Give Me Your Tea... I'll Party!

I've Moved!

2009-09-17T14:17:00.002-05:00

Dear Readers,

I am very excited to announce my move to mannuscript.com . Having my own URL gives me a little more freedom to expand my blog and extend its reach, plus the new name is just so much easier to remember!

Thanks again for all your support, comments and visits. Please check out the new site, and as always, feedback is sincerely appreciated.

If you would like to join my mailing list please drop me a line at sara.mann@hotmail.com or just join the RSS feed at mannuscript.com .

See you on the on the other side!

Sara

Giving it all Away...Another Labor Day is Over

2009-09-09T21:54:00.010-05:00

Once again, another Labor Day has come and gone. Parade routes are no longer blocked off. Cookouts and picnics are over. Old women can no longer wear white. It's Thursday and the holiday is in the past. We may end up putting the garbage out a day later, but other than that minor inconvenience we will move on and we will not think of this particular Monday until next year.

Labor Day has been on my mind since May. That's because in May I had the pleasure of visiting Paris, France. This was not my first time to the city of lights but this particular visit will be inextricably linked to Labor Day in my mind forever. It was on this trip that I watched a fellow union member stand in front of a bus full of coworkers and brag about how easy it was for him to bow out of his labor union. He spoke eloquently and passionately. Did they know they could do this? Did they know they could stop union dues from being taken out of their paychecks? They should pass this information on to other workers... let them know they don't have to be a part of their union. Weren't they fed up with their union? He was a socialist when he was young and idealistic but he has since learned the merits of capitalism. He went on... and on... and on.

As I sat and listened to this man tout the merits of self-representation I happened to look at my watch and realize that this was May 1st, May Day. How funny, I thought, that here we were in Paris, one of the birth places of middle class revolution, on the very day they use to recognize labor rights and we were toying with the idea of dismantling the only bargaining tool we have as American workers.

In Paris, May Day is a national holiday commemorating the advent of the eight hour work day, officially introduced on April 23, 1919. Also known as Labor Day, it is considered an occasion to campaign for and celebrate worker's rights. What many people forget, is that the eight hour work day did not begin in France but rather it came about in the city of Chicago, where 40,000 workers went on strike to fight for a fair work day on May 1, 1886.

After two striking workers were shot and killed by police at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. the labor movement banded together and planned a protest in Chicago's Haymarket Square. The protest began peacefully, and was intended to inform workers about the eight hour work day plan. Organizer, August Spies, insisted protesters remain calm and not fall prey to the rumors that workers were there to riot or intimidate. Unfortunately, as police came to break up the protest, an unknown anarchist threw a pipe bomb at the police line, resulting in chaos. Police attacked workers, some of them armed, some of them unarmed.

Each account of the story is different but in the end eight police officers died in the Haymarket riot, all from bullet wounds. The number of worker casualties is not known. Eight protesters (anarchists) were arrested. Four were put to death, one committed suicide in prison, two were given life in prison and one got 15 years in prison. They came to be known as the Haymarket eight. They died for their belief in the eight hour work day. They were martyrs to the cause of labor rights.

I give this brief account of this significatnt historical event because I think back to that guy on the bus and wonder how much we will give away before we have nothing left to give. We even gave away our Labor Day. We don't celebrate it in May. This is because when Labor Day was made a national holiday president Grover Cleveland was worried that workers would relate it to the Haymarket riot and negative feelings of labor abuse would again rise to the surface. We gave away the holiday.

We certainly gave away the eight hour work day. It's rare that I meet someone who works an eight hour day. If they do work that mythical eight hour day they often don't make a livable wage and are forced to hold two jobs, working sixteen hours a day to make ends meet. No eight hour day for eight hours pay, that's for certain.

How much can we surrender? How far can we go? The idea of pensions has become a fairy tale, something my generation heard about but will never experience. Employers have reduced contributions to 401K retirement plans. Education reimbursement is a thing of the past. Workers get fewer paid sick days, fewer vacation days, more stringent and stressful work environments. Companies run on less workers with more work. That health care insurance... did it always have a copay? Was the deductible always so high? We give and we give and we give. Soon there will be nothing left for them to take.

I don't dare imply that unions are without fault, but remember this: a union is only as strong as its weakest member. Why work so hard and sacrifice so much only to throw it all away? I'd rather sit at the table than under it. I'd rather have the meal than the scraps. If we turn our unions over to those who scream "socialists" when we only demand a reasonable work day we will be choosing to sit at the feet of masters who may or may not feed us, may or may not kick us. If we turn our labor rights over to those who call us starry-eyed idealists when we only fight for dignified wages than we will not be worth the deaths of the workers who came before us.

I remembered this in Paris last May and I remember it here in Illinois this September. How relevant and foreshadowing are the final words of August Spies, the man who started it all. As he stood on the gallows he looked to the crowd and said "The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!" Now, as labor rights are slowly unraveled and dismantled, his silence is truly deafening.

First time reader? Want to see where it all began?

Obama's Speech to School Children

2009-09-09T11:19:00.005-05:00

Listen to your parents... take responsibility for yourself... explore the opportunities education provides... The audacity!

Ok... So this is Fake... Don't get all excited

2009-09-09T11:03:00.003-05:00

The original piece was posted on the Labor Day edition of counterpunch. I thought it was worth sharing.

God Help Us!

Advance Text of Obama's Big Speech

By CARL G. ESTABROOK

This text was mistakenly faxed to Carl Estabrook by Robert Gibbs.

ADVANCE TEXT OF OBAMA'S WEDNESDAY SPEECH

http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing_room

Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery Address to Joint Session of Congress Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States:

I come before you tonight in a spirit of remorse -- which, I find, requires more audacity than hope does.

When my administration entered into office, we faced three overwhelming problems:

[1] a financial crisis and recession;
[2] a war in the Middle East on several fronts; and
[3] an unresolved healthcare crisis for many Americans.

We immediately addressed these problems with the following actions, respectively:

[1] we bailed out financial institutions and corporate entities too big to fail with massive subventions, which found their way into the pockets of the richest people in the country;
[2] we increased the killing in the Mideast by carrying out the previous administration's plans for Iraq, sharply escalating President Bush's war in Afghanistan, and extending it into Pakistan; meanwhile we gave our client Israel a free hand to turn Gaza into a prison camp;
[3] we allowed certain cosmetic changes to the American healthcare system to be discussed while making sure that that profits of the medical/financial complex would be protected and increased.

Listening to the advice of the American people, I have concluded -- to my vast dismay -- that all of these initiatives were mistaken. They exacerbated the problems that they purported to solve.

Therefore, tonight, I am announcing a Change of Course in all three areas.

[1] Financial institutions and corporate entities that have been bailed out with public monies will have new boards of directors, charged with the responsibility of running those enterprises for public benefit rather than private profit. General Motors, for example, will turn its attention to mass transit. The same will be true of financial institutions: mortgage holders, for example, will be charged with keeping people in their homes; the housing market will be revived in part by ending foreclosures.
[2] U.S. troops, allies, and contractors will be withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan as quickly as possible consistent with their safety and the wishes of the local populations. A Mr. Richard Feder of Fort Lee, New Jersey, wrote to me to ask, "How will we ever get our troops out of the Middle East?" I replied in the words of the late Herb Caen -- "Ships and planes." All military aid to Israel will be ended, and non-military aid will resume only when Israel complies with international law by withdrawing from the occupied territories.
[3] Medicare will be improved and extended to all Americans. Its 45-year history and the experience of the other industrialized counties show us how to do it. When you need medical care, you will go to the doctor or healthcare provider of your choice, and the federal government will pay the bill. There will be no need for you or your employer to provide private medical insurance, and the money saved from premiums will be greater than any increase in taxes. Existing insurance companies will be acquired by the government to the extent that they have assets -- for example, expert personnel -- useful to the community.

In each of these matters we have resolved to Change the Course in a direction that polls indicate is approved by a majority of Americans. And so I call upon all Americans to impress on their Congressional representatives the need for these reforms.

There is much more to do. Forty years ago the most progressive U.S. administration since World War II proposed a negative income tax and a guaranteed annual income for all Americans, and the proposal almost made it through Congress. It is time to renew and fulfill that promise.

Next week I will ask the Congress once again for time to speak, to outline a vast revision of the tax laws to achieve that end. The goal is nothing less than the securing of the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all Americans -- in a practical and not merely theoretical manner.

There is much to do, and the time is short.

On this Change in Course, in the words of a great American port, we have promises to keep, and miles to go before we sleep.

God help us, and God save the United States of America. Good night.

C. G. Estabrook conducts "News from Neptune" on Urbana (IL) Public Television. He can be reached at carl@newsfromneptune.com.

Gone Fishin!

2009-08-29T10:41:00.000-05:00

..on hiatus... expect new material next week

Health Care Rumors: Science Fiction Run Wild

2009-08-12T11:13:00.006-05:00

The health care debate has had many of us laying awake at night. Personally, I have found it difficult to turn the news off and get to sleep. I've learned to resort to watching fluff just before bedtime. This is why I was so happy the other night when I found myself laying in bed watching a movie called Logan's Run. I saw the movie years ago, and I thought for certain this was the one; this was the flick that would take me to REM.

