Tag: Social Justice

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The Verdict

This is my tribute to Paul Newman. I saw this movie in 1982 with my wife when we were first dating. I identified with Newman’s portrayal of Frank Galvin, the alcoholic lawyer who’s own sense of right and wrong is so offended by the privileged position taken by the authorities at a large Catholic hospital that he takes on this case of a woman left in a coma by medical malpractice. It is the classic battle of good and evil.  This summation scene is powerful and one of Paul Newman’s best.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVZFlBJftgg]

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GI Bill

I’m a veteran of the Vietnam era and I’m eligible for benefits from the Veterans Administration. Among my benefits was/is the G.I Bill.  Some of the college education I received was paid for with GI Bill benefits. It came in handy and helped me to readjust to civilian life following my tour of duty.  I served my country when called. It wasn’t convenient for me but it was one of the requirements of citizenship at the time. Following the end of the Vietnam era, veterans of the all volunteer force received a smaller set of benefits referred to as the Montgomery GI Bill.

Recently Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, himself a Vietnam veteran has sought to provide a similar set of benefits to veterans of the armed services who have served around the globe since September 11, 2001. To view a PDF of the legislation click here. Senator Webb and others reason that the Montgomery GI Bill was for a peacetime all-volunteer force, but that the necessities of war with its increased risk ought to bring with it a grateful country willing to help returning veterans. The bill has won bi-partisan support as it should. The men and women of our armed forces have made tremendous sacrifices and ought to be rewarded for their service to our country. The Pentagon has suggested that Webb’s bill is too generous, conferring benefits to veterans with only two years of service. Senator McCain wants to withhold benefits too requiring someone to spend at least twelve years on active duty before receiving the maximum benefits. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill too. I’ve heard a lot of talk from the President, Vice-President and primarily Republican members of Congress and their media darlings on the right about supporting the troops. It’s apparently just hot air and holds as much water as anything else they’ve said.

I’m asking that you call your Congressional Representatives, Senators and even the White House to insist that the veterans of this war be taken care of in the same fashion as the veterans of all our other wars. It’s put up or shut up time. Remember these people work for us and it’s our money they are mishandling.

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Solar Nation

In case you’ve been asleep for the past seven years, we are in an energy crisis. The leadership of our country has failed to recognize this fact and has failed to call on us the citizens to implement strategies that will protect not only our environment, but our very way of life. Renewable energy is perhaps the one strategy which could lift our dependence on foreign oil and our over reliance on fossil fuels in general. Renewable energy is good for the environment too because it lessens greenhouse gas emissions which are contributing global warming. One of the methods governments can promote renewable energy is through the use of targeted tax cuts. Up until now all the bills that have passed through our national legislature have been defeated by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers which demonstrates the hold that the oil and gas industry has on our country. It’s easy to blame Messrs. Bush and Cheney, but while they are not advocates of this energy, they are not completely responsible for the non-action.

in brief, they’ve all been about funding: the bills either targeted oil & gas industry revenues to pay for the tax credits, or they had no source of funding at all. So they all ran into roadblocks manned, respectively, by Senate Republicans or House Democrats. To this day, no-one is willing to budge an inch from their position, even with legislation as important as this.

This week we heard something different from Capitol Hill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are urging the House Ways & Means Committee to support a small ($6-8 billion) renewable energy tax extenders package that would include Solar and that would be funded, not from the oil & gas industry but from the reporting of credit-card transactions to the IRS.–Solarnation

If you would like to take true patriotic action in the run up to this year’s Memorial Day call on your elected representatives to consider joining Solar Nation and do your part to foster renewable energy.

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Recession

I noticed that when driving on the New York State Thruway that driver’s were actually obeying the speed limit. Even the big trucks were slowed down. I normally get passed a lot and this time it didn’t happen much. Despite what the pundits and our nincompoop President have said Americans can’t take much more and are changing their driving habits. An article in the New York Times highlights these changes.

