Very exciting news! The podcast I worked on with several friends is done! Thanks to Myles Nye for schooling me in Scrabble. Thanks to Irene Hernandez for providing the sound proofing. Thanks to Katie McMurran for the amazing recording and editing job. And thank you to Julianne Freund for the fantastic intro and outro music. And now, please, enjoy...
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Publik Finances
I've find no end to the inspiration that Apartment Therapy provides, but my interest was especially piqued by a posting about Survivor Week.
"For one week, we aren't allowed to spend a dime. This means eating everything in our fridge instead of going out for meals, no impulse purchases online or otherwise, and definitely no stopping to get a coffee on our way to work."
So I'm going to try it. I have existing plans to attend the Renaissance Faire (I don't know if that last "e" belongs there, but it is olde timey) on Saturday, so my first Survivor Week will be a short one, just the work week.
"For one week, we aren't allowed to spend a dime. This means eating everything in our fridge instead of going out for meals, no impulse purchases online or otherwise, and definitely no stopping to get a coffee on our way to work."
So I'm going to try it. I have existing plans to attend the Renaissance Faire (I don't know if that last "e" belongs there, but it is olde timey) on Saturday, so my first Survivor Week will be a short one, just the work week.
I'm not exactly sure how hard it will be to not spend money. Moving back into an apartment with a kitchen has naturally decreased my spending. I enjoy cooking and I enjoy being resourceful and self-sufficient. I cook most of my own dinners, bring my own coffee on my morning commute (or did until my traveler mug sprang a leak) and make many kitchen staples, including butter, chicken stock, crackers. I'm embarrassed to admit I've been very lax on recycling in my current apartment as recycling bins are not provided, but I make an effort to reduce and reuse.
My faith and personal value system emphasis being a good steward of the earth. I try to be conscious of excess packaging, chemicals, additives, etc and avoid them. I also consider good stewardship to include frugality. I'm careful about the clothes, accessories and cosmetics that I buy. I try to choose natural materials from eco-conscious vendors. And when I say "try" I mean more often than not, I remind myself that I'm voting with my dollars.
I take public transportation to work and to play as often as possible, which is very often. There are weeks when I only turn on my car to move it due to street cleaning and I rarely drive more than twice a week.
When I put these habits in writing, it makes them seem like a lot of effort. But, to be honest, living like this doesn't take a lot of effort on my part. I'm no martyr, if these habits required enough time and energy that they felt like a sacrifice, I doubt I would have the stamina to keep them up. There were some top down decisions to be made to set up my lifestyle, primarily: carefully selecting a place to live. I'm blocks from not one but two different metro stops and in something of a bus line nexus. Also within easy walking distance: The Sunday Hollywood Farmer's Market; Fresh and Easy market; Runyon Canyon; many great bars, restaurants, shops, movie theaters. And the atrocious parking situation in my neighborhood is annoying, but also excellent motivation for finding alternatives to driving. Where I live makes how I live fun, easy and rewarding.
But maybe it's a good idea to make myself a little uncomfortable. I know from when I just haven't had money to spend that the amount of things I can't do for lack of funds can feel claustrophobic. Not having choices makes me feel antsy and I like to reward myself from time to time with gifts from me to me. Gifts that I buy. With money.
So while a week without spending money sounds easy enough to me, there is a voice in the back of my head saying, "not as easy as you think, McConnell."
All the above feels like my software, now for the hardware. In preparation for the week ahead, I loaded up on produce at the Hollywood Farmer's Market. And for the first time, I bought non-produce at the market. Along with my cup of coffee, I also bought a pound of beans at my favorite coffee stall at the market. After reading an article about comparison shopping for chickens, I also bought a 3.5 lb chicken from a market vendor that the LA Times recommended. It was quite a bit more expensive than the $3 chickens you can get from Fresh and Easy, but it probably lived a healthier and happier life than those chickens and I'm trying to eat less meat so I can afford better meat. This is what I brought home with me:
My faith and personal value system emphasis being a good steward of the earth. I try to be conscious of excess packaging, chemicals, additives, etc and avoid them. I also consider good stewardship to include frugality. I'm careful about the clothes, accessories and cosmetics that I buy. I try to choose natural materials from eco-conscious vendors. And when I say "try" I mean more often than not, I remind myself that I'm voting with my dollars.
