Public To Private: The Iceberg Before Us

Michigan recently passed the Education Achievement Authority Act which will let the State take over 50 school districts and privatize them. This is the education equivalent of the Emergency Financial Manager law which allows the State to take over any local municipality that the Governor deems to be in financial distress. 

 The EFM is empowered to do pretty much anything he or she wishes, including stripping the power of elected officials, cancelling union contracts and selling property. For example, "Pontiac had 1,000 employees when the emergency hit the city four years ago. Now, the city has just 50. The Oakland County Sheriff's Office took over police patrols and Waterford now contracts firefighting to Pontiac." (Rod Meloni WDIV March 8, 2013)  

 In 2011,  Pontiac EFM Michael Stampfler dissolved the Pontiac Planning Commission and replaced it with hand-picked, unelected  people. He also "...made a contract for water treatment services with United Water Services permanent, outsourcing the water treatment to them and laying off city water treatment officials."(Eclectablog, June 9, 2011 http://www.eclectablog.com/2011/06/breaking-michigan-efm-outsources-water.html ). What was so noteworthy was that United Water Services was indicted in December, 2010 for violating the Clean Water Act. They were "...charged with manipulating daily wastewater sampling methods by turning up disinfectant treatment levels shortly before sampling, then turning them down shortly after sampling " (Ibid).

 If this is an example of privatization, we might want to reconsider the Emergency Financial Manager Act. Oh wait. On November 7th, 2012 the citizens in the State of Michigan voted to REPEAL the EFM law. But within a few weeks, the MI State Legislature passed ANOTHER such law but this time with a small budgetary appropriation. The State Constitution says that any law with an appropriation attached cannot be put up for a referendum. In essence, they made the new EFM law voter proof. 

 If we think that this is a direct attack on democracy in Michigan, consider this: over 80%of the communities under an EFM have 50% minority population or more.  (Maddow, 2013). And now there is an Emergency Financial Manager in the City of Detroit, the state's largest city and the one with the largest minority population in Michigan. According to Bloomberg, "When emergency manager Kevyn Orr arrives in near-bankrupt Detroit, almost half of Michigan’s black population will live under the rule of state overseers with little say in the governments nearest them (Mark Niquette & Chris Christoff - Mar 15, 2013).   Is this an accident?  No.

We have been watching the attempt by the Republican party and their masters (Koch Brothers, ALEC etc.) to suppress the vote in areas where there are high percentages of students and minorities. What is the connection? It is that both the EFM law and the voter suppression moves are attacks on populations most likely to vote for Democrats. If the GOP can stifle democracy in these areas, Republicans are more likely to be elected and privatization (for the benefit of large corporations) can take place with no effective opposition. On tap to be privatized: schools (private companies stand to make billions), city infrastructure like water, police and fire departments, trash collection, etc. All for the benefit of corporations and all at the expense of citizens. Unionized positions will be eliminated and low paying positions will replace them. 

Pic. by Francesca LLopis.

Voter suppression and privatization and EFM laws are just the tip of the iceberg and democracy is heading for that iceberg all steam ahead. This potential shipwreck is made possible by the low voter turnout in 2010 and the election of more Republicans to state office. With increased majorities in the MI House and Senate AND control of the Governorship, the state GOP was enabled to pass these draconian measures and many others, setting the present course. There is only one way to reverse and avoid the iceberg: elect Democrats in 2014.


 

Suicide at School

We lost another child to guns today. It has been reported that an 8th grade student at Davidson Middle School in Southgate, Michigan committed suicide. According to officials, it was a self-inflicted gun shot to the head. He left a note (WDIV and WXYZ).

May he rest in peace and my condolences go out to the family. This was a tragedy in so many ways and leaves us with so many questions. How is it that this young person had such easy access to a loaded gun? Did he buy it on the street? Was it a parents weapon? If so, why was it loaded and not locked up? Or, if it was locked up, why was the key within the reach of this distraught young person? Where were the parents?  The gun being available was a crucial piece to this awful puzzle but where were the parents when the child was calling for help? My guess is that he had been depressed and desperate for awhile. Parents are not mind readers but almost every suicidal person signals their distress in any of a myriad of ways. It is, however, sometimes very difficult to read these signs. Perhaps the parents thought he was being a "moody teenager."  It is maddening that he had ready access to a loaded gun but also that he DIDN'T have access to help. Why, oh why are guns so ubiquitous while mental health resources are few and far between?

