Friday, November 16, 2012
"Post Racial" America? Hardly
In January of 2009 prior to the inauguration of President Elect Barack Obama I heard political pundits on both the left and right saying how the fact that we'd elected a man who was half black president of these United States meant that America's racial issues were a thing of the past. I grew up listening to my parents, teachers and neighbors telling me about the America of the 50s and 60s where they were openly treated like 2nd class citizens. They talked about seeing their parents being forced to publicly be subservient to others simply because of the color of that persons skin.
America has long treated race like the bastard child at it's family reunion. In many states whether you were considered black or white could be determined by either your mother's race OR whether or not you had AT LEAST one black ancestor. The logic was if you had one black ancestor you were considered black. E.G. If your great, great grandmother was black, but everyone else was white you were still black. This was called the "one drop" rule. America wished to be so segregated that it created a racial caste system.
The election of a black president theoretically brought an end to that idiocy. Unfortunately, just as Americans like to live in a state of denial of anything unpleasant we have a collective tendency to underestimate things with which we'd rather not deal. In this case we underestimated the infinite stupidity of mankind. Racism is a tool invented by wealthy men to keep poor working people of different races at one another's throats rather than joining forces to question their low wages and working conditions. It works equally well with religions, but that's another story.
Racism is such an effective tool because mankind is by his very nature lazy. He accepts information given to him rather than seeking it. He allows others to think FOR him because thinking requires effort. Translation racism is easy to instill not because people HATE one another, but rather because simply creating a wedge amongst people who know nothing OF one another is incredibly easy especially if neither group wants to actually do any work to dispel whatever information you give them.
If you are the person who is getting group A at the throat of group B, you pretend to be above wanting to get involved in their dislike of one another despite the fact that you're responsible for it. You nurture the resentment and hatred by giving one group preferential treatment, while at the same time keeping the wages for BOTH groups low by paying one group less than the other and telling the higher paid group that you would pay THEM better salaries if the 2nd group didn't work so cheaply and that your hands were tied.Your ridiculous logic won't be questioned. It will merely be accepted as a blue collar gospel.
Why the psychosomatic profile on the roots of racism? It was used as an effective tool in the post civil war south to keep salaries low. The planter class who had kept slaves decided at wars end to use black former slaves as cheap labor, and to pay their largely illiterate white counterparts slightly better (but not by much) in order to create generations of resentment. When the resentment lead to violence the plutocrats pretended to be above the fold and simply let the hatred fester. The leading classes of the South were Democrats simply because they viewed the Republican party (the Party of Lincoln) as being to liberal. They WERE the ones who had freed the slaves after all. The Democratic party in the south painted the Republicans as a group of liberals who coddled, lazy, uppity blacks and immigrants and in that gained a great deal of traction. This was successful until the late 1960s when the Democratic party passed a series of civil rights laws, the GOP (which had become increasingly conservative) decided to court the rank and file of the white working class Democrats who were resentful of the civil rights agenda their party had taken.
The "us" vs. "them" mentality which prevailed had never truly been exorcised and masterful politician Richard M. Nixon when running for president in 1968 decided to exploit those long held sentiments. He called it his "southern strategy" it over the course of the next decade and a half it successfully converted the bulk of white southerners from the Democratic party to the GOP.
Most smart Republicans were never OVERTLY racist in their appeals, but some were, when they were they were seldom chastised.
Flash forward to present day. Barack Obama is president of the United States and the Republican party essentially put it's legislative agenda on hold for the sole purpose of derailing any idea the man could possibly have. When Obama reached across the aisle to used THEIR ideas Republicans pretended the ideas were never theirs, or that their own ideas were UTTERLY different as they voiced LOUD opposition.
They frequently painted President Obama as un-American and created a fake controversy seeking otu his birth certificate despite his being born in Hawaii. In his tenure conservative pundits openly attacked him using vile racist stereotypes and generalizations. Conservative law makers heckled him from the floor of the House of Representatives and "reporters" from conservative news papers openly did the same at press conferences. Each time it happened there was little if any blowback on the guilty by conservative lawmakers or members of the GOP's leadership. Had any other president been treated in a similar fashion (especially a Republican one) the GOP's leadership would have been rightfully up in arms.
Barack H. Obama is the black man whom the entire political spectrum has told black Americans to aspire to be. He stayed in school, he got good grades, he got married and raised a family and did something with his life? How is this man whom we've been told to BE our entire lives treated? He's openly called, stupid, un-American and a "communist" by his critics on the far right and they encourage their supporters to do the same. What message does that send to persons of color in the United States? It seems to state either "The American dream" doesn't apply to persons of color, OR we should strive for success and the "dream" as long as our dreams don't encroach on the dreams of others OR get us beyond our "limitations". In the end is that any different from the America where my parents and grand parents grew up where they couldn't vote in elections, couldn't own property in certain places, couldn't attend certain schools and could be told that they were simply unwelcome in restaurants and a bevy of public places by virtue of the color of their skin.
Is this some bitter rant from an "angry black man" hardly. I love this country and would give my life to defend her. Do I love President Obama? I can honestly say I LIKE the President, but I love the IDEA of him. He is that guy whom our parents wanted us to grow up to be, the calm, intelligent person who thinks of others before himself. The generation of black people who grew up in the 60s and 70s were told that we could grow up to be president. When one of us actually DOES just that he's reminded every single day that it wasn't too long ago that the "colored" signs were removed from the backs of buses and from the fountains from which they drank.
Is the GOP racist? No. There are men in the GOP's leadership who are fair, honest and decent men. While there might be many in the GOP's rank and file who openly hold racist beliefs the party as a whole in my opinion is not. The problem is however that by hoping that the small minded racists will continue to vote for those with elephants next to their names on election ballots and choosing the ignore their ignorance the GOP is sinking to being as reprehensible as the Democrats were from 1866 to the mid 1970s.
The Validation of Barack Obama
When the election of 2008 ended and it was apparent that the son of a Kenyan immigrant and the daughter of a Kansas W.W. II vet who had fallen in love with Hawaii and decided to raise his family there it was to be the next President of the United States. It was evident that America had made some astonishing leaps in the course of a generation. In 1972 when New York Congress woman Shirley Chislom had declared her candidacy for the Democratic nomination no one had taken her seriously. When Jesse Jackson ran in 1984 and again in 1988 he was dismissed as were Al Sharpton and conservative Alan Keyes.
Men and women who as children had attended segregated schools and vividly remembered "Colored" and "whites only" signs over the entrances of restaurants, affixed to drinking fountains and on the doors of restaurants and even on the doors of public restrooms. Black men and women of the baby boom generation could remember their parents not being allowed to vote, being called stinging pejoratives and being told that certain schools and professions were off limits to them for no other reason but the color of their skin.
In their lifetimes they saw change in the form of the civil rights laws passed by President Lyndon Johnson and the often violent resistance that accompanied that change. Martin Luther King Junior before his assassination once opined that "You can not legislate people to love one another." When a tall, skinny bi-racial senator from Illinois spoke of hope, and change it resonated not only with them, but with Americans who truly judged men by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. As a candidate Barack Obama offered Americans the promise of an America we COULD be rather than the America we were. Not all however embraced the president elect. On the eve of his inauguration former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich gathered GOP legislators and outlined a plan to derail President Obama and anything he could hope to accomplish. Their plan was simple enough, to vote in a unified block against EVERY piece of legislation the newly elected president proposed even if he simply used one of the GOP's ideas i.e. The Heritage Foundation's health care alternative to Bill Clinton's health care bill.
GOP legislators would vote no to anything he proposed and would denounce pieces of legislation which they had penned if only to make it appear that he was a partisan incapable of "reaching across the aisle." In addition to this legislative hurdle, the GOP's media outlets lead by Fox News would assail the president at every opportunity. They would question his place of birth, whether or not the proper oath of office had been given to him and whenever possible question his loyalty to the country of which he was President. Any legislative victory he attained was minimized and those who opposed him were aggressively disrespectful. The GOP's mission was to affix the mantle of one term Democratic president Jimmy Carter to him.
The far right had taken over the GOP and in 2012 the litmus test for those seeking the GOP's presidential nomination was for far to the right they could veer. At the end of a lengthy primary Massachusetts moderate governor Mitt Romney had become the GOP's standard bearer and all he had to do was to sell out every principle he'd ever had and denounce the health care law he had signed into law in Massachusetts which had become the model for the Nation's first comprehensive health care law. Conservative Super PACs and the GOP ran one of the dirtiest, campaigns in modern history to unseat the president but when the final votes were tallied president Obama had been re-elected to a second term.