I take public transportation to work and to play as often as possible, which is very often. There are weeks when I only turn on my car to move it due to street cleaning and I rarely drive more than twice a week.
When I put these habits in writing, it makes them seem like a lot of effort. But, to be honest, living like this doesn't take a lot of effort on my part. I'm no martyr, if these habits required enough time and energy that they felt like a sacrifice, I doubt I would have the stamina to keep them up. There were some top down decisions to be made to set up my lifestyle, primarily: carefully selecting a place to live. I'm blocks from not one but two different metro stops and in something of a bus line nexus. Also within easy walking distance: The Sunday Hollywood Farmer's Market; Fresh and Easy market; Runyon Canyon; many great bars, restaurants, shops, movie theaters. And the atrocious parking situation in my neighborhood is annoying, but also excellent motivation for finding alternatives to driving. Where I live makes how I live fun, easy and rewarding.
But maybe it's a good idea to make myself a little uncomfortable. I know from when I just haven't had money to spend that the amount of things I can't do for lack of funds can feel claustrophobic. Not having choices makes me feel antsy and I like to reward myself from time to time with gifts from me to me. Gifts that I buy. With money.
So while a week without spending money sounds easy enough to me, there is a voice in the back of my head saying, "not as easy as you think, McConnell."
All the above feels like my software, now for the hardware. In preparation for the week ahead, I loaded up on produce at the Hollywood Farmer's Market. And for the first time, I bought non-produce at the market. Along with my cup of coffee, I also bought a pound of beans at my favorite coffee stall at the market. After reading an article about comparison shopping for chickens, I also bought a 3.5 lb chicken from a market vendor that the LA Times recommended. It was quite a bit more expensive than the $3 chickens you can get from Fresh and Easy, but it probably lived a healthier and happier life than those chickens and I'm trying to eat less meat so I can afford better meat. This is what I brought home with me:
1 lb of Fair Trade coffee
2 lbs white potatoes
bunch of carrots
2 leeks
bunch of green garlic
2 pink lady apples
1 lb of grn beans
3 shallots
lemons
a large handful of brown button mushrooms
4 large porcini mushrooms
5 yellow onions
bunch of rosemary
bunch of chamomile
2 bundles of asparagus
bag of mixed lettuce
my precious 3.5 lb chicken
I need to round out my meal supplies with a trip to Trader Joes. But first, I need to go see Star Trek.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The Public Cake Walk
First, a little back story: I have a brother who is 3 1/2 years younger than I am. Considerate sister than I am, I would let him tag along with me to my elementary schools' Halloween carnivals and my brother would ALWAYS win the cake walk and get to take home some amazing baked creation. I actually attended two elementary schools and his luck held in both. In my last year of elementary school I FINALLY won the cake walk and as my prize, I was handed a lopsided, pea green "cake" that my mom threw away before I could even taste it. And that was actually fine with me, because it's possibly the only sweet I've ever met that I didn't want to eat.
The inaugural entry of this here blog was about my trip to DC and how it was in that great city that my wallet was stolen. Remember that key point: me + DC = strangers steal my money
Little brother is in DC right now for business and he just called me to share what just happened to him. He was taking pictures by the Capitol Building when a woman asked him if he could take a picture of her and her family, my brother said sure and in return asked her if she would take a picture of him. She did and they parted ways, but after taking a few steps, my brother heard the woman calling after him. So he stopped and she asked him if she could give him a blessing. My brother and I are both religious people, but we're Episcopalians, so we're not tremendously into the whole public displays of religion thing. But my brother is one of the most accommodating and open people on the planet, so he said sure, "who am I to refuse a blessing." She put her hand into her pocket. My brother told me, "I thought she was going to pull out some Holy Water or something, but she pulled out a huge wad of $20s." She handed them to my brother and he told her he couldn't take them, because "a lot of people need that more than I do." But she kept insisting, telling him that "God was strongly putting it on her heart to bless him." God clearly knows a good man when He sees one, but still my brother insisted he couldn't take all that money. The woman finally talked him into taking at least one of the bills and my brother says he is going to keep it for luck.
So remember: me + DC = strangers steal my money. Little brother + DC = strangers insist on giving him money.
We are yin and yang. But it works well that way.
