I was trying to think of an appropriate response to Rick Perry's most recent commercial, and consequently wrote this facebook status a couple hours ago. It's getting a lot of traction over there, so I thought I might as well share it with the rest of the world on here:
I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong with the body of Christ when the good news of God's overwhelming love and desire to be in relationship with us is leveraged, not to liberate and reconcile the world, but to stir up fear and resentment in pursuit of political gain.
Happy Holidays everyone! Some day when I'm not swamped with homework I will get back to blogging. :)
Showing posts with label election analysis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label election analysis. Show all posts
Friday, December 9, 2011
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Deep Economic and Philosophical Question Part II
I keep seeing commercials lately deriding Obama's "lack of executive experience."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it unquestioned "executive experience" (in the White House, on Wall Street) that got us into the current economic nightmare (not to mention the war in Iraq)?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it unquestioned "executive experience" (in the White House, on Wall Street) that got us into the current economic nightmare (not to mention the war in Iraq)?
Saturday, October 4, 2008
SNL Opener 9/27/08
You Tube is blocking everyone who tried to post the sketch, and I can't get nbc's embedding code to work here, so you'll just have to go on over to their site to watch the spoof of Palin's interview with Katie Couric, but Tina Fey is once again brilliant (not to mention, as adorable as ever. Pew! Pew! Pew!).
Can't wait to see what she does with the debates tonight. . .
Can't wait to see what she does with the debates tonight. . .
Sunday, September 14, 2008
SNL Opening 9/13/08
Man, I'm a busy little blogger tonight. This is the last post for today, I promise.
I adore Tina Fey. I think Saturday Night Live has suffered greatly since she left the show. I was particularly lamenting her absence after Palin was announced because they look a lot like each other - I was imagining all the incredible sketches and impersonations that wouldn't be happening this fall.
To my own and (I think) everyone's delight, she made a guest appearance on the opening sketch last night, and was spot on. See for yourself:
The sketch overall was excellent - tightly written and masterfully performed by both Poehler and Fey, and satirically bringing up a major rhetorical issue in this campaign and its coverage - the vast difference and inconsistencies in how we name things.
Rock, rock on, Tina Fey. And if you want to stop by for a few more impersonations this fall, I for one won't mind at all.
I adore Tina Fey. I think Saturday Night Live has suffered greatly since she left the show. I was particularly lamenting her absence after Palin was announced because they look a lot like each other - I was imagining all the incredible sketches and impersonations that wouldn't be happening this fall.
To my own and (I think) everyone's delight, she made a guest appearance on the opening sketch last night, and was spot on. See for yourself:
The sketch overall was excellent - tightly written and masterfully performed by both Poehler and Fey, and satirically bringing up a major rhetorical issue in this campaign and its coverage - the vast difference and inconsistencies in how we name things.
Rock, rock on, Tina Fey. And if you want to stop by for a few more impersonations this fall, I for one won't mind at all.
The Trouble with Grapevines (and: The Rumors of "B's" Death are Greatly Exaggerated)
Today we had a perfect illustration of how quickly incomplete information can go "viral."
Parishioner A works with a nephew of Parishioner B. Nephew mentions at work Friday that his aunt died. He does not say which aunt, and Parishioner A does not think to ask, and doesn't think too much of it until this morning when Parishioner B's husband is not in worship (B herself is homebound). Now Parishioner A wonders if Parishioner B was the one who died, and innocently makes inquiries of other members of the congregation to see if they've heard anything to this effect.
Parishioner A also asks me, during the sharing of the peace, if this is true. I look and notice Parishioner B's husband is not present, and though I have heard nothing in regards to his wife's death, I realize with a sinking feeling in my stomach that I was not home for most of yesterday and I forgot to check my voicemail when I did get home, so it's entirely possible Parishioner B did die and I just haven't picked up the message yet. So now I'm worrying that the husband is grieving and has left me messages and I'm the schmucky pastor who hasn't gotten back to him.
By the end of worship, probably a dozen people are fluttering around wondering whether Parishioner B is alive or not. Some of them have heard this rumor from someone other than Parishioner A, which tightens the knot in my stomach, thinking multiple sources mean greater likelihood the rumor is true. But then I talked to the "other" sources and asked them where they got their information - it all tracked back to Parishioner A's inquiries.
