Blind Trust

When I was a Freshman in college, I went on a retreat with a Christian group called Wesley Fellowship. Like most retreats there were plenty of ice breaking and team building exercises. One of them had me blindfolded and led around by an older student. The point of the exercise was the need to learn trust in one another. At one point, the other student put something in my hand. Not being able to see, I went with other senses. I immediately tried to taste it but it was a branch off a tree. This elicited much laughter from those who were observing. I learned not so much how to trust others but when NOT to trust blindly.

Democratic constituents and voters need to learn the same thing. We are told we  must follow the party line in order to elect more Democrats; it is for the greater good. It IS true that electing Republicans has resulted in nothing getting done in Washington D.C. and that much mischief is being done on state and local levels. Election laws are being overturned that were designed to protect our right to vote. Gerrymandering creates districts that will heavily favor Republicans. Laws are being passed to eliminate a woman's right to make choices about her reproductive health. Republicans are passing laws written in part or wholly by outside organizations at the behest of moneyed special interests like the Koch Brothers and the oil industry or corporate agriculture or the financial services industry to name just a few. Democracy, as we know it, is being undermined by these special interests who are able, increasingly, to channel contributions to lawmakers in a positions to help them. This is not, however, limited to the Republicans. For instance, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat from Michigan, overwhelmingly receives her funding from major agricultural interests because she is a senior member of the Committee on Agriculture. Representative Gary Peters (MI-12th) sits on the Committee which provides oversight of the Financial Services industry. Hence, his campaign contributions come from, you guess it, the bankers.

Yet we are told to blindly vote for these folks because it is in our best interests. It is true that the Democrats are not overtly attempting to destroy Democracy for political reason. They appear to be protecting the poor, women, students and the elderly. However, that is not always the case as the examples of Stabenow and Peters demonstrate. Debbie Stabenow regularly votes in favor of Bills pushed by "Big Ag". She even voted for a Farm Bill that would have cut SNAP (food stamps) for millions of Americans, many of whom are her constituents. Gary Peters, even though he calls himself a Democrat, supports the Keystone XL Pipeline which would carry the very dirty tar sands oil over environmentally sensitive farmlands. He also supports a Trans-Pacific trade agreement that is pretty well secret in nature. It will, however, greatly aid American investors as well as investors overseas. Again, where does Rep. Peters' campaign funding come from? Largely from the financial services sector. Our leaders in the Democratic party have their own conflicts of interest and we need to be skeptical. Democrats frequently take positions contrary to what major sectors of their constituents believe. And it happens enough to make me question the party line. Not every Democrat deserves our support equally.

What American citizens need to do is learn the lesson of the branch: Do not blindly trust that our leaders are acting in OUR interests, We must learn to make up our own minds, given the facts as we can best determine. We have a voice and we need to use it wisely. We may well still support people like Rep. Peters and Senator Stabenow but it will be because we have weighed the facts not because we are told to do so.

Politics (Haiku)

Politics slithers

quietly and evilly;

bites like a viper.

Volaric Limerick (republished)

There once was a Tea Bagger named Volaric

whose positions seemed quite barbaric

his congressional run

was really no fun

And his politics seemed quite generic.

© Cherie R. Boeneman 2012

*If you use this limerick please give me credit

Maybe

Maybe I was foolish:

me thinking I could fight

one as powerful as he.

Maybe I was foolish:

me thinking I could sway;

maybe halfway we could meet.

Maybe I was foolish

 me thinking that he cares

about the folk in the street.

It was very foolish

to think all of those things

he is just way too elite.

It was very foolish

He is a Congressman

and he's in the driver's seat.

It was very foolish

He uses us as means

to more power and deceit. 

Democrats?

They violate their own standards,

Hypocrites every one.

They say they are for freedom

but censor critics: cowards.

Democrats, they proclaim themselves 

but stifle most dissent.

When loyal members berate them

their democracy dissolves.

It isn't pretty and not nice

what they do to members

who say what they're really thinking;

blocked and censored from advice.

It isn't bad to criticize

it is more loyal than

those who never speak up when wronged.

Why's critique politicized?

 

I Won't Run

"Cut your losses",
says someone I know.
"Find someone who
appreciates you."

