Taking care of your home is not unlike taking care of the country you live in. Both are based on principles we were presumably taught at a very young age. I am reminded of the book by Robert Fulghum, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
Fulghum lays down the foundation for living a fulfilling life. Sadly, many of us have forgotten the basic guidelines. Here are a few, for reminders:
Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Some children who were taught these basic principles seem to forgotten a few along the way. Maybe they were exposed to other children who were not taught the same principles. Perhaps some were raised in a household with few or no rules to prepare them for the world. A world without rules or principles may have appeared appealing when you have had to clean up your own mess all your life.
Some parents may take more of a dictatorial role in child rearing, leaving children with few or no principles or problem solving skills for living. In the end, these children may suffer the most in life. As adults they are may be more likely to follow the crowd, usually the wrong crowd, because they believe these people have all the answers. They give off a false but extroverted attitude. They may act like they have all the answers, yet more likely be those who know little of what it takes to keep their own house in order. They are also likely to be the bullies of the world.
Maintaining a household is hard work. Ask anyone who does it, and especially one who holds a full time job as well. If there are children involved, multiply the difficulty ten-fold.
If you want to be comfortable in your home, you pay your electric and gas bill on time. Whether you own a car or not, transportation must be provided to get where you need to go. Clothes must be bought, food put on the table, repairs made routinely. Many chores must be performed to get the job done.
It comes down to rules, and principles and fairness in their application. Rules must be followed to maintain your home. If not, relations in it fall apart like a house of cards. Stability must be present for the home to stand.
No one wants to see their home fall apart. No one wants their children to go without the basic necessities in life. Health insurance comes to mind. Who doesn't want health insurance for their family?
On a personal note, I have been informed that my doctor of six years is switching to what is called a “concierge or boutique” healthcare service. The service is being billed as helping patients in a more personal way, without assembly line treatment. Doctors joining this service say they are tired of being dictated to by insurance companies, regarding how many patients they must treat per day. For this “service” a patient must pay an additional $1500.00 per year! Add that to a $300.00 monthly premium, and a $5000.00 deductible—such as my own--and the whole arrangement is too ludicrous to contemplate. My doctor is cutting her patient load from 2400 to 300. In other words, 1,100 people are left in the cold to find other doctors, making even the assembly line more inaccessible. When does the lunacy end?
It could end now--really!
Last week came the announcement of “The Justice Party.” Which you probably never heard of, but even as I write these words, the party is getting into full swing, with a remarkable man named Rocky Anderson.
Who is Rocky Anderson? I’m so glad you asked!
Rocky Anderson was a two term Mayor of Salt Lake City and is now filing with the FEC for candidacy as President of the United States.
Examples of his platforms include climate protection, immigration reform, restorative criminal justice, GLBT rights, ending the war on drugs, and many other seemingly common sense platforms that any human being ought to be happy with. He also happens to be the only Mayor who advocated the impeachment of Little George.
Although a former member of the Democratic Party, he fully understands that have become no better than the Republicans. He is a long time critic of the Bush and Obama administration and the Iraq war.
Some of his awards include: EPA Climate Protection Award; Sierra Club Distinguished Service Award; Respect the Earth Planet Defender; National Association of Hispanic Publications Presidential Award; and many others, which I encourage you to look up (references below).
According to Wikipedia: When he was practicing law, Anderson was affiliated with several non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting civil rights, providing educational opportunities for economically-disadvantaged children, improving the penal and criminal justice systems, and strengthening legislative ethics. He served as president of the boards of the ACLU of Utah, Guadalupe Schools, and Citizens for Penal Reform, which he founded. He also served as a board member of several other community-based, non-profit organizations, including Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, and Utah Common Cause. On behalf of Common Cause, Anderson lobbied for stronger legislation pertaining to ethical conduct by elected officials and for campaign finance reform.
Anderson was quoted in the local daily newspaper as follows: "Do you think that lobbyists do this stuff [giving lawmakers everything from courtside Utah Jazz tickets and breakfasts at the exclusive Alta Club to graphite golf clubs] out of the kindness of their hearts?' he asks. “They do it so they can influence the legislator, and that's a bribe."
More ideas, direct from Rocky himself: “Imagine a party and candidates who will fight to finally eliminate the corrupting influence of corporate and other concentrated wealth from politics -- who will work toward universal health care coverage -- and who will hold everyone accountable under the law, regardless of wealth and power. Do you recognize the real possibility, especially at a time when most Americans want to see major changes?”
