A Surplus of Mean

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Elections, Mary Griggs, Rant

(c) Mary Griggs

Ravi Iyer, “A Difference Between Democrats and Republicans.”

The lack of empathy and down right mean-spirtedness of right-wing politicians and their major funders has never been more stark.

It is almost as if the plight of other people has no bearing on conservative decision-making and rhetoric. This is illustrated the chart to the left – the more interested in politics a conservative is, the lower their level of empathy. Liberals move in the opposite direction and the more interested in politics they are, the more empathetic they are.

Empathy is the capacity to put oneself in the shoes of others — not just other individuals, but whole categories of people, especially those who are in some way oppressed, threatened, or harmed. Empathy is the capacity to care, to feel what others feel, to understand what others are facing and what their lives are like.

Empathy colors the way people view the role of government. Progressives view government as having a moral obligation to protect (including worker, consumer, and environmental regulations as well as safety nets and health care) and empower (including education, communication, energy, the availability of credit from banks people, etc).

Conservatives focus on individual, not social, responsibility and keep their empathy for people like themselves. Government should be limited and restrained. Further, they believe in strict authority and punitive justice that means (to them) that people get what they deserve–the poor and needy are blamed for their plight (the unemployed are lazy, the uninsured are leeches and immigrants are lawbreakers), whereas millionaires and corporations should get ever increasing tax exemptions and cuts because they are successful.

The 2011 budget proposed by Representative Paul Ryan and touted by his running mate Mitt Romney is a primary example of this mindset. The budget included deep cuts to social services while also cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Sister Simone Campbell, the Executive Director of NETWORK and leader of the “Nuns on the Bus” tour had this to say about it: “Rep. Paul Ryan claims his budget reflects the principles of our shared Catholic faith but the Ryan budget fails a basic moral test by harming families living in poverty. In our nation, we value greatly that we all invest in our society, that we meet Jesus’ command to take care of the least, and that we also believe strongly in fairness that those who have benefitted the most from our society should contribute the most in reinvesting back into our society. Paul Ryan doesn’t understand that all decisions need to be made with the common good in mind.”

Mitt Romney tried to show his empathy in his recent interview with 60 Minutes. When asked about health care reform, he said, “Well we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance. If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care.”

It is unbelievable that someone whose wife has a chronic illness, as Ann Romney does, could make such a statement. The notion that the only medical care people really need is the kind you get in emergency rooms is preposterous. Believe me, there is no “emergency” chemotherapy for cancer nor is it any kind of solution to allow diabetics to get care only once they go into a diabetic coma.

In Louisiana it is glaringly obvious the repercussions that this conservative thinking has had on the economic health of the state and her most vulnerable citizens.

Louisiana Progress and other progressive groups have been holding a Medicaid Misery Bus Tour to put a human face on the damage the budget cuts are doing to Louisiana citizens. One stop was at the Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center in Independence which is slated to lose 405 employees (including a 40 percent elimination of non-patient care staff) and reducing the inpatient bed capacity to 10 beds. Surgery will be eliminated, as well as cardiology, infectious disease prevention (including HIV treatment), oncology, ICU, and their contracts with Southern Medical Center and Women’s Health Services.

Other vital statistics from Louisiana:

• Since Bobby Jindal took office in 2008, the median income of Louisiana households has declined every year — from more than $45,400 in 2008 to less than $41,800 in 2011. In contrast, the national average household income rose by more than 1.5 percent in 2011.
• Since 2008, Louisiana’s unemployment rate has doubled from 3.8 percent to 7.6 percent. Although that’s still lower than the national unemployment rate, the national rate has been going down since January 2011 — from 9.1 percent to 8.1 percent.
• Since 2010, the percentage of Louisianans living in poverty has risen from 18.7 percent to 20.4 percent, and the percentage of children in poverty increased to 28.8 percent from 27.3 percent.
• Also since 2010, the number of working-age adults who lack health insurance remains high at 25.7 percent. That figure will continue to grow because Jindal refuses to accept hundreds of millions of federal Medicaid dollars available under the Affordable Care Act.

I agree with George Lakoff that empathy is the basis of our democracy. He has written that being empathetic leads one to notice real social and systemic causes of our troubles and to notice when and how judicial decisions and legislation can harm the most vulnerable of our fellow citizens.

The choice this election is what we want for our future. Do we want a surplus of mean and deficit of empathy? Or do we want to work to understand the complexities and nuances of our situation and develop solutions together?

As Barak Obama wrote in The Audacity of Hope, “another tradition to politics, a tradition that stretched from the days of the country’s founding to the glory of the civil rights movement, a tradition based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another, and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and that if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done.”

It is time to get things done.

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Crash Stop is a Bella New Release!

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Mary Griggs, Publishing

I was so happy to get my newsletter from Bella Distribution and see my second book with pride of place:

 

Crash Stop

by Mary Griggs

Bella Books

$15.95

9781594933080

Pre-order paperback.

She didn’t want a workplace feud, but Gail Joiner isn’t going to let Lily Rush walk all over her. When pushed, she pushes back.

Their hostilities evaporate, however, when a shipping accident traps Gail’s daughter and Lily in a wrecked warehouse.

