the economy. That’s ok with me. We don’t need to be deciding a president based on a war. However, the economy is also an issue. People want to know how more money is going to be made; more jobs are going to be produced. Is the government really concerned about this? Just look at how the government spends money. The U.S. spends $481.4 billion dollars on defense and $145.2 billion on the global war on terror. That is 626.6 billion dollars. What is shocking is that this figure does not even include the war on Iraq. Here is an interesting website to see how much the war is costing. What I am concerned about is the ratio of defense and war spending compared to other spending. If the rest of the budget is added all together it is just over the 481.4 billion spend on defense. There is 56 billion spend on the department of education. This figure is just a tenth of the defense bill. A good education for everyone is a key to everyone’s well-being.
Along with education, people are more concerned today with the environment, eating organic, global warming, and energy. If we take a look at the spending on these concerns we notice that: 24.3 billion on energy, 20.2 billion on agriculture, 12.1 on transportation. I would like not only to see these figures rise, but to see the money used appropriately. It would be great to see the department of energy find better alternatives of energy for everyone instead of spending it on maintaining nuclear power. It would be great to see the money being filtered towards agriculture go towards proper farming methods and growing in the United States and farmers to produce and live on an organic faming industry instead of the pesticides and cruelty to animals farming standard of today. I would like to see the dept. of transportation really work towards making viable options for public transportation and alternative cars and fuel sources.
It’s sad that people have kicked the environment, their health, and the health and well –being of all just to make a few extra dollars. I’m not saying I don’t want the economy to grow and that it isn’t important to provide more jobs. I am hoping to convey the well-being of all by looking at the way spending is done in the government and the priorities of the government. If we change our life styles for the well-being of all it can be a better life for everyone. There is someone that is always going to be at the top of the mountain, that doesn’t mean that more people have to be at the bottom because of it. As the Super Bowl is on this Sunday, and with voting on Tuesday, maybe there are alternatives we can begin to look for, keeping in mind the reality of all and the best interests for all.

costs & losses in the war in Iraq

I heard on the news this morning that the war in Iraq so far has cost 1.7 trillion dollars. Whether that number is correct or not (as pointed out that it may not be by the same broadcast) is not important. I did however find a website with a continual cost of what the war is. It had the cost of the war as of today at about $468 billion dollars. The website has nice links that show very well what the war is really costing the United States.

I remember when this war first began and Iraq was threatening that the U.S. was going to lose the war. I am not exactly sure what was meant by ‘lose,’ but has the U.S. lost the war? For months now there has been serious talk in Washington D.C. about taking U.S. troops out. Although no bill has passed, just the mere fact that there is serious discussion and a close vote to do it says that this war in Iraq is not going as planned. Another indication of how seriously this war has failed is how many people are ready for George Bush to be out of office. There are bumper stickers and all types of propaganda promoting the day when G.W.B. leaves the White House permanently. (I can proudly say that I did not want him in the office before he was voted in, in 2004.) Although the war has been called ‘another Vietnam’ and people are calling for a national holiday when Bush is out of office these are not the real costs or losses of the war.

The real costs as I alluded to in the first paragraph are how much the U.S. has spent on this war. The U.S. may not have lost the war in a military defeat, but has certainly lost in its budget and spending. Children are not getting adequate education, but money continues to pour into the war in Iraq. People do not have adequate housing, but money continues to pour into the war in Iraq. People do not have adequate health care, but money continues to pour into the war in Iraq. People are losing loved ones, but money continues to pour into the war in Iraq. All these losses can not be merely blamed on the war or defense spending. However, $468 billion dollars, or whatever the cost, could be turned into a better life for the people of this country.


The BBC has a good website on the war.