So I am wondering today and have been for a while. What is our country coming too? It is very scary knowing I have two children entering adulthood. What will their future hold? Jobs or any type of securtiy for them? Both are military bound which scares me. I am very thankful and proud that they both want to serve our nation. Navy and Army is their branches inwhich they will serve us. Will my children see the terror of war? Will they have to "terrorize" other human beings for our government? My hope is that they will not.
I look at my life and rethink all the values and morals I was taught and those forced down my throat. I do not think people having to go to a food pantry is okay. People sleeping on the streets is not okay. I see this everyday. And I see more and more people having to use the food bank and many more on the streets. This has got to change.
People are people and why we can't see that really confuses me. I don't live inside the box. I like the outside better. I don't play by the rules...unless I have too! I want a better nation. I want a place where all is accepted. I want the violence to stop. I want our government to take their damn blinders off and see what is happening here. HERE in America...HERE in Kentucky....EVERYWHERE.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Ten things that are important to me right now.
Listed are ten things that I feel are important right now. They are not listed in order of importance.
I did ask my children. Their response was rather short.
She said we need a better child care system. If single parents and working parents had affordable and safe child care, many could get off the welfare system. If a parent is paying so much in childcare and they do not have a good paying job it is hard to provide food and shelter as well.
- Health care
- Social security
- Economy/finance
- Jobs
- Green Space
- Sense of community
- Education
- Military
- Government reform
- Human rights/equality
I did ask my children. Their response was rather short.
- Family
- Gay rights
- War
She said we need a better child care system. If single parents and working parents had affordable and safe child care, many could get off the welfare system. If a parent is paying so much in childcare and they do not have a good paying job it is hard to provide food and shelter as well.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Extra Credit-Someplace Like America
Someplace Like America Tale From The New Great Depression is a chilling and haunting look at America. No matter what city or part of the county you may be in, you will find desperation and loss of hope. How is it that our past is the same as our future? Why haven’t we done anything to change it? Actually, why hasn’t the government put more money in us? We are a nation of starving people. Our government chooses to send food to other countries. Don’t we matter anymore?
For thirty years, the author, Dale Maharide and photographer, Michael S. Williamson took a deep step inside the real people of America. There is no sugar coating the words and the pictures. It is real. The steel factory in Youngstown shutting down and hundreds of hard working people lost their jobs. No longer can they pay their mortgage, heat their home or feed their children. Good people lose their homes due to foreclosures….where do they go? Where was our government when these people needed the most help?
The banks made millions from the foreclosures and the people lost more than money. We lost our pride.
People have moved into tents for shelter. Tents. For a nation that is to help the poor and the suffering, I must say the nation sucks at helping. Children being raised in these tent cities. No yard to play in. No food to eat, unless it is a good day. Its really sad that the government does not construct more respectable housing for the poor. Just because one has lost their job, their home and their money it doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to live in a home.
Sad, that people have to work two or three jobs just to keep their heads above water. Low wages attribute to this, as we all know. Jobs are so few. The jobs that usually are available are the minimum wages. How can a family survive on $7.25 an hour? We can’t. We are drowning so fast it may be to late to rescue us.
Reading Someplace…, really hit me hard. I find it so disturbing that so many Americans are without a home and food. So many can’t find work. Layoffs all around. Broken towns and broken people. We have to take a step forward together. Without each other this battle on the home front can not be won. We are resilient and we are strong. Nothing really can hold us down for too long. We overcome and we adapt to what is given to us.
Many cities across the countries have started community farms. How wonderful! A cheaper and healthier way for us to eat. It is great that communities that have been in ruins from empty homes to empty factories are trying to make a healthier and prettier community. The power of the people can change the rules and the powers. We have to unite as a community. We have to protect each other and ourselves.
