It is all over the news. It has created a schism between the liberal and progressive democrats. It has the fond attention of the republicans. It is up for vote with something called "fast-track" stuck to the middle of it. Our president wants it and the house has passed it in a state hooked to all kinds of things that sound a little scary, like using medicare funds.
I have tried to read about it. To get myself informed so I can make an intelligent, rational decision about this thing that is causing all the hoopla. I have learned little. The actual agreement is not available for review by us lowly people out there listening and deciding what we think about it all.
Lots of people are for it, some are whole-heartedly for it. Some are against it because they want a return to "buy american".
Then there are those like me. I just want to know what it is. I want to shine a flashlight into the nooks and crannies to see if there are holes or spiders or boogie men hiding in its highly secretive pages. How can a law that will affect the country I live in and therefore the people I love and care about and work with and have obligations too NOT be my business.
If the "buy american" crowd is right, and yes they are still shopping at Walmart in their support of their cause, although those Walton kids gave up on that decades ago, then this agreement will take even more of our product making jobs to those overseas.
If those touting that our labor is as cheap or cheaper than the labor overseas, that means we will have a harder time raising the minimum wage for fear of losing more jobs. And while the better ranked countries (you know, better cost of living, better standard of living, better education system etc, etc,) won't steal our jobs, those places that have child labor, slave labor, no minimum wage labor, will still be cheaper to make things in.
If we want to be global, we need to help those people being trafficked to factories and those children only valued for their labor and those individuals only seen as an attractively low cost alternative to machines and robotics. None of those terms have ever been words people that feel loved and cared for, powerful and esteemed, use to describe themselves.
See, I don't just care about our country--I want everyone's life to be a good life. If I can't save them from themselves, I can at least try to stop them from being victimized by politics, powermongers and corporate greed. We should all have a chance in which our only enemy is our own occasionally poor choices.
But back to the TPP. I don't know why it is a secret. I don't know what is being placed in it that has our President siding with the very people that have fought him for the past 6 years. I don't know why the people that love to fight immigration, safety nets for the poor, taxes on the rich, and no restrictions on corporate lobbying or tax evasion are so whole heartedly for this.
I DON"T KNOW.
And that is why it I think it needs to set unpassed until we all know what it really says.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Sunday, May 17, 2015
I'm Poor---but it doesn't make me a bad person!
From Merriam Dictionary:
poverty
noun, pov·er·ty often attributive \ˈpä-vər-tē\
: the state of being poor
: a lack of something
1
a : the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions
b : renunciation as a member of a religious order of the right as an individual to own property
3
a : debility due to malnutrition
b : lack of fertility
- He was born in poverty.
- There is a poverty of information about the disease.
Middle English poverte, from Anglo-French poverté, from Latin paupertat-, paupertas, from pauper poor — more at poor
First Known Use: 12th century
Related to POVERTY
- Synonyms
- beggary, destituteness, destitution, impecuniosity, impecuniousness, impoverishment, indigence, necessity, need, neediness, pauperism, penuriousness, penury, poorness, want
- Antonyms
- affluence, opulence, richness, wealth, wealthiness
Synonym Discussion of POVERTY
poverty, indigence, penury, want, destitution mean the state of one with insufficient resources. poverty may cover a range from extreme want of necessities to an absence of material comforts <the extreme poverty of the slum dwellers>. indigence implies seriously straitened circumstances <the indigence of her years as a graduate student>. penury suggests a cramping or oppressive lack of money <a catastrophic illness that condemned them to years of penury>. want and destitution imply extreme poverty that threatens life itself through starvation or exposure <lived in a perpetual state of want> <the widespread destitution in countries beset by famine>.
Medical Definition of POVERTY
: debility due to malnutrition <evidence of poverty in calves>
http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/07/how-we-ignore-poverty-and-blame-poor-people/
Right now, today, on any station or channel, in any workplace or church, you can hear people discussing poor people. It is never discussed from the "I am a poor person" position. It is always about "those poor people" and no one is saying it like it is funny or they are so cute. Poor people do not have the same effect on us that pictures of kittens do.
We blame poor people for stuff--lots of stuff. Poor people lower property values, make the urban areas look less attractive, clutter up their yards, rent in slums, drive clunkers, wear old and frequently stained or even dirty/smelly clothes--especially when they are coming home from work. (what? what?) They wear cheap shoes. If their state will let them, they use SNAP--used to be food stamps, but that is low tech, and have subsidized housing where they get help with that $1000/month rent in the place-well, I wouldn't live there, or pay that for it, but they are living in high rent places--for poor people. All that raises my taxes because everyone knows that my taxes are all going to the poor people entitlement programs. They cause high crime rates where ever they go because they are immoral and ungodly. They make all kinds of money selling drugs and sex, and individual cigerettes.
Now, lets flip that pictures, because most of the above paragraph was obviously not quite right.
Poverty affects about 16% of the United States population. It is not equal everywhere. New Hampshire has a less than 8% rate of people living below the poverty level. Mississippi has more than 21 % living in poverty. The poverty level in the contiguous states is $11,770/year per single person with an additional $4160 allowed for each additional person that lives in that house. There are programs that help with buying a house (working poor) and programs that subsidize rent (section 8) and frankly finding any information about those online is impossible. I have talked to people that received assistance and it is a complicated and demeaning process and they have to go through it multiple times a year. In our state, if you don't have a mental illness or a physical disability/chronic illness that prevents work, you must have a dependent child. Homeless people, who frequently have medicare or a SSDI check are homeless due to inability to get rent and food and medications with what they qualify for.
