Peril and Hope

The latest projections by the Huffington Post have the GOP retaining control of the House of Representatives, even adding a few seats to their majority. It is unclear whether the Democrats will retain control of the Senate. I can see now why Sandy Levin wants to retire: he might not want to continue to fight the Republicans on every single thing. I read that he refuses to play political games and that's all the GOP knows how to do. I might be tired of it too if I were him. I know how tired of it I am as a citizen. But that is precisely why we need him to win this election. We desperately need people like him. We need his decency, his competency and the refusal to play games. This county's only hope is in people like Sandy Levin. If the worst happens and Romney also, somehow (by hook or by CROOK) wins and the House GOP maintains and extends their control and the Democrats lose control of the Senate then this country is doomed without voices like his. Still, I would understand at his age the desire to retire. I see it regularly in my own mother.

People like Sandy are our hope inside the government. But the ultimate hope is in the people of the United States of America:. the hope that we will fight to keep our voices for truth and social justice alive and strong so that we might fight the corruption and greed and lust for power of the GOP and their corporate masters. We must fight to reverse the trend towards government surveillance of citizens whether or not  we are guilty of anything other than patriotism . The Patriot Act was but one example of this trend. There have been many others: NDAA, FISA,the projected use of drones in American cities...all are efforts to control an increasingly restive population. But they are doomed to failure just like the dictators in Africa and the Middle East if we fight for our rights as they are given to us by God and the US Constitution. It is a fight of faith, personal and civil. It doesn't mean violating the separation of church and state. It means the exact opposite: it means upholding that gulf between the two in order to preserve our liberties. When the forces of religion, corporations and government merge, heaven help the people of the United States. We must be the voices and bodies to stop that awful possibility and reality. Occupy Wall Street may be one of the shining examples in this struggle; citizens uniting for a greater cause than themselves. That is, and will continue to be, the great hope for this country, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.


P.S.  I realize Sandy Levin voted FOR all the above awful legislation but on all other matters he has been and is on the side of justice and fairness. In addition, his opponent in the new MI 9th district is just awful and a Tea Party advocate. 

Voting Machines in Swing States

Shakespeare for the 21st Century:

Two Visions, One Election

It seems like there are two visions of politics and they are always at war. The first is that politics is for the betterment of the whole of humanity,of uplifting everyone. The second is that politics is to secure power for a select few who will rule the rest. We see that quite plainly in this election in the United States. Barack Obama has a vision that would "lift all boats". Mitt Romney insists that his vision will reward the rich and those rewards will somehow (never explained how) trickle down to the rest of the population. The fact that Trickle Down has been the dominant conservative theory for decades and has yet to work does not seem to faze him. He remains steadfast (or not) in his conservative fake world.This world is built strictly for the consumption of the population of citizens who really, at bottom, want to be rich and think Trickle Down will be the answer. Of course, the rich conservatives have no intention of ever letting that happen.

Obama, on the other hand, remains steadfast in his somewhat liberal hope for change. It is, of course, given the reality of human nature, hopelessly naive and I have to think that he knows it. The conservative power brokers will never allow the full vision to be realized and will always try to block as much as possible and to roll back any social progress that has been made.

Both of these perspectives have been labeled by Reinhold Niebuhr, Christian Theologian. He called the conservatives "The Children of Darkness" for their persistent reliance on the sinfulness and greed of human beings. They know, what the other side fails to realize, which is that people will ALWAYS do what is in their own self-interest. On the other hand are the liberals, which he calls the "Children of the Light". This would sound positive until you realize that Niebuhr viewed them as hopelessly foolish and naive. They see the world through "rose colored glasses." Humanity will inevitably progress and will overcome the evil that stands in the way of social improvement. Niebuhr sees the foolishness of thinking that people are that noble. But neither are they as malevolent as the Children of the Darkness want to believe. The interesting thing about human beings is the wonderful mixture of sinful, selfish,greedy men and women along with the noble creatures which seek the Kingdom God on earth.

The bottom line is that it is the dialectic between the two elements, the Children of the Darkness and the Children of the Light that informs politics and the way of the world. This dialectic is required for society to work.

The problem at the current time is that the Children of the Darkness are being obstinate and refusing to participate in the dialectic. It is their way or no way. The Children of the Light are continually frustrated by the lack of movement in the dialectic. What is required of them is to see that this strategy by the CoD is just another ploy based in their world view. In order to move the dialectic, the CoL have to call them out for what they are, to preach the Truth, to be Prophets, if you will. They must cry in the wilderness until the People hear with their inner ears and hearts.

This election is all about that inner ear. Will the People hear? Will they see that ultimately, neither the Cod or the CoL will prevail untouched. Democracy simply will not allow it. Democracy is the dialectic.

OFA Culture and The Disabled

Obama for America started out saying the campaign was going to be run on the following ideals: Respect, Empower, Include, Win. I would say these are excellent values to which to commit. Winning requires each of them in good measure.

