Down the Drain

This is a rant. Go away now if you are looking for cute pictures of niceties. You can come back tomorrow for that.

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Most people who have been reading my blog for any length of time are probably aware that I am not happy with the current state of the nation.
 
Give it a year, and I think a lot of people are going to be really unhappy, but they will have to find it out for themselves. Some will never figure it out, and will blame somebody else. It's the nature of being human.
 
With all of this quick change going on, to me it feels like a chronic beating over the head. Unfortunately, every time Republicans are in charge of the government, I feel like I am being beaten. It is the verbal patronizing, the language, the authoritarianism, I suppose, that makes me feel like I have a boot over my face. Not only that, Republicans in Congress are just mean. And they really dislike women. Honestly, every mean person I know is a Republican. I know nice Republicans, too, but I can't think of a single mean Democrat. I probably know some, but I don't know who they are. I know that I know mean Republicans.
 
Anyway, since that is how I have been feeling, like a beaten down dog whimpering in a cage, it has been hard to blog. I try not to blog too much about political stuff here because that is not what I want on Blue Country Magic. But when it is all I can think about, and all that is in the news, and all that is eating at me, it is difficult to write about fawns and daylilies.
 
I am not writing on Facebook, either, even though I sometimes want to scream out responses to the things I see posted. But I am not very good at arguments. I can state my case and you can agree with it or not, but I don't want to argue with anyone about it. So I don't argue. If I do post something, if you don't agree, don't agree. I generally won't waste my time fighting about it. Usually I just hit "delete." It's the best key on the keyboard.

That type of thing, of course, pertains to opinion. Now, if I'm stating a fact, like, say, 4+4=8, or the ground is made of dirt and rocks and compost and dead things, and you don't want to agree with that, well, that just means you're ignorant. I might argue with you over a fact. A real fact, not an alternative fact.
 
A friend, a moderate Republican who occasionally shows glimpses of a soul when he talks to me, doesn't post a lot of political stuff on Facebook, either. I still have hope for him,  but yesterday he posted a video on Facebook but he made little comment about it except that it made him think (about what, I do not know). The video was by some dude who claimed to be in Iraq (no way to know for sure, he might have been in his basement in Mississippi). He said that he had been told that right now, with the [whatever name I decide to call the person leading the country]'s ban on immigration, the Iraqis are fired up. After all, we're supposed to be on their side but their nation was spelled out as being bad and their people couldn't come here, not even the ones that fought with us. This guy said if he went out on the town, the Iraqi people, not ISIL or Al Qaida, would kill him. Torture him, behead him. And is that the kind of people we want in the U.S.?
 
What I wanted to respond to this video was this:

Matthew Shepherd (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998), beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie, Wyoming on the night of October 6, 1998. Significant media coverage was given to the killing and what role Shepard's sexual orientation might have played as a motive in the perpetration of the crime.

Nine black church congregants were killed by a white shooter June 17, 2015 in Charleston, S.C.

The KKK and black lynchings.

Any newspaper reporting crime in any day in this country.

For further information, here's a report in the Washington Post on Hate Crime. 
 
And there is this graph here at the FBI site:

I just pulled out Virginia because that is where I live. In just those areas, which doesn't even include most of Southwest Virginia, there are over 160 murders. And look at all of those violent crimes.
 
And then I would have liked to have responded with this:
 
FBI Hate Crimes Statistics

Overview

• In 2015, 14,997 law enforcement agencies participated in the Hate Crime Statistics Program. Of these agencies, 1,742 reported 5,850 hate crime incidents involving 6,885 offenses.
•  There were 5,818 single-bias incidents that involved 6,837 offenses, 7,121 victims, and 5,475 known offenders.
• The 32 multiple-bias incidents reported in 2015 involved 48 offenses, 52 victims, and 18 known offenders.

Single-bias incidents

Analysis of the 5,818 single-bias incidents reported in 2015 revealed that:

• 56.9 percent were motivated by a race/ethnicity/ancestry bias.

• 21.4 percent were prompted by religious bias.

• 18.1 percent resulted from sexual-orientation bias.

• 2.0 percent were motivated by gender-identity bias.

• 1.3 percent were prompted by disability bias.

• 0.4 percent (23 incidents) were motivated by a gender bias.

 
Because we're such a calm, non-violent society, after all. We worship our mammas and apple pie. We don't gang up on gays, or black people, or Muslims, or people of different faith.

What crap.

My point is, this weird view that Americans have that we're such a peaceful, tolerant and welcoming nation is bullshit, and the world is calling us on it. We are violent. We are mean. We are as bad, if not worse, than any other nation in this word. as far as violence and hatred and just plain vileness goes. Only we do it in the name of "Christianity" instead of some other religion, so somehow or another, because a bunch of people worship a really blatantly fucked-up version of "the Prince of Peace," that makes shooting one another and dropping drone bombs on people all right.

And to make this point even more strongly, here is this, from The American Bar Association:

In 2003, there were 30,136 firearm-related deaths in the United States; 16,907 (56%) suicides, 11,920 (40%) homicides (including 347 deaths due to legal intervention/war), and 962 (3%) undetermined/unintentional firearm deaths.

CDC/National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, WISQARS Injury Mortality Reports 1999-2003 http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars

• The rate of death from firearms in the United States is eight times higher than that in its economic counterparts in other parts of the world. Kellermann AL and Waeckerle JF. Preventing Firearm Injuries. Ann Emerg Med July 1998; 32:77-79.

• The overall firearm-related death rate among U.S. children younger than 15 years of age is nearly 12 times higher than among children in 25 other industrialized countries combined. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1997;46:101-105.

•  The United States has the highest rate of youth homicides and suicides among the 26 wealthiest nations. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  Rates of homicide, suicide, and firearm-related death among children: 26 industrialized countries.MMWR. 1997;46:101-105. Krug EG, Dahlberg LL, Powell KE. Childhood homicide, suicide, and firearm deaths: an international comparison. World Health Stat Q. 1996;49:230-235.