Poverty is not genetic, but if you are raised in poverty, your chances of continuing in poverty are good, and getting better every year we blame poor people for being poor.
To get out of poverty, and that is the first link a poor family must break, a person needs 4 things:
http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/07/how-we-ignore-poverty-and-blame-poor-people/
Right now, today, on any station or channel, in any workplace or church, you can hear people discussing poor people. It is never discussed from the "I am a poor person" position. It is always about "those poor people" and no one is saying it like it is funny or they are so cute. Poor people do not have the same effect on us that pictures of kittens do.
We blame poor people for stuff--lots of stuff. Poor people lower property values, make the urban areas look less attractive, clutter up their yards, rent in slums, drive clunkers, wear old and frequently stained or even dirty/smelly clothes--especially when they are coming home from work. (what? what?) They wear cheap shoes. If their state will let them, they use SNAP--used to be food stamps, but that is low tech, and have subsidized housing where they get help with that $1000/month rent in the place-well, I wouldn't live there, or pay that for it, but they are living in high rent places--for poor people. All that raises my taxes because everyone knows that my taxes are all going to the poor people entitlement programs. They cause high crime rates where ever they go because they are immoral and ungodly. They make all kinds of money selling drugs and sex, and individual cigerettes.
Now, lets flip that pictures, because most of the above paragraph was obviously not quite right.
Poverty affects about 16% of the United States population. It is not equal everywhere. New Hampshire has a less than 8% rate of people living below the poverty level. Mississippi has more than 21 % living in poverty. The poverty level in the contiguous states is $11,770/year per single person with an additional $4160 allowed for each additional person that lives in that house. There are programs that help with buying a house (working poor) and programs that subsidize rent (section 8) and frankly finding any information about those online is impossible. I have talked to people that received assistance and it is a complicated and demeaning process and they have to go through it multiple times a year. In our state, if you don't have a mental illness or a physical disability/chronic illness that prevents work, you must have a dependent child. Homeless people, who frequently have medicare or a SSDI check are homeless due to inability to get rent and food and medications with what they qualify for.
Poverty is not genetic, but if you are raised in poverty, your chances of continuing in poverty are good, and getting better every year we blame poor people for being poor.
To get out of poverty, and that is the first link a poor family must break, a person needs 4 things:
- Adequate nutrition to ensure that they make it to their full genetically determined height and optimum brain development. (currently childhood hunger and malnutrition--which can be present even in the presence of obesity--fat is not healthy--we need some of the good kind, but it is not all we need)
- Good education programs from early childhood education through higher level (graduate school) so people can fully utilize those well-nourished brains) Currently, education in those areas with the poorest people are the lowest achieving--and no--that is neither the teachers' or the poor children's fault, it is past time to fix a system we have known didn't work for more than 20% of the population since the 1940"s.
- Role-models--this is not a slam at poor adults but a reality check. I cook like my mother; have work ethics like my father and fashion sense like my father; my neighbors showed me what other kind of routines people had, my relatives hammered me with a sense of right and wrong, and all the choices I made before 20 were based on what I saw in my little world. I think that is how most of us learned as children, that is how the world works until we are able to get an older and more experienced perspective..
- Last but far from least--opportunity. The opportunity to accomplish our dreams. The opportunity to become anything we want. If I take my well nourished brain in its perfectly made body with its great education and a working knowledge of how a successful individual from a successful family in a successful neighborhood does things, and then find that I still can only get a job paying minimum wage because I am not "the right person", skin color, gender, religion, accent, whatever, how long am I going to keep plugging away in an upright and appropriate manner.
So, could we eliminate poverty completely? There will always be people with less fortune than others. but we can break the poverty cycle. Reality is, if every single person in the USA made the same amount, we would all make about $44,000 per year. That is a four times more than poverty level and a good sign no one needs to be there. And that is per person, not household. The people in this country are very productive. But while I can not give a single example of a nation in which everyone shares equally in the national adjusted net income, I do think that we could easily stop people from being hungry, homeless, without access to good education or good healthcare and the last two, which are the hardest, require nothing more than the people with advantages, share. Be a role model. Look in the mirror and examine your own prejudices and fears, your own beliefs about people that are different, that look different, believe in a different version of god or in no god, that speak differently, that do not fit your version of "professional" or "educated" or "socially acceptable" are treated around you are not given the hand up, the break to a better job, the offer of more power, because they are not like the other people already in those positions. Our prisons are full of somebody's babies. They didn't hope that for them? And if they are there for drugs or stealing food or not being able to find a better role model than the local drug dealer, which is the successful person in a neighborhood without hope or opportunity, if they are there for prostitution or shop lifting or check kiting, well, maybe our modern jail is just a new version of "poorhouse". Those are definitely the petty crimes of the poor and desperate--and angry. What teen or twenty-something has never been angry when they realize that those things on TV, on the "reality" shows, on the sitcoms, in the malls will never be theirs. First we believe the hype about "The Land of Opportunity", then we get angry because we believed. We hoped. We dreamed. But those were never supposed to be our reality.
They could be.
Our nations biggest goal should be to end poverty this generation. Clean it up, make it fair, stop the hate, stop the greed, stop the "crab in a bucket mentality", stop the "whack a mole" mentality.
