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

Liberals Are Killing This Country? No, We Have Taxation Without Representation!

Liberals are not killing this country. Taxes are not evil. Stop listening to the propaganda of corporate-controlled Fox News and drinking the extreme right's Kool-Aid. If you recall, Bush came into the White House with a Democratic President-created budget SURPLUS, and rapidly changed that into a deficit. FACT!

Tax = revenue. When you don't tax, you have no revenue with which to run the infrastructure of this country. As I've posted here and, especially on Facebook, multiple times with charts and graphs and actual numbers to defend my case - the true facts (not buzz words, propaganda, lies, and rhetoric), the wealthiest Americans and corporate persons pay little to no taxes and less proportional Social Security tax compared to their income than do middle class Americans. With all the tax cuts, tax breaks, loopholes, and corporate welfare for corporations making record-breaking profits every quarter, that's one heck of a lot of revenue missing from our "baseline budget." Add to that the trillions of dollars we've spent on 3 wars, thanks for the first 2 to Bush and the third to Obama, we are STILL living in a war economy. When that happens, we usually increase taxes to pay for our war spending. What did Bush do? He cut taxes!

Baseline budgeting - get out of the wars, increase taxes (progressive, not regressive as it is now) on ALL Americans and corporations (which for the wealthiest Americans after WWII was a 90% tax rate, not the current 0-15% most actually end up paying these days) to pay for the wars, then reduce the taxes once you've paid off the war debt.

Yes, it is about budgeting. You want war? You need to raise taxes to pay for it. You want a government infrastructure so your country doesn't collapse? You make sure that ALL Americans are paying their fair share in taxes, because we all benefit. Want a viable, thriving middle class and economy? Create jobs in the USA and stop outsourcing where you can get away with paying slave wages and little to no benefits in order to increase your profits and CEO wages to ridiculously high amounts - morality and ethics be darned.

If the GOP extreme right were truly interested in helping America and Americans, they wouldn't have simultaneously introduced bills in multiple state legislatures to repeal minimum wage and child labor laws, and destroy labor unions and collective bargaining that protect the average worker from economic and personal abuse at the hands of their corporate masters. Average Americans are losing jobs, are underemployed, have their salaries frozen or cut, while the Lords of Industry have increased the income disparity (Gini coefficient) in this country to be close to that of Egypt. The average CEO earned 24x the average worker's pay in 1965. By 1979, they earned 35x more, in 1989 it was 71x more, in 1999 it was 300x more, in 2005 it was 262x more. Those same CEO's pay lower income tax rates than the average worker, and pay no Social Security tax on income over $106,800.

The people in power purposefully repealed the Glass-Steagall Act with the prior knowledge that deregulation would open the door for them to rape the economy through rampant speculation and mortgage-backed securities at the risk of another depression or recession. They did the dirty deed, and they got exactly what they wanted. It was the largest transfer of financial (including the speculative dollars, securities and bailouts) and property wealth (foreclosures) in history, and the transfer of wealth is still ongoing. The S&L debacle was their dry run.

So, don't tell me the Liberals are killing this country. We live in a corporate-controlled America. If you're an average American, you live like a vassal or serf under the watchful eyes of not-so-benevolent masters. To me, that is taxation without representation!
 
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20060621/

The Human Rights Paradigm Shift to End Violence, Especially Against Women and Children

All humans and the societies in which they live are different, yet they all have beauty. When all people are valued equally in thought and deed, all people benefit. The impetus for implementing cultural education to end violence against women and girls is coming from honor killings committed in Western countries. Many cultures still consider killings based upon family honor as legally legimate. Honor killings, as these are known, are the murder of women because they have been raped, had sex outside of marriage, wanted to pursue a higher level of education, or refused an arranged marriage. Honor violence and killing is usually committed by fathers and brothers, and has generally been legally categorized under the umbrella of domestic violence in Western countries.

Women from Arabic and South Asian countries are the predominant victims of this form of gender-based violence. When people from these cultures immigrate to Western countries, they also bring their long-held cultural beliefs with them. Many of these women do not have access to the social services of their host countries. They are also trafficked against their will as "brides" back to their former countries. There is a need to be culturally sensitive towards immigrants, up until the point at which another human being's basic human rights are violated. At this point, the interactive acculturation of people from these societies must become a legal and educational priority in those host countries to which they immigrate.

Violence against women is not only found in the original countries from which immigrants bring their belief in honor killings, but in their host countries, as well. All countries have a high level of violence against women and girls, and boys, including murder. As reported in the Daily Telegraph, the UK has committed to an age-appropriate K-12 education program to teach gender equality in the wake of many honor killings. Police from EU member states have recently met with women's organizations, social groups and educators at Europol at the Hague to strategize, seek solutions and crack down on those committing honor killings and the trafficking of women.* No matter the impetus, the education of all people of all countries of the equality, value and rights of all people, especially women and children, is needed. It should also extend to adults, and become a real presence in the media and conversations of all people, in all countries.

Women, children and other marginalized people are often caught between a rock and a hard place, with very little room or the basic human rights with which they may move beyond to a path of freedom to pursue their lives.

In all societies, including Western, the value of women and children is still obviously less than that of men because their very safety and lives are continuously and disproportionately jeopardized by violence, domestic or otherwise. This is also evidenced by the continued devaluing of traditional "women's jobs" and the wage gaps between men and women found in all societies. During the current US recession, many people in higher paying jobs are unemployed, and most of those are men. Yet those workers in lower paid, necessary service industries have retained their jobs, and most of them are women. Obviously society cannot exist without these jobs. So, now, we see lower-paid women supporting their families on low wages that are often not high enough to support themselves and their families. Now, the economic impact of this wage gap is finally being felt by large numbers of men, although it has long been felt by women and children for centuries, in poverty.