The inaugural entry of this here blog was about my trip to DC and how it was in that great city that my wallet was stolen. Remember that key point: me + DC = strangers steal my money
Little brother is in DC right now for business and he just called me to share what just happened to him. He was taking pictures by the Capitol Building when a woman asked him if he could take a picture of her and her family, my brother said sure and in return asked her if she would take a picture of him. She did and they parted ways, but after taking a few steps, my brother heard the woman calling after him. So he stopped and she asked him if she could give him a blessing. My brother and I are both religious people, but we're Episcopalians, so we're not tremendously into the whole public displays of religion thing. But my brother is one of the most accommodating and open people on the planet, so he said sure, "who am I to refuse a blessing." She put her hand into her pocket. My brother told me, "I thought she was going to pull out some Holy Water or something, but she pulled out a huge wad of $20s." She handed them to my brother and he told her he couldn't take them, because "a lot of people need that more than I do." But she kept insisting, telling him that "God was strongly putting it on her heart to bless him." God clearly knows a good man when He sees one, but still my brother insisted he couldn't take all that money. The woman finally talked him into taking at least one of the bills and my brother says he is going to keep it for luck.
So remember: me + DC = strangers steal my money. Little brother + DC = strangers insist on giving him money.
We are yin and yang. But it works well that way.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Publik Art
Happy New Year!!
January has been declared LA Arts Month. To see what exactly this means, check out the website: http://laartsmonth.laartshow.com/index.html
The link from that site to the listing of participating orgs was broken when I last tried it, but you can go here http://www.discoverlosangeles.com/ and then just click on the "special offers" button in the little ad about LA Arts Month for a listing of discounts and such related to Arts Month.
January has been declared LA Arts Month. To see what exactly this means, check out the website: http://laartsmonth.laartshow.com/index.html
The link from that site to the listing of participating orgs was broken when I last tried it, but you can go here http://www.discoverlosangeles.com/ and then just click on the "special offers" button in the little ad about LA Arts Month for a listing of discounts and such related to Arts Month.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Bad Man
This guy:
From a Business Week article:
If there is one thing Sam Zell foresaw correctly, it is this: The day after Zell announced he was buying Tribune for more than $8 billion, the real estate tycoon told Chicago Tribune reporters the deal would not change his lifestyle no matter what happened. But, he said, "it's likely to change yours."
How did it change their lifestyle?
Sam Zell took the company private, which means (from same Business week article):
The man who likes to call himself "the grave dancer" put very little of his own skin in the game. Instead, employees of the Tribune properties will bear the brunt of the pain, as they technically own the company and hold its $12.9 billion in debt.
Plus tons and tons employees either took a buy-out or were laid off. So what happens to their severance packages?
"All ongoing severance payments, deferred compensation and other payments to former employees have been discontinued and will be the subject of later proceedings before the Court."
(From LAO)
Plus Plus, the chapter 11 filing freezes payments to freelancers. (Also from LAO.)
The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
-- Thomas Jefferson
letter to Edward Carrington, 1787.
Sam Zell, owner of Tribune (comprised of, among other papers, the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and Baltimore Sun, a 31% share of Food Network, two dozen TV stations, and the Chicago Cubs. Tho, the Cubs franchise was not part of the bankruptcy filing.), destroyer of the Los Angeles Times and many other once-honorable journalistic operations, Chapter 11 filer. Does he care about the carnage he has caused? Doesn't seem like it.
From a Business Week article:
If there is one thing Sam Zell foresaw correctly, it is this: The day after Zell announced he was buying Tribune for more than $8 billion, the real estate tycoon told Chicago Tribune reporters the deal would not change his lifestyle no matter what happened. But, he said, "it's likely to change yours."
How did it change their lifestyle?
Sam Zell took the company private, which means (from same Business week article):
The man who likes to call himself "the grave dancer" put very little of his own skin in the game. Instead, employees of the Tribune properties will bear the brunt of the pain, as they technically own the company and hold its $12.9 billion in debt.
Plus tons and tons employees either took a buy-out or were laid off. So what happens to their severance packages?
"All ongoing severance payments, deferred compensation and other payments to former employees have been discontinued and will be the subject of later proceedings before the Court."
(From LAO)
Plus Plus, the chapter 11 filing freezes payments to freelancers. (Also from LAO.)