Boy was I wrong. If there was ever a movie relevant to our current health care crisis and debate it is the 1976 science fiction movie "Logan's Run". Logan's Run tells the story of a post-apocolyptic world in 1974. A recovered Utopian society is built within a dome, shielded from the outside world. Supplies and space are obviously scarce so the society develops one rule for this perfect world- no one can live past 30. Age-indicating chips, called life-clocks, are implanted into the hands of citizens. Once an individual reaches the ripe old age of 30 they are forced to participate in a ceremony where they are told they are "renewed". They are, in fact, incinerated.

There is one other option for the people of this domed paradise. They can decide to run. Rumors of a placed called "sanctuary" lure "runners" to flee. These people then become criminals. This is where the elite police force called "the sandmen" come in to play. Their job is to chase the runners and return them to their proper fate. When one of the sandmen, Logan, is given an undercover job as a runner his life-clock is bumped up a few years and he learns that he too must now run. I won't spoil the end of the movie for those of you now interested.

It's a brief synopsis, to be sure, but I watched it at three in the morning in an attempt to sleep. As I mentioned, the movie did not help lull me to dreamland because all I could think about was how close it came to so many of those outlandish rumors surrounding health care reform. Namely, I think about the misunderstanding regarding end of life care and I think about the frequent use of the word Nazi to describe supporters of health care reform legislation offering end of life counseling. "Logan's Run" was a sci-fi pic, something from the vivid imagination of authors William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Now it seems conservatives have drawn from this movie and made it their own, without perhaps even knowing it.

There is not currently, nor will there be in the future, "government encouraged euthanasia", as worded by two house GOP leaders. The reality behind the end of life issue is that the legislation would order Medicare to pay for consultations between patients and doctors on end-of-life decisions, which it currently doesn't cover. Anyone who's ever had a loved one in hospice care can appreciate this. There are people who may not know or understand that when they are terminally ill they have the option to die peacefully, at home, with their loved ones. They have the option to be relieved of pain or suffering instead of fighting. The key word here being option. Option. Option. Option. I cannot stress it enough. No one is forcing the elderly to go before what Sarah Palin calls "a death panel". They are simply suggesting that medicare pay for an end of life consultation between patients and their doctor.

I think we have to beat the dead horse here. We have to spell out each and every word. Debates are becoming so loud that no one is being heard. Take the sentence apart piece by piece:

The legislation would order Medicare to pay for consultations between patients and doctors on end-of-life decisions, which it currently doesn't cover.

The legislation would order medicare... Medicare would be ordered to pay for the consultations. Patients would not be required to have the consultations. Medicare is the one being ordered to do something here. No one is requiring patients to visit their doctor to discuss end of life issues. The patient can sit at home and grow old for the rest of their days. The patient can visit the doctor regarding any matter: their liver, their heart, their foot, without the slightest mention of end of life care. The idea is simply that the option for this particular meeting between a patient and their doctor should be covered.

...between patients and doctors... The consultations would take place between patients and their doctors; not bureaucrats, not politicians, not a death panel. Those opposed to health care reform should be pleased with this idea. After all, they are screaming (literally screaming) that doctors and patients should be making health care decisions. Scream no more. This legislation is an attempt to increase the chance that doctors and patients will be the making one of the most important health care decisions. This can be whether to pursue further treatment for terminal illness or to begin end of life care such as simply addressing pain and comfort for the dying.

...end of life care... People die. They shouldn't have their lives ended prematurely. They shouldn't be sent to an extermination ceremony at the age of 30, a la Logan's Run, but people do die. An "advanced directive" is used to tell health care providers what life-prolonging measures an individual may or may not want taken should they become ill. This can be something immediate like CPR or something long term like life support. These directives are important because they make a patients wishes known. This way a wife is not fighting when she tells a doctor that her husband never wanted to be on life support. She is supported by his authorization. The terminally ill cancer patient who has a heart attack can use his Do Not Resuscitate order (DNR) to let doctors know that he does not wish for his life to be prolonged.

Currently, only 40% of medicare patients have an advanced directive. 75% of seniors polled said they would interested in one, and felt such consultations with their doctor are important. How many seniors have had to undergo various medical procedures in their last year of life, not knowing that there were other options available to them?

These are personal decisions. However one may feel about life support and life-sustaining mechanisms, surely we can all agree that every patient deserves the right to make their wishes known and to discuss and explore their decisions with an experienced, knowledgeable, trained health care professional. Doctors have no motivation to encourage seniors to end their lives. This legislation offers no such incentive. It simply addresses the 60% of seniors who do no currently have advanced directives. It simply attempts to give them an option. There's that word again, option.

The decision to pursue life-prolonging care or hospice care is, by law, a patient's decision. The government does not make this decision. Doctors do not make this decision. This particular part of health care reform is simply a suggestion that medicare pay for the meeting in which this topic is discussed between a patient and their doctor. I have seen ad after ad claiming that we are disrespecting our elderly; forsaking them and all they have done to pull our nation through some of the most trying times we have known. The true disservice to our seniors is the current system, in which medicare does not pay for them to discuss options with their doctor. By not allowing them to make informed decisions about their illnesses and options we are taking away their rights. The current system is failing to allow our seniors to live with dignity or die with dignity. By not paying for these consultations we strip them of their right to decide if they want to continue with chemotherapy, breathing tubes, respirators and any other life-sustaining method or to pursue pain management and a comfortable death. Shouldn't we at least allow them the choice?

Option. Choice. Right. Opportunity. Decision. We are not merely tossing these words at one another but rather we are hurling them. They are being yelled at town hall meetings. They are being cried out at press conferences. They are no longer words but they are desperate pleas, and rightfully so. We are a nation founded on the word "right"; founded on the word "opportunity". This is why it is so confounding that we would even think twice about this particular aspect of health care reform. According to one ad, "our seniors deserve better". I agree. Our seniors do deserve better. They deserve to the right, the chance, the opportunity to sit down with their doctor and discuss all of their options. They deserve the right to make informed decisions regarding their lives.

Like Logan's Run, these ads and rumors opposing health care legislation can be entertaining. Who doesn't enjoy a good scare every now and then. This, however, is really happening to us and we must not confuse a fictional post-apocalyptic world with reality. We can't let baseless fear and paranoia govern our decisions. Let the movies put you to sleep. Enjoy the stories, but take them for what they are, science fiction, based on reality and steeped in fantasy. No need to start running.

AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | Democratic Dialogue, Anyone?

2009-08-05T23:14:00.001-05:00

AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | Democratic Dialogue, Anyone?

Shared via AddThis

Where's your money going in 2010?

2009-07-31T10:02:00.001-05:00

Chicken Soup for the Worker's Soul

2009-07-23T09:17:00.009-05:00

My TV is going to die soon. It will break and I will have to go shopping for another. I know this not because it is making any sort of sound or tuning in and out. It's not too old. It's inevitable malfunction has nothing to do with the recent digital conversion. No. My TV will break because I am certain that as the health care debate continues I will throw something through the screen. I'm not allowing myself to eat in the living room anymore. I can't risk a plate going into the face of Lou Dobbs or a glass launching through the table of "Harry and Louise." Health care will kill my TV.

My rage comes not only from a place within me but from my mail, sitting on my desk. It's based in reality. It saddens me that there is even debate at this time and it saddens me that the debate is simply another tool being used to confuse the middle class. Here are a few questions I have for people watching ads against a public health care option.

Can you choose your own doctor now? I can't. I have fairly good health insurance, by any standards. It's affordable. My co-pays are small but I cannot see a doctor of my choosing. That decision is made for me. If I want to see my doctor I have to be very specific when I make the appointment. If I am scheduled to see him for the flu and we discuss my knee the appointment is not covered by my "fairly good insurance". I have to call my insurance company before I go to the emergency room to make sure my visit will be covered. I have to make sure that if I have an emergency it's near the hospital my insurance has designated as my Primary Care Facility... otherwise... whoops! No payment! This is all from someone who has "fairly good insurance".

What about the people with no insurance? I talk to others about insurance and the story is not the same. I know two people, in their sixties, who are without health insurance. Both of them are unemployed. This isn't because they have no skills. One is a union electrician! They tried to survive on COBRA but after nearly losing their home they simply couldn't afford their health insurance. When there is no money there is simply NO MONEY. Now they are terrified of being sick. Everyday is a stressful reminder that they simply can't afford to live.

Government will make health decisions for you? Who makes your health care decisions now? I dare anyone with health insurance... bad, good, excellent... any health insurance, to go get a cat scan. Women, go get a mammogram. Men, go for a colonoscopy. It won't be covered. I guarantee it. No one with private health insurance makes their own health care decisions. Dot your I's. Cross your T's. It won't happen. Sure, most of that mammogram or colonoscopy will be covered if you're of a certain age, if it's a certain time of year, if you go to a certain facility or if the moon is in line with Jupiter. Sure, there's a chance it will be covered but it's not by your choice. Keep in mind the individual working in that tall black building downtown somewhere has every incentive to find a loophole on your form. They have every incentive to deny your claim.

