The Susan G. Komen/Planned Parenthood Controversy and Standing Up to Corporate Bullies

In the Salon essay, "Susan G. Komen’s priceless gift," Joan Walsh and Rebecca Traister write about the potential impact of the Komen/Planned Parenthood controversy:

"The starkly observable attack against something as crucial and basic as breast exams for poor women, as well as the fact that so many divergent voices were pulled into it, meant that the conversation was not about partisan politics; it was about women. For the first time in what feels like forever, passion and fury were being loudly, proudly given in a full-throated voice, on behalf of women – women as moral actors; women as citizens with rights, health, bodies, freedoms; women as people with families and economic concerns."

Women and girls, as well as female-dominated professions, have frequently been the victims of violence and bullying. Remember the earlier health care "reform" (doublespeak) attempt by members of Congress to reduce the frequency of, and change the ages at which, women receive mammogram and pap smear screenings, in order to increase profits for health insurance companies? Do you remember how Viagra got covered by insurance quickly, while contraception for women went uncovered for decades. Have you noticed the scapegoating and demonization of teachers? Seeing the patterns, yet? Bullying isn't just about gender. It creates inequities in power, economics, and rights. Bullying is the antithesis of peace.

Bullying has been used to bring about so-called "reforms" that benefit corporations at the expense of people...

1 - tort "reform" that reduces our access to the courts, forcing us to go through mediation, instead, as well as reducing caps on damages corporations are required to pay for the terrible things they do,

2 - education "reform" that reduces children's equal access to public education through privatization (and the union-busting that has absolutely nothing to do with education and everything to do with lowering wages and benefits, and reducing worker's rights),

3a - get tough on criminals law and sentencing"reform" that increased our prison populations to the highest levels on the planet (for which we, the taxpayer, pay)

3b - prison "reform" in which prisons are now being privtized to provide corporations with cheap labor without having to bear the cost of health care, etc (because we taxpayers pay for that),

4 - repeal of minimum wage and child labor laws across the US in order to provide cheap labor,

5 - the push for Right to Work laws in multiple states that creates the right to work for lower wages and less rights with the power and right to fire at will in the hands of employers and weakening unions so employees can't collectively bargain for living wages, decent benefits and receive due process rights.

The political, economic and corporate bullying of the middle class and poor (and women, in general) needs to end now. Human rights, equity and equality, justice, non-violence, compassion, caring, and integrity are necessary for a peaceful country and world. Governments and neighborhoods that want peace "would seek liberty for all, would promote mutual respect and tolerance, and would demand that rights go hand in hand with responsibilities. Such a neighborhood would also require that the strong as well as the weak subscribe to a rule of law. It would combat the corrupted as well as the corrupting, and would encourage participatory and legitimate democratic governance within all relevant institutions." 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, in her memoir "Unbowed."

What is the cycle of bullying? This is from The Bullying Circle, originated by Dan Olweus, PhD:

A - The Bullies - plan/start the bullying, taking an active part = ALEC (American Legislative and Exchange Council)

B - The Henchmen - take an active part but don't plan/start the bullying = Legislators, Police

C - The Active Supporters - cheer the bully on and seek social/material gain = Politicians, Organizations, Other Corporations, Media

D - Passive Supporters - enjoy the bullying but do not show open support = Average citizens who buy into A-C's propaganda and lies

E - Disengaged Onlookers - observe, then turn away, thing/saying  "It's none of my business." = Some average citizens

F - Potential Witnesses - oppose the bullying, know they should do something, but do nothing = Some average citizens

G - Resister/Defender/Witness - actively resists, stands up to the bully, speaks out against bullying = Those even fewer citizens who see it happening and do all they can to stop it

I - The Target(s) - the person/people/groups being bullied = women, teachers, fill in the blank.

What will turn our country around is when D-F become G's who let A-C know their bullying will no longer be tolerated, and that, if they continue their bullying, there will be real consequences.

We won't...
elect/re-elect them, buy their products, or watch/play their products.

We will...
boycott them, be non-compliant, peacefully and non-violently protest and demonstrate, and be everywhere speaking up and out against their bullying.

We CAN end their bullying when we stand united together to protect the less fortunate, as well as ourselves. There is strength in numbers, and power in knowledge.

