Editorials by Jodie

October, 2005 • September, 2005 • August, 2005 • July, 2005 • June, 2005 • May, 2005 • April, 2005 • March, 2005 • February 2005 • January 2005

October, 2005

Was Barbara Bush Right?

What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them. (Barbara Bush, September 5, 2005)

Well, so much for compassionate conservatism. You can read Mrs. Bush's words however you like, but my first reaction was that they reveal the underlying disrespect for the underclass of Americans by the Right. When I first heard this interview, available through American Public Media, the harsh reality of Mrs. Bush's honesty evaded me. Instead of opening my mind to her words, my mind closed like a steel trap with admonishing thoughts and disbelief. These people who just lost everything they own and their loved ones - better off?

Last week a local Denver news station interviewed a Katrina survivor and his family. This man had just moved into a house donated by a local charity group, who offered the home rent-free for six months. The evacuee expressed pure joy and gratitude as he explained that this house was more than he had ever had, or even dreamed of having. As I watched the interview, I was angry for this man and the media for conspiring to support Mrs. Bush's words that this was working very well for the underprivileged. Then I had to let the angry barriers down, and realize the truth of what I was seeing. This man had barely hung on in New Orleans, and now he was given a chance to make a new life for himself and his family.

The reality of that truth hit home even further as I thought of my daughter watching Extreme Home Makeover and wishing that something bad would happen to our family so we could have a new home, new toys, and all the wonderful things given to the families helped by the show. At the time I scolded her for being so superficial. I had explained that having our family together was more important than all those things. I'm not sure she fully grasped the idea of losing myself, or her dad, or having a sibling with a crippling ailment. To her, the show made up for whatever had gone wrong to get you on the show.

Though an eight year old may dream of a new home, toys, and other stuff a hurricane may afford her, the experience would change her in ways that the "new" will never heal. I doubt anyone in the path of Katrina thought "bring it on" while believing that having their lives destroyed would work really well for them. But the reality is that many who may have been stuck in a horrible poverty cycle may now have opportunities otherwise absent, may now have a chance to change their lives, and may now have hope for a better future.

I wouldn't say that this is "working very well for them," as though this was a choice they made. But I would agree that for all the lives destroyed and families broken, the charity of Americans will rebuild the city of New Orleans and its survivors with opportunities of hope that this tragedy has unleashed.

September, 2005

Yes, This is a Race Issue

Feel free to stick your head in the sand. Avoid America's dirty "big" secret. Pretend Katrina is to blame.

But I refuse to look away from the racial barriers that allowed thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of non-whites to be killed. While our President claims ignorance, while the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana point fingers, while Democrats accuse Republicans, while Republicans blame Clinton, PEOPLE ARE DYING! Am I one of the few who realizes this?

How many people did Bush rescue on his fly-over? How many people have the media fed, clothed, and rescued while their cameras were rolling? At what point do you stop filming and begin helping? Yes, I understand the importance of getting the story out so others will get moving and help - but come on!

So, where does race factor in? Is it because Jesse Jackson and Kayne West say so? Of course not. Race, coupled with poverty, prevented a true evacuation with door to door assistance and buses to move people to safety. Then it further prevented a rapid response to the disaster.

You can blame the infrastructure, the bureaucracy, the local, state, and federal government, or even the levies. But you cannot escape the truth of history.

No, I do realize the levies breaking added another level of catastrophe - BUT the scale of death from Katrina was AVOIDABLE. 3 days warning should have been plenty to escape the coming destruction. And it was for the white people.

August, 2005

A Culture of Deception

Plagiarism, perjury, disinformation, media slant - they are all lies. Lies, lies, lies!

I just had a student turn in a government research paper as his/her own. Are you kidding me? Well, is there much truth around us to use as a template?

Everyday the entertainment networks, more commonly referred to as news stations, churn out the reports of others as though verified and investigated. When in truth, their just recycle stories. Isn't that the same as my student's plagiarized report?

Even our own White House dodges and swerves against direct questions about the cost, cause, and state of the war in Iraq. And we all know about their doublespeak regarding Rove's involvement in outing a covert CIA agent to cast doubt upon Joe Wilson's comments about the lack of certainty surrounding Iraq obtaining uranium for manufacturing nuclear weapons.

Following September 11, 2001, my husband and I spent months in heated debate about our government's response. I always felt that bombing Afghanistan was wrong, and that our administration would soon use this tragedy to go after Saddam Hussein. My husband stood behind George W. Bush's decision to attack Afghanistan because he, "Never believed that my own government would lie to me." It wasn't too long until his high expectations were dashed, and he could see the disinformation and outright lies of our government as they marched us to war in Iraq.

I never thought my students would plagiarize. Funny how that bothers me more than the lies of our government, for I expected that. It seems so much more personal, though its consequences are far smaller in scale.

What kind of culture of deception are we raising our children? No wonder cynicism has rooted so deep and blackened so many hearts. I for one will not let this incident darken my optimism and hope. I don't know who coined the phrase, but I wholeheartedly agree,

"I'm a short term pessimist, and a long term optimist."

