United States – A View From The Middle (Class)

Posted on November 22, 2013 by A View From The Middle (Class) · 2 Comments

The end of innocence, 50 years after the fact

“We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will ‘talk sense to the American people.’ But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense. And the notion that this Nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is but a matter of slogans, is nothing but just plain nonsense.” — John F. Kennedy, from a speech prepared for delivery at the Trade Mart in Dallas November 22, 1963

“We now have authority to shoot Obama, i.e., to kill him. His willful violations and alienation of our Constitution, constant disregard for our peaceful protests and corruption of all the three branches of government, (i.e., rogue and illegitiimate government), reveal the dictator that he is. Obama and his co-conspirators disrespect our Constitution (constitutional rule of law) and abuse the American people. The authority to kill Obama comes from the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution: He is levying war on the United States and aiding and comforting our foreign enemies — the 2nd Amendment gives us the right and duty (authority) to engage an enemy of the United States that does so with the design to reduce us under absolute Despotism. I would be very surprised, if Obama does not leave Washington DC today (Nov. 19th) …never to return, if he is not dead within the month. PLEASE JOIN US AT CHRISTIAN AMERICAN PATRIOTS MILITIA: https://www.facebook.com/groups/417199228403274/” — From a photo posted on Facebook by Everest Wilhelmsen November 19, 2013

The question has been asked so often since November 22, 1963, and it will be asked a countless number of times today alone: Where were you when JFK was shot?

I don’t remember exactly where I was or what I was doing when the news broke, but I can guess with decent accuracy that I was in my hometown of Salmon, Idaho. I was only 1,008 days old at the time, far too young to know or understand what was happening in the larger world around me.

Last weekend, I asked my 82-year-old mother what she remembers from that date that joins others in American history living in infamy. Her memory isn’t what it used to be, but she did say, “I just remember wondering why they’d do something like that.”

I don’t exactly know when JFK’s death entered into my conscience. Perhaps I came to appreciate its significance more not quite five years after he was gunned down when his brother Robert was assassinated in Los Angeles while on the campaign trail for the presidency in 1968.

Through the years, my interest in JFK has grown immeasurably. Through the years, I’ve often wondered: What would this nation be like if John Kennedy had lived to finish his presidency? All we are left to do is wonder about that.

So much promise and hope was wiped out in an instant. We’ve all seen so much speculation since Kennedy was slain. His killing has been the model for conspiracy theories. Was Lee Harvey Oswald a lone gunman, or did others lurk on the grassy knoll or under a manhole cover? Was Jack Ruby part of a scheme to keep Oswald from spilling the beans about a sinister plot? Was it a coup, part of that military industrial complex President Eisenhower warned against just before he left office? A mafia hit? Part of some plan Cuba had to get even for any American plots to assassinate Fidel Castro? Was Lyndon Baines Johnson a part of it? On and on, and we have to wonder if the absolute truth will ever be known or believed by everyone.

I’m not big on conspiracy theories, but even I have to look at the Zapruder film and wonder why — if the shots all came from behind — the fatal head shot made JFK move backward instead of forward. The mystery is intriguing.

America was not a perfect nation long before Kennedy came to power. Kennedy himself had his weaknesses, although back in his day his personal indiscretions were overlooked a lot more than they would have been today. But what Kennedy brought in his time in office, through his eloquent words, was a sense of innocence. He brought a sense of idealism. It was perfect for the time — much like the innocence that was shown in one of the television programs that was interrupted by the news of JFK being shot 50 years ago today, “Father Knows Best.”

It was as close to being an American dream as we could get.

At 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, on November 22, 1963, after the presidential limousine turned from Houston onto Elm Street in downtown Dallas, that sense of innocence was lost. So far, we haven’t gotten it back yet. With the current political climate — including threats made via computer over social media by yahoos like Everest Wilhelmsen of the Christian American Patriots Militia — it seems we are far from ever getting it back.

Will we ever learn? Or are we destined to live through the same kind of horror that Americans and people around the world experienced at 12:30 p.m. CST, 50 years ago today?