The very existence and operations of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) is corporate bullying at its highest political and economic impact upon the greatest number of people, and it undermines our democratic process.
1 - Member corporations write the laws,

2 - They give them to legislators (whose trip they fund through "scholarships" when those legislators do their bidding) to submit and pass. ALEC's name, of course, is removed and the bills are submitted without showing who authored them. The legislators take oaths and are required to draft and submit laws themselves, so they are going against their oath of office and the law. This is corruption!We the people - the actual stakeholders of this country - are not involved in the process. ALEC did not invite teachers to their education summit that is currently being held on a beautiful island. Anyone who wants to improve education would invite the experts in the field - teachers. Obviously that is not what this meeting is about.

3 - The only journalists they allow to cover events are pro-corporate; the rest get escorted out or arrested for trying to do their jobs as members of the free press.

There is no questioning them. There is no transparency. We the people are not invited. The bills they write benefit themselves, at the expense of we the people. Participatory democracy is bypassed, and the corporations control the legislators. That is NOT democracy; it is fascism. Let's end the bullying, in all areas of our country! Be a Resister/Defender/Witness!

Be a "G!"

Susan G. Komen's priceless gift

Comment to President Obama on Remove Arne Duncan Petition

Get politicians and corporate CEO's out of education. Put those who actually educate in charge. It's that simple!

Children are not widgets, clones or copies. No two are exactly alike. Societal, economic, family, and personal factors DO impact their "performance" on test scores. The purpose of education is not for children to perform well on tests. A test score is not the final product of an education. The purpose of education is to teach children how to think critically, how to find information, how to learn, while respecting their individuality, and to do this creatively. We do this, in part, by teaching them literacy, numeracy, science, social studies, etc. These are not all that we teach. We also teach social skills, respect, integrity, taking chances in learning, persistence, etc. You can't test that!

We need to be given the autonomy, resources and time to teach. Instead, we've had to spend the last 10 or so years fighting for our profession, our jobs, our rights, our education budgets, our resources, our reputations, and most importantly...our students. Teachers should not have to waste any time on fighting for any of these things that diminish our time and energy from doing our job...teaching children.

Shame on those who are using and abusing us, taking us away from our mandate - to teach our nation's children, as they work to game us and the system to privatize education so they can simply make more profits. Shame on you, President Obama, if you allow this political and corporate circus of education "reform" to continue. Instead, why don't those politicians and CEO's do their own jobs and fix the stalemate and partisanship in Congress, produce American jobs with living wages and decent benefits, get money out of politics, and end corruption?

Oh, and if you truly do want to end bullying, perhaps leading by example would be a good start. Stop bullying educators, stop bullying each other, and start modeling respect, decency and honor. Lead by example, as children learn what they live.

Money, Money, Money - It All Comes Down to Money: Corporate Influence in America

Money doesn't buy happiness; nor does it buy freedom. It does, however, buy economic and political power. It does buy the media outlets that control and spread the "news." The media are those large, corporate-owned propaganda and brain-washing machines that tell people the "truth" and how and what to think about which "truths" they decide to relate to the people. Marshall McLuhan once said, “The medium is the message.” Well, the media are corporations, and their message is to promote and maintain the sole life-blood of their corporate lives: profit. Corporations control the message the public sees, hears and reads. The media are no longer the Fourth Estate.

Money also buys the foundations, think tanks, councils, non-independent research studies, and "reform" movements that are backed by the very deep pockets of corporations and CEO's to maintain their control over the status quo that includes huge income inequality, a regressive tax structure, reduction in human and citizen's rights, a citizen's access to the courts, and a constituent's access to his or her own legislators. Of course, they don't mind that we the people continue to pay our taxes, helping to fund their corporate agenda, since many legislators are now owned by corporations. Corporations don't mind that 1 in 4 American children now live in poverty. They don't mind that there is only 1 job for every 4 unemployed Americans, as they continue to export jobs. They don't mind that their profits continue to soar as the American people suffer and are crushed by supporting the weight of the hoarded wealth of the top 1%.

