WHERE ARE THE ADULTS?

by Ruth A. Sheets

Paying attention to the news lately has been a trial .  We hear/see how this group has attacked that group and performed atrocities that are nearly unspeakable, but of course, they speak them. 

The commentators try to analyze the cause of the attack and the reasons involve religion, language, land, power,  or  some other of the usual excuses.  I think they are wrong.

Children are coming across the border, desparate for safety and a real childhood and they are often met by screaming people who cannot summon sympathy let alone empathy for their plight .

Lying seems to be the order of the day in politics, especially on the side of conservatism, as if truth will bring down severe punishment from on high.  But, in God’s name, the ends justify the means.

What do these events have in common? Absence of adults. There are clearly grown-up people involved, but somehow, they didn’t mature into adults. Their childish dialectic, self-centered  thinking, keeps them from making good judgments. They have not learned to value the lives of anyone different from themselves.

And, there is no adult present to say “NO!!” In fact, the would-be adults have been absorbed by the childish insanity and often eagerly participate.  Perhaps hoping they will gain power when they pick up the pieces.

These child actors in the various scenarios are mostly male, but the females often stand by nodding and smiling, rooting on the bad boys, just like high school teens.

Would-be adults make massive weapons and sell or give them to the children and are shocked to see what they do with them.  But, of course, it is all about money for the sellers.  It’s free enterprise, you know.  We just sell them.  We can’t control what they do with them.

Sadly, we can’t expect the United States to assume the adult role in the world because we have too many of our own children in Congress, the judiciary, and other places of power.  They are proud of their limited knowledge, but want to foist their beliefs on everyone else, and like out-of-control kids, try to rule the house, assuming their own superior intelligence, talent, and love of country. 

Their petulant sulkiness makes them impossible to work with, so very very little gets done.  Many are enamored with guns and war, especially since they and theirs will not have to participate.  It’s a game.   

What do we do?  Well, we adults can start by withdrawing our support for the children.  We go to the polls and vote out the children who are not mature enough to serve, you know, the ones who deny reality, who dare anyone to teach them anything..

We need to stop preaching jihad and other forms of hatred.  Speaking a different language, worshiiping a different diety, having a different color skin  do not make a person worthy of death, well, except, perhaps to grown-up children.

 

Then, serious penalties should be applied to corporations who sell to the children:  insurgents, terrorists, religious extreemists, and the rest of the kids.  We adults need to fund and apply education about how to behave in a civilized world.  The “children” need to be incorporated into communities of adults who can care for them and help them grow up. 

We need to put more women in charge, since it is they who often mourn most when they see the death and destruction caused by out-of-control children.  They can often come up with workable solutions too.

It’s time for the reasonable adults to step out of hiding and assert their proper role.  They must  find ways to put the children in a safe place until they grow up,

They Could Be Heroes

by Ruth A. Sheets

After a disaster, reporters interview “ordinary people” who have done something extraordinary.  Nearly always, the person says that he/she is not a hero and just did what had to be done. 

To the rest of us, these folks are genuine heroes.  They go far beyond what one should be expected to do, but they do it anyway.

If ordinary people can perform such heroism, those in power should be natural heroes.  Most of the time, they don’t even have to put their lives on the line.

Egyptians elected a president last year to get their country on the right track to an inclusive political system.  President Morsi was elected and almost immediately began limiting the rights of the people, particularly those not part of the Muslim Brotherhood.  He could have been a hero, but chose to be a divider, an ideologue.  The Egyptian people are now suffering for his anti-heroic actions  

Our state, Pennsylvania, is in need of strong financial support for public education, particularly in the poorest districts.  A hero would find ways to get legislators to find some funds, perhaps add some fees to the frackers in Pennsylvania, but instead, the gas drillers don’t even pay enough to make up for the destruction they cause through their operations.  And, no other money can be spared for our kids.   We need a hero, but our governor is about blaming everyone who is not as wealthy as he and his backers.

Many Americans cannot afford medical insurance and are vulnerable if they or someone in their family becomes ill or injured.  We need some heroes to stand up to the Republican Party and their core constituency, saying something like, “it might not be perfect, but at least it’s a start, that Obamacare.  Instead they tell young people “You don’t have to carry insurance since you are healthy and you should not have to support those old folks who just suck up the money.  Only get insurance when you actually need it.”  How about the notion that Americans take care of each other.  I guess not, right?

Why do our leaders shy away from talking about poverty and its role in keeping our people down, keeping our students performing poorly?  There are no heroes here either.  Democrats ignore the issue and speak only of the middle class, while Republicans pretend that the poor are reaping the results of their own actions. 

Compromise is a 4-letter word, a curse for Republicans.  No heroes will come from that quarter because their fear of losing power keeps them from donning a cape and jumping in for the good of America and its people.

Every challenging situation, especially the big ones like health care, poverty, jobs, climate change,   needs heroes.  People in public office and other positions of authority can make large changes quickly if the will is there.  Just think of Harry Truman integrating the armed forces, Lyndon Johnson moving the Civil Rights and Voting Acts through Congress, John Kennedy spurring America on to the moon.

Alas, maybe we can’t wait for the “chosen” few to accept the role of hero.  Maybe ordinary people like us will have to go far beyond what is expected and will just do what has to be done.   

Using People

Ryan's phony photo op

by muon

Back when Jon Fox was running for reelection as a GOP congressman, I participated in a charity walk in his district. He showed up, registered to walk, and donned one of the free T-shirts. As the local paper snapped photos, Fox started walking with us. A half-block later, he got into a car and sped away. The rest of us finished the walk and collected our pledges. Oh, Fox may have given a donation, I don't know. But he didn't do the 10K with the rest of us. For him, the event was no more than a photo op.