Who would you rather make health care decisions? Health insurance, public or private, only works as a collective. We all pay in so some of us can take out every now and then. That's how it works. Because of this we must concede that somewhere down the line someone is going to have to make a decision on the insured's behalf. It is inevitable with so much money and so many different cases involved. That being acknowledged I think we need to ask ourselves this very important question: Would you rather have officials, elected by the people, help to make decisions for the people or would you rather a CEO (who stands only to profit) make decisions for the people.

I prefer the elected officials. If they make bad decisions let's just get them out of office. There's a lot of talk about the inefficacy of government. We forget that we are the government! We hold sovereignty. Each time that we believe or fall prey to these ads suggesting that government does not work we hand another piece of our country over to corporate America. Only... be careful. Corporate America is not really even corporate "America" anymore. It's corporate-China. It's corporate Mexico. It's corporate Bangladesh. These companies that apparently care so much for our health care system and care so much about out autonomy as patients don't care enough about us to keep our jobs here or to even keep their money here. They are here to funnel it out, into international investments and cheap labor. They are not advocating for your rights as a worker.

This brings me to the popular book series, Chicken Soup for the Soul. Anyone who has ever walked past or into the inspirational or self-help section of a bookstore knows about these heartwarming little books. The books are compilations of stories and anecdotes relating to a certain profession or perhaps a certain stage in life. I've seen Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Teenager's Soul, and many others. The stories in these books are always feel-good. The title describes them perfectly. One reads them and feels warm and comfortable. They are full of light-hearted, feel-better tales, kind of like a warm bowl of homemade chicken soup.

I suggest that corporate America is putting out a gift book of their own: Chicken Soup for the Worker's Soul. It's warm. It's caring. It's delightfully full of crap. It's wrapped up in a patriotic book jacket and flying off the shelves. They want us to believe this is non-fiction. They want workers to believe that we're all the same, on the same side- wall street and main street, those who shower before work and those who shower after work. The tales they fill this book with are outlandish and exceptional stories of women who could not get medical treatment in Canada, people in Sweden who are forced to travel for flu vaccines and elderly people being denied treatment because of their age. It's a perversion of comfort to be sure. The anecdotes are scare tactics but Americans are buying it up. It's a best-seller, marketed as inspiration.

Chicken Soup for the Worker's Soul. It's a nice idea but sew it on a pillow or put it in a greeting card and leave us to do the work that so desperately needs to be done. Meanwhile, I will walk away from TV and try to stick to something a little less inspirational, a little less warm and comforting... the newspaper.

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Obama talks about Healthcare: The time to act is now

2009-07-20T15:50:00.001-05:00

Watch CBS Videos Online

So men really are jerks? Study shows men really do view women as objects – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks

2009-07-16T20:23:00.004-05:00

I found this today. It's from late Feb 09 but I thought it to be relevant to Obama's whole ridiculous leering scandal.
So men really are jerks? Study shows men really do view women as objects – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks

Jan Schakowsky... Worth Watching

2009-07-15T14:41:00.006-05:00

I'm a fan of Representative Jan Schakowsky. She stood up in front of congress and pleaded with them not to pass the first bail-out bill. Now she is standing up to the CIA, and her's is a voice that will relent simply because of a lack of media blitz.

This is the link to her latest press release.

Jan Schakowsky

Boys will be boys?

2009-07-10T14:42:00.002-05:00

Talk about a photographic "gotcha"! The look on Sarkozy's face is my personal favorite.

An Exceptional Editorial

2009-07-09T08:36:00.007-05:00

The following is an excerpt from a piece by author Tim Wise, the author of: White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (Soft Skull Press, 2005), Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White (Routledge: 2005) and "Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama." The author was kind of enough to allow me to link to it. He can be reached at:timjwise@mac.com.

The full piece can be found at Counterpunch.

Of Fireworks and False Memories

I have this fantasy, the indulgence of which I resist, due in part to the impracticality of it, but also, and mostly out of a general distaste for inviting potential violence upon my person. It only comes to mind once a year really, on this day in fact, as cities and towns across the United States gear up for their respective July 4th celebrations, replete with fireworks, hot dogs, and lots of red, white and blue banners, flags and wardrobe accessories ubiquitously assaulting the visual landscape from sea to shining sea.

In the fantasy, it's incredibly hot out, even as the daytime sun recedes, giving way to the darkening skies that will soon serve as the canvas for a colorful explosion of incendiary art: the end product of two unstoppable forces--American self-love, and Chinese manufacturing--brought together in an audacious display of grandiosity, not unlike, say, Siegfried and Roy, or at least Peaches and Herb.

As Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American" blares from the back of a sound system loaded onto a truck, and the yearly Independence Day parade begins, I bide my time. Then, just as the first procession of Boy Scouts passes by, I turn to the man standing next to me, the one with the big "God Bless the USA" button on his hat, and say:

"Why can't you just get over it? I mean, why do you people insist on living in the past? That whole 'breaking away from the British thing' was like more than 200 years ago for God's sakes. Isn't it time to move on?"

In the fantasy, the man's head explodes, bloodless but powerfully and very, very final, at which point I move on to the next reveler, knowing that I only have so much time in which to put an end to this special brand of sanctimony by thought-murdering the assembled. After all, once the big sky-booms begin, no one will be able to hear me.

Goodbye To You... Michael Jackson and Growing Up Eighties Style

2009-07-08T08:32:00.005-05:00

Since June 25th I have been mulling over my thoughts on the death of Michael Jackson. Only a few things have come to mind; like the fact that his early death may now afford him fame rather than the fate of infamy he was seemingly moving toward, or how his music really was ground-breaking but perhaps not purposely so, or just that the Thriller album was so freaking awesome. As I thought about this unquestionably talented man and the tumultuous life he led I realized that I could not possibly write about Michael Jackson or anyone else I may have enjoyed as a child, or even as a teenager, without writing about my sisters. To me, these girls were everything; the embodiment of 80's pop culture and the reason Michael Jackson's death is able to mean anything to me, other than just the ending to another tragic celebrity biography.

My older sisters were the coolest, my sister April, especially. She tight-rolled her jeans. She wore gigantic t-shirts and sweaters and paired them with even bigger belts. She permed her hair. She wore two or three pairs of socks at a time and always had the coolest, poofiest, craziest looking dresses. She was it. She was the eighties. Most of all, my sister was happy to be a typical eighties girl. She was always herself, or at least that's how it seemed to me, her younger sister. She proudly donned that awesome denim jacket, that giant Swatch watch and Wang-Chunged her way through high school.

Fashion aside, she was so much more than trends. To this day, I honestly believe that my sister April can speak with the most authority and knowledge on any eighties band or musician I can mention. She knows where they were born, who they married, what bands they were in and, of course, she can sing all of their songs. She had all the newest records and, later, all the newest tapes. I remember being an obnoxious little sister, idolizing her and yet terrorizing her at the same time by running off with the True Blue album by Madonna because I thought the song La Isla Bonita was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. To this day, I still have her Duran Duran and Go Go's tapes. The Blondie tape may have belonged to another sister, but it's mine now also. (Until they read this... after which I'm sure there will be reckoning.)

See, these things are almost more mine now than they are theirs. The tapes, the records, the white lace gloves meant to look like Madonna's in the lucky star video; these things all belong to me more than anyone five or seven or ten years older than me. For me they have meaning. They are the pieces of things that used to be everything upon which I depended. Like many middle classes then, and I suppose now, my parents often worked three jobs just to make ends meet and to provide all of us with a happy life. They would often come home from one job, change, and then go to the other. My father somehow managed to work 27 hours into a day, rather than the lazy 24. While my parents were there providing for us they did manage to cultivate relationships with us and help shape a work ethic that I'm proud to say all of their children maintain still. However, those few hours after-school was the time I had with my sisters. It was my second education, the one dealing with music, dances, boys, hair, passed notes in class, and all the other important matters of the world.

If these afternoons were time spent in the classroom of life and growing up, then music surely was the chalkboard. MTV was a staple in our house. Back then they actually showed music videos. Whitney Houston was beautiful. Madonna was what we wanted to be. Rick Springfield was our boyfriend. We didn't know George Michael was gay. We just thought he was a good dancer and decided he might make a good boyfriend too! Pat Benatar and Tina Turner empowered us and Cyndi Lauper made us misbehave. My personal favorite was Patti Smyth, of Scandal. She was everything I wasn't and everything I wanted to be. She had dark brown hair and an attitude to match her fiery eyes. To a shy, petite blond from the Midwest, this woman was the heart and soul of independence and strength. "Goodbye to You" is still one of my favorite songs.

