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Monday, December 27, 2010
Prompt:: Washing the Sins from Under My Skin
Tomorrow is the day I will wash the sins from under my skin. I said that yesterday, but when today got here I found I had too much laundry. Three loads and the time it takes to hang it all out to dry in the treeless back yard, flapping over gray grass too tired to fight the wind lays down before I even step on it. And the dishes, with caked on cheese from the lasagna I made last night. And it seems the kids were even messier than usual, perhaps conspiring to keep me busy pulling sheets and blankest out of vents and fluffing pillows out of the toy box. And how is it so much dust has landed on surfaces overnight? All this must be finished first. And in front of the house there is a small bed of tulips that had never quite kept the bright yellow promise of the packages. These need watering. And further down the walk is the mailbox full of ciculars and one bill with red all capital letters stamped across the face of the envelope: FINAL. NOTICE. Peeling the bill from its folds obligates me to find the checkbook, which takes a little rooting around in the desk drawers, and the sitting and sighing, and resting my chin in my palm as a tear leaves home, and runs away down my face to drop onto the signature line. My sins will have to wait until tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
10 Minute Prompt: What anticipation has haunted you?
I hadn't seen
Aunt Arly and Uncle Leck
in three years.
During that time I had
moved to Europe,
grown six inches,
and lost my Southern accent.
Also in that time
Arly's arteries
had hardened
and Leck's vein
had seeped so much
blood into his brain
that he lost the ability
to speak and to walk.
Before going to the nursing home
I heard my grandmother telling my mother
in another room
that Uncle Leck had asked
someone to bring him
a gun
so he could shoot
Arly and himself.
I remembered Uncle Leck
as a strong man of the earth,
in a white tee shirt;
a man just past his prime,
but the idea hadn't
quite caught up to him.
His house was in good repair.
The fig tree out back
grew huge leaves and
gave bushels of figs.
Arly in her bright white apron
swung open the screen door and
called all the kids in
for peach pie and ice cream.
Time had been cruel to them.
I couldn't imagine what
could have happened
in the last three years
to bring them so low
that Arly recognised me
as my mother
and Leck dreamed only
of the smell of gunsmoke.
Aunt Arly and Uncle Leck
in three years.
During that time I had
moved to Europe,
grown six inches,
and lost my Southern accent.
Also in that time
Arly's arteries
had hardened
and Leck's vein
had seeped so much
blood into his brain
that he lost the ability
to speak and to walk.
Before going to the nursing home
I heard my grandmother telling my mother
in another room
that Uncle Leck had asked
someone to bring him
a gun
so he could shoot
Arly and himself.
I remembered Uncle Leck
as a strong man of the earth,
in a white tee shirt;
a man just past his prime,
but the idea hadn't
quite caught up to him.
His house was in good repair.
The fig tree out back
grew huge leaves and
gave bushels of figs.
Arly in her bright white apron
swung open the screen door and
called all the kids in
for peach pie and ice cream.
Time had been cruel to them.
I couldn't imagine what
could have happened
in the last three years
to bring them so low
that Arly recognised me
as my mother
and Leck dreamed only
of the smell of gunsmoke.
Friday, December 10, 2010
10 Minute Prompt: What is Your Super Power?
Everyone has a Super Power. Not everyone knows it. Some people spend their whole lifetime without discovering what their Super Power is. Conversely, not everyone can tell when people are using their Super Powers. Sometimes their Super Power is being able sit quietly and look interested while they are really making grocery lists in their heads, or planning keggers, or reliving their last Hawaiian vacation. And some people’s Super Power is super annoying, like when they can remember every singe thing you’ve ever said to them and they remind you of it later when you contradict yourself, or change your mind. But that’s another story for another day. My Super Power is the Laugh Ray. I can shoot the Laugh Ray out of my mouth anytime I feel bored, or stressed, or when things are just getting too serious for no good reason, and whoever I aim at just falls over laughing. I have made robbers drop their loot in a fit of hilarity. But I wasn’t born knowing how to use my Super Power. I have had to learn to use my Laugh Ray judiciously, over time.