Incredibly, Sierra escapes unscathed, but Lily’s injuries are severe.

Recuperation allows Gail and Lily to uncover common ground, but what-might-be is interrupted by a threat on Lily’s job as distribution director for the large tea importer.

Gail, as human resources director, finds herself caught between Lily, their CEO and the new vice president who seems determined to oust Lily for reasons of his own.

Two women struggle to make peace and find love amidst the corporate intrigue and life-changing challenges of the beautiful San Francisco Bay.

Place your order today!

Give Me Religious Liberty OR Give Me Tax Breaks!

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Faith, Mary Griggs, Rant

(c) Mary Griggs

Since 1954, IRS rules have stated that tax-exempt organizations are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”

There are a number of pastors who want to challenge that rule. They intend to stand at their pulpits on October 7th on what they are calling “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” and endorse a candidate. To make sure that the IRS can’t ignore this deliberate violation of the rules regarding their 501c3 status, they will have the sermon recorded and mailed to the Department of the Treasury.

501c3 organizations are granted tax exempt status for them to serve the public benefit. Unlike a for profit company, non-profits cannot benefit private interests, shareholders or individuals. That would include political candidates.

Religious organizations are allowed to have activities that encourage participation in the political process like voter registrations and educating people on the issues and candidates. They are just prohibited from being partisan about it.

Instead of obeying a very reasonable rule, the pastors believe it is an unconstitutional infringement on religious liberty.

Bullshit!

There is no abridgment of religious freedom because the government is not compelling the pastors to accept tax-exempt status for their church. If the church relinquishes its tax-exempt status, the minister is perfectly free to say whatever s/he wants about any political candidate. You won’t see the pastors doing that, of course, because it is not religious freedom they are after. They want the freedom to conduct partisan political campaigns from the pulpit while receiving a government subsidy.

Claiming persecution from the government while simultaneously benefiting from government-sponsored tax breaks is the height of hypocrisy!

The United States Constitution begins with the establishment clause. Not only is the government not allowed to force any religious organization to adhere to any particular theological, spiritual and moral convictions, no religious institution can impose its particular views on the American public. The free exercise of religion clause requires that we respect the conscience and convictions and the many religious and non-religious people across the nation.

Tax exemption is not mentioned in the Constitution. It is a benefit, and as such it may be extended with conditions. One of those conditions is that houses of worship and other groups that accept tax exemption must refrain from intervening in partisan elections.

It is quite true that for the first hundred and thirty odd years of our Republic that pastors freely politicized their pulpits, including advocating slavery as a biblical mandate during the Civil War. However, it wasn’t until the Revenue Act of 1917 that the government first granted tax-exempt status to charitable organizations, including churches.

In 1954, when Lyndon Johnson was a Senator, it was recognized that allowing such organizations to make political endorsements went against the public good. The Johnson Amendment has already withstood a legal challenge when the IRS revoked the tax exemption of a church that took out a newspaper ad denouncing then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992. In 2000, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Branch Ministries v. Rossotti “saw no violation of free speech, no violation of freedom of exercise, because tax exemption is not a right.”

Religion has too much influence on politics as it is without turning the churches into government-subsidized campaign venues. Report violations of the 501c3 status to Americans United for Separation of Church and State using this form.

Shades of Racism

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Mary Griggs, Rant

(c) by Mary Griggs

I watched Soundtrack For a Revolution on WYES last night and had a déjà vu moment. It took me back to the first time I watched Eyes on the Prize  and my being grateful for the darkness in the classroom to hide the shame I felt when confronted by my family’s racist past. See, my Godfather is in both of these documentaries and not in a good way.

As one of the leaders of the White Citizens Councils in Alabama, he was definitely on the wrong side of history. Citizens Councils weren’t overtly violent or secret like the KKK; instead they cloaked their opposition to desegregation in the guise of respectability. The members were business and religious leaders who used primarily economic tactics to defend segregation and undermine the civil rights movement. Some of their efforts included calling in mortgages, denying loans and credit and retaliating against integration supporters by publishing their names in the paper resulting in them losing their jobs and being physically harassed. They also worked to discourage and thwart black voter registration.

Returning to my grandparents’ home in Montgomery, Alabama on break from college, I mentioned the film and asked them about their memories of the Civil Rights Movement. My B-ma leaned over and whispered to me, “I don’t know why they gave that man a peace prize after all the trouble he caused.”

I asked my grandparents what was different from what they had done by making African Americans use separate restrooms and drinking fountains with what the Nazi’s started out by doing to the Jews – before the mass murders, they wrote laws to dehumanize them, stole their businesses, forced them into separate schools, burned their temples and took away their right to vote. My grandparents were highly offended at the comparison.

To them, racism meant someone who takes action to harm people of another race, for no reason other than race. The beatings and shootings of Freedom Riders, the bombings of Black churches, and lynching’s were all done by racists. They, on the other hand, never pulled a trigger or threw a brick and they weren’t members of the Klan. In fact, they went and picked up their maid each day of the Montgomery bus boycott.

In short, like most white Americans, they didn’t think they were racists at all.

This is a disconnect that I see more and more, especially among members of the Teapublican Party. It isn’t so much an age thing as it is a white privilege thing.