I have been thinking about these ideals with respect to how people with challenges fit into the campaign and into the Democratic Party in general.

Respect: You cannot possibly know how fundamental it is for people with disabilities or special challenges to feel they are being respected as human beings. It is even more crucial than for "normal" people who take respect somewhat for granted. All too often, those of us who have developmental issues or mental illness or both find ourselves ridiculed and bullied and excluded. It is the lack of respect that hurts most, I think. People with Asperger's Syndrome, for instance, are completely cognizant of how we are being treated and received. Being on the high functioning end of the autism spectrum can be something of a curse since we are aware of our surroundings and the people around us to a greater or lesser extent. We KNOW when we are being ridiculed. We KNOW when we are being picked on. We KNOW when we are treated as less than human. We only ask for simple respect that is granted to any other human being.

Empower: This, again, is oh, so crucial for us. So often and for so long we have been told what we CANNOT do. It is time for us to insist that we CAN DO and we CAN help and CAN participate in meaningful ways. If allowed to use our special talents and abilities, we can make significant contributions to the campaigns. Empower us and see where we go and what we can do.

Include:  This the the most basic of the values. Without inclusion there can be no respect or empowerment. To be included also requires a measure of acceptance for who and what we are. We know there will be discomfort. There are people who make us uncomfortable as well. But acceptance doesn't require being fully comfortable with someone. It only requires an openness to the abilities, shortcomings and contributions of those of us with special challenges. Acceptance and inclusion is what ALL volunteers require. We are in this together and believe in President Obama. Give us the chance to help him WIN.

Resources for Adults With Asperger's

When will there be resources for ADULTS on the Autism Spectrum?  There is a critical shortage as autistic/Asperger's children grow up to be adults and for those who already are. Who will take this critical need seriously? Where are the researchers, where are those trained to diagnose adults? Where are those trained to help smooth the transition into society? Those who can help train for jobs, for living independently,etc? So far the need far outstrips the supply. See this from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june11/autism5adults_04-22.html  and this:http://www.jobs4autism.com/adults-struggle-with-lack-of-services/ . The stories are seemingly endless, including my own. There was no diagnosis when I was a child,so I am looking for resources as an adult. I can't even find someone who can diagnose me. especially since I am unemployed, the common issue for adults with Asperger's even though we are intelligent and talented  and extremely honest. The lack of social skills keeps us from living up to our potential as does the continued discrimination and stigma surrounding the condition. If only there were the resources, people on the high end of the Autism spectrum could contribute in a meaningful way to society and the economy. One option is to provide internships to help prepare us for the workplace. The problem is that most internships are designed for college students without special challenges. They are often seen to be cheap labor. What the adults on the high end of the Autism Spectrum need are internships especially designed for their particular challenges, and that would take a lot of work. Who is willing to put that kind of effort into providing assistance to someone with Aspergers? That is the challenge. That and the research required and the trained professionals and the money. 

So we call on the State and Federal Government to provide for these needs. They will pay off in the long run as we enter the workforce and pay taxes. NIH and NIMH could facilitate much of the research required. Please, someone hear our plea! It makes sense. It is the right thing to do.

Police Vs. The Citizens

Since the beginning of the Occupy Movement, there has been an underlying theme: the brutality of and oppression by the police. Indeed, it often appears that we are heading towards a Police State in this country. The Patriot Act and NDAA are just two examples  of how Congress and the President (regardless of party) are pushing to restrict citizen's constitutionally protected rights. The powers to enforce these acts appear to be derived from the Department of Homeland Security (the name just SCREAMS oppression and Orwell). They are actually MILITARIZING local police departments with left over used weapons from past wars. SO Police Departments have the ability to put down full scale civil war if it came to that. And it just might, because ordinary American citizens are feeling particularly put upon these days by the wealthiest 1% who are doing quite well at the expense of the bottom 99%. And yet, the 1% want MORE and want the poor and middle class to pay for it. The greed and callousness of the wealthiest Americans is unprecedented in American history. And that's going some. To pursue their strategy the wealthiest have set up propaganda groups to brainwash the ignorant into buying the claim that if we give them more tax breaks then the wealth and jobs will trickle down to the rest of us. We have been there for a long time and all the bottom 90% has gotten is trickled ON. So, the rest of us are restive. Recognizing that restiveness, the 1% (also know as the military industrial complex) have made sure to well arm the local police departments and given them para-military training. The result has been that these departments inevitably feel the need to use all that equipment and training, even where it is not warranted. So we have heads cracked open, young girls pepper sprayed right in the face at close range when they are already caged in and innumerable similar acts all over the country. All in the name of "preserving the peace." 