  I sincerely hope that this is not another case where the child had been bullied to the point where he couldn't take it anymore.  Bullying is so common but also devastating. It can scar a life permanently and can even lead to suicide as we have seen all too often. And suicide reaches out and grabs the survivors as well. For the classmates, there may well be guilt, that they survived, or even that they somehow caused the death of a schoolmate. I can only imagine the guilt that will fall upon their young shoulders. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that help will be available to them now. They will need it. So will his family. According to NIMH, family history of suicide raises the risk for another suicide ( www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-in-the-us ). According to Danish researchers:

"... people who had a mother, father, or sibling die from suicide were two and a half times more likely to commit suicide themselves compared with those without a similar family history. And people who had a family history of psychiatric illness that required hospital admission had a 50% higher risk of suicide, but only among those who didn't already have a history of mental illness themselves." (WebMD, October, 2002)

I am not sure of the connection between friends or schoolmates and suicide but it would not surprise me to learn that there is an increased risk for them as well.

So, what exactly happened to cause this young soul to seek an end to his apparent suffering? Was it bullying? Whatever it was, it was obviously too much for him. It is too bad that it was so easy for him to get hold of a loaded gun. Without the gun there may have been a way out for him though he couldn't see it at the time. The gun prettywell put an end to possibilities.  Yes, he may have found another way to end his life but a gun shot to the head is pretty much final.  No time for second thoughts. The combination of access to guns and the LACK of access to mental health services can be and was, deadly. When will we ever learn?

Progressively Christian

 This past Sunday something amazing happened: an evangelical Christian came out in support of marriage equality - for everyone. Rob Bell is founder of a megachurch in Michigan and is a television writer and author. In 2011, Time magazine named him as one of the "top 100 most influential people". He self-identifies as evangelical and has been called the "heir to Billy Graham" (sorry Franklin). According to Jack Jenkins, guest blogger for Think Progress ( http://bit.ly/116MDgA ), Rob Bell was speaking at Grace Cathedral in San Fransisco when he was asked a question regarding his personal beliefs about marriage equality:

BELL: I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs — I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.

Pastor Rob Bell is proof that it is possible to be an evangelical Christian AND a social progressive, though preaching LOVE of God and neighbor shouldn't be controversial as it is the heart of God's Word to us. John Wesley had a "born again" experience but he didn't leave it at that. Neither did he preach Scripture alone. What he did do was interpret Scripture through the lens of experience, reason and tradition. Tradition isn't paramount and neither is reason or experience. Together, with Scripture as the guide we live our lives as Christians. No one interprets Scripture purely. We all approach the Bible with our own biases and the only way to keep those biases from distorting our approach to the Bible is to study it quite self-consciously applying reason, experience and tradition. Without that self-conscious awareness we are always in danger of making the Bible an idol in our own image. For me, my experience is that I found the love of Jesus because of a church music director who happened to be gay. Thankfully, his life as a Christian told me far more about Jesus than the bigots who drummed him out of the church. 

Christian bigots keep more people away from Jesus than their own personal sin ever did. The sad part is that these same people talk about evangelism and "bringing people to Christ" not recognizing that their judgmental behavior speaks more loudly than their words ever will. Fortunately, or maybe with the help of the Holy Spirit (or whatever you want to call the universal force for good) there is emerging an alternative to fundamentalist evangelicals.

There is a movement afoot in Christendom that embraces progressive social conscience  AND belief in Jesus. Groups like Sojourner's, The Christian Left and The God Article's "Be the Love" project are evidence that progressive voices are increasingly speaking and rising up to say that the right wing fundamentalists do not speak for the entire Church, or even most of it. The shrill voices of the right may be drowned out by tolerance. It is a great sign of hope when an evangelical stands up and stands apart from the radical right wing, at least on the issue of marriage equality. Perhaps Love will win the day after all.