We can all have plenty. It's not a competition.
They could be.
Our nations biggest goal should be to end poverty this generation. Clean it up, make it fair, stop the hate, stop the greed, stop the "crab in a bucket mentality", stop the "whack a mole" mentality.
We can all have plenty. It's not a competition.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Democratic Socialism---is that a oxymoron?
The United States of America is a federation of states with a republican government, a capitalist economic system and a few social programs that came about during the great depression.
Let's compare us, the US, for variables that we will discuss further down the page.
Healthy Life Expectancy (thank the WHO--no, its not a band anymore)
1. Japan
2. Australia
3. France
4. Sweden
5. Spain
6. Italy
7. Greece
8. Switzerland
9. Monaco
10. Andorra
24. The United States of America
Health Care Systems (followed by their healthcare expenditure per capital ranking in parenthesis)
1. France (#4)
2.Italy (11)
3. San Marina (21)
4. Andorra (23)
5. Malta (37)
6. Singapore (38)
7. Spain (29)
8. Oman (62)
9. Austria (6)
10. Japan (13)
37. USA (1)
Mother's index from the WHO
1. Norway
2. Finland
3. Iceland
4. Denmark
5. Sweden
6 Netherlands
7. Spain
8. Germany
9. Australia
10. Belgium
33. USA
Income Inequality
1. Chile
2. Mexico
3. Turkey
4 .USA
5. Israel
6. Portugal
7. United Kingdom
8. Spain
9. Greece
10. Japan
Crime rate per capita--Violent and nonviolent
1. USA
2. United Kingdom
3. Germany
4. France
5. Russia
6. Japan
7. South Africa
8. Canada
9. Italy
10. India
Murder rate per capita
1. Honduras
2. Venezuela
3. Virgin Islands
4. Belize
5. ElSalvador
6. Guatemala
7. Jamaica
8. Lesotho
9. Swaziland
10. Saint Kitts and Nevis
108. USA
Least Murders per Capita
1. Liechtienstein
2. Monaco
3. Singapore
4. Japan
5. Iceland
6. HongKong
7. Kuwait
8. French Polynesia
9. Bahrain
10. Indonesia
108. USA (We are right in the middle)
Prisoners per capita
1. Seychelles
2. USA
3. St. Kitts and Nevis
4. Anguilla
5. Virgin Islands
6. Barbados
7. Cuba
8. Belize
9. Rwanda
10. Thailand
Highest on the Democracy Index in 2013
1. Norway
2. Sweden
3. Iceland
4. Denmark
5. New Zealand
6. Australia
7. Switzerland
8. Canada
9. Finland
10. Netherlands
Top Social democracies
1. Denmark
2. Finland
3. Netherlands
4. Canada
5. Sweden
6. Norway
7. Ireland
8. New Zealand.
The USA is on neither democracy lists---we are a republic that is currently trying to remove all social programs and make everything a business--for profit-- schools, prisons, retirement, healthcare, all those very human community needs that will be governed by greed and how to jerk a little more money out of human suffering and human frailty. Right now, Vietnam comes closest to a purely capitalistic nation, but we seem to be preaching for that pride of place, while building our Oligarchy of the rich.
A republic (from Latin: res publica) is a form of government in which power resides in the Citizens and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. We are currently trying to place the power in the hands of the monied through those laws. At that time, as is true in all Republics, removing the citizenship of those that aren't "the right people" can change everything. What if it were decided that to be a citizen, one had to possess real property, or had to have a certain amount of net worth to be a citizen? (Feudalism and the dark ages come to mind)
We in the USA, have been taught that the governments of the world are on a continuum with
1_CAPITOLISM ___________________________
10Fascism/Communism_
In truth, it would be more of a line like the one below, and balance is the answer. Freedom to starve to death and be used to death and to suffer in inescapable poverty is not really what liberty, justice, the pursuit of happiness is all about.
-10Pure Capitalism___________________________
_0 Social Democracy_________________________
-10 Pure Fascism
I removed communism, because, while Karl Marx loved the term, no one has ever been able to control a revolution of the people fighting a Oligarchy well enough to stop it while the people still ruled. They have all stopped at a fascist state where once again the people lose. Some Ideals just are too hard to put into practice.
Capitalism is closely tied to Social Darwinism--basically the belief that the meanest, and greediest should win because they have the best genes. (this is only true if you use money as the score card)
Aren't Public schools Social Programs?
By the 1840s, a few public schools had popped up around the country in the communities that could afford them. However, that smattering of schools wasn't good enough for education crusaders Horace Mann of Massachusetts and Henry Barnard of Connecticut. They began calling for free, compulsory school for every child in the nation.
Massachusetts passed the first compulsory school laws in 1852. New York followed the next year, and by 1918, all American children were required to attend at least elementary school.
The schools were never because the poor children were crying for a good education but rather the new factories had no one to work in them. Machines had diagrams, labels, and instructions. It wasn't like pulling a plow behind a mule.
Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few.
If you were raised on the knee-jerk reaction to the word "socialism" and made it through this, there is hope for our regular people. Now educate your friends and family.
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/05/11/worlds-happiest-countries-social-democracies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy
a definition and history
http://chartsbin.com/view/6kx
above link is to a map and definitions of types of governments.