The citizens of this country need to wake up to the fact that there is a very deliberate attack upon our constitutional rights and unless we act now, they WILL be permanently stripped from us. We have to stand up now or be forced to our knees later, We cannot allow police departments to abuse us at any time. At least not without shouting about it from every rooftop (or Twitter). We must be organized to fight the oppressors, some of whom are in Congress. The ones who voted for NDAA, for instance. They do not want to preserve YOUR freedom, just that of their 1% puppet masters.We must fight those who would strip us of our rights. It is now or never, my fellow Americans.  We must, in a peaceful and organized fashion, reverse the trend towards tyranny. It is up to us now.

Faith and Depression

It has always seemed like such a contradiction: how could someone who firmly believes in Jesus as the Christ also be depressed and suicidal? They do not go together in the normal schema of faith.If you believe in the saving grace of Jesus then there ought to be no room for despair, hopelessness, depression and suicidal thoughts, right? Nope. It turns out that the same person who believes the former also suffers with the rest. It may seem like a contradiction but the reality is that they co-exist.

The problem lies with the failure to understand depression as the organic illness it really is. Many Christians see depression as a spiritual failure, somehow the fault  of the depressed person for not having enough faith. The truth is, depression is an organic, definable illness in the same way heart disease is. Not many of us would classify heart attacks as a failure of faith. Neither should we define depression that way. Depression is caused by real imbalances in brain chemicals and complicated by life events.One may or may not question the role of faith in the life events but to call an imbalance of seratonin, dopamine and other chemicals in the brain a lack of faith is a serious failure to even try to understand the true nature of depression.

The Church, as a whole, needs to do a better job educating parishioners about mental illness in general and depression in particular. Though MILLIONS of us suffer from depression every year in this country only 3 in 100 sufferers seek help. That has to change. There should be no more shame in seeking help for depression than in going to the doctor for cancer. Indeed there should be no shame in being depressed at all. It is not  a matter of fault or blame. It JUST IS.

I have a Masters Degree in Theology and my home church was quite proud when I was ordained Deacon in the United Methodist Church. They were less thrilled when I left the ministry but they were still my home church. They managed to get their investment back by using my gifts and graces as much as they possibly could. At some points, I felt like an unpaid pastor. But then I suffered a breakdown and was hospitalized several times. I will NEVER forget that first Sunday back to church. Not ONE person either looked at me or talked to me! I never went back. These were the people who raised me in the faith. And yet, they could not deal with someone who had been suicidal and depressed. It was extremely painful but I understood the stigma that still attaches to mental illness and depression.

My message to the Church is this: What would Jesus do? First of all, he would heal me. But he would NEVER judge me or anyone else suffering from depression. Blame the disease not the patient. Jesus loves us all unconditionally. We ALL have our weaknesses and we are ALL sinners. But mental illness, in and of itself, is not a sin. It is a disease. It is no more sinful than having cancer. If and when the Church and broader society GETS that fact, the stigma may begin to disappear and the mentally ill may be included in society in a fuller and broader way. I hope and pray not too many more of us are ostracized before that happens.

Todd Akin: Shut Up

Todd Akin 's comments that a woman's body can prevent pregnancy in a "legitimate rape".  This man sits on the Science Committee in the US House of Representatives. Really? I have so many responses on so many levels that I do not know where to start. 

On the most personal level, as a woman who was raped, I am shocked, offended, angry to the point that I'm shaking and afraid for my country. What the heck is a "legitimate rape?"  All rape is a CRIME and can therefore not be "legitimate".  I am sure he meant to say "real" but that is just as bad because who determines what a "real" rape is? The victim? The police? The rapist? To the woman who was assaulted, EVERY rape is as real as it can get and it stays real for the rest of her life. I suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 33 years after the fact. Just using the word "rape" brings it all back in a literal flash. There is nothing more REAL than that. 

Then there is the "scientific" statement that a woman's body can prevent pregnancy in a "legitimate" rape. Oh? Exactly what in the woman's body can distinguish between real rape and fake rape? I am sorry Rep. Akin but sperm is sperm and there is nothing to distinguish between a real rapists sperm and a fake rapists sperm. There is nothing in a woman's body that will prevent implantation. You need to not be on the Science Committee because you know NOTHING about science. Of course, that is the problem on the Right - the absolute disdain for science. People like you would take us back to the stone age if we allow it. I pray the people of your state have more sense than that. 

I was terrified after being raped that I would become pregnant. The terror itself prolonged my agony because I skipped a menstrual cycle due to stress. People like you must NOT be allowed to regulate women's bodies. And people like you need to shut the heck up. 

*All content herein is the opinion of the author.

Is The Democratic Party Inclusive Enough?

I find it interesting that since I have developed severe depression (currently seeking help), I have been uninvited from volunteering for democratic campaigns. Most notably,  Sander Levin for Congress. This hurts the most because the first political campaign I ever worked on was when Sandy Levin ran for Governor of Michigan in 1974. I was in high school and spent a lot of time stuffing and licking envelopes, licking stamps and making phone calls. He has been my congressman for most of the time since 1984 and I worked on campaigns for him off and on, especially in 1992 when I was precinct captain. The off years mostly had to do with work schedules. I have always been a supporter of the congressman. Now, to be uninvited from being a volunteer makes me a little sick to my stomach. Yes, I am suffering from depression. I would think it would be understandable given the fact that I have been unemployed for 3 1/2 years, have no income, no health insurance, no assets and my 78 year old mother has Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma but still has to work in order to keep a roof over our heads. I have creditors dogging me day and night and our condo is worth less than 1/4 of what it is mortgaged for. So yes, I AM depressed. I can't find a job and that makes me feel worthless in and of itself.  