Of course, the artist that almost needed his own day in our household was Michael Jackson. Many thoughts and memories have run through my mind regarding him but, mainly, I remember the Thriller album. I can close my eyes and place myself in my sister's bedroom, sitting on the edge of her water-bed, looking at her bright pink record player. I can see the cover of the album now: Michael Jackson, in a white suit with a black shirt. He seemed to look right at you. We had a heart drawn around his face. We were girls, remember, and we never thought records would become collector's items. Plus, it didn't matter. We loved him. We thought everything he did and said was so cool. We thought Billie Jean was the greatest song ever and no one had ever heard anything like the song Thriller.

On a near daily basis I am told by people around me that I am not old enough. I am told that I am not old enough to know about this song or that artist. I am not old enough to know about some world event or topic. I am not old enough. I am a woman nearing thirty and I wonder when I will be old enough, and also how long I will be old enough- before I am then considered too old. The music of the eighties means so much to me because it was my means of bonding with the girls who helped to define my sense of self. For this reason, I think I am exempt from the stringent "know only the music of your generation" rule.

Music of the eighties also has meaning to me because the music of now often seems more like a business. When I see a show or I buy a song (not an album- but a song) I know that I am the consumer. I know that someone is selling me something. I know that I am being used in various marketing research projects and I am certainly part of some typical demographic. Artists are suing fans. Fans are suing artists. Record companies are owned by Pepsi and Pepsi has a record. When I was a little girl idolizing Patty Smyth I just knew that I was a fan. I thought her hair, her clothing and her overall style were extensions of her personality and not merely an attempt to fill a niche.

I feel that even though the eighties are often considered the beginning of everything fake in music; synthesizers, breast enhancements and lip-synchers, they were also some of the most sincere and honest times for music. I thought to myself the other day that maybe what I will miss about Michael Jackson is his sincerity. What I realize now is that I began to miss that a long time ago. I began to miss Michael Jackson decades ago. He forgot his fans. He forgot the girls who sat around after school singing his music.

He's not to blame. Who didn't forget those girls? Now my sisters and I are busy. They have children. We all work. We all have homes. We all have responsibilities. Even when we are able to get together, even when we do start to discuss music; we have all forgotten that unbridled joy and innocence that came with each drop of the record needle. We're older now. We don't sing along.

After the little girls who listened to Madonna and the Prince of Pop dealt with all matters of the living: marriage, babies, health, illness, death; we outgrew the songs about zombies and unattainable women and rival gangs. We no longer had use for Patty Smyth and her bad-ass, independent attitude. Remembering Michael Jackson this week made me realize that I had forgotten him long ago. It was only with his death that I was truly able to appreciate his life, and the profound effect it had on mine.

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Tea Party Movement Loses Steam | The Washington Independent

2009-07-04T10:24:00.001-05:00

Tea Party Movement Loses Steam | The Washington Independent

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Washington Post Interview with Solis

2009-06-30T09:49:00.001-05:00

Here is a link to today's Washington Post interview with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

Solis Interview

The AFL-CIO is psyched about her pushing the Employee Free Choice Act, but I worry that workers already feel too defeated to move on that issue. I was also not aware that the federal minimum wage is now being raised to $7.25. How can anyone raise a family on $7.25 an hour? We are leaving an entire socioeconomic class behind in this country, all to save the DOW.

Field trip to the Appalachian Trail???

2009-06-29T22:47:00.002-05:00

Why don't more of our politicians go missing in the Appalachians? I know a few Illinois boys who could use the time off.

I wrote Roland Burris a letter regarding the stimulus package, unemployment in Rockford and the tea party trend. I just got this email back from him. If you're going to send out an automated response, why wait two months to send it? Also, what is Burris doing? I saw him on CSPAN the other day. When he speaks I am utterly embarrassed to live in Illinois. His questions and statements reflect how absolutely over his head the man is. He shows no initiative and he has yet to do anything worth engraving on a mausoleum. Anyhow, here's a copy of the letter. I met the man soon after his appointment. He comes off deprecatory and mild-mannered but he treats his senate seat like the prize in a contest, not a job.

Dear Sara,

Already, I have worked with my Senate colleagues in Washington to enact legislation that will reinforce the foundations of Illinois. The passage of the stimulus package will create jobs and fix our ailing infrastructure. Along with Senator Joe Lieberman, I have introduced the Enhanced Oversight of State and Local Economic Recovery Act (S. 1064) to provide oversight for activities conducted with money from these stimulus funds. This year we have expanded healthcare coverage for children and pushed for equal pay for working women. The Senate has also taken on special interests to make credit card agreements fair, passed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act (S. 896) to help stem foreclosures, and the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act (S. 454) to streamline defense acquisition and save the American people money.

Along with President Obama, I hope to help fix our broken healthcare system, push to give our children education for their future, and rebuild our weakened economy. We hope to act on comprehensive immigration reform, create green jobs through alternative energy, and support our troops fighting overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan even as we work to bring them home.

Finally, I want to apologize for the delay in my response. I receive an average of 10,000 letters and emails per week from my Illinois constituents. I hope that you will continue to contact me in the future about other issues of concern to you.

It is an honor to serve as your Senator, and I look forward to working for you and our great state in the years ahead. I appreciate the benefit of your perspective, and I will consider your thoughts as they come to the floor of the Senate. If you need anything further, feel free to contact our office at (202)-224-2854.

Sincerely,

Roland W. Burris
United States Senator

Busy Week... Healthcare, Iran and S'mores, Rantings

2009-06-18T12:54:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy week for me. The following three posts are really just poorly written rants. Comment. Argue with me. Just be nice about it. ;)

This week I discovered that you can make s'mores in the microwave. This is great news to me, because I have probably experienced an actual campfire only twice in the last ten years. Well, at least I thought this was great news. I suppose suddenly having a decadent option like S'mores readily available can be a bad thing. Plus, I learned that S'mores can be made with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Holy crap those are good. I'll post the recipe but please, only buy as many Peanut Butter Cups as you plan to eat in one sitting, as these little treats are addictive and pose a serious threat to your waist line.

To make the S'mores
Place one Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on one graham cracker. Place marshmallow on top of Cup and top with another graham cracker. Microwave for 25 seconds. Eat in private. (They're messy plus then no one will know how many you have had!)

Healthcare and Propaganda-Off the Cuff

2009-06-18T12:47:00.001-05:00

Health-care. I have seen a lot of propaganda opposing any sort of state sponsored healthcare plan. I've heard it called socialism. I've heard it's going to negate any private health insurance. I've heard the government is going to make abortions mandatory. (Okay, I didn't hear that last one...) Guess what I'm saying is there's a lot of talk against this.

This is what I wonder about these ads, found on tv, radio and in print... Who funds these ads? We must always ask ourselves what filter is being used to parlay information. Propaganda can be powerful. I've seen it used in the healthcare debate, as well as the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act. I worry that EFCA may even die because of the massive ad campaign vilifying it, calling it "card check" and painting images of big mean union members threatening workers. Many times these ads scream lies and use scare tactics. People do this knowing that they can lie. If they are caught they will apologize quietly or dismiss some scapegoat and then start all over again. Volume is everything. The right is screaming, ranting and shooting. The silence of the left on these issues is deafening. Their silence is also debilitating. It's causing those who don't stay informed to go with the loudest voice. I personally worry that it's preventing and negating any progress on any issue.

Something to remember about propaganda is that it's only as valid as you make it. The Nazi's made it a matter of policy. Their minister of propaganda said something to the effect that one did not need truth or facts when one had good propaganda. Did the Nazi's make us wise to the frightening zombi mentality good propaganda can cultivate? Perhaps, or perhaps they merely taught some of our prominent officials and community leaders how to harness hysteria, i.e. the Iraq war.

Whatever one's opinion on this issue I just ask that any decision and any opinion be an informed one. I know that all I have to do is look at my own life experiences. I have insurance through my employer. I have to call a minimum of three people before I can see my doctor. When I finally get there I have to make sure we only discuss the issues I mentioned in my three minute phone call to the receptionist before I made the appointment. Discuss anything else and it may not be covered. I then have to pay what I think is my co-pay, but because it is constantly changing, I often get a bill for a couple more bucks. At least once a month I will get a letter from my insurance company asking me for all sorts of personal information... all meant to be used against me and my claims... all meant to save them money and leave me in the lurch.

I'm not saying that I'm not thankful for my health insurance. I meet people almost everyday who are one health catastrophe away from being "out of the game", so to speak. I simply want to argue against the many commercials and rants that claim so many Americans are thrilled with their current coverage and so many Americans will be forced to go with a different system. The people putting these ideas out there may be surprised to learn that many of us living and working in the real world are already in the position of constantly having to change our doctor because of our health insurance coverage. Many of us are already assaulted time and again with hidden fees and holes in our coverage. Many of us are already being left behind; no choices, no say, no information.

Information, Intellectuals and Iran...

2009-06-18T12:42:00.000-05:00

What image comes to your mind when you picture an intellectual? Ever see Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade? I imagine an intellectual to look like Harrison Ford did in the beginning of the movie; blazer with leather patches on the elbows, glasses, disheveled hair, nervous mannerisms. When I think of an intellectual I think of someone who is too busy learning and studying to know what is happening around them. I imagine that they cannot be bothered with the mundane because they are too busy with the greater concept of self-education.