Stung by rising gasoline and food prices, Americans are finding creative ways to cut costs on routine items like groceries and clothing, forcing retailers, restaurants and manufacturers to decode the tastes of a suddenly thrifty public.

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Fuel prices

Tonight I filled up my gas tank. My little car need 12 gallons of gasoline and the total bill came to $44 and some change. Eight years ago when Bill Clinton was president it cost $20 for the same amount of fuel.  Most of the members of Congress and our executive branch don’t give a damn about what we’re paying for fuel. Truckers who haul most of our food and other items to market are paying between four and five dollars a gallon for diesel fuel.  I finally saw some Democrat from Oregon do a little tongue lashing on the floor of the Congress today. I wish our anemic representative would do the same, but I doubt he will as he’s a Republican water carrier for the current nincompoops in the White House.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKP8HhkCzMw]

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Real American hero

Much has been made of Rev. Jeremiah Wright ever since some of his sermons were taken out of context and smattered across the front pages of newspapers, tabloids and other media outlets. Last night I listened to Fr. Pfleger defend Rev. Wright as a man of faith and a man who loved his country but had the courage to speak truth to power when his country was wrong. I wanted to check on what Fr. Pfleger had said and so I did some Googling tonight and my results reinforce Fr. Pfleger’s assertions. Rev. Wright is a decorated veteran of the United State Military having served first with the United States Marines and then later with the United States Navy as a Hospital Corpsman. Having been a Corpsman myself I can attest that service in the Hospital Corps is not only voluntary but courageous too. You can read more about Rev. Wright’s service to our country here.

I find the ad hominem attacks of Rev. Wright and his character to be repulsive and what’s more many of the commentators initiating these attacks have no record of military service themselves. There is a major difference between prophetic Christianity and pathetic Christianity. It seems to me that Rev. Wright has put the cross on top of the flag rather than the flag on top of the cross. He is being attacked by partisan hacks who are carrying water for entrenched corporate and political interests.

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History or his story

Today I came across a nice interview conducted by Charlie Rose on public television with two Iraqis. Their subject matter had do with whether Iraq was better off five years later as a result of the United States invasion and occupation. I hope you take the time to listen to this as it’s quite informative and not supportive in general of much of the baloney that we’ve been fed by our government and the United States press.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-5176309538375116990:1116000:988000&hl=en]

History is written by the winners. ~Alex Haley

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Follow the money

A couple of days ago I wrote about Eliot Spitzer and a double standard.  New York’s former governor is in lots of hot water and he’s resigned his position. Lots of shame to go around. It’s been a media feeding frenzy. Lots of juicy details. The media focus has been all over the former governor and the young prostitute, but while this has been going on our money is being removed from the till. A $200 billion dollar bailout of the mortgage industry by Fed Chairman Bernanke. Eliot got in trouble using his money and he gets the media focus. Bernanke was using our money and he gets a pass.  Eliot Spitzer caused a lot of trouble for the money men of Wall Street and elsewhere. When word of the scandal reached the stock exchange a cheer rose from the trading floor.  Eliot Spitzer’s story is tragic for he and his family. We cannot get socialized medicine here in the United States because that would be bad we’re told for health care, but we can have socialized banking that apparently is okay. It’s more important to the media to cover a story about a prostitute and the governor than a rape of the taxpayers.

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We are choosing hope..

I love this particular video of Senator Obama. I’m supporting his candidacy because I think he can bring this country back together and that is something we sorely need.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLVN3Trs5VQ]

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WWJD?

Viewing Roots again in its entirety reminded me once again of the fallacy of our alleged Judeo-Christian roots. From 1619 until sometime in the 19th century before the end of our own Civil War twenty-million Africans were brought to the Americas for slave trade.  Add to that fact the millions of Native American people who were murdered as the American colonies  and later the United States expanded west.  Religion was actually used to defend the institution of slavery and manifest destiny. We have a long legacy, perhaps the greatest in the history of the world, of genocide and atrocity.

Continue reading “WWJD?”