Why is the re-election of this American president so important? Had Barack Obama failed to win re-election he could be minimized. His term could be painted by the right as a national collective err in judgement. He could be dismissed and vilified in the same manner as Democratic President Jimmy Carter and when history books written and his name mentioned. His defeat would have been a resounding victory for the subtle old guard who reminds those whom they don't regard as American "enough" that they can achieve anything they wish in the greatest country in the world...within certain limits. and provided those limits didn't upset the status-quo. 51% of Americans giving Obama a chance to finish the job he started on that cold November day in January of 2009 sends several messages. To baby boomers of color of the civil rights generation it says once and for all that the America in which their mothers and fathers were second class citizens has FINALLY accepted them as Americans. It was not merely a validation to black America, but to ALL Americans who stove for the promise made to them in this great nation's constitution and best surmised by Lincoln's iconic Gettysburg address when he spoke of a nation "Of the people, by the people and for the people". To those who have long practiced the politics of division it is a reminder that the America in which there was a nefarious person of color, foreigner or communist behind every bush will soon take it's place with the horse and buggy in America's past.
America's electorate is changing as is America itself. We have long touted ourselves as a great "melting pot" and now we're going to have to come to terms with the fact that we are in fact becoming one.
Men and women who as children had attended segregated schools and vividly remembered "Colored" and "whites only" signs over the entrances of restaurants, affixed to drinking fountains and on the doors of restaurants and even on the doors of public restrooms. Black men and women of the baby boom generation could remember their parents not being allowed to vote, being called stinging pejoratives and being told that certain schools and professions were off limits to them for no other reason but the color of their skin.
In their lifetimes they saw change in the form of the civil rights laws passed by President Lyndon Johnson and the often violent resistance that accompanied that change. Martin Luther King Junior before his assassination once opined that "You can not legislate people to love one another." When a tall, skinny bi-racial senator from Illinois spoke of hope, and change it resonated not only with them, but with Americans who truly judged men by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. As a candidate Barack Obama offered Americans the promise of an America we COULD be rather than the America we were. Not all however embraced the president elect. On the eve of his inauguration former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich gathered GOP legislators and outlined a plan to derail President Obama and anything he could hope to accomplish. Their plan was simple enough, to vote in a unified block against EVERY piece of legislation the newly elected president proposed even if he simply used one of the GOP's ideas i.e. The Heritage Foundation's health care alternative to Bill Clinton's health care bill.
GOP legislators would vote no to anything he proposed and would denounce pieces of legislation which they had penned if only to make it appear that he was a partisan incapable of "reaching across the aisle." In addition to this legislative hurdle, the GOP's media outlets lead by Fox News would assail the president at every opportunity. They would question his place of birth, whether or not the proper oath of office had been given to him and whenever possible question his loyalty to the country of which he was President. Any legislative victory he attained was minimized and those who opposed him were aggressively disrespectful. The GOP's mission was to affix the mantle of one term Democratic president Jimmy Carter to him.
The far right had taken over the GOP and in 2012 the litmus test for those seeking the GOP's presidential nomination was for far to the right they could veer. At the end of a lengthy primary Massachusetts moderate governor Mitt Romney had become the GOP's standard bearer and all he had to do was to sell out every principle he'd ever had and denounce the health care law he had signed into law in Massachusetts which had become the model for the Nation's first comprehensive health care law. Conservative Super PACs and the GOP ran one of the dirtiest, campaigns in modern history to unseat the president but when the final votes were tallied president Obama had been re-elected to a second term.
Why is the re-election of this American president so important? Had Barack Obama failed to win re-election he could be minimized. His term could be painted by the right as a national collective err in judgement. He could be dismissed and vilified in the same manner as Democratic President Jimmy Carter and when history books written and his name mentioned. His defeat would have been a resounding victory for the subtle old guard who reminds those whom they don't regard as American "enough" that they can achieve anything they wish in the greatest country in the world...within certain limits. and provided those limits didn't upset the status-quo. 51% of Americans giving Obama a chance to finish the job he started on that cold November day in January of 2009 sends several messages. To baby boomers of color of the civil rights generation it says once and for all that the America in which their mothers and fathers were second class citizens has FINALLY accepted them as Americans. It was not merely a validation to black America, but to ALL Americans who stove for the promise made to them in this great nation's constitution and best surmised by Lincoln's iconic Gettysburg address when he spoke of a nation "Of the people, by the people and for the people". To those who have long practiced the politics of division it is a reminder that the America in which there was a nefarious person of color, foreigner or communist behind every bush will soon take it's place with the horse and buggy in America's past.
America's electorate is changing as is America itself. We have long touted ourselves as a great "melting pot" and now we're going to have to come to terms with the fact that we are in fact becoming one.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
A Day in the Life of the Uninsured...
It's 3:30 am on the morning of April 24th in the year 2012 in Houston, Texas and I'm sitting up holding the left side of my face hoping the agony in which I find myself will simply subside and I'll be able to get back to sleep. Unfortunately I'll have no such luck.
My teeth have been bothering me off and on for the past several months but for the past several weeks they've been waking me up at night and the pain has been excruciating. This would be when any "normal" person would pick up the phone and call Dr. Kennedy DDS and schedule an appointment to receive care for this pressing problem. Unfortunately for me as I'm one of 25% of households without health insurance the odds of my being seen by Dr. Kennedy or any OTHER dentist in the sate of Texas are remote. The lone star state holds the distinction of having MORE uninsured adults than any state in the United States and Texas' political and business climate doesn't see that changing any time soon.
As the healthcare debate waged in Washington between men and women in congress with 100% healthcare coverage over the merits of providing either health care or access to medical insurance to the vast majority of Americans I heard many ideas flying back and forth and they ranged from free healthcare for all to survival of the fittest. Many of those opposed to healthcare reform painted unflattering portraits of persons like myself who are without insurance. We were said to be either illegal aliens who don't wish to work for anything, welfare recipients who want yet another handout or simply irresponsible men and women who simply don't fathom a time when they will ever need medical or dental care. I won't pretend that people who embody those three popular stereotypes don't exist but the vast majority of us who don't have health insurance simply can NOT afford it.
I've worked for the past eight years for a school district in the role of "support staff." Several years ago the district classified people who do what I do as "contract labor" and to that end the vast majority of us don't get any type of benefits. While a great deal has been made over billions being poured into education it would sadden many to know that the bulk of that has been allocated to bonuses for principals, huge contracts for firms who provide either standardized tests or study guides for the tests in question or "miscellaneous" which could entail anything. My point I and millions of other Texans hold jobs and simply can NOT afford to pay insurance premiums and our employers don't offer us reasonable options.
Back to the pain in my teeth, I've tried an over the counter numbing agent to dull the sensation of pain but it no longer helps. Gargled with an anti-septic but to no avail and have taken some aspirin. None of these quick fixes is helping. I toss and turn in bed for another hour or so then come to terms with the fact that I have to see someone, anyone who can give me some relief. There are options one of which is the University of Texas Dental clinic's emergency care. It opens at 7:30 in the morning four days a week but is first come first serve. In other words the earlier you arrive the better your chance of being seen. At 5:00am I hop into my car and head for Houston's medical center.
At 5:30 am I find myself sitting on a hard rubber bench with a bright white light at my back. Across the street there is a red light atop the parking garage from which steam is rising in the cool morning air. The dental clinic doesn't open for another two hours but I'm the first to arrive so I know I'll be seen. Fifteen minutes after I arrive I'm joined on a the bench by a short, jovial man who has a broad smile despite the fact that he has an inflamed wisdom tooth. He asked me if he was in the right place and I assured him he was. His name is Luis. He owns his own construction company and had to take a day off work to tend to his tooth. As we sit and talk about life the universe and everything a line forms behind us including a Vietnamese kid in his mid twenties who is accompanied by his mother and sister. He is in such pain that he's nearly in a fetal position. Luis and I forget our pain for a moment as we see someone whose suffering is MUCH worse than our own.
The line grows bigger behind us and eventually we're allowed in. Men and women from every race are in line behind us. They don't appear to be the unwashed, unemployed masses that the talking heads on Fox News so often describe. They look like the same people you'd see sitting on a bus or in any shopping mall in America but today they're under dental distress. As I and the others sit and wait, the young dental students who will perform our procedures shuffle past in immaculate green scrubs. The majority of them appear to be young and female and all seem to be carrying the same metal tumbler of coffee.