Before I was old enough to go to school I would use the Laugh Ray on my mom when she looked harried while trying to get dinner cooked. She would look at me and laugh so hard, doubling over, eyes closed, gripping the spatula to her chest, the food would burn and she would have to start all over again from scratch. So that wasn’t as helpful as I had hoped.
When I was in High School I would use it when I was bored in Mr. Nelson’s history class. While Mr. Nelson was describing the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland he would double over laughing, trailing a chalk line across the green chalk board from the last R in ”Storm Trooper.” Sitting in detention is not the outcome I had in mind.
As an adult I find it useful to whip out the Laugh Ray when others around me stray into social territory that is dangerous to me. Like when I’m on a bus, minding my own business, and some guy sits down next to me and starts telling me how his next door neighbor is using remote viewing to follow him around his apartment, and is shooting rays through the wall into his apartment to burn his linoleum tiles and release asbestos into the air, and how the aliens are abducting people and engineering a whole new race of human beings. I whip out my Laugh Ray and before you know it, he is laughing his way all the way up the aisle to a seat near the driver.
Once I was at a party and the host says “You know if gays are allowed to marry the next thing you know people will be trying to marry their dogs...” When no one was looking I turned on my Laugh Ray and before you knew it everyone was laughing so hard, pointing their fingers at one another, holding their sides, and all intentions to hate on gays was forgotten.
It can come in handy in more personal situations too, like when I’m hanging out with someone new, and I like her, say on a second date, and she starts talking about her feelings, and that she really wants kids but would rather get a dog first to see how we parent together. I open my mouth as if to say “I think that’s a great idea,” but instead I turn on the Laugh Ray. Pretty soon we’re having a good time again.
All in all, my Super Power has allowed me to dodge many bullets.
Before I was old enough to go to school I would use the Laugh Ray on my mom when she looked harried while trying to get dinner cooked. She would look at me and laugh so hard, doubling over, eyes closed, gripping the spatula to her chest, the food would burn and she would have to start all over again from scratch. So that wasn’t as helpful as I had hoped.
When I was in High School I would use it when I was bored in Mr. Nelson’s history class. While Mr. Nelson was describing the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland he would double over laughing, trailing a chalk line across the green chalk board from the last R in ”Storm Trooper.” Sitting in detention is not the outcome I had in mind.
As an adult I find it useful to whip out the Laugh Ray when others around me stray into social territory that is dangerous to me. Like when I’m on a bus, minding my own business, and some guy sits down next to me and starts telling me how his next door neighbor is using remote viewing to follow him around his apartment, and is shooting rays through the wall into his apartment to burn his linoleum tiles and release asbestos into the air, and how the aliens are abducting people and engineering a whole new race of human beings. I whip out my Laugh Ray and before you know it, he is laughing his way all the way up the aisle to a seat near the driver.
Once I was at a party and the host says “You know if gays are allowed to marry the next thing you know people will be trying to marry their dogs...” When no one was looking I turned on my Laugh Ray and before you knew it everyone was laughing so hard, pointing their fingers at one another, holding their sides, and all intentions to hate on gays was forgotten.
It can come in handy in more personal situations too, like when I’m hanging out with someone new, and I like her, say on a second date, and she starts talking about her feelings, and that she really wants kids but would rather get a dog first to see how we parent together. I open my mouth as if to say “I think that’s a great idea,” but instead I turn on the Laugh Ray. Pretty soon we’re having a good time again.
All in all, my Super Power has allowed me to dodge many bullets.
10 Minute Prompt: Sometimes You Just Gotta
Sometimes you just gotta say “NO!” When you’re tired, or you’re hungry, or you’re angry, or you’re lonely. When your friend calls to complain that the love of their life who they simply cannot imagine themselves without has broken up with them, for the fifteenth time and isn’t that just horrible, only you haven’t heard from your friend since the 12th time and that was 8 months ago? That’s a good time to say “no.”
Sometimes you just gotta scream. When you work day in and week out to make a better world, a place for yourself that is warm, safe, cushioned, furnished and then one night someone breaks the window and climbs in, uninvited, to help themselves to your last beer, that’s a good time to scream.