Still think we're so nice? Let's see. How about the 2006 murders at Virginia Tech? The Sandy Hook murders in 2012? The Oklahoma bombings in 1995? How about the guy who beat another guy to death in the gas station about four miles from me, because he didn't like the way the other guy was driving? Or maybe the murders of a couple of young women near UVA? Or the shooting of a couple of journalists at a local TV station?

Or maybe the stabbings, gunshots, fights, and domestic violence runs that my husband's EMS/Fire crews see every single night in Roanoke would convince you, dear reader, that we are not a peaceful people?

We are the ONLY nation to have used an atomic weapon on real, live people. We have lynched people on the say-so of a single person. We are completely capable of ostracizing and being cruel to someone different than us. We do it every single day. Every. Single. Day.

And we're terrified of people who are thousands of miles away from us.

Frankly, I am as frightened of some of the people in my community as I am anybody else in the world.

We can keep fooling ourselves that we are better than others in the world, but we're not. That boat has sailed and is so far gone it is too late to wave bye-bye to it. The only thing we have is greed and a religion that worships money.

Some of us, though, want a better world.

We ain't gettin' it today.

I Am Woman

To honor the women who are marching today in support of human rights.

The New Fear in Town

Today I did something in my supermarket parking lot that I've never done before.

I locked the car doors as soon as I could get myself into my seat.

My county is, by and large, a small community. The county as a whole has about 33,000 people. I don't know them all, of course, but there is seldom a time when I go to the local market and do not see someone I know.

After a while, especially if you go around the same time and day, you tend to see the same people over and over. You may not be friends, but there is a sense of security in the sameness.

That's why today, when I left the store and noticed people I did not recognize accosting folks in the parking lot, showing them a flyer and pointing, and watching as the people tried vainly to be polite and get away, and then noticed other people who did not seem to be long wandering around trying indiscreetly to check door handles on vehicles, I hurriedly unloaded my groceries in the trunk, praying that I would draw no attention to myself. I was parked in a handicapped spot and had my cane in my hand, but still. I was feeling terrible and not having a good day.

So as soon as I could, I fled to my car (which means I limped to the car), and I locked the doors.

In my little county. Where I know probably 10 percent of the 33,000 people who live here by virtue of my former work as a news reporter. And if I don't know you, I probably know your friend.

City folk are probably thinking, so what? I imagine they always lock their car doors. Maybe they always walk to their vehicle with their pepper spray at the ready. I don't know. I grew up in a rural area and I've never been overly concerned about my safety, even though I was attacked at Winn Dixie a very long time ago. The person who did that was not from these parts.

And neither, I suspect, were the people patrolling the supermarket parking lot today. They did not look they belonged here. Their dress was off. Their movements were wrong. They were prowling, and we don't prowl.

I started to call the sheriff's office, but wondered what I would report. Strange looking folks in the parking lot? We have a lot of strange-looking people wander through the area anyway as we're on the Appalachian Trail. But these people weren't hikers. I know what the hikers look like. These people were scammers or something.

Rumors of folks accosting others at local parking lots have been flying around for a while now. Sometimes someone asks for money for a cab. Sometimes they ask for a ride. Some time ago, I was asked if I wanted to buy "really good steaks, cheap" out of the back of a freezer truck. I politely declined and hurried away.

One asked my mother-in-law to help her, and my mother-in-law told her to go in and talk to the store management. That was smart thinking for a woman over 80.

Scams obviously work - someone sometimes gives these people money or rides or whatever it is they are after, or they wouldn't continue to haunt parking lots and other places where they shouldn't be.

Generally I am not afraid of much. I don't worry about who I see in parking lots. Today, maybe simply because I wasn't feeling well, I noticed more than I normally do. I felt the fear that I know is running rampant around the nation, the fear that is bringing out the worst in my fellow human beings.

All it brought out in me was a desire to lock my doors and go home.

An Historic Moment

Tears came to my eyes earlier in the week when Hillary Clinton received the nomination to be the first female candidate for president. When she showed up on that big screen, crashing through the glass ceiling, I cheered.

Last night, when she finally said these words, "And so it is with humility, determination and boundless confidence in America's promise, that I accept your nomination for President of the United States" - I cried.

"Tonight we've reached a milestone in our nation's march toward a more perfect union," she noted. "The first time that a major party has nominated a woman for President. Standing her as my mother's daughter and my daughter's mother, I'm so happy this day has come. . . . When any barrier falls in America, it clears the way for everyone. After all, when there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit."

I never thought I'd see the day.

Suffragettes have had my attention for some time, because the women's right to vote was a battle, a hard-fought battle that had women literally beaten, spit upon, belittled, and run down as less than. Always less than.

It was and still is something to fight against. The war's not yet won.

My county's own Mary Johnston fought for women's right to vote, along with Virgina's Ellen Glasgow and other notable women of the early 1900s. Johnston, in a prophetic moment, said this in a New York Times interview in 1911:

"I regard the fight for the franchise as a piece of roadbuilding. One and all of the women who are engaged in this piece of engineering are the servants of the woman who is to be—of a creature great and strong and wise and free and lovely—a woman magnificently beyond to-day's most wonderful dream. She may not come in the fullness of might and beauty for 500 years, but she could not come at all but for the road we are building to-day. She must come over that road. So we build in faith and in the service of that great woman and of the children she shall bear, and it is a work of great religious significance."

It did not take 500 years. But it took nearly 100. Women received the right to vote in the United States in 1920. Fortunately for Clinton, other women have moved mountains to give her a platform - nameless women who have raised children, created homes, and served as teachers. Women who have gone into the Armed Forces, become police officers and firefighters, writers, poets and environmental leaders. Women astronauts and engineers, scientists and doctors. Geraldine Ferro, first vice president nominee of a major party. Jill Stein, the nominee of a third party (the Green Party) and others who have knocked and beat on the bottoms of the shoes of the patriarchy until finally the men have fallen over with sore feet. It took a world of women, beating on that glass ceiling, so Clinton could break through.

I am 53 years old. I have always had the right to vote. It was a right my mother refused to exercise because of a silly notion that she might have to serve on a jury. Serving on a jury, to my mind, is another great right of a citizen, and a duty she shirked over some nebulous fear.

