Female Rickshaw Driver

Dear Sunitha Choudhury,

For those of us who have read books like The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar and have seen movies like Water, directed by Deepa Mehta, your story is especially wonderful. I wish you well in your bid for a seat in Parliament.
BRD

Note: Read about Sunitha Choudhury at Al Jazeera's English version

"First she escaped a violent child marriage to achieve the unthinkable - becoming the first and only woman to drive an auto-rickshaw on the streets of the Indian capital, New Delhi.

"Now she wants to become an MP.

"Sunitha Choudhury says she wants to be in parliament so that she can represent the poor.

"When she trudges around the slums and poor quarters of the suburb of Malivya Nagar, she tells the poor that she has the "same roots" as they do and, unlike other rich candidates from the established parties, understands their needs and sorrows."

The Sarah Palin Controversy or Why did John McCain Choose Sarah Palin?

Dear Tina Fey,

Sure the political pundits will kick around a lot of high sounding arguments for why John McCain might have chosen one candidate above another for his running mate for the job that puts a person in an empty office contemplating the one big question of the vice presidency, "What is it like to be one heartbeat away from the Oval office?"

By the way what is the shape of the vp's office? A parallelogram?

Tina, you and I both know that John McCain's decision to choose Sarah Palin lies in the frames of your glasses. One obscure political lackey was assigned the job of comparing current political figures to likely comedians and their abilities to do impressions. When this picture arrived on his desk, the decision was made.

"That, my fellow Americans," he said, "is the next Vice President of the United States." "Which one," said the staff? "I, I'm not sure," said McCain. "And could you get my wife a pair of those glasses?"

So that's how it happened, and for those of us who are members of the Tina Fey Fan Club, we are glad it did.

BRD

Link to SNL skit

Simon and Garfunkel 101: Ooh!

Woman 1: "Ooh! Let me show you. Let me show you our picture. This was me and my husband when we were first married."
Woman 2: "I always slept on one side, left room for my husband."
Woman 1: "And that's me when we were sixteen"
Woman 2: "But this, this, this, this is not the case. I still do it. I still lay on the half of the bed. (pause) We used to sneak in. . . "

Dear Barack Obama,

I've laid on my side of the bed almost longer than you have lived, so I want to tell you a little about loving and about growing up and what is important. And what it takes to get beyond 16. Too many people keep going back to 16, back to when we didn't know up from down or yes from no. But we do so need more real adults around here.

Back a ways, when I was 16, life and sex and marriage had a little different taste. Not that the sex drive has changed all that much. (Did you know that even old women can still pant long after their children think that our sexual pleasures should be relegated to long term memory?) But the flavor of sex back then was tinged with a certain reality. The reality was that sex often led to procreation. That procreation was good and anticipated by married couples. When my husband moved over into my side of the bed, we had fun and we had children.

But there was a dark side. Most of culture, religious and non-religious, painted that darkness upon couples, and, particularly, women who tasted sex and then pregnancy before they tasted a wedding cake. One of my first jobs was at a home for girls, "predelinquent girls" they were called. They carried with them a tang of the outcast, each wearing some style of scarlet letter affixed to their lives. People helped them, but not without attaching to these beautiful, young Eves a stigma, a curse.

The best thing that resulted from the 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, was that some people finally were forced to reassess their view of women who carried children to birth, married or not. These women, we came to see, were neither delinquent nor cursed, but were indeed responsibly mature and blessed. That has been the shining beauty of Roe v. Wade. People think of Roe v. Wade as the decision that opened the doors to abortion. It did that. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a cultural shift that has changed life for those women and girls who are not married but are pregnant and choose to give their babies birth.

I've raised three girls to womanhood. Any mother thinks, at some point, what words would I say, were my daughter (or son) to come to me and say, "I'm not married, but I'm going to have a child"? I decided what my response would be, were I ever to need one. My answer is, "A child is always good. Let us rejoice in this life. How wonderful!"