A large part of the reason I got involved with the Obama Campaign in February as a Spring Fellow was to keep myself busy and work on a great cause. Not to mention having something I could put on my resume. I was feeling really good about myself during that period. But the Fellowship ended and the leadership changed in Oakland County and I ended up the odd one out. I needed to be hired on a Field Organizer in order to be able to afford to keep driving to Pontiac but that didn't happen. So, I started volunteering for Sandy Levin. I did mailings, phone calling, walked in parades and a lit drop. Then the depression  and generalized anxiety disorder really hit and suddenly I was no longer welcome. 

I find it fascinating that so many people in his district are either unemployed and suffering from mental illness or both. They/we are still voting constituents. The mentally ill still deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Yes, it is uncomfortable sometimes. But if  someone with a mental illness (especially depression) wants to volunteer, why shouldn't they? Why shouldn't people with mental illness or 
developmental disabilities be active in the Democratic Party? This is another challenge to the Democratic Party to be as inclusive as they claim to be.  

*ALL content herein is the opinion of the author

People With Guns Kill People

This morning's senseless and horrifying shooting in Aurora, Colorado was perpetrated by a young man armed with FOUR guns. He used them with obvious premeditation. He has no criminal record and nothing about him stood out to authorities. This man seemed ordinary, yet he ended the lives of at least 12 people and injured dozens more. The only thing that stands out, as of now, is that he was armed with 4 guns. Without those weapons, those innocent people would still be alive and whole. Without those particular guns, a movie would have remained a fun event instead of a mind-bending tragedy. The guns are what stands out.

The National Rifle Association has spent millions upon millions of dollars to protect their 2nd Amendment rights. The right to keep and bear arms is sacrosanct to them and their millions of members. My question for them is this: Does YOUR ( and my) right to keep and bear arms supersede the right of all of us to LIFE, to the having the right to live without the fear of being gunned down? The very first right given to us in the US Constitution is LIFE. You do not have the right to infringe on that most basic of rights, I don't care what the 2nd Amendment says. The fact is that people with GUNS kill people. It is time to take a look at how freely guns are are available and how they are regulated. After all, the Amendment the NRA worships has to do with a "well regulated militia." Guns, in and of themselves, are NOT the point of the Second Amendment. We would all do well to remember that.  The POINT of the Second Amendment is to protect LIFE not to infringe upon it. For the NRA, guns are a means and an end in and of themselves. That is just WRONG. The end is to protect life and liberty. Guns can sometimes, rarely, be a means to that end. ALWAYS, guns should be the last resort, as it was for the Founders who tried every other way to have their grievances with England redressed. Armed revolt was the last resort. The NRA needs to learn to see guns in this light. Otherwise, you have a mass of people who worship guns instead of the life and freedom they are meant to protect. When you begin to worship weapons, you end up with a violent  society uninterested in the preservation of life. You end up with horrendous massacres of innocent people who stood no chance of defending themselves. That goes against EVERYTHING  the Founders of this country intended. And the NRA knows it.

I believe the National Rifle Association has a responsibility to the victims and families of the Aurora shooting. They OWE it to these people to take a good hard look at their values and principles and reassess them to stand more in line with the respect for human life. The NRA needs to reassess their ethics. They need to do it now.

*ALL content herein is the opinion of the author

The Least of These

 

Much of the problem I have with the Republicans these days has to do with their insistence upon cutting much needed services for the elderly, the disabled and the poor all so they can help pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Many, if not most of these same Republicans call themselves Christians. Yet, anyone who reads the Bible knows that Jesus preached this: Love God, Love your neighbor as yourself. Who is your neighbor? Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The answer then is: your neighbor is EVERYONE.  The Republicans, the Tea Party and their rich sponsors do not get this. They ignore the Prophet Isaiah: "Shame on you! who make unjust laws and publish burdensome decrees, depriving the poor of justice, robbing the weakest of my people of their rights, despoiling the widow and plundering the orphan. What will  you do when called to account.." Isaiah 10:1-3a)  The Bible is quite clear, yet those who call themselves Christians and pander to the evangelical right seem not to get what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus was NOT about hatred, racism or injustice. That is totally antithetical to Christian teachings. Jesus would not ask to see your insurance card before healing you. Don't you get it? Wake up. 

