Part two of the China/Social Security post will be up tomorrow. Miami-Dade College hosted a breakfast discussion with Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame yesterday and I went. They have become heroes to me, insiders, public servants who chose to stand for something larger than their careers. They knew the risks of speaking out, suffered mightily for it and now in grand American style, have been richly rewarded. Too bad most whistle blowers are not so well received and rewarded.
I was very moved to see them in the flesh after so many years of photos and TV clips. Very moved. I am so grateful to them! And perhaps a little jealous. They did what I seriously doubt I’d have the courage to do. I like to think I’d do it, but I don’t know. But as both of them pointed out, in spite of everything they went thru and it was a lot, it turned out well for them. Their twins who were three, eight years ago when the Bushies leaked Plame’s identity, are now eleven and fine; both Plame and Wilson wrote best sellers, had a movie made about them and are reimbursed for their speaking engagements.
Their messages were many, but primarily they emphasized the need for each of us as citizens, to exercise our own judgment and intelligence and hold our elected leaders and ourselves to a high standard of integrity; to not be fear driven sheep and allow ourselves to be stampeded into irrational actions with deep and lasting ramifications, many of which, are still unfolding. Listening to them, I felt a sense of shame for the horror we unleashed in Iraq, Afghanistan and on ourselves, and a deep sense of sadness that we seemed not to have learned or taken responsibility for what was done in our name. The culture of fear, blame and irrationality is more alive and well in the USA than ever.
Yet, it doesn’t have to be this way or continue. As both Wilson and Plame pointed out, if insider, establishment types like them had done what they did in other countries Russia, China, perhaps even some Western democracies, they’d have been put in mental institutions, jailed or silenced in some other way. But here, they’ve become media celebrities, heroes to people like me and millionaires. God bless America. People are still dying and being maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan, as are our soldiers, but Bush, Rumsfeld and Rove are also best-selling authors, and all’s well that ends well.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Fear Mongering and Scare Tactics Connect Social Security, China and the National Debt
Two articles in the current Monitor have me thinking about a connection between our current obsessions with China and the need to cut social security to reduce the national debt and deficit that I hadn’t seen before.
“China’s power shouldn’t be exaggerated. If you pick a global superpower, its still America. Measured in dollar value of output, the US economy is still more than twice the size of China’s. And since the US population is about one-quarter that of China, the typical person in China has a living standard far below US norms.” No doubt, China, India and Brazil are catching up, but we are in no danger of being overtaken soon.
We still have to do the right things, tho, and can’t rest on our laurels. We need to invest more in the future: better education and retraining of less-skilled workers, find energy alternatives to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, improve infrastructure, health care and support basic research. If we do these things, all of which the President proposed in his State of the Union Speech, we will maintain our place in the world.
So, we’re not as bad off as some leaders and politicians would have us believe. Why do they want us to be worried and afraid? What has this got to do with Social Security? Some facts about Social Security first.
It “remains the nation’s most effective antipoverty program. Without it, official poverty rates would rise from an already embarrassing [embarrassing for liberals and compassionate conservatives but a criminal shame for coddling the lazy for tea party and extreme right Republicans] 14.3%, to a horrendous 23.7%. Social Security administrative costs are about a tenth that of private insurance companies.
Benefits are low compared with other advanced countries with the US ranking 26th out of 30 among advanced countries. An average worker earning $43,000 in 2010 dollars will find that Social Security will replace only 37% of her income when she retires.” Yes there could be a shortfall in 2037, but “the best remedy, economists agree, would be a thriving economy that would automatically boost payroll taxes and, if needed, Social Security taxes could be boosted a bit.”
So who benefits from using China to scare us into cutting and even eliminating Social Security?
“China’s power shouldn’t be exaggerated. If you pick a global superpower, its still America. Measured in dollar value of output, the US economy is still more than twice the size of China’s. And since the US population is about one-quarter that of China, the typical person in China has a living standard far below US norms.” No doubt, China, India and Brazil are catching up, but we are in no danger of being overtaken soon.
We still have to do the right things, tho, and can’t rest on our laurels. We need to invest more in the future: better education and retraining of less-skilled workers, find energy alternatives to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, improve infrastructure, health care and support basic research. If we do these things, all of which the President proposed in his State of the Union Speech, we will maintain our place in the world.
So, we’re not as bad off as some leaders and politicians would have us believe. Why do they want us to be worried and afraid? What has this got to do with Social Security? Some facts about Social Security first.