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/05/11/worlds-happiest-countries-social-democracies
article comparing research on happiness and types of governments
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/22/10-startling-facts-about-global-wealth-inequality/
article and graphs on wealth inequality world-WIDE
/http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/
graphs and maps with rates of such things as alcoholism, cancer and heart disease
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats#src24
article on global poverty with great links for more information at the bottom of the article.
Let's compare us, the US, for variables that we will discuss further down the page.
Healthy Life Expectancy (thank the WHO--no, its not a band anymore)
1. Japan
2. Australia
3. France
4. Sweden
5. Spain
6. Italy
7. Greece
8. Switzerland
9. Monaco
10. Andorra
24. The United States of America
Health Care Systems (followed by their healthcare expenditure per capital ranking in parenthesis)
1. France (#4)
2.Italy (11)
3. San Marina (21)
4. Andorra (23)
5. Malta (37)
6. Singapore (38)
7. Spain (29)
8. Oman (62)
9. Austria (6)
10. Japan (13)
37. USA (1)
Mother's index from the WHO
1. Norway
2. Finland
3. Iceland
4. Denmark
5. Sweden
6 Netherlands
7. Spain
8. Germany
9. Australia
10. Belgium
33. USA
Income Inequality
1. Chile
2. Mexico
3. Turkey
4 .USA
5. Israel
6. Portugal
7. United Kingdom
8. Spain
9. Greece
10. Japan
Crime rate per capita--Violent and nonviolent
1. USA
2. United Kingdom
3. Germany
4. France
5. Russia
6. Japan
7. South Africa
8. Canada
9. Italy
10. India
Murder rate per capita
1. Honduras
2. Venezuela
3. Virgin Islands
4. Belize
5. ElSalvador
6. Guatemala
7. Jamaica
8. Lesotho
9. Swaziland
10. Saint Kitts and Nevis
108. USA
Least Murders per Capita
1. Liechtienstein
2. Monaco
3. Singapore
4. Japan
5. Iceland
6. HongKong
7. Kuwait
8. French Polynesia
9. Bahrain
10. Indonesia
108. USA (We are right in the middle)
Prisoners per capita
1. Seychelles
2. USA
3. St. Kitts and Nevis
4. Anguilla
5. Virgin Islands
6. Barbados
7. Cuba
8. Belize
9. Rwanda
10. Thailand
Highest on the Democracy Index in 2013
1. Norway
2. Sweden
3. Iceland
4. Denmark
5. New Zealand
6. Australia
7. Switzerland
8. Canada
9. Finland
10. Netherlands
Top Social democracies
1. Denmark
2. Finland
3. Netherlands
4. Canada
5. Sweden
6. Norway
7. Ireland
8. New Zealand.
The USA is on neither democracy lists---we are a republic that is currently trying to remove all social programs and make everything a business--for profit-- schools, prisons, retirement, healthcare, all those very human community needs that will be governed by greed and how to jerk a little more money out of human suffering and human frailty. Right now, Vietnam comes closest to a purely capitalistic nation, but we seem to be preaching for that pride of place, while building our Oligarchy of the rich.
A republic (from Latin: res publica) is a form of government in which power resides in the Citizens and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. We are currently trying to place the power in the hands of the monied through those laws. At that time, as is true in all Republics, removing the citizenship of those that aren't "the right people" can change everything. What if it were decided that to be a citizen, one had to possess real property, or had to have a certain amount of net worth to be a citizen? (Feudalism and the dark ages come to mind)
We in the USA, have been taught that the governments of the world are on a continuum with
1_CAPITOLISM ___________________________
10Fascism/Communism_
In truth, it would be more of a line like the one below, and balance is the answer. Freedom to starve to death and be used to death and to suffer in inescapable poverty is not really what liberty, justice, the pursuit of happiness is all about.
-10Pure Capitalism___________________________
_0 Social Democracy_________________________
-10 Pure Fascism
I removed communism, because, while Karl Marx loved the term, no one has ever been able to control a revolution of the people fighting a Oligarchy well enough to stop it while the people still ruled. They have all stopped at a fascist state where once again the people lose. Some Ideals just are too hard to put into practice.
What is Capitalism?
Capitalism is a social system based on the principle of individual rights. Politically, it is the system of laissez-faire (freedom). Legally it is a system of objective laws (rule of law as opposed to rule of man). Economically, when such freedom is applied to the sphere of production its result is the free-market.Capitalism is closely tied to Social Darwinism--basically the belief that the meanest, and greediest should win because they have the best genes. (this is only true if you use money as the score card)
Aren't Public schools Social Programs?
By the 1840s, a few public schools had popped up around the country in the communities that could afford them. However, that smattering of schools wasn't good enough for education crusaders Horace Mann of Massachusetts and Henry Barnard of Connecticut. They began calling for free, compulsory school for every child in the nation.
Massachusetts passed the first compulsory school laws in 1852. New York followed the next year, and by 1918, all American children were required to attend at least elementary school.
The schools were never because the poor children were crying for a good education but rather the new factories had no one to work in them. Machines had diagrams, labels, and instructions. It wasn't like pulling a plow behind a mule.
Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few.
If you were raised on the knee-jerk reaction to the word "socialism" and made it through this, there is hope for our regular people. Now educate your friends and family.
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/05/11/worlds-happiest-countries-social-democracies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy
a definition and history
http://chartsbin.com/view/6kx
above link is to a map and definitions of types of governments.