That person does not exist. If they do exist I hope and pray that I am not forced to spend anything longer than an elevator ride with them. I say this because this past month I have met, on three separate occasions, three people who are self-proclaimed intellectuals. Each of them stated to me that they consider themselves to be "an intellectual" and interested in politics and society. Each one of them claimed to not watch television. All of them claimed to have opinions but none of them shared these opinions because of their "concern" that those around them would not be able to comprehend and understand the discussion, (not being intellectuals and all.)

One woman really stands out in my mind. She actually made me kind of sad. After hearing her many proclamations of intellectualism and interest in politics I asked her one morning if she had been watching the crisis in Iran. I naturally assumed that anyone interested in politics and world events would surely be tethered to the TV, Internet or radio in the hopes of hearing anything about the possible world-changing events taking place there. No. She condescendingly claimed that no, she did not watch television. She tries never to turn on the idiot box. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt so I said something to the effect of oh, yes, but I'm sure you've read about it in the paper, right? No. Radio? No. Oh, right! The Internet? No.

The woman claimed not to pay attention to any media because none of it was reliable. She tries to get her information by talking to the people around her. She gets her information by talking to her friends or her husband. So, four days into the protests in Iran- four days after the elections in Iran, I sat and explained to her why the country has cut off communication with the world. I explained to her why people are being murdered in the street. I explained to her why this is important to our US interests. I explained to her why she should even care.

Her ignorance on the issue is not what bothers me. I think it's perfectly understandable and excusable to not know about every world event. Who can keep up all the time, right? Many of my friends feel differently. Life is hard, especially now a days, and it's conceivable that many people are too busy with the simple act of living to think outside of their own district, let alone outside their country. I also have no problem with the people who entertain themselves with Britney Spears and "Spidey". Life is depressing for many and God forbid I begrudge them an escape into something glittery and exciting. My beef is with the people who condescend to those who don't follow world events. My problem is with people who claim themselves to be intellectuals but are, in essence, anti-intellectuals.

These anti-intellectuals love to engage in discussion. They claim to love discussing all matters of society and politics. Most of them have traveled the world and some of them can use a few big words and sound professorial. I find that when I usually meet someone who touts their intelligence they tend to look down on people who do not do the same. My experience as a blonde flight attendant has been that oftentimes these pseudo-intellects will dumb down their language for me or dismiss me, assuming I have nothing to offer on a topic. I suppose this egotistical attitude, wrought with condescension, would be excusable if they were truly in touch with the world around them, or, if they at least had the desire to be in touch with the world around them. It's one thing to avoid mass media because of a fear of bias or filter but to be willfully ignorant and claim intellectualism is simply a fraud.

Why limit yourself to the information the people around you may or not choose to provide you? I was astounded to her this woman, in her fifties, tell me that she relies on her husband for information on current events. In a world where some countries still forbid women the right to read I find it disgusting that a free, American woman is choosing to refuse that right and rely solely on her husband and friends for education. Knowledge is power and when surrender our will to learn to we surrender our freedom.

Another "intellectual" lives in my neighborhood. Those of you who follow my blog know that I care very deeply about my city and my community. I was born and raised in Rockford and the problems in Rockford of racial tension, poverty, unemployment, crime and stagnation are all very important to me. I want to know about what's happening around me, and I won't throw my hand in front of my face simply because others believe my town to be small and insignificant. The intellectual in my neighborhood claims not to follow anything in Rockford. He's too busy and he can't be bothered with these little problems. I would think that a true intellectual would want to learn as much as possible about everything around him. The bottom line for me is that it seems a true intellectual would not refuse information.

Life begins with education. It's how we obtain the most from the world around us! This comes from the classroom, the University, the people around us, the media, books and experience. One of the smartest, most insightful men I know is my father, and he has a GED! He bothers to learn. He doesn't think that he's above learning anything new. He's always taught us, my siblings and me, that we have something to offer, but also that we have much to learn. I hope never to call myself an "intellectual". I hope to always pay attention to the chaos that surrounds me because I know it effects me.

I make a warning to anyone taking the time to read... Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. Some people thrive and essentially rely on misinformation. Beware that the intellectual you are speaking with, the one with the glasses and the elbow patches and the disheveled hair, may just be a character- a role, like that of Indiana Jones in the beginning of that movie. They may be enjoyable but they are not superior. A dear friend once told me that when you are right, you must stand up for yourself. Don't let anyone intimidate you... intellectual or not.

What's In a Name?

2009-06-11T12:05:00.000-05:00

Reputation used to be everything. I was speaking to a landlord a while back about how difficult it is to find tenants now a days... mainly because it is a "renter's market" but also because bad credit has become a numbing but acceptable handicap among so many Americans. Having always been on the other end of the landlord/tenant situation I was interested to hear about his trouble filling open apartments with people who would be sure to fulfill their financial obligations. After hearing stories of women who stole air conditioners, potential sex offenders, bad pets and squatters the most surprising and sad quip ended up being about a young couple. They were in their twenties and after handing in their application the young man said "Well, you'll see that we have bad credit, but who doesn't now a days? You almost expect that, right?"

Why was this so sad? I suppose a lot of people do have bad credit in this, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. I suppose a lot of people have lost jobs or fell victim to a major medical-financial crisis. Many Americans who were once living the coveted white picket fence life are now in shabby one bedroom apartments. So then why was this man's comment about the rampant spread of poor credit so sad? He was flippant about it. He was resigned to it. Moreover, his comment reflected a sense of apathy and surrender.

What is in a name? When I was a child I read a play called The Crucible. At the time I thought it was just a story about witches and puritans. It wasn't until I was an adult, visiting Salem, Mass. that I reread the play and learned that it was actually meant to respond to the madness and mass hysteria of the McCarthy hearings. The play was an indictment against ignorance, malicious prosecution and corrupt politicians. It was also a brilliant look into the subject of integrity.

One of the most poignant scenes of The Crucible is in Act IV, when the main character John Proctor begs and refuses to sign his name to a false confession. Signing would save his life. He would then avoid being hanged. As he puts pen to paper he realizes that he simply cannot. When asked why he would not sign he says "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!"

A name used to mean something. Business's lasted for years under the credibility of names. That's where the whole concept of credit originated! The idea was that well, you can't pay now but your name is good and this bank backs you, so you can pay later. Remember checks? Almost no one writes them anymore. I remember as a child going to the supermarket and seeing bad checks posted on the register. There it was, ugly and red with ink and a Non-Sufficient Funds stamp; showing everyone in town the degenerate's name and address. Even as a child I thought this was so shameful. My fear of having my name associated with this scandal, with the red ink and blurry stamp, kept me from writing those bad checks as an adult.

This is not to say that bad things don't happen to good people. There's a lot of talk about second bathrooms and lavish spending. There's also a lot out there about the stock market, the housing market, the housing bubble, the hyperinflation of home values, the absolute loss of reason by the insurance industry, and all of that's valid. All of it contributed and somewhat caused our crisis. Accountability alone does not save us or get us ahead. Newspapers and news programs are filled with stories of people who are simply down and out because they are cursed with dealing with the mere burden of their own humanity. The simple act of living is not even cost-effective to some!

What do we make of them, those people who have absolutely hit rock-bottom? Are they allowed to indulge in self-pity and apathetically declare their name void of integrity? Not necessarily. Many homeless shelters ask the homeless to participate in something called "pride chores". These are small chores that help upkeep the shelter facility while allowing those asking for help to feel that they are giving back and in essence paying for their stay. This way they are not just taking a handout. They are not beggars. They keep their name and with it a dignified chore for a good night's sleep.

Man is nothing without work, and a man's name is nothing without the merit of labor. This is why we have the ability to build. It is truly, one of the greatest things that separates us from all other living things. It is sad then, that many have given up the idea of building a strong name for themselves. Integrity is everything. In death, those things we bought with credit cards, that house, that white picket fence; they all go. They are all divided up or sold. Our titles are assumed by those waiting in line to assume them. Our clothes become dust and our bodies turn to ash but our names are forever.

A name is the one and only permanent mark an individual can leave upon this Earth. It is etched into limestone or perhaps just logged into a book in a coroner's office. Regardless of when and where it was last spoken it exists, timeless, and with it exists all the notoriety, strength, fragility or character one chooses to bury beside it.

Bill Hatch: The Mechanic's Tale

2009-05-29T12:27:00.002-05:00

Bill Hatch: The Mechanic's Tale

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Wisconsin gets it's groove back

2009-05-10T22:56:00.000-05:00

Here's the latest post to www.recovery.gov.

More Than $587 Million in Recovery Funds now Available for Wisconsin to Save Jobs and Drive Reform

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Application for Part 1 of Wisconsin's State Stabilization Funds Approved Today

U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that more than $587 million is now available for Wisconsin under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. This funding will lay the foundation for a generation of education reform and help save hundreds of thousands of teaching jobs at risk of state and local budget cuts. Wisconsin will be eligible to apply for another $289 million this fall. Today's funding is being made available per Wisconsin's successful completion of Part 1 of the State Stabilization Application, which was made available on April 1st.