Perhaps that sense of innocence that was felt during JFK’s presidency was buried along with him, marked by an innocent gesture — a little boy saluting his fallen father.

JFK’s Most Iconic Moments (nation.time.com)
JFK Assassination – The Death of Hope (veteranstoday.com)
JEFF EDELSTEIN: JFK is America’s favorite president, and the here’s some reasons why (trentonian.com)
Would JFK be JFK today? (catherinebuday.wordpress.com)
JFK’s death still vivid for baby boomers (seattletimes.com)
JFK assassination: What we lost on that terrible day (miamiherald.com)
JFK in art: all the president’s pictures (theguardian.com)

Posted on October 25, 2013October 25, 2013 by A View From The Middle (Class)

44 vs. 42: The similarities are striking

It was a bit of a prescient moment.

It came after Barack Obama was elected as President of the United States in 2008. I took a break from my work to walk outside and talk on the phone with a friend of mine, a black man possessing keen common sense and thoughtful observations on many things, including current events.

He had the opinion that Barack Obama may not make it out of his presidency, at least not alive. He thought that someone would end up taking a shot at him, in a literal sense.

So far, that literal sense hasn’t come to pass. That’s a minor miracle, though, seeing as how there’s been a sharp rise over the last five years in gun nuts appearing in public places — even when the President has been in the same general area — with straps over their shoulders and holsters on their hips and legs carrying weapons of various calibers and capacities, talking about the need to water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants.

No, Barack Obama hasn’t had anyone take a literal shot at him yet. Instead, he’s been on the receiving end of more figurative shots than any U.S. President in recent memory. The opposition is doing all it can to make my friend’s prediction that Obama wouldn’t last through his presidency come true, one way or another.

Meanwhile, the moral and civil fiber of a nation is eroding.

Remember Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher? Sure you do. He gained a measure of fame in the 2008 election as a Sarah Palin-like conservative darling, someone held up as an “Everyman” who simply asked Obama on the campaign trail about his taxation plans and whether raising taxes on the wealthy would hurt him and his business. A few weeks ago, he published an article on his website that was taken from another conservative website — an article written by a conservative black author — making the case that “America needs a white conservative President” because we just can’t seem to handle the thought of having a black Democratic President who’s actually much more moderate than most conservatives would care to admit.

UPDATE: Here’s the latest from Joe The Plumber.

With a government shutdown going on and fingers being pointed in all directions (even by the people most responsible for it), the race card was being played in a much more bold and open way. It hasn’t lightened up since then, it only seems to have become more intense now that the struggle with this latest shutdown is over and Republicans have come away looking foolish because they haven’t gained a single damn thing out of their efforts to extort something from the opposition.

Disagree with a U.S. President — fine, believe it or not you still have that right in this country and that alone doesn’t make you a racist. I have conservative friends who strongly disagree with Barack Obama on a variety of things, and I would not call them racist because in their case there hasn’t been any hint of his race entering the discussion. Their disagreement is on political points alone.

But we’re seeing something different coming into the mix now, especially after the shutdown fiasco. What once seemed more veiled now comes across more blatant. And it’s putting the ugliest face on American politics that I’ve seen since the fight for civil rights in the 1960s. I can even remember what it was like then from personal experience as a 7-year-old, having to avoid the monuments in Washington, D.C., and listening to a police scanner filled with the chatter that was going on when I and my family visited relatives there in the summer of 1968

Joe The Plumber sharing the article about the need for a white conservative President reminded me of a thought that had crossed my mind a time or two before. Now, there are examples of that same kind of bigoted thinking thinking popping up on a daily basis and it’s getting hard to ignore.

Think about this: What other President in our history has been part of an accusation involving a U.S. Congressman with a key position in the House of Representatives — in this case, reportedly being Texas Republican Pete Sessions, chairman of the House Rules Committee — looking a black President in the face during budget talks and saying, “I cannot even stand to look at you.”

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois mentioned it on Facebook. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has confirmed it. The White House has denied that it happened, and — naturally — Republicans have demanded an apology from those making the accusation. But Durbin is sticking by the story.

Sessions himself only seems to be denying it by playing typical political word games.