Sometimes you just gotta eat the whole pint of ice cream. Like when you’ve tried so hard to make it work and you’ve compromised and you’ve gone to couples counseling and she still breaks up with you for the 15th time, that’s a good time to eat the whole pint of ice cream.
Sometimes you just gotta reach out and grab what you want. When you’ve walked past that store every day, twice, and seen that diamond encrusted Rolex, and that ruby ring, and that adorable shih tzu puppy, and your piss-poor job hasn’t paid you enough though you’ve worked yourself sick and compromised all your values, that’s a good time to walk in, distract the sales person, and take it.
Sometimes you just gotta scream. When you work day in and week out to make a better world, a place for yourself that is warm, safe, cushioned, furnished and then one night someone breaks the window and climbs in, uninvited, to help themselves to your last beer, that’s a good time to scream.
Sometimes you just gotta eat the whole pint of ice cream. Like when you’ve tried so hard to make it work and you’ve compromised and you’ve gone to couples counseling and she still breaks up with you for the 15th time, that’s a good time to eat the whole pint of ice cream.
Sometimes you just gotta reach out and grab what you want. When you’ve walked past that store every day, twice, and seen that diamond encrusted Rolex, and that ruby ring, and that adorable shih tzu puppy, and your piss-poor job hasn’t paid you enough though you’ve worked yourself sick and compromised all your values, that’s a good time to walk in, distract the sales person, and take it.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
A Girl Is A Dangerous Thing (10 Minute Free Write)
I knocked on his door to see if he was OK. The apartment manager had sent me, suspecting the tenant was having trouble, maybe his health was failing, maybe his mind was going. It was my job to identify needs and offer resources. I thought I heard a rustle behind the door, but no answer. I rang the bell. His bell was the first I had rung all day that worked perfectly as it was designed. It made an off-key bing-bong triggered by the push and release of a black button just underneath the peep hole. The tenant opened the door as wide as his own body and leaned out into the hall. I introduced myself with a smile, patting my chest as I said my name. He remembered me perfectly from his visit to my office a year ago.
He opened his door wider and invited me in. I realized how warm the hallway was as the cold threw its arm around me in his apartment. He was wearing a scarf that looked hand knitted. But his bald head was bare. I wasn't sure how he could feel warm, it had to be under 50 degrees in his one-bedroom apartment. And bird-thin 80 somethings are notoriously cold blooded. My goal was to see if he was having any problems keeping up with his housekeeping or personal hygiene. So far so good, though his apartment was cluttered there was no odor. And clutter was about all he had.
I saw only 4 pieces of furniture in the living room area: three wooden folding chairs and a wooden TV tray aspiring to a desk. On the wall above the make-shift desk was a sizable collection of clippings from newspaper and magazine stories featuring aliens. They were all the short, gray-skinned variety with the large egg-shaped head and black eyes. On another wall were several pictures of a dark-haired man with dark skin and an infectious smile.
I asked him about his income, his recent troubles, and his options for assistance. He talked to me about UFOs, abductees, the Baba who gave him the gift of fragrance, how he'd lived most of his adult life in sexual abstinence, and parthenogenesis. He had studied Hinduism at the Theosophical Society. He had served in the Army. His eyes shone as he told me that one in every 100 women was parthenogenic. I was a blue-gill hooked on his line. Who are those women and how could we tell them apart? For him it was enough that they existed.
They are the perfect essence of humanity, women born of woman without sperm -- the ovum splitting into itself, imploding into an embryo. The perfect being. Was it possible Jesus was really a parthenogenic woman? I kept that question to myself. I remembered reading about a woman who had been knocked unconscious during a bombing in London during WWII and who later found herself to be pregnant. The only explanation for her pregnancy, since she claimed she hadn't had sex and no one could prove her wrong, was that her ovum had spontaneously fertilized itself. This theory was supported by the baby herself when she grew into a tiny carbon copy of her mother. Her conception was at once a rejection of millions of years of reproduction and a leap into immortality and divinity. That little girl represented a world without men.