But perhaps that was because my mother thought, as she taught me, that she was less than. Women all around me have always been less than in the eyes of the patriarchy that forms America, and especially rural America - from my grandmothers to my mother, my aunts, and to myself. In Southwest Virginia, this Appalachian mountain land, women are currency, not humans.

I grew up knowing I was less than from the moment some male doctor pulled me from my mother's womb and spanked my bottom to make me breathe. I knew it when my father told me he was saving money for my brother's education, but not for mine (though I'm the one with the masters degree). I knew it when a male coworker tried to rape me in a back room before I married and when a friend of my father's grabbed me in a parking lot and felt me up. I knew it when every male doctor I saw for infertility looked at me not with compassion, but with pity and spite because I was, from then on, even less than all the other less than women who could carry a child.

Do you understand? This is not something I expect everyone to understand. Not even all women will understand, and they may not want to. Examining one's life can be painful, and I acknowledge that many do not take the time to do this. And many women are happy with their status.

That is their right.

I have never been happy being less than. In many instances, I am more than and I have always been equal to - as are all women - even when those around me refused to acknowledge it. I may not be physically strong, but there was a time when I was smarter than many men I knew.

I still am. We all bring something to the table, regardless of gender. We all have something to add to this world, and no contribution outshines another. If it does, it is only because some mind has made it so.

My husband, a kind and intelligent man, knows last night was important to me. He handed me a tissue last night when I burst into sobs, but I do not know if he understood the momentous occasion or the reason for the tears. I don't know if he understands the implications. I do not know if any man truly understands what it is to be a woman, any more than I can truly understand what it is to be a woman of color in this country.

Last night, women were no longer less than. Women can now be equal to and even if Mrs. Clinton losses this election (so get out and vote for her so this does not happen), that glass ceiling will have a truly large crack in it, one that may be repaired but never solely replaced.

At long last, Mary Johnston's vision from 105 years ago has come true.

And finally, after having female leaders around the world look at the United States in confusion, we are with them. Croatia has a female leader and has for some time. Canada, Chile, Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, Grenada, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland and on and on have female leaders in the 21st century (and many way before that - remember Cleopatra? Queen Victoria? Mary, Queen of Scots?).

And here we are now, the United States of America, after 240 years as an independent country, on the cusp of making a woman a leader of this nation.

Finally.

This is no fantasy we are living in. Hillary Clinton is not Wonder Woman or Xena. She's no daughter of Zeus. She's a human being who has worked hard, solidly, for decades to better the world and to move herself up, fighting battles against men who would deny her the right to take that first gasp of air she needed when she was a wee baby if they could. Men who proclaim to love life, so long as that life serves them.

We are servants no longer. Take notice, men. You are no longer kings.

I'm with her.

I'm a Democrat.

I vote.

Growing Up with Guns

As the nation wrings its hands over yet another mass shooting - 50 people dead in Orlando in what appears to be a homophobic rage - and the "thoughts and prayers" that do absolutely nothing are prostituted by the politicians, I sit and wonder about a solution to this obviously major problem.

Statistics and numbers can be jockeyed around and source matters, but a source I like, and believe to be close, states that in 2010, just over 31,000 U.S. citizens died because of guns.

That's the total population of my county, just about. In one year, everyone around me was wiped out. And this happens year in and year out. On average, there are 33 homicides a day in the U.S. There are 49 suicides committed each day in the U.S. That means that around 80 people a day die in the U.S. because either someone shot them, or they shot themselves. So every year, somewhere close to 30,000 people die.

Every year.

Back in May, we had a food recall of over 400 items because of the possibility that these products were tainted with listeria. If I remember correctly, eight people died or were sickened. Not even a dozen, and we did something.

I am in favor of more stringent gun control laws. I think the current questions on the gun purchase forms are jokes, and the background checks are, too. Apparently even if you have certain things on your police record, or if the FBI is watching you, you can still buy a gun.

Here close to me, a young man with a known history of psychiatric problems was able to buy a gun, legally, and he shot up Virginia Tech in 2007, which, up until this weekend, was the largest mass shooting in the USA in this century.

I don't see why we can't regulate guns like we do cars. I don't see where regulations violate the Second Amendment. I mean, it spells it out right there, "A well-regulated militia." It even uses the word regulated. That means to control or direct, by rules or laws.

Regulations already exist. I can't go out and buy a tank and drive it down Main Street. I can't own a bazooka or a machine gun.

To drive a car, I have to produce a birth certificate, take a test, and have a license. I also have to have insurance or pay an uninsured motorists fee. I have to have the vehicle inspected annually.

I have no problem with having to take a test or a class in order to own a gun. When I was in middle school, gun safety was a featured class. We all took it. It was required. We learned how to safely handle a weapon, how they worked, and what they could do (kill and maim), and when to use them. At the end, we received a gun safety certificate.

I don't know when they stopped giving these courses in school, but I think, given our gun culture, that such classes should become available again. Teach kids to respect guns, not honor them.

My father had guns. I owned a gun when I was 10 years old, a little .22 caliber survival gun. It was black and it came apart so that its pieces could fit into the empty stock for easy carrying. I learned how to break the thing down and put it back together. I was a good shot, knocking cans and things off of fence posts. (Yes, I was too young to be handling a gun, but that is how things are done around here.)

I did not hunt or shoot at living things. I knew better. I feel spiritually sick when animals are killed in front of me. However, I live in the country and knowing how to properly use a gun, even if it is just a .22, is, if not a necessity, prudent.

Other people take great sport in shooting and killing, and do not feel the spiritual aspect of the death of an animal. My husband, brother, father, nephews, and others hunt. These are all men; I know there are women who hunt but I am not aware of any of my kin who do.

Personally, I'd rather shoot at things with my camera, so that is what I do.

My answer to the problem of gun violence is regulation. This doesn't mean you can't have a gun, unless you've some reason not to have one. If you're a spouse beater, you shouldn't have a gun. If someone takes out a restraining order against you, you shouldn't have a gun. If you're depressed and suicidal, you shouldn't have a gun. There are many reasons not to have a gun, reasons that good classes, professional oversight, and more honest background checks would ferret out. Or so one would hope.

