Spring came early to Kansas this year, very, very early. In a couple of months, I have a feeling that we'll be less delighted about this, but the winter was dreary, warmish, generally indeterminate but certainly no fun. So we love the budding trees. AND I was able to get my garden started several weeks ahead of the projected dates!
Since the political news is STILL universally horrifying (example: Kansas is in the process of passing a bill that legalizes discrimination against various groups of people for purposes of housing, employment, etc., as long as you have a religious reason for discriminating. Jesus must be so proud.) I am planning to spend the next six months firmly focused on the beauty of birth and rebirth in my garden.
The lettuce that I planted almost a month ago is ready for its first harvesting! Additionally, some purple lettuce that I didn't plant has sprouted and will also go into our salad tonight. See, last year I planted some purple lettuce that didn't do well at all, and I let it go to seed. But those seeds took root and didn't die thanks to the mild winter, so a couple of them sprang up unsummoned. This means there are three varieties of lettuce and a few kale plants preparing delicious greens for us.
Also, I have a couple of dozen sprouted spinach plants. I need to thin them. But pulling up baby plants is so hard! They are so cute! Still, it's fun to come home from work and check on their progress every day.
Onions and garlic are in the ground; I have to wait quite a while to check on them. They are some of my experimental plants this year. I don't know how they'll turn out, but they're very inexpensive to try out. I planted orange, white, and scarlet carrots, too, in the root veggies category, and just this morning their first little feathery leaves popped out of the ground.
Mint, oregano, sage, and thyme are already producing voluminous amounts of fresh herbs. I have started brewing up fresh mint tea (boil mint leaves, add some sugar, lemon juice, and orange juice concentrate, and pour it over ice) So this year's garden season promises to stretch eight or nine months! I have sixteen different varieties of veggies and herbs in the ground so far, and intend to diversify a lot in the upcoming months. I also intend to freeze or can a lot more, and make good use out of everything my plots produce. Since any positive revolutions appear hard to come by at present, viva la garden! Grow green and prosper.
PS For some reason my images aren't posting today, so I'll put some garden pics up on Twitter.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Memoirs: Knowing the Ending
Gilbert, David. Love and Struggle: My Life in the SDS, the Weather Underground, and Beyond. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2012.
David Gilbert was a member of the Weather Underground, and his new memoir has appeared as a result of widespread interest in the 2003 documentary of that movement (which I reviewed here). His memoir complements other fine discussions of that period, including Bill Ayers' Fugitive Days; Ayers' and Gilbert's lives ended up intersecting frequently, and their memoirs discuss many of the same events from similar perspectives. I much preferred Gilbert's memoir.
An important element of the memoir genre is knowing the ending. When you pick up a memoir, usually it's because you know the writer was famous for something already. I read Angela Davis' autobiography, recently, and I know that at the "end" she becomes a famous, well-respected professor who commands handsome speaking fees. At the end of Fugitive Days, Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn get married, he becomes an education professor, they end up assuming a committed, prosperous, happy life. It is ultimately a success story. Love and Struggle is not that, for the ending is that Gilbert is writing from prison, where he has been for nearly three decades and probably will remain until he dies.
Gilbert's discussion of the years 1968-1980ish parallels Ayers' accounts, and others of the period. An academically successful Jewish boy from a middle-class family channels his anti-racist and anti-war values into the Students for a Democratic Society's work against Vietnam. When massive above-ground and non-violent protest have virtually no effect on the government's mass murder of the Vietnamese people, and while groups like the Black Panthers experience severe government repression, with their leaders murdered by the FBI and city police, a group of SDS leaders decide to go underground and start armed revolution. Together they blow up some things, try to draw attention to important causes, somehow manage not to kill anyone except three of their own, and all surrender a safe resurfacing with minimum prison time for any of them by the late 1970s.
The main contribution of Love and Struggle to this oft-covered domain is Gilbert's focus on race as the major tool of oppression; on the increased police persecution of anti-racist groups; the aforementioned murders of Black leaders; and on problems of racism even within Whites in the civil rights movement. He also discusses factionalism within the Left, recounting how groups of revolutionary thinkers threw people out if they disagreed with a popular ideology, and warning against fractioning ourselves off too rapidly.