I went to Parishioner C, a neighbor of the Bs, to see if they could shed light on the truth. They had heard nothing to the effect of B dying, and thankfully made some phone calls while I was teaching confirmation, and found out that B is, in fact, still with us.
A few observations:
1. I'm amazed at how quickly and exponentially the incomplete information spread - and we are just a microcosm of the wider world. Gives me new appreciation for how widely and rapidly information (accurate, inaccurate, and incomplete) can reach people, especially when aided by mass media tools like television or the internet.
2. I'm wondering if the correct and complete information will spread as rapidly. I've already received one phone call, from Parishioner D, to tell me that they also made some calls after worship and discovered B is still alive. I'm wondering how many more of those kind of calls I'm going to get, and how many more calls the church office is going to get wondering if B died, and how many calls the Bs themselves are going to get from well-intentioned folks trying to track down the truth and/or offer their condolences.
3. In this case the whole situation was very innocent and well-meaning - people genuinely wanting to reach out in support to a brother who may be in grief. Even so, I think our experience this morning clearly illustrates just how dangerous a communication tool the grapevine can be, and I shudder to think of the damage that could be done by someone with malicious intent who is purposely dispersing blatantly false information.
4. McCain's presidential campaign currently manifests my worst fears from observation 3. He has apparently decided he likes living in Bush's "Opposite Land" (a place where you name things the opposite of what they actually do, like calling rollbacks on air pollution and air quality standards the "Clear Skies Initiative"). And he and Palin have adopted the Bush/Cheney/Rove strategy of just repeating lies often enough and through enough different sources until people believe they must be true (and they're doing it with both smears about Obama and lies about their own records - like McCain being such a "maverick" when in truth he votes with Bush 90% of the time, or Palin rejecting the "Bridge to Nowhere" and fighting pork barrel spending, when in truth, she was all for the bridge until it was politically expedient not to be, and she kept the money from the federal government anyway, sans bridge!). I hope - I pray - the American public is smart enough not to fall for this strategy again, and resourceful enough to research the truth for themselves.
But I also fear the power of the grapevine, especially when it's under the power of the dark side of the force.
Parishioner A works with a nephew of Parishioner B. Nephew mentions at work Friday that his aunt died. He does not say which aunt, and Parishioner A does not think to ask, and doesn't think too much of it until this morning when Parishioner B's husband is not in worship (B herself is homebound). Now Parishioner A wonders if Parishioner B was the one who died, and innocently makes inquiries of other members of the congregation to see if they've heard anything to this effect.
Parishioner A also asks me, during the sharing of the peace, if this is true. I look and notice Parishioner B's husband is not present, and though I have heard nothing in regards to his wife's death, I realize with a sinking feeling in my stomach that I was not home for most of yesterday and I forgot to check my voicemail when I did get home, so it's entirely possible Parishioner B did die and I just haven't picked up the message yet. So now I'm worrying that the husband is grieving and has left me messages and I'm the schmucky pastor who hasn't gotten back to him.
By the end of worship, probably a dozen people are fluttering around wondering whether Parishioner B is alive or not. Some of them have heard this rumor from someone other than Parishioner A, which tightens the knot in my stomach, thinking multiple sources mean greater likelihood the rumor is true. But then I talked to the "other" sources and asked them where they got their information - it all tracked back to Parishioner A's inquiries.
I went to Parishioner C, a neighbor of the Bs, to see if they could shed light on the truth. They had heard nothing to the effect of B dying, and thankfully made some phone calls while I was teaching confirmation, and found out that B is, in fact, still with us.
A few observations:
1. I'm amazed at how quickly and exponentially the incomplete information spread - and we are just a microcosm of the wider world. Gives me new appreciation for how widely and rapidly information (accurate, inaccurate, and incomplete) can reach people, especially when aided by mass media tools like television or the internet.
2. I'm wondering if the correct and complete information will spread as rapidly. I've already received one phone call, from Parishioner D, to tell me that they also made some calls after worship and discovered B is still alive. I'm wondering how many more of those kind of calls I'm going to get, and how many more calls the church office is going to get wondering if B died, and how many calls the Bs themselves are going to get from well-intentioned folks trying to track down the truth and/or offer their condolences.