What will the future hold for us if we don’t change? The depressions before us showed us. But now I fear the worse will happen. Many more Americans will be jobless, homeless, penniless. I worry for my children and their children. I hope that my future will be better. I hope getting a degree to teach the young will keep me secure. But, I don’t know. None of us do.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Extra Credit-My interpertation of this cartoon
When we were shown this in class and asked what we saw, I immediately saw the reference to the Wizard of Oz and the days of the "Big Boss".
At the beginning of the novel, Dorothy is swept from her farm to Oz by a cyclone, which was frequently compared to the free silver movement in the mid to late 1800's. The yellow brick road represents the gold. Dorthy had too reach Emerald City on the yellow brick road. Emerald City is Oz's political center, like Washington, DC.,and the Wizard is President of the United States. Dorthy was going to make her voice heard to this governing power without a face. She was going to be heard.
When the United States depended so much on gold to back them financially the gold standard was everything then.
The Big Boss men, such as Boss Man Tweed, helped the inner city people but at a price. The government sure wasn't helping. But to receive his help, these people had to vote for him and for his policies. If you didn't go along with the plan, you sure had hell to pay for. The boss had his minions or his lions as depicted in the cartoon below.
This cartoon shows a strong-willed boss with all the control attacking the little man protesting on his golden Wall Street. He is showing his power over the people. A lot of people saw a dog the boss was holding, I saw a lion, and that lion being the Big Boss' minion. A lion is much more menacing and violent.
At the beginning of the novel, Dorothy is swept from her farm to Oz by a cyclone, which was frequently compared to the free silver movement in the mid to late 1800's. The yellow brick road represents the gold. Dorthy had too reach Emerald City on the yellow brick road. Emerald City is Oz's political center, like Washington, DC.,and the Wizard is President of the United States. Dorthy was going to make her voice heard to this governing power without a face. She was going to be heard.
When the United States depended so much on gold to back them financially the gold standard was everything then.
The Big Boss men, such as Boss Man Tweed, helped the inner city people but at a price. The government sure wasn't helping. But to receive his help, these people had to vote for him and for his policies. If you didn't go along with the plan, you sure had hell to pay for. The boss had his minions or his lions as depicted in the cartoon below.
This cartoon shows a strong-willed boss with all the control attacking the little man protesting on his golden Wall Street. He is showing his power over the people. A lot of people saw a dog the boss was holding, I saw a lion, and that lion being the Big Boss' minion. A lion is much more menacing and violent.
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| Add caption |
Financial Gang
The G20
The Official Financial Gang
The world has 196 countries. The G20 selects only 19 countries and the European Union. That leaves 176 countries left standing without their voice being heard; leaving them silenced. The G20 with all the big dollars talk over those little countries whose voices can’t be heard over the sound of greed.
I was quite amazed when I went to the website of the G20, together we will share some of their achievements. How proud they are of themselves. What a joke.
“To tackle the financial and economic crisis that spread across the globe in 2008, the G20 members were called upon to further strengthen international cooperation”. Okay, are you serious? If that gang did their job correctly, I think the 2008 crisis wouldn’t be the 2009, 2010, 2011 crisis. I do not see any sort of strengthening going on internationally or locally.
“The G20, with its balanced membership of developed and developing countries helped the world deal effectively with the financial and economic crisis”. Balanced membership? How is that possible when the G20 left out 176 countries and billion of voices not being heard? Every country that is a member is developed. They are financially stabled and have a stable trade system. How can the WORLD deal effectively when 176 are left out? What are they smoking anyway?
“Reducing abuse of the financial system, dealing with financial crises”. I love this one. The financial system is so abused it needs to be turned over to the people. We need to stand up and create a bank for the people by the people. I like how our government will bail out these banks by millions of dollars and in turn these high end bankers make so many millions. But, the abuse still goes on and the people are the ones getting hit on the ass.
“First, the scope of financial regulation has been largely broadened, and prudential regulation and supervision have been strengthened”. Bullshit.