The fact that the Supreme Court of the United States of America has a God-complex and decided to give corporations the gift of life as persons, and give corporate money the human right to free speech, is conveniently overlooked. Corporations have one sole purpose in their “life,” and that is to make a profit. The Citizens United decision allows them to spend unlimited amounts of money to buy politicians, buy votes, to literally write the bills in their favor, at the expense of humanity and the environment, and hand them to our legislators to pass into law.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is foaming at the mouth to destroy unions and collective bargaining in order to privatize education, attacking the educated and those who educate the populace in the process. They don't want an educated populace that has the critical thinking skills with which to question them. This is why the education "reformers" want to destroy the teacher's unions and privatize education. If they can do this, they will control who has access to education, and the actual education curriculum of their own corporate propaganda. Plutocracy in action.

ALEC is also trying to repeal minimum wage and child labor laws. The bills are already in multiple state houses, submitted verbatim. Now, really, why would corporations want this? It's not rocket science. If you want to go back to the times of the Gilded Age (aka, the Robber Barons) continue to support ALEC and its well-funded agenda and propaganda campaign. Support Mr. Gingrich, who calls child labor laws silly and would rather see children in poverty work as janitors, than get an education. George Santayana once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Many people have bought into the corporate propaganda that unions are the cause of America's decline. They obviously aren't looking at the facts that continuously record-breaking corporate profits and rapidly increasing CEO wages and benefit packages have come at the expense of the jobs, wages and benefits of working Americans. As corporate profits and CEO wages have increased, the wages of average Americans have either remained flat or decreased over the past few decades. This has been as a direct result of corporate strategy, and the people's willingness to let their own unions die as they misguidedly put their trust in corporations. The facts show that as workers let the unions fall, the middle class has shrunk, income inequality has increased, and poverty and homelessness have increased. Unions did not create the current economy, nor did they create the recession. 

Ultra-rich job creators have sent our jobs overseas, as their ultra-rich corporations have received tax cuts, tax breaks, and tax refunds. Then, they blame the lack of jobs on "greedy" unions and union members. I think many folks have forgotten what unions have done for middle class America. Without unions, we would all still be working 7 days a week, 15-18 hours a day, in unsafe working conditions, without minimum wage or child labor laws, or any health care or retirement plans. We would, essentially, return to the status of serfs. Folks have forgotten that union members and organizers literally died so that people now only have to work 40 hours per week for a living wage, have safe working conditions, health care, retirement plans and Social Security. With workers enjoying a living wage and shorter working hours, they also have the freedom of more time to spend with their families to actually enjoy their constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness. They have more time to spend getting a higher education and increase their job and wage prospects, rather than simply enter the work force at a younger age. Union members and organizers died so we don't have to spend our lives working to fill the deep coffers of corporations, only to live and die in abject poverty.

Corporations and "reformers" are actively working to bust the remaining unions, end collective bargaining rights, and repeal minimum wage and child labor laws for a very good reason. They want to return to a time when they could and did pay what little money they want to their workers. Do you think they will stop there? They will get rid of other labor laws, as well, that restrict them from creating unsafe working conditions. You can see evidence of this trend in the corporate push to deregulate the Clean Air Act and other environmental protection laws, as well as their efforts to hobble the Environmental Protection Agency. These "patriotic" corporations are simply paving the way to bring back serf-style jobs as the saviours of America, as they rake in even higher profits, since they will no longer have to export these low-wage jobs.

Money doesn't buy happiness. It doesn't buy freedom. Life is not a business model. Corporations are not persons and their money is not speech. If people want to be serfs, we can let corporations continue on their steady course and play their aggressive chess game that has we the people on the defense. We the people are the trees that stand like silent sentinels of democracy and freedom, with our roots planted deeply in this land. Corporations have shaken the leaves off of us, leaving our branches exposed. They are attempting to uproot us.

What do you value most? How much do you value your freedom? How much more are you willing to accept and give up, not only for yourself, but for your children and future generations? When will you say, "No more" and be willing to stand up and take back what has already been taken? When will you make certain that our rights and freedoms, our democratic republic, our very country, will never again be open to attack from the inside in this way? It's not just up to me. This will take all of us. Your country and your fellow citizens need you, desperately.

I Am America - I Will Not Fall

A friend on Facebook said I am down on America. He suggested that I post positive facts about our country, and was sure I could find many. In the past two months, I've essentially been called unpatriotic, been cyberbullied both on Facebook and in text messages on my phone, and called a terrorist for supporting OWS. Here is my reply:

I wonder where we'd be if our founders had only written and spoken about all the wonderful things about their country, England?