It “remains the nation’s most effective antipoverty program. Without it, official poverty rates would rise from an already embarrassing [embarrassing for liberals and compassionate conservatives but a criminal shame for coddling the lazy for tea party and extreme right Republicans] 14.3%, to a horrendous 23.7%. Social Security administrative costs are about a tenth that of private insurance companies.
Benefits are low compared with other advanced countries with the US ranking 26th out of 30 among advanced countries. An average worker earning $43,000 in 2010 dollars will find that Social Security will replace only 37% of her income when she retires.” Yes there could be a shortfall in 2037, but “the best remedy, economists agree, would be a thriving economy that would automatically boost payroll taxes and, if needed, Social Security taxes could be boosted a bit.”
So who benefits from using China to scare us into cutting and even eliminating Social Security?
Monday, February 7, 2011
The so-called News
Who decides what’s news? Who decides what makes it onto your TV screen, into your newspapers, magazines, radio, Iphone, and yes, even onto the internet [there’s still some freedom there but as Comcast takes over and consolidation increases, which it will…]? Do Rush and Rachel have the ‘final’ say so about what goes on their shows?
There are numerous factors contributing to what’s news among them: popularity - # of hits, clicks, ratings, eyeballs, ears, etc. But how do we know the people who report those stats are really honest – don’t they work for someone else, usually a large for-profit corporation? The popular myth in the US is that this factor, popularity, is the ultimate determiner of content, not so much the so-called news, tho this is getting to be so more and more, but of everything else.
So-called ‘market’ forces determine what gets published on all forms of media. If people didn’t want it, we wouldn’t put it on, the story goes. But think about it, how many really popular ideas, events, programs and shows never get covered? A lot. So yes, popularity and the so-called ‘market’ - the ultimate arbiter of all in contemporary American society even of morality, justice and truth, does have an impact on what’s ‘news.’ What else?
How about the for-profit corporate sponsors and corporate owners of the media? Do they have something to say about it? Some would say not, going back to the ‘popularity’ idea, that sponsors want to sell things and if what ever they’re sponsoring and selling isn’t popular, they won’t sell as much. Sounds reasonable, yet there’s another side to that coin.
If owners and sponsors even suspect something will offend even a small segment of the market [but only a segment with money to spend; poor people often don’t count] then they won’t sponsor and we won’t hear about it. That means that the status quo tends to get locked in, a ‘don’t rock the boat’ attitude, and if its not broke, don’t fix it perspective rules. This limits creativity, innovation, real improvement and change. It also explains why all, to use Sarah Palin’s words, ‘the lame street media,’ cover the same ‘top three’ stories, endlessly, all day long.
To me, bottom line, we have for-profit corporations deciding what’s news and how to pitch it so that it will not rock the boat and appeal to a large audience. Is this the way it has to be? Is this contributing to a world that works for everyone and everything, or to a world that works best for, for-profit corporations? Similarly, who decides who gets health care? Is it the evil socialist federal government or the wonderful, freedom-loving, for-profit health care/insurance companies?
For-profit is not a dirty word. Profits are important and vital. But if profit alone, without compassion, morality, truth and justice are all that’s involved in making decisions, we have a dog-eat-dog world, with the richest, biggest dogs eating all the smaller dogs. Have you noticed, do you think that’s happening? We need a referee, someone to level the playing field and stand for truth, justice and the American Way so that profit alone doesn’t determine what’s news, what we think about and do.
There are numerous factors contributing to what’s news among them: popularity - # of hits, clicks, ratings, eyeballs, ears, etc. But how do we know the people who report those stats are really honest – don’t they work for someone else, usually a large for-profit corporation? The popular myth in the US is that this factor, popularity, is the ultimate determiner of content, not so much the so-called news, tho this is getting to be so more and more, but of everything else.
So-called ‘market’ forces determine what gets published on all forms of media. If people didn’t want it, we wouldn’t put it on, the story goes. But think about it, how many really popular ideas, events, programs and shows never get covered? A lot. So yes, popularity and the so-called ‘market’ - the ultimate arbiter of all in contemporary American society even of morality, justice and truth, does have an impact on what’s ‘news.’ What else?
How about the for-profit corporate sponsors and corporate owners of the media? Do they have something to say about it? Some would say not, going back to the ‘popularity’ idea, that sponsors want to sell things and if what ever they’re sponsoring and selling isn’t popular, they won’t sell as much. Sounds reasonable, yet there’s another side to that coin.
If owners and sponsors even suspect something will offend even a small segment of the market [but only a segment with money to spend; poor people often don’t count] then they won’t sponsor and we won’t hear about it. That means that the status quo tends to get locked in, a ‘don’t rock the boat’ attitude, and if its not broke, don’t fix it perspective rules. This limits creativity, innovation, real improvement and change. It also explains why all, to use Sarah Palin’s words, ‘the lame street media,’ cover the same ‘top three’ stories, endlessly, all day long.