The man tapped a one inch square baggie that was pinned to the wall under a photo of the dark haired man. That's the last little bit of the fragrance, condensed from what's left over after incense is burned....
He opened his door wider and invited me in. I realized how warm the hallway was as the cold threw its arm around me in his apartment. He was wearing a scarf that looked hand knitted. But his bald head was bare. I wasn't sure how he could feel warm, it had to be under 50 degrees in his one-bedroom apartment. And bird-thin 80 somethings are notoriously cold blooded. My goal was to see if he was having any problems keeping up with his housekeeping or personal hygiene. So far so good, though his apartment was cluttered there was no odor. And clutter was about all he had.
I saw only 4 pieces of furniture in the living room area: three wooden folding chairs and a wooden TV tray aspiring to a desk. On the wall above the make-shift desk was a sizable collection of clippings from newspaper and magazine stories featuring aliens. They were all the short, gray-skinned variety with the large egg-shaped head and black eyes. On another wall were several pictures of a dark-haired man with dark skin and an infectious smile.
I asked him about his income, his recent troubles, and his options for assistance. He talked to me about UFOs, abductees, the Baba who gave him the gift of fragrance, how he'd lived most of his adult life in sexual abstinence, and parthenogenesis. He had studied Hinduism at the Theosophical Society. He had served in the Army. His eyes shone as he told me that one in every 100 women was parthenogenic. I was a blue-gill hooked on his line. Who are those women and how could we tell them apart? For him it was enough that they existed.
They are the perfect essence of humanity, women born of woman without sperm -- the ovum splitting into itself, imploding into an embryo. The perfect being. Was it possible Jesus was really a parthenogenic woman? I kept that question to myself. I remembered reading about a woman who had been knocked unconscious during a bombing in London during WWII and who later found herself to be pregnant. The only explanation for her pregnancy, since she claimed she hadn't had sex and no one could prove her wrong, was that her ovum had spontaneously fertilized itself. This theory was supported by the baby herself when she grew into a tiny carbon copy of her mother. Her conception was at once a rejection of millions of years of reproduction and a leap into immortality and divinity. That little girl represented a world without men.
The man tapped a one inch square baggie that was pinned to the wall under a photo of the dark haired man. That's the last little bit of the fragrance, condensed from what's left over after incense is burned....
Bent Showcase Spoken Word (in writing)
Our fingers touched as we both reached for the last strawberry.
“Oh, please, you take it.” I said turning my hand over to a palm.
“Oh, no, I couldn’t. You take it.” She said, mimicking my palm.
I am the hostess. My mother would turn in her grave if she caught me taking the last of anything while entertaining a guest.
“I’m not really hungry for more. I was just going to finish the last lonely strawberry. It looks juicy. You should take it.” I insisted.
“No, really, I was only taking it to seem nice.” she said, her smile turned down coyly
“Well, I’m not going to eat it now. You might as well. It will go to waste. You know you want it” I said, and pushed the dish towards her.
She pushed it back, “I’m pretty sure you want it.” Her smile got bigger and warmer.
I took a deep breath. I wasn’t sure whether I was losing my patience or ready to find a new way. I picked up the strawberry, carefully pinching the green cap to keep from touching the succulent fruit. I waved it slowly under her nose so she could smell how ripe and ready the fruit was.
She pushed my hand away. I was so surprised and distracted by her touch that the strawberry was almost pushed into my mouth before I realized what she was doing. She laughed when I ducked my hand under hers.
I took a deep breath. I knew what I had to do. I looked her right in the eye and thrust my hand forward so that the strawberry opened up on her face, dripping red juice on her lips.
“Oh, please, you take it.” I said turning my hand over to a palm.
“Oh, no, I couldn’t. You take it.” She said, mimicking my palm.
I am the hostess. My mother would turn in her grave if she caught me taking the last of anything while entertaining a guest.
“I’m not really hungry for more. I was just going to finish the last lonely strawberry. It looks juicy. You should take it.” I insisted.
“No, really, I was only taking it to seem nice.” she said, her smile turned down coyly
“Well, I’m not going to eat it now. You might as well. It will go to waste. You know you want it” I said, and pushed the dish towards her.