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/05/11/worlds-happiest-countries-social-democracies
article comparing research on happiness and types of governments
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/22/10-startling-facts-about-global-wealth-inequality/
article and graphs on wealth inequality world-WIDE
/http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/
graphs and maps with rates of such things as alcoholism, cancer and heart disease
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats#src24
article on global poverty with great links for more information at the bottom of the article.
Saturday, May 2, 2015
joy and aspirations
Over the years, I have heard dozens of things that are the "one difference between animals and humans". Most of them left me wondering if there was any difference. But then I hear "the one thing humans do that other species do not is aspire".
All my life I have heard we humans are not animals. Since I have always loved animals and was raised by 2 parents that also loved them, I never understood why that differentiation was even necessary. Apparently, it is needed when treating them like assets and resources. "Don't name farm animals, it makes it hard to eat them."
I have heard farmers and hunters and mean little boys, that animals don't feel pain "like we do" and they don't get scared 'like we do". I have also heard from those same people that it is best to not chase something right before you kill it as it makes it taste "gamey". Translate this, its pumping out adrenaline and that copper-penny taste in your mouth when you are terrified, that goes all through the meat. Sounds a lot like fear.
I have heard religious leaders go on and on about God giving us stewardship of the planet and use of all the planets and animals of the earth. That only the humans have souls so using the animals is not bad. It is what god made them for. Those same leaders have gone through shifts in thinking and also determined that women (that didn't have souls before) have souls and people of other cultures (what would have been called "savages" in less politically correct times--read "not like us") have souls. I'm thinking that those soul experts may not have much more idea about all that than the average 3 year old--or turkey.
I have heard scientists complain about soft-hearted animal lovers anthropomorphizing animals, giving them attributes of love, caring for their young, having friends, playing, mourning their dead, communicating and being emotionally ill--depressed, sad, happy, confused. I have heard later studies that showed that those same attributes, while ascribed to instinct in the animal, were then considered to be present due to the change from dissection to understanding animals to observation to understand animals. And while memories were though to be decidedly human, we have all seen dogs responding to their missing human returning after a long time, elephants recognizing a specific elephant from years before.
So that leaves us with our human search for god, our soul, and aspirations.
I don't know why humans search for god, or seek answers to why we exist or think we have a soul. None of those three things are knowable about animals because we can't really know anything about them with humans. We humans speak to each other, but not to animals. The old assumption that people that didn't speak our language therefore they were not smart, did not know god or have souls was long ago proven to be a case of poor communication.
I do know animals feel joy. I have seen it in their faces, watched it in their movements, or maybe I'm just anthropomorphizing. I have seen birds sitting in a ray of sunlight after it has rained for days, and they have their heads up and their eyes closed and a look of pure peace. I have seen a dog that is not a very good dog so seldom out to run, take off running like a maniac, grinning like a fiend and tail flying while he runs fast and hard and comes back around repeatedly. I have seen a cat that settles down after alone all day, snuggles in, purrs and rubs and kneads whatever is close. I have seen joy on the faces of elephants in videos and joy on the faces of big cats when the person that raised them comes to visit. I have seen it when an animal that used to always be next door comes for a visit. It is hard to describe but I know it when I see it---it looks like more than happiness, it looks transcendant.
But Aspirations. A strong desire to achieve. Not just people-pleasing. NOT just attention-seeking, and Not just trying to become rich and famous, but the desire to actually achieve a thing that has not been achieved before--either personally and/or by mankind. Animals can like attention and treats and pats on the head, can be competitive (prey and predators are both competitive). But the aspiration to get humanity into space, to build a tower to heaven, to see an atom, to create world peace, to end poverty---to aspire--that is something I have not seen in other species.
Joy is good. Joy is great. But to aspire to something that moves us all to a better place in history.
That would give us all joy.
All my life I have heard we humans are not animals. Since I have always loved animals and was raised by 2 parents that also loved them, I never understood why that differentiation was even necessary. Apparently, it is needed when treating them like assets and resources. "Don't name farm animals, it makes it hard to eat them."
I have heard farmers and hunters and mean little boys, that animals don't feel pain "like we do" and they don't get scared 'like we do". I have also heard from those same people that it is best to not chase something right before you kill it as it makes it taste "gamey". Translate this, its pumping out adrenaline and that copper-penny taste in your mouth when you are terrified, that goes all through the meat. Sounds a lot like fear.
I have heard religious leaders go on and on about God giving us stewardship of the planet and use of all the planets and animals of the earth. That only the humans have souls so using the animals is not bad. It is what god made them for. Those same leaders have gone through shifts in thinking and also determined that women (that didn't have souls before) have souls and people of other cultures (what would have been called "savages" in less politically correct times--read "not like us") have souls. I'm thinking that those soul experts may not have much more idea about all that than the average 3 year old--or turkey.
I have heard scientists complain about soft-hearted animal lovers anthropomorphizing animals, giving them attributes of love, caring for their young, having friends, playing, mourning their dead, communicating and being emotionally ill--depressed, sad, happy, confused. I have heard later studies that showed that those same attributes, while ascribed to instinct in the animal, were then considered to be present due to the change from dissection to understanding animals to observation to understand animals. And while memories were though to be decidedly human, we have all seen dogs responding to their missing human returning after a long time, elephants recognizing a specific elephant from years before.