I found his take on those years to be more humble than Ayers', and his discussion especially of the sexual promiscuity of those days more humanizing. I guess that's the difference if your story ends up with prestige or in prison.
Around 1978, Gilbert's story takes a strong turn from the usual; he decided that even as a committed feminist and anti-racist, he was not doing enough above ground, so he returned to the underground as a militant with the Black Liberation Army. Before discussing the sad events that followed, a disclaimer: I do not now, never have, and never will advocate for violence against human beings, even if that violence has revolutionary ends. And I don't think that David Gilbert ever intended to hurt anyone, either--but actions in which he participated did hurt people. His story is also a cautionary tale to any activists who don't think through all the ways in which people could be hurt by actions.
Anyway, while working with the BLA he formed a domestic partnership and had a baby with his partner. Then, while preparing to resurface and seek a "normal" life, they both participated in "fundraising:" robbing $1.5 million from an armored vehicle. The robbery went wrong, a shoot-out ensued, and three police officers were killed. No, Gilbert didn't have the gun; but he was partially responsible for those deaths. He admits it and expressed considerable regret.
However, the ensuing trial was a mockery; he only attended most of it from a cage underneath the courtroom. He was handed down a very long sentence, and remains in New York correctional facilities today. He's continued work on AIDS and other important social problems while in prison; Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn were his son's guardians.
There were three major ideas that I took away from this memoir:
1) Gilbert didn't participate in his own trial partially because he thought it was illegitimate, and he believed that political prisoners would be freed in the revolution to come. But the revolution didn't come, and our (in)justice system is just as racist as ever, and political prisoners of all stripes remain behind bars, forgotten. His actions in the case where the police officers died may have been wrong, but he was acting because he believed that nothing else could bring about justice. Those of us outside did not fulfill his hopes for revolution, and we have not found another way to bring about justice.
2) Gilbert has suffered a lot more than most white activists from the 1970s; he also has focused almost exclusively on the massive race-based injustice of our system.
3) Gilbert helped rob $1.5 million dollars from the rich to give to the poor, with the motive of justice. He'll be in prison for the rest of his life. Wall Street bankers, and Dick Cheney and other politicians, stole billions of dollars from the American people (via bailouts, deceptive lending practices, military contracts, basic corruption, etc.); they killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and citizens of Afghanistan; they kill people without healthcare every year; all with the base motive of greed, and not a one of them is in jail. Our system rewards stealing with greed as the motive, and punishes redistribution with the harshest punishments imaginable; using laws written by the powerful for their own benefit. David Gilbert is a dreamer and a visionary, and we on the outside must try to follow his dream, if not all his methods, towards a world of racial justice and self-determination for all.
David Gilbert was a member of the Weather Underground, and his new memoir has appeared as a result of widespread interest in the 2003 documentary of that movement (which I reviewed here). His memoir complements other fine discussions of that period, including Bill Ayers' Fugitive Days; Ayers' and Gilbert's lives ended up intersecting frequently, and their memoirs discuss many of the same events from similar perspectives. I much preferred Gilbert's memoir.
An important element of the memoir genre is knowing the ending. When you pick up a memoir, usually it's because you know the writer was famous for something already. I read Angela Davis' autobiography, recently, and I know that at the "end" she becomes a famous, well-respected professor who commands handsome speaking fees. At the end of Fugitive Days, Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn get married, he becomes an education professor, they end up assuming a committed, prosperous, happy life. It is ultimately a success story. Love and Struggle is not that, for the ending is that Gilbert is writing from prison, where he has been for nearly three decades and probably will remain until he dies.
Gilbert's discussion of the years 1968-1980ish parallels Ayers' accounts, and others of the period. An academically successful Jewish boy from a middle-class family channels his anti-racist and anti-war values into the Students for a Democratic Society's work against Vietnam. When massive above-ground and non-violent protest have virtually no effect on the government's mass murder of the Vietnamese people, and while groups like the Black Panthers experience severe government repression, with their leaders murdered by the FBI and city police, a group of SDS leaders decide to go underground and start armed revolution. Together they blow up some things, try to draw attention to important causes, somehow manage not to kill anyone except three of their own, and all surrender a safe resurfacing with minimum prison time for any of them by the late 1970s.