At 8:15 I'm sitting in a dentist chair when a young woman introduces herself and lets me know I'll be her patient. After an x-ray she informs me that the bad news is that I have two options either a root canal or an extraction, but the root canal is less of an option because the canals have calcified (been enveloped by hardened tissue) and is beyond her expertise, also the tooth had been chipped and a crown would be too close to the bone which would cause further problems. An extraction was the simplest course of action, but we need our teeth. Any tooth you remove will have to be replaced with an implant or a bridge eventually. While they are beautiful teeth serve a purpose. They are how you chew your food and in the end serious dental problems can lead to other issues. The dental school can't help me if I want the root canal so I'm told that I have to go to the other annex of the dental school staffed by their residents. At 9:00 am I'm told that the only openings they are for 1:00pm and 3:00pm but I figured I had no choice. I sit in comfortable chair in the plush offices napping occasionally until I'm finally seen by a diminutive Vietnamese doctor who looks as if she's all of 17 years old. She studies my charts and tells me about the importance of the tooth, how risky a root canal would be and how much it would cost and needless to say...I knew I couldn't afford it. She advised me to give the issue some thought because extractions are permanent and once a tooth is gone it's gone forever. I didn't want the tooth removed but I knew I couldn't afford to be treated either.
She seemed genuinely saddened by the fact that there was nothing she could do for me either that or was one of the most talented actors I've ever met. She tells me to take ibuprophen until I can make up my mind about which procedure I'll ultimately choose. At the end of the day one of the clinic's dental assistants asks me why I didn't go to the Veterans Administration dental clinic.
Funny thing about veterans health care. A veteran of the U.S. Armed forces at any time after his/her discharge from active duty may apply for and receive medical care; however, they have only a matter of MONTHS in which to apply for dental benefits or they are INELIGIBLE for the remainder of their lives for anything save an extraction for which there is a fee. In other words, if a veteran doesn't run to the VA hospital and IMMEDIATELY apply for his dental benefits seconds after his discharge the only thing they'll do for him is to remove his teeth.
The kind hearted dental assistant gives me a list of dental clinics that provide low cost and sliding scale benefits to persons like me who can't afford a doctor or dentist or the insurance to pay them. I pay $12.00 for a token to leave the parking lot and try not to think about the fact that the excursion cost me a day's pay and $40.00 form simply having seen a dentist. I drive home along McGregor Blvd past the Mansions where Houston's wealthy Jews were relegated until they were finally allowed to move to places like River Oaks.
At the end of the day I'm still a guy with a job, but no insurance. I'm wrestling with the paradox being crammed down my throat about how it's essential to live a healthy lifestyle but marvel how there is a gym on every corner but an all you can eat buffet across the street. Big companies tell us how bad the economy is doing but continue to post record profits and give astonishing bonuses to those at the very top. The prevailing logic about the average employee at any organization isn't very dissimilar from what west indian sugar plantations must have been like. Work them into a grave as you'll have no problem replacing them.
I don't want to live in some great socialist eutopia where health care is "free" (as nothing is ever "free") but I WOULD like to live in a country where I and people FAR worse off than I am can at least afford to see doctors and dentist when we need them. I'm some middle aged, college educated veteran. In the grand scheme of life I don't have it that bad. What about single working mothers out there who can't afford to get sick? Tomorrow I'll be back at work, I'll probably be taking ibuprophen until it ceases to help me and then maybe I'll come up with some way of dealing with my teeth, but for now like many other Americans without insurance I have to go back to work.
My teeth have been bothering me off and on for the past several months but for the past several weeks they've been waking me up at night and the pain has been excruciating. This would be when any "normal" person would pick up the phone and call Dr. Kennedy DDS and schedule an appointment to receive care for this pressing problem. Unfortunately for me as I'm one of 25% of households without health insurance the odds of my being seen by Dr. Kennedy or any OTHER dentist in the sate of Texas are remote. The lone star state holds the distinction of having MORE uninsured adults than any state in the United States and Texas' political and business climate doesn't see that changing any time soon.
As the healthcare debate waged in Washington between men and women in congress with 100% healthcare coverage over the merits of providing either health care or access to medical insurance to the vast majority of Americans I heard many ideas flying back and forth and they ranged from free healthcare for all to survival of the fittest. Many of those opposed to healthcare reform painted unflattering portraits of persons like myself who are without insurance. We were said to be either illegal aliens who don't wish to work for anything, welfare recipients who want yet another handout or simply irresponsible men and women who simply don't fathom a time when they will ever need medical or dental care. I won't pretend that people who embody those three popular stereotypes don't exist but the vast majority of us who don't have health insurance simply can NOT afford it.
I've worked for the past eight years for a school district in the role of "support staff." Several years ago the district classified people who do what I do as "contract labor" and to that end the vast majority of us don't get any type of benefits. While a great deal has been made over billions being poured into education it would sadden many to know that the bulk of that has been allocated to bonuses for principals, huge contracts for firms who provide either standardized tests or study guides for the tests in question or "miscellaneous" which could entail anything. My point I and millions of other Texans hold jobs and simply can NOT afford to pay insurance premiums and our employers don't offer us reasonable options.
Back to the pain in my teeth, I've tried an over the counter numbing agent to dull the sensation of pain but it no longer helps. Gargled with an anti-septic but to no avail and have taken some aspirin. None of these quick fixes is helping. I toss and turn in bed for another hour or so then come to terms with the fact that I have to see someone, anyone who can give me some relief. There are options one of which is the University of Texas Dental clinic's emergency care. It opens at 7:30 in the morning four days a week but is first come first serve. In other words the earlier you arrive the better your chance of being seen. At 5:00am I hop into my car and head for Houston's medical center.
At 5:30 am I find myself sitting on a hard rubber bench with a bright white light at my back. Across the street there is a red light atop the parking garage from which steam is rising in the cool morning air. The dental clinic doesn't open for another two hours but I'm the first to arrive so I know I'll be seen. Fifteen minutes after I arrive I'm joined on a the bench by a short, jovial man who has a broad smile despite the fact that he has an inflamed wisdom tooth. He asked me if he was in the right place and I assured him he was. His name is Luis. He owns his own construction company and had to take a day off work to tend to his tooth. As we sit and talk about life the universe and everything a line forms behind us including a Vietnamese kid in his mid twenties who is accompanied by his mother and sister. He is in such pain that he's nearly in a fetal position. Luis and I forget our pain for a moment as we see someone whose suffering is MUCH worse than our own.
The line grows bigger behind us and eventually we're allowed in. Men and women from every race are in line behind us. They don't appear to be the unwashed, unemployed masses that the talking heads on Fox News so often describe. They look like the same people you'd see sitting on a bus or in any shopping mall in America but today they're under dental distress. As I and the others sit and wait, the young dental students who will perform our procedures shuffle past in immaculate green scrubs. The majority of them appear to be young and female and all seem to be carrying the same metal tumbler of coffee.
At 8:15 I'm sitting in a dentist chair when a young woman introduces herself and lets me know I'll be her patient. After an x-ray she informs me that the bad news is that I have two options either a root canal or an extraction, but the root canal is less of an option because the canals have calcified (been enveloped by hardened tissue) and is beyond her expertise, also the tooth had been chipped and a crown would be too close to the bone which would cause further problems. An extraction was the simplest course of action, but we need our teeth. Any tooth you remove will have to be replaced with an implant or a bridge eventually. While they are beautiful teeth serve a purpose. They are how you chew your food and in the end serious dental problems can lead to other issues. The dental school can't help me if I want the root canal so I'm told that I have to go to the other annex of the dental school staffed by their residents. At 9:00 am I'm told that the only openings they are for 1:00pm and 3:00pm but I figured I had no choice. I sit in comfortable chair in the plush offices napping occasionally until I'm finally seen by a diminutive Vietnamese doctor who looks as if she's all of 17 years old. She studies my charts and tells me about the importance of the tooth, how risky a root canal would be and how much it would cost and needless to say...I knew I couldn't afford it. She advised me to give the issue some thought because extractions are permanent and once a tooth is gone it's gone forever. I didn't want the tooth removed but I knew I couldn't afford to be treated either.
She seemed genuinely saddened by the fact that there was nothing she could do for me either that or was one of the most talented actors I've ever met. She tells me to take ibuprophen until I can make up my mind about which procedure I'll ultimately choose. At the end of the day one of the clinic's dental assistants asks me why I didn't go to the Veterans Administration dental clinic.
Funny thing about veterans health care. A veteran of the U.S. Armed forces at any time after his/her discharge from active duty may apply for and receive medical care; however, they have only a matter of MONTHS in which to apply for dental benefits or they are INELIGIBLE for the remainder of their lives for anything save an extraction for which there is a fee. In other words, if a veteran doesn't run to the VA hospital and IMMEDIATELY apply for his dental benefits seconds after his discharge the only thing they'll do for him is to remove his teeth.