Does anyone remember a sitting President being told something like that by a person in power, anything quite as personally cutting? Whether you like Obama’s politics or hate them, the office still demands some sort of respect. Joe Wilson yelling out “You lie!” at Obama during a State of the Union address is one thing. Now, it’s being taken to a new level of personal slime.

And then there was this gem that came over the web Thursday.

“Even if some people say, well the Republicans should have done this or they should have done that, they will hold the President responsible. Now I don’t want to even have to be associated with him. It’s like touching a tar baby and you get, you get it, you know … you are stuck and you are part of the problem now and you can’t get away.” — Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO)

For anyone who wants to continue to turn a blind eye toward the fact or just deny that racism is returning as an unwelcome part of American politics, all you need to do is watch an interview from The Daily Show a couple of nights ago to see that it’s still alive, and it’s getting louder and more blatant with each passing day.

It’s gone beyond simply disagreeing with Barack Obama’s politics with way too many people. Not all, but way too many. Whether you like his politics or despise them, no sitting President deserves the kind of disrespect Obama gets, the kind that gets as personal and cutting as it is now. And it’s interesting that we’re seeing it becoming as blatant as it is now that the shutdown is in the past and Republicans who helped force it have been dealt such an embarrassing setback.

If the trend continues, we may see more moves like this one made by Judge Carlo Key.

What we’re seeing more now with Barack Obama — from Joe The Plumber and the allegations regarding Hastings and the “tar baby” statements made by the Colorado representative, and looking back on the outright obstructionism and hatred that’s been seen in the entire five years of the Obama administration — is reminiscent of another ugly chapter in American history that lasted way too long and was endured beyond measure by the man who suffered the most from it.

It’s 44 vs. 42. Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States and the first man with black skin to serve in the office, vs. Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers, wearing No. 42 on his uniform.

Jackie Robinson with Branch Rickey as Robinson signs his contract, becoming the first black player in Major League Baseball history.

The things that Robinson put up with in his historic role in history are being brought into clearer focus with the actions that we’re seeing today with Obama.

The White House may be denying that the incident with Hastings ever happened. Even if it didn’t, it’s not all that surprising to hear about it. Surprising? No. Disgusting? Yes. It only goes to show that a lot of people still have some “growing up” to do.

The White House may be denying that the incident with Hastings ever happened. Or, if it did happen, they may be denying it to take the higher ground — much the same way Dodgers president Branch Rickey advised Jackie Robinson before he suited up for Brooklyn’s Montreal farm team in the 1940s.

We may not be seeing Obama’s ankle getting spiked by an opposing player as he’s catching a defensive throw, but we’re seeing a bit of the same viciousness in a different, more subtle way.

It would be nice if we could see more people “grow up” the way Dodger great Pee Wee Reese did back in the day — putting aside his own prejudices, disliking what Robinson was being subjected to, and — in front of a stadium that included members of his family and friends down South, with loud choruses of boos raining down on the field along with hurled insults — exhibiting a gesture as simple as putting his arm around Robinson’s shoulder for everyone else to see. It was a way of showing that — regardless of Robinson’s skin color — they were all part of a team.

We need more “grown-ups” these days when it comes to the fact that we have a President with black skin. Not a “tar baby.” A President, of states that are supposed to be united here in America.

Do people really hate Barack Obama more than they love the United States of America?

Joe The Plumber Makes Shocking ‘Racist’ Remark (huffingtonpost.com)
Joe the Plumber Yearns For a “White Republican President” (classwarfareexists.com)

Posted on October 1, 2013 by A View From The Middle (Class) · 4 Comments

How do you solve a shutdown? Burn down the House?

A random computer-generated phone call came to our land line tonight. It was from Utah’s Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, inviting me and a bunch more people from around the state — all registered voters, I’m sure — to a live telephone town hall.

I actually stayed on the line and listened to what that rare Democratic lawmaker from Utah had to say, especially in light of a government shutdown getting tons of attention from all corners of the United States and around the globe.

I also wanted to see what Matheson had to say in light of the fact that he’s opposed to the Affordable Care Act, and has actually been among those in the House of Representatives who’ve voted to repeal the ACA, stripping landmark legislation of funding before it’s even gone into effect.