Who is not tired of the horrible mess our country is in? Who would not want our country to be run like an efficient and just household? I encourage you to check out the following information on Rocky and draw your own conclusions. You just might find yourself “ready to Rock!”
https://www.voterocky.org/home.html
© Christine Geery 2011
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Bullwinkle for VP!
HUGGGGGGGGGGGG
People before profits.
Great read.
r
I could get really interested in a guy like this. Says the kinds of things that so very many of us believe.
But, how do you change the system? It's not going to evolve. Do you have to tear it down in order to build it back up?
Sorry, but I can barely get through my daily mail, make deadlines, plan dinner and get the proper exercise etc. Our Dr. visits now 15 minutes..one topic! Gotta fool them. Tell them it is your knee...no, no...you forgot...it is your wrist.............Oh, my..........I miss my family physician. I miss him so much! "Thank you Dr. Pressman for all the time you took to make me whole."
And look at the "early birds," if you want to see how they're doing. Rocky is a lawyer by training, and a damn good one--just look at his record. He is Kucinich on steroids.
He was the best thing that happened to Salt Lake, since I got here in 1974. Keep your eye out for him, "thinkrocky.com" and hold your hat. Just check the aforesaid link, ponder the essence of this guy, and pull out all stops. The time is right for a third party if ever there has been.
This IS your man. Prepare for amazement, and get on board--YOU are the echo chamber that needs to work.
Your action, multiplied by a million others, makes all the difference in the world. So said the late great David Brower, the most amazing person I ever had the honor to meet. And he was never wrong, to the best of my knowledge.
R♥
Rocky sounds great, but so did Obama. I'll need to bone up on how the entire government would work if there was a third party, and how long it would take to implement it.
Great job of laying out the proposition, Christine.
Lezlie
I would rephrase the question a bit differently for starters: What will happen if a Republican or Democrat gets elected? Answer: More of the same, only on amphetamines. What will happen if we sit on our hands? We give the game away. What will happen if everybody does nothing? Earth continues its descent into the bowels of hell. What will happen if we don’t speak out for our kids and their progeny? Civilization will continue to collapse, unless there is some miracle in the wings that the brightest amongst us fails to see.
In the same vein, the revolutions that have been occurring around the world have occurred because people saw what was coming down, decided life under such conditions was unacceptable, and used social media for change. Rocky is doing that, and he has also been on many TV and radio shows already, even making a monkey of Bill O’Riley; we are getting him on many more existing media shows (please do check Rocky’s website and read his bio, as Christine noted above).
Margaret Mead said something to the effect that it is the 2% of the population who change the world, and that in fact, it has never been otherwise. RA has the brains, courage, speaking ability, connections, and charisma to be one of the greatest Presidents who ever lived. I have personally witnessed this while watching him for eight years as a mayor in this remarkably red state of Utah. I consider him to be Dennis Kucinich on steroids.
Taking the bully pulpit and using it regularly, loudly, and clearly seems to me critical. Dealing with past crimes will be “on the table.” If you saw Rocky give his anti-Bush rally, the day before that clown came to town, you would know he can do this. His campaign converges completely with the OWS campaign, not that he wants to preempt it.
Again, check his Wiki reference to see the allies he has been steadily building over the decades, and the homework he has done. If ever the time was ripe for a third party, this is it, and Rocky is the man to do it (I regularly follow politics, and do not say this lightly).
People said I could never live off the grid, back in the eighties. I did it in southeast Idaho for 15 years (my “pre-Christine” days). People said I could never design a water toy or an airship, yet here they are: www.aquaglider.us; www.hyperblimp.com. People said slavery would never end, that women would never vote, that child labor would never end, that we’d never have social security, that heart transplants would never happen—I happen to have one of the latter and just got a six year excellent annual report.
So my executive summary is to look it at it this way: We can get off our couches and spread the word, or sit there in paralysis watching “reality shows,” etc., or we can come up with our plan of how we are going to personally get the word out in our own little garden.
That upper 1% is most definitely scared, as bullies always are, when they see a change in the wind. They don’t use pepper spray and lock up little old grannies because they think it is fun. We have the power, in fact we have just about as much as we assume, and it is high time we assume and use it. The time has come, at least for me, to pull out all stops, stop worrying about “splitting the vote” between little asses and bigger asses, and do the right thing. Your actions, multiplied by a million others, makes all the difference in the world.
I figure I’ll be able to sleep with myself and at least make it ultimately to the grave knowing I did the right thing. I have a grandson who deserves it, and so does the rest of his generation. I can’t make up anyone’s mind but my own, but there you have it, about as succinctly as I can put it.
