Courage

As a followup to my previous post, I can only quote Gabby Giffords, in part:

People have told me that I’m courageous, but I have seen greater courage. Gabe Zimmerman, my friend and staff member in whose honor we dedicated a room in the United States Capitol this week, saw me shot in the head and saw the shooter turn his gunfire on others. Gabe ran toward me as I lay bleeding. Toward gunfire. And then the gunman shot him, and then Gabe died. His body lay on the pavement in front of the Safeway for hours. 

I have thought a lot about why Gabe ran toward me when he could have run away. Service was part of his life, but it was also his job. The senators who voted against background checks for online and gun-show sales, and those who voted against checks to screen out would-be gun buyers with mental illness, failed to do their job. 

They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.

Quoted from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/opinion/a-senate-in-the-gun-lobbys-grip.html

Her entire Op-Ed is well worth reading. I hope every United States Senator reads it, and takes it to heart.

Cravens, Courage in the US Senate today

RAGE! That was my first response to the news that the US Senate today was unable to pass even less-than-universal background checks for firearm purchases -- even with a majority, and even with the vast majority of Americans, even gun-owning Americans, even NRA members -- in favor. Now comes discouragement. How will we progress as a country, if over ninety per cent of us are ignored? Only the gun manufacturers and their toadies get their way.

Here are the nays, from http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&session=1&vote=00097#position:

Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Barrasso (R-WY) Baucus (D-MT) Begich (D-AK) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coats (R-IN) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX)

Enzi (R-WY) Fischer (R-NE) Flake (R-AZ) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Hatch (R-UT) Heitkamp (D-ND) Heller (R-NV) Hoeven (R-ND) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Johnson (R-WI) Lee (R-UT) McConnell (R-KY) Moran (R-KS)

Murkowski (R-AK) Paul (R-KY) Portman (R-OH) Pryor (D-AR) Reid (D-NV) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rubio (R-FL) Scott (R-SC) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS)

I want to call out the Democrats who voted no, as a Hall of Shame.

Senator Baucus of Montana, for shame.

Senator Begich of Alaska, for shame.

Senator Heitkamp of North Dakota, for shame.

Senator Pryor of Arkansas, for shame.

Senator Reid of Nevada, so much shame on your head.*

I can't begin to express how much disappointment and sadness you have brought to me.

On the positive side, there were Republicans who bucked their party, and they should be called out as well. These Republicans showed as much courage as the roll above earned shame today.

The Roll Call of Courage:

Senator Susan Collins, of Maine, thank you.

Senator Mark Kirk, of Illinois, thank you.

Senator John McCain, of Arizona, thank you.

Senator Pat Toomey, of Pennsylvania, double thanks to you.

Thank you to all of the heroic victims of gun violence who spoke up, who worked, wrote, raised money, and lobbied for gun safety. Thank you to all of you in the majority who voted for gun safety.

There is so much more I want to say, but while feeling so full of rage and sadness, I will refrain. We must be the change we want in the world.

*I've heard that this NAY vote was "merely procedural." I guess time will tell if that is true or not. However, by not reforming the Senate rules when there was a lot of momentum to curb the power of the minority, Harry Reid set the stage for this heart-breaking vote today.

Common-sense gun safety legislation

I'm a gun owner. I want common-sense gun safety regulation. What is currently under debate in the US Congress is less than adequate, yet it certainly is better than nothing. If the assault weapons ban had not been allowed to lapse, Adam Lanza (the Newtown shooter) would not have had access to the weapon and 30-round clips he used to murder so many people in less than five minutes. I was upset when the ban was allowed to lapse; first, I couldn't understand why it had a "lapse date" in the first place. For another, the Vice President at the time supported renewing it. Yes, Dick Cheney supported the assault weapon ban. And yet, Congress was so gutless that it was allowed to lapse. The President nor the Vice President back then provided any leadership on the issue, and neither the Republicans nor Democrats seemed to pay a price for their cowardice.

How many hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from gun violence since that happened? Certainly not all of them would have been alive today if we had never decided to allow civilians to own military-style assault weapons, extended magazines, and armor-penetrating bullets. Guns designed to kill lots of people, as quickly as possible. However, many of the mass shootings which have so shocked the nation and the world would not have happened, or at least had fewer dead.

Now we have a chance. We have a President willing to spend his political capital on gun regulation, rather than privatizing Medicare. We have a Vice President willing to spend lots of time and energy on fact-gathering, dialogue with those on both sides of the argument. We have great new groups newly-energized, and willing to spend money and energy to fight the pernicious influence of the NRA.

I want to talk a bit about the NRA. I grew up looking at Daddy's American Riflemen magazines, which were mostly interesting to me because of the photos of gorgeous countryside and animals. I knew Daddy had hunted in the past, but he never shot Bambi while I lived at home. Later he did do some moose hunting in Canada, and I loved eating some of that meat. Back in those days, the NRA stood for the average hunter, and marksman. Sure, there were a few ads for guns, but it seemed that the money Dad sent them was spent on hunter safety classes and such. In those days, the NRA stood for gun safety, in extreme contrast to its present stance. Why the difference? I think it's the source of money. They claim four million members, but the vast predominance of money in the organization comes from gun manufacturers. They actually have protected the gun manufacturers from civil suits! Can you imagine how much more unsafe our cars would be if the car manufacturers were safe from being sued? This fact shocked me, and shows to me what they really care about; the money from their patrons, the gun manufacturers -- no longer the average gun owner.

If you care about this issue, contact your Representatives and Senators. If do not have contact information, the League of Women Voters have the easiest way to find out: http://www.lwvwa.org/who_represents.html.
Or simply call the the U.S. Capitol Switchboard (the phone number is (202) 224-3121 locally or toll-free 1-800-962-3524 nationally) and ask for a particular legislator. You can even just leave a short message with the operator. This week, legislators are in their home districts, so you can call or visit their local office if you prefer.