To me, bottom line, we have for-profit corporations deciding what’s news and how to pitch it so that it will not rock the boat and appeal to a large audience. Is this the way it has to be? Is this contributing to a world that works for everyone and everything, or to a world that works best for, for-profit corporations? Similarly, who decides who gets health care? Is it the evil socialist federal government or the wonderful, freedom-loving, for-profit health care/insurance companies?
For-profit is not a dirty word. Profits are important and vital. But if profit alone, without compassion, morality, truth and justice are all that’s involved in making decisions, we have a dog-eat-dog world, with the richest, biggest dogs eating all the smaller dogs. Have you noticed, do you think that’s happening? We need a referee, someone to level the playing field and stand for truth, justice and the American Way so that profit alone doesn’t determine what’s news, what we think about and do.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Belief
I’m between a rant and a blessing this morning. Perhaps the rant will lead to a blessing. Perhaps if I get more into the blessing, I won’t want to rant. That’s kind of where I am right now. Anyhow what I wanted to ‘rant’ about is belief.
I hear people say, “I don’t believe in global warming.” Or “I don’t believe in evolution,” as if their disbelief in these things makes them unreal or untrue. I wonder if these people, and there are a lot of them, believe in gravity? Or electricity? Would the gravity and electricity cease to function and impact our lives if these people didn’t ‘believe’ in them?
I kind of get why some people disbelieve in global warming and evolution, but that, like the reality of gravity and electricity, doesn’t change the impact of these forces on them and the rest of us. I’m angry and worried because I see the attitudes of these skeptics and their growing political power, nurtured by powerful special interests like coal, oil and gas and religious institutions, will impact me and mine when its too late, when the ‘belief’ issues are finally resolved.
What to do? Who knows? I only know that if I come from anger and fear, I beget more anger and fear. I’m going to try and stay centered and when opportunities arise, I will say and do things from that centered space, with the knowledge that evolution and global warming are the same as gravity and electricity, and operate in our lives whether we ‘believe’ in them or not. That feels woefully inadequate from my angry, fearful ego perspective, but it’s what I’m going to do anyhow.
I hear people say, “I don’t believe in global warming.” Or “I don’t believe in evolution,” as if their disbelief in these things makes them unreal or untrue. I wonder if these people, and there are a lot of them, believe in gravity? Or electricity? Would the gravity and electricity cease to function and impact our lives if these people didn’t ‘believe’ in them?
I kind of get why some people disbelieve in global warming and evolution, but that, like the reality of gravity and electricity, doesn’t change the impact of these forces on them and the rest of us. I’m angry and worried because I see the attitudes of these skeptics and their growing political power, nurtured by powerful special interests like coal, oil and gas and religious institutions, will impact me and mine when its too late, when the ‘belief’ issues are finally resolved.
What to do? Who knows? I only know that if I come from anger and fear, I beget more anger and fear. I’m going to try and stay centered and when opportunities arise, I will say and do things from that centered space, with the knowledge that evolution and global warming are the same as gravity and electricity, and operate in our lives whether we ‘believe’ in them or not. That feels woefully inadequate from my angry, fearful ego perspective, but it’s what I’m going to do anyhow.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Congruence
Michael Beckwith said, “we are here to learn how to swim together in an ocean of love, peace, joy, selflessness, integrity, cooperation, and collaboration, in short – oneness.” How true, how cool, how different from the conventional wisdom that surrounds us! “What we need is not some greater power, but a greater consciousness, a deeper realization of life, a more sublime concept of Being, a more intimate concept of an already indwelling God.” SOM Text p. 141.
Spiritual discontent, the sense that something is lacking or missing [which is true – our sense of connection with spirit is missing, we think we are here, not safely asleep with God watching over us], that we are called to be more and do more; to fulfill some divine destiny, to do our part in the divine plan [for me, to make a contribution to a world that works for everyone and everything] is, real in our worldly experience. What are we to do with it?
We can try to fill what we imagine to be this hole in our souls, this sense of lurking guilt that some call original sin, with material things – sex, food, drugs, booze, suffering, duty and hard work. Or we can see spiritual discontent as an inevitable part of thinking we are living in a world apart from spirit, and deal with it by asserting and manifesting our reality as spirit, by living ‘normal’, balanced, healthy lives while allowing ourselves to be guided by spirit/intuition and following our bliss.