She pushed it back, “I’m pretty sure you want it.” Her smile got bigger and warmer.
I took a deep breath. I wasn’t sure whether I was losing my patience or ready to find a new way. I picked up the strawberry, carefully pinching the green cap to keep from touching the succulent fruit. I waved it slowly under her nose so she could smell how ripe and ready the fruit was.
She pushed my hand away. I was so surprised and distracted by her touch that the strawberry was almost pushed into my mouth before I realized what she was doing. She laughed when I ducked my hand under hers.
I took a deep breath. I knew what I had to do. I looked her right in the eye and thrust my hand forward so that the strawberry opened up on her face, dripping red juice on her lips.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
A Conversation about Poverty
A while back I had this really wonderful discussion about poverty, politics, culture, and economics. D. got the ball rolling and she had some interesting thoughts. I am also thinking about using my responses as writing samples for my applications to academic programs.
D. WROTE: Hi Caren! Since you are a social worker and a woman, I knew you would be just the person I needed to ask this question of: how certain are you that the cure for poverty is the liberation of women? I have heard Oprah say this for years now (in addition to promoting education for women), and her reasons do make sense. I have also heard Hitchens speak of this, but he is referring more to women in Islamic countries. Do you think this is true of US women? Are we not liberated already??
Anyway, just wondering what your thoughts are since you are working in the field and dealing with all walks of life. Brad and I talked about this subject last night, but since he is a MAN he also thinks like a man. :-) Thank you so much for any insight you can provide.
Caren REPLIED:
Wow, what a great way to start my day! To answer your first question, Yes, I agree with Oprah and Hitchens (on this point) that one of the major factors in curing poverty is the liberation of women. I also think this is an oversimplification of a very manifold approach. I see poverty in our country as a function of despotic capitalism. It is a means of maintaining a cheap workforce for menial labor. As a society we are only as well off as our least affluent members. In general, yes, I think that women are fairly liberated here, but I also think that depends on what you mean by liberated. It is within our lifetime, Dawn, that married women have been able to legally open a bank account on their own, without their husband's signature. Women still make approx 75 cents to every dollar a man makes for the same job. Considering that women are not equally compensated, I would have to say that our liberation is still in process.
There are other factors at play on the stage of curing poverty. Women are by far the largest group of significantly disadvantaged people in our society, but class and the perception of race also play a large roll in access to resources. The two most essential resources in building a strong society being education and health care. Not everyone has equal access to these resources. That is my specific experience as a social worker, I see this ALL THE TIME. I believe liberation means equal access. Unfortunately, equal access means cost-sharing. And we do not live in a very sharing culture. Our roots in "rugged individualism" are revealed in every argument in which the words "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" are used. As a society we value the ideals of liberation and equality, but we do not invest in the practice. That is why I believe in funding education and health care, as an investment in the success of our society. I will be comfortable saying that women are fully liberated in our country when it's not news that a woman is being nominated to the Supreme Court, and when we get equal pay for equal work, and when we have equal access to the highest ranking positions in commerce and government. And, no, I don't think having Sarah Palin on the ticket as VP qualifies as equal access. That was the worst example of tokenism I've seen in a long time.
Thank you for asking! Also, I may want to post our correspondence on my blog. Would that be OK with you? I can omit your name.
D. WROTE: You bring up a very valid point regarding women’s rights pertaining to monetary compensation and equal pay for equal work. Perhaps I have been connected with the military too long because, of course, the military is probably one of the few employers providing pay based exclusively on rank and not gender. The question begging to be asked is “why are we allowing ourselves to be paid less for the same work?” How can we force change?