For I see no other way to be!

July, 2005

I Need Focus

I'm finding it hard to focus. Do you ever have those moments when life seems to whirl all around while you stand perfectly still? Only I'm not standing still.

My youngest started first grade today. People ask what will I do with all my free time. Are they serious? Today I ran home and cleaned book shelves that housed everything from artwork to computer software. Aw, now I see the books! I also found this newspaper letter to the editor that I wrote two years ago, July 2003:

Time for Accountability

    I want to thank the mass media for finally covering the issues that inspired the antiwar movement.

    The lack of credible evidence linking Hussein to Sept. 11, 2001, or Hussein to an arsenal of mass destruction has existed and been questioned since the Bush administration began rattling the sabers of war.

    I support and encourage you to continue to sort out the truth from the misleading half-truths that led to hundreds of US casualties and multitudes more of Iraqi casualties.

    The time has come to call for accountability. A strong leader would accept responsibility for his errors and work toward reconciling the damage.

    Our president and his administration need to own up to their lies of deception and step down. Anyone who contributed to the misleading war cry needs to justify their actions while accepting appropriate punishment.

    This travesty killed, maimed and orphaned. The truth must come out.

That was July 2003 - and the truth continues to leak out while the talking heads moan on about its irrelevance - now that we're there, we need to focus on solving the problem. I agree we need to focus, but how we got there is criminal and those that got us into this mess do not have the mindset to get us out. We need to focus on change.

On to my next project - scrubbing the remains of my War is Not the Answer bumper sticker off my minivan bumper. War wasn't the answer, still isn't - but the sticker was looking tired, just like I feel.

Lila and I will give a presentation on Sudan at the Parker Democrat meeting in two weeks. Doing these types of things always reinvigorates me. Reminds me why we publish this newsletter, why we try.

Last weekend I shook Bobby Kennedy's hand - yep, the real Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wow! He was incredible. If you ever have the chance, go hear him speak. Even my conservative husband spent the night bobbing his head in agreement. I highly recommend his book, Crimes Against Nature : How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy.

Finally I need to grade some papers and work on my next class' lesson plan. Cleaning the bookshelves helped me focus. Some garden, some write, my husband waters the lawn. Focus is crucial to gaining that all important perspective that keeps us moving.

Now I can concentrate on the importance of the G8 summit, the Supreme Court's latest rulings (are they kidding?), and Sudan.

June, 2005

"Sometimes in April"

It’s 2:48 am May 15, 2005. I have just watched a PBS special on the Rwandan genocide called “Sometimes in April.” Good God. I don’t understand us, the human race. Not only did we stand idly by while hundreds of thousands were slaughtered in 1994, we’re doing it today. Can you imagine groups of militia roaming Main Street randomly killing men, women and their children? Can you imagine hiding your children in their neighborhood school only to watch while the school’s locked down and they are systematically killed? Can you imagine surviving your neighborhood slaughter only to be either forced to join the marauding killers or become their sex slave?

My worst nightmares do not compare to the above scenarios. In 1948 we promised never again. Yet we sit on our hands time and time again while millions are slaughtered. How long must the world community witness death before intervening? 100 days in Rwanda, yet years preceding and following that massacre fall on blind eyes and deaf ears. Further in Africa, we have Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Eritrea, and let’s not forget Somalia. US foreign policy led to war in Iraq against a genocidal dictator, according to Paul Wolfowitz, yet what criteria lead to that assessment? While Saddam Hussein was not a humanitarian by any means, I think it’s stretching to call US intervention in Iraq a response to genocide.

And while such horrors exist throughout Africa, they do not end there. In other areas of the world the US is complicit in financing genocide. El Salvador, Colombia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and on and on the list could go. The Bush administration’s current War on Terror is actually increasing atrocities committed by seemingly legitimate governments in the façade of rooting out terrorists. But who are the terrorists? The terrorists easily become whoever oppose the current regime in power.

I believe the first step we can take as Americans in helping end the complacency of the world community in truly standing behind our 1948 “never again” begins in our local neighborhood communities. While raising awareness about Darfur and doing what we can in supporting the humanitarian relief effort, we need to change the political climate of our government to better reflect our need to stand up and protect those unable to protect themselves.

Bush speaks about fighting terrorism abroad so we do not need to fight it here in the US. How about fighting murderous militias abroad before their infectious impunity lands on Main Street USA?

May, 2005

All It Takes is a Little Conversation

Please don't judge me, and I won't judge you. I may look and act different than you, but my heart beats the same as yours. I love my children, just as you love yours. I worry about where the money will come to feed them, just as you do. I worry about the water they drink, the air they breath, the food they eat, just the same as you.

We are different. We may pray to different entities, spend our time in differing ways, but we love and hate just the same. Our love comes easily with those we cherish, and our hate comes just as easily to those we fear.

With a little conversation we will find that our differences run deep, but our concerns similar. Who can we trust? Maybe a little conversation will create a bond of mutual admiration, though we remain different, and agree to disagree. Can I trust you? Will you trust me?