The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
-- Thomas Jefferson
letter to Edward Carrington, 1787.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Publik Plays Telephone
I've been fortunate enough this morning to find two wonderfully entertaining rants from conservatives about the Prop 8 fall-out. The first from a "reporter" I've had my eye on for a while, Michelle Malkin, and the other from perennial hipster go-to martial artist himself, Chuck Norris.
Here is Malkin's article
Here is Norris's article.
Michelle Malkin came to my attention after I heard her interviewed (I think on Democracy Now!) about Code Pink (who Malkin generally refers to with such temperate terms as "Moonbats" and "Code Pinkos") the generally whimsical activist group headed by one of my many lefty role models, Medea Benjamin. So it's true, I'm not that sympathetic to moonbat bashing, but still, I do make a point of maintaining equilibrium amongst my news sources.
Chuck Norris is probably best known for being... well, Chuck Norris. With family-friendly TV shows about half-Native, former Green Beret, tea-totally, marshal artist Texas Rangers sadly not in demand, he's been filling his time in other ways. Like endorsing candidates and not fact checking his column.
Both of these articles have a lot of the same information. And both of them seriously lack corroborating details. And both of them jump to the same conclusion: that the gobs of protesters who have come out in support of civil rights since the passing of Prop 8 are little better than that anarchist you knew in college whose activism seldom went beyond humming the Dead Kennedys, painting that anarchy symbol on his Jansport with whiteout and the occasional bout of unfocused property damage. Hmmm, I've spend a grand total of about approx. 14 hours at marches and protests since election day and I haven't seen anyone spit on old ladies or spray paint churches. I was glued to the TV on November 5th as 10,000 marchers took to the well-appointed streets of WeHo and marveled that there were only 7 arrests. But the media the next day seemed stuck on "protesters clashing with police" and while video showed one jackass jumping up on a patrol car, by the evening of the next day I heard at least one news outlet reference "people" climbing on patrol cars.
Get a bunch of people together and I guarantee at least one will act badly, no matter the reason for their assembly. But one malcontent does not crazy crowd of anarchists make. I think it would almost always be a stretch to label a group of people asking for a constitution to be upheld
"anarchists," anyway. But I specifically take issue with labeling Prop 8 protesters an "angry mob gripped by 'insane rage'." I take so much issue with it, I'm not even going to write about it further.
But I would like to offer some context for the examples that Malkin and Norris provide.
Norris says: Protestors (SIC) of Proposition 8 in California (the marriage amendment) shoved aside a 69-year-old woman who was bearing a cross. They reportedly spit on her and stomped on her cross. They then aligned themselves in a human barricade, blocking the media from getting to or interviewing the woman.
I just watched some youtube footage of this. The woman's name is Phyllis Burgess, she held a big cross and looked to be the sole dissenter walking back and forth in front of a large group of Anti-8 protesters who had gathered at the Palm Springs City Hall. The cross was grabbed away from her and stomped on, but I watched a reporter interview Burgess, so the human barricade didn't work out so well. The guy in that video footage who is shouting at her, I think about his military service (I think) and wanting to be treated as an equal, looks about as old as she does, for what it's worth. And Burgess wasn't so traumatized that she couldn't return to downtown Palm Springs the next week with a new cross.
Norris also says: Prop. 8 supporter Jose Nunez, 37, was assaulted brutally while distributing yard signs to other supporters after church services at the St. Stanislaus Parish in Modesto.
The San Diego NBC website adds some context saying...
Jose Nunez, 37, who became a U.S. citizen two months ago, was outside St. Stanislaus Catholic Church when an unidentified man grab (SIC) about 75 of the signs and ran. Nunez took chase, and when he caught up the man punched him the face.
Norris: Calvary Chapel Chino Hills was spray painted by vandals after they learned that the church served as an official collection point for Prop. 8 petitions.
Malkin repeats this. Vandals defaced the Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, Calif., because church members had collected Prop. 8 petitions. One worshiper's car was keyed with the slogans "Gay sex is love" and "SEX." Another car's antenna and windshield wipers were broken.