I suppose I subscribe to the “rugged individualism” ideals. Yes, “I” did it myself, so why can’t “they?” I think the majority of society has no problem with offering someone a hand up, but a perpetual handout is much harder to swallow. I use my own family as a very anecdotal example: Someone given hundreds of thousands of dollars to live on over the course of their lifetime, never worked a day in their life, never went to school, and spent their days driving around in an expensive car, using drugs, going to the tanning beds, and essentially doing nothing useful for more than 40 years and completely unmotivated. After all, why bother trying to achieve something on your own when daddy’s wallet is perpetually open? I look at countries operating liberal social medicine programs (England and Germany come to mind) and see the enormous tax burden it places on the masses of working people. Yet, and maybe this would not be the case here, both countries have an entire generation of people who draw pension benefits and receive basically free healthcare, while they themselves have never worked a day in their lives. Are Americans better than that? I cannot adequately address funding education, but I thought we already did to some degree?
Are societies with more social programs more successful as a whole? I suppose one would first have to define success. Wow, I would have to spend a considerable amount of time thinking about that one. I like to think helping someone out for a time would make society a better place, but the unknown outcome is pretty unsettling. I don’t think people don’t care about others or are unyieldingly selfish, but I do believe fear of the unknown leaves most people content to simply go about their business. I also believe most people, at least the ones I know, recoil at the idea that our government would oversee this enormous task.
Have you read, by chance, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood? I was able to see the author (Janise Ray) speak at my university. She offered some amazing insight into various pressing social issues. You might also enjoy her because she hails from Georgia.
Care REPLIED: Here is what I think:
In order to end poverty we need to change our frame of reference from us and them, haves and have nots (I'm not giving up what I've worked so hard for, I will work so hard and never have what that person has) to an attitude of partners. We need to become partners in our combined success, and in doing so hold ourselves and others accountable. We are accountable for the country we live in. Becoming more accountable as people will help us feel more empowered so that the "burden" gets transformed into a contribution. I don't actually hope that our country as a whole will do that, but I know that there are a lot of people out there who work for partnerships to create a better quality of life and more opportunity for everyone. When we are a nation of partners we will see an end to poverty and inequity.
"Handouts" versus "support to succeed." Handouts are a complete waste of resources. Absolutely. But in order to learn children need to be well-nourished. Poverty is a self-perpetuating problem: no money, no food, desperation, crime, health problems without treatment, no education, fewer employment opportunities, no money, and so on. A child who is not fed properly will not learn well and will not succeed academically. Interventions that happen early are shown to work. Headstart. WIC programs. But many of our best programs struggle to be more than a series of handouts. Welfare as we know it should be tied to higher education and employment support. It seems to be moving in that direction. Yes, there are people who will take advantage of any system and not pull their own weight, but I'd be willing to bet that, like most human behavior, there is a bell curve with the vast majority of people doing the best they can and showing up with what they've got, which of course varies from person to person.
I think it is a mistake to withhold services that would improve the quality of life of the whole country just to keep a few people from taking advantage. Plus, the same analogy holds true for corporations, the most egregious examples being the bailouts we've seen in the last 4 years. But I'm not arguing against those bailouts as long as the loans are tied to outcomes and is repaid. Whatever happened to those guys in the 80s, Milken and that lot, did they ever repay their bailout?
Also, a lot of where we are now is still tied to our recent history. Through the practice of Red Lining
in real estate Black families were denied the kind of accumulation of wealth that white families benefited from. I think the banks that participated and profited from Red Lining owe a huge debt to people of color who were cheated. Red Lining was outlawed in 1968, but it's practice devastated entire neighborhoods, and the poverty it created can still be seen today.
I agree with you about growing up in the military, I didn't realize until I was 16 that there was so much inequity. One of the ministers at the church on RAF Lakenheath was the 4th female military chaplain in the entire DOD. 4th! in 1980! I'm not sure how any chaplains there were, but I'm sure it was in the 100s if not the 1000s. And I never saw so many racially and religiously mixed marriages per capita as on base at RAFL. But I didn't keep any statistics... ;)
And yes, the question is why do we undervalue ourselves? But look around, traditionally women's work is undervalued throughout our society. Caregiving, home-making, even teaching are all undervalued in their own way as far as social status and compensation is concerned. I read an article recently that pointed out that businesses and corporations, when polled, indicated that women were paid less because they tend to ask for raises less. Does that mean it's the women's fault for not asking? Or does the employer bear some ethical responsibility to pay everyone at equal levels based on productivity and evaluation/audit results? It certainly goes against my sense of fair play that we, as women, are taught to put our needs last from a very early age, and then it's used it against us to avoid paying us what we are worth. (this is why I like accountability so much: an employer who is accountable to the employees wouldn't tolerate that kind of inequity. And indeed, the government I work for, for better or worse, holds itself accountable to some degree and pay scales are equal among like job titles. I am not arguing that the government is the highest arbiter of fairness, it's just an example of an attempt at equity in pay.