3. In this case the whole situation was very innocent and well-meaning - people genuinely wanting to reach out in support to a brother who may be in grief. Even so, I think our experience this morning clearly illustrates just how dangerous a communication tool the grapevine can be, and I shudder to think of the damage that could be done by someone with malicious intent who is purposely dispersing blatantly false information.
4. McCain's presidential campaign currently manifests my worst fears from observation 3. He has apparently decided he likes living in Bush's "Opposite Land" (a place where you name things the opposite of what they actually do, like calling rollbacks on air pollution and air quality standards the "Clear Skies Initiative"). And he and Palin have adopted the Bush/Cheney/Rove strategy of just repeating lies often enough and through enough different sources until people believe they must be true (and they're doing it with both smears about Obama and lies about their own records - like McCain being such a "maverick" when in truth he votes with Bush 90% of the time, or Palin rejecting the "Bridge to Nowhere" and fighting pork barrel spending, when in truth, she was all for the bridge until it was politically expedient not to be, and she kept the money from the federal government anyway, sans bridge!). I hope - I pray - the American public is smart enough not to fall for this strategy again, and resourceful enough to research the truth for themselves.
But I also fear the power of the grapevine, especially when it's under the power of the dark side of the force.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Everybody Wake Up
Well, if nothing else, Sarah Palin certainly proved tonight that she can be just as catty and snarky as many steeped in the culture and establishment of DC.
She also affirmed what I suspected from the moment she was announced - that a McCain/Palin administration will be another 4 years of the same as far as energy policy, and I quote "we will lay more pipeline, build more nuclear plants, burn more clean coal, and move forward on [renewables]." Once again, as we've heard repeatedly over the past 8 years, the plan is direct action to ramp up our consumption of non-renewables, with vague lip service paid to developing renewable energy. . .some day. Yet she supposedly stood up to big oil as governor.
This is the top issue for me in this election - more so than the war and the economy, though those are also very strong concerns - but if we don't get on top of this and shift to a more renewable and sustainable energy policy now, we're going to have a lot more war and a lot deeper economic problems in the future. Yes, it's going to cost money, but it's also going to save money in the long run (once you've got the technology to utilize them, sunlight and wind are abundant and free), and it's going to create money for all the scientists and skilled laborers and venture capitalists who make the shift into this field, those who will develop the technology, learn how to build and maintain it, and front the money to get the stuff built. Yes, that in-between time of transitioning between an oil/coal/carbon-based economy and a renewable/sustainable economy may be a little rough, and being the good progressive that I am, I'd say we ought to anticipate who will be hit the hardest and do what we can to make that transition smoother and easier for them.
But I'd also say we need to take a page out of the Silent Generation's playbook and learn to just suck it up and be willing to make some economic sacrifices for the good of this country. During WWII they rationed staples and gasoline and grew victory gardens, women stopped wearing pantyhose, they recycled as much as possible, it was anathema to waste anything. Here we are five years into a war, a quagmire with no end in sight (despite all the talk of immanent "victory" tonight**) that has now lasted longer than WWII, and what sacrifices have we as a people made through its duration? Oh, I forgot, our commander-in-chief recently gave up his golf game in honor of the troops. But what about the rest of us? Some folks are now finally giving up their unnecessary and inefficient SUVs or striving to consolidate trips since it seems gas will never go under three and a half bucks a gallon again. But just as many are refusing to change their habits, rather, they are clamoring for us to exhaust any and every potential drill site, foolishly believing that American oil companies (heavily subsidized by the American government, incidentally - in other words, corporate welfare funded by your tax dollars) will actually sell American oil to Americans, as opposed to the highest bidder, once they pull it out of our ground. Even in a Pollyanna world where they manage to safely, efficiently, and cleanly get every last drop and actually sell it to Americans at a reasonable price, it's enough to meet 5% of our current demand. That's not even a band aid. We need to start changing NOW, and be willing to make some sacrifices in the process.
As Dave would say, EVERYBODY WAKE UP!
Peace,
Catrina
**Just wondering - when Gov. Palin says "victory" does she mean it in the same way that a jump-suited Pres. Bush meant "mission accomplished" on the decks of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln five years ago?
I know - she's not the only one proving she can be catty and snarky tonight. . .