Auburn freshman shot; police find Blazer - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

2009-04-20T21:45:00.001-05:00

Auburn freshman shot; police find Blazer - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

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2009-04-20T21:34:00.001-05:00

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School, in which two young men killed 12 of their peers and one teacher before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide.

This morning there was a shooting at my alma-mater high school, just 2.7 miles from my home. While this particular shooting was an act of gang violence it is disturbing and alarming to see that children are still bearing arms, and doing so at an alarmingly increasing rate.

Fun with numbers

2009-04-15T23:28:00.000-05:00

Judging by the latest trend of Tea Parties taking place across the country it seems history class has long been forgotten. What we do actually remember can apparently be manipulated to suit our needs. Economics is another subject that has been on the chalk board lately but that too can change depending on where you sit in the classroom. Politics, government, and social science have also become frequent victims of the edit and rewrite desk. The one subject that remains off limits is that factual, finite topic of numbers. History deceives us. Politics amuse us but numbers do not lie.

The first number we look at today is 200.
200 is the number of protesters who showed the city the full thrust of their movement by marching from the Rockford Public Library to City Hall, eventually throwing their tea away in a garbage can on the east side of the State Street bridge. 200 is the number of protesters who held various signs reading "I am not your ATM" and "No Taxation Without DeLiberation". 200 protesters stood outside the local newspaper building yelling "Tell the Truth". 200 protesters were reminded that they needed to remain on the sidewalk and stay out of the street because of their lack of permit. 200 protesters showed us all how angry they were about what their signs called "Generational Theft". Two hundred.

The next number we look at is 168,138.
As of 2006 the population of the city of Rockford was estimated to be 168,138 people. This estimate made it the third largest city in Illinois, after Chicago and Aurora. That brings me to the next number...
0.12
0.12 is the percentage of people in Rockford who turned out to protest taxes. Zero point twelve. 0.12 % of 168,138 people said to the government that they were "not going to take it" and that they did not stand behind the current stimulus package or the money needed to make the stimulus package effective. 0.12% of people in Rockford feel that they should not have to pay to fix their roads, they should not have to pay for better educations for their children, they should not have to pay for more public safety and they should not have to pay for basic tax-funded health and human services. 0.12 % of the city's population took a stand.

14
14% is the current unemployment rate in Rockford. 0.12% of people in Rockford don't feel that the 14% should receive an extension of their unemployment benefits. 0.12% of people in Rockford don't believe that the 14% should receive a 65% reduction in cost of COBRA health insurance. So when the 14% are done spending most of their unemployment benefits on health insurance the 0.12% want them to do without. When the 14% have exhausted their unemployment benefits the 0.12% want them to remember their fun slogans and cool signs and how they came to downtown Rockford to throw tea in a garbage can. The 0.12% do not want to pay for the 14%. They don't care about their successes or failures. Of course 0.12 is less than 14.

1011
1,011 foreclosed homes are listed for Rockford right now at 1:08am. 0.12% of people here don't want expanded funding for the city's Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which helps to mitigate the problems caused by foreclosures, high-risk mortgages, and high numbers of abandoned or vacant properties. The "0.12 percenters" don't want to protect people left behind in these half empty neighborhoods to receive additional law enforcement, prevention and education, drug treatment programs, and support services and advocacy groups for victims of crime and domestic violence. The 0.12 percenters don't want victims to receive assistance money. The 0.12 percenters don't want money spent on improving our local justice system but of course, remember the cool colonial style hats they wore?

Remember math class? 0.12 is a little, almost insignificant number. It's not even a whole number! It's not even 1. The bigger numbers are (14%) those unemployed here, (.60%) those whose homes are recently foreclosed here, (13.8%) those in Rockford living below poverty, and finally $19,781, the 2006 estimated per-capita income here.

I ask the 0.12 percent of the cities population to tell the 14% what they should they do when their unemployment benefits run out. Maybe bring them a comforting cup of tea.

Nostalgia at the cost of reality

2009-04-14T00:09:00.000-05:00

Reality seems to have a different meaning to many these days. To some reality is waking up to a piece of toast and coffee before the morning commute. To some reality is taking care of a family and paying a mortgage. To others, reality is waiting for the phone to ring with that job offer or waiting in line for that one hot meal of the day. Still to many reality is too harsh to acknowledge... too dispiriting to live. Whatever the distortion or perversion of reality in these formidable times it is imperative that we do not extort history to advocate our cause.

It's easy to indulge in a Norman Rockwell experience now a days. The idea of a family sitting around the radio laughing while their dog licks the father's face is a warm, friendly vision of life in America. The children's lemonade stand and the school bake sale that covered the Saturday Evening Post for so many years make looking back in time fun and easy. However, these are paintings, art to be appreciated and enjoyed, not a record of history. Norman Rockwell himself had a different sense of reality from some of the very "everyday" men he painted. After all, his father was Jarvis Waring, a prominent and wealthy businessman. After earning a consistent place with the Saturday Evening Post Rockwell made around $40,000 a year... even during the Great Depression, something unthinkable for most artists, or most anyone for that matter.

At the age of sixteen, Rockwell was a bored teenager transferring from one art school to another. Meanwhile, the supreme court was ruling case after case of attempted labor laws unconstitutional, in an effort to maintain laissez-faire economics, thus continuing abusive work practices. When Rockwell was seventeen he made his living painting pictures for "Tell Me Why" children's stories while across town 146 young immigrant workers, all women, died needlessly in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire caused by dangerous working conditions and deplorable labor standards. At 38 Rockwell painted illustrations for new editions of Mark Twain classics. This is while tanks rolled into veterans camped outside the capital. They were protesting homelessness, the lack of viable employment and an unpaid bonus for their service; owed to to them by the United States government. That day, July 28, 1932 ended with the deaths of unarmed veterans and even children, at the hands of 400 U.S. infantrymen. Norman Rockwell was painting Huck Finn.

Now this is not an indictment against Mr. Rockwell by any means. A man is not to be faulted for his successes and to his credit he used his platform to aid the war effort during WWII. I simply think it's important that we don't look to Norman Rockwell paintings and movies about days gone by for our history lessons. Rockwell lived in volatile times. Yet, his art reflects a world of Anglo-Saxon joy... one with paper routes, not paper fueled fires... one with children playing, not children suffering under oppressive labor conditions or dying in factories. Rockwell's dream world is a comforting one, to be certain, but we shouldn't look to those days as better times because they were actually some of the most volatile times we as Americans had ever known.

The idea of fishing with "grand-pappy" is a simple, easy-living concept. Unfortunately, a lot of our grandfathers couldn't even fish. In 1931, people were starving. They were unemployed, living in make-shift shelters and scrounging for scraps to sustain themselves. In New York the state's Temporary Relief Administration arranged for jobless men on relief to get free fishing licenses. The demand for food was so great that the state's office was overwhelmed with men clamoring for the opportunity to fish for their food or maybe make a profit selling fish. Thousands of men rushed the state Conservation Office, resulting in violence and disorder. Even something as deceivingly simple and homespun as the idea of one's grandfather fishing can be distorted to support or disprove some argument here or there.

It seems interesting that many of the people who are attempting to discredit the New Deal and Roosevelt's economic policies are some of the same who look back nostalgically to a simpler time. When the least people have becomes the most they ever know their reality becomes dreams, ideals and stories, but that is it. When we look back for life's lessons learned we cannot use tunnel vision. We owe it to ourselves and our children to see history accurately.

History does, in fact, repeat itself. A statement stands out these days when we look back to the election. Republican candidate John McCain said "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." Less than one month later the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was brought into law. This was after a series of prominent bank collapses and failures. The other man to have uttered the very same statement was Herbert Hoover. He said the very same words to a reporter in 1931, not even 18 months after the stock market crashed and brought the nation to its knees. How sad that we have forgotten the heavy costs of apathy and denial. Hoover's comment reflected his reality, just as John McCain's comment reflected his. One man lived in the White House and dined on seven course meals each night. The other man longed for the White house but didn't really need to crash there. After all, he had so many homes he couldn't keep count! Reality on the other side of either man's comment was a growing fear that life as we know it may very well have ended.

The word "history" derives from the Greek word historia, meaning inquiry. History, even at its origins, is not about telling as much as it is about asking. The key is to ask someone whose answer is steeped in reality, not their personal reality but the collective and unadulterated reality, lest we be manipulated into believing lies and taking refuge in pictures of an idealized past. After all, even Napoleon had the idea. He said "What is history but a fable agreed upon?". I should hope in the end we all agree the fable we will tell our children, when discussing these times, will be the one with facts, significance and reality.