As to the question of how to measure the success of a society, there are a couple of well-accepted standards that point to the over-all health and well-being of a country. GDP is one, and the US is the richest country in the world. Infant mortality is another, and the US is one of the poorest countries in the developed nations. The World Health Organization ranked the US 36th out of all the nations in the world for overall health provisions to its citizens. That's 36th, behind nearly every European nation. Another measure of success could be the overall happiness of a country's citizens. I'm not even sure how this is measured, other than by asking people a series of questions about how happy each individual thinks she or he is. There have been some studies on this, which show that Sweden's people consider themselves very happy. But doesn't Sweden have one of the highest suicide rates? Apparently, what makes the people unhappy enough to kill themselves is the darkness of winter, Vit. D deficiency if you will, not the amount of taxes they pay. So, of course, I prefer the health related measures of success.
As to tax burden: Healthcare, education, and nutrition cost money. We all pay one way or another--either through supporting unemployed people, or by footing the bill for sick people, or by housing criminals in jails and prisons. Taking a meta view of our economy, the cost of doing business is pretty much going to be the same whether we pay out of pocket, our employers pay for us, or whether we pay through taxes. We have an opportunity to build a partnership between individual, groups, communities, and governments, to invest in a richer, stronger, healthier, better educated nation. Our practice of providing the basic necessities to people doesn't have to mimic those that operate in other countries (even though they work pretty well in most cases). We can create our own model for success. I want to know why, if we have a government that is by the people for the people, so many folks feel the government can't be accountable to the people? If folks really feel that way, why don't they participate more and get involved? The voter turnout rate in this country is appallingly low. Accountability starts with the individuals exercising their responsibility to participate. I have always thought that rights come with responsibilities.
Food for thought here are two approaches to making national change from a federal initiative:
the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibited discrimination based on physical or mental ability, and thus mandated access to people with disabilities to all public spaces, with few exceptions. There was no funding attached to the program, no taxes. Yet it worked and we now have curb cuts, accessible bathrooms, tweeting intersections, and lots of other amenities that makes the world accessible to all of us, and doesn't hurt able bodied people.
the Medicare Part D program: carefully crafted program for spending federal money on providing medication coverage to people who qualify for Medicare. It was micromanaged to death and comes to us as an overly complicated behemoth that blatantly benefits pharmacorporations. I interpret that as a subsidy for corporations that are already making astronomical profits.
(just as a fun fact, the ADA was signed into law by Bush the 1st, and Part D was signed into law by Bush the 2nd)
OK, I know some of what I've written here has been disjointed, and even unsupportable since I don't have all my sources sited, but to my knowledge it's all true.
Did you see this video when I linked it on my FB page? It's got some great information on a global scale. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html
Oh, I almost forgot, about Christopher Hitchens, I haven't actually spent a lot of time listening to him or reading anything he's written, so I don't have much of an opinion either way. For some reason he hasn't made much of an impression on me. That in itself is a mystery. I think I've heard him on NPR, but it's such a foggy memory. Of course I'll go look him up now.
D. WROTE: I did, however, want to tell you YES, YES, YES---what you say makes perfect sense! Some of what you mentioned (i.e., WIC, Head Start, etc.) has been shown to work wonderfully and are indeed fantastic programs. We need to start with the children. No child anywhere, but especially in America, should go hungry. Ever. We have also got to improve our literacy rates. Yes, you are right in that it is about changing the mindset and feeling we are working toward a common good for the whole. I need to read up on Red Lining…I saw an Oprah episode last year where one of her crew went to either Sweden or Denmark to illustrate how their society lives. As you mentioned, they are heavily taxed to fund numerous social programs. I saw that they were amazingly happy. The extent of their happiness was mind boggling! New mothers received something like either 6 months or a year of paid maternity leave and were guaranteed the same job when they returned to work. They felt safe in their communities. Amazing stuff.