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things." - Winston Churchill

I am not down on America. It is because I have a deep love for my country and its Constitution and Bill of Rights, that I don't believe in turning a blind eye to its foibles. How can we improve if we don't truly see ourselves? We all already know the many great things about our country, and I teach these things to my students. However, as an adult American, outside of my classroom, I have a duty to my country to be a responsible, active citizen. I am an educator who is looking to improve what we do in our country. We can learn from and work with each other. As an educator, I can tell you that teachers have been scapegoated and demonized by politicians and journalists as the cause of the ills of our country. I do not accept this mantle. I will not give up on my country by glossing over the things we need to improve, nor will I, as an American and an educator, accept the status quo that allows 1 in 4 American children to live in poverty.

"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." - Albert Einstein

"It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance." - Thomas Paine

We may not agree on everything. We may not share each other's vision. Yet we remain one people...one country...America. In this, I find hope that we will learn to work together for the sake of our country, our freedom, and our future.

"Gutta cavat lapidem; non vi, sed saepe cadendo."

"A water drop hollows a stone; not by force, but by falling often."

(Main phrase is from Ovid, Epistulae ex Ponto IV, 10, 5.[12]; expanded in the Middle Ages)

The first two YouTube videos are by Krista Branch, and the third is by Miley Cyrus. I do not own the rights to these videos and intend no copyright violation.

Get Involved! Do SOMEthing!!!

Like the leaves on my tree, the American people are falling fast. Get involved! If you're apathetic, you are the weakest link. The weakest link ALLOWS OTHERS to determine the course of our nation. If you think sitting back and letting others run the show for you has been working, take a really good look around you. One in four American children now live in poverty, on your watch. Unions, the last bastion of worker's rights and middle class salaries are being busted to make way for the repeal of minimum wage and child labor laws, on your watch. Yes, this is true - these new laws are already submitted to multiple state houses. Keep on doing nothing, and this will all continue to worsen. WE NEED YOU! NOW!!!

...and if the powers that be really did care about it all, they wouldn't have created the seriously regressive tax structure and economic environment that have created our enormous income inequality and the resulting high child poverty rate. This is all purposeful. Deregulation and policy and law changes have to be created. These things don't just "happen."

As for "reform," education reform, just as has been the case in tort reform and health care reform, is not about the actual reform of education. It's simply a well-tested focus group piece of propaganda the far right is using to pull the wool over people's eyes so they don't look at the real purpose behind these "reforms." The doublespeak à la George Orwell's 1984 is alive and well.

The reformers never bring up the number one reason for the academic success of students: parental involvement. Nor do they mention the importance of relationships behind a successful academic career or recognize the plethora of broken families in America. They don't want to address child poverty (and along with it, lack of adequate health care and nutrition), which does have a huge adverse impact on education. They don't acknowledge any of this because the real reform they're foisting on Americans is really all about union-busting, privatization, repeal of minimum wage and child labor laws, and the creation of an uneducated workforce that won't be capable of questioning them. Then, they'll no longer have to reduce their profits to export low-paying serf-style jobs and can look like heroes bringing those jobs back into the USA. Aren't they so patriotic? So, they ridicule, scapegoat and demonize teachers as the cause of all the ills of society. Deflection is so convenient for them, isn't it? 

Ridicule, scapegoating, demonization, then dehumanization are also the steps to violence against others. The Ministry of "Love" is our Department of "Homeland Security" that now "works with" our local police forces who show up to peaceful demonstrations in riot gear and, on one occasion, with a tank. They use military grade weapons such as pepper spray, tear gas, stun grenades, while they also wield batons to inflict harm. They send peaceful, law-abiding American citizens who are simply exercising their Constitutional rights to free speech and assembly to the hospital...some in critical condition. The peaceful people they've harmed and/or arrested includes veterans, a former police chief, a 94-year-old woman, an entire group of seated and unarmed UC Davis students, and an expectant mother. So much for the sanctity of life. 

Our Fourth Estate no longer exists, as predominantly all media outlets are now owned by 3-5 major corporations, all spouting the same corporate propaganda. Our Fourth Estate is now our Ministry of "Truth." The police have detained, arrested, and destroyed and/or erased data off of the cameras of many of the few remaining unbiased journalists in order to destroy evidence and suppress the true facts, so that the Ministry of Truth can disseminate lies. The brain-washing arm of the Ministry of Truth is a powerful core group of Hollywood elite with major corporate money behind their green-lighted propaganda movie projects and star-filled personal appearances.