So that leaves us with our human search for god, our soul, and aspirations.
I don't know why humans search for god, or seek answers to why we exist or think we have a soul. None of those three things are knowable about animals because we can't really know anything about them with humans. We humans speak to each other, but not to animals. The old assumption that people that didn't speak our language therefore they were not smart, did not know god or have souls was long ago proven to be a case of poor communication.
I do know animals feel joy. I have seen it in their faces, watched it in their movements, or maybe I'm just anthropomorphizing. I have seen birds sitting in a ray of sunlight after it has rained for days, and they have their heads up and their eyes closed and a look of pure peace. I have seen a dog that is not a very good dog so seldom out to run, take off running like a maniac, grinning like a fiend and tail flying while he runs fast and hard and comes back around repeatedly. I have seen a cat that settles down after alone all day, snuggles in, purrs and rubs and kneads whatever is close. I have seen joy on the faces of elephants in videos and joy on the faces of big cats when the person that raised them comes to visit. I have seen it when an animal that used to always be next door comes for a visit. It is hard to describe but I know it when I see it---it looks like more than happiness, it looks transcendant.
But Aspirations. A strong desire to achieve. Not just people-pleasing. NOT just attention-seeking, and Not just trying to become rich and famous, but the desire to actually achieve a thing that has not been achieved before--either personally and/or by mankind. Animals can like attention and treats and pats on the head, can be competitive (prey and predators are both competitive). But the aspiration to get humanity into space, to build a tower to heaven, to see an atom, to create world peace, to end poverty---to aspire--that is something I have not seen in other species.
Joy is good. Joy is great. But to aspire to something that moves us all to a better place in history.
That would give us all joy.
immigration and magnet schools
In the 1960's, the large city near my little neighborhood decided to fix their segregation problem and meet national requirements by starting a Magnet School program. It was award winning at the time. The reality of it was less sparkling, though
The High School they decided to turn into the magnet was an all-black school on the north side and it represented the neighborhoods of the northside, which was also segregated. They did not stop everyone that would go there due to geography from going there, but they halved the people that went from the neighborhood, sent the half that was no longer automatically in that population to small, poor but white schools that weren't that far away or busing them across town to the all-white high schools. They then upped the curriculum, added college classes, advanced classes, better music, art, science, and math classes and went from 3 sports to the addition of things like tennis, golf etc. They then had the white students apply to go there based on their strengths.
Soon the school had the best band, chorus, won the academic awards, and those students that were just going there became the losers. They eventually made all the students apply. It was and is a better school, but by pulling the talent out of the other schools, a lot of students lost sight of students that excelled and those students that attended the school, that might have been valedictorian at their old school were now just one of the crowd.
Time passed, and the northside, southside, westside, eastside divisions became pockets of poverty and hopelessness with only the magnets and charter schools to provide hope. The wealthy sent their children to the same prep schools that they had always sent them to. The upper middle and determined to moved to the suburbs where the schools were best according to test scores and sports opportunities. Now, instead of racial segregation, we were segregated by money. The cities schools are in a constant fight to get off the failure to succeed list. The teachers are threatened if they don't succeed, so the best move out. The cities attempt to deal with segregation without really fixing the problem has made everything worse.
So now we (not me personally, no one asks for my opinion but I seem to have one about everything--read this as the USA and other countries that are experiencing growing pains and blaming it on immigration) are trying to halt the immigration of the wrong people.
We don't want more poor, uneducated, desperate refugees seeking to replace their unsafe homeland with something that won't kill them and we don't want more hopeless, unprepared but aspiring people that seek the land of opportunity coming over and competing with our own hopeless and unprepared but aspiring children and relatives by working for less money.
What we want, is for the well educated individuals that are willing to do those jobs that we don't have anyone trained to do, those talented individuals that can help us move up in IT or Medicine or Research, to immigrate here and also to work for a little less. It would be helpful if they looked like what we expect well-educated, intelligent, successful people to look like, but as long as they are willing to assimilate, they are welcome.
People mostly immigrate for three reasons.
1. They are refugees--something, a natural or manmade disaster (war, fire, tsunami, huge earthquake, volcano, coupe, genocide, human trafficking) has taken their home, made it unsafe for themselves or their family, and driven them out. No one chooses to be a refugee. No one can safely stay in the country they called home when they are a refugee.
2. They are hopeless--The country they were born in has shown them that they will never be successful, they are the wrong color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or they have a physical or mental disability or a set of beliefs that place them at risk for starvation, beating, imprisonment, ostracism, and believe that there is another place where they can find hope.
3. Adventurers--those people that see every opportunity as an adventure. They are risk-takers, shakers and movers, lunatics. They are also not the most common group immigrating. These individuals are much more likely to get a visa, or fly in on a kite, then go home when the adventure is over. This also seems to be the only group the USA really wants to deal with. "Come on in, spend your money, share your thoughts, leave when you have nothing else to give us."
While Columbus may have been that winning #3 candidate, adventurous and going home when he has what he wants, the rest of us got here via immigrants of the first 2 varieties. We were trafficked, be were bond servants avoiding imprisonment, we were religious outcasts, tenth children of poor people, hopeless, ostracized, seeing our only future in a new land. Three hundred years ago, no one was turning anyone away. One hundred years ago, our nation was starting to squawk if the faces were too brown or the religions too diverse. These days--we only want the cream.