Even in the midst of fear, the compassionate spirit is present. “Deep calls to deep,” always. Not only in calm and peace, but also in the exuberant, uninhibited out-pouring of creative energy. Go for it! Let it all hang out. The soul knows that there is a place within that can never be hurt, harmed, nor endangered. Have the courage to live, love and share from your bliss. Feel the spiritual discontent and know it is urging you forward to make your own unique contribution to a world that works for everyone.
“It doesn’t matter how long we’ve had a negative pattern. The point of power is in the present moment.” Louise Hay. Ernest Holmes says the answer to prayer is in the prayer, and the prayer that carries power, is the one with conviction behind it. A prayer with conviction and congruence - with the mental, emotional and physical aspects of our being aligned with the spiritual, is the recognition and acceptance of our oneness with spirit and the realization that spirit is in an through everything, ready to respond to what we’re praying for now, no matter how long the negative pattern has persisted.
Prayer can be a way of actively listening to the still small voice within, and choosing it instead of the ego. Before we even call, God will answer. Going within, accepting and encouraging our spiritual reality and power, shows the ego to be the poor substitute it is. Jesus said if you live in me, ask what you will, and it will be done. The prayer backed by conviction and congruence, enables us to establish closer contact with universal peace, love and wisdom so that we are less influenced by appearances to the contrary.
“Greater things than this shall you do also,” Jesus said. “Know ye not that ye are Gods?” Isaiah said. We need not endure, and by enduring perpetuate, suffering, pain, hate and disease. These are not God’s will for us. These are the consequences in our false belief in duality, in the separation of God and man, spirit and matter. Dissolve the fear, hate and blame now, and with them the disease and suffering by becoming still, going within and praying with conviction and congruence.
Spiritual discontent, the sense that something is lacking or missing [which is true – our sense of connection with spirit is missing, we think we are here, not safely asleep with God watching over us], that we are called to be more and do more; to fulfill some divine destiny, to do our part in the divine plan [for me, to make a contribution to a world that works for everyone and everything] is, real in our worldly experience. What are we to do with it?
We can try to fill what we imagine to be this hole in our souls, this sense of lurking guilt that some call original sin, with material things – sex, food, drugs, booze, suffering, duty and hard work. Or we can see spiritual discontent as an inevitable part of thinking we are living in a world apart from spirit, and deal with it by asserting and manifesting our reality as spirit, by living ‘normal’, balanced, healthy lives while allowing ourselves to be guided by spirit/intuition and following our bliss.
Even in the midst of fear, the compassionate spirit is present. “Deep calls to deep,” always. Not only in calm and peace, but also in the exuberant, uninhibited out-pouring of creative energy. Go for it! Let it all hang out. The soul knows that there is a place within that can never be hurt, harmed, nor endangered. Have the courage to live, love and share from your bliss. Feel the spiritual discontent and know it is urging you forward to make your own unique contribution to a world that works for everyone.
“It doesn’t matter how long we’ve had a negative pattern. The point of power is in the present moment.” Louise Hay. Ernest Holmes says the answer to prayer is in the prayer, and the prayer that carries power, is the one with conviction behind it. A prayer with conviction and congruence - with the mental, emotional and physical aspects of our being aligned with the spiritual, is the recognition and acceptance of our oneness with spirit and the realization that spirit is in an through everything, ready to respond to what we’re praying for now, no matter how long the negative pattern has persisted.
Prayer can be a way of actively listening to the still small voice within, and choosing it instead of the ego. Before we even call, God will answer. Going within, accepting and encouraging our spiritual reality and power, shows the ego to be the poor substitute it is. Jesus said if you live in me, ask what you will, and it will be done. The prayer backed by conviction and congruence, enables us to establish closer contact with universal peace, love and wisdom so that we are less influenced by appearances to the contrary.
“Greater things than this shall you do also,” Jesus said. “Know ye not that ye are Gods?” Isaiah said. We need not endure, and by enduring perpetuate, suffering, pain, hate and disease. These are not God’s will for us. These are the consequences in our false belief in duality, in the separation of God and man, spirit and matter. Dissolve the fear, hate and blame now, and with them the disease and suffering by becoming still, going within and praying with conviction and congruence.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
They were people, too
I had forgotten how attractive and beautiful and full of life and love they were. As I write that, I realize ‘forgotten’ is not the right word, “never knew” is more accurate. I’m talking about my parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents.