But it is not just Christians who have this problem because the Prophets preached not to Christians but to Jews. So anyone in the Abrahamic tradition gets hit with the teaching by Isaiah. How do we treat the poor, the oppressed, the weakest? And for politicians it is not just in the abstract...not just all the poor, all the unemployed, but it also means, this ONE unemployed person who stands in front of me. It is most especially about the particular, not the general. How do you treat the ONE who has been unemployed so long the stresses have caused great and deep depression and desperation? The answer is not just in passing laws to make things better but also in helping the ONE. It is much easier to see  and deal with the general because it doesn't become personal. But the ONE who stands before you calls for an immediate and personal response. That is much harder, isn't it?

Faith in the One G-d calls us all to step up and love our neighbor and not just in the abstract. It means understanding the stresses on the One and to not make them worse by treating them like dirt when they are in front of you. It means not acting like they are the OTHER, the scary, when they are just the Neighbor in need, the weakest among us who have been decimated by the ones in power.

So, who is YOUR Neighbor?


*ALL content herein is the opinion of the author.

Fear Not

Perhaps the most basic problem we have in our society today is that we live in fear. We fear for the future. We fear the other person, we fear growing old. We fear the government. We fear. Fear is a destructive feeling because it closes down the possibility for rational thinking and creative thinking. When we are afraid, we "hunker down.".  Most of the time what it actually needed is to face what ever it is head on. When we are fearful, it is far more difficult to see alternatives. We also freeze the situation so the only thing we see is one possible scenario. The fact is, rarely are we totally accurate in how we are viewing the situation. If we insist on seeing what we are afraid of in one way, there is only one possible outcome. If, instead, we realize that there are alternate possibilities, we are freed up to see multiple outcomes. 

How many times have we seen what we fear the most come about?  Often, because we allow for only one outcome. In our fear, we bring about the very outcome we fear the most.  Fear is a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

That is why the Bible spends so much effort saying, "Fear not."  Three hundred and sixty-five times, in fact. One for every day of the year. The Bible recognizes how debilitating fear really is, how it separates us from G-d and one another and how it distorts reality. Fear is the single biggest source for anger and sin. We cannot be the people G-d has created us to be if we live in fear, anger and anxiety. G-d created us to love and love is impossible  in the midst of fear. G-d created us to be in relationship with one another and society is impossible if everyone is afraid. That is why the world is in so much trouble. We are all living in fear and that keeps us from relating with one another in truth and trust. Without trust, civilization is impossible. Unless we turn back to one another and start relating in good faith, we will fall apart as a country. 

That is what is so destructive about the Tea Party: they are afraid of EVERYTHING  and EVERYONE that doesn't think, act or look like them. What they are afraid of, they attack.  What and who they attack, attacks back. They (and we) need to be reminded of the Biblical message: "Fear not."  Only when we follow this command can we become the People of  G-d.  Only when we stop living in fear can we become what G-d created us to be. Only when we "Fear not" can we be free to love.

Mental Health and ACA

I have been to forum after forum about health care reform over the last three years and one thing I have noticed: All the talk is about physical health care. Literally NONE of the discussion has focused on MENTAL health. Yet, people without health insurance are just as much in need of mental health care services as they are for physical illness. 

This is demonstrated best by someone like me. I have been unemployed for 3 1/2 years and lost my health insurance about 18 months in. I lost my unemployment benefits six months later. So, I have NO personal income, no assets, no bank account but lots of stresses: creditors who harass me constantly, an elderly mother who has to work part time to keep us housed and fed, even though she has Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a condo worth only 1/5 of what we originally mortgaged it for. The longer I go without employment, the worse it gets, in every way. With no health care, my asthma remains unmanaged and uncontrolled. I am no longer able to see my primary care physician on a regular basis, so the anti-depression and anti-anxiety medications she prescribed for me are not monitored regularly.

The consequences of this combination of circumstances has been rather disastrous for me.  The longer I am unable to find a job, the worse I feel about myself and my circumstances. The more hopeless I feel. The more useless I feel. The longer I have no income, the more stress creditors put on me and the more desperate I feel. The longer  this goes on, the guiltier I feel about my mom and the more I feel that she's be better off without me. The worse I feel about myself, the less likely I am to be able to find a job. This cycle of despair and hopelessness has led me to become extremely depressed and suicidal. The depression indicates that perhaps my meds are not working or need to be adjusted, but I have been unable to afford to go to the doctor. So, last week, I planned to commit suicide. I decided to jump off an overpass head first. All my research showed that even at a relatively low altitude, a head first jump is most likely to be successful. Yes, I researched it. If I am going to do it, I do not want to fail and make things worse. 