The public is not informed of anything inside of these top secret meetings until the end. Then we are blessed to know the outcome of more lies. I think it is a bunch of bullshit that the people are denied knowing what these countries are discussing when it is involving OUR money as well. We should be privy to this knowledge. They can keep it closed door, but it should be aired. We have a right to be informed; we are intelligent people.
When the G20 has their meeting in a different area around the world, security is raised ten-fold. So, the people are informed months in advanced. They can stand up and take their voice to the street and be heard. Peaceful occupation is the only way to make a good protest work in the streets. Don’t bring the violence to the scene. It is sad when the men and women in blue who serve and protect us use violence against those being nonaggressive. That sort of behavior needs to stop. There is no need for an officer to spray pepper spray on people. We have the right to speak and we will be heard.
The G20 is just disturbing. Why all the secrets? Why not include all countries? What are they so afraid of?
ME....YOU....WE
http://www.g20.org/about_what_is_g20.aspx
Monday, October 17, 2011
Occupy Wall Street
Came across this video and wanted to share it with everyone. I think the song is a wonderful match to this piece.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
I wanted to share this email from my aunt.
WE ARE RIGHT!!!!!
by Jim Wallis 10-13-2011 10:18 am
You have awakened the sleeping giant, too long dormant, but ever present, deep in the American democratic spirit. You have given voice and space to the unspoken feelings of countless others about something that has gone terribly wrong in our society. And you have sparked a flame from the embers of both frustration and hope that have been building, steadily, in the hearts of so many of us for quite some time.
Throughout history, often it has been left to the youth of a society to do that, and you boldly have stepped into the role of the emerging generation, which sometimes means saying and doing what others only think. You have articulated, loudly and clearly, the internal monologue of a nation.
Some of you have told me that you expected only to foment a short-lived protest and that you were as surprised by this “movement” as anyone else. Try to listen and learn from those whose feelings and participation you are evoking by encouraging more reflection than certainty.
While there are some among us who may misunderstand your motives and message, know that you are an inspiration to many more.
One of you told me in New York City last week, “This is not a protest, but a think tank.” Another of your compatriots wanted me to understand that you are trying to build something in Liberty Square that you aspire to create for our global village — a more cooperative society.
Most telling to me was the answer to the first question I asked of the first person I talked to at the Wall Street demonstrations. I inquired of one of the non-leaders who helped lead the first days of Occupation what most drew him to get involved in the demonstration and he replied, “I want to have children someday, and this is becoming a world not good for children.”
My 13- and 8-year-old boys came to mind when I heard his answer, and I felt thankful. It is precisely those deepest, most authentic feelings and motivations that should preoccupy you, rather than how best to form and communicate superficial political rhetoric.
You are raising very basic questions about an economy that has become increasingly unfair, unstable, unsustainable, and unhappy for a growing number of people. Those same questions are being asked by many others at the bottom, the middle, and even some at the top of the economic pecking order.
There are ethics to be named here, and the transition from the pseudo-ethic of endless growth to the moral ethics of sustainability is a conversation occurring even now in our nation’s business schools (if, perhaps, secreted inside the official curriculum).
Keep pressing those values questions because they will move people more than a set of demands or policy suggestions. Those can and must come later.
And try not to demonize those you view as opponents, as good people can get trapped in bad systems and we’ve seen a lot of that. Still, you are right for saying that we all must be held accountable — both systems and the individuals within them. It is imperative that we hear that message right now.
The new safe spaces you have created to ask fundamental questions, now in hundreds of locations around the country and the world, are helping to carve out fresh societal space to examine ourselves — who we are, what we value most, and where we want to go from here.
Instead of simply attacking the establishment “economists,” you can become the citizen economists, like the young economics major I met at the Wall Street occupation who discussed with me new approaches for society’s investment and innovation. We desperately need new vision like hers to come up with alternative ways of performing essential functions.
Keep asking what a just economy should look like and whom it should be for. They are noble questions. But you’d do well to avoid Utopian dreaming about things that will never happen. Look instead at how we could do things differently, more responsibly, more equitably, and yes, more democratically.