White privilege is being paranoid that the government is going to deny you your constitutional rights, come after you in black helicopters, arrest you for thought crimes, and even kill you for your beliefs while ignoring the actual denial of rights people of color are facing daily like driving-while-black traffic stops, being shot for being a black teenager in a white neighborhood, being disenfranchised by voter ID laws and gerrymandering of districts to keep white majorities and dilute black votes.

White privilege is the luxury of being considered a “lone gunman” and not having your entire culture blamed as the reason for going to a movie premier and shooting 71 people, killing 12 of them and rigging an apartment building with explosives. Despite the fact that acts of domestic terrorism by white males have happened on more than one occasion – the Columbine school attack, the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta bombing, the shooting of a US Representative and 18 others at a constituents gathering in Tucson, shooting at the Oak Creek Sikh temple, etc, etc—there is no call for the profiling of young, white males and tightening laws against their access to weaponry.

White privilege is the perpetuation of racist stereotypes of people of color consuming the majority of social welfare benefits when, according to the US Census Bureau, only 22 percent of food stamps recipients are African American whereas nearly 70 percent of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), Social Security and Medicare benefit recipients are white.

White privilege is no one questioning Mitt Romney about his birth certificate and Romney gloating about that: “No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”

It is him going on to give a speech to wealthy donors decrying the 47% “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they’re entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. These are people who pay no income tax,” when he has done every trick in the book to reduce his income tax to a rate of 14% (which is lower than most middle income families pay) including hiding money in offshore accounts, manipulating IRA rules, and writing off a $77,000 loss for care of his dressage horse.

Plenty of other examples of white privilege exist. Recognizing it is only the first step, though. Seeking racial justice is the next. We must challenge how white privilege and racism operate in society and inside of us.

Some studies say we were born racist but that doesn’t mean we have to stay that way. Research into the “intergroup-contact hypotheses” shows contact with the Other and a shared goal can rewire our brains to be inclusive and compassionate in the face of difference. The more we work together, the less prejudiced we become.

We can fight racism and it is a fight we can win.

Words Fail Me

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Louisiana, Mary Griggs, Rant

I was driving from New Orleans to Baton Rouge along I-12 when I came across this billboard:

Satan As Barack Obama

It is promoting this book by Stephen Kirk. According to the description on Amazon, in a mere 92 pages:

This book presents powerfully documented vignettes to the key end times questions of “Who is the Anti-Christ? What does the 666 mean? What about America” No other book provides the scriptural proof texting direct from the Greek and Hebrew to confirm that Obama is the Anti-Christ, the 666 represents the mindset of Socialism, and America is doomed to a nuclear holocaust. Luke 10:18 records Jesus stating “I beheld Satan as lightning” which translates to “Satan as Barack” in Hebrew. Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ, did so in a socialist rage against the inequalities of life and Jesus’s acceptance of poverty. Finally, Isaiah chapter 18 describes the massive destruction of a nation matching the unique characteristics of the USA on 16 different points all ending with the bringing of “THE SHE” gift, the Bride of Christ, the Church to heaven.

My years of vacation bible school had me vaguely remembering that Luke 10 has the parable of the Good Samaritan in it but I couldn’t remember any bible study class talking about the 44th President of the United States as the Fallen Angel. After I returned safely to New Orleans, I went to www.biblegateway.com and read Luke 10:18. I’ve posted what several translations say:

New International Version He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. New Living Translation “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! English Standard Version And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. New American Standard Bible And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.) And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. International Standard Version He said to them, “I watched Satan falling from heaven like lightning.

Okay, in Hebrew, Barak does mean lightning (it also is the anglicized version of Baraka, which means ‘blessing’ in Kiswahili, a language spoken by President Obama’s Kenyan father) but how on earth is there any contextual connection between the verse and the man?

It makes no sense.

That is until you realize something – this billboard was outside Walker, Louisiana which just happens to be the headquarters for the The Dixie Rangers Of The Ku Klux Klan. Just down the road is the Bogalusa Klan chapter called the Sons of Dixie (of which 8 members were convicted of murder and conspiracy in 2008). And then, you have the Aryan Nations Knights of Louisiana’s Baton Rouge Headquarters distributing this flyer over the weekend in Zachary.

It is no coincidence that an articulate and competent African-American man as our President is driving these racists crazy. Not content to disenfranchise as many voters as possible with the ALEC based efforts to change voter ID laws, these fearmongers are falling back on the KKK’s old tricks of intimidating people who are registering to vote (Louisiana statutes require you to be registered 30 days prior to an election to be eligible to vote in that particular election) and suppressing the numbers of voters on November 6.

We cannot allow our democracy to be stolen by the forces of ignorance and  hatred. Protect the right to vote by

• making sure all your friends and family are properly registered and know what they need to take with them to the polls;
• educating yourself and others about the issues and candidates to be decided in November;
• pledging to vote on Election Day.

An Ally’s Guide to Issues Facing LGBT Americans

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Mary Griggs

The Movement Advancement Project is a think-tank that provides research, insight and analysis to speed up the achievement of LGBT equality. They work in collaboration with a number of organizations including the Human Rights Campaign, Log Cabin Republicans, Stonewall Democrats and the Victory Fund to compile guides for advocates, funders, policy makers and now, allies.