If you think these are the actions of a democratic government, think again. We are currently in a non-violent struggle (on our side) for the return to democracy. We want the power and money of multi-national corporations (can you say non-American, then?) out of our government. It's about the American people, our freedom, our national security, and the survival of our way of life. We're down to brass tacks and need everybody on this. We need YOU!

How Can You Change America for the Better?

How can you change America for the better? That change must simply begin with you...and me. Income inequality and desperation breeds violence and unrest. However, the choice to not participate in the insanity is yours. The path and the power to create positive, non-violent change lies within each and every one of us. We have only to stand up, be it, and live it to create the change. Then, what those in power want or do will no longer matter. The joining of the power of our very lives will create the change.

Vote, get involved in politics to change it for the better, choose where you spend wisely, choose what you watch and do buy wisely, choose for the direction you want our country and our people to take. Whatever you do, please don't be apathetic and let this current course continue. The weakest link in the process of change helps to determine the strength and permanence of the outcome. Please choose non-violence as your method of expressing your thoughts, beliefs and actions. The only way those in power could try stop it would be to kill each and every last one of us. Then, they'd have nobody left to do their bidding and they'd be forced to become one of us to survive, and then we'd still have created the change. The path of compassion, love and non-violence will prevail.

This is a journey, and my own path has been rather circuitous. I have shut off my television. In doing so, I have reduced the amount of advertisements to which I am subjected by at least a hundred-fold. I have reduced my exposure to the purposeful propaganda of the 3 major corporate owners of most of the thousands of media outlets  in America (tv, radio, newspapers - ever wonder why they're all saying pretty much the same thing?). I don't buy all the "look at how wonderful and rich I am" celebrity magazines that fuel consumerism, greed, and the grass is greener on the rich side of America. This past year of no television has been a positive, interesting journey; so positive that I will not be watching it next year, either.

I avoid shopping, and if I do shop, I avoid buying anything except food. Yes, I get tempted. Most of the time, these days, my common sense wins. I find creative ways to delay, and then avoid, actually buying something I want but don't need. When I shop for clothes, I usually go to thrift stores before any other, to avoid buying new. At the same time, those in need also benefit. I am thankful for everything and everyone in my life. I don't need any things, except for food, water, shelter, and clothes (could get a little cold out there).

Ultimately, the path to peace varies for each traveller. I wish you all the best of luck on your path. Namaste.

Buy! Buy! Buy Your Way Into Oppression!

We the people are driving this bus of consumer frenzy for cheap products, which demands minimum wage jobs, creates time away from family, decreases our rights and economic and political power. If you don't like the direction this bus has taken, then get out of the driver's seat! If you truly believe that family and friends are more important than things, then don't participate in Black Friday. Instead, enjoy the day doing things with each other. Get out and hike, play some games, sing, dance, and talk with each other. Have a block party. Build relationships and community, not power and profits for the 1%.

GOP Privatization of the USA

The GOP wants to privatize schools, privatize prisons, privatize, privatize, privatize. Now that Mitt Romney is pulling yet another reversal, this time on his trial balloon for the partial privatization of veteran's health care, I thought...

Oh, for heaven's sake! Why don't we just get it all over with and let them privatize everything. Let's allow for-profit bottom-lines and shareholder profits be the sail we set as we glide through the waters of our country's economy, allowing the winds of a free market to steer the course of all citizens' jobs, health care, education, retirement, etc. Let's disband our democratic republic and let the corporations run it, no longer having to hide their contributions and control over our elections and government. We may as well just let them do what they're already doing behind the scenes. We can even change our name and call ourselves UniMart, with our new national motto, "In Capitalism We Trust," and our shiny new flag colored the green and white of money with a golden cash register in the center. Finally, let's watch as the richest 1% sail away on their yachts, leaving their serfs (all of the RFID chip implanted 99% - the economically challenged men, women and children) to work and pay for all the taxes until they drop, without decent wages, working conditions, education, health care, or retirement. Don't forget to bow to the 1% as they blithely sail by shouting at you to "Go get a job!" or "Take a bath!", or you'll end up in jail or dead.