Don’t be afraid to get practical and specific about how we can and must do things better than we have in recent years. One of our best moral economists, Amartya Sen, says that “being against the market is like being against conversation. It’s a form of exchange.” You have begun such a conversation about what markets could and should be. Keep talking.
Even in forums where business and political leaders meet, they too are asking those questions and using terms like “a moral economy” as a way to interrogate our present and failed practices. I’ve been in such a gathering this week — just days apart from visiting yours — where the participants slept on featherbedding in five-star hotels rather than in pup tents on the sidewalk. And yet, surprisingly, they were asking many of the same questions you are.
Keep driving both the moral and practical questions about the economics of our local and global households, for that is what the discipline was supposed to be about in the first place.
I know you believe that the leadership on Wall Street, and Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues have all failed you. Indeed, they have failed us all. But while you feel betrayed by both our business and political leaders, don’t give up on leadership per se.
We need innovative leadership now more than ever. And you are providing some of it.
Think of stewards rather than masters of the universe as the model for leadership.
And remember, nonviolence is not just a critical tactic but a necessary commitment to moral and civil discourse that can awaken the best in all of us. There is much to be angry about, but channeling that energy into creative, non-violent action is the only way to prevent dangerous cynicism and nihilism that also can be a human response to the injustice and marginalization many people now feel.
The anarchism of anger has never produced the change that the discipline and constructive program of non-violent movements has done again and again.
I remember what it feels like to see your movement as a lead story on the evening news every night, and the adrenaline rush that being able to muster 10,000 people in two hours’ time to march in protest against injustice and inhumanity can bring. I was in your shoes 40 years ago as a student leading demonstrations against the Vietnam War, racism, and nuclear proliferation.
I would advise you to cultivate humility more than overconfidence or self indulgence. This really is not about you. It’s about the marginalized masses, the signs of the times, and the profound yearning for lasting change. Take that larger narrative more seriously than you take yourselves.
Finally, do not let go of your hope. Popular movements are the only force that truly brings about change in society. The established order is never as secure and impervious to change as those who preside over it believe it to be.
Remember that re-action is never as powerful as re-construction. And whatever you may think of organized religion, please keep in mind that change requires spiritual as well as political resources, and that invariably any new economy will be accompanied by a new (or very old) spirituality.
So I will say, may God bless you and keep you.
May God be gracious to you and give you -– and all of us — peace.
Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. He blogs at www.godspolitics.com. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
WE ARE RIGHT!!!!!
by Jim Wallis 10-13-2011 10:18 am
You have awakened the sleeping giant, too long dormant, but ever present, deep in the American democratic spirit. You have given voice and space to the unspoken feelings of countless others about something that has gone terribly wrong in our society. And you have sparked a flame from the embers of both frustration and hope that have been building, steadily, in the hearts of so many of us for quite some time.
Throughout history, often it has been left to the youth of a society to do that, and you boldly have stepped into the role of the emerging generation, which sometimes means saying and doing what others only think. You have articulated, loudly and clearly, the internal monologue of a nation.
Some of you have told me that you expected only to foment a short-lived protest and that you were as surprised by this “movement” as anyone else. Try to listen and learn from those whose feelings and participation you are evoking by encouraging more reflection than certainty.
While there are some among us who may misunderstand your motives and message, know that you are an inspiration to many more.
One of you told me in New York City last week, “This is not a protest, but a think tank.” Another of your compatriots wanted me to understand that you are trying to build something in Liberty Square that you aspire to create for our global village — a more cooperative society.
Most telling to me was the answer to the first question I asked of the first person I talked to at the Wall Street demonstrations. I inquired of one of the non-leaders who helped lead the first days of Occupation what most drew him to get involved in the demonstration and he replied, “I want to have children someday, and this is becoming a world not good for children.”