As it happens, I chickened out because of my fear of heights. And also, because I am not unlike most people who attempt suicide. I don't necessarily want to die, I just want the pain to end. But the pain never ends, or so it seems. Fortunately, a person I never even met in person (Facebook friend) suggested I call 211. I looked it up online and recognized one of the resources listed for help. I am now getting help but so many other people are not so lucky. If I had health insurance, this would never have gotten this far because I'd have been monitored by my primary care doctor, or, failing that, would have been able to go to a covered treatment service. Without it, getting help before I succeeded at ending my life was a shot in the dark. How many people will have their shots in the dark miss and thus end their lives?  This is what the Republicans in Congress would have us live with as they continually attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They are SO heartless, they do not care if hundreds of thousands of people end up committing suicide because they have no health care. Or that many more will be homeless because of their untreated mental illness...What IS this country becoming that those who are elected to represent ALL the people ignore the pain of the "least of these"?  

So when you think about health care and health care reform, please do not forget about mental health.

Republican Pharisees

I find it fascinating that a government body (The US House of Representatives) which meets for a maximum of 4 days per week (more usually 3 1/2 T-Th) can sit and debate taking away affordable health care from the American people but it has not, in 1 1/2 years, acted to create ONE American job. The Republicans spent all day debating the repeal of the AHCA, which has just been declared to be constitutional by the US Supreme Court. They sit and they waste time while REAL people are REALLY hurting in this country! They allow the CROOKS (banks) of this country to accrue TRILLIONS of dollars while not ONE of them has been jailed for destroying the nation's economy. They sit there and insist that the nation's wealthiest people need their tax cuts while they equally insist on paying for those tax cuts on the backs of the poor. 

The Republicans often identify as conservative Christians. They can call themselves anything they like but their ideology is the furthest thing from any of the teachings of Jesus. They ARE, however, pretty much right in line with those of the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' day. If Jesus were here today, based on the words in red in the New Testament (and the Prophets in the Old), He would condemn the GOP in the strongest possible terms, especially the ones who profess to follow Him. The Biblical record is clear: G-d Judges those who oppress the widowed, the poor and the sick and imprisoned. If those in the Republican party and the 1% who call themselves Christians do not repent and turn away from evildoing they WILL be Judged. Count on it. This IS the Word of G-d (Isaiah through John).

P.S I am NOT the agent of Judgement nor is anyone I know or do not know. Judgement usually comes in the form of the consequences of our own actions, not at the hand of someone else. 

Turn It OFF, Tune IN

Almost anyone watching television, particularly what passes for news these days invariably becomes either depressed or angry or both - I know I do. It is, first of all, increasingly difficult to find actual news reporting devoid of commentary. What ever happened to good, old fashioned JOURNALISM?  Just give me the facts and let ME decide how to interpret them. Or give me commentary in a totally separate venue. What ever happened to those "editorial" segments on the news when we were TOLD to expect commentary? Instead we get commentary mixed with news. 

The fact is, most television stations are wholly owned subsidiaries of major corporations. Most of those corporations are run by right-wing leaning boards and CEOs. The "liberal media" is a MYTH. It is inevitable that the spin put on the news is going to be right-leaning, at the very least. The truth you seek is NOT going to be found there, maybe ever again. It is time to move on. 

I have also found that watching television tends to "paralyze" me. I get caught up in the drama of the talking heads and forget that the action is not on TV but out in the world. I strongly suspect that the powers behind the media would LOVE for us to stay tuned to the television and forget our civic responsibilities. "Watch us, we will tell you ALL you EVER need to know."  "Stay tuned."  "Don't touch that dial."  They would love nothing more than for us to become (stay) so mesmerized by the small screen that we do not even look outside. The frightening thing is, they have succeeded! How many hours do YOU spend in front of the television set? I used to spend way too many until I realized I was frying my brain.

People,  it is time to WAKE UP! Shake off the illusions they have put in front of you. Look away and see that reality is NOT what they tell you it is. The only way to be in touch with what is REALLY happening is to go out and see for ourselves and when we do, we should become alarmed at how quickly our freedoms and rights are being stripped away by the very people who urge you to "stay tuned." TELEVISION IS NOT REALITY AND NEVER HAS BEEN.  It is too easily manipulated and created and the imaginary can be made to seem real, but it is NOT REAL.

Reality is this: The people in your life, the actions you take, the words you speak, the work you do in the world. Reality is about tuning IN to LIFE, not TV. Get off that couch and go out and volunteer. Make a difference. Stop letting television and media determine reality for you. Make your own. The world you save could be this one.

Internships For Those Who Don't Fit The Mold

I know that most internships are about giving bright young people hands on experience (and providing cheap labor) but what if there was a model where there were internships set up and designed for people (of all ages) who have been overlooked for various reasons even though they are ALSO bright and talented? Yes, it would take more work but is there no one who is willing to go that extra mile? People with Asperger's could be writers or IT in an office or do research. Yes, it would take more work to design an internship for an individual but the hand up it gives could do wonders for the person and help the person's prospects for employment, thus reducing the overall cost to society. 

Many people with Asperger's Syndrome are chronically underemployed or unemployed. Setting up internships for those who are capable, on the higher end of the Autism Spectrum could be a way to reduce that burden to them and to society. The same might be true with other forms of disability or even those workers who have been unemployed for a long time through no fault of their own. Many people simply need a hand up, not a hand-out.