Last March, in answer to a question about this subject, you said, "Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old, I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby." Of course I don't agree with everything you say politically. But this isn't politics, so I'm going to give you some grandma type advice. If your daughters ever come to you and talk about a baby that is their own, DON'T call it a mistake. Don't curse that child. A life, young and new, whether mother or baby, is not delinquent because of a pregnancy. Call it beautiful. Call it blessed. Call it theirs. Call it yours. Call it love.


And punished? I think that there is a lie being told to a whole generation of potential parents. They are being told by everyone from Jerry Seinfeld to you, Barack Obama, that children are a punishment. This is a lie. I have never experienced any joy in life that even remotely compares to the joy of holding my babies. You know that I'm speaking the truth, because you have Malia and Sasha. Ooh, I'm not trying to be slobbery. I'm just reminding you, and a whole generation, that life and meaning is not found in self-indulgence and purposeless pleasuring. It is, however, found in the kind of responsible decisions and sacrifice that result in strong families and healthy children, like mine and like yours. It's no mistake and it is not punishment.

Sure, not everyone will become a parent, but the truth of the matter is, no one is ready to do it until they do it, and it is in this type of mature embracing of responsible living that brings an individual to adulthood. Fully responsible adults arise from the ranks of those who embrace their lives, their own and their children, not because they are picture perfect but because they are theirs, and because they savor the goodness that comes with it all.

And this, this, this, really is the case.

BRD

Letters to Obama

Dear Obama,

I love your blog idea. I just set up my new blog at

http://my.barackobama.com

How cool is that!

Letters to Obama from an Old Woman

Watch out, I may tell you a thing or two!

Obama for President!

BRD

APEC Summit

Dear other people concerned about global warming but don't know what to do about it,

September 8-9, leaders of 21 nations that are responsible for half the world's greenhouse gases meet at the APEC summit in Sydney, Australia. Some leaders support binding global targets which experts agree are needed to avert climate catastrophe. Others are campaigning for a weaker voluntary alternative.

This organization, AVAAZ, is getting a petition together to present to the media and whoever will listen, I suppose. They are mounting some extravaganza events too--stuff that would make installation artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude proud.

You too can still sign this petition by clicking here. AVAAZ says,
"This is already the biggest global climate petition, but we need many more signatures to win over waverers and save the next Kyoto Protocol -- please, add your name today! At the summit, we're sending the petition to leaders and negotiators and mounting ‘target’ spectacles in Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef and all round the world."

So this is a little something we can do today for the sake of the globe.

Betsy

Alberto Gonzales Gone and the Loss of a Symbol

Dear Alberto,

I for one, given the fact that I haven't studied the details of the case (Polly and the Mooch may silently scream if he wishes) am sorry that you are leaving visible high office. And I loved what the quote in the New York Times:

“Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father’s best days,” you said. “I have lived the American dream.” Your father, the Times says, was a "Mexican-American construction worker who raised eight children in a two-room home near Houston." And he didn't live to see all of this national hulabaloo, neither good nor bad.

Your Mom was there at the swearing in and my guess is that she has scolded you a bit over these recent public difficulties. You politicians just don't seem to be able to figure out what "Is" is, much less, "Truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

Still, I'm sorry to see you walk away. The walk in was much happier I think.

I don't want to go on and on, but I wanted to say that I regret the loss of the symbol your presence brought to the offices of justice. My mind flits to the days of Bobby Kennedy when the brothers K were struggling within their own ethical selves to balance political pressure and a precious morality that set the stage for the Civil Rights movement. Without those days, or ones like them the United States could still be actively banning non-caucasians from high office. Now, you have been there. You have helped break barriers. Thank you for that.

The Times also quoted Senator John Sununu, (R-NH). “Our country needs a credible, effective attorney general who can work with Congress on critical issues ranging from immigration to investigating terrorism at home and abroad. Alberto Gonzales’s resignation will finally allow a new attorney general to take on this task.”
Who the heck does he think will understand issues of immigration better than you do? I fear that the politics of politics will block the new attorney general from effective action just as they have blocked you.

Sometimes I wonder whether politicians even see the obvious. Well, that's another topic.

I wish you well.

BRD

State Children’s Health Insurance Program

Dear Friends,

Some of you know that our family, at one time, nearly lived at East Tennessee Children's Hospital. We were fighting. Specifically, we were fighting leukemia and for the life of our youngest child.

