Thank you Mama!

Socialism--it keeps coming up and people keep acting like it's a dirty word or something. You could start a great big fight right there on Twitter among supposed liberal allies just trying to define what it is. Most people agree it's how we've always lived; that having government services like the post office and public schools is a degree of socialism. Throw in some roads, bridges, parks, libraries, and public servants to create a basis from which restrained/regulated capitalism can flourish and you start to get what I think of when I think about socialism.

Then you have you're ideological purists at the other end of the spectrum who refuse to call it socialism as long as every industry isn't state-owned and state-run! Whatever! Does anybody really want to live in that world? I can't imagine it would be a satisfying existence for anyone.

I consider myself a socialist. My mother was a socialist, and my grandmother was a socialist. And I dare say that that is true of just about every matriarch of every family of everyone I know! Were the women in my family really so political that I would project that every mom in America is a socialist? Well no, they weren't political at all as far as I'm aware. (I suppose the dads of the world might have been doing similar things as the women in my world, but I just don't have firsthand knowledge of that. I mostly saw women at work and learned from them.)  But what they did in raising their families, how they taught us as children to treat each other at home and others in the greater world, smacked of socialism just as obviously as your nose protrudes from your face!

When we sat down to the dinner table to eat we all got the same food, and everyone got a fair share before anyone took extra. Every member of the family was expected to contribute to getting the chores done according to their ability.  Being an older child in a large family I did a lot of taking care of other children.  Sometimes I did get "more" for that reason, but I didn't always get more.  Most importantly, none got extra until everyone had enough!  And when we needed things like shoes, clothes, books, ice cream, and medical and dental care, whatever it was that we needed, we all got pretty much what we needed. We didn't get the same things--we each got what we needed! There was no difference in the quality of the food, clothing, and education provided for us and, all in all, it was a pretty fair system.

I don't think I need to explain where this is going. If a family was run on a plan anything like the unfettered capitalism the "big money" interests want then who would survive childhood. Why does it seem right that we emerge from the fold of the family to be thrown to the wolves in a "survival of the fittest" world? Do we suddenly cease to be human beings? Do we no longer deserve to exist in the kind of person-centered world our nurturers taught us to navigate? Socialism is a natural tendency of human beings. It's how we interact with family and friends. We live in a land of plenty. We don't need to struggle to feed people. We just need to get control of the greedy people. Hoarding wealth, just like hoarding cats, is a mental illness. We need to call people out for it, and get them some help. We need to establish a government of the people, by the people, and for all the people. How did we screw that up? A discussion for later!

Even Political Staffers Are Uninformed!

Recently I was calling state legislators to find out the position of each on the question of adopting an amendment to the constitution to overturn the Citizens United vs. FEC decision.  While I had them on the phone I asked about various issues.  I found that most (lack of actual data because it didn't occur to me to count) of the staff persons with whom I spoke were not familiar with the issues.  It was suggested by an acquaintance of mine that they were feigning ignorance on the topics, and simply avoiding discussions of representatives' positions.  I considered that as a possibility, but in most cases (again not adequately quantified) I needed to slow down and often spell for the staffer as they wrote down my questions and comments for the elected official they represented.  In many cases they attempted to relate my questions and statements to specific legislation in order to provide themselves a frame of reference from which to speak.  My conclusion from these discussions is that people, even those who work very closely with elected officials, are woefully uninformed on issues of the day.  If these folks are truly uninformed the general population could reasonably be expected to be mostly clueless!
Armed with only a fair amount of information while speaking on issues to the staff person of a well-known, longtime U.S. Senator, I was accused of being "the press" masquerading as a private citizen.  The staffer was having a very difficult time discussing the issue for which he is the Senator's spokesperson to constituents.  He informed me that he was terminating the discussion and, if I wanted a media statement, he would need to refer me elsewhere.  I am not now nor have I ever been "the media."