The main contribution of Love and Struggle to this oft-covered domain is Gilbert's focus on race as the major tool of oppression; on the increased police persecution of anti-racist groups; the aforementioned murders of Black leaders; and on problems of racism even within Whites in the civil rights movement. He also discusses factionalism within the Left, recounting how groups of revolutionary thinkers threw people out if they disagreed with a popular ideology, and warning against fractioning ourselves off too rapidly.
I found his take on those years to be more humble than Ayers', and his discussion especially of the sexual promiscuity of those days more humanizing. I guess that's the difference if your story ends up with prestige or in prison.
Around 1978, Gilbert's story takes a strong turn from the usual; he decided that even as a committed feminist and anti-racist, he was not doing enough above ground, so he returned to the underground as a militant with the Black Liberation Army. Before discussing the sad events that followed, a disclaimer: I do not now, never have, and never will advocate for violence against human beings, even if that violence has revolutionary ends. And I don't think that David Gilbert ever intended to hurt anyone, either--but actions in which he participated did hurt people. His story is also a cautionary tale to any activists who don't think through all the ways in which people could be hurt by actions.
Anyway, while working with the BLA he formed a domestic partnership and had a baby with his partner. Then, while preparing to resurface and seek a "normal" life, they both participated in "fundraising:" robbing $1.5 million from an armored vehicle. The robbery went wrong, a shoot-out ensued, and three police officers were killed. No, Gilbert didn't have the gun; but he was partially responsible for those deaths. He admits it and expressed considerable regret.
However, the ensuing trial was a mockery; he only attended most of it from a cage underneath the courtroom. He was handed down a very long sentence, and remains in New York correctional facilities today. He's continued work on AIDS and other important social problems while in prison; Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn were his son's guardians.
There were three major ideas that I took away from this memoir:
1) Gilbert didn't participate in his own trial partially because he thought it was illegitimate, and he believed that political prisoners would be freed in the revolution to come. But the revolution didn't come, and our (in)justice system is just as racist as ever, and political prisoners of all stripes remain behind bars, forgotten. His actions in the case where the police officers died may have been wrong, but he was acting because he believed that nothing else could bring about justice. Those of us outside did not fulfill his hopes for revolution, and we have not found another way to bring about justice.
2) Gilbert has suffered a lot more than most white activists from the 1970s; he also has focused almost exclusively on the massive race-based injustice of our system.
3) Gilbert helped rob $1.5 million dollars from the rich to give to the poor, with the motive of justice. He'll be in prison for the rest of his life. Wall Street bankers, and Dick Cheney and other politicians, stole billions of dollars from the American people (via bailouts, deceptive lending practices, military contracts, basic corruption, etc.); they killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and citizens of Afghanistan; they kill people without healthcare every year; all with the base motive of greed, and not a one of them is in jail. Our system rewards stealing with greed as the motive, and punishes redistribution with the harshest punishments imaginable; using laws written by the powerful for their own benefit. David Gilbert is a dreamer and a visionary, and we on the outside must try to follow his dream, if not all his methods, towards a world of racial justice and self-determination for all.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Dental emergencies in KS
A lot of people go to the hospital for dental emergencies in Kansas, because they can't afford relatively inexpensive dental care:
http://wellcommons.com/groups/wellness/2012/mar/1/dental-related-emergency-room-visits-on-/
This is not ok.
Meanwhile, remember: Because Mitt Romney's income is "investment-based" instead of labor-based, he pays taxes at 15% a year, instead of the 35% he would owe otherwise. Dang, if I got (essentially) 20% interest compounded annually on my savings--even on my modest savings--I could help some of these people with their dental related emergencies. Or, just take that 20% that I am not getting in compounded interest and use it to make sure that everyone has adequate medical care. (And food. That too.)
People are in pain and cannot get medical care. We are a rich nation, with communal resources for things like flat screen TVs, dual-Cadillac families, mansions that cost the GDP of small countries. And we can't get adequate dental care to all of our citizens. This is outrageous, wrong, immoral, and I hate that I participate every day in a system that kills 30,000+ people a year from lack of medical care and then forces scores of thousands more into lives of pain and suffering.