She also affirmed what I suspected from the moment she was announced - that a McCain/Palin administration will be another 4 years of the same as far as energy policy, and I quote "we will lay more pipeline, build more nuclear plants, burn more clean coal, and move forward on [renewables]." Once again, as we've heard repeatedly over the past 8 years, the plan is direct action to ramp up our consumption of non-renewables, with vague lip service paid to developing renewable energy. . .some day. Yet she supposedly stood up to big oil as governor.
This is the top issue for me in this election - more so than the war and the economy, though those are also very strong concerns - but if we don't get on top of this and shift to a more renewable and sustainable energy policy now, we're going to have a lot more war and a lot deeper economic problems in the future. Yes, it's going to cost money, but it's also going to save money in the long run (once you've got the technology to utilize them, sunlight and wind are abundant and free), and it's going to create money for all the scientists and skilled laborers and venture capitalists who make the shift into this field, those who will develop the technology, learn how to build and maintain it, and front the money to get the stuff built. Yes, that in-between time of transitioning between an oil/coal/carbon-based economy and a renewable/sustainable economy may be a little rough, and being the good progressive that I am, I'd say we ought to anticipate who will be hit the hardest and do what we can to make that transition smoother and easier for them.
But I'd also say we need to take a page out of the Silent Generation's playbook and learn to just suck it up and be willing to make some economic sacrifices for the good of this country. During WWII they rationed staples and gasoline and grew victory gardens, women stopped wearing pantyhose, they recycled as much as possible, it was anathema to waste anything. Here we are five years into a war, a quagmire with no end in sight (despite all the talk of immanent "victory" tonight**) that has now lasted longer than WWII, and what sacrifices have we as a people made through its duration? Oh, I forgot, our commander-in-chief recently gave up his golf game in honor of the troops. But what about the rest of us? Some folks are now finally giving up their unnecessary and inefficient SUVs or striving to consolidate trips since it seems gas will never go under three and a half bucks a gallon again. But just as many are refusing to change their habits, rather, they are clamoring for us to exhaust any and every potential drill site, foolishly believing that American oil companies (heavily subsidized by the American government, incidentally - in other words, corporate welfare funded by your tax dollars) will actually sell American oil to Americans, as opposed to the highest bidder, once they pull it out of our ground. Even in a Pollyanna world where they manage to safely, efficiently, and cleanly get every last drop and actually sell it to Americans at a reasonable price, it's enough to meet 5% of our current demand. That's not even a band aid. We need to start changing NOW, and be willing to make some sacrifices in the process.
As Dave would say, EVERYBODY WAKE UP!
Peace,
Catrina
**Just wondering - when Gov. Palin says "victory" does she mean it in the same way that a jump-suited Pres. Bush meant "mission accomplished" on the decks of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln five years ago?
I know - she's not the only one proving she can be catty and snarky tonight. . .
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The Swiftboating Begins
The past couple of days, there has been a commercial running rather often here in PA, questioning what we really "know" about Barack Obama, and bringing up his connection to William Ayers of the Weather Underground once again. They go into great detail about Ayers' terroristic behavior (emphasizing his lack of repentance), and try to scare folks by making it sound like he and Obama are BFFs and served together on a left-wing think tank.
The truth: Ayers and Obama are both strong public figures in Chicago (Ayers serving as a professor at the University of Illinois - Chicago; Obama as a state and now national senator). They did serve as colleagues on a board together, for the Woods Fund of Chicago. A word about the Fund's mission, from their own website:
Engaging people in civic life (hmm. . .seems the founders thought that was a pretty good idea), addressing the root causes of poverty, promoting more effective public policies (aka making government work better!), reducing racism and barriers to equal opportunity, and building a sense of community (as American as apple pie, if you ask me) are now radical left-wing causes, the support of which may imply you are an America-hating terrorist? Who knew?!
Oh wait, I forgot. . .as Dom Helder Camara said, if you just feed the poor they'll call you a saint. If you start asking why people are poor, they'll call you a communist.
The truth: Ayers and Obama are both strong public figures in Chicago (Ayers serving as a professor at the University of Illinois - Chicago; Obama as a state and now national senator). They did serve as colleagues on a board together, for the Woods Fund of Chicago. A word about the Fund's mission, from their own website:
The foundation works primarily as a funding partner with nonprofit organizations. Woods supports nonprofits in their important roles of engaging people in civic life, addressing the causes of poverty and other challenges facing the region, promoting more effective public policies, reducing racism and other barriers to equal opportunity, and building a sense of community and common ground.