The Culture of Rape

The Nation today published an article online entitled, "The Verdict: Steubenville Shows the Bond Between Jock Culture and Rape Culture," by Dave Zirin.  Much of the response to the article was debate as to whether the term, "rape culture" is appropriate.  I believe it is. One of the definitions of "culture" is: "... the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture etc." (Dictionary.com) There is an environment where rape, if not actually encouraged, is certainly not discouraged. It IS intentionally overlooked. Athletics promotes that kind of setting in the sense that athletes, at any level, are so highly valued they get a pass on behavior which would be discouraged or seen as criminal when perpetrated by almost anyone else.

 Another category for which this is true is clergy. It is so because they are viewed as authority figures and many people look up to them. In general, it is assumed that clergy are virtuous and therefore incapable of pedophilia or rape, etc. One only has to look at the problems in the Roman Catholic Church to see the fallacy. 


 It is easy to assume clergy are not vulnerable to foibles and sins for two reasons: First, historically, clergy have been seen as moral examples. In the not too distant past, clergy actually tried to live up to that expectation. Secondly, clergy have been and still are, seen to be authority figures. Trust is placed in them because they are in positions of power AND presumed to be moral examples.

 It is shocking, indeed a real travesty, when that sort of position of power is abused whether by clergy or anyone else.To elevate any group of people, athletes, movie stars, entertainers, etc is a huge mistake because they are all human beings and cannot or will not live up to expectations. To fail to realize that fact is to set up the conditions in which abuse and rape can flourish; abusers and rapists will take advantage of any opening. 

To allow an environment where authority or power or idol worship is predominant is actually setting up a culture. The second definition of "culture" is for the verb form; "to cultivate." In biology culture means "to grow (microorganisms, tissues, etc.) in or on a controlled or defined medium" (Dictionary.com).  There are, clearly, environments in which abuse and rape are cultivated in a controlled or defined medium. In that sense, the term, "rape culture" is very apt. 

As we have seen with the Steubenville case, the culture of abuse and rape is real and abuse and or rape happens far too frequently. Just ask the former altar boys who were sexually abused by priests, or girls/women who are overpowered or drugged by  athletes or the young victims of Jerry Sandusky. Ask them how real that culture is.

 I know how easily that kind of abuse of power can occur as I was raped while in seminary by an older student in his last year. I wrongly assumed that he was being pastoral when he offered to show me scripture to help me with a dilemma I was facing. He showed me scripture alright, then raped me, taking full advantage of both my naivete and trust. When telling a professor of  Pastoral Counseling about  the rape, I was told that it was my responsibility. Then the professor broke confidentiality and told the Dean. I was called in and told to "keep quiet or I would lose [my] career."  The atmosphere in this Dallas, TX seminary was a prime setting for rape. The student rapist used his position of presumed authority as a way of controlling me. It was both psychological control and physically overpowering. It was ideal for him because no one would believe that anyone in the seminary community would ever do such a thing. And very few did. Then the hierarchy was ready and willing to cover up the rape and they let him graduate, no punishment at all. The seminary was definitely a "rape culture".

The problem in all these cases is that the general public or surrounding community refuses to believe the accuser and the accuser is often, if not always, blamed. "She must have asked for it. She dressed like a whore". The fact is that NO ONE deserves to be abused or attacked - EVER. The atmosphere or culture where that kind of thinking is prevalent needs to be changed.

Rape Culture, USA

A great deal of attention has been paid, as of late, to the so-called "rape culture" in India. Many women have been raped and killed with accusers being labeled and shamed. Many rape victims commit suicide rather than live with the perceived shame.

I hate to say that the situation is not all that much better in the United States. Two stories ("Sex Assault Rarely Punished In Military, Victims Say"; R. Norman Moody, Florida Today and the Steubenville rape case) recount the atrocities that occur because our culture has refused to admit there is a problem with star athletes and military personnel (and others). Too often men are given a free pass for sexual assault because they are seen to be heroes or stars. Women who have been assaulted are presumed to be liars and degraded or harassed if they have the courage to report the crime. They are regarded as the perpetrators, not the men who raped them..

In the Steubenville, Ohio case, two male high school athletes were found guilty of sexual assault ONLY because the hacktivist  group Anonymous found texts and pictures and video and exposed the crime. Though it is apparent that many people in the Steubenville community knew of the attack, there is a good chance that no one would have pressed the issue if it wasn't for Anonymous. Even then, the community is deeply divided . I wonder if the victim will continue to be victimized by the community? My bet would be, yes, she will be hounded and derided and blamed. It is very wrong but it happens

In the case of women in the military who have been sexually assaulted, it has, historically, been extremely difficult for them to report and then to be taken seriously. In fact, many, if not most, have been harassed and persecuted. Many women have not reported the assault for this very reason.