Yes, Utah’s rare Democratic lawmaker has been among the lawmakers choosing to waste time and money by voting 40-some times to do away with that nasty thing called “Obamacare” before shutting down the government because, darn it all, those “kids” in Congress who don’t believe in progress and compromise just won’t be satisfied until they get their way, and they don’t give a damn who gets hurt in the process.

Matheson may be a Utah Democrat, but that doesn’t make him any less of a contributor to Congress’ anti-ACA hamsters taking another spin on that wheel going nowhere.

I got my question in to a screener, waited in the queue, and the call ended before I got to put in my line of questioning. But I did leave a message, not that I expect it to do any good.

It went kind of like this, with a couple of statements of my disappointment thrown in as well …

Hey, Rep. Matheson, I understand you don’t like “Obamacare” but what specifics do you have to make a better law? And instead of wasting time and money voting 40-some times to defund a law that hasn’t even taken effect yet, why not let it take effect and then work to improve on it — fixing the things that don’t work, moving forward with the things that do?

Along the way, though, I got to get a feel for what’s on the mind of Utah voters over what’s happening in Washington, D.C., these days — or, rather, what’s not happening. And the bottom line is this: Liberal or conservative, people are pissed, and they’re pissed that lawmakers in Congress so bent on taking away the ACA would hold a nation hostage in order to do that.

I shared that line of questioning on my Facebook status. One fellow music-loving friend said I make too much sense.

I need to stop making sense. Most politicians don’t like it when people make sense, not when there are political points to be made.

How do you solve a government shutdown? In a figurative (not literal) sense, maybe it takes threatening to “burn down the House.”

Burn the damn thing down. Start all over again.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman weighs in on shutdown (ksl.com)
Utah congressmen vote to defund Obamacare (ksl.com)
Utahns face furloughs as shutdown kicks in (ksl.com)
‘Meet the two Democrats who voted to defund Obamacare’ (thelastofthemillenniums.wordpress.com)
Two House Democrats Voted To Defund ObamaCare (thegatewaypundit.com)
Scenes From a Government Shutdown (abcnews.go.com)

Posted on September 2, 2013 by A View From The Middle (Class) · 2 Comments

Labor Day 2013: Look how far we’ve come

Here we are, Labor Day 2013, and I’m celebrating having a job when a year ago I was stressing over NOT having one.

That doesn’t mean the stress of making ends meet is totally gone for us, now that we’re back to being more like a “typical middle class family.” The house payment that was reduced during the year-plus period of unemployment is higher again. The bills that we could defer in that time are back. The miles of driving vehicles without being able to adequately maintain them are taking a major toll through mounting repair costs.

At least I’ve got a job now. And we’re still left looking at ways to make even more money to make our dollars last longer. That’s how far we’ve come.

How far have we progressed when it comes to middle class Americans being able to live better than a “paycheck-to-paycheck” kind of existence?

All we need to do to find the answer to that question is look at the debate that’s been taking place over the wages paid by the most prevalent kinds of employers in America today, the direction America’s workers are almost being forced to head toward regardless of education levels … the fast food industry.

Fast food chains rake in billions of dollars in profits. Yes, in profits, meaning once all those nasty costs are taken out for things like food, supplies, lighting, heating, the resources it takes to keep the grills and fryers hot, the money they pay their workers, etc., they’re raking in billions of dollars.

Yet it’s the fast food industry that’s getting the most attention when it comes to the fight for decent wages. How sad is that? Sad enough that you have to laugh to keep from crying.

Labor Secretary to visit Cincinnati on Labor Day (wcpo.com)
Labor Day 2013: What is the Holiday Really All About? (moinaturale.com)
Happy Labor Day! And 19 Hours To Go… (therantingpapizilla.wordpress.com)
Happy Labor Day! (myasmusings.com)
Happy Labor Day! (jacquisenn.com)
Laboring on Labor Day (wnep.com)

Posted on August 28, 2013August 28, 2013 by A View From The Middle (Class)

An ‘American dream’ revisited

A relatively young and positively profound man spoke of a dream he had 50 years ago today.