I don't see regulations happening, so this post is nothing more than a musing, my thoughts on the matter. It is as useful as the "thoughts and prayers" of the proselytizing politicians. I think it is horrible that we will recall food for eight deaths and do nothing over 50. I don't run the world. I do vote, not that I am sure it matters, but there you go.

Death is sad. Loss is terrible. Orlando, like Virginia Tech, will be scarred for a long time. I think the nation, over all, is already scarred and battered. I also think that since 9-11, we've become a bunch of scared little children, fearful of our own shadow, and that is really why people want their guns.

Because in the deepest of any heart, fear strangles logic, and wins out every time.

(Comments are off.)

Thursday Thirteen

1. Too many people get their knickers twisted over absolutely nothing.  But then again, too many people are uninvolved and doing things from an emotional and not a rational thinking process.

2. Case in point: Donald Trump. Here's an interesting blog post about someone who went to see Mr. Trump in Radford, VA on Monday. After seeing him up close and personal, she no longer supports him. She wrote, "the hatred, anger, racism, arrogance, sexist man that I witnessed made me feel like I had front row seats to Jerry Springer!!" This person used her noggin.

3. When I went to the vote in the Super Tuesday primary, I did not like that I had to go to one side or the other and pick out whether I was a Republican or a Democrat. Why couldn't all the names be on one sheet of paper so you simply went and voted for whomever you want? As it was, I ended up standing beside a distant and very Republican cousin while I stood in the short line for Democrat votes. I don't mind saying I'm a Democrat - it's no secret - but really, is it anybody's business but my own, unless I choose to share? (I live in a Republican area. About 30 percent of my county's residents vote Democrat in presidential elections.)

4. I believe in privacy even though I write a blog and am on Facebook. This is information I choose to share. Does the U.S. Constitution guarantee a right to privacy? Not really, but the courts since the early 20th century have construed it as such. So what would a different court think as we march toward a Fascist (and third-world) America? Would Apple have no reason to deny the government access to its codes? Would they be able to spy on your phone? Put little doohickeys on your head to read your thoughts? Will 1984 prove even more prophetic than it already has?

5. Virginia now wants to censor school books. The Senate this week agreed to allow schools to ban books if parents object. I thought parents always had that right, anyway. The kid was just assigned another book. This  bill "would make Virginia the first state in the nation to require K-to-12 teachers to notify parents of classroom materials with “sexually explicit content." Of course, "sexually explicit" isn't defined. So would a woman breast-feeding be a problem? A girl or a boy undressing to go to bed? Where does this end? Next they'll be banning Harry Potter because it encourages make believe.

6. In 2007, 2,000 Hong Kong residents tried to ban the Bible when "they called on a Chinese decency commission to restrict the Bible to adults only because it contains passages that seem to give the okay to incest, rape, adultery and a father offering his daughters to strangers for sexual gratification." How 'bout them apples, eh?

7. Locally, citizens lost their fight to keep two historic structures from being moved from where they'd stood for almost 200 years to a "historic structure designation area." The structures were slave quarters and an old kitchen. The manor house of this plantation, which belonged to a Revolutionary War hero and Virginia leader at one time, burned in the 1950s. History lost. (The structures were moved so a hill could be leveled and a shell building - a 100,000 metal structure with no tenant or purchaser yet - could be built.) Citizen outcry against moving the structures as well as building this monstrosity was huge, but money beats all, I guess.

8. I have been sick now since February 1. I have an upper respiratory thing. I have had laryngitis since February 10. I've had two rounds of antibiotics and I am still not well. Today my plan is to go back to bed after I write this and see if that helps.

9. Last night I went to sleep thinking about what I should be thinking about. I like to try to have some guidance for my dreams, but my cold medicine knocked me out before I found my thoughts. I slept fairly well, though.

10. We never really forget out pasts, do we? Even animals remember things, otherwise we'd have to retrain our dogs every day. But then the great historic context of the pasts of governments seem to flow over the mind like water over a dam. How can we forget what happened to bad governments in the past? Perhaps because we are not taught the realities of the rise and fall, and only see it from the perspective of those who manage to live through it. The dead don't write history.

11. Actually, I don't think most people comprehend what is going on around them now. They have no idea of the vastness of government or what it actually does or can do. All they see is the line on their paycheck that says "taxes" and react emotionally to hot-button issues. But governments can do great things. Build roads, offer police and fire protection, control pollution so that we aren't all drinking one another's pee. Hey, I like that last one, for sure. 

12. I include myself in that "most people." I have no idea of the vastness of government - I just know it is and that it is more than I care to think about. The military industrial complex in particular is not something I care to dwell on, being a pacifist. I recognize the need for a militia, though, because people are generally only as good as their base nature, and that nature tends to be one that fights and feuds.

13. If you support Donald Trump and have reasons other than "he's going to change the world," and "make America great again," and care to share, I'm happy to read them. I always want to understand what people are thinking. But so far no one has been able to give me a good reason to support him.

By the way, I don't think America needs to be made great again. I think America already is great. She's just a little winded from having been knocked around by some kind of ferocious internal virus for the last 30 years. Kind of like I feel today after having one for a month.

_____________

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 437th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

The Men on the Chessboard

My local daily paper today is full of anger. It usually is. Americans are angry people these days. Fearful people tend to become angry people, because they feel they've lost control.

There is not usually so much local anger, though. But today we have Montgomery County angry over a Circuit Court Clerk's decision to fire half of her staff, Rockbridge County is upset over Botetourt's near-certain approval of 25 wind turbines on North Mountain, and people in Botetourt are upset because the supervisors want to tear down historic structures to build a big shell building.

The state of Virginia is upset because somebody rooked the Commerce and Trade Department out of $1.4 million.

Nationally, people are angry over polluted water in Michigan and Planned Parenthood (pro and con). Online, people are still talking about those men in Oregon who took over a federal facility and for some reason are still there, and I see as I write this there are reports of yet another mass shooting. Sad that those have become so commonplace one barely blinks at the headline anymore.

And this is all caused by those in power. Yes, we have class in America. We have people in power who don't know what they are doing, and we have people behind the people in power who probably know what they are doing, but what they are doing is not in the best interest of the rest of us. Power only serves power, and it most certainly does not share it with the likes of the little people, of which I am one.