The first night there we were in a daze. I remember few specifics, just a few phrases;

"The good news is that it is ALL not AML."
"Treatment is about 2 or 2 1/2 years."
"Out of school."
"Want to reach remission in a month."
"Survive."

But one other important phrase I remember was this,
"Our hospital does not do wallet biopsies."

Since that time I have served on a committee for the hospital. Today, I received a request from them. Sign this petition they said.

You can read on if you'd like more information, but to me it's a no-brainer. I want this hospital to continue to say to people like me who are in a daze, who are scared beyond measure, and who may, unlike our family, have no good group insurance, "We don't do wallet biopsies."

So sign!

"The National Association of Children’s Hospitals (N.A.C.H.) and its 140 member hospitals applaud the leadership of Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), Ranking Republican Charles Grassley (R-IA), Health Subcommittee Chairman John Rockefeller (D-WV) and Health Subcommittee Ranking Republican Orrin Hatch (R-UT) in producing a solid, bipartisan bill to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Congress should act now to reauthorize SCHIP.

"Chairman Baucus’ mark builds on the current successes of both SCHIP and Medicaid, which together cover more than one in four children in the U.S. The bill creates the potential to cover more than 3 million additional children under Medicaid and SCHIP.

"Importantly, it invests in the development of pediatric specific measures of health care quality for children and provides funding for demonstrations of techniques to improve children’s health care quality — an investment that is sorely needed since the federal government has not invested in improving pediatric care while it heavily invests in improving care for adults.
Finally, the bill increases funding for every state, providing the opportunity for each state to enroll more eligible children, while establishing contingency funds to reduce the risk of state shortfalls that have plagued many SCHIP programs in recent years."

BRD

True Democracy and Economic Wealth Continued

Readers of the controversial blog entry of a week or so ago,

I had to bring this late comment from the True Democracy post to the top. Too good to be lost way down at the bottom of that discussion. And I have another great email comment to post on the subject tomorrow or the next day. Who said you can't talk politely about politics, religion, or sex? I'll have to work up something on sex for future discussion, as we've already covered politics and religion!


brd


DGP said...
"Hi. My wife showed me these comments, which I have found thought-provoking, and I love the civility among disagreeing parties. These are my two cents: When I was in graduate school in the '70s, a young man (a close friend of my wife's brother)stayed overnight and, over dinner, let us know that he was part of a movement to role back social programs until Franklin Roosevelt's social network would be erased. He felt that churches and individuals would take over the function of providing for those in need. We considered him an intelligent, privileged, naive, idealistic young man whose beliefs had no chance of coming to pass. Carter was in the White House and the country had just experienced the Nixon years, government wiretaps, the enormous contributions, in cash, solicited from corporations by the Republican Party, etc. The nightmare was over; who could forget it? Since then, regulations have been rolled back not just to pre-Roosevelt (Franklin) but to pre-Roosevelt (Teddy); the trust buster and founding ecologist. Corporate heads now make 500 times as much as their workers rather than the 50 times of thirty years ago, there are essentially no limits to mergers and companies make money by shipping jobs to countries with no worker rights or benefits. The United States hemmorhages wealth through it's lopsided balance of payments. Those who insist on a quality product and fair treatment more often than not are beaten out by those who spend largely on executive pay. Chainsaw Al, the legendary company buster, made millions in bonuses by cutting jobs. Does anyone really think that a ten million a year ceiling to executive pay would be socialism? Or that extending the social security tax so that there is no longer a ceiling to deductions, which would take care of almost half of the yearly deficit for the country, is grossly unfair? Somebody does; that bill reportedly has no chance of coming to a vote. It's always possible to make more money by cutting pay, cutting benefits, deregulating, not enforcing safety standards, firing watchdogs and generally taking the short view that at this point appears to be ruining the world for our grandchildren and their grandchildren. Controlling the press is even better. Slander works; it's a tradition. That's how Nixon got rid of Ed Muskie (an attack on Muskie's wife caused Muskie to cry publicly during his defense of his wife, a kiss of death for a presidential candidate), and it was the tipping point for the last presidential election. Swift Boat tactics work, and a genuine war hero (who was anti-war) was outshouted for patriotism by a draft evader wrapped in a flag. Simply put: the health care system is worse than ever and 90% of doctors will agree, the United States appears to have gone from paragon to villain in public opinion polls in the world's democracies, morality is used as an issue to help the wealthy get wealthier (Calvinism, anyone?) and it appears to be okay to be financially greedy as long as you're not sexually greedy. I could not believe the results of the last election, but I've come to believe it. Sure, government is inefficient, but privatizing appears largely to have been a way to pay fabulous sums to those companies, such as Honeywell, that have replaced government employees with unregulated contractors. Has anyone followed the disastrous results of private contracts in Iraq? Shoddy workmanship is cheaper. Anyway, you can tell which side of the discussion I'm on. I think giving a third of my money to the common good is getting off cheap, but right now that third is being distributed to Cheney's cronies. I'd rather have a program for the poor, thank you."