Engaging people in civic life (hmm. . .seems the founders thought that was a pretty good idea), addressing the root causes of poverty, promoting more effective public policies (aka making government work better!), reducing racism and barriers to equal opportunity, and building a sense of community (as American as apple pie, if you ask me) are now radical left-wing causes, the support of which may imply you are an America-hating terrorist? Who knew?!
Oh wait, I forgot. . .as Dom Helder Camara said, if you just feed the poor they'll call you a saint. If you start asking why people are poor, they'll call you a communist.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
On Bitterness and Elitism
"A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is."
- Martin Luther, Heidelberg Disuptation
I can't believe Hillary is still playing up the elitism spin on Obama's comments. Today in the middle of the 5 pm news, a commercial ran, approved by her, showing "random" Pennsylvanians on the street talking about how offended they were by the comments.
For the record, here's what actually shook down (as reported in the Washington Post):
Here's me again:
First, he's actually doing what Luther advises in his explanation to the eighth commandment (in the Small Catechism)- he's trying to explain his neighbor's words and actions in the best possible light, trying to understand WHY there is an apathy and bitterness and distrust toward government in many places in rural America.
Answer me this: how is trying to understand where someone else is coming from, and trying to explain that to someone from a very different background, being elitist? On the contrary, to me, it is the epitome of compassion (literally, "to suffer together" or "to suffer with").
Second, what he said is true. My right to say that is a little sketch, as I am a non-native "outisder" who's only been living here for three years (though I would contend sometimes the gift of outsiders is they can see things natives can't). But if you don't want to take my word for it, Andy and Meg are native central Pennsylvanians (Andy a pastor, Meg a social worker for the foster care system), and they were not only not offended, but agreed with Obama's analysis. So did Robert Reich.
Because the hard facts on the ground are, people here HAVE been beaten down by the economy for a long time - everywhere you go, you see old factory buildings that are shut down, often because the company moved overseas. And that is not just ancient history - three years ago when I moved here, La-Z-Boy had bought out one of the last major local factories/employers, Pennsylvania House Furniture, and shut it down to move operations to China. It is TREMENDOUSLY offensive to people that the furniture still bears the name "Pennsylvania House" when it is no longer made in Pennsylvania, especially since it is being made by "foreigners."
They have also, to an extent, been beaten down by, or at least lost opportunities to, "outsiders." The highest percentage of my parishioners do or did work for "Chef's" - Chef Boyardee, which became American Home Foods, which became (and is now) ConAgra. One of the most revealing conversations I had was over a year ago, with someone retired from Chef's, who told me the company has a strong policy of non-fraternization between management and regular worker bees. Additionally, when they first started working for the company, regular workers who showed potential could advance up to management, but then policy changed - to be a manager you had to have a college degree. All of a sudden, they had to answer to all these outsiders schooled in management theory but with no organic knowledge of their particular plant, and you had to do what they said even if you knew it was incorrect. And there was no getting to know them as a real person inside or outside the workplace.
[A whole lot of tumblers clicked into place after that conversation. It helped me understand the vibe of resistance and suspicion I felt in the congregation when I first arrived (and still feel on occasion), because there I was, an overeducated outsider with no organic knowledge of the particular context, being placed in a "managerial" position in a system and a culture that defers to the pastor - even when they do so grudgingly.]
Now in Lewisburg, you've got Bucknell University added into the mix, which only serves to underscore the disparity between those who have (again, mostly coming in from the outside) and those who are working hard just to scrape by. Bucknell estimates a price tag of $43,380 for the 2008-2009 school year - when the median income in the borough is $30,137, and in most of the surrounding county is $37,000ish. Many of the students drive nicer, newer, fancier cars and have more disposable/discretionary income than people in two-income homes in the community. According to a few sources, in the week between finals and graduation, the students head down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where it is not uncommon for parents to plop down thousands of dollars renting beach homes and sponsoring a week-long drunkfest for their children. That's an egregious waste of money any way you slice it, but is especially abhorrent to someone who makes minimum wage with no paid vacation, or who had to work an entire year before they earned a week of paid vacation.