It was a dream he had for a better way of life, where all are treated as they were created — as equals.

Fifty years later, has that dream been fully realized? While positive steps have been taken in those 50 years, we can also point to areas — even in recent events — where positive steps that have been taken have been reversed. In some cases, it’s been like taking one or two steps forward while taking nearly 50 steps back.

In one day, the Supreme Court gave empowerment to those states that had ruled to accept gay marriage, striking down the Defense of Marriage Act. A basic right for a couple to marry regardless of sexual orientation had been upheld, adding it to the mix of the rights given to those of any race, creed or religion … the things that make us human. It was like taking two steps forward.

The day before, that same Supreme Court saw fit to throw out one of the most crucial components of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which helped to ensure that every person eligible to vote — regardless of race, creed or religion, the things that make us human — could go to the polls and do so. The majority opinion said that enough time had gone by since 1965, when race was a bigger issue, that the rules needed to be redrawn. They decided to leave that redrawing in the hands of the United States Congress, a body of lawmakers growing more dysfunctional by the day, divided by a belief that “compromise” is an obscene word. It was like taking at least 50 steps backward, helping to erase progress made after hundreds of years of injustice seen before.

On a personal level, the steps forward that were taken on the issue of gay marriage hit home in the last few weeks when good friends of ours who had shared 20-plus years together in a same-sex partnership made a journey from Florida to Washington, D.C., so they could legally exchange wedding vows. One of those friends has been fighting a tough, agonizing battle with cancer. That friend was instrumental in helping my family make it through our own agony of a year and three months of being unemployed. Not once did our friend ever ask for our opinion on matters like gay rights. We always saw each other as equals, fighting our own unique battles. For those friends of ours, it’s a struggle to survive to this day. The prayers continue.

Staying on that personal level just a bit more, I’m still working at a decent job that I’ve held since mid-March. While we can see steps being taken forward in our own lives in terms of being able to hang onto our home and providing food, clothing, and an education for ourselves, in many ways the effects of long-term unemployment are proving to be long-lasting. Instead of worrying about finding a job in order to survive, the struggle has gone back to living from paycheck to paycheck with a job and finding it to be even tougher than before.

We’re not alone. Far from it.

Just how bad is it out there? When a man finds it necessary to rob a bank of $1 so he can be put behind bars in order to get health care, it’s pretty bad. It’s also pretty bad when one of the best things a political party can find to do in the U.S. House of Representatives is to vote to repeal that right to health care, not once but dozens of times.

It’s still necessary in this land of the free to have to fight for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — the things that were talked about by that relatively young, profound man 50 years ago today.

President Lyndon B. Johnson Martin Luther King... — President Lyndon B. Johnson Martin Luther King and Clarence Mitchell during signing ceremony of the voting rights act (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s still necessary to have to fight for the right to vote, and it didn’t get easier with the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act ruling. After all, it only took Texas a matter of hours after that ruling to do what lawmakers had long wanted in making it harder for people — mainly those among the ever-shrinking minorities — to cast their votes.

It’s becoming harder for women to exercise their right to choose what they do with their own bodies. Again, in Texas, Democratic Senator Wendy Davis put up a valiant fight for women’s rights on a state level, only to see her fight eventually get beaten down.

Still, I haven’t talked much yet here about race issues — the main focus of that relatively young, profound man’s speech 50 years ago today. At least not until now.

It’s true, blacks have made very positive strides over the past 50 years. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we think the issue of race has gone away.

When the legitimacy of America’s first black President from the Democratic side is called into question by fringe elements over the place of his birth when proof is offered that he was born in America, and the howls over that legitimacy are repeated over at least 4 1/2 years by everyone from radio and television talk show hosts to ordinary citizens to multimillionaire real estate barons with bad hair, it’s troubling.

When a U.S. Senator of mixed race who was born in Canada can talk about running for President in 2016, and those same people of a conservative bent who’ve howled for 4 1/2 years over the black Democrat’s “legitimacy” offer nary a peep over their man’s legitimacy when it’s proven the conservative candidate is not a natural born citizen … it goes beyond troubling, into the realm of disgusting.

