Let's Fix the United States of America by updating the constitution.

 The Constitution - Full Text | The National Constitution Center (for your reading pleasure)

Back when the constitution was new, the country was 13 states that had been 13 colonies whose loyalty was to their owner nation.  Each colony wished to maintain it's special individuality.  The constitution, which was always more compromise (to get the approval of 13 varied colony's leaders) than work of brilliance.   The idea of a country without a monarch was very new, with most pointing to Ancient Greece and it's republic as the only example of a non-monarchy in existence---ever.  They knew nothing except European practices after the Church.

Yet, here we are, 246 years later, still acting like our government is the cat's pajamas.

We can AND should do better.

1. The checks and balances of a three part leadership of the country is fine, but why is the executive branch appointing the Top of the Judicial Branch---for life.  No one should get handed a lifetime guaranteed job.  AND the people should vote these people in with 8 year terms and NO second terms.

2. The President should remain 4 years with one possible second term but the qualifications need to include a thorough background check, tax audit, AND a sitting president needs to have ALL assets (except one home and one vehicle) placed by the country in a holding status for the duration of their presidency, no access to any family members.  Also, no family members, including in-laws can work for the president/white house or hold appointed positions in his cabinet/advisors.  Presidential elections need to be a national primary with ranked voting followed by a November election between the TOP TWO primary winners.  Both will be by popular vote, so that each citizen has one vote equal to every other citizen's vote.  Every Citizen, upon achieving both age 18 AND U.S. citizenship status shall be registered.  Every Citizen shall receive a government photo ID for free that is provided upon the same date. 

To clarify, while States still will run state elections, National elections will be run by the Nation, no more party-run primaries, or caucuses, no more Electoral colleges where states with hardly any people have more power than states with huge populations.

National elections will include President/Vice-President, Supreme Court Justices, all Federal Judges,  and the Attorney General every 4 years,  Cabinet Members every 4 years (what?  oh yeah! no more crap with executive branch putting anti-education folks over education and anti-environmental people over the EPA), Senators (Every 4 years) and representatives (every 4 years).  Every candidate for every position will pass the same background check that the presidential and vice-presidential candidates must undergo.  No person can run for the same position more than 2 times, whether they win or not.

Monies for all national elections will be be a set amount provided by the US government and Citizens United will be Stopped completely, as will grassroots donations.  NO MORE BUYING ELECTIONS!  Every Media Organization will be required to provide free and equal time to each candidate.  Lying to get elected will not be allowed.  Campaigning before Six months prior to the primary will not be allowed.  Starting conspiracy theories, spreading untrue rumors about opponent will result in disqualification.

US States - Ranked by Population 2022 (worldpopulationreview.com)

Next up, ungerrymander the country.  Either re-divide the states or allow each state 1 senator for every half a million people.  then wyoming (the District of columbia, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware) gets 1 senator, Rhode Island, Montana, New Hampshire, Hawaii, West Virginia, Idaho, Nebraska get 2  senators, New Mexico, Kansas and Mississippi get 3 senators, Arkansas, Iowa, Nevado, Utah and Connecticutt get 4 senators, Oklahoma, Oregon, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Alabama get 5 senators, all the way up to California getting 40 senators.  (you could also have the same number of senators as representatives, which would also be by population)

OR, we keep 2 senators per state-district and go for areas with over 30 million million each.  With that we get about 11 states.  (I've added the District of columbia and Puerto Rico, sense we should not have US citizens with no vote.)

Districts 1 and 2, California and Texas each get 2 senators.

District 3, Florida and Georgia combine to get 2 senators.

District 4, New York and Pennsylvania combine to get 2 senators.

District 5, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio combine to get 2 senators.

District 6, District of Columbia, Virginia and West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina and Puerto Rico combine to get 2 senators.

District 7, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennesse, and Kentucky get 2 senators.

District 8, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho Utah and Hawaii get 2 senators.

District 9, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska get 2 senators.

District 10, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska get 2 senators.

District 11, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticutt, New Jersey, Vermont, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maine, and New Hampshire get 2 senators.

Or, we just eliminate 2 houses of congress, and stick with 4 year terms in the currently apportioned house of representatives and give both the job of the house and the job of the senate to the single house.  (K.I.S.S.)

Comments and suggestions welcome.  

expected high--113 degrees.

 It is July 18th of 2022.  

In February, it was so cold the old houses in my neighborhood were hanging quilts inside over the doors and windows and still by day three the heater was struggling to keep it above 60 inside.

In May, it was raining so much we thought we were going to get a repeat of the 2019 floods.

By June, we had stopped raining and hit 100 degrees (F) several times.

By today, we have hit over 100 as many days as not.  

Tuesday, expected is 113.  