It is this entitlement atmosphere that permits rape to occur. The two convicted young men in Steubenville undoubtedly thought they were safe because of their status as football players. Military personnel likewise think if they make life as difficult as possible for the assaulted women they will not report the rape and, historically, they have been correct. Only now is this travesty getting attention and action in the military and from Congress.  The question is, will attention translate into action and will assault victims ever get the justice they deserve? Thankfully, the assault victim in the Steubenville case seems to have prevailed in the justice system. It shouldn't have taken Anonymous to bring the assault to light so that justice COULD  be served.

When will women, worldwide, be safe? When will women and girls stop being trafficked worldwide and when will the rape culture be dismantled?

 UPDATE : Apparently the answer is: not now.  When reporting on the verdict in the Steubenville trial CNN couldn't restrain their sympathy with the convicted rapists: 

[CNN Anchor] "I cannot imagine having just watched this on the feed coming in. How emotional that must have been sitting in the courtroom." 

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "I’ve never experienced anything like it, Candy. It was incredibly emotional — incredibly difficult even for an outsider like me to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believe their life fell apart..." (Quoted from:  PoliticsUSA, Jason Easley)

Jason Easley (PoliticsUSA) continued, "CNN was sure to mention the impact of the verdict on the two football players, but they didn’t mention that the victim had her life ruined too. As the victim of a violent sexual attack, she will potentially carry trauma and injuries with her the rest of her life...

I wish I could say that this was a CNN only problem, but the blame the victim culture being perpetuated by the media and the Republican Party has created an epidemic. It would have been appropriate for CNN to mention that this was a sad and troubling case all the way around, but the network’s sympathy for convicted rapists while never mentioning the victim was inappropriate and disgusting."        http://www.politicususa.com/cnn-reports-steubenville-verdict-disgusting-pro-rapist-bias.html  
 
CNN is not unique, unfortunately. Our culture too often sides with the rapist and blames the victim. "She was just asking for it." Wrong. No one ever asks to be raped. Our culture needs to change and now.

Cause and Effect

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." -Gandhi

 If Gandhi is correct then the Koch Brothers, the Tea Party and the GOP have achieved: debasement, degradation, derision, disgrace and dishonor, all the opposites of greatness.  They have actually SOUGHT austerity in this country and applauded when sequestration took effect. 

 "In an email, Koch brothers’ front group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), sent congratulations to Republicans and their supporters around the country for helping push sequester cuts AFP says are “an important step forward for economic growth.” The email continued, “Americans for Prosperity thanks Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans for standing up to President Obama and making sure the $85 billion in much-needed sequester spending cuts took effect,” and it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Koch brothers and Republicans own the sequester and are giddy at the prospect of a recession and killing millions of jobs." (Rmuse, The Koch Brothers Take Credit for Imposing Economic Hardship on Millions of Americans, in Politicususa, March 4, 2013) 

The Koch brothers and their ilk are trying their best to bring about the same decimation of the economy via austerity as in Europe. The misery, the hardship on the people, especially the poor, is intentional. The more misery for the 99% the greater the wealth for the 1%. As Rmuse describes,

 "Republicans won the austerity battle, and Americans will now know what it feels like to live in “socialist Europe” that imposed austerity, massive unemployment, negative growth, double and triple-dip recessions, and no hope for recovery anytime soon."

What these modern day "robber barons" do not realize (or  care about)  is the spiritual price they pay and will continue to pay  for their arrogance, greed and disregard for the welfare of the weakest in our land. 

 "Shame on you! you who make unjust laws and publish burdensome decrees, depriving the poor of justice, robbing the weakest of my people of their rights, despoiling the widow and plundering the orphan. What will you do when called to account..." (Isaiah 10: 1-3b NEB)

What WILL they do when called into account, and they will be one of these days.  It is inevitable. It is a spiritual truth and it is a law of physics: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." The equal and opposite reaction in this case is yet unknown, though history tends to point to rebellion or revolution.  Regardless, it has to happen, it cannot be averted. Call it what you will; God's judgement or a law of physics, the actions of the 1% will catch up with them.