I learned to play chess when I was about nine years old. I never was very good at it. But chess is an interesting way of looking things going on in the world.

You have the king, who can only move one square at time and who, in my opinion, is weaker even than a pawn, though the rules say otherwise.

The queen is the most powerful piece. She can whiz about the checkered board with impunity. She can knock off bishops and knights, destroy castles (rooks), and eat pawns for lunch.

The queen is the power behind the throne. I firmly believe that in the U.S. the power behind the throne is something - or a group of someones - that Americans are not even aware of. Maybe it is simply rich folk like the Koch brothers, using their lobbyists and money to bend our elected representatives to their collective will. Perhaps it is something more sinister, like in the movies, an evil coalition set about to destroy all that was once good in this world in a grab for more power.

Which means I believe our government is broken, and is more like the chess board tossed about by a two-year old than any sort of conventional play. No, we have a president who was unable to bring forth his vision for the country because of the can't do Congress and Senate, and they can't do because of that invisible power - the Queen - who really runs around the board and takes care of the business of the rich and the powerful.

This even plays out on the local level. I will use my own county as an example. We have five elected representatives, a few of whom appear to believe they must answer to the people who elected them. They have collectively assumed the role of queen, and tossed the pawns completely off the table. The king - I'm not sure who that might be - will step around his single square waiting for the Queen to offer permission.

As for the rest - the bishops, the rooks, the knights - they are all loyal subjects. Lower level administrators, maybe, and other county employees. They have a place on the local little chessboard (and no place on the bigger, state-sized one, and not a prayer of ever being on the national chessboard) but some, I suspect, aren't sure whether they are rooks or knights. They may even really be pawns and not realize it.

Every locality plays its own game of chess, even the tiny towns that lie within the boundaries of our county. We have three little towns and they have their own versions of king, queen, and supporting players. It happens everywhere, not just here.

The problem is always the queen, though. Who gets to be that power player? That's where the fighting and anger comes in. The public, who does the electing, thinks it is the queen - and rightly so. This is supposed to be a democracy, after all, so those who vote should be the ones to move around the board, overseeing this, looking at that, whispering in the ear of the king so he will move from front to side and back again.

But instead we have reversed power - we've given it all to those we elect, because we are now not even on the board. We're not pawns, we're watchers. We do not participate in the game at all. We're content to go to work, watch TV, eat a Milky Way, and go to bed.

About half of us aren't even aware that there is a game being played, and that whatever these kings, queens, and bishops do, it affects us in some fashion or another. The only time we look up to see the board is if the word "taxes" appears, blinking like a magic neon sign over the bar in which the chess game is played. Then, maybe, we speak up. But most of the time we simply go back to watching Netflix.

I wish citizens would be more active in their government, whether at the local level or at higher levels. Many times we have offices up for election and no one has opposition. This is wrong. People should always have a choice. I understand that it is a time commitment and the financial rewards can be limited, especially in local politics, but there is more to life than money.

My actions have been to vote in every election (I don't think I've missed a single one), to write letters to representatives and newspapers, and, when I was a working journalist, to report on topics as objectively as I could so that the citizenry could make an objective opinion on issues. I also served on an appointed board as a representative for my district (the local library board, which is not a major determiner of destiny, but I still served). I continue to write letters and monitor things and work on issues I care about. Others do too, of course, but so many do not.

If you have never written a representative about an issue, I encourage you to read up on something you have an interest in, and then express your opinion in a letter to the editor, or a letter to your representative. Email makes this easy (though a "real" letter tends to be held in higher esteem by some officials).

We can't "Make America Great Again" unless we all participate. If we're sitting back waiting on a sugar daddy to save us, we're going to slide right off that sucker and into a drainage ditch full of sewage. Is that really what we want for our selves and our children?

Take action today. It really is important.

Nothing to See Here

I consider myself fairly well-read and I did not hear about the bombings in Beirut (which happened Thursday before the Friday bombings in Paris) until Sunday. The media, which has become too narrowly focused, offers only the points of views of its owners now, points of views which I do not share. I love all of humanity, not just the ones I feel some cultural connection with. I should not have to read the newspapers in other countries to feel like I have a better, more well-rounded view of the world, but I do and I must.
 

To put this in perspective, when 32 people at Virginia Tech were murdered, it was a global story. When 43 people die by suicide bombings in Beirut, we hear nothing. Are we that immune to the suffering of others? Is it us or the media? Or both?

 

We are a world, not a nation. When will we realize that we are all connected? We are not islands unto ourselves. Even if we wanted to do it, corporations would not stand for closed borders and loss of trade. That's all bluster and buffoonery.

 

This world operates on many levels. I cannot do a thing about the powerful who control what goes on, but I can still open my mind, read, and learn. I can formulate my own opinions. My opinions, generally, are not the same as the ones who control things. It is as if the world operates on more than one axis, and I swirl around on one and others on another.

 

If I could tell people one thing, it would be to read and reach outside of their bubble of information. I read right-wing and liberal things. I wish everyone would.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/14/us-mideast-crisis-lebanon-idUSKCN0T314120151114#iW5eo4vu5c0ZxJG2.97

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/11/beirut-paris-attacks-151115075935564.html

Thursday Thirteen

Recently I became a Downton Abby fan, scarfing up episodes like I was reading some fantastic novel. I'm just starting Season 5 so no spoilers, please!

One of the things that caught my eye in watching this show is the idea and notion of "class" amongst people. The show has an obvious upper and lower class (the wealthy Earl and Countess above, the servants below) but it is more intricate than that. The butler Carson, for example, is above all of the staff, putting him in a different class than say, the kitchen maid. There are tenant farmers, teachers, and shopkeepers, all of whom have their own type of working class. As the show progresses, there seems to be a growing middle class.

Here in the United States, many people think we are a "classless" society, but I personally do not believe that. It is a nice thought, but all one need do is walk around to see that we are indeed a land full of various classes of people.

At any rate, I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of classes I could come up with for the U.S. I went to Wikipedia, source of all Internet knowledge, if not real information, to come up with a list.