That's good advice.
There's just one problem:
The thugs remain
to drive me insane.

I will not be
intimidated
into stillness
about illness,

the stigmatized
ignored and abused.
They need to change
how they short change

disabled people
in the campaigns and
the Party too;
let us break through.

They need to learn
a little critique
is not so bad,
no need to get mad.

Strong people grow
from criticism,
not run from it
or throw a fit.

All we want is:
not be shoved around,
be included,
not secluded.

Weasel

Lithe, slinky weasel
sneaky and opportunist
pops up like the song.

Ferocious hunter,
treacherous and mean;
politician strong.

Vultures (Haiku)

Prehistoric birds
vultures circling the dead prey
scavengers supreme.

Waiting to pick bones;
Ugly: they look like what they do.
Like men in D.C.

Voting 2012?

To vote or not?
Why should I vote this year?
None of the candidates care
that I'm still out of work.

None of them care
that "no job" led to stress
and stress led me to depressed.
that I'm going berserk.

They care for votes
so why should I help them
when they left me here to rot
and their job they have shirked.

One I supported
for thirty eight long years
told me I'm not welcome there
after stress made me ill.

I became depressed
and then suicidal.
Instead of understanding
they propelled me downhill.

Voting seems stupid
when it's for these people
who seek their own interests
and not the People's will.

The Skunk

A skunk lifts its tail,

scattering all with a nose;

furry politics

Bloody Politics

Politics can be bloody
even for constituents.
I volunteered for decades
for the same official.

But then I became depressed
because I had lost my job
So then I was unwelcome; 
basis superficial.

Bigotry and ignorance
were the primary causes;
fright of the misunderstood;
no one with open ear.

Stigma of the different
can cause much apprehension,
cause us to be ostracized,
create in others fear.

It has been far, far too slow
for aversion to end
and inclusion to begin;
Politics should be first.

Why Democrats are afraid
to step up to the plate
to bat for the autistic
is politics at worst.

Make the changes fully now,
let us wholly function
we can use abilities
and show what we can do.

There is no need to hurt us
when we are capable
Yes, we are quite different
but we are human too.



P.S. "Bloody" is used here in the British sense.


©2012 Cherie R. Boeneman

Politics vs. Love

Never fall in love
with a politician.
They are usually lawyers
and practiced liars.

Falling in love with
a congressman is worse
He has staff to cover his ass
and put out all fires.

Truth is rarely told
and not even to him,
if it's inconvenient
for the official.

Minions will tell lies
and even gaslight people,
anything to keep jobs,
truth sacrificial.

The moral is this:
politics can be deadly
'specially for innocents;
the incidental.



©2012 Cherie R. Boeneman

There Once Was A Guy Named McCotter

There once was a guy named McCotter
His staff didn't do what they oughta
What they did was unwise
and caused his demise
So now he's in hot water.


©2012 Cherie R. Boeneman

Deadly Forces

Avalanche...
Snow charges downward,
overcomes
all that's in its path.


The Tornado...
Racing wind of death
can drop down,
kill without warning.


Tsunami...
Mountain water wave; 
crushing speed,
drowns all in its way 


Politics...
Lying, deception
can crush lives,
deadly as nature.

The Least of These

 

Much of the problem I have with the Republicans these days has to do with their insistence upon cutting much needed services for the elderly, the disabled and the poor all so they can help pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Many, if not most of these same Republicans call themselves Christians. Yet, anyone who reads the Bible knows that Jesus preached this: Love God, Love your neighbor as yourself. Who is your neighbor? Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The answer then is: your neighbor is EVERYONE.  The Republicans, the Tea Party and their rich sponsors do not get this. They ignore the Prophet Isaiah: "Shame on 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 10:1-3a)  The Bible is quite clear, yet those who call themselves Christians and pander to the evangelical right seem not to get what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus was NOT about hatred, racism or injustice. That is totally antithetical to Christian teachings. Jesus would not ask to see your insurance card before healing you. Don't you get it? Wake up. 