Is there ANYONE out there with an interest in a project like this? 

*ALL content herein is the opinion of the author

You Never Know...

You never know what a person is capable of and if you discriminate against them to the point where they choose suicide, you never know how history may have been forever changed.  Who KNOWS what Alan Turing would have been capable of without the inhumanity demonstrated against him?

Who knows what the people might have been capable of who are tormented to death because they are different ? What could they have been? What might they have added to our society?Think about all the teen-agers who have been bullied to death? So much possibility, so much waste. Their deaths are tragedies not only for them and their families, but also for us.  Our short-sighted inhumanity short changes the world. So, if simple compassion isn't enough to stop bullying and discrimination, think about the self-interest of human society.  

You never know, the person you just were cruel to might have cured your cancer someday.

Jesus vs. Bigotry

        Jesus vs. Bigotry

I have been contemplating converting from Christianity to Judaism lately. It seems to me that too many "Christians" have too little Jesus in their lives and too much fear in their faith, too much hate instead of love. What ever happened to Love the Lord your G-d and love your neighbor as yourself? Who is your neighbor? Jesus answered that with the Parable of the Good Samaritan: EVERYONE is our neighbor! EVERYONE! But every time I turn around I see another example of "pastors" declaring their hatred for gay people or the Vatican ignoring pedophilia by their priests while going after women's rights to access to health care, birth control and abortion. These MEN have, for two thousand years, systematically built an institution which caters to their needs, demeans women and built up riches at the expense of the poor. They even selected the Biblical canon based on these preferences. These men are not interested in preaching and LIVING the Gospel which was lived and taught by one Jesus of Nazareth. They are only interested in preserving the INSTITUTION of the Church for there OWN self-interest. Period. They really need to get off their thrones and go into the street and feed the hungry...

And then there are the other guys...the pastors on the evangelical right wing who preach hatred for anyone different than themselves. They don't just preach it, they advocate violence! One even hung President Obama in effigy! What a sacrilege against our Lord who was crucified for going up against self-righteous, arrogant paragons of faith like themselves! If you live by hatred, you will DIE by hatred! 

I don't know if I want to stay within such a broken religion. Are there even a FEW good shepherds in the flock anymore, O G-d?  I'm not too sure about the flock, either. 

It is not the Biblical faith that is broken, it is the corruption of the followers. Maybe it is time to wipe the slate clean and go back to what is True and has been for thousands of years... 

A Shakespearean Tragedy?

It seems to me that Susan G. Komen Founder Nancy Brinker falls into one of two categories. Either she is truly ignorant and she is being betrayed by Karen Handel, et al or she knew from the beginning what was happening within the organization politically. At first, I leaned toward her being ignorant and naive. That would make Karen Handel, the VP, a truly evil lone conspirator set on bringing about the cut of funding to Planned Parenthood at the expense of the mission of the Foundation. Nancy Brinker would then be one who was betrayed and an innocent  victim. Unfortunately, a second glance at the situation made this scenario highly unlikely. For one thing, who hired Karen Handel? Presumably, Ms. Brinker would have known Ms. Handel's political point of view as she had run for Governor on the platform of cutting funding for Planned Parenthood. Whoever brought Ms. Handel on board did so with full knowledge of who she is. It is thus likely that the Vice President's agenda was known from day one and tacitly approved.


The insistence that the decision to cut funding from Planned Parenthood was simply a result of a policy change rings very hollow. Indeed, it looks very much like the policy was designed to provide an excuse to cut funding rather than the other way around. Especially since Penn State is also under investigation but it is not losing funding. 


Susan G. Komen spent the past 24 plus hours doing everything it could to cover-up the tracks of the primary players in this debacle. Former statements were deleted from the website, unfortunate re-tweets deleted and so on. If Watergate taught me anything at all, it is that a cover-up implies knowledge of wrong doing. 


That is what makes me sick to my stomach - the darkness that has insinuated itself into what was once a noble enterprise. It is the same darkness that pervades so much of government and politics from the Right these days. It is beyond sad. It might even be called a Cancer on our Society.  The question is: can Susan G. Komen treat itself? Or will it remain in denial? 

What I wish the President would say in the State of the Union but won't: The United States is in trouble: more people are in poverty than ever before, the long term unemployment rate is awful and we spend way too much fighting needless wars. I have a perfectly good jobs plan but the Tea Party members of the GOP in Congress are racist idiots and fight me on everything I propose just because I'm black. The Supreme Court of the United States made the worst decision in its history with Citizens United. Corporations are NOT people and money is NOT free speech. They have essentially sold democracy to the highest bidder. Most of those high bidders are corporate sponsors of Scalia and Thomas.