We can celebrate the end of segregation, the end of so many Jim Crow laws, the increase of inter-racial marriages, etc. But then stories like the following keep popping up on occasion, and it leaves one to wonder.

Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deuts... — Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deutsch: 1964: Martin Luther King Português: Martin Luther King (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We can celebrate the progress that’s been made since Martin Luther King, Jr., told us about his dream in a historic way. There are, however, still too many signs being seen to this day, exactly 50 years later, that indicate there is still much left to be done. In too many cases, we’re moving backward instead of forward.

The dream of Dr. King is still alive. For the hope of humanity, we need to continue to hold out hope that one day we’ll all wake up and that dream will have become a full-fledged reality.

Black, white, Latino, Caucasian, male, female, straight, gay … it’s up to all of us.

WE Have a Dream: revisiting Dr. King’s speech, 50 years later (evergreeninstitute.wordpress.com)
50 Years After the March, New Enemies of Racial Equality Have Mobilized Against the Dream (thedailybanter.com)
King’s deferred ‘Dream’ of democracy (blogs.reuters.com)
50 Years After March On Washington, John Lewis Still Fighting (wnyc.org)
50th Anniversary Of Dr King’s “I Have A Dream” (bernews.com)
Cokie Roberts: Changes to Voting Rights ‘Downright Evil’ (abcnews.go.com)
Mary Kay Henry: Marching for an Inclusive Dream (huffingtonpost.com)
A half-century after the ‘dream’: 10 signposts on America’s race journey (cnn.com)
Revisiting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Dream’ (miamiherald.com)

Posted on June 12, 2013 by A View From The Middle (Class)

Conflicting views over NSA controversy, all from one person

I remember when discussion over the Patriot Act started making the rounds after 9/11, and one thought came to my mind: This is gonna lead to a mess.

Sure enough …

How Would a Patriot Act? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here we are, all these years later, and we have a mess on our hands with Edward Snowden revealing to the world the steps that have been taken to try and keep tabs on terrorists, even if it involves keeping tabs on law-abiding citizens’ phone records and other electronic communication.

Yes, it’s a mess. But if you didn’t anticipate this as soon as the words “Patriot Act” started floating around years ago, you weren’t giving it very deep thought.

Now, we have another scandal on our hands. People are conflicted over whether NSA surveillance and the steps that have been taken are a good thing or a bad thing, whether they’re being strong in standing up to terrorism or infringing on basic freedoms.

It’s even gotten to the point where one person can become deeply conflicted. For example, there’s Sean Hannity.

Civil Liberties Groups Are Ganging Up on NSA, All the Way to the Legal Limit (theatlanticwire.com)
Lawmakers turn their attention to the Patriot Act following NSA revelations (blacklistednews.com)
RussiaToday: ‘NSA ‘bamboozling’ lawmakers for access to Americans’ private data’ – agency veteran (silveristhenew.com)
NSA is wrong, not evil (erratasec.blogspot.com)
ACLU Files Suit Against NSA, Patriot Act Phone Surveillance (washington.cbslocal.com)
US lawmakers call for review of Patriot Act after NSA surveillance revelations (guardian.co.uk)
Bernie Sanders on the Patriot Act: ‘What I said turned out to be exactly true’ (rawstory.com)
ACLU challenges NSA surveillance measures (jurist.org)

Posted on June 4, 2013 by A View From The Middle (Class)

Bill Moyers on ‘The United States of Inequality’

Being back among the “middle working class,” I’m finding it a bit tougher to do the blogging thing as often as I’d like along with other responsibilities. But, then, occasionally I come across things that just beg to be shared with as many people as possible.

Moyers on Democracy (Photo credit: elycefeliz)

Today I took some time to watch a video I’ve been meaning to see for a while now. It came out around tax time, April 12. It’s a video essay from Bill Moyers, examining the growing state of inequality we’re finding in this “land of plenty.” As usual, when it comes to Moyers, it’s an examination worth examining.

As Moyers points out, we’re becoming less and less a nation of the upper class, middle class, and the poor when it comes to “making it” these days, trending more toward the upper class and “the other class.” With ever-increasing costs of living day to day and stagnating wages, it’s smacking us in the face more than ever.