But it is not just Christians who have this problem because the Prophets preached not to Christians but to Jews. So anyone in the Abrahamic tradition gets hit with the teaching by Isaiah. How do we treat the poor, the oppressed, the weakest? And for politicians it is not just in the abstract...not just all the poor, all the unemployed, but it also means, this ONE unemployed person who stands in front of me. It is most especially about the particular, not the general. How do you treat the ONE who has been unemployed so long the stresses have caused great and deep depression and desperation? The answer is not just in passing laws to make things better but also in helping the ONE. It is much easier to see  and deal with the general because it doesn't become personal. But the ONE who stands before you calls for an immediate and personal response. That is much harder, isn't it?

Faith in the One G-d calls us all to step up and love our neighbor and not just in the abstract. It means understanding the stresses on the One and to not make them worse by treating them like dirt when they are in front of you. It means not acting like they are the OTHER, the scary, when they are just the Neighbor in need, the weakest among us who have been decimated by the ones in power.

So, who is YOUR Neighbor?


*ALL content herein is the opinion of the author.

Mental Health and ACA

I have been to forum after forum about health care reform over the last three years and one thing I have noticed: All the talk is about physical health care. Literally NONE of the discussion has focused on MENTAL health. Yet, people without health insurance are just as much in need of mental health care services as they are for physical illness. 

This is demonstrated best by someone like me. I have been unemployed for 3 1/2 years and lost my health insurance about 18 months in. I lost my unemployment benefits six months later. So, I have NO personal income, no assets, no bank account but lots of stresses: creditors who harass me constantly, an elderly mother who has to work part time to keep us housed and fed, even though she has Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a condo worth only 1/5 of what we originally mortgaged it for. The longer I go without employment, the worse it gets, in every way. With no health care, my asthma remains unmanaged and uncontrolled. I am no longer able to see my primary care physician on a regular basis, so the anti-depression and anti-anxiety medications she prescribed for me are not monitored regularly.

The consequences of this combination of circumstances has been rather disastrous for me.  The longer I am unable to find a job, the worse I feel about myself and my circumstances. The more hopeless I feel. The more useless I feel. The longer I have no income, the more stress creditors put on me and the more desperate I feel. The longer  this goes on, the guiltier I feel about my mom and the more I feel that she's be better off without me. The worse I feel about myself, the less likely I am to be able to find a job. This cycle of despair and hopelessness has led me to become extremely depressed and suicidal. The depression indicates that perhaps my meds are not working or need to be adjusted, but I have been unable to afford to go to the doctor. So, last week, I planned to commit suicide. I decided to jump off an overpass head first. All my research showed that even at a relatively low altitude, a head first jump is most likely to be successful. Yes, I researched it. If I am going to do it, I do not want to fail and make things worse. 

As it happens, I chickened out because of my fear of heights. And also, because I am not unlike most people who attempt suicide. I don't necessarily want to die, I just want the pain to end. But the pain never ends, or so it seems. Fortunately, a person I never even met in person (Facebook friend) suggested I call 211. I looked it up online and recognized one of the resources listed for help. I am now getting help but so many other people are not so lucky. If I had health insurance, this would never have gotten this far because I'd have been monitored by my primary care doctor, or, failing that, would have been able to go to a covered treatment service. Without it, getting help before I succeeded at ending my life was a shot in the dark. How many people will have their shots in the dark miss and thus end their lives?  This is what the Republicans in Congress would have us live with as they continually attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They are SO heartless, they do not care if hundreds of thousands of people end up committing suicide because they have no health care. Or that many more will be homeless because of their untreated mental illness...What IS this country becoming that those who are elected to represent ALL the people ignore the pain of the "least of these"?  

So when you think about health care and health care reform, please do not forget about mental health.

Republican Pharisees

I find it fascinating that a government body (The US House of Representatives) which meets for a maximum of 4 days per week (more usually 3 1/2 T-Th) can sit and debate taking away affordable health care from the American people but it has not, in 1 1/2 years, acted to create ONE American job. The Republicans spent all day debating the repeal of the AHCA, which has just been declared to be constitutional by the US Supreme Court. They sit and they waste time while REAL people are REALLY hurting in this country! They allow the CROOKS (banks) of this country to accrue TRILLIONS of dollars while not ONE of them has been jailed for destroying the nation's economy. They sit there and insist that the nation's wealthiest people need their tax cuts while they equally insist on paying for those tax cuts on the backs of the poor. 