The kind hearted dental assistant gives me a list of dental clinics that provide low cost and sliding scale benefits to persons like me who can't afford a doctor or dentist or the insurance to pay them. I pay $12.00 for a token to leave the parking lot and try not to think about the fact that the excursion cost me a day's pay and $40.00 form simply having seen a dentist. I drive home along McGregor Blvd past the Mansions where Houston's wealthy Jews were relegated until they were finally allowed to move to places like River Oaks.
At the end of the day I'm still a guy with a job, but no insurance. I'm wrestling with the paradox being crammed down my throat about how it's essential to live a healthy lifestyle but marvel how there is a gym on every corner but an all you can eat buffet across the street. Big companies tell us how bad the economy is doing but continue to post record profits and give astonishing bonuses to those at the very top. The prevailing logic about the average employee at any organization isn't very dissimilar from what west indian sugar plantations must have been like. Work them into a grave as you'll have no problem replacing them.
I don't want to live in some great socialist eutopia where health care is "free" (as nothing is ever "free") but I WOULD like to live in a country where I and people FAR worse off than I am can at least afford to see doctors and dentist when we need them. I'm some middle aged, college educated veteran. In the grand scheme of life I don't have it that bad. What about single working mothers out there who can't afford to get sick? Tomorrow I'll be back at work, I'll probably be taking ibuprophen until it ceases to help me and then maybe I'll come up with some way of dealing with my teeth, but for now like many other Americans without insurance I have to go back to work.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Worst Parents...EVER!
I discovered skating later in life. As odd as it may seem, I find there is something so very relaxing about putting on a clunky pair of beat up hockey skates and doing laps on a big sheet of ice while listening to every form of music ever recorded that doesn't feature an accordion. Last time I was doing this, I was making my way back to the ice when I came across a group of what my generation lovingly calls "Bebe (Bay-bay) kids". Bebe kids are the ghetto equivalent of latch key kids but with considerably less "home training." There were at least four of them and they were all under five. They were with a group of adults and for some reason the kids all had balloons.
As I was walking past this one little girl who couldn't have been more than four, she got directly in my path and as I tried to walk around her she stepped back into my path and for no apparent reason reached back and punched me in the groin. It didn't hurt but my reaction was to look over at the adult she was with for some degree of clarity. He was some brother built like a boiled egg balanced on two tooth-picks and was wearing a shirt that wouldn't have fit the average seven year old. He looked over at me dismissively as if the by product of his contempt for the condom industry had just given me a cookie. I said to him "It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't hit me square in the nads." He looked at me and shrugged. Apparently his kids aren't his problem, they're society's problem.
If we flash back to circa 1970-something when I was a small child prone to doing stupid crap and I had done something similar my mother would have grabbed me by the arm and made me apologize to the stranger I'd just hit and if I DIDN'T she would have pulled my belt off as if she were starting a lawn mower and lit my ass up like a camp fire. However, in this the era of "child services" no one disciplines their kids. Don't get me wrong, I don't advocate people beating their kids, but at the same time no one even seems to bother correcting their kids anymore. My parents generation (the baby-boomers) weren't the BEST parents they could have been, but my generation (generation X) is MUCH worse.
Those of us who grew up in the 70s and 80's are possibly the worst parents ever. My logic? Gen X had to learn lessons the hard way, not as hard as our parents in the 50s and 60s, and certainly not as hard as our grand parents, but your actions had consequences. If you screwed up in school you more than likely would have gotten paddled. If you were a continuous problem you risked expulsion. Now adays there are "grief" counselors at every school to let little Johnny talk about his feelings because apparently his cursing out his teacher and hitting his classmates with rocks and sticks is either a desperate cry for attention, or an indication that he's too restricted by the school's lack luster curriculum and he expresses his angst at academic malaise by swearing and hitting.
The same excuse can be used as a reason for not doing class work. When I was in middle school or high school if a teacher or principal called your home you were in serious trouble. You were going to be grounded and more than likely mom and or dad would wear your butt out and this would be seriously compounded if the teacher or principal wanted your parents to come in for a conference.
Parents NOW are of the opinion that their child is utterly infallible and when teachers and principals call home now they are greeted by defensive accusations of bullying. The Gen-X parent is of the opinion that it's the schools "job" to raise his/her kids...provided they don't attempt to discipline them or teach them any thing vaguely resembling values of any kind. From the cradle my generation told their children how "wonderful" and "special" they are. They played t-ball instead of little league and were given huge trophies simply for participating. When something was too difficult for these kids rather than telling them that it was important to learn things which are difficult as a means of building character we simply gave them easier tasks to accomplish. Public schools where kids don't do homework, rather than flunk those who don't do it simply tell teachers not to assign it.
Children don't have to earn anything they need simply ask and receive. While it's great to know that you can give your children anything they want and that you couldn't have as a child, my generation is hindering this generation FAR more than it's helping them.
My generation thus far has produced a group of people who don't associate work with reward. They don't know the value of either education or money as they've never had to earn either. They were given academic equivalent of slow-pitch soft-ball assignments in school so their grade point averages were artificially high and when they arrive in colleges they usually drop out because professors actually require them to do actual work and research.
Were you to walk into the average high school library and see a book open, it will either be because the librarian is reading something or a teacher is checking out a book. The students will be on the library's computers busy downloading mp3s and assorted viruses, playing Halo and other interactive video games or POSSIBLY doing a research paper.
Don't get excited, this generations idea of a "research" paper is simply going to either Google or Wikipedia finding whatever facts they need and simply either cutting and pasting them unto the paper OR printing it out and presenting it as their own. Don't mention the words "bibliography" or "footnotes" as they don't know them. These people are woefully prepared for actual academia as the bulk of them haven't truly been subjected to it.
There was a point when I lamented the fact that I never married and didn't have any children , but as I encounter more and more of the "me me me...Mommy I want that" generation I want do a celebratory dance whenever I'm in a public place and overhear some spoiled adolescent denizen of a cul-de-sac apathetically telling his/her mother or father how they simply misplaced a $300 phone or video game in the same detached way one would tell a teacher they lost their pen or pencil and wished to borrow one.
Do I blame these young people for being lazy, irresponsible and stupid? Not at all. Disciplined, hard working, responsible have usually been conditioned to be so. People who are taught that rewards are the result of hard work and that consequences have actions usually have some degree of personal responsibility. People who are given all they have never know the value of anything as they assume that whatever IT is either has no real value or is in abundance. My generation can't sit back and criticize their children without realizing that they then have to spend a few minutes gazing into a mirror.
In our misguided hopes of being the "cool" parents we wished we'd had we became a group of irresponsible fools who have unleashed upon the world a group of people who think casual drug use and unprotected, promiscuous sex are cool thus insuring that there will be yet ANOTHER generation ill prepared for the cruel, harsh real world in which they'll learn the hard way that they're NOT special and will have to earn every little thing that they may call their own.
As I was walking past this one little girl who couldn't have been more than four, she got directly in my path and as I tried to walk around her she stepped back into my path and for no apparent reason reached back and punched me in the groin. It didn't hurt but my reaction was to look over at the adult she was with for some degree of clarity. He was some brother built like a boiled egg balanced on two tooth-picks and was wearing a shirt that wouldn't have fit the average seven year old. He looked over at me dismissively as if the by product of his contempt for the condom industry had just given me a cookie. I said to him "It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't hit me square in the nads." He looked at me and shrugged. Apparently his kids aren't his problem, they're society's problem.
If we flash back to circa 1970-something when I was a small child prone to doing stupid crap and I had done something similar my mother would have grabbed me by the arm and made me apologize to the stranger I'd just hit and if I DIDN'T she would have pulled my belt off as if she were starting a lawn mower and lit my ass up like a camp fire. However, in this the era of "child services" no one disciplines their kids. Don't get me wrong, I don't advocate people beating their kids, but at the same time no one even seems to bother correcting their kids anymore. My parents generation (the baby-boomers) weren't the BEST parents they could have been, but my generation (generation X) is MUCH worse.
Those of us who grew up in the 70s and 80's are possibly the worst parents ever. My logic? Gen X had to learn lessons the hard way, not as hard as our parents in the 50s and 60s, and certainly not as hard as our grand parents, but your actions had consequences. If you screwed up in school you more than likely would have gotten paddled. If you were a continuous problem you risked expulsion. Now adays there are "grief" counselors at every school to let little Johnny talk about his feelings because apparently his cursing out his teacher and hitting his classmates with rocks and sticks is either a desperate cry for attention, or an indication that he's too restricted by the school's lack luster curriculum and he expresses his angst at academic malaise by swearing and hitting.