Fascinating information---thank you Christine!
I thought it so sad recently when I had to have physical therapy on my hand. The receptionist there does not have health insurance…in a big medical facility. She cannot afford it. So, she watches others get treatment that is at least somewhat covered while she must go without. It really bothered me. My own private health insurance is now over $1000 a month with a $2500 deductible. I have not had major inpatient surgery, heart surgery, cancer, or diabetes. The miracle is not that I haven't gotten these serious things. The miracle is that I can maintain, for now, my health insurance.
Will be keeping an eye on your man, Rocky from this side of the big pond.
r/
Health care...don't get me started.
I had afriend who went that way several years ago. He charged $5,00 per family annual fee. He found his life to be tormented by as his patients evolved from treating him like a learned professional to treating him like a servant.
He lasted two years. Now he works for Kaiser Permanente Medical Group.
You never know about these things.
There's absolutely no chance of a third party candidate getting on the ballot this year. None. But if people are serious, they'll start looking to the long-range picture, as, believe it or not, the Goldwater conservatives of '64 did in the wake of their electoral debacle. Four years later, those people gave us Richard Nixon.
As for health care in this country, the status quo was an abomination. Obamacare might not be all it could be, but God help us all if the Supremes strike it down or a Republican majority finds a way to kill it.
Why do we talk about universal health insurance instead of universal health care? Me, I'm very mixed about modern medicine. I don't want to be lining more drug company pockets with federal dollars...I want more natural, proactive, holistic solutions to health...cover my dang gym membership, will ya?
There is absolutely no chance of a third party candidate getting on the ballot this year, IF we reach that apriori, self-fulfilling conclusion. However, there is absolutely no chance of change if we vote for “the lesser of two evils”--namely because the Ds and Rs are equally evil, or at least equally ignorant, gutless, and beholden to powerful interests.
Christine and I met Rocky three times in the last month or so, and at one of those meetings he laid out several ways to get on the ballot. Look at his legal background and connections and you might reasonably conclude that he has some tricks up his sleeve. Write-ins have succeeded on a number of occasions, to cite one example.
And take worst case: Issues will be raised into the public spotlight and awareness that desperately need to be.
If I had to summarize my argument here it would be this: a third-party candidate for president cannot happen this year. It's not merely a question of mobilizing the millions of people it would take to make this happen. It's also a question of what those millions would be up against. If Anderson could somehow make a name for himself outside of Salt Lake City, if he were seen as a threat to the Democrats, he'd be up against the money and power of the corporate elite we both abhor. The best he could hope for would be political martyrdom.
I'm OK with the lesser of two evils, especially when I look at the very dangerous people who comprise the extreme right at both the national and local levels. If a third party is going to rise, it will take years and require more than a single charismatic person to "lead" it -- something the Occupy movement has demonstrated rather forcefully. It would require candidates from across the country signing on and running as Justice Party candidates. All this could happen, and I would to see it, but it won't happen in nine months.
If I wanted Rocky for president, I'd target 2016, make local issues Justice Party issues, organize around the party and not just the man and hope the republic is still standing by then.
OPPOSITE FLICKERING EFFECT what's ever left of the 20 minutes to the hour 'left' is subject to more infighting than the Hatfields and McCoys. Allow me to recall the so-called Children's Milk Campaign of 1968. Legitimate debate of been rightfully altered with our instantaneous digitized memory--and other aspects of truism.
Never bunt with a splintered bat.
Anderson has made a name for himself outside Salt Lake, however, and continues to do so. He was recently on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, Amy Goodman, AlJazeera, and many others. Before that, he was on FOX at least twice, and again, many other MSM outlets. Several folks in the campaign are extremely savvy in social networking and computers generally, and things can and do viral quite commonly. I would point to other countries for recent examples.
On the lesser of two evils, one of the main authors I recommend for pointing out that there isn’t any “lesser evil” would be David Michael Green, a political science teacher from Hofstra University. Remarkably articulate writer who has repeatedly and from different angles shown there is no difference between the Ds and Rs. My only hope is that more people look deeper and reach their own conclusions; you have obviously gone farther than most.
The Justice Party converges remarkably with OWS principles, and will open the door for many local offices to be occupied by folks such as yourself. Aim for the stars, maybe we’ll hit the moon. As for myself, I intend to go down trying.
P.S. There have been about 2300 views of Christine's column so far, which I like to believe says something about the time being right for sweeping change.
rated with love