My cousin who’s the family archivist, was visiting from Chicago. We had lunch together. After lunch he opened his lap top and showed me some very old home movies his dad had taken. There I was at ten. That was interesting, but the real revelation was how his mother and father, my aunt and uncle looked. He was handsome and she was beautiful, actually sexy and attractive. Same was true for my mother and father. All of them were attractive and beautiful and full of life and love.
I don’t remember them that way. I never really knew them that way. They were always the parents, aunts and uncles – not people. Of course I’d seen pictures of all of them as children, young adults and parents, and I knew they were different. But yesterday, seeing those movies on the lap top, I got viscerally, perhaps for the first time, that they were people, just like the ones I work with, see in the grocery store and in restaurants.
How sad and how cool. I remember my dad, 83, dead in his chair in the living room. I remember mom, 82, dead in the hospital bed. I remember them in other ways too, of course. But now I will also remember them as people, attractive and beautiful and full of life and love, raising me and my brothers to be the fine people we are.
My cousin who’s the family archivist, was visiting from Chicago. We had lunch together. After lunch he opened his lap top and showed me some very old home movies his dad had taken. There I was at ten. That was interesting, but the real revelation was how his mother and father, my aunt and uncle looked. He was handsome and she was beautiful, actually sexy and attractive. Same was true for my mother and father. All of them were attractive and beautiful and full of life and love.
I don’t remember them that way. I never really knew them that way. They were always the parents, aunts and uncles – not people. Of course I’d seen pictures of all of them as children, young adults and parents, and I knew they were different. But yesterday, seeing those movies on the lap top, I got viscerally, perhaps for the first time, that they were people, just like the ones I work with, see in the grocery store and in restaurants.
How sad and how cool. I remember my dad, 83, dead in his chair in the living room. I remember mom, 82, dead in the hospital bed. I remember them in other ways too, of course. But now I will also remember them as people, attractive and beautiful and full of life and love, raising me and my brothers to be the fine people we are.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Deep Calls to Deep
Michael Beckwith said, “we are here to learn how to swim together in an ocean of love, peace, joy, selflessness, integrity, cooperation, and collaboration, in short – oneness.” How true, how cool, how different from the conventional wisdom that surrounds us! “What we need is not some greater power, but a greater consciousness, a deeper realization of life, a more sublime concept of Being, a more intimate concept of an already indwelling God.” SOM Text p. 141.
Spiritual discontent, the sense that something is lacking or missing [which is true – our sense of connection with spirit is missing, we think we are here, not safely asleep with God watching over us], that we are called to be more and do more; to fulfill some divine destiny, to do our part in the divine plan [for me, to make a contribution to a world that works for everyone and everything] is, real in our worldly experience. What are we to do with it?
We can try to fill what we imagine to be this hole in our souls, this sense of lurking guilt that some call original sin, with material things – sex, food, drugs, booze, suffering, duty and hard work. Or we can see spiritual discontent as an inevitable part of thinking we are living in a world apart from spirit, and deal with it by asserting and manifesting our reality as spirit, by living ‘normal’, balanced, healthy lives while allowing ourselves to be guided by spirit/intuition and following our bliss.
Even in the midst of fear, the compassionate spirit is present. “Deep calls to deep,” always. Not only in calm and peace, but also in the exuberant, uninhibited out-pouring of creative energy. Go for it! Let it all hang out. The soul knows that there is a place within that can never be hurt, harmed, nor endangered. Have the courage to live, love and share from your bliss. Feel the spiritual discontent and know it is urging you forward to make your own unique contribution to a world that works for everyone.
Spiritual discontent, the sense that something is lacking or missing [which is true – our sense of connection with spirit is missing, we think we are here, not safely asleep with God watching over us], that we are called to be more and do more; to fulfill some divine destiny, to do our part in the divine plan [for me, to make a contribution to a world that works for everyone and everything] is, real in our worldly experience. What are we to do with it?
We can try to fill what we imagine to be this hole in our souls, this sense of lurking guilt that some call original sin, with material things – sex, food, drugs, booze, suffering, duty and hard work. Or we can see spiritual discontent as an inevitable part of thinking we are living in a world apart from spirit, and deal with it by asserting and manifesting our reality as spirit, by living ‘normal’, balanced, healthy lives while allowing ourselves to be guided by spirit/intuition and following our bliss.
Even in the midst of fear, the compassionate spirit is present. “Deep calls to deep,” always. Not only in calm and peace, but also in the exuberant, uninhibited out-pouring of creative energy. Go for it! Let it all hang out. The soul knows that there is a place within that can never be hurt, harmed, nor endangered. Have the courage to live, love and share from your bliss. Feel the spiritual discontent and know it is urging you forward to make your own unique contribution to a world that works for everyone.
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