Their most recent project is an Ally’s Guide to Issues Facing LGBT Americans. The persistence of discriminatory laws can be traced to our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers and politicians lack of understanding of the impact those laws have on people’s lives.

The section topics include employment, health, families including adoption and marriage, safety and serving in the military. The guide is very readable and does not patronize the potential ally.

While many people might have notions about marriage equality, far too many do not understand the reality that LGBT people face in their daily lives. In 29 states, you can be fired because of your sexual orientation or gender identity. There are no federal laws protecting LGBT people from discrimination in housing, public accommodations, credit or employment. Worse, in states that have passed definitions of marriage limited to one man and one woman, LGBT couples are not recognized and do not qualify for Family Medical Leave to make medical decisions to care for their sick or injured family members.

If a guide like this can keep a politician like Mitt Romney from remarking to a group of marriage equality advocates when he was Governor of Massachusetts: “I didn’t know you had families;” if it can keep voters from enshrining further discrimination into their state laws and constitutions, then this guide will have done its job.

Heroes

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Mary Griggs

When the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya was attacked, Chris Stevens, the American Ambassador to Libya, Sean Smith, Foreign Service Information Management Officer and two other U.S. citizens gave their lives as surely as any soldier who has ever died in combat.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:

The mission that drew Chris and Sean and their colleagues to Libya is both noble and necessary, and we and the people of Libya honor their memory by carrying it forward. This is not easy. Today, many Americans are asking – indeed, I asked myself – how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction? This question reflects just how complicated and, at times, how confounding the world can be.

I am grateful to him and to all of our embassy personnel serving around the world. They are common citizens and quiet heroes. They represent the best of our values in often hostile locations and risk their lives in the service of our country and our values, because they believe that the United States must be a force for peace and progress in the world, that these aspirations are worth the sacrifice.

I met quite a few of these career diplomats, Foreign Service officers and civilian support staff when I was in college. My Dad was attached to the embassy in Greece. He had to begin his assignment to JUSMAG [Joint United States Military Advisory Group] early (and before he had finished his language course) after his predecessor was blown up by the November 17 terrorist organization.

Despite elaborate security measures and the very real fears of my Mom, he went to work each day in his Kevlar trenchcoat and armored car to do his job. Like his coworkers and despite the risks, he went because what he was doing was vital to our national security. By engaging in diplomacy around the world and not isolating ourselves, we make the world safer and smaller.

As Arizona Senator John McCain said in his statement:

Libyans rose up last year to free themselves from exactly the kinds of murderers and terrorists who killed our people yesterday in Benghazi. Their enemies are our enemies, and they remain as committed as ever to imposing their evil ideology through violence on people in Libya and the Middle East, and ultimately on us. They want to hijack the Arab Spring for their own insidious purposes. And if we turn our backs now on the millions of people in Libya, and Egypt, and Syria, and other countries across the Middle East – people who share so many of our values and interests, people who are true authors of the Arab Spring – we will hand our common enemies, the terrorists and extremists, the very victory they seek.

We were right to take the side of the Libyan people, and others in the region who share their peaceful aspirations. And we would be gravely mistaken to walk away from them now. To do so would only be a betrayal of everything that Chris Stevens and his colleagues believed in and ultimately gave their lives for, but it would also be a betrayal of America’s highest values and our own enduring national interest in supporting people in the Middle East who want to live in peace and freedom.

The mission statement of the State Department is to “shape and sustain a peaceful, prosperous, just, and democratic world and foster conditions for stability and progress for the benefit of the American people and people everywhere.”

From all I’ve read, Chris Stevens and his staff exemplified that mission and I am proud people like him are standing between us and harm.

Women’s Health IS an Economic Issue!

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Elections, Mary Griggs, Rant, Women's Rights

Did anyone else get furious after watching Ann Romney’s interview with KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa? Speaking via satellite, she said, in responding to questions about marriage equality, birth control and abortion that “You’re asking me questions that are not about what this election is going to be about. This election is going to be about the economy and jobs.”

Now, I know she isn’t the presidential candidate but she isn’t alone in her refusal to recognize the economic costs of the War on Women. Romney himself has already signaled his intent to chip away at access to birth control, vowing to defund Planned Parenthood and eliminate Title X, the federal family planning program that provides family planning and screenings for breast and ovarian cancer, high blood pressure, and the like for five million women. Romney had also pledged to restore the so-called “conscience clause” allowing anyone in the health care delivery chain, like a clerk in a pharmacy, the right to refuse to sell contraceptives. Romney has also endorsed the Blunt-Rubio Amendment, which would have allowed any employer to claim a “moral objection” and exclude potentially millions of women from getting birth control under their insurance coverage. Romney has assured the antiabortion right that he “absolutely” supports state and federal constitutional amendments defining life as beginning at conception.