I actually couldn't find any newspaper stories about the spray painting, only anecdotal notes from openly Pro-8 columnists. But I did find an article that seems to confirm the car thing. Though the article had an editor's note I found interesting:
Editor's Note: This story surprised me, especially since I'm quite sure that our Mayor (and I think most of our City Council) supports Prop 8, but these things seem to have occurred and we checked with Calvary Chapel (from KLC: the article makes no mention of vandalism to the church, only to cars owned by people who attended Calvary Chapel).
I don't have the time to fact check all the little tidbits from Malkin and Norris. But I just went to the JoeMyGod website that Malkin mentioned and he has a little something special posted for for "all the Michelle Malkin fans who are coming over today to read the "insane rage" of JMG readers"... LIVE PUPPY CAM! Below that post is one about Bat Boy being spotted at a No on 8 protest, so perhaps we should take his quote that Mormon churches should be burned to the ground and then the ashes taxed with a little levity.
The one last item I do want to address is this from Norris, but Malkin mentions it too: You even can find donor blacklists online.
I tried to find some donor blacklists online and while I found a very healthy dose of blog and column mentions of the existence of such blacklists, I only found one legit blacklist: www.antigayblacklist.com which carries such frightening admonitions as...
WE SHALL OVERCOME
But I'd like to point out that the Right could very easily publish a proantigayblacklist.com, because contributions to political causes are, by legal mandate, a matter of public record.
When Norris says, "there's the obvious inability of the minority to accept the will of the majority," I have to agree with him. The will of the majority, in this case, is amending the state constitution to prohibit a segment of the community from having access to civil marriage and I don't accept that as a solution to the current conversation about gay rights.
And was I upset, if not surprised, that Prop 8 passed? Why yes, yes I was. In part because politics and vitriol go together like nuts and gum and in part because Prop 8 was a referendum on the concept of homosexuality. The arguments for Prop 8 were so terribly shallow, it was easy to see what was at the bottom: xenophobia.
For me, the political is almost always personal, but never so much as when it comes to civil rights and constitutions. But I wasn't bomb-an-abortion-clinic upset, I was more like marching-peacefully-amongst-sassy-chants-and-glittery-posters upset. The will of the majority in California has been, for at least the past three elections, to not mandate parental consent/notification for minors seeking abortions and yet the propositions keep coming. Anyone with a cause is probably committed to that cause and it's upsetting when success in achieving goals is thwarted.
But even more than being upset, I am hopeful and my hope is buoyed by the outpouring of support for civil rights that I have seen in the past few weeks. If the Right wants to claim that The Pro-Gays are the new Angry Black Man, they have that right and thanks to the internet, they certainly have the means to keep spreading manipulated truths about issues and responses, but they are going to be on the losing side of this battle. I know it.
You can't stop progress, but you can certainly look foolish trying.
Here is Malkin's article
Here is Norris's article.
Michelle Malkin came to my attention after I heard her interviewed (I think on Democracy Now!) about Code Pink (who Malkin generally refers to with such temperate terms as "Moonbats" and "Code Pinkos") the generally whimsical activist group headed by one of my many lefty role models, Medea Benjamin. So it's true, I'm not that sympathetic to moonbat bashing, but still, I do make a point of maintaining equilibrium amongst my news sources.
Chuck Norris is probably best known for being... well, Chuck Norris. With family-friendly TV shows about half-Native, former Green Beret, tea-totally, marshal artist Texas Rangers sadly not in demand, he's been filling his time in other ways. Like endorsing candidates and not fact checking his column.
Both of these articles have a lot of the same information. And both of them seriously lack corroborating details. And both of them jump to the same conclusion: that the gobs of protesters who have come out in support of civil rights since the passing of Prop 8 are little better than that anarchist you knew in college whose activism seldom went beyond humming the Dead Kennedys, painting that anarchy symbol on his Jansport with whiteout and the occasional bout of unfocused property damage. Hmmm, I've spend a grand total of about approx. 14 hours at marches and protests since election day and I haven't seen anyone spit on old ladies or spray paint churches. I was glued to the TV on November 5th as 10,000 marchers took to the well-appointed streets of WeHo and marveled that there were only 7 arrests. But the media the next day seemed stuck on "protesters clashing with police" and while video showed one jackass jumping up on a patrol car, by the evening of the next day I heard at least one news outlet reference "people" climbing on patrol cars.