 The real hope for this country comes from you, the citizens. It is up to YOU to take back this country from the special interests which control politics, even me. The Occupy Movement expresses the deep seated frustration with the way things are. It is the beginning of a movement to create change. But that change can only occur when enough of you are angry enough to step up and take direct action. Your vote in November is the most important first step but calling out injustice as it occurs is another. Do not allow the oppressor to control the dialogue. Most of all, DO NOT REMAIN SILENT because you think it will just somehow get better one of these days. It won't  -  not without you. 

Ad Hominid

I have been thinking about health care as a human right lately. What I keep returning to is the question of how much better our ancient ancestors probably treated each other in terms of access to "health care". Granted, technology is much different, but do you think early humans denied care to any member of their clan because they couldn't pay? How much have we truly "advanced" as a species?

Remember When Jesus Said...

My favorite "Remember When Jesus Said..." Tweets:

1.  US_JUST: Remember when Jesus said, "The rich shall inherit the earth?" Me either
2. DalydeGagne: Remember when Jesus said how totally cool it'd be if we had greedy and selfish white guys in control of our government.
3. A_ThinkingGirl: Remember when Jesus said that rich white guys know what is best for humanity?
4. A_ThinkingGirl: Remember when Jesus said a political party was the one to represent Him?
5. A_ThinkingGirl: Remember when Jesus said that the moneychangers were totally cool dudes?
6. US_JUST: Remember when Jesus said, "God loves everyone -but homosexuals? Neither do I.
7. aewells: Remember when Jesus said how much he hates "the pill"? Yeah that was awesome.
8. deniseromano: Remember when Jesus said, "Celebrate my birth by hating anyone who doesn't celebrate my birth?"
9. NoToTheRight: Remember when Jesus said, "You have to show a government I.D. to vote.
10. deniseromano: Remember when Jesus said, "Oppress women by denying them health care, birth control & equal right".  Me neither.
11. deniseromano: Remember when Jesus said "The poor are lazy and should be drug tested.
12. US_JUST: Remember when Jesus said, "Love only those who look like you and think like you and who are not sick or poor." Me either. 

The Antithesis of Christ?

I came across an article today: "True Believer Rick Santorum Is The Antithesis of Christ's Teachings" http://www.politicususa.com/en/rick-santorum-christ  It made me stop and think: could this guy be THE Anti-Christ? It would be easy to understand why one would be tempted to think so - everything Santorum says and does seems, at best, to misrepresent the teachings of Jesus.  The problem is, he is not alone - far from it. He represents many fundamentalist people who call themselves Christians. They are the people who, as I said the other day, base their beliefs on individually selected verses from the Bible, many from the Law. The problem with that kind of approach to Scripture is that it tends to twist and pervert the meaning of the whole. I have heard it said, "Even the Devil can quote Scripture." And it is true. Santorum, if he thinks through what he believes at all, probably bases most of it in the Old Testament. I doubt that he has much room in his theology for "Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself." I doubt that he reads the Old Testament Prophets who were all about social justice for the sick and the poor, the widowed and the prisoners. They were all about condemnation for the wealthy and powerful who oppressed the poor. And Jesus followed very much in the tradition of the Prophets. No where does Jesus EVER say, "God loves everyone - unless you're gay." No where does Jesus say, "Blessed are the rich for they inherit great wealth." So, yes, Rick Santorum does, indeed, seem to have it backwards. The question though is whether he, himself, if the Anti-Christ. I don't think so because he is far from alone in his heresy. So much of Fundamentalism, the Tea Party and Corporate America hold similar twisted and perverted views of Christianity. I would suggest that the Anti-Christ IS among us, but not as one individual. Rather, the Anti-thesis of Christ is to be found wherever Jesus' teachings are twisted to benefit the rich at the expense of the sick, the elderly, the poor.

In 1981, I was in my third year of seminary at Perkins School of Theology, SMU, Dallas, TX.  I was noticing a trend among television evangelists: the beginning of political involvement from a group which had traditionally eschewed politics as a corrupting influence on faith. I had no idea exactly where this trend would lead. I did know that I was uncomfortable with the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson leading the charge under the banner of the Moral Majority. As we were soon to discover, the Moral Majority was neither very moral or a majority. But they WERE loud. And obnoxious. And not very interested in good scriptural exegesis. 

In those respects, and others, the Moral Majority of the 1980's is much like today's Tea Party and the Dominionist Movement which accompanies them. They are definitely loud and definitely want the country to be run by theological standards which are set in stone, if not the Bible. There is a overwhelming tendency for these folks to ignore great chunks of the Bible in order to knock others over the head with the parts they deem applicable. They will totally ignore the major themes of scripture: Love God and walk justly. Instead they focus on individual verses, usually taken out of context to support their prejudice against homosexuals or whatever other social issue bug they have their collective butts. 

What all these fundamentalist folks fail to fathom is that Americans are a pragmatic and liberty loving bunch and will not easily give in to the Christian Taliban any more than they will to any outside terrorist group. My advice to them is to read the WHOLE Bible and if that is too much for them, read just the verses in red. THEN come back and tell me what Jesus would do.