Tea Parties featured on the Rachel Maddow show

2009-04-09T21:48:00.000-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rockford's WPA Projects and my thoughts on the word "hateful"

2009-04-09T15:29:00.000-05:00

In a recent email Rockford Tea Party organizer David Hale called my blog "hateful". While this did not bother me too terribly much it did get me thinking and searching for any hateful words in my blog. Alright, I will admit that it may not have been the nicest thing to write when I mentioned that I would rather have my email box inundated with porn, ads, and requests for money from "Nigerian kings" than notices from that crackpot group. I apologize for that comment. Requests for money from Nigerian kings are seldom legitimate and I'm sorry for writing that I prefer them over invites to attend misdirected protests with ill-informed protesters committing possibly illegal acts.

As I looked through my various blog entries I could not find this "hateful" tone to which Mr. Hale is referring. In fact, I created my blog with a deep love for the people around me and a deep sense of pride and passion for my hometown. I have to thank David Hale and the Rockford Tea Party, not for their plan to dump tea in the Rock River, but for calling to my attention some aspects of Rockford history of which I was not previously aware. It is because of them that I am now even more proud of "the forest city" and that I am even more excited about the current stimulus plan.

Last night and this morning I visited the local history room of the Rockford Public Library. They have records on just about any local topic and records putting a local spin on any number of national topics. I requested to see any information they had regarding the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the Rockford area and I received three files of information. I wanted to see just how much of Rockford was built up by a previous large stimulus package. They had original WPA paperwork, listing the heads of various departments within the WPA. They had paperwork highlighting each division of the WPA, listing what projects were to take place, the order in which they were to take place and the funding available to each project. The library also had one large file full of newspaper clippings spanning from 1934 - 1943. I thought I knew a little about The New Deal and FDR, the CCC and the PWA but what I learned in the library today thrilled me. Our town was at the epicenter of tax funded economic stimulus during the great depression. The papers I reviewed are a direct reflection of our city's history of hard work and community effort.

In 1935 headquarters for all Northern Illinois WPA, with the exception of Cook County, was located in Rockford, Illinois. Northern Illinois WPA Lead Administrator Robert J. Mogens Ipsen set up his office in our Federal Building. This Rockford native was in charge of the 21 surrounding counties, including Winnebago. His initial goal was to find and submit projects to the government for those on relief in our area to have at least one year of work while improving our overall quality of life and infrastructure. The first three projects he submitted and had approved for work were the widening of 18th st between 7th and 9th avenue, extensive sidewalk construction throughout the city, and a massive sewer project that brought the first working sewers to people in Loves Park.

Not only did the unemployed of Rockford take up shovels and begin work on these projects as soon as money came in for supplies and labor, (1935), but many people here who had been unemployed and on relief began working in school cafeterias and day cares. Some of them worked at a sewing factory, that, at one point, employed 300 workers who sewed clothing for people on government relief and materials for other WPA projects. 35 people in Rockford worked as teachers; teaching free courses in literacy, music and art, citizenship and naturalization, parent education, photography, crafts and first aid. They had 850 students as of September 1936.

I hear the worry, by David Hale and his ilk, that this stimulus package is socialism. It's nothing like socialism. First of all, this is a bill that elected officials passed. Yes, some voted against it, but those of you who are constantly mentioning how great our country is must surely respect the democratic process that led to the stimulus bill passing. Second, this stimulus package won't take over. It is to stimulate... get things moving. FDR enacted The New Deal legislation and even after the government employed 8,500,000 people at one point or another from 1935 - 1943... even after all those people worked for "big government"... we still have private industry. Somehow, we are still (still!) not a socialist state. So, what is the worry? Such a massive spending plan didn't turn us socialist or communist or red back then and it won't now. In fact, by 1943 most people who were once employed by the WPA found private sector employment.

For those of you who are still worried about the big scary threat of socialism hiding beneath the President's stimulus package I submit to you that the Socialist party repudiated The New Deal. They felt it only laid the ground work to maintain capitalism. Those of you living in Rockford might find it interesting to know that in July of 1935 Socialist party candidate Norman Thomas visited Rockford, where he held a rally at Lyran Hall and spoke against the WPA. Incidentally, the rally was brought to an end when someone threw a tear-gas bomb through the window thus wreaking havoc. No one was hurt and attendees were told they could pick up any left-behind jackets or items at the home of Rockford's first socialist alderman, Oscar Ogren. Just imagine, we managed to pass a massive spending bill to stimulate the economy, the government managed to employ millions and create jobs as well as infrastructure, a socialist visited Rockford, and yet we are still a democracy.

I know. There's that other worry... the one about (how did it go again?) something about paying for your neighbor's second bathroom? We're simply not in this crisis because everyone ran to Home Depot and updated their homes. Social welfare is something long neglected. In this "every man for himself" race to the top we forgot that if society declines there will come a point when no one will move... not up, not forward, not at all.

If we allow the decline of our city and the decline of our country to continue who will want to live in our city? What will be left? If so many of our houses are foreclosed on and so many of our citizens are in shelters who will be left? I volunteer at a homeless shelter and I see people who have had all kinds of problems in their lives: drugs, domestic violence, generations of poverty... you name it. But I also see people who had always been one catastrophe away from devastation. Often times they are people with medical injuries not covered by their insurance. Sometimes they are people who simply just cannot find work. We have to use tax dollars to bring some of these people out of their state of misery. It makes them more productive to us and it makes us more important to them. A society where everyone matters... how's that for hateful blog rhetoric?

I also submit this to you bathroom tea dumping protesters:
You have work right now, but nothing is certain in this global economy. If you lose your job today will you proudly refuse unemployment benefits? If you lose your health insurance today will you remain principled in your anti-tax, tea dumping belief and refuse COBRA for yourself and your family?

Many Rockford white-collar, professional workers felt that way in 1935. They felt excluded from work projects and frustrated that they would have to "dumb down" their skills to participate in WPA projects. Ah, but wait, that guy Ipsen, always on top of things, recognized that concern and called on a guy named Robert McKeague to take on the responsibility of finding work for white-collar relief workers. A dignified wage and job was offered to all under WPA funding. White collar-workers in Rockford were teachers, health care providers, symphony orchestra musicians, writers, legal clinic workers and so much more. Actually, it was a group of white-collar professional WPA workers who undertook the task of organizing and analyzing the City Clerk and City Collector records. They found that oftentimes the city clerk records were off on figures as much as 35%! This is huge! A government sponsored, tax-funded program brought a hault to a government inefficiency.

My research tells me that Rockford, like many cities all over the country, has proven what tax stimulus money can really do for a community. In 1938 as many as 88,000 people in 21 counties enjoyed WPA recreational activities every week. 1100 Rockford workers worked on the WPA project constructing a $1,835,220.00 sewer project for the city and the surrounding area and last but most certainly not least WPA money and workers helped keep the Rockford Public Library alive.

I ask those of you who plan to dump tea in the Rock River as part of a protest against taxes to please turn around and look at the Rockford Public Library, where you plan to meet. This is what you are against. Walk down a mile or two and look at the Sinissippi Rose Garden. That too enjoyed funding and labor from big tax stimulus dollars. Walk down even further to the Auburn Street Bridge. You guessed it.... more tax dollars.

There's nothing hateful about wanting to preserve the institutions that have made our city great. It is, however, terribly sad that those dumping tea into the Rock River this Tuesday do not see the work just two generations ago that was put into the very spot they will stand.

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Rockford Register Star, Chuck Sweeny and WPA

2009-04-08T22:50:00.001-05:00

Rockford Register Star's senior editor Chuck Sweeny wrote an Op-Ed piece on the Rockford Tea Party.

The Register Star's Op/Ed piece

Also, I spent some time inside the library today, rather than behind it dumping tea, and I learned the library was one of many projects in Rockford to benefit from WPA funding. How funny is it that these "tax objectors" will be protesting publicly funded economic stimulation in front of a building kept alive by public funds. I hope to post more on that soon.

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Emails between myself and the RTP Coordinator

2009-04-08T22:35:00.000-05:00

Now that I've had time to establish my blog I have decided to take my correspondence with the the Rockford Tea Party coordinator and organize it into one post. My emails are in blue. His emails are in red. I cut and past the emails as they were received. One email is from the neighborhood watch leader, the person who initially sent me notice of the protest. Her email is shown in green.

I got an email back from the Rockford Tea Party organizer.
It simply reads

"Do you work for the city of Rockford?"

I will respond no, which is the truth, tomorrow when my laptop battery is not dying.

This is a copy of the email sent to me by the neighborhood watch leader in response to the email I sent her regarding the littering ordinance and my request to be removed from her mailing list.

The tea party email out as an FYI.

Tea Party's are happening all over the United States as a protest to the much higher taxes we, our children and our children's children, will be having to pay because of the passage of recent spending Bills in Congress and the planned tax increases here in Illinois by our new Governor Pat Quinn. The Rockford tea party is symbolic and referencing the history of the first tea party in 1773.

I have emailed David Hale at rockfordteaparty@gmail.com to be sure he has the proper permits for the Rockford TeaParty. He did request in his email and on the blog that the tea be loose and not in bags. There is also a bus going to Chicago on April 15th for that tea party.