My 13- and 8-year-old boys came to mind when I heard his answer, and I felt thankful. It is precisely those deepest, most authentic feelings and motivations that should preoccupy you, rather than how best to form and communicate superficial political rhetoric.
You are raising very basic questions about an economy that has become increasingly unfair, unstable, unsustainable, and unhappy for a growing number of people. Those same questions are being asked by many others at the bottom, the middle, and even some at the top of the economic pecking order.
There are ethics to be named here, and the transition from the pseudo-ethic of endless growth to the moral ethics of sustainability is a conversation occurring even now in our nation’s business schools (if, perhaps, secreted inside the official curriculum).
Keep pressing those values questions because they will move people more than a set of demands or policy suggestions. Those can and must come later.
And try not to demonize those you view as opponents, as good people can get trapped in bad systems and we’ve seen a lot of that. Still, you are right for saying that we all must be held accountable — both systems and the individuals within them. It is imperative that we hear that message right now.
The new safe spaces you have created to ask fundamental questions, now in hundreds of locations around the country and the world, are helping to carve out fresh societal space to examine ourselves — who we are, what we value most, and where we want to go from here.
Instead of simply attacking the establishment “economists,” you can become the citizen economists, like the young economics major I met at the Wall Street occupation who discussed with me new approaches for society’s investment and innovation. We desperately need new vision like hers to come up with alternative ways of performing essential functions.
Keep asking what a just economy should look like and whom it should be for. They are noble questions. But you’d do well to avoid Utopian dreaming about things that will never happen. Look instead at how we could do things differently, more responsibly, more equitably, and yes, more democratically.
Don’t be afraid to get practical and specific about how we can and must do things better than we have in recent years. One of our best moral economists, Amartya Sen, says that “being against the market is like being against conversation. It’s a form of exchange.” You have begun such a conversation about what markets could and should be. Keep talking.
Even in forums where business and political leaders meet, they too are asking those questions and using terms like “a moral economy” as a way to interrogate our present and failed practices. I’ve been in such a gathering this week — just days apart from visiting yours — where the participants slept on featherbedding in five-star hotels rather than in pup tents on the sidewalk. And yet, surprisingly, they were asking many of the same questions you are.
Keep driving both the moral and practical questions about the economics of our local and global households, for that is what the discipline was supposed to be about in the first place.
I know you believe that the leadership on Wall Street, and Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues have all failed you. Indeed, they have failed us all. But while you feel betrayed by both our business and political leaders, don’t give up on leadership per se.
We need innovative leadership now more than ever. And you are providing some of it.
Think of stewards rather than masters of the universe as the model for leadership.
And remember, nonviolence is not just a critical tactic but a necessary commitment to moral and civil discourse that can awaken the best in all of us. There is much to be angry about, but channeling that energy into creative, non-violent action is the only way to prevent dangerous cynicism and nihilism that also can be a human response to the injustice and marginalization many people now feel.
The anarchism of anger has never produced the change that the discipline and constructive program of non-violent movements has done again and again.
I remember what it feels like to see your movement as a lead story on the evening news every night, and the adrenaline rush that being able to muster 10,000 people in two hours’ time to march in protest against injustice and inhumanity can bring. I was in your shoes 40 years ago as a student leading demonstrations against the Vietnam War, racism, and nuclear proliferation.
I would advise you to cultivate humility more than overconfidence or self indulgence. This really is not about you. It’s about the marginalized masses, the signs of the times, and the profound yearning for lasting change. Take that larger narrative more seriously than you take yourselves.
Finally, do not let go of your hope. Popular movements are the only force that truly brings about change in society. The established order is never as secure and impervious to change as those who preside over it believe it to be.
Remember that re-action is never as powerful as re-construction. And whatever you may think of organized religion, please keep in mind that change requires spiritual as well as political resources, and that invariably any new economy will be accompanied by a new (or very old) spirituality.
So I will say, may God bless you and keep you.
May God be gracious to you and give you -– and all of us — peace.
Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. He blogs at www.godspolitics.com. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
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