The same excuse can be used as a reason for not doing class work. When I was in middle school or high school if a teacher or principal called your home you were in serious trouble. You were going to be grounded and more than likely mom and or dad would wear your butt out and this would be seriously compounded if the teacher or principal wanted your parents to come in for a conference.
Parents NOW are of the opinion that their child is utterly infallible and when teachers and principals call home now they are greeted by defensive accusations of bullying. The Gen-X parent is of the opinion that it's the schools "job" to raise his/her kids...provided they don't attempt to discipline them or teach them any thing vaguely resembling values of any kind. From the cradle my generation told their children how "wonderful" and "special" they are. They played t-ball instead of little league and were given huge trophies simply for participating. When something was too difficult for these kids rather than telling them that it was important to learn things which are difficult as a means of building character we simply gave them easier tasks to accomplish. Public schools where kids don't do homework, rather than flunk those who don't do it simply tell teachers not to assign it.
Children don't have to earn anything they need simply ask and receive. While it's great to know that you can give your children anything they want and that you couldn't have as a child, my generation is hindering this generation FAR more than it's helping them.
My generation thus far has produced a group of people who don't associate work with reward. They don't know the value of either education or money as they've never had to earn either. They were given academic equivalent of slow-pitch soft-ball assignments in school so their grade point averages were artificially high and when they arrive in colleges they usually drop out because professors actually require them to do actual work and research.
Were you to walk into the average high school library and see a book open, it will either be because the librarian is reading something or a teacher is checking out a book. The students will be on the library's computers busy downloading mp3s and assorted viruses, playing Halo and other interactive video games or POSSIBLY doing a research paper.
Don't get excited, this generations idea of a "research" paper is simply going to either Google or Wikipedia finding whatever facts they need and simply either cutting and pasting them unto the paper OR printing it out and presenting it as their own. Don't mention the words "bibliography" or "footnotes" as they don't know them. These people are woefully prepared for actual academia as the bulk of them haven't truly been subjected to it.
There was a point when I lamented the fact that I never married and didn't have any children , but as I encounter more and more of the "me me me...Mommy I want that" generation I want do a celebratory dance whenever I'm in a public place and overhear some spoiled adolescent denizen of a cul-de-sac apathetically telling his/her mother or father how they simply misplaced a $300 phone or video game in the same detached way one would tell a teacher they lost their pen or pencil and wished to borrow one.
Do I blame these young people for being lazy, irresponsible and stupid? Not at all. Disciplined, hard working, responsible have usually been conditioned to be so. People who are taught that rewards are the result of hard work and that consequences have actions usually have some degree of personal responsibility. People who are given all they have never know the value of anything as they assume that whatever IT is either has no real value or is in abundance. My generation can't sit back and criticize their children without realizing that they then have to spend a few minutes gazing into a mirror.
In our misguided hopes of being the "cool" parents we wished we'd had we became a group of irresponsible fools who have unleashed upon the world a group of people who think casual drug use and unprotected, promiscuous sex are cool thus insuring that there will be yet ANOTHER generation ill prepared for the cruel, harsh real world in which they'll learn the hard way that they're NOT special and will have to earn every little thing that they may call their own.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
History..sorta...
I've always found the subject of history FASCINATING. The events and lives of my predecessors keep me enthralled to the point where I could literally spend all day watching the history channel. The funny thing about history unfortunately is that History books are written by men and women who will frequently interject their opinions. As it's been said "The winners write the history books." E.G. Books written about the American Civil war published in Boston in 1870 would be radically different from a book published at the same time in Mississippi or Alabama. Funnier still is the fact that after enough time has passed some "historians" will even go so far as to re-write history entirely.
If you've read Orwell's "Animal Farm" you must be familiar with the events surrounding a pig named Snowball. He was a small, brave, scrappy pig who lead other animals on a fictitious farm AGAINST humans and was given some sort of medal for his heroism. After the revolution ends the most power hungry of the pigs sees Snowball as a political threat and banishes him then spends the next several years using him as a scapegoat for any and all things that go horribly wrong, and then finally gets to the point where history books are re-written to where the battle in which he fought bravely against humanity never happened but the official story had been altered to where he in fact lead the humans in their charge against the animals. Such is revisionist history.
Having grown up in the American south circa the 70s and 80's I had my teachers, parents and grand parents tell me nearly ad-nauseam about the civil rights movement. I heard about the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee and Martin Luther King Junior more before 7th grade than I'd imagine my white counterparts had their entire lives in suburbia. I was told how my grandfather was called "boy" so frequently into his adult life that it may as well have been his name. How schools and every other facet of your life in the south as a person of color was to remain utterly separate from everyone else solely because of the color o your skin.
I didn't harbor any grudges against anyone for this as I figured things had changed and change was frequently a good. Besides there are good and bad people of every race, nationality and religion and it will always be that way. It wasn't until was older that I learned that Dr King had been assassinated by those who disagreed with him and his message.
Earlier this year there was some flack about history books published for use in North Carolina schools which told of all black soldiers who fought for the cause of The Confederate States of America. This would have been a GRIPPING story if it were the least bit true. It was revisionist history to the point of flat out lying. In the early stages of the war a group of creole businessmen started their own militia and volunteered to fight for the Confederate cause. Let me give a little background of the definition of "creole". In those days many white men who owned slaves impregnated their female slaves with frightening regularity. It happened so frequently that man began to question rather or not those children were slave or free. It got to the point that laws were subsequently written to state that in such cases the child's freedom or slavery would be "determined by the servitude of the mother." In other words if your mother was a slave and your father literally owned her congrats your father isn't your father he's your master and you weren't considered half white but completely black. Some states would have odd definitions to determine how black someone was. If you were half black you were mulatto. If you were a quarter black you were a "quadroon" an eighth black an "octoroon". Mississippi being the bastion of free thought that it was and remains today kept it simple if you had one drop of black blood you were black no ifs ands or buts.
What became of the Creole Militia? They were told that their services were not wanted and to disband. Not only that but the confederacy went so far as to pass laws banning blacks from service to their cause. Wealthy men could bring slaves unto the battle field and many did. These slaves were valets, cooks, grave diggers and performed menial tasks. They WERE NOT soldiers. Near the end of the war there was a drastic troop shortage and some talk of conscripting slaves but it never truly materialized. What's the point of that story? Well as it stands those who would have you believe that there were black men fighting to the death to defend the rights of other men to keep them as livestock would also now have you believe an altered history in which Martin Luther King Junior was a conservative REPUBLICAN.
Martin Luther King was honored with a national holiday commemorating all he accomplished in the civil rights movement and there was stiff opposition to it. Many REPUBLICANS in Congress argued that another Federal Holiday would cost the country BILLIONS in lost productivity. Others argued that despite being a man of the cloth Dr King was a serial adulterer who cheated on exams in college. Senators Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms (Republicans who had been Democrats) fought the legislation tooth and nail and even AFTER it became law the state of Arizona refused to celebrate it until they were told by the National Football League that the Superbowl would never be played there until they did.
The utter shortage of black Republicans has our friends in the GOP reaching at straws to attempt to recruit black faces but this takes the cake. Before any one's panties get into a bunch I want to say that I served in the military when Colin Powell (former secretary of State) was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I have the utmost respect for the general and would follow him into hell were he conducting a mission to take out the devil himself. I think former Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice is a BRILLIANT woman. While I disagree with her politics I respect her intellect and will say nary a bad word about her as a person. I have no issue with black Republicans (except Clarence Thomas) so this piece isn't an attack on them. The GOP is now spreading the lie that because the old Democratic party controlled the segregated south that MLK was obviously a Republican despite never producing any documentation that he was a registered Republican.
Let's analyze that argument. It wouldn't explain why the Democratic party split in the late 60s because the Northern Democrats were in favor of civil rights laws but southern Dems weren't. Democrats back then (like republicans now) weren't a monolith to be described as having one thought process.
Republican president Dwight Eisenhower said of putting Earl Warren (who encouraged the entire Supreme Court to vote UNANIMOUSLY on Brown v. Topeka which desegregated public schools) on the high court was "the biggest damn fool mistake I ever made" and even went on to defend those who attacked the 13 black children who integrated Little Rock, Arkansas' "Central High" by saying "These aren't BAD people...but try to imagine your sweet little girl sitting in a classroom next to some hulking negro." Conservatives like William F. Buckley went so far in his Magazine the National Review to refer to blacks as "inferior" and a "servant class." Then of course there were many in the GOP in the 50s who called any one who supported civil rights a "communist."