Thanks DGP for your insightful comments. I like it civil. Sometimes Payne Hollow has to come in to moderate!

brd

True Democracy and Economic Wealth

Dear Thomas Jefferson,

These are some definitions:

Democracy

Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives — The American Heritage Dictionary

a state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges

political or social equality; democratic spirit

the common people of a community as distinguished from any privileged class; the common people with respect to their political power — Dictionary.com

If those definitions are anywhere close to reality, then a true form of democracy would not allow for the perpetuation of unlimited control, by one set of individuals, of our most valuable life resources. The American form of democracy is failing, slowly but surely, and tumbling into some form of post-modern classed aristocracy because of an untoward and malignant commitment to private property. We are beset as a nation by an underlying and pervasive notion that those who own property are graced with some form of the Divine Right of Kings to hold that property and pass it on as royalty to, not just the third and fourth generation, but ad infinitum.

Our nation is peppered with individuals who swear allegiance to democracy and then wrap themselved in a motto like that of the British monarchy, "Dieu et mon droit." We might say, "Terre et ma droite."

Thomas, here are some statistics you might find interesting. Look at them and then tell me what you think. It's not me who's the crazy one here is it? (Full data)

The top 10% of Americans control 68.8% of the wealth. The top 20% control 81.6% of the wealth. The average wealth of the top 1% of the nation is over 10 million dollars. The average wealth of the bottom 20% of the nation is almost NEGATIVE 10 thousand dollars. A fellow named David Chandler developed this little "L Curve" to demonstrate how skewed the control of resources in the United States has become. It wasn't like that when you were thinking about democracy was it?



Here is my simple recommendation, based on the principles of democracy. Wealth must be redistributed. That redistribution need not be done during the lifetime of the earner. Certainly, people deserve to experience the fruit of their labor. They should also be able to pass on a reasonable amount to their children. However, there should be limits to the amount of money that can be passed from generation to generation. OK, you heard me say it and I wanted to say it to you first.

Well, I've got to go to work now. My pile of money lies along the space in the middle of the football field, so I must spend my time working hard. But then, that is what makes democracy great. Work is a great gift. I just think that the descendents of the very wealthy deserve to engage in the American democratic struggle, just like the rest of us.

Betsy

P.S. I don't think you've heard the last from me on this. I have some thoughts on Social Security Tax that I'd like to run by you.

Carter on US Policy on Palestinians

Dear President Carter,

Thank you for speaking out clearly and strongly on this subject. Did I ever tell you that you are the reason I became a registered Democrat. I must admit, I'm not dyed-in-the-wool and that if I were to describe myself politically I would probably say I'm a socialist, but I'd still vote for you. Will you run?

As a Woman in Black I have stood with the women in this photo in front of the Duncan federal building on Tuesdays here in Knoxville, TN. We have a silent presence that raises a persistent request to the federal government. Please, act for peace in Palestine. (I must note here with respect and appreciation. Our congressman Jimmy Duncan--son of Duncan of federal building fame--was one of the few Republican legislators, one of the few legislators on either side of the aisle who voted against the war of aggression in Iraq. Thank you Congressman Duncan!)