Add to this the horrendous inefficiencies of the Pennsylvania government. An example: when I went to register my car here, something that would have meant one stop at the DMV in MN, I had to go to three different offices to complete the process. I went to the DMV to get my driver's license, then had to go to a place called Tri-County Tags to transfer my title. Talk about bitter - you know Marge's sisters on _The Simpsons_ (hostile, chain-smoking, DMV workers with NO interest in helping you whatsoever)? It's like Matt Groening based them on the employees of Tri-County Tags. But what's worse - they are not an office of the state, they are subcontractors. $50 of the fee you pay goes to them directly, and all the paperwork says clearly that, as subcontractors, they are NOT RESPONSIBLE for any mistake the state may make on your application. So if the state office makes an error, you have just flushed $50 down the toilet, which you'll have the priviledge of paying again when Tri- County Tags resubmits your application. THEN I had to go to yet a third place to get my vehicle "inspected" - which has nothing to do with emissions, but is supposed to test roadworthiness (I could maybe get behind this if it was ever enforced, but it isn't - there's a person in the community who drives a hunk of junk that failed inspection and everybody knows it and everybody knows someday this is going to cause a horrible accident that might even kill somebody, but they never get picked up and cited for failing inspection).
By the end of that day, I was so frustrated by the whole experience that even I, the Progressive pseudo-socialist Midwesterner, was pounding my steering wheel and muttering "No wonder people here hate and distrust the government!" And the irony was not lost on me that my frustrations were all with the subcontractors, which were not actually government offices. But that left me even more frustrated and confused as to what kind of messed-up government subcontracts out those kinds of public services, why the DMV couldn't have handled it all.
All of which is to say, as I believe Barack himself was trying to say, there are some good reasons for people to feel bitter and disenfranchised around here. And it's a great temptation, when you are bitter and disenfranchised, to start scapegoating other people for the overwhelming problems you are facing - whether that scapegoating happens in relation to your next door neighbor who looks just like you (and believe me, this is a culture that can hold a grudge) or in relation to a group of outsiders not at all like you. It's a great temptation to start thinking of the world in terms of black and white, us and them, it's hard not to listen to the people who drive the wedge further in, who play off your fears and resentments, who promise a substitute security or a false sense of power and control over your own livelihood and/or salvation.
The sad thing is, Obama's getting raked over the coals when he's the one brave enough to call the thing what it is, to call the government on its neglect, to call the people on their apathy and anger. The sad thing is, he's the guy who truly wants to empower the people to work together toward a more perfect union, to bring voices to the table that have long been ignored, to disenfranchise the corporations that have so long set the rules to their own advantage and screwed the people in the process. But once again, the fear-mongering powers that be are working like mad, using sound-bytes and wedge issues to convince people to vote against their own best interest.
- Martin Luther, Heidelberg Disuptation
I can't believe Hillary is still playing up the elitism spin on Obama's comments. Today in the middle of the 5 pm news, a commercial ran, approved by her, showing "random" Pennsylvanians on the street talking about how offended they were by the comments.
For the record, here's what actually shook down (as reported in the Washington Post):
Obama's comments came at the end of a lengthy answer in which he rejected the notion that voters were passing him over simply for racial reasons, saying instead that his campaign of hope and change was having difficulty in "places where people feel most cynical about government."
"Everybody just ascribes it to 'white working-class . . . don't want to vote for the black guy,' " Obama said at the fundraiser.
"Here's how it is: In a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long. They feel so betrayed by government that when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama, then that adds another layer of skepticism."
You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them.
And they fell through the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not," he went on. "And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Here's me again:
First, he's actually doing what Luther advises in his explanation to the eighth commandment (in the Small Catechism)- he's trying to explain his neighbor's words and actions in the best possible light, trying to understand WHY there is an apathy and bitterness and distrust toward government in many places in rural America.
Answer me this: how is trying to understand where someone else is coming from, and trying to explain that to someone from a very different background, being elitist? On the contrary, to me, it is the epitome of compassion (literally, "to suffer together" or "to suffer with").