To quote Flogging Molly:
http://wellcommons.com/groups/wellness/2012/mar/1/dental-related-emergency-room-visits-on-/
This is not ok.
Meanwhile, remember: Because Mitt Romney's income is "investment-based" instead of labor-based, he pays taxes at 15% a year, instead of the 35% he would owe otherwise. Dang, if I got (essentially) 20% interest compounded annually on my savings--even on my modest savings--I could help some of these people with their dental related emergencies. Or, just take that 20% that I am not getting in compounded interest and use it to make sure that everyone has adequate medical care. (And food. That too.)
People are in pain and cannot get medical care. We are a rich nation, with communal resources for things like flat screen TVs, dual-Cadillac families, mansions that cost the GDP of small countries. And we can't get adequate dental care to all of our citizens. This is outrageous, wrong, immoral, and I hate that I participate every day in a system that kills 30,000+ people a year from lack of medical care and then forces scores of thousands more into lives of pain and suffering.
To quote Flogging Molly:
People, taking care of the people
There's no other way, or we'll break.
To quote Jesus:
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, "Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me."To quote me (I am much less awesome than Jesus or Flogging Molly):
Not making sure that everyone in our national community has basic life needs provided is our major moral failing. I don't want to hear another damn word about all those women having babies outside of wedlock, or the Federal Reserve, or the electoral college, or college sports, or professional sports, or anything else, until we have solved this basic moral problem. We are collectively murdering people, we are collectively guilty for causing the needless pain of others, and we will be judged for this.
Monday, February 13, 2012
The snow! Solidarity unionism forever!
The snow is here, and I am revived. At least that is how I feel. The last month has been good in some ways (lots of scholars' bowl events, some Wobbly action, reading, good times with good friends, etc.) but I have been under too much of a pallor to write. The lack of snow has been driving this North Dakotan crazy. I mean, there was the obvious problem of no surprise days off, which I had come to expect. But more to the point, everything was ugly and muddy and not really wintry. And I felt like even nature couldn't trump all the il will towards humans that is emanating from the political season, both the Republican presidential nominating process and the woeful, beyond despicable state of human affairs in Kansas. But the snow helps immensely. In the end, the world will be restored to justice and beauty and joy, and snow will fall as it is supposed to, and green shall come forth from the precipitation.
I'm just not sure this can happen while the human experiment lingers on.
I've been internalizing all the negative attention focused on teachers, and I know this. It is so bad for me psychologically and by extension all teachers. We are told daily that we are stupid, lazy, not doing our best, need to be motivated like rats in a cage, care about our jobs more than kids (?!?!?!?!?!), greedy, not deserving of a dignified life snd collective bargaining rights and a decent standard of living and reasonable amounts of control over our work environment. This is degrading, demoralizing, and vicious. Thankfully, the Kansas house of representatives decided not to publish our evaluations on line (new evals, mostly determined by student standardized test scores), as Saruman Brownback wanted. One small bright spot amidst new right to work laws, Arizona laws taking collective bargaining rights away from all public servants, the vitriol of both political parties towards the dignity of teachers.
Now, this is surprising to a lot of Americans, because we have long counted teachers to be part of the middle class, part of the group that made it through education and hard work to have benefits, good working conditions, etc. until recently a lot of Americans believed that the people who work with our children DID deserve those things. But here's another part of this: much of America is sent these same negative messages every single day. I have joined the International Workers of the World, in part because the attacks on my work have opened my eyes to the attacks that most working people experience all the time. These assaults on teachers are shocking, and they are wrong, but they also remind me that people with less historic privilege than I have suffered for generations. The lie is exposed: I am like them, working for an oligarchy that would cast us off if they could, that will stop at nothing to keep power in the names of the capitalists. My alliegences are to all other workers, those with know-how and skills and needs that the capitalist system is not meeting or using for the good of everyone. Baristas and line cooks and Walmart greeters and dental hygienists and musicians and paraprofessionals and secretaries and adjuncts and homemakers and computer programmers and pastors and custodians all deserve those things, not just teachers. So I continue to fight for me and my ilk, which is all workers, not just for teachers.