What all members of our society are living and grappling with right now is not just an economic, political or legal phenomenon. It is the direct result of a social phenomenon based upon cultural attitudes of the lower value of women and children, whether or not they are as extreme as those in societies that legitimize honor killings. Economic, political, health care, educational, and legal systems don't define a society's cultural and religious beliefs; a society's cultural and religious beliefs defines its economic, political, health care, educational, and legal systems. What is valued is priced high, has high political power, better health care and education, and is well-legislated; what is not valued is priced low, has little political power, health care, and education, and is inadequately legislated.

Economic, political, health care, legal, and educational reform must take place to ensure the equal value of all people, including women and children, as equal members of human society. Legal reform must use a zero-tolerance approach to the marginalization of and violence against any human, especially women and children, in the laws and courts of all countries. Economic reform must also highly value those jobs that perform direct service to individual members of society and society in general, even though the results of that service are not directly and rapidly felt in the economy. This must include such jobs as home health aides and teachers. Political power must be equal for all, and seen and felt in political representation, rather than the marginalization currently found. Educational reform must include teaching all people, and must teach the value and rights of all, to all. This educational reform must also include mediation and conflict resolution training, so all members of humanity can learn more effective ways to solve any problem, rather than resort to violence. Health care reform must grant all people a high basic level of health care, especially women, whose ability to bear and birth healthy children is necessary for the very existence of the human species.

Research has shown it takes three generations to make such major changes in a society. The very lives of billions of women and children are at risk, as well as the basic well-being and rights of all members of humanity, so the current generation must quickly implement these changes now. When all people are highly valued members of humanity, the myriad benefits of this reform will create a win-win situation. This will lessen the need for violence to demand basic human rights and social services. People will abhor the use of violence by one group of people against another, which will decrease violence, war and genocide. When people realize all humans are of value and utilize mediation and conflict resolution to resolve differences, we will see increased political and economic stability because we will work together to find win-win solutions, rather than compete for resources and power. When all governments adjust their legal, political, economic, health care, and educational systems to honor in thought and deed the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they will respect the value and equality of people, while at the same time, retain what is unique and beautiful within all of their independent cultures. Empowerment creates positive change through cooperation, rather than the will to compete, which creates violence and war. This is a win-win solution to a win-lose problem. When all people are valued equally in thought and deed, all people benefit. All we have to do is step into the light of human rights.



*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6655561/Honour-based-violence-is-biggest-problem-facing-women.html

Daniel Schorr on Journalism, Politics and Conflict Resolution

Daniel Schorr was tonight's invited speaker at the UNLV Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution's Peace in the Desert lecture series. His talk was entitled "Forgive Us Our Press Passes."

Mr. Schorr spoke about his long-term career as a journalist relative to conflict resolution. He said that, on the one hand, journalism can "give light and people will find their own way." On the other hand, he shared recollections of a conversation he had with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and stated that journalists of that time did "deliberately try to get civil rights leaders to say something provocative because that's how we get put on the air." This search for provocative quotes, in turn, may have brought militant leaders to the forefront, expanding the violence of the times and changing the course of the civil rights movement.

Journalists, editors, and publishers can so easily change the course of history and literally cost people their lives by asking the wrong questions, not asking certain questions, purposefully not reporting important stories, overemphasizing one aspect of a story, investigating and reporting the activities of one politician while ignoring those of another, or favorably emphasizing one subject/person over another.

The conflict between Mr. Schorr's journalististic responsibilities to report the news came into conflict with the ethics of actually publishing a story that could negatively impact the lives of many people or even destabilize a government. "Twice in my long career I killed my own story" to keep people from getting hurt.

One story he killed was about Princess Juliana, whose daughter Princess Maria Christina (Marijke) of the Netherlands was born almost totally blind. In her desperation to find a cure for her daughter, Princess Juliana sought the advice of a faith healer. Princess Juliana's resulting extreme beliefs and behaviors nearly brought down the House of Orange. Mr. Schorr chose not to publish his story as it would so negatively affect the monarchy, the entire government of the Netherlands could have been destabilized. He discovered his publisher, Life Magazine, had also decided to kill the story just before he called to inform them of his own intentions.

The second time he chose to kill a story involved taped interviews with Jewish citizens of annexed Poland who were emigrating to Israel. Russia, Poland and Israel were in trilateral talks to make this emigration possible, but it was necessary to keep it quiet as Russia was attempting to maintain relations with Saudi Arabia. If the Saudis had learned of these talks, the emigration would have been stopped. Reporting this story would have hurt thousands of emigrants. Since we are all a part of a greater community of humanity, Mr. Schorr stated a journalist might kill a story because "you live in a community and you have duties in a community."

Mr. Schorr discussed changes in the relationship between politicians and journalists as another type of conflict. He emphasized that what is happening lately and is "the most alarming thing in the field of journalism, is politicians have learned to manipulate the press... What I'm afraid of is the skill in government for manipulating the press."

The future of the press will be determined in part by economic and technology changes in media, the internet, and the blogosphere, according to Mr. Schorr. Anybody with a computer can be a writer, reporter, editor, whereas editing and writing used to be carefully done. Now, cameras can be put up anywhere. He also believes that economically, conglomerates are becoming mega-conglomerates, which are becoming ultra-conglomerates. He thinks it is possible that newspapers may not be on paper in five years. There will be profound change, but when asked about more specific changes that will take effect in the future, Mr Schorr said, "I have no idea."