It seems to have escaped the calculations of the Republican party is that all of these women’s health issues are also economic issues. Take a look at some of the numbers:

Contraception and Birth Control

In 2008 alone, contraceptive services helped to avert some 973,000 unintended pregnancies, which would have resulted in 433,000 unplanned births and 406,000 abortions. Federal and state governments save on average $4.3 billion each year from publicly funded family planning services, while contraceptive use saves nearly $19 billion in direct medical costs each year. The National Business Group on Health reports that most of its 346 members include contraception in their plans because it saves money. Employers who cover birth control, at an average cost of about $39 per female employee per year, end up saving about $9,000 per female employee in any two-year period compared to those who don’t.

Furthermore, birth control is prescribed for many conditions other than contraception such as fibroids, endometriosis and menorrhagia (heavy menstrual bleeding). Some forms of birth control can even lower a woman’s risk of uterine and ovarian cancers.

Unplanned Pregnancies

According to a study released by the National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies, unplanned pregnancies total $4 billion a year in direct medical costs alone. This includes only the costs that are associated with the births ($3.9 billion) and miscarriages ($266 million) that result from nearly 3 million unplanned pregnancies each year.

A study conducted by the Brookings Institution estimates that American taxpayers spend upwards of $12 billion each year to provide medical care for 1.25 million unintended pregnancies through programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This sum includes $251 million on fetal losses (which are commonly known as miscarriages); roughly $6 billion on births; and another $6 billion on infant medical care.

Pregnancy and Childbirth

Pregnancy, even for seemingly healthy women, poses serious health risks. Despite advances in health care, Amnesty International reported in 2010 that deaths from pregnancy and childbirth in the United States have doubled during the past two decades.

The financial costs are as steep – the average cost of prenatal care is about $2,000. Childbirth Connection reports that in 2009, the average cost of a hospital vaginal delivery without complications was $9,617, and with complications, the bill came to an average of $12,532. Caesarean births can range from $15,799 without complications to $21,495 with complications. And for those who put off pregnancy – the average price tag on a single cycle of in vitro fertilization is nearly $12,500.

Regardless of how you give birth, the baby will incur a separate bill for their care. The expenses for a healthy full term infant typically run between $1,500 and $4,000. If the baby is born premature or with health problems, neonatal costs can range from a few thousand dollars for a short stay in NICU to more than $200,000 if the child is born more than 15 weeks early.

Child Rearing

According to the USDA’s annual survey of how much families spend on raising children, the average middle-income couple with two kids can expect to pay between $12,290 and $14,320 per year in child rearing costs, and a baby born in the year 2012 will likely cost her parents $300,000 between the day she’s born and the day she heads off to college. But that’s only for families with two parents — single mothers usually pay more for childcare.

Women who take maternity leave to care for children or who leave the workforce for a few years also take a professional hit that can range from loss of salary raises, delayed advancement up the corporate ladder and even being fired.

Women and Cancer

Almost 227,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in the last year. About 47,000 women were diagnosed with endometrial cancer (of the uterus), and 22,000 found out they had ovarian cancer. In the most recent year for which data is available, 12,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer over a 12-month period. Efforts to prevent these cancers can save families and insurance companies millions of dollars.

*

If we really want to address issues of importance to women and their families, we need to recognize that women’s health issues are economic issues. Barriers to access to family planning services, eliminating health screenings and restricting insurance coverage make no fiscal sense.

Trust me on this, anything that costs this much money is an economic issue!

Get Out The Vote!

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Elections, Mary Griggs, Voting

(c) by Mary Griggs

The party conventions are over and the presidential candidates for the 2012 elections have been decided.

Now is not the time to become complacent, however. Do not assume that your fellow Americans will turn out in sufficient numbers for your candidate to be successful.

There is an old truism in politics that the side that gets the most people to the polls will win. This year, it is more important than ever that we register to vote, commit to voting and encourage others to do the same.

With voter suppression efforts happening across the nation, we have to make sure everyone knows how not to be disenfranchised by carrying the required identification to the polls.

National Voter Registration Day is September 25th and there are a number of groups building apps which help you figure out what you need to do to exercise your right to vote. In Louisiana, the Secretary of State has a section of the site dedicated to election/voting information you can use. At GeauxVote.com, it covers that you must take one of the following to the polling place:

• a driver’s license;
• a Louisiana Special ID; or
• some other generally recognized picture ID that contains your name and signature.

You may get a free Louisiana Special ID at the Office of Motor Vehicles by showing your voter registration information card.  If you have misplaced your voter registration information card, contact your registrar of voters for a new one.

Voters who have no picture ID may bring a utility bill, payroll check or government document that includes their name and address. The voter will have to sign an affidavit furnished by the Elections Division in order to vote.

If you registered to vote in advance of 2008 and have not voted since or failed to update your residential/mailing address, your registration may have been purged by your local registrar of voters. Go online to verify your status and print the screen to take with you to the polling place. You can use the voter portal to access your information: https://voterportal.sos.la.gov/voter.aspx

Anyone who might have the slightest problem getting out to vote on Tuesday, November 6, please take advantage of early voting.

Plenty of people fought and even died to gain the right to vote. Don’t disrespect their sacrifices by not exercising your rights this year.

Walking the Planks

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Elections, Mary Griggs, Rant, Voting

(c) by Mary Griggs

The Democratic National Convention has started so, instead of just focusing on how bad the Republican platform is for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, I can offer the contrasts with the Democratic party platform.