Why would the cream of the crop of a nation migrate? For a better country? A better paycheck? Why? We are not number one in the USA for most things that make people that already have their choice of places to go and salaries to request make that choice.
We are attractive to people in places that have no freedoms. We are attractive to people that see us as accessible on foot and having some chance of living--not dying. We are attractive to people that have no idea what it is like in real life. Our TV shows make us look like everyone has money and opportunity. Our homeless people, our prisoners, our children and women that have been forced into prostitution or into slave labor, they aren't on the TV sitcoms.
And our hate, we do not put that hate on TV. We do not show that the same thing that made states and cities have to come up with plans to stop segregation, exist. Our melting pot is full of people that think their way is better, their genes are better, their religion is better, and their brains are better than those people that are not like them. The people in power whine when the opportunities they were born with are offered to people that have never had those opportunities before. We are so afraid of competing with people we view as inferior and being proven wrong in our assumption of superiority. We believe there is a limited amount of resources and opportunities and sharing might mean not having either for ourselves or our loved ones.
Can we become a more secure, less hateful, fearful, acquisitive, greedy,competitive, judgemental nation?
I think I'm counting on it.
The High School they decided to turn into the magnet was an all-black school on the north side and it represented the neighborhoods of the northside, which was also segregated. They did not stop everyone that would go there due to geography from going there, but they halved the people that went from the neighborhood, sent the half that was no longer automatically in that population to small, poor but white schools that weren't that far away or busing them across town to the all-white high schools. They then upped the curriculum, added college classes, advanced classes, better music, art, science, and math classes and went from 3 sports to the addition of things like tennis, golf etc. They then had the white students apply to go there based on their strengths.
Soon the school had the best band, chorus, won the academic awards, and those students that were just going there became the losers. They eventually made all the students apply. It was and is a better school, but by pulling the talent out of the other schools, a lot of students lost sight of students that excelled and those students that attended the school, that might have been valedictorian at their old school were now just one of the crowd.
Time passed, and the northside, southside, westside, eastside divisions became pockets of poverty and hopelessness with only the magnets and charter schools to provide hope. The wealthy sent their children to the same prep schools that they had always sent them to. The upper middle and determined to moved to the suburbs where the schools were best according to test scores and sports opportunities. Now, instead of racial segregation, we were segregated by money. The cities schools are in a constant fight to get off the failure to succeed list. The teachers are threatened if they don't succeed, so the best move out. The cities attempt to deal with segregation without really fixing the problem has made everything worse.
So now we (not me personally, no one asks for my opinion but I seem to have one about everything--read this as the USA and other countries that are experiencing growing pains and blaming it on immigration) are trying to halt the immigration of the wrong people.
We don't want more poor, uneducated, desperate refugees seeking to replace their unsafe homeland with something that won't kill them and we don't want more hopeless, unprepared but aspiring people that seek the land of opportunity coming over and competing with our own hopeless and unprepared but aspiring children and relatives by working for less money.
What we want, is for the well educated individuals that are willing to do those jobs that we don't have anyone trained to do, those talented individuals that can help us move up in IT or Medicine or Research, to immigrate here and also to work for a little less. It would be helpful if they looked like what we expect well-educated, intelligent, successful people to look like, but as long as they are willing to assimilate, they are welcome.
People mostly immigrate for three reasons.
1. They are refugees--something, a natural or manmade disaster (war, fire, tsunami, huge earthquake, volcano, coupe, genocide, human trafficking) has taken their home, made it unsafe for themselves or their family, and driven them out. No one chooses to be a refugee. No one can safely stay in the country they called home when they are a refugee.
2. They are hopeless--The country they were born in has shown them that they will never be successful, they are the wrong color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or they have a physical or mental disability or a set of beliefs that place them at risk for starvation, beating, imprisonment, ostracism, and believe that there is another place where they can find hope.
3. Adventurers--those people that see every opportunity as an adventure. They are risk-takers, shakers and movers, lunatics. They are also not the most common group immigrating. These individuals are much more likely to get a visa, or fly in on a kite, then go home when the adventure is over. This also seems to be the only group the USA really wants to deal with. "Come on in, spend your money, share your thoughts, leave when you have nothing else to give us."
While Columbus may have been that winning #3 candidate, adventurous and going home when he has what he wants, the rest of us got here via immigrants of the first 2 varieties. We were trafficked, be were bond servants avoiding imprisonment, we were religious outcasts, tenth children of poor people, hopeless, ostracized, seeing our only future in a new land. Three hundred years ago, no one was turning anyone away. One hundred years ago, our nation was starting to squawk if the faces were too brown or the religions too diverse. These days--we only want the cream.
Why would the cream of the crop of a nation migrate? For a better country? A better paycheck? Why? We are not number one in the USA for most things that make people that already have their choice of places to go and salaries to request make that choice.
We are attractive to people in places that have no freedoms. We are attractive to people that see us as accessible on foot and having some chance of living--not dying. We are attractive to people that have no idea what it is like in real life. Our TV shows make us look like everyone has money and opportunity. Our homeless people, our prisoners, our children and women that have been forced into prostitution or into slave labor, they aren't on the TV sitcoms.