The Irish Times stated, "President Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Croke Park, also said the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory was 'criminal.'" This is not the first time the US leadership has moved into the realm of what could be described as criminal, also immoral, war-mongering, disrespectful for humanity, insane. . .

I could rant on. But I want to thank you again, and ask you to continue working, using your voice and the well deserved influence that you possess, for reasonable peace in Israel, Palestine, and our world.

Respectfully,

Betsy DeGeorge

Free Dr. Haleh Esfandiari

Dear Dr. Esfandiari,

Please come home to us. But, oh. . oh. . they won't let you. I have signed the petition asking them to free you, but still they won't let you come home.

Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a dual Iranian-American national, was arrested in Tehran on May 8 and incarcerated in the Evin Prison.

I worry about you and other Middle Eastern artists and scholars who stand for free speech and well, reason, in general. See post by Laila Lalami, May 15, 2007, On Interpretations.

Our prayers are with you.

Betsy DeGeorge

Article from Ha'aretz

Dear Ha'aretz,

Thanks for the clear sighted article.

Betsy

Demonstrating and the Art of Changing Society

Dear Robert Moses,


While reading through the trilogy of the civil rights movement during the King years by Taylor Branch I became a Bob Moses fan. Your thoughts and actions helped form a movement and likewise a new way of thinking and being in the United States. More recently, I checked out one of your books from the library about the Algebra project. So now you teach math to the children of Mississippi? I would call it a strange contrast if it didn't make perfect sense in respect to the stuff that goes on in one's heart and mind while struggling to find meaning in relation to political action, social justice, and the desire to be involved with real societal change.

One of my "blog reads" has entered into a little discussion about the experiences of demonstrating [Defn: establishing a physical presence to express a socio/political position.] There is frustration and embarrassment in carrying placards and walking or standing. But most of all the difficulty is in becoming part of a group, some of whom you agree with, some of whom you don't, some of which are cool, some not, some with whom you would bare your very soul, some to whom you would give the time only to get them to the march promptly. Yet in this act of demonstrating you become one, you marry on a theme, and this wedding, for better or worse, seems, almost immediately, worse.

This marriage would be worth it, if only we could realize social change. But all of our standing, marching, chanting or silence, placards, persistence, and so forth seem to fade like a chimera into the din of, not rifle response, water hoses, and paddy wagons, but normal traffic, a Spring shower, and the tipped cap of the Tuesday patrolman.

So we come back to the math classroom, don't we. And we find, there, the front lines of demonstration. And there, maybe, without folderol or display, is the core of social improvement, our last best hope for engaging-ment [thanks gbs] and changing the way we live.

With deepest respect,

Betsy DeGeorge

Dinner Plates from Acme

Dear Gramma,

I am in your great granddaughter's kitchen. You would like her. She has your sweetness and she goes with the flow.

I am staring at one thing trying to remember another. I have a green plate in my hand. A blazing fire is roaring in a colonial style hearth. A musket hangs on the edge of the mantle that holds several plates and pitchers. It is obviously a working kitchen like yours was with bellows to keep that fire cooking and pots and spoons. This plate was a grocery store giveaway that mom had collected and gave to my daughter who loved the picture so. The set was circa 1965 or so I guess. The rest of the set is worn but still in use, with its chips and flaws. The dessert bowl features that set of bellows and the salad plates feature a spinning wheel.


But I am trying to remember your dinnerware, also brought into the big house on 18th street, piece by piece, as a prize for loyal shopping. And you probably walked it home, in the 1950's, for Pappap never did learn to drive and neither did you. Your set was blue and white with artwork by Currier & Ives. I remember winter and a house, and a horse, and maybe a stream. And I remember chicken and potpie and rye bread. And I remember Swedish meat balls and chicken noodle soup.

As I'm remembering the sweet anise taste of your rye bread I'm wondering what you might think of the debate on immigration that is raging in Congress right now. I know that you probably wouldn't be following it too closely. You would be too busy working, with those dear rough, wrinkled, and dry-cracked fingers. But what would you think of the fears of wealthy upper class congresspeople and senators who are straining to protect their various properties, most of which they inherited from wealthy parents and grandparents.