The Democrats come right out on affirming the civil rights of the LGBT community: “At the core of the Democratic Party is the principle that no one should face discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability status…We are committed to equal opportunity for all Americans and to making sure that every American is treated equally under the law.”

The Republicans, not so much. While they give lip service to rights (“The Republican Party, born in opposition to the denial of liberty, stands for the rights of individuals, families, faith communities, institutions…”), the rest of their platform makes very clear that the LGBT community is not included among those to be protected. Heck, the “homosexual rights agenda” is actually indicted by them for reducing the effectiveness of foreign aid!

In the entire employment section, not a word about protecting against sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination from the Republicans. On the other hand, the Democrats state: “We know that putting America back to work is Job One, and we are committed to ensuring that Americans do not face employment discrimination. We support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act because people should not be fired based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

In the education sections, the Republicans’ don’t even acknowledge one of the major causes of stress and even suicide for our young people. On the other side, they address bullying and the disparate impact on LGBT youth:  ”President Obama and the Democratic Party are committed to ensuring all Americans are treated fairly. This administration hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Bullying Prevention and we must continue our work to prevent vicious bullying of young people and support LGBT youth.”

In fact, the only mention in the Republican platform of bullying or hate crimes was some nonsense about LGBT activists: “We condemn the hate campaigns, threats of violence, and vandalism by proponents of same-sex marriage against advocates of traditional marriage and call for a federal investigation into attempts to deny religious believers their civil rights.”

The Democratic platform flat-out supports marriage equality:

We support the right of all families to have equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law. We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples. We also support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer marriage as a religious sacrament without government interference.

We oppose discriminatory federal and state constitutional amendments and other attempts to deny equal protection of the laws to committed same-sex couples who seek the same respect and responsibilities as other married couples. We support the full repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act.

While the Republicans speak a number of time of marriage, it is mainly to protect it from the LGBT community. They are against judges who ‘redefine’ (“A serious threat to our country’s constitutional order, perhaps even more dangerous than presidential malfeasance, is an activist judiciary, in which some judges usurp the powers reserved to other branches of government. A blatant example has been the court-ordered redefinition of marriage in several States.”), they defend DOMA (“we believe that marriage, the union of one man and one woman must be upheld as the national standard, a goal to stand for, encourage, and promote through laws governing marriage.”) and decry the expansion of any of the rights, responsibilities and benefits of marriage (“That is why Congressional Republicans took the lead in enacting the Defense of Marriage Act, affirming the right of States and the federal government not to recognize same-sex relationships licensed in other jurisdictions. The current Administration’s open defiance of this constitutional principle – in its handling of immigration cases, in federal personnel benefits, in allowing a same-sex marriage at a military base, and in refusing to defend DOMA in the courts – makes a mockery of the President’s inaugural oath…We reaffirm our support for a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. We applaud the citizens of the majority of States which have enshrined in their constitutions the traditional concept of marriage, and we support the campaigns underway in several other States to do so.”).

On families, the Republicans are for reducing the numbers of children in foster care but only mention same-sex couples as part of an attack on the right of association: “We support the First Amendment right of freedom of association of the Boy Scouts of America and other service organizations whose values are under assault and condemn the State blacklisting of religious groups which decline to arrange adoptions by same-sex couples.”

The Democratic party platform supports all parents and caregivers: “We believe that all parents and caregivers – regardless of gender – need more flexibility and support in the workplace…We must protect our most vulnerable children by supporting our foster care system, adoption programs for all caring parents, grandparents, and caregivers, and protecting children from violence and neglect.”

On the issue of HIV/AIDS, the Democrats crow about their work: “We Democrats have increased overall funding to combat HIV/AIDS to record levels and will continue our nation’s fight against HIV/AIDS. President Obama established the first-ever comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy for responding to the domestic epidemic, which calls for reducing HIV incidence, increasing access to care, optimizing health outcomes, and reducing HIV-related health disparities. This is an evidence-based plan that is guided by science and seeks to direct resources to the communities at greatest risk, including gay men, black and Latino Americans, substance users, and others at high risk of infection.”

In stark contrast, the only mention of HIV/AIDS I could find in the Republican platform was in regards to abstinence – “Abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is 100 percent effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS when transmitted sexually.” 

The Republican party platform gives every appearance on being based on the core conservative ideals of less government, more individual freedom and personal responsibility, and family values. From the examples I’ve pulled out, however, it is clear that those values wouldn’t apply to LGBT citizens.

I guess we should be grateful that the LGBT community wasn’t in its usual position of being a pinata for the RNC speakers to beat for votes. Except for Mike Huckabee, there was a resounding silence on stage about the LGBT community, startling when you remember that there are four states voting on marriage equality this election (Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington).

I can’t discuss the Republicans without a mention of GOProud and Log Cabin Republicans. At every turn, the Republican party goes out of its way to attack our very existence. There is no greater example of GOProud’s and Log Cabin’s failure to represent our community than the platform itself. There are other writers who have compared them to battered spouses, who just forgive the abuse and stay for more. In my mind, however, they are collaborators. Some might say it is hard for so few to have an impact. I would say see what we’ve done on the Democratic side. In any case, it is one thing to be powerless against oppression; it is entirely another to be complicit in the evil being done to your fellow countrymen.

As Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Voting Pro-Choice

Tags

Elections, Mary Griggs, Rant, Voting, Women's Rights

(c) by Mary Griggs

Contrary to what House Speaker John Boehner would like to believe, I read party platforms. It has been my experience that what the candidates say in debates or in campaign ads has little to do with how they will govern. It is the policies within their party platforms that gives one the best clues of their priorities.

One of the things that really struck me about the Republican Party platform is the multiple calls for choice.

There are calls for choice in healthcare:

Consumer choice is the most powerful factor in healthcare reform…Putting the patient at the center of policy decisions will increase choice and reduce costs while ensuring that services provide what Americans actually want…We will ensure that America’s aging population has access to safe and affordable care…We will champion the right of individual choice in senior care.

In Medicare:

While retaining the option of traditional Medicare in competition with private plans, we call for a transition to a premium-support model for Medicare, with an income-adjusted contribution toward a health plan of the enrollee’s choice. This model will include private health insurance plans that provide catastrophic protection, to ensure the continuation of doctor-patient relationships.

In education:

Today’s education reform movement calls for accountability at every stage of schooling. It affirms higher expectations for all students and rejects the crippling bigotry of low expectations. It recognizes the wisdom of State and local control of our schools, and it wisely sees consumer rights in education – choice – as the most important driving force for renewing our schools…We support options for learning, including home schooling and local innovations like single-sex classes, full-day school hours, and year-round schools. School choice – whether through charter schools, open enrollment requests, college lab schools, virtual schools, career and technical education programs, vouchers, or tax credits – is important for all children, especially for families with children trapped in failing schools.

Even in religion:

We pledge to respect the religious beliefs and rights of conscience of all Americans and to safeguard the independence of their institutions from government.

The one place where no choice is allowed is for women to make reproductive health decisions for themselves and their families.

We assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.

I guess for Republicans, everyone but women of childbearing age are able to make intelligent decisions on matters that effect them. For Republicans, motherhood is not an option – every pregnancy must be carried to term, no matter the cost her mental, physical or financial well-being. Further, their language would criminalize miscarriages, too.

The Republican platform’s insistence on granting greater autonomy to the unborn than the mother is liable to alienate a good number of Americans. Personhood amendments have failed every time they’ve come before the voters – even in Mississippi – and most polls show that a majority of Americans approve of at least the exceptions of rape, incest and the life and health of the mother.

Every study out there shows the cost savings of preventing pregnancy over neo-natal treatment and post-birth care. This platform plank plus their support of abstinence only education (“We renew our call for replacing “family planning” programs for teens with abstinence education which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and respected standard of behavior…We oppose school-based clinics that provide referrals, counseling, and related services for abortion and contraception. We support keeping federal funds from being used in mandatory or universal mental health, psychiatric, or socio- emotional screening programs.”), is only going to lead to more unplanned pregnancies.  If they were truly pro-small government or pro-balanced budget, they would support policies that save money.

What most angers me, however, is the failure of Republicans to support health policies that allow women to make the decision about when to bear children that is best for them and their families. To refuse to even make exceptions for the horrible violations of rape or incest or for when her life is in danger shows utter heartlessness. If they were truly pro-life, they would be supporting policies that save lives.

I will be voting pro-choice this election. I strongly urge everyone who cares about women to do the same.

Recognizing Women’s Labor

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Mary Griggs, Rant, Women's Rights

(c) by Mary Griggs

With a poverty rate of 18% and a median income of $41,896, Louisiana is one of the poorest states in America. Louisiana also has one of the greatest pay disparities in the nation. Women in Louisiana earn less across all occupations and educational levels and their median earnings are less than men’s median earnings in 264 of 265 major occupation categories.

In Louisiana, the average yearly pay for a woman working full time, year round is $30,600 per year, while the average yearly pay for a man is $45,524 per year. This means that women are paid 67 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to a yearly gap of $14,924 between full-time working men and women. Minority women fare significantly worse – African-American women working full time, year round in Louisiana were paid only 47 cents and Hispanic women only 53 cents, to every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men who worked full time, year round.

Here is the Louisiana State Equal Pay Fact Sheet from the National Women’s Law Center with more information.

In a state where Census data shows that 17.5 percent of the households  are headed by a single woman, that is can have a significant economic impact.

There are at least two politicians from Louisiana who are trying to do something about this. State Senator Karen Carter Peterson and US Senator Mary Landrieu have been sponsoring legislation and lobbying to improve the laws that govern pay discrimination.

The Equal Pay for Women Act has been introduced by Democrat Karen Carter Peterson in the Louisiana Legislature for several sessions running. The bill is aimed at ensuring that male and female government employees receive the same pay for the same work. The text of the bill stated that unequal pay “leads to low worker morale, threatens the well-being of citizens of this state, and adversely affects the general welfare.” Unfortunately, the bill has never been able to muster the necessary votes for passage.