We can allow nothing to happen, or we can provide the impetus for change, if we act. Let's do so.

PS: When gun manufacturers are again subject to suit, I'll be more satisfied.

When I was a kid, and now

When I was a kid, a Republican president proposed and got passed the Interstate Highway system. This was passed as a non-partisan issue, and has been the backbone of the rise of the modern United States.

Now, under a Democratic president, his tiny (by comparison) American Jobs bill can't even get a hearing.

Before I was born, a Democratic president decided that the long-postponed racial integration of the US Armed Forces would take place, whether his generals and the people of the United States agreed with it, or not. Simply because it was the right thing to do. And it worked.

Just this year, another Democratic president finally ended official discrimination against gay and lesbian soldiers and sailors. While it seems to be a non-issue in the services, he's catching hell for it on the right-wing airwaves.

When I was a kid, a whole generation of young Americans were going to college, courtesy of the GI Bill. This was mostly men, but even so, American business was propelled ahead by the brightest and most-educated workforce ever. Even poor folks, however, were able to get to college if they really wanted to attend.

Now, we are burdening all but the richest and poorest with enormous debt to attend college. What the hell is wrong with us? The rest of the world has figured out how to do this better. So can we, if we want to.

When I was a kid, people didn't complain about their taxes. People knew that taxes paid for not just government, but also the armed forces, and the nation's infrastructure. They were proud to be able to contribute. The taxes on the rich were very high, and yet the US prospered and grew.


Now, the rich control most of the wealth and power in this country, and have the lowest tax rates in fifty years. Many corporations pay NO tax, using not only sleazy tax-dodges, but also off-shoring American jobs, impoverishing the country but still posting record profits. And now they are allowed, as "legal persons," to make unlimited political contributions. And our jobless rate hovers around 9%. The Republicans in Congress have almost all signed a pledge to NEVER raise taxes.

And the American Jobs bill still gets no hearing.

I grew up Republican, proud of the Party of Lincoln. President Lincoln kept the Union together, won the Civil War, which ended the horrible stain upon US honor, the agony of slavery. But I grew up to see Republicans vote against the Civil Rights Act, and oppose school desegregation.

I honored Teddy Roosevelt, who created the National Park System, forever protecting our most beautiful and pristine public lands. Now I see the Republicans try to sully the environment, yelling "drill baby drill!" My goodness, the Environmental Protection Agency was proposed and created by the Republican President Nixon! Now most of the Republican presidential candidates want to hobble or even disband it!

When the Republican Bob Dole was running for president, he proposed a near-universal healthcare plan, which was nearly identical to President Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Yet NO Republicans supported or voted for it.

Republican President Ulysses S Grant established the Civil Service, to get graft out of government jobs. Now the Republicans are the ones attacking government employees, and trying to "privatize" as many government services as possible. What was different in 1872 and now? People have forgotten what graft is, and what it means. How many people know what Blackwater, Halliburton and Xie have done to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the United States?

To be fair, Rupert Murdoch's FOX News and many years of one-sided (and dishonest) media pounding on the American public has had its effect. The Republican Party has responded by speaking up ONLY for the richest Americans. The Democrats have often retreated from support for the poor and middle class, minorities, children, as they lost power to the rich. But for the most part, they have done their part to protect the middle class. They have spoken up for health care for all, protection of the environment, repair of the US infrastructure, women's rights, education for all who want it.

But the money in politics is destroying us. I've signed the petition at getmoneyout.com/ and I hope it does some good. I worked for Pres. Obama and most of the local Democrats, and will do so again. But until we get the money our of the system, it will be much less than perfect. I've lobbied my local Congresspeople, and write and call all of them sometimes. But until we get the money out of politics, we aren't going to make the progress we really need to. I think the Occupy Wall Street movement shows that I'm not the only one who notices that something is wrong, and we need to get this turned around.

You reap what you sow - Film: Battle of Algiers

In the last couple of days, I watched Battle of Algiers La Battaglia di Algeri (1966) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058946/ and all the extra material included in the Criterion edition of this classic film shot in 1966. I really wish Pres. Obama had seen it too, because his remarks about our goals and methods in Afghanistan seem fundamentally flawed to me.

What I take away from hours of film, biography, history, interviews, etc., is that you reap what you sow. If you use terrorism and force, you end up with chaos, which is the situation facing Algeria now. The French used force and torture, and won the battle of Algers, but lost the war. and the colony. The Algerians won their independence, but rather than a peaceful democracy, they are now fighting off religious fundamentalists.

We need to think more carefully about where to involve ourselves in the world, and how we do it. Because one reaps what one sows, in politics as in life.


It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds. - Sam Adams

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The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism

This trend has only gotten stronger, sadly. Here is a link to a recent article outlining the process - Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps, by Naomi Wolf, in the Guardian UK: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/24/708/

Disturbing list, widely found on the web.

Dr. Lawrence Britt, political scientist, analyzed the fascist governments of Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy, Franco in Spain, Suharto in Indonesia, and Pinochet in Chile, and found all had 14 characteristics in common.

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism: Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights: Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause: The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military: Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism: The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homo-sexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media: Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security: Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined: Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected: The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed: Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts: Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment: Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption: Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections: Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Dr. Lawrence Britt, in Free Inquiry Magazine, Spring 2003. Found at Enviromnentalists Against War and the University of Minnesota Duluth Faculty Against War, among others.


Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country. - Hermann Goering (Hitler's Carl Rove)


Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all. - Emily Dickenson

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