Get a bunch of people together and I guarantee at least one will act badly, no matter the reason for their assembly. But one malcontent does not crazy crowd of anarchists make. I think it would almost always be a stretch to label a group of people asking for a constitution to be upheld
"anarchists," anyway. But I specifically take issue with labeling Prop 8 protesters an "angry mob gripped by 'insane rage'." I take so much issue with it, I'm not even going to write about it further.
But I would like to offer some context for the examples that Malkin and Norris provide.
Norris says: Protestors (SIC) of Proposition 8 in California (the marriage amendment) shoved aside a 69-year-old woman who was bearing a cross. They reportedly spit on her and stomped on her cross. They then aligned themselves in a human barricade, blocking the media from getting to or interviewing the woman.
I just watched some youtube footage of this. The woman's name is Phyllis Burgess, she held a big cross and looked to be the sole dissenter walking back and forth in front of a large group of Anti-8 protesters who had gathered at the Palm Springs City Hall. The cross was grabbed away from her and stomped on, but I watched a reporter interview Burgess, so the human barricade didn't work out so well. The guy in that video footage who is shouting at her, I think about his military service (I think) and wanting to be treated as an equal, looks about as old as she does, for what it's worth. And Burgess wasn't so traumatized that she couldn't return to downtown Palm Springs the next week with a new cross.
Norris also says: Prop. 8 supporter Jose Nunez, 37, was assaulted brutally while distributing yard signs to other supporters after church services at the St. Stanislaus Parish in Modesto.
The San Diego NBC website adds some context saying...
Jose Nunez, 37, who became a U.S. citizen two months ago, was outside St. Stanislaus Catholic Church when an unidentified man grab (SIC) about 75 of the signs and ran. Nunez took chase, and when he caught up the man punched him the face.
Norris: Calvary Chapel Chino Hills was spray painted by vandals after they learned that the church served as an official collection point for Prop. 8 petitions.
Malkin repeats this. Vandals defaced the Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, Calif., because church members had collected Prop. 8 petitions. One worshiper's car was keyed with the slogans "Gay sex is love" and "SEX." Another car's antenna and windshield wipers were broken.
I actually couldn't find any newspaper stories about the spray painting, only anecdotal notes from openly Pro-8 columnists. But I did find an article that seems to confirm the car thing. Though the article had an editor's note I found interesting:
Editor's Note: This story surprised me, especially since I'm quite sure that our Mayor (and I think most of our City Council) supports Prop 8, but these things seem to have occurred and we checked with Calvary Chapel (from KLC: the article makes no mention of vandalism to the church, only to cars owned by people who attended Calvary Chapel).
I don't have the time to fact check all the little tidbits from Malkin and Norris. But I just went to the JoeMyGod website that Malkin mentioned and he has a little something special posted for for "all the Michelle Malkin fans who are coming over today to read the "insane rage" of JMG readers"... LIVE PUPPY CAM! Below that post is one about Bat Boy being spotted at a No on 8 protest, so perhaps we should take his quote that Mormon churches should be burned to the ground and then the ashes taxed with a little levity.
The one last item I do want to address is this from Norris, but Malkin mentions it too: You even can find donor blacklists online.
I tried to find some donor blacklists online and while I found a very healthy dose of blog and column mentions of the existence of such blacklists, I only found one legit blacklist: www.antigayblacklist.com which carries such frightening admonitions as...
WE SHALL OVERCOME
But I'd like to point out that the Right could very easily publish a proantigayblacklist.com, because contributions to political causes are, by legal mandate, a matter of public record.
When Norris says, "there's the obvious inability of the minority to accept the will of the majority," I have to agree with him. The will of the majority, in this case, is amending the state constitution to prohibit a segment of the community from having access to civil marriage and I don't accept that as a solution to the current conversation about gay rights.
And was I upset, if not surprised, that Prop 8 passed? Why yes, yes I was. In part because politics and vitriol go together like nuts and gum and in part because Prop 8 was a referendum on the concept of homosexuality. The arguments for Prop 8 were so terribly shallow, it was easy to see what was at the bottom: xenophobia.
For me, the political is almost always personal, but never so much as when it comes to civil rights and constitutions. But I wasn't bomb-an-abortion-clinic upset, I was more like marching-peacefully-amongst-sassy-chants-and-glittery-posters upset. The will of the majority in California has been, for at least the past three elections, to not mandate parental consent/notification for minors seeking abortions and yet the propositions keep coming. Anyone with a cause is probably committed to that cause and it's upsetting when success in achieving goals is thwarted.