Second, what he said is true. My right to say that is a little sketch, as I am a non-native "outisder" who's only been living here for three years (though I would contend sometimes the gift of outsiders is they can see things natives can't). But if you don't want to take my word for it, Andy and Meg are native central Pennsylvanians (Andy a pastor, Meg a social worker for the foster care system), and they were not only not offended, but agreed with Obama's analysis. So did Robert Reich.
Because the hard facts on the ground are, people here HAVE been beaten down by the economy for a long time - everywhere you go, you see old factory buildings that are shut down, often because the company moved overseas. And that is not just ancient history - three years ago when I moved here, La-Z-Boy had bought out one of the last major local factories/employers, Pennsylvania House Furniture, and shut it down to move operations to China. It is TREMENDOUSLY offensive to people that the furniture still bears the name "Pennsylvania House" when it is no longer made in Pennsylvania, especially since it is being made by "foreigners."
They have also, to an extent, been beaten down by, or at least lost opportunities to, "outsiders." The highest percentage of my parishioners do or did work for "Chef's" - Chef Boyardee, which became American Home Foods, which became (and is now) ConAgra. One of the most revealing conversations I had was over a year ago, with someone retired from Chef's, who told me the company has a strong policy of non-fraternization between management and regular worker bees. Additionally, when they first started working for the company, regular workers who showed potential could advance up to management, but then policy changed - to be a manager you had to have a college degree. All of a sudden, they had to answer to all these outsiders schooled in management theory but with no organic knowledge of their particular plant, and you had to do what they said even if you knew it was incorrect. And there was no getting to know them as a real person inside or outside the workplace.
[A whole lot of tumblers clicked into place after that conversation. It helped me understand the vibe of resistance and suspicion I felt in the congregation when I first arrived (and still feel on occasion), because there I was, an overeducated outsider with no organic knowledge of the particular context, being placed in a "managerial" position in a system and a culture that defers to the pastor - even when they do so grudgingly.]
Now in Lewisburg, you've got Bucknell University added into the mix, which only serves to underscore the disparity between those who have (again, mostly coming in from the outside) and those who are working hard just to scrape by. Bucknell estimates a price tag of $43,380 for the 2008-2009 school year - when the median income in the borough is $30,137, and in most of the surrounding county is $37,000ish. Many of the students drive nicer, newer, fancier cars and have more disposable/discretionary income than people in two-income homes in the community. According to a few sources, in the week between finals and graduation, the students head down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where it is not uncommon for parents to plop down thousands of dollars renting beach homes and sponsoring a week-long drunkfest for their children. That's an egregious waste of money any way you slice it, but is especially abhorrent to someone who makes minimum wage with no paid vacation, or who had to work an entire year before they earned a week of paid vacation.
Add to this the horrendous inefficiencies of the Pennsylvania government. An example: when I went to register my car here, something that would have meant one stop at the DMV in MN, I had to go to three different offices to complete the process. I went to the DMV to get my driver's license, then had to go to a place called Tri-County Tags to transfer my title. Talk about bitter - you know Marge's sisters on _The Simpsons_ (hostile, chain-smoking, DMV workers with NO interest in helping you whatsoever)? It's like Matt Groening based them on the employees of Tri-County Tags. But what's worse - they are not an office of the state, they are subcontractors. $50 of the fee you pay goes to them directly, and all the paperwork says clearly that, as subcontractors, they are NOT RESPONSIBLE for any mistake the state may make on your application. So if the state office makes an error, you have just flushed $50 down the toilet, which you'll have the priviledge of paying again when Tri- County Tags resubmits your application. THEN I had to go to yet a third place to get my vehicle "inspected" - which has nothing to do with emissions, but is supposed to test roadworthiness (I could maybe get behind this if it was ever enforced, but it isn't - there's a person in the community who drives a hunk of junk that failed inspection and everybody knows it and everybody knows someday this is going to cause a horrible accident that might even kill somebody, but they never get picked up and cited for failing inspection).
By the end of that day, I was so frustrated by the whole experience that even I, the Progressive pseudo-socialist Midwesterner, was pounding my steering wheel and muttering "No wonder people here hate and distrust the government!" And the irony was not lost on me that my frustrations were all with the subcontractors, which were not actually government offices. But that left me even more frustrated and confused as to what kind of messed-up government subcontracts out those kinds of public services, why the DMV couldn't have handled it all.