A few days ago, Paul Ryan and his campaign pushed past volunteers to get into a soup kitchen in Ohio. He wasn't there to help out. In fact, the kitchen was already done for the day, people fed, food put away, everything washed up. But Ryan was after a photo op (one has to wonder why, since his whole budget and philosophy is based on NOT giving handouts to the less fortunate). Still, Ryan donned an apron and washed perfectly clean pots while his campaign took photos. When the administrators of the kitchen heard of the incident, they were outraged. No one from the Romney/Ryan camp had asked permission to allow campaign photos to be taken there. So the news today isn't about what a great fella Ryan is for helping out at the soup kitchen, it's about the arrogance of his campaign in using decent people for his own gain.

Mitt Romney was asked recently to stop telling a story at his rallies about meeting a Navy SEAL who later died in Libya. The family didn't want their son's name politicized (the reason I'm not naming him in this article), especially since, apparently, the SEAL hadn't liked Romney after meeting him.

I'm not saying only Republicans do this sort of thing, though it seems more blatant on their part, at least where I live. I'm much more aware these days of all the personal stories in political ads--how congressman X single-handedly helped this person or that family. The thing is, I know a talent agent, so I've learned that many of the ads are scripted and actors are hired. Or if they're real people telling true stories, there's usually something more to it. While Obamacare was being fought over in Congress, an ad ran featuring a local doctor voicing her professional opposition. I looked her up. She was a real doctor. But she was also a tea party activist with an interest in running for office herself someday. She was using the issue to further her own political career.  I've googled other people who've appeared on ads (if their names are given) and I've found the same sort of cronyism. I'm not saying there are no ads featuring sincere people who have no alternative motives, but I'm now so cynical of all of the ads, it doesn't matter.

Anyway, I'm not interested in stories about how a politician has helped one person or family. I want to hear how the candidates intend to help everyone, every citizen in the country. Not just the rich ones or poor ones or white ones or minorities. Everyone. So, all you seeking office, quit with the phony photo ops and heart-rending stories that are likely more fiction than fact. Start talking issues.

The New Breed of Politician

by Ruth A. Sheets

These days, we are electing people to public office who DON’T WANT TO work for the common good.  More often than not, it seems their crusade is an individualized one that furthers their own personal agenda no matter its effect on the larger population.  They breed fear and distrust of their fellow citizens.

Some among the new breed are mediocre in skill and intellect and just go along.  That is to be expected in a representative democracy.  It is the ones who are extremely skilled and intelligent that can pose the greatest threat. 

The skill I am talking about is not in foreign affairs, economy, environment, science, Constitutional law, health care, knowledge we desperately need.  Their skill is in manipulating people, ideas, and language.  These office-holders have devised a whole range of ways to mask their racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, xenophobia, ageism, etc. as “moral,” even obligatory.

The Secretary of State of Arizona is threatening to keep President Obama’s name off the state’s ballot if he does not receive proof of Obama’s birth in the US.  He claims this somehow protects Americans.  His challenge is purely racist!  Mitt Romney’s father ran for president years ago and no one claimed he wasn’t a citizen even though he was born in Mexico.

The governor of Arizona did not stand up and call the whole thing nonsense.  That’s because she has her own racism and xenophobia in her dealings with Hispanic people living in her state.  For her, it is OK to stop people suspected of being undocumented to demand to see their papers.  But, who gets stopped?  People who “look” Hispanic.  Gov. Brewer believes she is saving America for Americans.  Really?

The Roman Catholic bishops and their politician supporters are obsessed with issues of contraception and that it might be made available free of charge to all women.  What is their beef with contraception?  They say that God doesn’t want women using it.  Why?  They would say contraception doesn’t follow God’s plan for humanity.  In reality, it gives women too much freedom over their own bodies and their own choices.  Using contraception would mean that the awful decision of whether or not to carry a child to term won’t have to be made as often. 

The politicians who support the bishops are worried about women and their potential power.  So, in state legislatures they pass laws that require doctors to lie to women to prevent abortions, force women to have invasive ultrasounds, and criminalize women who choose to have “late-term” abortions no matter the reason.  In my book, that is sexism no matter what they call it.

Marriage is one man and one woman.  Really?  Why?  What is the purpose of marriage?  That has changed over the centuries.  Is it for procreation?  What if someone does not want to have kids?  Is their marriage wrong?  Is it for economics?  If the marriage brings a couple to the brink of poverty, is that marriage wrong?  Denying marriage to same sex couples is legislated homophobia no matter what the politicians who take this position call it, because the meaning of marriage has always been a bit fluid.

Many legislatures, including the Federal Government, are cutting or planning to cut programs that serve the poor among us.  Proponents of the bills say this will save money and cut the deficit.  It is actually classism.  The haves believe the have nots deserve to be where they are because they have made bad life choices. 

If that is the case, why was Wall Street and its bad choices bailed out and why are we subsidizing wealthy oil companies and other high-profit industries?  If we were really intent on lowering the deficit and debt, we would be taking the services and support from the haves who don’t need the help.

The scariest part of all this is that the new breed of politicians uses just the right words and tone to convince us, even though our gut tells us they're wrong.  They even find tokens from each group they are discriminating against to run for office and say things like “If they were really discriminating against my group, I would not be able to run.”   What nonsense.  If Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman were not attractive, would anyone have given either of them a second look?  If Herman Cain hadn’t been the sunny “fool” would he have received much support? 

What we need to do in the face of this new breed is  to think, really listen to what these politicians are saying, and figure out who is benefiting from their discriminatory positions on issues.  Stop allowing them to use fear and hatred to distract and divide us.  We deserve better people than many elected recently.  We need to demand quality leaders by voting in people who want to work for the common good.