That's tomorrow.  

The days that haven't gone over 100 in the last week have hit 98-99.  

They always feel hotter--heat index.

No rain since June 10th.  None. Not even the usual July 4th post fireworks shower.

People are saying stupid stuff, like "perhaps climate change is real".

Why climate change became popular

While attested since the 1850s and notably used in some 1950s research and reporting, the phrase climate change spread in the 1980s. There was no official call for everyone to start saying climate change instead of global warming, and it’s a myth that scientists changed the name global warming to climate change because they weren’t finding evidence for average rises in temperature across the globe. You can still find resources that use both terms.

However, many organizations, such as NASA, use climate change more frequently because it encompasses all of the predicted effects of global warming and “temperature change itself isn’t the most severe effect of changing climate.” (It’s changes in sea levels and precipitation patterns.)  The Changing Language Of Climate Change | Dictionary.com

And don't forget the term "greenhouse gases".

The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when gases in Earth's atmosphere trap the Sun's heat. This process makes Earth much warmer than it would be without an atmosphere. The greenhouse effect is one of the things that makes Earth a comfortable place to live.

What Is the Greenhouse Effect? | NASA Climate Kids

Venus may have had a shallow liquid-water ocean and habitable surface temperatures for up to 2 billion years of its early history, according to computer modeling of the planet’s ancient climate by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. 

Venus today is a hellish world. It has a crushing carbon dioxide atmosphere 90 times as thick as Earth’s. There is almost no water vapor. Temperatures reach 864 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees Celsius) at its surface.

NASA climate modeling suggests Venus may have been habitable – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

Overview | Venus – NASA Solar System Exploration

Amazingly, the main issue climate change deniers have is the belief that humans could affect the climate of the whole world.

The deniers also frequently think that an asteroid striking earth could not cause the ice age and that dinosaur bones were placed in the rocks by the devil to make the faithful question God's word---the bible, which makes no mention of such and seems to describe an earth less than 10,000 years old. 

So, let's talk about human effects on environment.

The Dust Bowl of the 1930's was well documented.  There are both pictures and written testimonies of it as it occurred.  

It was no accident that it occurred after the Land Rush and statehood.  Suddenly, a huge prairie was being cleared, plowed, and farmed.  

Many current farming practices, strip planting, terracing, crop rotation, and planting fallow land were a result of lessons learned from the Dust Bowl: Cause & Impact On Great Depression - HISTORY

That, and the rather ridiculous statements of belief by those profiting by selling land, that the act of starting a farm would make that land more lush and fertile.

The old practice of plowing up endless fields with no attention to erosion, watershed, or normal rainfall in an area resulted in a topsoil, loosened by drought, being blown by the winds of the plains---for miles.  

Science.  

It's not magic.

It's literally learning from what we can check with our 5 senses and the instruments we can create that help us to use those same senses to see smaller things, detect smaller amounts of a chemical (like taste and smell)  feel smaller movements (touch) or hear soundwaves outside the realm of human ear detection.  

Ignorance is not the answer---a full-bodied education is.

Thoughts and prayers is not the answer---use of the information we learn from those that study such things, to decrease our own human impact  is.

Humans can not continue to live as locust on the surface of our home planet.

We are too many and too impactful.

It is time to view ourselves as actual stewards instead of just consumers.

The Last Day of 2021.

 It's been a long year.  The pandemic is settling in to be the new normal as we no longer have time to reach herd immunity---the virus has mutated past that.  

We do have lot's of herd mentality.

We had our capital infiltrated by enemies for the first time since 1814---which was during an actual war.

We saw a 17 year old take an illegally purchased weapon to a protest via mom's driving him across state lines, and he was found not guilty. 

We saw a gal pal of pedophile Epstein get convicted of trafficking---sentencing to follow.

We saw an attack on Roe vs. Wade, not overturned yet, but plenty of states have made ending an unwanted pregnancy difficult to illegal.

It has been a weird year.

I'm ready for 2022.

I'm ready for normal, though I suspect a new normal is coming.

We are going to make that new normal.

Let's make it a good year:  a year of peace, a year of equality, a year of equity, a year of love.

Bye, 2021, may you rest your weary bones.

Welcome 2022.

All hope lies in you.

Where did I come from and Where am I going.

 I was born less than 30 miles from the place I currently live.  My parents moved to the "oil capital of the world" in the 1950's, from a farm in Arkansas.  Neither were from Arkansas, but WWII broke a lot of ties for people as they went into the military then left after the war ended.  My mother was an "elderly prima gravida", i.e., over 30 at her first pregnancy.  