Democratic President Lyndon Johnson MAY have very well have BEEN a racist. I never met the man and can't say one way or the other but he DID pass more civil rights legislation than ANY American President before or since. Martin Luther King met with President Johnson to discuss the civil rights issues of the 1960s. Between 1954 and 1960 Eisenhower NEVER invited him to the White House. Johnson in a presidential address in 1964 said that America needed to overcome it's racial problems and said for the record "And we shall overcome" quoting the popular civil rights anthem.
Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater referred to the civil rights movement as America's "Negro problem" and let it be known that he most certainly did NOT support it. Why would Dr King align himself with causes so juxtaposed to what he believed?
Let us also consider two other things. Right before he died (according to the documentary Eyes on the Prize) Dr King prior to his assassination was organizing a "poor people's march on Washington." It was to take place in the summer of 68. Men and women would be camping out in tents on the national moll to bring attention to the fact that a good portion of America's populace lived in poverty and that there existed a great chasm between America's rich and poor. Sound a bit like the 99% movement? Anyway, King was assassinated right before this occurred and King Lieutenant Andrew Young attempted the event but it was poorly organized and most Americans paid little attention.
The week of his death King was in Memphis, Tennessee to speak out of behalf of black Sanitation workers who were in the midst of a garbage strike. City workers were still very segregated and black sanitation workers were not allowed to use the same city facilities as their white co workers to the point of not being allowed to seek shelter from cold or rain. During a rain storm a black worker sought refuge in the back of a garbage truck and was crushed to death which lead to the black workers going on strike. King came in amid death threats and was ultimately fell by an assassin's bullet.
Martin Luther King is dead today PARTIALLY because he braved death threats in order to stand up for organized labor. The GOP routinely tells us how organized labor is the worst thing to ever happen to this country. It's proudest moments include recent legislation in Wisconsin and New Jersey which strip labor unions of collective bargaining rights and most famously President Ronald Reagan firing thousands of striking Air Traffic Controllers in the 1980s.
The GOP does NOT support organized labor. One would have to go back to Teddy Roosevelt to find a Republican who did. To imply that someone who openly supported labor unions and was willing to sacrifice his life for one was secretly among their ranks is to say the least absurd and transcends being MERELY insulting. The GOP hated King in his lifetime. Former Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater who trashed King in the 60s if asked about him in the 80s or 90s would utter the same opinions that he had in 1964 when he was running for president and for that the late Senator has my respect. Many men and women who were on the losing side in America's civil rights era will speak with respect when they describe Dr. King and the men and women who marched and protested in their cities. They look back at the Baptist minister as a formidable and organized opponent whose methods ultimately won out.
The current GOP will smile whenever Dr. King's name is mentioned and while many may speak of him with some genuine reverence, there are others who will put on their best fake smile and tell us what the great American WOULD have thought about certain pieces of legislation or supreme court decisions. Black people do not OWN Dr. King or his legacy nor should we act as if his message wasn't universal and doesn't apply to all Americans.
The current GOP who is simply hoping to morph the civil rights martyr into a recruiting tool to serve there own ends should be embarrassed by their reprehensible and odious attempts to not only ignore a mans history but to morph it into an obvious lie. What is MOST inherently offensive about this attempt at revisionist history is the fact that they didn't even have the common decency to wait for any and all who KNEW the man OR are old enough to have lived THROUGH the civil rights movement to DIE off before they started this shameful campaign to sully a good man's name, deeds and reputation.
If you've read Orwell's "Animal Farm" you must be familiar with the events surrounding a pig named Snowball. He was a small, brave, scrappy pig who lead other animals on a fictitious farm AGAINST humans and was given some sort of medal for his heroism. After the revolution ends the most power hungry of the pigs sees Snowball as a political threat and banishes him then spends the next several years using him as a scapegoat for any and all things that go horribly wrong, and then finally gets to the point where history books are re-written to where the battle in which he fought bravely against humanity never happened but the official story had been altered to where he in fact lead the humans in their charge against the animals. Such is revisionist history.
Having grown up in the American south circa the 70s and 80's I had my teachers, parents and grand parents tell me nearly ad-nauseam about the civil rights movement. I heard about the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee and Martin Luther King Junior more before 7th grade than I'd imagine my white counterparts had their entire lives in suburbia. I was told how my grandfather was called "boy" so frequently into his adult life that it may as well have been his name. How schools and every other facet of your life in the south as a person of color was to remain utterly separate from everyone else solely because of the color o your skin.
I didn't harbor any grudges against anyone for this as I figured things had changed and change was frequently a good. Besides there are good and bad people of every race, nationality and religion and it will always be that way. It wasn't until was older that I learned that Dr King had been assassinated by those who disagreed with him and his message.
Earlier this year there was some flack about history books published for use in North Carolina schools which told of all black soldiers who fought for the cause of The Confederate States of America. This would have been a GRIPPING story if it were the least bit true. It was revisionist history to the point of flat out lying. In the early stages of the war a group of creole businessmen started their own militia and volunteered to fight for the Confederate cause. Let me give a little background of the definition of "creole". In those days many white men who owned slaves impregnated their female slaves with frightening regularity. It happened so frequently that man began to question rather or not those children were slave or free. It got to the point that laws were subsequently written to state that in such cases the child's freedom or slavery would be "determined by the servitude of the mother." In other words if your mother was a slave and your father literally owned her congrats your father isn't your father he's your master and you weren't considered half white but completely black. Some states would have odd definitions to determine how black someone was. If you were half black you were mulatto. If you were a quarter black you were a "quadroon" an eighth black an "octoroon". Mississippi being the bastion of free thought that it was and remains today kept it simple if you had one drop of black blood you were black no ifs ands or buts.
What became of the Creole Militia? They were told that their services were not wanted and to disband. Not only that but the confederacy went so far as to pass laws banning blacks from service to their cause. Wealthy men could bring slaves unto the battle field and many did. These slaves were valets, cooks, grave diggers and performed menial tasks. They WERE NOT soldiers. Near the end of the war there was a drastic troop shortage and some talk of conscripting slaves but it never truly materialized. What's the point of that story? Well as it stands those who would have you believe that there were black men fighting to the death to defend the rights of other men to keep them as livestock would also now have you believe an altered history in which Martin Luther King Junior was a conservative REPUBLICAN.
Martin Luther King was honored with a national holiday commemorating all he accomplished in the civil rights movement and there was stiff opposition to it. Many REPUBLICANS in Congress argued that another Federal Holiday would cost the country BILLIONS in lost productivity. Others argued that despite being a man of the cloth Dr King was a serial adulterer who cheated on exams in college. Senators Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms (Republicans who had been Democrats) fought the legislation tooth and nail and even AFTER it became law the state of Arizona refused to celebrate it until they were told by the National Football League that the Superbowl would never be played there until they did.
The utter shortage of black Republicans has our friends in the GOP reaching at straws to attempt to recruit black faces but this takes the cake. Before any one's panties get into a bunch I want to say that I served in the military when Colin Powell (former secretary of State) was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I have the utmost respect for the general and would follow him into hell were he conducting a mission to take out the devil himself. I think former Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice is a BRILLIANT woman. While I disagree with her politics I respect her intellect and will say nary a bad word about her as a person. I have no issue with black Republicans (except Clarence Thomas) so this piece isn't an attack on them. The GOP is now spreading the lie that because the old Democratic party controlled the segregated south that MLK was obviously a Republican despite never producing any documentation that he was a registered Republican.
Let's analyze that argument. It wouldn't explain why the Democratic party split in the late 60s because the Northern Democrats were in favor of civil rights laws but southern Dems weren't. Democrats back then (like republicans now) weren't a monolith to be described as having one thought process.
Republican president Dwight Eisenhower said of putting Earl Warren (who encouraged the entire Supreme Court to vote UNANIMOUSLY on Brown v. Topeka which desegregated public schools) on the high court was "the biggest damn fool mistake I ever made" and even went on to defend those who attacked the 13 black children who integrated Little Rock, Arkansas' "Central High" by saying "These aren't BAD people...but try to imagine your sweet little girl sitting in a classroom next to some hulking negro." Conservatives like William F. Buckley went so far in his Magazine the National Review to refer to blacks as "inferior" and a "servant class." Then of course there were many in the GOP in the 50s who called any one who supported civil rights a "communist."
Democratic President Lyndon Johnson MAY have very well have BEEN a racist. I never met the man and can't say one way or the other but he DID pass more civil rights legislation than ANY American President before or since. Martin Luther King met with President Johnson to discuss the civil rights issues of the 1960s. Between 1954 and 1960 Eisenhower NEVER invited him to the White House. Johnson in a presidential address in 1964 said that America needed to overcome it's racial problems and said for the record "And we shall overcome" quoting the popular civil rights anthem.
Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater referred to the civil rights movement as America's "Negro problem" and let it be known that he most certainly did NOT support it. Why would Dr King align himself with causes so juxtaposed to what he believed?
Let us also consider two other things. Right before he died (according to the documentary Eyes on the Prize) Dr King prior to his assassination was organizing a "poor people's march on Washington." It was to take place in the summer of 68. Men and women would be camping out in tents on the national moll to bring attention to the fact that a good portion of America's populace lived in poverty and that there existed a great chasm between America's rich and poor. Sound a bit like the 99% movement? Anyway, King was assassinated right before this occurred and King Lieutenant Andrew Young attempted the event but it was poorly organized and most Americans paid little attention.
The week of his death King was in Memphis, Tennessee to speak out of behalf of black Sanitation workers who were in the midst of a garbage strike. City workers were still very segregated and black sanitation workers were not allowed to use the same city facilities as their white co workers to the point of not being allowed to seek shelter from cold or rain. During a rain storm a black worker sought refuge in the back of a garbage truck and was crushed to death which lead to the black workers going on strike. King came in amid death threats and was ultimately fell by an assassin's bullet.
Martin Luther King is dead today PARTIALLY because he braved death threats in order to stand up for organized labor. The GOP routinely tells us how organized labor is the worst thing to ever happen to this country. It's proudest moments include recent legislation in Wisconsin and New Jersey which strip labor unions of collective bargaining rights and most famously President Ronald Reagan firing thousands of striking Air Traffic Controllers in the 1980s.
The GOP does NOT support organized labor. One would have to go back to Teddy Roosevelt to find a Republican who did. To imply that someone who openly supported labor unions and was willing to sacrifice his life for one was secretly among their ranks is to say the least absurd and transcends being MERELY insulting. The GOP hated King in his lifetime. Former Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater who trashed King in the 60s if asked about him in the 80s or 90s would utter the same opinions that he had in 1964 when he was running for president and for that the late Senator has my respect. Many men and women who were on the losing side in America's civil rights era will speak with respect when they describe Dr. King and the men and women who marched and protested in their cities. They look back at the Baptist minister as a formidable and organized opponent whose methods ultimately won out.
The current GOP will smile whenever Dr. King's name is mentioned and while many may speak of him with some genuine reverence, there are others who will put on their best fake smile and tell us what the great American WOULD have thought about certain pieces of legislation or supreme court decisions. Black people do not OWN Dr. King or his legacy nor should we act as if his message wasn't universal and doesn't apply to all Americans.
The current GOP who is simply hoping to morph the civil rights martyr into a recruiting tool to serve there own ends should be embarrassed by their reprehensible and odious attempts to not only ignore a mans history but to morph it into an obvious lie. What is MOST inherently offensive about this attempt at revisionist history is the fact that they didn't even have the common decency to wait for any and all who KNEW the man OR are old enough to have lived THROUGH the civil rights movement to DIE off before they started this shameful campaign to sully a good man's name, deeds and reputation.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Things I'd LIKE to see...but probably won't...
The way I think is slightly askew compared to everyone else, and I'm comfortable with that. When everyone else zigs I don't zag, I hop on one foot side ways. I will go into restaurants and insist my flambe NOT be on fire...just to annoy the chef and will bring along the uncouth slob who consumes his entire meal...with a spoon. Yes that includes his salad. As I have a flair for both the dramatic and unusual there are certain things I don't think I've ever seen, but most certainly would LIKE to in real life. Among them are:
1. A drunk multi-racial group comprised of some black, hispanic and Asian guys in karaoke bar singing Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music White Boy."
2. An exotic dancer in the midde of a lap dance saying "Screw this. I can't do this any more. Here's your twenty bucks dude. I'm going back to grad school."
3. A Tea Party member saying: "I believe that President Obama was born in Hawaii. You guys should drop this. We got a better shot at getting people on our side if we stick to attacking his policies."
4. A "rent to own" place that only has a 10% markup on the items you purchase from them on credit.
5. A parent apologizing to a teacher for his kid skipping class, not doing assignments, constantly texting and being profane and disrespectful.
6. A Politician admitting that they don't care about poor people and would rather build prisons than schools.
7. A politicans telling the top 10% of Americans and big corporations to pay their damned taxes instead of bitching that the states are out of money.
8. A young person (under 25) driving somewhere where small children are playing and NOT doing 80 miles an hour.
9. A famous person breaking the law and GOING TO JAIL rather than getting community service or "rehab" as an option.
10. A book store.
11. A woman who accepts the fact that most men don't care about SHOES.
12. A person under 21 who says "I screwed up. It's not your fault, it's not my friend's fault, it's not my parents fault. I knew better and I screwed up anyway. I have no excuse. I'm ready to accept whatever my punishment is."
13. Someone promoted because he or she is intelligent and deserves it and NOT because he's a friend of a friend, a relative or a braindead suck up.
14. Banana flavored Suzie Qs. I LOVED those things! Where the hell are they?
15. Supply and demand based oil and gas prices.
16. A High School where 99% of the student population think drugs are stupid.
17. Tall, buxom women in lycra. Hey...I'm a pig. Sue me.
18. Cheeze Doodles. I can't find them anywhere.
19. The antidote.
20. "Purple monkey dishwasher."
21. Batman
22. A fair tax code.
23. An wide awake air traffic controller.
24. An even tempered redhaired woman.
25. A reasonably priced dentist.
26. Fireflies. What the hell happened to them?
27. An okonomiyaki shop. Okay in all fairness I know where a bunch of those are and I'm willing to go back to Japan to visit them.
28. "Hoof."
29. A middle of the road Republican. I KNOW they still exist. I've SEEN them! When I was a kid they were EVERYWHERE! What the hell happened to them?
30. A talking dog...who happens to be a rabid football fan (no pun intended) and who hates the Dallas Cowboys.
1. A drunk multi-racial group comprised of some black, hispanic and Asian guys in karaoke bar singing Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music White Boy."
2. An exotic dancer in the midde of a lap dance saying "Screw this. I can't do this any more. Here's your twenty bucks dude. I'm going back to grad school."
3. A Tea Party member saying: "I believe that President Obama was born in Hawaii. You guys should drop this. We got a better shot at getting people on our side if we stick to attacking his policies."
4. A "rent to own" place that only has a 10% markup on the items you purchase from them on credit.
5. A parent apologizing to a teacher for his kid skipping class, not doing assignments, constantly texting and being profane and disrespectful.
6. A Politician admitting that they don't care about poor people and would rather build prisons than schools.
7. A politicans telling the top 10% of Americans and big corporations to pay their damned taxes instead of bitching that the states are out of money.
8. A young person (under 25) driving somewhere where small children are playing and NOT doing 80 miles an hour.
9. A famous person breaking the law and GOING TO JAIL rather than getting community service or "rehab" as an option.
10. A book store.
11. A woman who accepts the fact that most men don't care about SHOES.
12. A person under 21 who says "I screwed up. It's not your fault, it's not my friend's fault, it's not my parents fault. I knew better and I screwed up anyway. I have no excuse. I'm ready to accept whatever my punishment is."
13. Someone promoted because he or she is intelligent and deserves it and NOT because he's a friend of a friend, a relative or a braindead suck up.
14. Banana flavored Suzie Qs. I LOVED those things! Where the hell are they?
15. Supply and demand based oil and gas prices.
16. A High School where 99% of the student population think drugs are stupid.
17. Tall, buxom women in lycra. Hey...I'm a pig. Sue me.
18. Cheeze Doodles. I can't find them anywhere.
19. The antidote.
20. "Purple monkey dishwasher."
21. Batman
22. A fair tax code.
23. An wide awake air traffic controller.
24. An even tempered redhaired woman.
25. A reasonably priced dentist.
26. Fireflies. What the hell happened to them?
27. An okonomiyaki shop. Okay in all fairness I know where a bunch of those are and I'm willing to go back to Japan to visit them.
28. "Hoof."
29. A middle of the road Republican. I KNOW they still exist. I've SEEN them! When I was a kid they were EVERYWHERE! What the hell happened to them?
30. A talking dog...who happens to be a rabid football fan (no pun intended) and who hates the Dallas Cowboys.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Mitt, Mama Grizzly and Huck-a-buck
I've long been a news junkie and hopelessly addicted to politics. I can't remember who said it, but there's an old saying along the lines of "History is past politics. Politics is future hisotry." As a history minor in college I always found it fascinating and loved writing lengthy papers after doing days of research.