1. Upper class. This includes the wealthy 1 percent that we hear talk of, the owners of Walmart and the Koch brothers, Bill Gates and others who have millions or billions to toss about. This class can be divided into a the upper-upper class and the lower-upper class. I leave you to imagine what that might entail.

2. Inherited wealth class. While rightfully part of the upper class, those who inherit wealth, born with that silver spoon stuck in their ear and all that, are more along the tradition of the English Earls as portrayed in Downton Abby. They differ greatly from the nouveau riche, people who came into money through some other fashion, either work or the lottery or whatever.

3. Corporate elite. These folks are the top executives of big companies, major stockholders, and others who rule the business world.

4. Professional/managerial class. Also called the upper middle class, this class consists of the folks who are highly educated working in largely self-directed positions. These people value higher education and include physicians, lawyers, and professors.

5. Middle class. This has become a catch-all and nobody is actually sure what comprises the Middle Class in the U.S. Some say it would be middle management, clerical staff with degrees, paralegals, and others who are loosely supervised.

6. Lower middle class. These folks work in supporting occupations. Here you find folks in good paying jobs who don't necessarily hold degrees.

7. Working class. Much like lower middle class, the working class people are the "blue collar" joes who probably constitute much of the workers of the nation. They are food service people, construction workers, etc. They may also be considered the working poor.

8. Underclass. These would be the very poorest people in the land, the homeless and others whom certain members of the higher classes disdain and completely ignore.

9. Farm workers. Sociologists place agricultural workers into two different classes, with the farm workers being the lowest class. These are the apple pickers of the world, without whom we would all starve.

10. Farmer. A person in this class would generally own and operate a farm.

11. We also divide people by racial class, whether we mean to or not. While generally speaking, class has to do with income level in the U.S., class also varies not only by race but also by etiquette, education, and professions. I believe we also divide people by health, including weight (obesity), disabilities, looks, dress, and other devices, some of which are subconscious.

12. This is straight from Wikipedia: "Class ascendancy—namely that each successive generation will have a higher standard of living than its predecessor—is a central theme in American literature and culture and plays a key role in the American dream. While social class in the United States is thought to be largely based on achievement, on a relative basis social mobility in the United States ranks below many other countries, and climbing the social ladder is more difficult for those born into less advantageous positions.

Occupation (perhaps the most important class component), educational attainment, and income can be increased through a lifetime. However, factors such as wealth inheritance and local education system—which often provides lower quality education to those in poor school districts—may make rising out of poverty a challenge. Class mobility in the United States decreased between the 1970s and the 1990s coinciding with the rise of Liberalism."

13. Do you think about class? Do you think inequality between the classes is important and should be rectified? Is it a good thing? Do we need to have people who are above and/or below others? Do you think the U.S. has a class system in place, or are those who believe we are a classless society correct?


____________
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 406th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

These Dreams

Last night, I dreamed I was attending a local town council meeting, along with several other reporters. I don't recall what was so important that it required a slew of media, but one item on the agenda caught my eye.

It read, "What to do about Anita."

When the item came around, the members excused themselves without reading any kind of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) notice (the law requires members of a governing body to cite the FOIA code before entering any closed session).

Another reporter asked me if I knew what they were doing. "I don't know, except they are violating FOIA," I replied.

Council returned. On a motion they declared me persona non grata, and said I was no longer welcome to attend or to write about any of their meetings.

"You have caused nothing but trouble with your reporting," the mayor said. "You find the things we don't want the public to know and tell them about it. Please leave at once and never return."

"You can't do that," I replied. "You made that decision illegally, in an unannounced closed meeting. You just violated the law."

"See," said the mayor. "That's just the kind of thing you do that we don't like. You make us follow the FOIA rules. Nobody else cares what we do. Now get out."

I began arguing more and two deputies came in, grabbed me by the arms, and began dragging me out of the room.

I woke up in a sweat, literally drenched. Even my hair was wet.

______________

Now, you may wonder what prompted such a dream. I suspect it came about because I am no longer freelancing for the local newspaper. I have done that for the last 30+ years of my life, but my doctor and physical therapist convinced me that I needed to stop. Attending four-hour meetings, devoting my life and time to intense government conflict, seemed to make my health issues worse. I'd kept a pain chart for the last several months and it was noticeable how the pain increased when I worked.

To be honest, my doctor told me almost two years ago to stop working, and I didn't listen. I didn't do as much, but I didn't stop writing for the newspaper.

Now I have.

The dream also reflects my dismay with the state of the news in general. These days our media are filled with reports that are full of lies and deception. Mostly, the "news" now is entertainment, things written to play on emotion and not intellect. We have become a society guided by emotional, thoughtless turmoil, reacting to the latest screeching of the day. Last week it was a restaurant owner who yelled at a kid. This week it's a dentist who killed a lion. But do we do anything or read about things that matter? Where are the stories about abject poverty, the struggles of the single mother or father, the real unemployment numbers (today's numbers don't reflect people who have given up), or the real state of the economy.

No, our media has given us a false world, full of illusion and drama, in order to keep us from watching what is really going on. It is not the government that doesn't want you to know - it is the rich and powerful individuals and corporations who want to change the government who don't want you to know what is going on.

Secrecy is a detriment to democracy. It is how plutocracies and oligarchies come to be, and how fascist regimes rise to power. When citizens stop paying attention, and when those who represent the citizens such as the former Fourth Estate (aka news media) cease doing their jobs, then you have a rupture in the system. Through this rupture slithers greed, malice, and contempt. Once those have taken over - and they have already taken over - then it's all over but the shouting.

That is a lot to get from one little dream. But real dreams are dying every day, and those are the things the newspapers and media are not reporting. Little by little, democracy is dying every day.

The Clothes We Wear

A story keeps popping up on my Facebook page about a guy who wore a Polo shirt to a meeting that the President of the United States attended as well.

I am frequently upset at the ugliness blasted by various personages toward the office of the president. These people mean disrespect to the current office holder, but they are also disrespecting the office and the position when they do that.

President George W. Bush was not my favorite president, but I was never disrespectful in my comments toward him. Because no matter how much I may disagree with the holder of the office, the person is still the President of the United States. And while we have no monarchies and we're all supposed to be equal, let's face it - that office, the person holding the title, whomever he or she may be, deserves our respect and politeness.