Descriptions of life before Tulsa were stark:  two people that saw the struggle of the depression just before adulthood, two people that experienced the country on ration stamps after a time when food lines and homelessness and hobo-hood were avoided by rural farm life (plant a garden, raise animals, hunt animals, milk cow, gather eggs.)  All clothes were homemade, and for growing people, frequently passed around as growth spurts demanded.  Kids got a new pair of shoes once a year, and they became next years everyday shoes, so bought extra big. 

People quilted, not as an art form but to make blankets out of the pieces and scraps from flour sacks and worn out clothes.  Wood fires in winter, kerosene lanterns till electricity made it to rural areas.  Cars and trucks lasted until no one could fix it and lots of mechanics were born of learning to make that old engine and transmission give one more year of life.

Memories of my 1950's idyllic childhood included watching pigs castrated, chicken necks wrung, steers dehorned, manually squishing the water out of clothes after the washing, snapping green beans, picking berries and cherries, canning jar after jar of tomatoes and green beans and anything that could be canned---enough for two years, in case next year was a bad year for the garden.  

My first store bought dress was when I was in third grade---for pictures.  I watched too many westerns, so it was old fashioned and frankly very homely, but I loved it.  I had two childhood friends--a cousin and my mom's best friends daughter that were a year ahead of me, in age and size, and both mom's sewed, so I had plenty of hand-me-downs.  When the bags appeared, I could tell where they came from by the way they smelled--one smelled of the farm, one smelled of sandalwood.  I learned to iron by 10 because cotton was cheaper than permanent press and wrinkles were a sign of poor upbringing.

We learned fashion rules: no white shoes before Memorial Day or after Labor Day, only dresses at church, hats and purse and shiny shoes on Easter.  Curlers and hair spray for family holidays, picture day at school.  Take your school clothes off and put them back up when you got home and put on "play clothes" (I would call them paint clothes now, one's not good enough for public, perfect for home).

I survived the civil rights movement, the war protests, watergate, and trickle-down economics without having any of it impact me much at the time.  I survived college life in a school with a large Iranian student body that suddenly left with little understanding of the coup in Iran that the USA contributed to.  I survived the rise of apocalyptic evangelicalism with little awareness of what that movement was doing to old time religion all over the country.  And I survived the change from folks just living their lives to becoming "consumers", like that was a new religion and an act of Patriotism.  

When my mother bought my 7 year old son a pair of $150 Jordans, I was shocked.  When she bought him a tv for his room, something a had said no to, since we had never had more than a single TV in our house, I thought she had been abducted by aliens.  But still, I didn't see what was going on.

My parents got old and sick and died.  My children survived their childhood and became productive members of society---good consumers one and all.  Then, the twin towers went down and the Wallstreet bubble popped and we elected a black president---and suddenly I could see connections.  I could see the connections to all the way back from moving to the booming oil town.  All the way back to WWII and the great depression and FDR.  AND the Cold War, AND Slavery, AND Colonialism.  All the patriotism.  All the flag waving.  

Suddenly Columbus day was no longer about a great discovery, but about the genocide of a populated continent---populated for at least 12,000 years, with civilizations rising and falling and religions rising and falling and cultures rising and falling, and the invasion by outsiders causing much of that falling.

The Oil capital of the World, in 1950's America, was where the indigenous people who were shoved off their original land starting 130 years earlier, had been pushed.  It was given to them.  Then, Oil was discovered, like it had been in Pennsylvania in 1859.  In case you think this makes us Americans awesome, China used it about 2,000 years ago, and Babylon put it in their asphalt to build with in 459 BCE.  The difference in 1859, was the industrial age, and while steam engines worked, the use of petroleum allowed less bulking fuel than wood or coal in trains. 

The oil boom, not unlike the gold booms in Colorado and California, directly made both more desireable for statehood.  The industrial age was also the birth of the industrial baron families, richer than gods and thus capable of influencing government officials, both legally and corruptly.  

What did that oil boom do?  Read the "Killers of the Flower Moon" for details. But, the discovery of Oil in Oklahoma was an accident, in 1859, near Salina, in the then Oklahoma Territory, in a well that had been drilled for salt. In 1907, before Oklahoma became a state, it produced the most oil of any state or territory in the United States. From 1907 to 1930, Oklahoma and California traded the title of number one US oil producer back and forth.^[1] Oklahoma oil production peaked in 1927, at 762,000 barrels/day, and by 2005 had declined to 168,000 barrels/day, but then started rising, and by 2014 had more than doubled to 350,000 barrels per day, the fifth highest state in the U.S.^[2]

In the latter quarter of the 20th century, an average decline of 3.1%/year, until additional drilling led to a temporary increase from 1980 to 1984, followed by a decline at 6.6%/year until the average decline of 3.1% was met in 1994.^[3] As of September 2012, 72 out of the 77 counties in Oklahoma have producing oil or gas wells. The deepest natural gas well is 24,928 feet (7,598 m), in Beckham County, and the deepest producing oil well is 15,500 feet (4,700 m), in Comanche County.^[4]

Fracking and the injection of the water used to do that created earthquakes, people with well water (oklahoma is rural, many people use well water, hooking up to rural water supplies is expensive and not covered by the government) were experiencing water that was flammable from methane.