This is partially in my own self interest. As long as the baristas are not free, I feel guilt every time I participate in the exploitation of a latte at Starbucks. I just found out that my favorite guilty pleasure clothing store (Anthropologie. I know. Awful. But the clothes were sooooo pretty) contributed to Santorum's presidential campaign, and now all their clothing is, well, santorum-covered and the spell is broken and I will no longer seek out their clothing and participate in taking away my own rights as a woman. And ever since I slipped off the ladder to ultimate academic success and a PhD, I realize more how fragile all footing in such hierarchies is. Today I am a teacher, but I am just one budget cut away from seeking work as a barista.
And, it's partially from my ingrained sense of what is right and good. Even if it weren't in my self interest, I would probably act the same, from some inbred idealism.
Anyway, this is kind of a rant, but it is important, damn it. Which side are you on? I am on the side of the turning.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Life is beautiful.
This week, it would be possible to focus on which candidate for the presidency wants to take away which of my and others' rights. It would be possible to mourn that the xenophobic jerk who is our state secretary of something or other got to move up the deadline for his voter-restricting ID required laws. I could feel frustration and anger that members of my own family believe that Muslim extremists will take over the Midwest and deprive them of all their Christian white people freedom, and that they make all their voting decisions based on that. One could be astonished and alarmed about all of those things, and also the reality that the US may or may not have assisted Israel and/or Great Britain in assassinating a nuclear scientist n Iran, which seems like a horrible and anti-peace kind of thing to do, as well as colonialist, as well as a gross assault on academic freedom (if you study things we don't want you to know, we will kill you).
But I spent most of the week focused on those things, so let's talk about some other things instead. The world is still a beautiful and diverse place, and even the best efforts of the enemies of joy have not managed to change that yet.
I am mentoring a young lady who is writing her first novel, and she turned in a beautiful draft of a new chapter this week. My scholars' bowl team had a good meet that they enjoyed, and if they did not quite win they did not quite lose either.
It turns out that I am not quite the only Christian anarchist in the world. I am aware of a few different groups now. I am part of a Facebook group on the topic, and I have been reading a lot of material from the Jesus Radicals site recently. One of their writers is authoring a series on Christian anarchism . I probably enjoyed the Second installment most, with its discussion of historical Anarchist Christian groups. He has this to say about o ur discontinuous history:
Anarchy and Christainity both represent profoundly life-affirming traditions, at least in their finest manifestations. The effort to leave hierarchical relationships behind and interact with other humans, recognizing that God sees us all as equal in work, is a practice that transforms all of living. The other day, I was eating in a fast food restaurant (this was literally a requirement of my job at this point) and someone commented that they had never seen someone look so confused by a menu. This is true. Menus are no longer menus; they are complex representations of hierarchical relationships in both the natural and synthetic worlds. I don't know where that meat comes from; nor the oil that fries the potatoes; nor the lettuce in the salads, who was exploited din making it; nor do I know the specifics of how the workers at that restaurant are treated, nor how I can best help them have a not-awful time at work, or thank them for their labor. The very existence of such a place relies on my ignorance that those are even questions to be asked, and as such it is a place of horror. In contrast, I think about eating at a local food restaurant where they are very transparent about their food sourcing. The food is delicious and I do not feel guilty about it (well, the problems with knowing where your food comes from are solved, and the farmers were paid fairly for their labor. I don't know about the waiters and chefs, though, if they are treated well or have a voice in their management-and certainly both places share the same goal of making a profit). However, at the first place you can fill your belly for $3 and at the second place $15 will barely suffice. Questioning hierarchy in that way is expensive, especially when the critique is carried only to the means of food production and not to the means of service production or profit production. Is gardening the only non-hierarchical form of food production?
Last night, I learned of a neighborhood in Kansas City that is trying to grow 80% of its food internally. How beautiful. What wonderful freedom to be liberated from the demand to trade your labor dollars for food, and instead trade your labor directly for food.