There are those who get all upset — even those around the middle class — whenever people talk negatively about the top 1 or 2 percent, the “job creators,” and suggest that instead of griping and moaning about how much the top 1 or 2 percent rake in they should do more to join the ranks of the upper class.

Yet many of those same people offering those suggestions are finding it pretty tough to join those ranks through their own initiative, no matter how hard they scratch and claw to do it. They’re missing the point that this deck is stacked against them, yet they keep offering the same old suggestion — do more, don’t be lazy.

Moyers’ video essay may have come out around tax time, but it’s still timely today … especially when we continue to see news about how little some giant corporations pay in taxes because of offshore trickery.

These days, that’s the “patriotic way.”

Bill Moyers Essay: The United States of Inequality (kstreet607.com)
Bill Moyers interview on Boston Marathon bombing | Glenn Greenwald (guardian.co.uk)
Moyers: How Big Banks are Rewriting the Rules of our Economy (ritholtz.com)
Moyers: How Storytelling Is at the Heart of Making Social Change (alternet.org)
Bill Moyers & Glenn Greenwald on the High Cost of Government Secrecy (alternet.org)
Bill Moyers Quotes On Democracy, Politics And More (prosebeforehos.com)
Bill Moyers, My Hero! ‘The Toxic Assault on Our Children’ and ‘Dance of the Honey Bee’ (friendnature.wordpress.com)

Posted on May 27, 2013 by A View From The Middle (Class)

A high price, this ultimate sacrifice

I’m spending another Memorial Day a few hundred miles away from my hometown, away from relatives and the burial place of my father, John Miller.

Dad didn’t die in a war, he died while working to support his family. But Dad served in World War II, which is noted on his headstone. Every Memorial Day, a small American flag has flown at his grave in central Idaho. Every time that I’ve been able to be at the cemetery where his body rests and “Taps” has been played, I think of him.

I’m thinking of him today, hundreds of miles away.

I’m not just thinking of him, though. I’m thinking of all the other men and women who’ve served, fought, and died in service to their country, giving the ultimate sacrifice, paying the highest possible price.

We would all do well to honor that sacrifice, by doing our part to make this the best nation it can possibly be, which includes working out our differences and respecting our freedoms. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are things worth treasuring.

Thanks to all those who’ve paid that ultimate price for those things.

Memorial Day, cemeteries, and memorials (markerhunter.wordpress.com)
Memorial Day: Remembering Those Who Made The Ultimate Sacrifice (tvnooz.com)
Honoring Veterans and Remembering Fallen Heroes This Memorial Day (wgno.com)
Vets Remembered For Memorial Day (pittsburgh.cbslocal.com)
This Memorial Day Let’s Remember It All (handofananke.com)
Memorial Day (alzjourney.com)
Remembering Those Who Gave The Ultimate Sacrifice (lsnewsgroup.com)

Posted on April 18, 2013April 18, 2013 by A View From The Middle (Class) · 3 Comments

Welcome to the United States of the NRA

Ladies and gentlemen, it is now “official.” We have turned away from the United States of America, and we are now known as the United States of the National Rifle Association.

Need proof? Check out the crudely recorded, sideways video below of Republican New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte from earlier today. The woman Ayotte is speaking with is Pam Simon, a former staffer to former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Simon was shot alongside the congresswoman in 2011 at a strip mall in Tucson.

Their conversation turned to Wednesday’s vote in the Senate which turned back efforts for expanded background checks on gun purchases. Ayotte was one of the minority of 46 senators who voted against the measure, which fell six votes short of passage. The key part of the conversation is as follows:

SIMON: I know that you voted no yesterday, and I wanted
to ask, is there anything that could be fixed or changed that would make
you more comfortable with gun legislation…

AYOTTE: You know obviously I’d have to look at the legislation. I
can tell you that just the logistics of the legislation, the
Toomey-Manchin one, the way it prioritized gun show checks over retailers. I mean just on a sort of implementation level. A
lot of concern from retailers about that their the way they prioritized
it putting aside the checking of it that amongst retailers there was a
lot of concern from just actually gun shop owners. Which I know is sort
of a different kind of group than you guys… […]