So here I am, living in the last land of the Southeast indigenous people since Europe arrived seeking riches.  The tribes are still fighting for the upholding of the various treaties that our US government failed to honor when it was a case of natural resources/land that Europeans wanted to make money on.  The nonvoluntary African immigrants are still fighting for their right to be treated equally under the law.  The Asian immigrants brought with promises of work and livelihood are still fighting for equal opportunities.  And despite the right to Freedom of Religion and Separation of Church and State, there are deep prejudices against those of nonprotestant Christian beliefs.

So, now people are calling me "woke".  Griping about my "leftist politics", while all I'm doing is trying to make the US constitution as true and honest as the flag-waving, patriotism of my early childhood.

I only offend those that don't believe in freedom for all, equality for all, and opportunity for all.  Where am I going?---to keep trying to wake other people up.  

climate change is here---it's sadder than expected

 Hundreds of deaths were being investigated as heat related in Oregon, Washington state and British Columbia. The dangerous heat began June 25 and only began to subside in some areas on Tuesday the 29th.

The death toll in Oregon alone has reached at least 95, the state medical examiner said on Friday, with most occurring in Multnomah County, which encompasses Portland. The deaths include an Guatemalan immigrant who collapsed as he worked at a plant nursery in a rural Oregon town during the soaring heat.

Death toll from Northwest heat wave expected to keep rising | The Kansas City Star

The northwest---land of our rainforest, our always coolish, always green lands.

There are Asian Elephants wandering across countries seeking a place that can sustain their lives.

We just had a hotter than ever June despite record rains---that translates to swampish conditions working outside.  Clothes saturated with sweat in less than 2 hours despite shade and breeze.

A building collapsed in Florida--right off of the Ocean.

Whales are dying.

There are 3900 tigers living in the wild.

There are about 10,000 tigers living in captivity.

In the last decade, 160 species went extinct.

There are at least 4 trucks in my small town of 15,000 that have altered their exhaust to belch clouds of black smoke on command.

I'm starting to understand that we,  the all-of-us we, are not going to actually fix climate change.

I'm getting that I may or may not see how bad it can get, I'm over 60, but am noticing that exercising and breathing in this soupy air is harder every year.  But I'm also starting to get that my grandkids might not see how bad it can get.  

We joke about cave men being old by 40.  I'm sure that a rare person lived as long as our oldest now, but I'm also sure that life expectancy was actually about 40.

That means lots of dead men/women/children.  

Humans are great at adapting, but not so good at sharing, at sacrificing their own creature comforts, (crying about masks, fights about missing huge group events---just to keep from spreading a virus that was killing people) and if the pandemic was too hard to live through, how much worse will it have to get to bring the planet back from our own, selfish, high-profit, tasty but bad for you eating habits and creature comforts.

Those trucks, belching eye-watering, nose burning, throat-clenching smoke for no reason except to say---"look what I can do, you silly pansies". 

Like overbred show-dogs, we have bred out our own ability to survive.

Time for the CDC to study gun violence---and police violence.

 The CDC is a great site for the public to learn about health issues.  It is also the hub of where research lands, and the county health departments send the information they collect from hospitals, physician offices, and follow up calls death to the state health departments which can add in information from trauma registry and death certificates, which then provides information to the CDC.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov)

Injury Center | CDC

Firearm Violence Prevention |Violence Prevention|Injury Center|CDC

Why is the CDC not allowed to study gun violence?

The amendment, which was first tucked into an appropriations bill signed into law by President Bill Clinton, stipulates that "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control."

Why was the CDC shut down for gun control?

They lobbied the government to shut down the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control entirely. To compromise, Congress settled on the Dickey Amendment, which states: “None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”

Why the Feds don't research gun violence?

Dickey: Why the feds don't research gun violence. Passed in 1997 with the strong backing of the NRA, the so-called "Dickey Amendment" effectively bars the national Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from studying firearm violence -- an epidemic the American Medical Association has since dubbed "a public health crisis.".

Gun Violence: Why the CDC Doesn't Study It (healthline.com)  An excellent, fact checked article.  

Forty states send gun injury and death information to the CDC.  Ten do not.  The law prevents it from being required and from being studied for purposes of understanding root causes.

There is nothing that centralizes research on police caused injury and death. Several groups have taken it upon themselves to try to track this, but without regulations and requirements, there are many holes in their databases.