Anyway,Christiananity and anarchism both hold out our crazy hope for the coming of a new world, ordered around cooperation, love, mutual aid, plenty, freedom. I will admit that the political order gives us precious little reason to form such hopes, but that is one reason why we must cast aside its constraints on our thinking. Sure, no current Republican candidate will bring forth the beautiful in the future, and probably no candidate at all. No, a hierarchical power cannot create a more beautiful world by fiat. Each of us must do what we can every day to bring that world about, treat each other with greater dignity and consideration every day, avoid encouraging monstrous injustice as much as we can.
But I spent most of the week focused on those things, so let's talk about some other things instead. The world is still a beautiful and diverse place, and even the best efforts of the enemies of joy have not managed to change that yet.
I am mentoring a young lady who is writing her first novel, and she turned in a beautiful draft of a new chapter this week. My scholars' bowl team had a good meet that they enjoyed, and if they did not quite win they did not quite lose either.
It turns out that I am not quite the only Christian anarchist in the world. I am aware of a few different groups now. I am part of a Facebook group on the topic, and I have been reading a lot of material from the Jesus Radicals site recently. One of their writers is authoring a series on Christian anarchism . I probably enjoyed the Second installment most, with its discussion of historical Anarchist Christian groups. He has this to say about o ur discontinuous history:
While some groups influenced later groups, there isn’t a successive chain of radical Christianity. The anarchic impulse isn’t passed down through the ages like a baton. Rather, it emerges. We should marvel and respect the reality that the Spirit of God creates anarchy. We should be open to it wherever it emerges, which isn’t necessarily in the places we’d expect. This, it would seem, requires a posture of openness and hope that, even in the most unlikely of places, life breaks out like a weed sprouting through a crack in a sidewalk.
Anarchy and Christainity both represent profoundly life-affirming traditions, at least in their finest manifestations. The effort to leave hierarchical relationships behind and interact with other humans, recognizing that God sees us all as equal in work, is a practice that transforms all of living. The other day, I was eating in a fast food restaurant (this was literally a requirement of my job at this point) and someone commented that they had never seen someone look so confused by a menu. This is true. Menus are no longer menus; they are complex representations of hierarchical relationships in both the natural and synthetic worlds. I don't know where that meat comes from; nor the oil that fries the potatoes; nor the lettuce in the salads, who was exploited din making it; nor do I know the specifics of how the workers at that restaurant are treated, nor how I can best help them have a not-awful time at work, or thank them for their labor. The very existence of such a place relies on my ignorance that those are even questions to be asked, and as such it is a place of horror. In contrast, I think about eating at a local food restaurant where they are very transparent about their food sourcing. The food is delicious and I do not feel guilty about it (well, the problems with knowing where your food comes from are solved, and the farmers were paid fairly for their labor. I don't know about the waiters and chefs, though, if they are treated well or have a voice in their management-and certainly both places share the same goal of making a profit). However, at the first place you can fill your belly for $3 and at the second place $15 will barely suffice. Questioning hierarchy in that way is expensive, especially when the critique is carried only to the means of food production and not to the means of service production or profit production. Is gardening the only non-hierarchical form of food production?
Last night, I learned of a neighborhood in Kansas City that is trying to grow 80% of its food internally. How beautiful. What wonderful freedom to be liberated from the demand to trade your labor dollars for food, and instead trade your labor directly for food.
Anyway,Christiananity and anarchism both hold out our crazy hope for the coming of a new world, ordered around cooperation, love, mutual aid, plenty, freedom. I will admit that the political order gives us precious little reason to form such hopes, but that is one reason why we must cast aside its constraints on our thinking. Sure, no current Republican candidate will bring forth the beautiful in the future, and probably no candidate at all. No, a hierarchical power cannot create a more beautiful world by fiat. Each of us must do what we can every day to bring that world about, treat each other with greater dignity and consideration every day, avoid encouraging monstrous injustice as much as we can.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
What's the matter, Kansas?
This week, just opening the paper caused a lot of anguish. I didn't have a bad week, personally; but Kansas outdid itself in embarrassing news. The Speaker of the House in Kansas forwarded a bunch of objectionable e-mails about the Obamas, and had to apologize today. I don't agree with people being hounded for their personal e-mail accounts, to be sure, and the fact that this made the news is a violation of privacy.