All of which is to say, as I believe Barack himself was trying to say, there are some good reasons for people to feel bitter and disenfranchised around here. And it's a great temptation, when you are bitter and disenfranchised, to start scapegoating other people for the overwhelming problems you are facing - whether that scapegoating happens in relation to your next door neighbor who looks just like you (and believe me, this is a culture that can hold a grudge) or in relation to a group of outsiders not at all like you. It's a great temptation to start thinking of the world in terms of black and white, us and them, it's hard not to listen to the people who drive the wedge further in, who play off your fears and resentments, who promise a substitute security or a false sense of power and control over your own livelihood and/or salvation.
The sad thing is, Obama's getting raked over the coals when he's the one brave enough to call the thing what it is, to call the government on its neglect, to call the people on their apathy and anger. The sad thing is, he's the guy who truly wants to empower the people to work together toward a more perfect union, to bring voices to the table that have long been ignored, to disenfranchise the corporations that have so long set the rules to their own advantage and screwed the people in the process. But once again, the fear-mongering powers that be are working like mad, using sound-bytes and wedge issues to convince people to vote against their own best interest.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Obama at the Forum
My friend Andy rocks the casbah. He, along with his friends Chris and Dennis, got up at 3 am Saturday and drove to Harrisburg, to be in line by 5 am for first come, first serve tickets to Obama's town hall meeting at the Forum (they didn't start handing out tickets until 9 am). It was only supposed to be one ticket per person, and Andy had tried to get a hold of me Friday night and see if I wanted to go down with them, but I didn't get the message until Saturday morning when it was too late to join them.
BUT, it turned out the first however many people could get TWO tickets a piece, and they were close enough to the front that they got them, one for Andy's wife Meg, and one for me.
So yesterday after church I wolfed down some lunch, then Chris picked me up, then drove to Dennis' to pick him up and meet up with Andy and Meg, then we caravaned to downtown, parked in Dennis' sister's apartment lot, and walked to The Forum. It was still two hours before they opened the doors, but we wanted good seats.
I've been keeping an eye on Obama since he won the Senate seat in 2004. In fact, I sent an e-mail to all my friends a month after that, right after I came back from the SOA/WHISC protest , calling for a Martin Sheen/Barack Obama ticket in 2008 (I put him in the veep spot then because he was a lesser known entity, and I wasn't sure the country as a whole was ready for a black frontrunner - plus, West Wing was really popular at that time, so I thought Sheen would have an "incumbant advantage" with the kind of folks that show up on "Jaywalking").
But I digress - my point is, Obama's been my candidate of choice since he announced he was running. So I was thrilled to have a chance to hear him in person. And I was not disappointed - the man is brilliant, articulate, and engaging, and he really believes in this little experiment called America, he really believes in both the power and the empowering of the people - that was evident throughout the night, from the Harrisburg campaign organizer who spoke at the very beginning, through Barack's opening comments and unscripted answers to spontaneous audience questions, all the way to the campaign volunteers inviting more people to join and volunteer as we were leaving. He is a true Progressive, his policies and his rhetoric embody a Lutheran-esque dialectic - there is a distinct role and function for the government, but government can't do everything, people have also got to step up.
And, in my opinion, people are much more likely to step up if they're invited. In my opinion, he's the first politician who has TRULY extended that invitation - to participate in the process, to have a voice at the table, to step up to your responsibilities in your own community and your own life - in a LONG time.
It was by far the most racially diverse, and most racially balanced, political gathering that I have ever been to, which was cool in itself. There was also a greater diversity of chants going on in the crowd, including some that were much more rhythmic than what is usually heard at gatherings where the majority of attendees are white - as a lifelong musician and people watcher, I found that interesting.
Andy taped the whole meeting and will be posting it on YouTube - look up "Obama's White Preacher" for the footage.
Also, WHTM, the abc affiliate in Harrisburg, interviewed the lady standing right in front of us in line. They framed it really tight, so Andy and Chris were cut out, and I am standing right behind the woman from the camera's point of view. But that'd be Meg and Dennis standing behind her on the right side of the screen. And at one point, she moves her head a little and you can see my ear and a little burst of red hair.
Hillary's still ahead in the polls here, but it's a long way to April 22. So if you're in PA, or you're an Obama supporter somewhere else in the country, stand up and keep fighting, because
YES, WE CAN.
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