Police shootings database 2015-2021 - Washington Post

•People shot to death by U.S. police, by race 2021 | Statista

Lists of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States - Wikipedia

FBI Releases 2019 Statistics on Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line of Duty — FBI

There are multiple lists and stats and databases, none complete.  None going very far back.  And none with the same rules of inclusion.

We have an easy route to both report and collect all gun violence and Police violence using the same systems that report Hepatitis C in the community and primary lung cancer deaths.  It's there.  Laws to maintain ignorance and prevent improvement are currently only serving the NRA and the Police Unions.

Ignorance is not bliss but complicit.

Majority Rules in Oklahoma

I just read an editorial about voter fraud written by an Oklahoman in a local newpaper.  

Not about Oklahoma voter fraud, but about voter fraud in every state that didn't vote like Oklahoma voted.  Her push was to have all the voter fraud in the states that really voted for Trump but the vote looked like the vote was for Biden, examined and corrected.

Yes, I know, all the voter fraud claims were found to be untrue except a few in which the fraud was someone trying to vote extra for trump.

Apparently, she believed that Trump was soooo popular that the idea of anyone voting against him was unthinkable.

Oklahoma has a population of 4,027,691 per Oklahoma estimates (the 2020 census says just under 4 million, so I'm guessing that our census results are missing a few folks)  

Of those 24.1% are under 18, so 3,057,018 are of voting age.  Of those, 74% actually registered to vote, but they didn't all vote.  

About 51% of those over 18 actually voted.

Trump=1020280

Biden=503890

Jorgensen=24731

Kanye West=5597

Jade Simmons=3654

Brock Pierce=2547

So, 33% of Oklahomans over age 18 voted for Trump.

This state was in the top 5 states voting for Trump.  All 5 states were small by population.   Their is no evidence that anyone should think that Trump was so popular in most other states, and 33% of Oklahomans voted for him.

We need better math classes in this state.

2020 Popular Vote Tracker | The Cook Political Report

Batmanned--creating our enemies.

 'I'm scared': AP obtains video of deadly arrest of Black man (apnews.com)

The above article is one example of a person reacting to his own past experiences, and those he has seen experienced by others.  

Which person am I talking about--the poor man that died scared in police custody?  or the police officers?  

Batman was a direct result of a city of corruption that led him to watch the death of his parents.  But the bad guys, they were also the result of the evil they saw, at the hands of the corrupt city.

It's an old story, the hero and the villain created from the same origin story.

The thin blue line folks will tell you, I'm just doing my job, I shouldn't get hurt doing my job.  People just need to do what I tell them.  People need to stay calm because I have to make split second decisions based on their actions to keep myself and my fellow officers safe.  

Pretty much, saying "gun" if you are not a middle class white man or woman, is the same as pointing a gun at them.  That split second is so filled with fear that the shoot, frequently emptying the gun into center body mass from 10 foot or less from the "bad guy".

I know we are seeing more of this because of smart phones and social media and body cams, but are we also seeing more of it because we have all seen more of this?  

Is the fear now greater due to the many times we have seen what happens when the police decide to go after a nonwhite person?  Are there more high speed chases, more foot chases, more brown folks going "rabbit"---perhaps you prefer "deer in the headlight", frozen, with fear, trying to move slowing so as not to get shot, saying things like "there is a gun in the---(huge and multiple booms go off).

We now have stand your ground in a lot of states.  If the police use a no-knock warrant to enter a home, can the residents lawfully shoot them?

Is there a law that officers have a right to put their hands on a person instead of using their words?  You know, to turn them around and spread their legs, to shove their head down to get them in the car.  

Do officers have a right to yell instead of talk, curse instead of talk, push instead of talk.  Do regular citizen not have those same rights?

Getting your respect by making those you interact with fear for their lives is not actually respect.

And guess what, that adrenaline you are working with, the person you are yelling at is dealing with that too.  

We don't need Batman and the Joker. We don't need more badass cops.  We need Andy of Mayberry.  We need Mr. Rogers.  We need Officer Friendly, that lives in the neighborhood and helps people when they have problems.

Maybe we can head off the horrible effects of poverty and criminal/police interactions if we start early on more than just making poor kids hate cops young.

How do we fix the problems in our country.

 • People shot to death by U.S. police, by race 2021 | Statista

Black Lives Matters didn't start out as an anti-police group, it started as a group to make people aware of the justice inequality faced by black people.  Trayvon Martin was it's poster boy.  