It's Our Move

The 1% has shown us who they are.  The climate is in crisis.   We don’t know and have no control of what is being put into our foods.   Our prisons are operating on a for-profit basis.   And the post office, an institution whose very founding is at the root of the success of our nation, is being undercut, putting many thousands out of work, including many veterans.   Teachers, firefighters, police, and other public sector workers are being laid off putting our children’s futures and the safety of our communities at risk.   The cost of education is being shifted entirely to the individual.   Healthcare costs, both public and private, are through the roof, and still, as a group, our life expectancy ranks 42^nd in the world.   Our infant mortality rate ranks worse than that of Cuba and Taiwan.   We have many other issues like predatory lending and home foreclosures.   I’ve just mentioned a few.

One day I looked around, and seeing all the problems I thought, “Somebody’s got to do something--we can’t let this continue!” And after a bit more looking around the answer was obvious--we have a huge problem, and it’s going to take a lot of effort by a lot of people to bring about necessary change.   I realized I was going to have to do more than write a check this time.   We all do.

I remember driving home from work in Southern Indiana on January 21^st, 2010 and hearing the news report on NPR saying that the Supreme Court had ruled in the Citizens United vs. FEC case allowing corporations to spend without limit in our elections.   I looked around as I came off the bridge and closed my sunroof--which I always opened in case the bridge collapsed and I needed to escape--and wondered why the streets weren’t full of people screaming like their hair was on fire!   Was everyone oblivious to what had just happened to us?   Did we still think we had representatives in government looking out for us?   Were we so steeped in the myth of American Exceptionalism that we didn’t think it possible for anyone to steal our own liberty and democracy from right beneath our noses?

Over the next several months things kept growing worse and worse all around me.   The developers in my only 40% complete subdivision declared bankruptcy and the already dilapidated conditions grew worse.   All over town foreclosure signs went up as families who had invested all they had were displaced from homes because, sometime in the fairly recent past, lenders stopped trying to protect themselves from loss by making sure people could afford the homes they were buying.   They had a new way to protect themselves.   They sold their risky investments to unsuspecting buyers--like the managers of your retirement accounts. So you lost money too while others were losing their homes.


I think it's past time to turn our attention specifically to getting money out of politics.   We should be petitioning the politicians at all levels of government in our communities to support an amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision.  It won’t be easy but we must get this done!   It is going to take all of us working together.   Their power is money.   Our power is in numbers--we need people power.  We must re-establish a government and system that works for all of us--not just the few at the top.  It's our move!

(Yes, I'm in the middle of a campaign, and this is an attempt to "lure" you into joining me in taking action!  But it doesn't matter which organization you choose to work with.  There are plenty of organizations working to overturn the Citizens United vs. FEC decision, or you can start your own!  I hope you decide to take part.  Like I said before, "We've lost in the money arena--we have to have people power to win!")

Are You Happy?

Most of the misery I've suffered in life has come from trying to fit someone else's ideal of what I "should" be.  In many ways I am much like everyone else, but in many ways I am different.  I have come to love my differences, and it is almost unbelievable how differently people act toward me, and react to me, since I have embraced those differences.  I have never been able to go along to get along.  I have to be true to myself to be happy.  I consider myself a "recluse."  (There was a time I would have used the word "outcast" instead!)  When I stopped trying to be something in particular and decided to just "be" my life became what I've always wanted.  When I embraced my differences they became strengths--strengths that still set me apart from others, but allow me to achieve things they often can't, or don't.  I am a leader in a national non-profit progressive organization, and I co-founded a local social organization.  People seek me out to simply appear at their social and political functions.  I'm not even sure what others see in me.  What I know I have is pride and self-confidence derived from devoting myself to the promotion of social and economic equality.  There are still people who don't like me, and don't agree with me, and that is okay.  As long as I am informed, as long as I am focused on doing what I truly believe is "right," I feel content.  It is far more important to my own happiness to meet the demands I make of myself, than to meet the approval of others. 

So stop being concerned about what others want.  Find your own list of requirements for you, and do your best to fulfill them.  That, I believe, is the key to a happy life!

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
― Mahatma Gandhi