In the end, when I look in your eyes I see myself. Maybe a little conversation will break down the walls that are tearing us apart. I'm willing to try. I'm willing to listen. I'm willing to make myself vulnerable to your criticism.

We are all human. Even the democrats and republicans.

April, 2005

Avoid Overwhelming, Inoperable Anger, But Embrace the Anger that Moves You to Act

My children are growing up in a culture of death. You kill, the state will kill you; you find yourself in US custody during the Iraq War either in Abu Graib or Guantanamo, there's a decent chance you will die; if you are a country or collective of people unfriendly to US foreign policy, there's a good chance that same policy will target you with military force. Yet while thousands of people are dying in Iraq, Sudan, central Africa, and elsewhere, Americans decide to stop and debate the feeding tube of a woman we've never met. Regardless of my personal beliefs on the Terri Schivo case, it really was none of my business, nor yours. But here's the interesting thing, as her life hung in the balance of our courts, a teen pulled another "Columbine" in Minnesota. I have to admit I found it touching that so many people were moved to hold vigil outside her clinic and pray for her in our current culture where people prefer to watch CNN/FOX/MSNBC and rant about the state of our country. The action of those people proves our country has hope... hope that we will take to the streets and stop the Iraq War, that we will stand up against further military aggression in Iran and North Korea, that we will stand up against hate mongering talk and choose productive action. We really have no choice. Further inaction will only lead to more "Columbines," more Iraqs, and more dead.

Embrace your disgust with current US or local politics, then do something productive about it. Write a letter to the editor, vote, talk to your peers, call your senator. Whatever you choose to do, "err on the side of life," whatever that means to you.

March, 2005

Churchill's Essay and My Personal Fallout

I would like to know how many of the media talking heads have read Ward Churchill's essay "Some People Push Back; On the Justice of Roosting Chickens." Have you judged? Have you signed a petition calling for his resignation, or protection of his right to speak/write? What if his writing depicted Martin Luther King, Jr. as a racist against whites, setting the stage for a Black America coup? What if he chose to support an eugenics movement that would rid the US of anyone with disabilities? Would your response be different?

Controversy of another sort rose when Harvard University President Lawrence Summers spoke in January. "In the special case of science and engineering there are issues of intrinsic aptitude." And he went on to say that aptitude or ability might be a greater factor than: "socialization and continuing discrimination." Summers used that phrasing to offer a partial explanation of why fewer women become scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. Did you call for his resignation or firing? Denver's local rightie KOA was certainly fighting for Summers' rights, I wonder why they've spent so much money with a full page add in the Boulder Chronicle demanding Churchill's firing?

Well, hypocrisy lives everywhere! I have no answers, other than to direct you to Churchill's essay where he lays out a credible argument that explains how us, the citizens of the US, have stood silently by while our government has bombed and starved Iraqi children. When reading his essay, I was truly moved. I wish I knew how to detach myself from my kids sporting and school agendas to rise up against our government's overly ambitious foreign policies. But, all I can think about today is my hair falling out.

You see, I take medicine, necessary for pain free living, that makes my hair fall out. So, taking on George and his buddies will have to wait another day - today I'm counting the hair I have left on my head.

February, 2005

Social Security Catch

We made it through the Iraqi election, Bush's inauguration, and Condi's hearings. What a month! It's good to be on the other side of January.

Survival's at the bottom of Maslow's pyramid - how are we doing on our journey toward self-fulfillment? Well, I don't see us making it out of the past the bottom rung any time soon. With Bush's attack on Social Security, I feel holes growing in our base.

The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life. -Jane Addams

The Social Security Act of 1935 was enacted when the great depression depleted the private sector's charitable resources. Are we so arrogant that in 2005 with Bush as our leader we feel protected from such hardship in the future? Privatizing Social Security would propel seniors back to pre-1935 economic status. While Bush, Cheney, and their pro-privatization friends are comfortable with their family fortune, are you willing to risk elder poverty so they can further line their pockets?

January 2005

Wishing You Love, Peace, and Forgiveness in 2005

November's anger dissipated slowly, and the harsh reality of the election and impending doom of its results have ravaged my mood and optimistic disposition. This caused me to lapse in publishing December's issue of SHOUT.  I'm sorry - but, well, I needed a personal pity party and didn't want to involve you. Now, I'm all better!

It's time to get back to work. Let's keep our eye on the Bush administration, get involved in local politics, and keep our voices loud and clear. Paul Loeb's, The Impossible Will Take a Little While, was a true source of empowerment and clarity for me, and I highly recommend it to anyone feeling hopeless and distraught over the current state of affairs.

Let's get beyond the red/blue states, republican/democrat party politics and begin the healing for a better community. Those who voted for Bush are not idiots, those who voted against him are not anti-American. We need to put down our labels, and embrace one another. Dialogue will move us toward the America of which we all dream, rather than the current finger pointing that divides.

I wish you a quick recovery from the 2004 election and all the relationships it may have damaged. I wish you love, peace, and forgiveness in 2005! Happy New Year.