But the deaths of black people at the hands of police quickly provided them with an even bigger target---the killing of unarmed people by the police, before they are found guilty of a crime, before they made any attempt to harm anyone;  for having a mental health issue, for having a big mouth, for admitting they owned a gun, for being high, for not following directions fast enough.  It soon became obvious, due to the increased awareness of the public and the access to video and audio that most of us now have, that the police are not about justice---they are about obedience, getting their respect, and their right to shoot anyone that looks at them cross-eyed.

Our current policing methods are not shared by all other countries.

Countries Where Police Do Not Carry Guns - WorldAtlas

There are 18 countries in the above group.  They do not have a higher crime or death by gun rate because of this.  It is working for them

Murder Rate By Country - WorldAtlas

Countries with the widest gaps between rich and poor are four times more likely to experience violent crimes than other countries. These inequitable societies are found most often in developing countries, where high poverty lacking infrastructure is commonplace. Poverty and crime go hand in hand; crime drives away businesses and investors, reducing available human capital and creating an insecure environment, which, in turn, leads to more poverty. Organized crime, like gangs and drug trafficking, also contribute to high murder rates.

Gun ownership is not associated with lower crime or better democracies.

Currently, over 175 nations allow their citizens to own firearms, but only three constitutions in the world still include the right to own a gun, and these are the United States, Mexico, and Guatemala. Other than the United States, the other two constitutions have specific restrictive conditions on gun ownership.  https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-highest-rate-of-gun-ownership.html

Our own country has a murder rate of about 5/100,000. That places us at 89th in the world.  I have no idea if being shot by the police is counted in this number.  I do know that the countries worse than us are not on most of our  bucket list of vacation spots.

The crossover of so many things with poverty is bizarre.   We never try to fix poverty.  We never try to create better opportunities for everyone starting at birth.  Never try to make sure no one makes too little to live on, can't afford a decent place to live, can't get a decent meal, a decent education, or good access to healthcare.

The maps for poverty, republicans, poor education, unemployment, crime, deaths by police, teen pregnancy, untreated mental illness, prison populations and drug addiction are the same maps.

Why can't anyone recognize that the thing that bonds them all, the thing that drives them all is poverty.  

And we can do something about poverty.

But first we have to stop acting like being poor is a birth defect.

We have to stop acting like money is a score card.

We have to stop trying to make being poor proof that poor people are genetically inferior and start recognizing that poverty is hard to get out of, hard because when born into it, you will never get the same opportunities that a person that isn't born into it has.  

You can't spend the first 5 years of life being hungry, or watched by people that have never seen good parenting---not because they are bad, but because they only learned what they saw.  Then go to school in a system made for people that had a very different life experience.  Then treated like they are stupid because they don't know milk comes from cows or flowers grow in the woods or, flip side, that cities have subways or airports but no cow and no tractors.  

You can't expect children that spent the night listening to dad and mom fight over the last bottle of beer or, worse, cower in the center of the apartment because of the gunfire, then get up and think that the poster contest is exciting.

You can't throw kids out for swearing when everyone they knows uses far worse language, from grandpa to big sister.

You can't judge kids for being sexually active when mom has been supporting them for 14 years as a sex worker.

You can't expect kids to be at school everyday to get a perfect attendance certificate when they have to be working for the neighborhood dealer or the pimp to pay for rent and food or out baling hay or picking strawberries.

Poverty is the enemy.

And our system is currently making it harder and harder to get out of poverty.

The score card shouldn't be dollars but  happy, self-actualizing lives.

There should not be one person whose lack of money is preventing them from reaching their dreams.  We all have plenty of road blocks without making money a part of the equation.

Our country is no better than the worst conditions we allow to remain in existence.

   

Cost of living increase.

 We assume that the cost of living is like inflation but they are not the same.  

Cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living. Changes in the cost of living over time are often operationalized in a cost-of-living index. Cost of living calculations are also used to compare the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living in different geographic areas. Differences in cost of living between locations can also be measured in terms of purchasing power parity rates. (from Wikipedia)

In economics, inflation (or less frequently, price inflation) is a general rise in the price level in an economy over a period of time. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation reflects a reduction in the purchasing power per unit of money – a loss of real value in the medium of exchange and unit of account within the economy. The opposite of inflation is deflation, a sustained decrease in the general price level of goods and services. The common measure of inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index, usually the consumer price index, over time.

Inflation and deflation are all about the economy.

Cost of living is all about living, specifically, a standard of living.

In the USA, living free, as in homeless, unemployeed, owning no property, is highly frowned upon if not out right illegal.  Further, it is not ok to go pitch a tent on government land and live there for free off the land.  Parks have over-night stay permits that cost money.  Other government land is not treated so much like public land as it is like forbidden land--with ranchers or miners frequently renting rights to use it.