One of those forwards, however, included a criticism of the Obamas' holiday trip to Hawaii. Holy God. Do people not remember that Obama is FROM Hawaii, and his family is there, so why in the name of all that is holy would he not go there for Christmas? Did any of us willingly not visit family we like over the holidays? Why should he never get to see his family? Oh, wait, I forgot that he's different from other U.S. presidents and other people with lots of money. The second forward involved a sick joke about a Bible verse. Great. Now we're using the Scriptures to back up violent impulses. What is it about Obama that makes small potatoes politicians think it's okay to make vaguely racist jokes about the president, or to subtly commend assassination? Goodness. If a Muslim were to start praying for the President's demise, would that be labeled a good joke, an exercise of free speech, or terrorism?
I don't exactly love our current president, but there are limits to decency. I'm not saying that the Kansas Speaker of the House should be officially censured or fined or anything like that--he was certainly within the limits of free speech, and again there is a privacy issue when e-mails sent from a personal account become a matter of public record. However, he opened himself up to harsh judgment from decent people everywhere; he demonstrated his underlying attitudes, his personal private attitudes, and they are very ugly indeed, and he deserves scorn from his fellow humans.
Kansas was also bummed this week to find out that the federal government denied a waiver associated with the Affordable Care Act. Dang it, now the insurance companies in our state will have to spend a whole 80% of the premiums they collect on health care. Did you hear that? The health insurers have to pay money for health care, and can't skim as much profit as they want off the top. Boo hoo. (And, according to this article, there is a company in Kansas that has been spending 62% of their premiums on health care. I imagine those kind of profit margins are painful to give up. Almost as painful as not being able to afford medical treatment when you are in pain, or having to lose your house to pay medical bills. Yup. It must hurt.)
I was sad to hear about Boeing's treason, though. The Kansas senators and representatives in D.C. worked hard to award contracts to the airplane company, as the company promised to bring thousands of new jobs to Kansas. Whoops--turns out that Boeing is just another unaccountable, sadistic, lying, psychopathic corporation, and they pulled one over on those rednecks in Kansas! Not only did they not bring the new jobs here, they're pulling their entire factory out of the state (it's a major driver of Wichita's economy). Some government officials keep saying it'll be ok, it's only a couple of thousand jobs, we can recover! They are probably wrong. In a state of our size, a couple thousand good paying jobs are a big deal. I mean, this certainly exposes the foolishness of government (or anyone) trusting corporations or working with them for this sort of thing. From an anarchist perspective, it's a perfect example of the unholy union of government and corporations always screwing over the workers. Still--sucks to be a worker in Wichita. No affirmation of an ideology can help them feel any better.
Ah, well.
In other news, we lost a bunch of rights this week when Obama signed the indefensible National Defense Authorization Act that Congress passed; it created a new government right to indefinitely detain (read: imprison) American citizens without trial, if they're suspected of Doing Something Bad. It's not terribly reassuring to remember that we've already been doing that to lots of non-citizens, but now I have joined them in being potential targets for legalized injustice.
In lighter news, Santorum's near-win in the Iowa Caucuses brought great happiness many people; I hear his supporters were delighted with his triumph, the Democrats are thrilled with the thought of facing Santorum in the next election (although we might need to redefine Democrat next, after this freaking NDAA thing), and people with juvenile senses of humor everywhere enjoyed hearty laughter from actual news headlines such as "Santorum Surges from Behind in Iowa." All around, an excellent caucus. The only potential losers would appear if Santorum actually won everything. Then only women, non-straight people, non-child-having people, non-rich people, non-thin people, and non-healthy people have to be worried. Like, 12% of the country would be totally get to keep all their rights in a Santorum presidency! Or even 14%!
One of those forwards, however, included a criticism of the Obamas' holiday trip to Hawaii. Holy God. Do people not remember that Obama is FROM Hawaii, and his family is there, so why in the name of all that is holy would he not go there for Christmas? Did any of us willingly not visit family we like over the holidays? Why should he never get to see his family? Oh, wait, I forgot that he's different from other U.S. presidents and other people with lots of money. The second forward involved a sick joke about a Bible verse. Great. Now we're using the Scriptures to back up violent impulses. What is it about Obama that makes small potatoes politicians think it's okay to make vaguely racist jokes about the president, or to subtly commend assassination? Goodness. If a Muslim were to start praying for the President's demise, would that be labeled a good joke, an exercise of free speech, or terrorism?