This is a copy of the email I sent in response to her response. I also wonder this... if we are allowed to dump loose leaf tea in the river, as long as there are no bags, should coffee grounds be dumped in the river? Maybe coffee houses could pay less in sanitation costs by saving their grounds and dumping them in the river. According to this "there's no bag- there's no litter" mentality we could dump oil, paint, old food, coffee grounds... anything loose into the river. This seems unacceptable to me. Once again, I understand they are doing this to recall the Boston Tea Party protest but the economic and political climates were just a little different and the reference is a stretch at best.

There are no permits for littering. The ordinance is clear about dumping and discarding any garbage... unused food... waste item improperly. Tea is not native to the Rock River ecosystem.

Also, tea parties are being held around the country. Did you read that people are being ticketed at such parties when the police are able to do so?

Thanks for passing the info on to Mr. Hale. I also did so but it probably never hurts to reinforce our laws, right?

Please see my new blog regarding the topic. I'm also including a few links regarding the Boston Tea Party FYI.

http://noteaparty.blogspot.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party

The Boston Tea Party was about taxation without representation. We have representation. There are many legal ways to protest taxes and government involvement... without dirtying a city that already needs to be cleaned up.

This is my response to the Rockford Tea Party coordinator's email asking me if I work for the city of Rockford.

I am not an employee of the city of Rockford, but I am always working for the city of Rockford in an effort to make it a better place to live.

Here is the response to my emailing telling the RTP coordinator that I am not a city employee:

Then I won't take your threats to fine the Rockford tea party $100,000 seriously despite your brazen attempt to frighten us out of exercising our constitutional rights to free speech and we will continue to speak out constitutionally about what we belive as American citizens. You are welcome to join us in that effort to make the city of Rockford a better place to live.

This is what I wrote back:

Sir I make no threat to fine you. I was simply attempting to bring your attention to the city ordinance regarding littering. The $100,000 comes from the fine listed in the ordinance multiplied by 1000. (protesters)

Something better to do on a Tuesday afternoon

2009-04-07T21:48:00.001-05:00

Ahh... a relaxing cup of tea! That's what I fixed for myself when I came home from a five-day trip (I'm a flight attendant- more on that later) this evening. Little did I know that tea would be on my mind for the rest of the evening, and no, not because of the caffeine content. I'm actually writing about modern-day tea parties.

I received an enthusiastic email from the woman who runs my neighborhood watch two days ago inviting everyone on her mailing list to a Rockford tea Party. Apparently a group of people in Rockford, IL, a place I proudly call home, are planning to organize and dump tea into the Rock River on April 14. The email then included an exciting offer to join an even larger group renting a bus to go dump tea in the Chicago river. All this for only $20! Oh... plus the cost of tea. Needless to say the email filled me with such anger and disgust I decided to take action.

Here is a copy of the invite.
THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT HAS GONE TOO FAR AND TAKEN TOO MUCH. We are Tax Objectors not tax avoiders nor tax cheaters. We pay our Taxes. We pay too much. Taxes must be reduced.. Government waste, fraud and abuse must be reduced. We will be heard on April 14, 2009 at the RockfordTeaParty and make our grievances known not only here in Rockford but also to the United States Government. Our Objections to the American Tax Code will be presented to various leaders peacefully. We are looking for 1000 people who also object. Join the RockfordTeaParty.

So after I vented a little rage I responded to this woman's email. I told her times must be ok if she had enough money to throw tea into the river. I also asked her to please remove me from her mailing list. I want nothing to do with this crackpot group. I would rather have my email inbox flooded with porn, ads, forwards and requests for money by Nigerian kings than this crap. I felt disgusting.

Writing her back wasn't enough to satisfy me. I still felt so sad and appalled. I was beginning to worry that people in Rockford may actually join this group. People from Rockford may actually think they are protesting higher taxes by dumping tea in the Rock River. I went to the city of Rockford website and looked up the ordinances regarding littering. Rockford city ordinance 25 prohibits littering and section c specifically mentions bodies of water. I will post it in a different blog. I forwarded the Rockford Tea Party invite and a copy of the ordinance to the neighborhood watch leader, the mayor, all of my friends and family and the chief of police. In the email I mentioned that hopefully they will be able to get the 1000 people they are trying to get. That would mean up to $100,000 in fines for the city!

I began to feel a little better. I felt like I was taking action but still it was not enough. That's when I decided to start this blog. I think it's important for the other side to be as vocal as the tea dumpers. I find huge fault with the whole tea party protest in general, The protest they are trying to make is nothing like the Boston tea party. Also, at a time when food pantries are overwhelmed and families are stretching their grocery budgets I think it's inappropriate to waste food for protest. Finally, it bothers me that this group is taking something as near and dear to Rockford as our Rock River and using to showcase their selfish, anti-community, anti-middle-class agenda.

The Boston Tea Party took place December 16, 1773 when officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain. The colonists were so incensed that they began dumping the tea into the Boston harbor. They were saying that they would rather dump the precious, expensive tea and waste it all rather than pay a tax to someone other than an elected official. This became a movement. It was not necessarily a protest against taxes. It was a protest against taxation without representation. There of course is so much more to the event, but without giving an American revolution lesson I feel that's the relevant info. One could look into the Tea Act of 1767, regarding huge import/export taxes of Tea, an agreement between one of the largest tea companies in the world and the British Parliament and a surplus of black tea with no buyers. To me, the important thing to know here is times were dire. People were paying taxes to a government that was not representing them. They were funding a monarchy.

Our taxes do not fund a monarchy. We just had one of those pesky little elections. You know, the thing that TV focused on instead of Britney Spears for a few months? So first of all, we have direct representation. We hold sovereignty. Second, we don't pay taxes to fund a monarchy or to help some queen's cousin's company stay afloat. We pay taxes because we have decided to have a society and in a society everyone works for a somewhat common goal. You may not want to drive where I want to drive but I bet you want to use roads to get there, right? Taxes pay for roads. You may not want to live in the same kind of house or apartment as me but I bet you want firemen to come save you if it's on fire, right? Taxes pay for firemen. Taxes pay for police. Taxes pay for schools... for maintenance of our infrastructure... for unemployment... for social security... for parks... for West Nile spraying... for pest control... and so on and so forth. With the number of things taxes are spread to cover it's a wonder we haven't paid more from the start.

I'm not for careless spending. I think our taxes should be kept as low as is possible but i also have a profound belief that it's necessary for everyone to contribute to this whole society idea if it is to work. Some are opposed to paying taxes in general. To those people I offer the idea of Haiti. Go to Haiti. No taxes. Of course, there are no roads, barely any homes, massive poverty and starvation and an overall desperate situation, but no taxes for you in Haiti. You can go and live a relatively isolated life and not have mess those pesky sewers or schools or anything.

Others are ok paying taxes but have a problem with where their tax dollars are going. To those people I suggest movement. We have representation here... now.... We can write to our congressmen, our senators, our alderman, the mayor, the governor, the president. If writing doesn't work we can call. If calling doesn't work we can vote for someone who will listen to us. If no such person exists we live in a nation great enough to allow us the chance to run for office ourselves. The options to be heard are endless but they do not begin by violating the law.

That brings me to another reason I am against the whole tea party protest. It is unlawful and unproductive, I know that tea is not in high demand. Homeless shelters may not need it. I volunteer at a homeless shelter and I know we would not really have use for large batches of tea. The greater point for me is that we are cultivating an atmosphere of waste and carelessness. Why dump any food into the river? It also seems contradictory to the argument that people have no money for taxes. You must have a little money if you are dumping it into the river! At least the tea meant something when the colonists did it. They didn't go home and round up a bunch of salt or sugar and bring it to the harbor to dump. The tea was direct from England and dumping it was relevant. Maybe an equivalent would be to dump a Chrysler in the river? I'm not sure on that one.

It upsets me to no end that this group has decided to dump tea into the Rock River. The Rock River is actually the name sake of Rockford. When early settlers came here they had to ford across certain sections of the river and the bottom of it was covered with rocks. That's where Rockford gets its' name. The recreation path along the Rock River is one of my favorite parts of the city. It's close to the historic downtown district and near many of our most beautiful and treasured landmarks. I'm offended that this group has decided to take a symbol of hard work, cooperation and community and use it to aid in their "every man for himself" agenda. When my grandmother's grandparents moved here from Sweden they had to help build the street in front of their home. They did so gladly because they were proud to help build up their own city. They wanted to live in a neighborhood in which they were vested. Using the Rock River, essentially a symbol of community organization and responsibility to make such selfish, individualist points is an insult to everything our town founders help dear.

In closing, I have one thing to say to those who wish to dump tea into the Rock River on April 14th: Bring your tea to me. I will thankfully take it. I love tea. I spend about eight dollars a week on tea and I could use the bailout!

Thanks for reading my blog. I will keep it going because I feel that it is imperative that we do all we can fight for the middle class. The stimulus package is flawed, to be sure, but an anti-community, anti-tax and anti-government mindset will only lead us further into civil unrest and despair. I love my city and my country and I want to make them better, not just for me but for the people around me.