SIMON: So their feeling was to burden others? People would be coming in doing background checks on them…

AYOTTE: Yes, yes a different burden on them, so that was one piece…

So the bottom line here is that Ayotte’s concern had nothing at all to do with protecting Second Amendment rights, allowing anyone and their dog to purchase a military-style rifle or a 200-round ammo magazine, the unfounded fear that it would mean the big, nasty government is coming to take away everyone’s guns (by the way, I’m putting the challenge out there for any gun advocates to show me anywhere in a piece of legislation outside of NRA propaganda where law-abiding, sane gun owners’ weapons would be confiscated through background checks … no takers yet), etc.

You certainly heard no mention from Ayotte of concern for gun safety, or the burden that gun violence places on victims and their families, or about dealing with mental health issues for those wanting to purchase a gun which certainly needs to be part of any overall deal.

No, Ayotte’s concern came down to what she felt was a burden the measure would put on gun retailers. And who is it that the NRA is really representing these days more than anyone? Gun retailers.

Welcome to the USNRA!

Click here for more on this story

UPDATE: Major NRA member resigns after gun control defeat in Senate

NRA Rejects Toomey/Manchin Deal On Expanding Background Checks (patdollard.com)
Common Sense Time Congress−Stand up for the USA, Not the NRA (elect2care.com)
Courage in short supply (bangordailynews.com)
The Gun Lobby Wins Again (esquire.com)

Posted on April 17, 2013 by A View From The Middle (Class)

On days like this, it feels like we’re going nowhere fast

Today’s been a very eventful day in the United States.

A piece of mail addressed to the President was found to be laced with the poisonous substance ricin, on the heels of a letter containing the same substance being sent to a Republican senator from Mississippi.

Major news media outlets — including the Associated Press — got it very wrong when they reported that an arrest had been made in Monday’s tragic bombing in Boston.

The Senate's side of the Capitol Building in DC. — The Senate’s side of the Capitol Building in DC. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Finally, the minority ruled in the Senate when bipartisan legislation pushing expanded background checks on gun purchases was blocked by a 54-46 vote. That’s 54 votes in favor of expanded background checks, 46 opposed. But, with those filibuster rules …

It’s a day when it seems like we’re going nowhere very fast. It was summed up very well by one person in the comments section online in a story about the background check vote.

“They tell us: its not the gun, its the person, but they vote no to background checks.

“They tell us: its not the gun, its mental health, but they don’t support money for increasing mental health care, and they vote no to background checks for mental health.

“They tell us its about freedom, but they are willing to take liberties away from the mentally ill and lock them up more easily INSTEAD of background checks.

“They tell us its about freedom, but innocents have lost their life and liberty.”

Yeah, there are laws against making bombs and setting them off at a major sporting event — resulting in the deaths of three innocent people and the maiming of about 140 others. But, just because there are laws against it doesn’t stop people from making the effort and actually carrying it out, does it?

There are laws against sending poisoned letters to U.S. presidents and senators, but that doesn’t stop people from making the effort and actually carrying it out, does it?

You get the picture, don’t you?

Ah, hell, why don’t we just stop kidding ourselves about trying to make this world a slightly better place to live? We’re so gung-ho about protecting freedoms, how about just doing away with all those nasty regulations that drag us down and let everyone live the kind of lives they choose to live, shall we?

If we want to disobey traffic laws, go right ahead. That kind of freedom is sure to make life more exciting. If we want to rip someone off in a shady financial deal, proceed. The ones getting taken are just suckers, right? We’re all about protecting our liberty to make a buck any way possible.

Do away with it all, I say, in the name of liberty. Maybe then we could stop hassling each other over rules and regulations, let the strongest survive when they want to do as they wish. Weakness is for the weak.

Just think, without all those nasty laws and procedures so many people are expected to live by, maybe we’d fight each other a bit less. After all, those rules and regulations aren’t eliminating all the bad stuff out there now. That’s the logic that seems to be ruling the day. Maybe then an 8-year-old boy’s wish could start to come true.