The current standard of living has changed significantly from 100 years ago.  In 1921, most houses were heated by open gas heaters in each room if modern or by a fireplace or wood stove if a little older or more rural.  Lighting was either gas fixtures, kerosene lamps, candles, or in rare urban areas, oddly, some in Colorado being first, by electricity.  There was national radio transmission in 1916, but actual stations didn't start until 1920 and FM stations weren't until 1937.

History of Commercial Radio | Federal Communications Commission (fcc.gov)

Statistics: The American Economy during the 1920s | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

By 1925, less than 20% of the population had a radio.  There were enough cars for about 20% of the population, but they tended to be owned by the wealthy and businesses and government agencies such as police, fire departments and military.  Roughly 1 phone for every ten people was available, but most of these were public phones, and those individuals with phones in their homes were on party lines with no privacy whatsoever.  Also, the phone did one thing--it allowed people to hear each other, a huge improvement over the telegraph.

Entertainment was either live, singing, plays, dance performances, burlesque, caberet, AND movies, black and white film, silent, a little jerky, but well loved and only available in movie theaters, although I'm sure some of the rich 5% had theaters in their homes.

The income breakdown for this time per the IRS is:

$1,000-$2,000/year    37%

$2,000-$3,000/year     35%

$3,000-$5,000/year      18%

$10,000-$25,000/year    6%

$25,000-$50,000/year      2%

over $50,000/year             less than 2%

(yes, very similar to now, and in 1929 all that inequality caused a lot of problems, all around the world)

What Did It Cost? A Look Back (davemanuel.com)  a fun little site, try it.

A movie ticket in 1921 cost $0.07 cents, adjusted, that would be $0.97 cents today.

(can that be right?  actually keep watching, someone is making a killing off of us)

1920s Cost of Living. New House. 1920: $6,296. Average Income. 1920: $2,160 per year. New Car. 1920: $525. Average Rent. 1920: $15 per month. Movie Ticket. 1920: 15 cents each. Gasoline. 1920: 33 cents per gallon. First Class Postage Stamp. 1920: 2 cents. 1929: 2 cents

Now, what is not comparable in cost of living:  how has living in 2021 changed from 1921.

1.  Except for a few people, we all have to pay for running water, and with that is frequently a required sewage and trash payment.  A few people are off the grid and living on wells, where I'm from, those frequently come with a load of methane.

2.  Electricity (and possibly gas) are not luxuries.  Few houses are habitable without them as our houses are not cool in summer or hot in winter without a good energy source.  If you are so off the grid that you have a good well and only use wood for heat, congratulations, you are self sufficient, and your kids hate you).

3.  Internet service, wasn't even an option in 1921, but very hard to live without in the current age.  Children with no access have an education hardship.  Frequently, those without it get by with a cable subscription and a private hotspot on their cellphone, but cellphone is necessary for this.

4.  The old payphone/party line is now a purchasable (the old ones were leased), and while land lines are still an option, frequently bundled with cable or internet, the electronic cellphone that rapidly becomes obsolete is both expensive and requires a subscription.  (you can buy a cheap version, called a prepaid, that comes with a certain amount of hours of phone time and, depending on price, a bit of data available).  It's not free--or cheap.

5.  While you can listen to AM/FM radio on a car or home radio, most is so ad/saturated that people stream their music, podcasts, news programs.  Free radio is probably about the same as the 1920's.

6. Television for free is possible, if you get a great antennae (not cheap)  or are good with coat hangers and aluminum foil and live near a pretty good local station.  Cable/Satellite/internet streaming are not free or even particularly affordable.  (I have found streaming with internet considerably cheaper than a cable or satellite bundle, though)

7. Healthcare in the 1920's( 1920-1929 - Prices and Wages by Decade - Library Guides at University of Missouri Libraries )was not easily accessible. While Hammurabi mentions health insurance in ancient Mesopotamia and England had it in the 1850's, the USA had its first group health insurance plan in 1929.  Theodore Roosevelt supported Universal healthcare due to success of systems in Europe at the time.  The USA has still not bought this idea so pretty much no one could afford health care in 1921.  We didn't have effective antibiotics, so infections were a frequent cause of death.  Reality is, there wasn't much healthcare available, it wasn't particularly safe and effective, and most people couldn't afford it anyway.  These days, even with laws allowing emergency treatment without upfront pay and Obamacare and medicare and medicaid, about 10% of adults can not seek treatment for anything but emergency care.  Emergency departments hate when people show up for routine clinical care, and if they are being jerks, a trip in for a case of strep throat or uncontrolled blood sugar can legally be sent out with no treatment, just a reminder to see their private physician.  No, they don't have a private physician, no private physician will schedule them an appointment without a payor source up front.  At least the Doctor in 1921, if there was one nearby, would try to treat you for a chicken or a deer haunch.