As I've perused America's latest political climate I've noticed quite a few things. Die hard liberals are disappointed that President Barack Obama doesn't lean enough to the left. Those on the right seem to be of the opinion that he's either: a socialist, the anti-Christ, a born Kenyan citizen or one of those info-mercial pitchmen out to sell them something to oxy-clean their snuggies while it makes their smoothies. The GOP for the first two years ran under the auspice of the party of "No" voting in a huge block against EVERYTHING Obama put on the table INCLUDING ideas which they themselves had come up with (healthcare comes to mind) and convinced enough of the American people to give them control of The House of Representatives and a few governors seats.
The GOP now controls half of congress, and now the eyes of the American public rest squarely on the eyes of the men and women who inspired their ire. Before we know it the GOP presidential primaries will begin in earnest and there will be a lively field of candidates from whom to choose. Let's take a look at some of them and what their chances might be.
Newt Gingrich: Gingrich is a former history professor and former Speaker of The House of Representatives. He and a group of upstart Republicans took over the House in 1994 to undermine Bill Clinton and wrote the "Contract with America." They shut down the government, and when the economy improved had no real issue to run against Clinton in 96. Newt's chances? He's liked by some on the far right, but doesn't poll well with independent voters.
Michelle Bachman: Out spoken Minesota Representative and Tea party darling. Bachman is loved in her own district and by some on the far right, but if early polling is any indicator is behind by double digits among Republicans. Bachman's chances? Even if she were to get the nomination she's too polarizing a figure and doesn't poll well with independent voters.
Mitt Romney: Former Governor of Massatuchetts on paper is an ideal candidate. He's a moderate Republican which bodes well with independent voters. There are however a few problems that will possibly hurt him in the primaries: among them are the fact that the healthcare plan he passed as governor of Massatuchetts is almost IDENTICAL to the National Healthcare plan which he and many other Republicans villify on a daily basis and call "Obama Care" and that continues to bite him in the rear. Romney has been talking tough to get the right's attention, but in the process has been slowly alienating the moderates he'd need to win a general election.
Also there is another elephant in the room, (No pun intended) Romney is a Mormon. A good part of the GOP's base is the Christian Right. Many in the Christian right wouldn't vote for a Catholic or anyone else whose faith as they don't see as Christian enough. Their negative views of the church of later day Saints might hinder Romney in the vote rich south during the primaries. Will the evangellical crowd forsake a man of the cloth (who shall be mentioned later) to vote for a Northern moderate? Romney's chances? If he runs as a moderate he stands a good chance of winning a General Election; however, being a moderate won't get him through the primaries. He'll have to run right of center to get the blessing of the powers that be on the far right and if he does that he'll lose independent voters if he should get the nomination.
Mike Huckabee: I like former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (whom I lovingly call Huck-a-buck) and so do MANY in the Christian right. He'd do well in southern primaries and despite being an analyst for Fox News doesn't completely alienate moderates. Huck-a-buck's chances? Sadly not as good as many would like. The former Governor is also an ordained minister which while it would get him scores of votes among evangelical voters will lose him just as many votes among independents and anyone who might think a man of the cloth would attempt to govern via "devine inspiration". Translation the separation of church and state crowd won't vote a man of the cloth into office. Should Huckabee get the GOP's nomination he'd lose by double digits.
Sarah Palin: Sarah Palin aka "Mama Grizzly" is the darling of the GOP base and that SCARES many establishment GOP types like the Bush family who have not been shy about their disdane for the former governor of Alaska. Governor Palin's "folksy charm" act plays well in conservative strongholds and those who choose to ignore her do so at their peril. Those inclined to sling mud at the former governor during the primaries would be foolish as an endorsement from her might pack some serious weight. Palin's chances? Palin does well with evangelicals, BUT does NOT poll well among independent voters and is very close to both Huckabee and Romney in many polls taken thus far. Palin should do well in the primaries, but should she get the nomination she would be slaughtered by Obama in a general election. The fact that she served half a term as governor of Alaska (quitting midway through her first and only term)might not bode well. She is destined to galvanize the far left to show up at the polls and more than likely would be plagued by the scandals which dogged her during her term as Governor.
Assessment? At present the GOP seems deadlocked between Romney, Palin and Huckabee one of those three more than likely has the best shot at the nomination, but it's still too early to rule out a dark horse.
As I've perused America's latest political climate I've noticed quite a few things. Die hard liberals are disappointed that President Barack Obama doesn't lean enough to the left. Those on the right seem to be of the opinion that he's either: a socialist, the anti-Christ, a born Kenyan citizen or one of those info-mercial pitchmen out to sell them something to oxy-clean their snuggies while it makes their smoothies. The GOP for the first two years ran under the auspice of the party of "No" voting in a huge block against EVERYTHING Obama put on the table INCLUDING ideas which they themselves had come up with (healthcare comes to mind) and convinced enough of the American people to give them control of The House of Representatives and a few governors seats.
The GOP now controls half of congress, and now the eyes of the American public rest squarely on the eyes of the men and women who inspired their ire. Before we know it the GOP presidential primaries will begin in earnest and there will be a lively field of candidates from whom to choose. Let's take a look at some of them and what their chances might be.
Newt Gingrich: Gingrich is a former history professor and former Speaker of The House of Representatives. He and a group of upstart Republicans took over the House in 1994 to undermine Bill Clinton and wrote the "Contract with America." They shut down the government, and when the economy improved had no real issue to run against Clinton in 96. Newt's chances? He's liked by some on the far right, but doesn't poll well with independent voters.
Michelle Bachman: Out spoken Minesota Representative and Tea party darling. Bachman is loved in her own district and by some on the far right, but if early polling is any indicator is behind by double digits among Republicans. Bachman's chances? Even if she were to get the nomination she's too polarizing a figure and doesn't poll well with independent voters.
Mitt Romney: Former Governor of Massatuchetts on paper is an ideal candidate. He's a moderate Republican which bodes well with independent voters. There are however a few problems that will possibly hurt him in the primaries: among them are the fact that the healthcare plan he passed as governor of Massatuchetts is almost IDENTICAL to the National Healthcare plan which he and many other Republicans villify on a daily basis and call "Obama Care" and that continues to bite him in the rear. Romney has been talking tough to get the right's attention, but in the process has been slowly alienating the moderates he'd need to win a general election.
Also there is another elephant in the room, (No pun intended) Romney is a Mormon. A good part of the GOP's base is the Christian Right. Many in the Christian right wouldn't vote for a Catholic or anyone else whose faith as they don't see as Christian enough. Their negative views of the church of later day Saints might hinder Romney in the vote rich south during the primaries. Will the evangellical crowd forsake a man of the cloth (who shall be mentioned later) to vote for a Northern moderate? Romney's chances? If he runs as a moderate he stands a good chance of winning a General Election; however, being a moderate won't get him through the primaries. He'll have to run right of center to get the blessing of the powers that be on the far right and if he does that he'll lose independent voters if he should get the nomination.
Mike Huckabee: I like former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (whom I lovingly call Huck-a-buck) and so do MANY in the Christian right. He'd do well in southern primaries and despite being an analyst for Fox News doesn't completely alienate moderates. Huck-a-buck's chances? Sadly not as good as many would like. The former Governor is also an ordained minister which while it would get him scores of votes among evangelical voters will lose him just as many votes among independents and anyone who might think a man of the cloth would attempt to govern via "devine inspiration". Translation the separation of church and state crowd won't vote a man of the cloth into office. Should Huckabee get the GOP's nomination he'd lose by double digits.
Sarah Palin: Sarah Palin aka "Mama Grizzly" is the darling of the GOP base and that SCARES many establishment GOP types like the Bush family who have not been shy about their disdane for the former governor of Alaska. Governor Palin's "folksy charm" act plays well in conservative strongholds and those who choose to ignore her do so at their peril. Those inclined to sling mud at the former governor during the primaries would be foolish as an endorsement from her might pack some serious weight. Palin's chances? Palin does well with evangelicals, BUT does NOT poll well among independent voters and is very close to both Huckabee and Romney in many polls taken thus far. Palin should do well in the primaries, but should she get the nomination she would be slaughtered by Obama in a general election. The fact that she served half a term as governor of Alaska (quitting midway through her first and only term)might not bode well. She is destined to galvanize the far left to show up at the polls and more than likely would be plagued by the scandals which dogged her during her term as Governor.
Assessment? At present the GOP seems deadlocked between Romney, Palin and Huckabee one of those three more than likely has the best shot at the nomination, but it's still too early to rule out a dark horse.
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