The poor fellow in the Polo shirt thought he was going to an auditorium full of other people, apparently, and did not realize he was having a one-on-one meeting with the President of the United States.

What would I wear to meet the President of the United States in a one-on-one? Well, nothing in my closet. I would have to go out and purchase something, as I do not own anything I consider nice enough. I would, I think, want a nice business-suit like skirt and jacket, with a bit of a frilly blouse, perhaps, preferably in black. Hose, of course, and new shoes, too. Because of my terrible ankles and flat feet, I would have to go with some kind of nice dress flat, I suppose, as opposed to heels. Heels would be better, though.

My husband would wear either a business suit or perhaps his dress blues from the fire department. I love the look of his dress blues so I would probably encourage him to wear those. I think he has earned the right to wear those in front of someone important.

Of course, now if I were going to a big crowd of people to hear the President of the United States speak, then I have things in my closet that would be okay. Skirts and blouses, or even nice pantsuits. So I understand how the guy in the Polo shirt ended up underdressed in a meeting with the President of the United States since he thought he was going into a big auditorium and not having a one-on-one discussion.

What I don't understand is (a) why it matters so much that it keeps coming across my Facebook page and (b) if it does matter so much, then why are all of these other slights and disrespectful comments not as important as wearing a Polo shirt to a meeting.

Because frankly, I hear and read comments about the current President of the United States that are appalling. Ill-mannered doesn't even begin to cover it. They are beyond disrespectful - the comments are mean, hateful, bigoted, and racist. These people have turned the sanctity of the office into a farce, and I don't know how the next President of the United States, whoever that might be, can begin to bring the décor and honor back to the office title.

We are no longer a polite society, if we ever were one. I'm afraid we reached the pinnacle of the current incarnation of humans some time ago and we're on a downhill slope now, one that will end with our doom as we destroy ourselves. It begins with me, when I don't hold the door open for a little old lady (though I normally am a very polite person) and it ends with the push of a button that sends missiles and bombs raining down on nations.

I don't see it as a stretch, really, to go from a Polo shirt to total annihilation. I think we're almost there as it is.

Tuesday Rant

Today is tax day in the United States. All taxes from last year are due today.

It is also the day quarterly taxes for the current year are due if you pay estimated taxes. Small business owners are likely to do this.

In the last presidential election, there was a lot of talk about how half of the country (it's really about 46 percent) doesn't pay federal taxes. The talk never centered on the reason why these folks don't pay federal taxes.

It's because they are too poor. These are low-income folks, many of whom are elderly (remember, we're an aging population). They're the people who work for minimum wage at fast food places, in retail, and other service jobs. They are the backbone of the country and the tax rate is structured to keep them from being burdened with taxes. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to eat.

It is worth noting that tax cuts enacted under the Bush administration - under a Republican president - also reduced the tax burden on people who probably could afford it. Those cuts increased child tax credits, earned income credits, and increased deductions and other exemptions. All of that had the effect of increasing the number of people who pay minimal taxes.

However, very few people pay no taxes. There are state taxes, local taxes, food taxes, gas taxes, and no end of fees out there. I don't see how anybody can escape them entirely.

In Sunday's edition of Parade, they ran their annual "What People Earn" article. The thing I always find most striking about these articles is what it reveals about what we value as a society. We value entertainment more than public safety, for example. Sports over national security. If we didn't, then the paychecks would reflect different priorities. It also indicates that different areas of the country have different value systems.

Matthew McConaheghey earns $19 million. An assistant to the mayor in Seattle earns $80,000. A fire chief in Utah makes $110,000. Here locally, our county administrator makes about $132,000 (that's not in the article, that's just something I know). A library director in West Virginia makes $8,840. A stadium beer vendor in Pennsylvania makes $12,000. Vice President Joe Biden makes $230,700. A Montessori teacher in Idaho earns $26,000. A firefighter in Indiana earns $52,000. A mental health counselor in New Mexico earns $31,200.

Does it not concern you that 46 percent of the people in this country are too poor to pay taxes? Shouldn't that give you pause? Shouldn't we, en masse, as a society, stop and reexamine our value system?

Is this healthy? You can't expect the disabled or the elderly to get out and work harder. You can't expect the low income-earner to do better when there aren't jobs out there. We've reached a point where people simply have no upward mobility because the jobs aren't there. You can't go from flipping burgers to a nice union job at the Ford Motor Company anymore. Those higher paying jobs in production have vanished, sent overseas or done away with because a robot can turn a screw.

I have a little house that I rent out. I have figured out that in order for someone to live there and be comfortable, they really need an income of about $36,500.  That's one person. That's well above the poverty level in this country, but I think that should be the bottom line. That's $100 a day to eat, pay rent, put gas in the car, pay for heat and electricity, and pay taxes. Maybe on that $36,500 you could go out to eat once in a while. I would consider this amount to be a living wage.

The inequality of salary and our declining value system, the one that puts going to the movies or watching sport over having the house fire put out or health care issues taken care of, concern me more than any other issue taking place in this land. I think there are solutions available for this problem that would solve other problems, too.

For example, what if there was a program that trained young men how to solarize a home? What if every household became a more green environment? That's a lot of jobs in construction right there. What if we each had a windmill?

Our infrastructure is failing. The electric grid needs work. Roads are falling apart. There is a lot of work to do and little will to fund it. What would make you happier, paying a little more in taxes so a road can be repaired, or having the road repaired by some big corporation that then charges you a $2 toll every time you go through it? Aren't you still paying for it either way?

What if we built more hospitals, trained more nurses and doctors, and had the health care that would truly make the United States the most enviable country in the world when it came to taking care of its citizens?

What would happen, do you think, if we put people over profits? What if we tried to become the happiest country on earth instead of the richest?

Virginia is often rated high as a "great state for business." It always irks me because I don't want to live in a great state for business. I want to live in a great state - a great nation - for people. I want this country to be the best that it can be, and that means it puts people - you, and you, and me - first.

Not the Koch brothers, not Exxon, not Monsanto. But us, We the People of the United States, who long ago joined together to create a more perfect union.