8.  Education in 1921 was not universally available in every locale.  We did get the Education Act of 1921.  Education Act 1921 - The National Archives  Which gave free reign to local government.   It didn't require education beyond age 14, no special education requirements or early education requirements.  There is no mention of race.  While Reconstruction caused the legal requirement of education available to Black children, that was not a push for desegregation.  In North Carolina, for example, they finally required school to be available to black children for at least 16 weeks per year until age 16.  At that time there were no high schools for black children in the state.  I suppose that the fact that Chinese immigrants,  were not allowed in school until 1905 and Native Americans were not recognized as even citizens of the USA until 1924 makes all of this less amazing. At least now everyone gets to go to public school.  We just don't budget much for our non-private school students future success.

9.  College is also not particularly better for everyone.  A lot of us are ready for free university like in multiple European countries.  A better educated population makes a better country, and a better workforce.  Currently, 69% of our students go to college, the vast majority attending part time while working, though not always immediately after high school.  In 1960 that number was 45%.

10.  The immediate college enrollment rate by race from 2000 to 2017 was: 69% of white students in 2017 in opposition to 65% in 2000, 67% of Hispanic students in 2017 in opposition to 49% in 2000, 87% of Asian students in 2017 in opposition to 74% in 2000, 58% of black students in 2017 with no significant change since 2000.  (that is the very definition of institutional racism---how many give up on college due to no funds without a sports or academic scholarship before they even get through high school)

College           1921 Tuition
University of Georgia  FREE
University of South Carolina $40
William and Mary College $50
Clark University $100
Bates College $125
Bowdoin College $150
Johns Hopkins University $150-250
Dickinson College $160
University of Vermont $175
Colgate University $180
Boston University $225
Dartmouth College $250
Harvard University $250
Tufts College $250

College           2018 Tuition
Reed College $56,030
Cornell University $54,584
Connecticut College $69,970 (includes room and board)
Harvard University $46,340
Michigan State University $39,750
Dickinson College $54,636
Colgate University $55,530
Bucknell University $55,788
Gettysburg College $54,480
Dartmouth College $52,950
Tufts University $55,172
University of North Carolina $34,938
Pepperdine University $53,680
University of Virginia $48,891

These days, only 36% of jobs are available without any college.  In 1937, only 37% of jobs required any college.  

Inflation between 1921 and now:  in 1921 a $1 is now worth $14.69.

The average income in 1921 was $3,269.40, but the Median income  was between $2 and $3 thousand.  (the difference between the two has to do with that usual 2-5% that made out like bandits---we still have that only vastly worse.)

One Hundred years later, the median income is $68,400.00.  The average household income was $97,973.61 in 2020, yet minimum wage makes under $17,000/year.

Minimum wage didn't happen until 1933 and is part of the Roosevelt Great depression recovery.  It was initially declared unconstitutional.  But by 1938, was enacted at $0.25/hour.  ($4.54 in 2019 dollars)  Of course, most people were dirt poor on this wage, and the goal was food, people lost homes, farms, and families fell apart trying to survive.  The minimum wage was not meant to do anything but make employers not try to pay people a dollar a day.

If, instead of that first, very low wage, we used the median wage of 1921 as the minimum, then our current minimum wage would be over $17.00 an hour.  

America can eliminate poverty.  We have the knowledge, the tools and the money, we just need to decide to stop trapping people by giving everyone equal opportunities.

Why do men think they are better than women?

That is not exactly the question.  Better?  More Powerful?  Intellectually superior?  More capable of critical thinking?  Faster at moving, thinking, reacting?  

No.  Those are not the questions, either, although there are those that believe all of those are true.

A lot of people will say--they aren't, don't put me in that group that thinks men are better than women.

Ok.  

But my mother frequently would say things that implied all those things.  And also compared herself more favorably with men than with other women.

My aunt frequently stated that single women were relegated to live in a less full lifestyle because they had no husband to take care of them and make the decisions that would make the family successful.

So maybe the title question should have been "why do people think men are better than women?"

About half of us have admitted that there is such a thing as institutional racism.

We know that we never fully ratified the equal rights amendment.

There are women that fear equality would mean women would be drafted into the military or put into the line of fire if they join the military on their own.

But do we have institutional sexism?  or cultural sexism?

How commonly, do powerful men still treat women that are in less powerful positions as if they are basically "domestic help".

Why is domestic help seen as subserviant?

Why do we have jobs--jobs for anyone--that are not valued as equal people to those hiring them.

Why is being beautiful or physically fit or young seen as sexual and inviting despite the actual person not doing anything different than the old, fat, homely person.

These are real questions.

I have no answers.

These answers are the same answers to institutional racism and institutional religionism and  institutional ageism.

I need your opinion.  I need your input.  How do we fix this?