So Much for Freedom

by Ruth A. Sheets

The Republican Party likes to get the word out that it is the party of “freedom.”  They also claim that we should be “free” of big government and that government should be out of our lives. 

The party publicists know that the word “freedom” triggers a lot of feelings about America and how special the country is.  It makes their faithful feel patriotic and important.

When one examines their idea of freedom, however, it may cause one to pause a moment to ask for their definition.  No one seems to do that these days, especially the media.  Republicans are delighted because they don’t want people to know what is really going on.

They cry “freedom” when they take away a woman’s right to choose, related to her body and family planning.

They cry “freedom” when they propose laws to eliminate EPA and other forms of regulations that would protect citizens from environmental destruction, pollution, and hostile takeovers.

They cry “freedom” when they pass laws to require photo IDs for a type of voter fraud that doesn’t actually exist in numbers high enough to matter, yet which will disenfranchise the most vulnerable of our voters.

They cry “freedom” when they pass laws that encourage citizens to treat immigrants with disrespect, which can lead to violence, in order to drive the immigrants out – “voluntarily,” of course.

They cry “freedom” when they refuse to consider gun control legislation which could protect citizens as well as law enforcement from folks who have no business having any gun let alone an assault weapon.

They cry “freedom” when they cut funds for education, malign teachers, and take over school districts, claiming they are protecting people from waste or poor teachers.  

This last false cry of “freedom” hits me particularly hard because my district, Chester Upland in Southeastern Pennsylvania has been a target of these education cuts and government takeover.  Our district was handed to our governor’s campaign supporters with no accountability requirements for what happens in the schools which are paid for by taxes yet run by for profit companies, and they do make a lot of profit off the backs of our citizens.

For ten years, Pennsylvania government officials ran our district and left us about 40 million dollars in debt.  They made several charter schools, all but two of which failed badly.  The larger one that still operates skims off the money it wants before the rest of the district gets any funding.  The money goes to them straight from the state capital, and into the pockets of the governor’s Republican friends. 

Again we are living under a takeover.  To make sure that the district cannot be successful, the state legislature has passed a bill essentially turning our district over to Joe Watkins, a powerful Republican, who is a voucher freak and a charter school aficianado.  He has 30 days to make a plan for what will happen to our district – charters, vouchers, or something else.  He knows nothing of our community and the poverty here, yet he will decide our fate in just 30 days.  Our teachers will lose their jobs, our union will be broken, because of course, a charter school can’t have a union.  And with this new “freedom” contracts, dedication, professionalism, and service mean nothing.   .

The deck has been stacked against a whole community in the name of “freedom.”  This reminds me of Orwell’s “1984” when words like freedom meant exactly the opposite.  I am guessing that most Republicans have not read that book and those who have, actually like the premise.   

It feels weird to be fighting against “freedom,” but that’s what we need to do, the Republican brand of freedom.  

An End to Democracy in America?

 
 by muon

This is the United States. We live in a democracy where we elect officials at all levels of government to represent us. We don't bow to dictators and tyrants. If we see our elected officials usurp too much power, we oust them. Right?

In 1990, Michigan passed a law that allowed the state government to take over state institutions (such as schools) by assigning an emergency manager. As I understand it, the manager's job was to help the institution out of financial difficulties.

A year ago, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder passed an act that expanded this takeover authority to include cities with high budget deficits. The managers have the power to suspend council meetings, layoff employees and fire elected city officials. Each city is expected to foot-the-bill for its emergency manager, and their salaries range from $132,000 to a quarter million annually--more than the salaries of the elected officials they were sent to replace. The cities of Ecorse, Pontiac, Benton Harbor, Lansing and Flint have been placed under emergency manager control.

The takeover of Benton Harbor occurred a month after Whirlpool pulled its last manufacturing plant out of the city. The company then proposed to build Harbor Shores, a half billion dollar golf course and residential development. Three holes of the golf course was to be on public lakeshore land taken over from a city park. The emergency manager not only fired Benton Harbor's mayor and stopped council meetings, but replaced members of the planning commission with his own appointees, thus ensuring the development could proceed without public input. It should be noted that the sponsor of the act that allowed Gov. Snyder to take over the city was Al Pscholka, state representative for Benton Harbor, former VP for the development company building Harbor Shores and on the Board of Directors for another organization involved with the development.

As if this weren't enough, when Benton Harbor's public radio station protested the takeover, the manager shut down the station and put it up for sale on Ebay, blatantly violating the citizens right to freedom of speech.

If you're still not convinced that a war for democracy is being waged in Michigan, consider that the democrats of the state's legislature have filed a lawsuit to force the Republicans to follow the state's constitution on the procedures for taking roll call votes. Currently the Republicans, who are the majority, are denying requests for roll call votes from the Democrats, more or less taking away their right to vote.

The scary thing is that these sorts of shenanigans are springing up all over the country. The GOP governor of Ohio took over school districts in Columbus and elsewhere, and just last month, GOP governor Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania took over the city of Harrisburg. Most Pennsylvania citizens never heard about this and don't realize that they could be the next ones to be denied their democratic right to elect local government representatives.