The Republicans often identify as conservative Christians. They can call themselves anything they like but their ideology is the furthest thing from any of the teachings of Jesus. They ARE, however, pretty much right in line with those of the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' day. If Jesus were here today, based on the words in red in the New Testament (and the Prophets in the Old), He would condemn the GOP in the strongest possible terms, especially the ones who profess to follow Him. The Biblical record is clear: G-d Judges those who oppress the widowed, the poor and the sick and imprisoned. If those in the Republican party and the 1% who call themselves Christians do not repent and turn away from evildoing they WILL be Judged. Count on it. This IS the Word of G-d (Isaiah through John).

P.S I am NOT the agent of Judgement nor is anyone I know or do not know. Judgement usually comes in the form of the consequences of our own actions, not at the hand of someone else. 

Choices

It's amazing to me
the way you see things.
You see the forest
but not the tree.


Forests don't just occur
but for single trees.
If one pine gets sick
so do more fir.


Yet you value the whole
at the cost of one.
You save your career
but lose one Soul.


You'd let one person go
To keep it quiet.
Politics is all:
amity's foe.


Know the choices you've made
defines who you are,
The way you treat one
shows values weighed.


Whether I live or not,
you couldn't care less.
That tells me you aren't
the one I thought.


I'm as sorry for you
as I am for me.
I hope you can see
my point of view.


If not, it's a big waste
for all of us here
saw you as caring; 
that's now erased.


Please open up your heart
stop being afraid,
thinking you'll be hurt,
try a clean start.


Tomorrow's a new day
we can all start fresh
The past is the past
put it away.

Turn It OFF, Tune IN

Almost anyone watching television, particularly what passes for news these days invariably becomes either depressed or angry or both - I know I do. It is, first of all, increasingly difficult to find actual news reporting devoid of commentary. What ever happened to good, old fashioned JOURNALISM?  Just give me the facts and let ME decide how to interpret them. Or give me commentary in a totally separate venue. What ever happened to those "editorial" segments on the news when we were TOLD to expect commentary? Instead we get commentary mixed with news. 

The fact is, most television stations are wholly owned subsidiaries of major corporations. Most of those corporations are run by right-wing leaning boards and CEOs. The "liberal media" is a MYTH. It is inevitable that the spin put on the news is going to be right-leaning, at the very least. The truth you seek is NOT going to be found there, maybe ever again. It is time to move on. 

I have also found that watching television tends to "paralyze" me. I get caught up in the drama of the talking heads and forget that the action is not on TV but out in the world. I strongly suspect that the powers behind the media would LOVE for us to stay tuned to the television and forget our civic responsibilities. "Watch us, we will tell you ALL you EVER need to know."  "Stay tuned."  "Don't touch that dial."  They would love nothing more than for us to become (stay) so mesmerized by the small screen that we do not even look outside. The frightening thing is, they have succeeded! How many hours do YOU spend in front of the television set? I used to spend way too many until I realized I was frying my brain.

People,  it is time to WAKE UP! Shake off the illusions they have put in front of you. Look away and see that reality is NOT what they tell you it is. The only way to be in touch with what is REALLY happening is to go out and see for ourselves and when we do, we should become alarmed at how quickly our freedoms and rights are being stripped away by the very people who urge you to "stay tuned." TELEVISION IS NOT REALITY AND NEVER HAS BEEN.  It is too easily manipulated and created and the imaginary can be made to seem real, but it is NOT REAL.

Reality is this: The people in your life, the actions you take, the words you speak, the work you do in the world. Reality is about tuning IN to LIFE, not TV. Get off that couch and go out and volunteer. Make a difference. Stop letting television and media determine reality for you. Make your own. The world you save could be this one.

Politics of Illusion

Like lines in the ever shifting sands
or winds that swirl and cannot be seen
reality blurs and truth is at risk
when politics blend with demands.


Magicians of circus reflections
bend truth and distort reality.
Shimmering figures make us laugh
sending us in different directions.


Sudden awareness that we are lost
shakes us awake; it might be too late
but we must try to find our way back 
to who we truly are - any cost.


Drowsy from illusion's sheer blur
The way back home not easy to see
Our voices must rise loud and strong.
Voting the only path back that's sure.