If we do not change this, if we do not once again come together as a society that cares about one another, that sees inequality and does something about it, then this grand experiment is over, and we have failed.

Pay your taxes today, and be grateful that you earn enough to have to write the check. There are an awful lot of people out there who do not have that opportunity. They are not lazy, they are not slobs, they are not objects of derision. They are people who work just as hard as you do, but maybe have had a little less luck or fewer opportunities.

In a blink of an eye, that person could be you. All it takes is one car wreck, one house fire, one heart attack, one lawsuit. And you'd better damn well not forget it.

My Tuesday Political Rant

Don't raise my taxes.

It's the rant I see on Facebook pages and in letters to the editor this time of the year. This is when localities set their budgets. 

If you don't want your taxes raised, stop voting for the people in the state and federal government who are forcing your local representatives to raise them. That means the incumbents of whatever party. If the person has been there any length of time and you're not happy with your representation, why do you keep voting the same way?

A recent rant I read was complaining about unfunded state and federal mandates and how this forces the localities to raise taxes. Yes, that is a big problem. The feds or the state legislators say "locality, do this" but they provide no income to do the deed.

That's because the state and federal legislators don't want to be the ones to raise your taxes. They are foisting off something that should be done at the higher levels of government onto the lowest level of government, that is, the county or city. If your state taxes go up, then the legislator, senator, delegate, or congressperson might lose his or her job. And to lose that job is to lose power.

This country is in upheaval and heading toward third world, fascist status. I'm not sure where the stupidity came from, but it has rolled over us all, like or not, as if we were monkeys in a barrel being shoved around by a huge bulldozer.

Please note that I am not pointing to either party. Essentially I do not believe we are a two-party system. We haven't been for at least 30 years. Both parties have failed the citizenry, and as citizens, we have grossly failed one another. If I were Jesus, I would weep, not because religion has been taken out of the schools but because our population, on the whole, has forgotten how to care for one another. We don't know what kindness and empathy are anymore. We have to be one of the most selfish societies to ever have walked this earth.

We have allowed emotional issues that have no place on the political landscape to divide us while those in power do their moving and shaking with little concern or thought to the effect it has on those of us known as "the little people" or "commoners" or "middle class" or "poor." Because in the end, we don't matter. We're as replaceable as the sands on the beaches - just bring in another truckload and dump it, and there you go. Damage repaired. Never mind the hole we left over yonder.

Year after year, we elect people based on some silly "R" or "D" after their name. We don't pay attention to anything but a few issues - and then we are surprised when things happen that bother us. Red states lose welfare benefits and have some of the poorest among our population, yet they vote for those who would continue to cut the very programs that feed them. Blue states begin having pollution problems because their representatives are really for big business. The things that matter - the air we breathe, having a full belly, the love we feel towards one another - those things have no value in our amoral and capitalistic world. If we cannot place a dollar figure on something here, then it is considered useless and unworthy. What price, I ask, does one put on a full tummy?

I for one am tired of certain things being unworthy. Do you not think love is worthy? Clean air? Good health? Fresh water? To me there are certain basic human rights that every individual, no matter how large, small, fat, skinny, clean, dirty, short, tall, arrogant, humble, rich, poor, smart or idiotic, should have available. There should be some level of human dignity afforded to everyone. No one should have to live under a bridge unless they are a troll from the Three Billy Goats Gruff fairy tale.

Could we even agree on the basics? I doubt it. There are people who think you should pay for the air your breathe. They will always think like that, that you are nothing more than a dollar sign.

I guess the question for me is, how much longer will we let those people win? Have they always? Will they always? And do you not know that makes you the loser?

Sure, cry "don't raise my taxes." But don't make that catcall and then keep doing the same thing over and over, voting for the same buffoon. Stake your claim and then do something different. Make your choice count next time, and don't just vote for the "R" or "D" (especially if that person is an incumbent). Maybe it's time for a real party system in the U.S.A., and a real democracy with real choices.

Virginia Politics Today

Here are few links to the political goings on in the state during this legislative session - in a world gone mad.


Virginia Advances Gangbanger Bill of Rights - another SAVE OUR GUNS bill except this one would make Virginia a safehaven for criminals. Because, you know, they like guns, too. One opponent to this bill suggests criminals would change the state motto to VA LOVES ITS GUNS.

They did this as Vice President Biden was next door talking about gun control:

Biden: Mental Health Check may have prevented VA Tech shooting

The legislators also want to mix up voting districts and change the electoral college. Interestingly, the electoral college distribution has been in place since the founding of the nation, but apparently it can be tampered with, unlike the U.S. Constitution, which is some sort of holy script that can only be interpreted one way (their way) and no other:

Virginia GOP sneaks gerrymandering bill through - The GOP wants to change the districts so they can win next time. The bill would eliminate Creigh Deeds' district (faithfully Democratic) altogether, and help other (Republican) representatives stay in office without moving around and declaring residences in places they don't really live. Because, you know, staying in office is more important than fair representation of the unwashed masses.

It's possible this won't progress in the senate, though:

Virginia Election-Rigging Plan draws opposition from two VA state senators


They also wanted to change the electoral college to better ensure a Republican win in the next presidential election, though it looks like that might fail:

Virginia bill on electoral college change appears headed for defeat

Bill to change electoral college in VA faces uphill battle


Virginia Governor Against Rigging Electoral College

Apparently, though, somehow a sense of fairness fell upon the Virginia Senate:

Virginia Senate passes LGBT protections for state employees

Nondiscrimination Bill Passes VA Senate

though the odds of this passing the House of Delegates (68-32 in favor of the Republicans) seem small.


And let's not forget the governor's plan to fix the transportation funding problems: drop the gas tax, penalize people who use hybrids and other alternative fuels, and raise the taxes on food, clothing, and other necessities. So that, you know, those terrible folks who don't drive or use the buses have to pay more then their fair share. It would also double-tax some folks, such as people who drive diesel fueled vehicles, who would still pay a gas tax AND the higher sales tax rates (and maybe pay a penalty, too!).

Virginia governor proposes fee for hybrids, electric cars

Where are the statesmen of the world who really do want what is best for the people they represent, and not what is best for themselves of some party to which they hold unfettered allegiance?