The Tea Party, the Republicans and the Koch Brothers have all made their austerity bed and now they must lie in it.

A Call To Action

This week we have seen at least two appalling displays by the Radical Right. The GOP in the House and Senate have blocked solutions to the looming sequester, all because they want to protect their wealthy masters. Then, Antonin Scalia, upon hearing arguments about whether the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ought to be applied in an Alabama county, said that renewing the Act was "A perpetuation of racial entitlement."  It was such a blatant display of ignorance and racism that gasps could be heard in the courtroom.

Clearly, Justices Scalia and Thomas need to be booted from the Supreme Court but there is really no way to accomplish that. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court is the only unchecked branch of government. That really ought to be changed with a constitutional amendment but it will probably never happen.

The radical right wing court and the radical right G.O.P. make me less than hopeful for the future of this country. They do not care about actually serving THE PEOPLE (except the very few richest people and corporations).  

There comes a time when the people of the country need to step up and demand change. We have a long tradition of doing just that starting with the American Revolution, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Suffragettes, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and the protests against the Vietnam War. We are a people who stand up to injustice. Now is the time to do so again. The injustices we face are from the tyranny of the right. Now they attack all of the rights we fought for throughout our history.

In addition to the attacks on the Voting Rights Act, itself,  the radical right, in the guise of ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council,)  have crafted legislation to make voting harder, if not impossible for the people of color, the elderly and students - all of whom traditionally vote Democratic.  

They would also have us under the thumb of mega corporations just as the colonists were under the thumb of the East India Trade Company: 

"...the British trading company that faced ruin which was the reason parliament to pass the tea act, removing most taxes and bypassing colonial merchants, giving the British owned company an unfair advantage since they could sell their tea much cheaper than the colonial merchants, causing protests and the Boston tea party."  (Quizlet.com) 

If that sounds familiar that's because some things keep rearing their ugly heads. Just as the British Parliament gave The East India Trade Company monopolies to keep it from going under, so we have the US Government giving huge bailouts to our biggest banks. 

Then there are the attacks on women, particularly our right to govern our own bodies and our access to health care.  State after state (with the encouragement of ALEC) have attempted to pass or actually passed laws which make getting a safe and legal abortion almost impossible.  The most notorious of these being those which require a women seeking an abortion to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound, which essentially amounts to state sponsored rape with a foreign object (see Think Progress: http://bit.ly/UHD9tZ).   And on and on it goes.

If we sit back and continue to allow these injustices now, it will soon get worse. Already they have started attacks on trade unions because unions give employees a collective voice. For the radical right it is all about money and power and unions give their members power in the workplace. They also mean higher wages and better benefits: 

• Unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation, including both wages and benefits, by about 28%.
• Unions reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low- and middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, more for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, and more for workers who do not have a college degree.
• Strong unions set a pay standard that nonunion employers follow. For example, a high school graduate whose workplace is not unionized but whose industry is 25% unionized is paid 5% more than similar workers in less unionized industries.
• The impact of unions on total nonunion wages is almost as large as the impact on total union wages.
• The most sweeping advantage for unionized workers is in fringe benefits. Unionized workers are more likely than their nonunionized counterparts to receive paid leave, are approximately 18% to 28% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are 23% to 54% more likely to be in employer-provided pension plans.
• Unionized workers receive more generous health benefits than nonunionized workers. They also pay 18% lower health care deductibles and a smaller share of the costs for family coverage. In retirement, unionized workers are 24% more likely to be covered by health insurance paid for by their employer.
• Unionized workers receive better pension plans. Not only are they more likely to have a guaranteed benefit in retirement, their employers contribute 28% more toward pensions.
• Unionized workers receive 26% more vacation time and 14% more total paid leave (vacations and holidays).  (Economic Policy Institute: http://bit.ly/pW3UdF)

For obvious reasons, many employers would rather not have a unionized workplace. ALEC helps them in their union preventing and union busting ways.  

What we, the people, need to understand is that all these struggles are one. When we fight for justice for one we fight for all. And fight we must, for women, for children, for the poor, the elderly, minorities and the unions. When we fight for them we fight for ourselves and for the country. Now is the time to act.