And our hate, we do not put that hate on TV. We do not show that the same thing that made states and cities have to come up with plans to stop segregation, exist. Our melting pot is full of people that think their way is better, their genes are better, their religion is better, and their brains are better than those people that are not like them. The people in power whine when the opportunities they were born with are offered to people that have never had those opportunities before. We are so afraid of competing with people we view as inferior and being proven wrong in our assumption of superiority. We believe there is a limited amount of resources and opportunities and sharing might mean not having either for ourselves or our loved ones.
Can we become a more secure, less hateful, fearful, acquisitive, greedy,competitive, judgemental nation?
I think I'm counting on it.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Bernie Sanders--I'm in.
Bernie Sanders announced his run for presidency and I'm in.
I'm in, not because I have always wanted to be a socialist---which I remember when I was young hearing the actual definition and not really understanding why it was such an evil thing, but accepting that everyone else must be right.
I'm in, not because I have a problem with a female president--I would be in if it was Elizabeth Warren also.
I'm in because the words coming out of his mouth match the votes coming out of his work in congress.
I'm in because he is still fighting for the people he represents and not wealthy, corporate donors that want one more vote to do the thing that hurts the regular people while ensuring ongoing power and money flow to those that already have plenty of both.
I'm in because I promised myself that if there was a candidate that was not the same ole-same ole politician, read--"snake oil salesman", I would do my part.
So, I'm in.
And I'll be annoying a lot of friends and relatives with my inability to avoid religion and POLITICS for the peace of family gatherings. I'll be beating whatever drums I can find. I am going to stay true to what I believe and share that---because the land of my birth and 14 generations of ancestors and all the descendants I have, is currently being threatened by greed and corruption and bigotry and hate.
I want to be part of the solution, and the solution is not to roll over while we return to a feudal system with rich land owners and power monger and poor peasants that work constantly to live their short, brutal lives. I don't want to live through a French revolution or A Russian revolution or A Chinese revolution--all brought on by systems in which the rich and powerful thought it was all right to treat everyone else as if they were disposable assets whose purpose it was to make those rich folks lives easier.
I am not a bit player in my own life drama. My life matters. And everyone currently in prison for bad choices they made trying to deal with their own hopelessness and poverty, their lives matter, and everyone currently homeless because the system allows for that, and everyone that is ridiculed for using SNAP because minimum wage won't pay for food and a place to live and a way to get to work and school supplies and daycare, they matter. Every person that wants to further their education but can't go to school and work fulltime, everyone that wants to get an education in a field that is so undervalued that the salary won't pay the student loans, their lives matter. And every young man of color that has been pulled over for looking suspicious and been disrespected or pistol whipped or shot for talking back or not moving fast enough--their lives matter.
Look around you. If you can see anything that is not fair; if opportunities for self-improvement are not within the grasp of someone your care about because your own family is not successful and powerful; if you are afraid for you offspring in the current climate, or for the safe retirement of your parents or for yourself, you too know it is time to fix the problems.
There is still time. There is still hope. But turning off the news is not the answer. Ostriches don't really stick their heads in the sand, but humans that are scared definitely do.
Be Brave. Vote for Bernie.
I'm in, not because I have always wanted to be a socialist---which I remember when I was young hearing the actual definition and not really understanding why it was such an evil thing, but accepting that everyone else must be right.
I'm in, not because I have a problem with a female president--I would be in if it was Elizabeth Warren also.
I'm in because the words coming out of his mouth match the votes coming out of his work in congress.
I'm in because he is still fighting for the people he represents and not wealthy, corporate donors that want one more vote to do the thing that hurts the regular people while ensuring ongoing power and money flow to those that already have plenty of both.
I'm in because I promised myself that if there was a candidate that was not the same ole-same ole politician, read--"snake oil salesman", I would do my part.
So, I'm in.
And I'll be annoying a lot of friends and relatives with my inability to avoid religion and POLITICS for the peace of family gatherings. I'll be beating whatever drums I can find. I am going to stay true to what I believe and share that---because the land of my birth and 14 generations of ancestors and all the descendants I have, is currently being threatened by greed and corruption and bigotry and hate.
I want to be part of the solution, and the solution is not to roll over while we return to a feudal system with rich land owners and power monger and poor peasants that work constantly to live their short, brutal lives. I don't want to live through a French revolution or A Russian revolution or A Chinese revolution--all brought on by systems in which the rich and powerful thought it was all right to treat everyone else as if they were disposable assets whose purpose it was to make those rich folks lives easier.
I am not a bit player in my own life drama. My life matters. And everyone currently in prison for bad choices they made trying to deal with their own hopelessness and poverty, their lives matter, and everyone currently homeless because the system allows for that, and everyone that is ridiculed for using SNAP because minimum wage won't pay for food and a place to live and a way to get to work and school supplies and daycare, they matter. Every person that wants to further their education but can't go to school and work fulltime, everyone that wants to get an education in a field that is so undervalued that the salary won't pay the student loans, their lives matter. And every young man of color that has been pulled over for looking suspicious and been disrespected or pistol whipped or shot for talking back or not moving fast enough--their lives matter.
Look around you. If you can see anything that is not fair; if opportunities for self-improvement are not within the grasp of someone your care about because your own family is not successful and powerful; if you are afraid for you offspring in the current climate, or for the safe retirement of your parents or for yourself, you too know it is time to fix the problems.
There is still time. There is still hope. But turning off the news is not the answer. Ostriches don't really stick their heads in the sand, but humans that are scared definitely do.
Be Brave. Vote for Bernie.
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