In the 2012 session, Senator Karen Carter Peterson introduced SB 577 to established a taskforce to look into the issue of equal pay in Louisiana and make recommendations on how to address the gender pay gap. Senator Peterson said, “To even begin to deal with this issue, it’s imperative that we at least identify the root causes. Disparities like this harm our state, deprive it of potential tax revenues and insure working women throughout this state will continue to be at a disadvantage in the job marketplace through no fault of their own. We can and we must do better for the women of Louisiana.” The bill passed both the House and the Senate, but was vetoed by Governor Jindal.

On the federal level, US Senator Mary Landrieu, has been lobbying in favor of the Paycheck Fairness Act. This legislation updates and strengthens the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which made it illegal for employers to pay men and women unequal wages for the same work.

The Paycheck Fairness Act closes loopholes that allow employers to escape liability even when gender-based wage discrimination exists. It also includes protections for employees against retaliation for disclosing or discussing their salaries, as well as ensures employees have the same remedies for gender-based pay discrimination as other forms of discrimination such as race or national origin.

So far, however, the Senate has failed to advance the legislation.

What can you do about it? The National Committee on Pay Equity has some suggestions:

Businesses should examine their pay practices to determine if they treat all employees equally. Many employers may not realize their pay scales favor white men as a result of historical and conventional biases and inconsistencies.

Pay equity makes good business sense. It promotes a workforce that feels valued, which helps the bottom line. Today, in our competitive economy, fair pay policies will also help attract the best workers.

Individuals can contact their elected officials to tell them how important fair pay is to you! Also, ask them to co-sponsor and vote for the Equal Pay Act and Paycheck Fairness Act.

They can also work to educate their coworkers on the impact of the wage gap. Here is a great visual:

Lying Liars

(c) by Mary Griggs

I’m very disturbed by the sheer number of speakers at the Republican National Convention, including the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, to use deliberate falsehoods in their speeches to their party faithful and the American public.

I can’t tell if it is a lack of respect in the intelligence of their listeners or, worse, a sort-of Joseph Goebbels “Big Lie” strategy. Historians may remember the Father of Propaganda’s famous quote:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

There are easily proven lies of the Wisconsin auto plant closing during the Bush Administration (see Detroit News) or the myth-making that the Republican Tea Party tried to work with the Obama Administration to get the countries economy back on track (see Fox News). There is even the fiction that Romney built his success on his own when it was a FDIC bailout of Bain that gave him his start (see Rolling Stone). Ryan’s speech was even called ‘deceiving’ by a Fox News columnist. Six of the biggest lies are outlined on AlterNet.

But one of the most insidious lies over the convention was one of omission. Nary a mention was made of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that not only gave the country a large part of the debt we currently face (cost is estimated at $3.7 and $4.4 trillion) but also damaged so many of those sent to fight it. Not only didn’t Romney mention the veterans but the Ryan budget would have reduced their post service disability care.

I’m not saying that all the Republican speakers and PAC’s lied. Or that more of them are liars than those on the other side. Just that the number of falsehoods is staggering and it behooves all of us, as conscientious voters, to check the facts before we push the button on a pack of lies and their tellers.

When you hear a speech or an ad, you owe to yourself and the nation to check it out. Here are some sites that do the checking for you:

• Project Vote Smart
• Politifact
• Fact Check

RNC 2012 – A Storm More Disorganized Than Isaac

Tags

Elections, Mary Griggs

(c) by Mary Griggs

Q: How do you know Isaac is a liberal?

A: He keeps moving left of the Republicans.

 

Isaac is like most of the rest of the nation, apparently.

The Republican National Convention began, after a storm delay, this week. The zealots of the party, however, wasted no time in crafting a platform that is closer to the goals of the Taliban than to those of hard-working Americans. Instead of realistic proposals on fixing the economic mess, Republicans adopted positions steeped in ideological purity that defines the party as angry, white, patriarchal, and paranoid.

Beyond the par for the course religiously motivated screeds against gay marriage, it supports banning abortion with NO exception for rape, incest or life and health of the mother. Further, there is a paragraph that really disturbs me.

We support the review and examination of all federal agencies to eliminate wasteful spending, operational inefficiencies, or abuse of power to determine whether they are performing functions that are better performed by the States. These functions, as appropriate, should be returned to the States in accordance with the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. We affirm that all legislation, rules, and regulations must conform and public servants must adhere to the U.S. Constitution, as originally intended by the Framers. . . .Scores of entrenched federal programs violate the constitutional mandates of federalism by taking money from the States, laundering it through various federal agencies, only to return to the States shrunken grants with mandates attached. We propose wherever feasible to leave resources where they originate: in the homes and neighborhoods of the taxpayers.

What exactly are the mandates of which they speak? Department of Educations rules about teaching everyone without discrimination? Medicaid? Disaster recovery relief efforts? It could be most anything government related and that should scare everyone who has ever benefited from the security of a strong military, the safety from police and firefighters, the convenience of the interstate highway system, educational opportunities through the GI Bill, help to start or grow a business with loans from the Small Business Administration, your savings protected in a FDIC account, the peace of mind from Social Security benefits, or being able to trust in the food you put on your table, the water from your faucet and the air you breathe.

The Republican agenda attacks the very heart of what makes us strong as a nation. By weakening the social contract, they weaken our ability to recover economically as well as undermine our future. It is dangerously extreme and we must show them in November just how out of step it is with the majority of Americans.