We are all decendents of hardworking immigrants aren't we, most of whom were not terrorists? In fact immigration doesn't have anything to do with terrorism, no matter how much Congressional confusion exists on the subject. And the value of that hard work, the value of the labor is greater, I think than the capital that sits in the investment accounts of many of the second and third generation wealthy elite.

Meanwhile, looking at a hearth on a plate from a working class kitchen, I am grateful for an inheritance not of financial riches but of cultural prosperity and the affluence of fully employed days and tired muscles and energetic endeavor.

With loving memories,

Betsy

I Must Crusade

Dear Women in Black,

You are my friends, in a narrow way. I don't know many of you well, but we stand together once a week on the same narrow strip of ground. And we have stood here in Knoxville, now, for four years.

We stand in mourning. So last week when we celebrated four years of standing together, we were celebrating a mourning. How odd.

Together we heard these words:

{All Things Not Considered
by Naomi Shahib Nye
(from 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East)}

"You cannot stitch the breath back into this boy

A brother and sister were playing with toys when their room exploded.

In what language
is this holy?

The Jewish boys killed in the cave
were skipping school, having an adventure.

Asel Asleh, Palestinian, age 17, believed in the field
beyond right and wrong where people
come together.

to talk. He kneeled to help someone else
stand up before he was shot.

If this is holy, could we have some new religions please?"

And more words, but it wasn't the words. It rarely is. And I knelt and touched the names of Israeli children and Palestinian children written on a piece of paper. And I wondered why people tend to be more distraught when it is children who die. Is it because we hope that they held within them more potential for peace than the rest of us? Or is it just that we feel that we should have died first.

We Women in Black stand in front of a federal building each week in some kind of protest. It is a crusade of sorts, one in which Jewish women, Muslim women, Christian women, women of no religious commitment, join together on a narrow strip of sidewalk and crusade for peace.

Betsy DeGeorge

Eudora Welty Must Crusade

Dear Eudora Welty,

I have read something. Two things really. First I read a critique. Then I read the real thing. That is backwards I know, but I found the real thing through the critique, so perhaps the procedure is forgivable. “The thing” is your essay entitled “Must the Novelist Crusade?” You wrote it, from what I can tell around 1965. I must say that the essay helped me put together some other ideas that have arisen in my head while reading some of your other work.

May I vent? Then let me ask questions.

Truth is an elusive thing. It is absolute and unchangeable before fading into the mists and transmogrifying into an apparition. Beauty is seductive. It is appealing and glorifying before eroding into silence and transforming into an ogre.

Yet truth and beauty are constants, coming and going in the human heart. And we know they are, without knowing what they are precisely. The writer and the artist are caught in the webs spun by truth and beauty, fated to look upon the captors that enslave and finally consume them.

The artist, speaking here of painter or musician, is lured by beauty, and though truth may suck some of the blood out of them, it is beauty that drains them I think. The writer on the other hand is enticed by truth and though beauty takes its toll, it is truth that bankrupts them.

So how is it that a writer might deny that liability? Or how might a musician deny the light that inspires? Perhaps the writing technician might, the fellow who plots means of filling pages for purposes of selling toothpaste or describing irregularities on the surface of granite. Or maybe the musical practitioner could, the woman who creates the chord structure that lazily leans behind the action of a soap opera or increases the tempo to chase the coordinated end of a sentence in a TV drama, but not the artist.

So what is it that might drive you, Eudora Welty, to deny your muse? Do you fear the very power that you command? Do you wish to play with the angels and demons of truth and believe that you are not tempting eternal glory or damnation?

But I think that you are (terribly) responsible for the glories and damnations that you create. It is that very heaviness, the very weight of your authority over the written word to compel truth that makes you great. You are doomed no matter how vociferously you may try to deny it.

Oh, dear. Surely I have offended you. And I must stop for now. I will write again, and perhaps ask questions that can actually be answered and that may eventually shed some light on our disagreement on this philosophical point. I intend to correspond with Richard Wright on this subject also.

Sincerely,

Betsy