I don't exactly love our current president, but there are limits to decency. I'm not saying that the Kansas Speaker of the House should be officially censured or fined or anything like that--he was certainly within the limits of free speech, and again there is a privacy issue when e-mails sent from a personal account become a matter of public record. However, he opened himself up to harsh judgment from decent people everywhere; he demonstrated his underlying attitudes, his personal private attitudes, and they are very ugly indeed, and he deserves scorn from his fellow humans.
Kansas was also bummed this week to find out that the federal government denied a waiver associated with the Affordable Care Act. Dang it, now the insurance companies in our state will have to spend a whole 80% of the premiums they collect on health care. Did you hear that? The health insurers have to pay money for health care, and can't skim as much profit as they want off the top. Boo hoo. (And, according to this article, there is a company in Kansas that has been spending 62% of their premiums on health care. I imagine those kind of profit margins are painful to give up. Almost as painful as not being able to afford medical treatment when you are in pain, or having to lose your house to pay medical bills. Yup. It must hurt.)
I was sad to hear about Boeing's treason, though. The Kansas senators and representatives in D.C. worked hard to award contracts to the airplane company, as the company promised to bring thousands of new jobs to Kansas. Whoops--turns out that Boeing is just another unaccountable, sadistic, lying, psychopathic corporation, and they pulled one over on those rednecks in Kansas! Not only did they not bring the new jobs here, they're pulling their entire factory out of the state (it's a major driver of Wichita's economy). Some government officials keep saying it'll be ok, it's only a couple of thousand jobs, we can recover! They are probably wrong. In a state of our size, a couple thousand good paying jobs are a big deal. I mean, this certainly exposes the foolishness of government (or anyone) trusting corporations or working with them for this sort of thing. From an anarchist perspective, it's a perfect example of the unholy union of government and corporations always screwing over the workers. Still--sucks to be a worker in Wichita. No affirmation of an ideology can help them feel any better.
Ah, well.
In other news, we lost a bunch of rights this week when Obama signed the indefensible National Defense Authorization Act that Congress passed; it created a new government right to indefinitely detain (read: imprison) American citizens without trial, if they're suspected of Doing Something Bad. It's not terribly reassuring to remember that we've already been doing that to lots of non-citizens, but now I have joined them in being potential targets for legalized injustice.
In lighter news, Santorum's near-win in the Iowa Caucuses brought great happiness many people; I hear his supporters were delighted with his triumph, the Democrats are thrilled with the thought of facing Santorum in the next election (although we might need to redefine Democrat next, after this freaking NDAA thing), and people with juvenile senses of humor everywhere enjoyed hearty laughter from actual news headlines such as "Santorum Surges from Behind in Iowa." All around, an excellent caucus. The only potential losers would appear if Santorum actually won everything. Then only women, non-straight people, non-child-having people, non-rich people, non-thin people, and non-healthy people have to be worried. Like, 12% of the country would be totally get to keep all their rights in a Santorum presidency! Or even 14%!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Happy New Year
Greetings one and all, and welcome to the year 2012. Some say that this year will be the end, and assuredly it will signal the end for many things--but for the Confabulator Cafe, 2012 is the beginning.
That's write, folks, the Confabulator Cafe opens today, bringing together the ruminations of many local (and formerly local) writers, our thoughts about writing and written things, all in one convenient online location.
To stop in for a breather, just click on the link. Daily posts by a bunch of people, including yours truly and several who are more eloquent than yours truly, will appear in your browser.
It's a fabulous experience. Come by. Stay a while!
That's write, folks, the Confabulator Cafe opens today, bringing together the ruminations of many local (and formerly local) writers, our thoughts about writing and written things, all in one convenient online location.
To stop in for a breather, just click on the link. Daily posts by a bunch of people, including yours truly and several who are more eloquent than yours truly, will appear in your browser.
It's a fabulous experience. Come by. Stay a while!
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