But even more than being upset, I am hopeful and my hope is buoyed by the outpouring of support for civil rights that I have seen in the past few weeks. If the Right wants to claim that The Pro-Gays are the new Angry Black Man, they have that right and thanks to the internet, they certainly have the means to keep spreading manipulated truths about issues and responses, but they are going to be on the losing side of this battle. I know it.
You can't stop progress, but you can certainly look foolish trying.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Publik Good
Got this email from a conservative family member earlier today:
Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed.
Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference--just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept.
He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.
I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I've decided he could use the money more.
The homeless guy was grateful.
At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more.
I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.
I worked up the following response:
That's funny because as I was walking to work this morning, I passed a homeless guy with a sign that said "I'm homeless because the Reagan administration undid the federal mental health initiatives that previous leadership had spent 18 years building and that forced hospitals dependent on federal funding to release impoverished and mentally ill patients directly to the streets."
Then I walked into a restaurant where I was meeting Adam Smith, philosophical founder of American capitalism, for lunch and a chat about the progressive income tax that has been redistributing wealth in America since 1913. Adam started telling me, "there is a history of this kind of socialism rhetoric in American politics. In fact, Barry Goldwater said Medicare was socialism in an attempt to take down LBJ. You know it was me, not socialists, who said that we should put the burden of taxes on those with the most ability to pay, in other words those who do better under the protection of the state ought to contribute a proportionately greater amount of its treasury."
We shared a laugh about how it was a little funny that the Right was now calling Obama (who looks to Warren Buffett for financial advice) a socialist after a Republican administration just nationalized the banks and the waitress brought us our check. I thought for a moment about the $10 bill I had in my pocket, which I had planned to use as a tip. Maybe I should, instead, give it to that homeless guy, you know, spread the wealth around.
So I explained to the waitress why I wasn't tipping her and she pointed out that she worked for minimum wage and what really paid her rent were the tips she received. Also, she didn't have health insurance and worked long hours every day at a dangerous job. If she so much as broke a leg, she would suddenly be in so much debt that it wouldn't matter how hard of a worker she was, she could never pay her medical bills and that would ruin her financially for years to come. As it was, she was living pay check to pay check without any savings, under the constant pressure that comes from knowing you are one accident away from losing everything you've worked for and the full knowledge that she may never be able to get enough money for college tuition since colleges know that third parties are usually the ones who actually pay tuition so there is no real incentive for the school to lower costs, even though college loans kill students as soon as they graduate. So I thought, heck, I make twice what she does, I am apparently out having a nice lunch with my pal Adam while she is hard at work. Plus I have a retirement plan and full insurance benefits, so I gave her the $10.
Then as I was walking back to my car, I realized I was going to pass that homeless guy again, so I quickly grabbed a paper I could hold in front of my face while I pretended not to see him. But as I opened the paper, the face of Jesus appeared and he said, "Kelsey, wasn't I fairly clear about the need to sacrifice your own comfort for the good of those less fortunate than yourself?" I was slightly surprised to see Jesus speaking to me from the center fold of the LA Times, but I took it in stride and said, "you've had some good points in the past, Jesus my man, but that homeless guy is probably on the streets because he's a lazy drunk and a bum. I work for my money, if I wanted to waste it, I'd play the stock market."
Jesus then said, "do I put qualifications on who I help out? I broke bread with all kinds of people, because we are all God's children and family helps each other out in times of need without judgment." So I took out another $10 and gave it to the homeless guy and said to Jesus, "there! now are you happy?" And he said, "not really because homelessness in America is likely only going to get worse as the middle class disappears and the working poor continue to lose housing, while soon a whole new batch of the walking wounded will return from overseas, soldiers who the Right was all about supporting until it meant rethinking the amount and quality of benefits we actually provide for Veterans." I figured Jesus had just been spending too much time paling around with domestic terrorists and I chucked the paper into a trash can while he shouted "Eugene Debs was an American Socialist, Obama is no socialist... he's pretty much your average moderate who may be slightly left of center on a handful of social issues. You want to talk socialist, take a look at the redistributive properties in McCain's health care proposal."
In the immortal words of Steve Martin:
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