Gosh, I wish I felt there was some way to make a difference somewhere. Look where we live, though. The heart of the Bible Belt, where the mindset of the old south is still very much alive and kicking. I regularly hear the dreaded “n” word in conversations, people participate in prayer circles, church services are held 2 days a week or more, you cannot buy alcohol on sacred Sunday, sex stores cannot sell their goods on Sunday, and if you aren’t white, heterosexual, male, and believe in the same God they do you don’t belong. It is SO discouraging. We are closet atheists, so we really don’t fit. We have found a nonreligious group and joined up to meet for lunches, talks on specific subjects, etc., but I am really worried about being discovered. We are just one level above pedophiles in their eyes.
D. WROTE: Hi Caren! Since you are a social worker and a woman, I knew you would be just the person I needed to ask this question of: how certain are you that the cure for poverty is the liberation of women? I have heard Oprah say this for years now (in addition to promoting education for women), and her reasons do make sense. I have also heard Hitchens speak of this, but he is referring more to women in Islamic countries. Do you think this is true of US women? Are we not liberated already??
Anyway, just wondering what your thoughts are since you are working in the field and dealing with all walks of life. Brad and I talked about this subject last night, but since he is a MAN he also thinks like a man. :-) Thank you so much for any insight you can provide.
Caren REPLIED:
Wow, what a great way to start my day! To answer your first question, Yes, I agree with Oprah and Hitchens (on this point) that one of the major factors in curing poverty is the liberation of women. I also think this is an oversimplification of a very manifold approach. I see poverty in our country as a function of despotic capitalism. It is a means of maintaining a cheap workforce for menial labor. As a society we are only as well off as our least affluent members. In general, yes, I think that women are fairly liberated here, but I also think that depends on what you mean by liberated. It is within our lifetime, Dawn, that married women have been able to legally open a bank account on their own, without their husband's signature. Women still make approx 75 cents to every dollar a man makes for the same job. Considering that women are not equally compensated, I would have to say that our liberation is still in process.
There are other factors at play on the stage of curing poverty. Women are by far the largest group of significantly disadvantaged people in our society, but class and the perception of race also play a large roll in access to resources. The two most essential resources in building a strong society being education and health care. Not everyone has equal access to these resources. That is my specific experience as a social worker, I see this ALL THE TIME. I believe liberation means equal access. Unfortunately, equal access means cost-sharing. And we do not live in a very sharing culture. Our roots in "rugged individualism" are revealed in every argument in which the words "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" are used. As a society we value the ideals of liberation and equality, but we do not invest in the practice. That is why I believe in funding education and health care, as an investment in the success of our society. I will be comfortable saying that women are fully liberated in our country when it's not news that a woman is being nominated to the Supreme Court, and when we get equal pay for equal work, and when we have equal access to the highest ranking positions in commerce and government. And, no, I don't think having Sarah Palin on the ticket as VP qualifies as equal access. That was the worst example of tokenism I've seen in a long time.
Thank you for asking! Also, I may want to post our correspondence on my blog. Would that be OK with you? I can omit your name.
D. WROTE: You bring up a very valid point regarding women’s rights pertaining to monetary compensation and equal pay for equal work. Perhaps I have been connected with the military too long because, of course, the military is probably one of the few employers providing pay based exclusively on rank and not gender. The question begging to be asked is “why are we allowing ourselves to be paid less for the same work?” How can we force change?
I suppose I subscribe to the “rugged individualism” ideals. Yes, “I” did it myself, so why can’t “they?” I think the majority of society has no problem with offering someone a hand up, but a perpetual handout is much harder to swallow. I use my own family as a very anecdotal example: Someone given hundreds of thousands of dollars to live on over the course of their lifetime, never worked a day in their life, never went to school, and spent their days driving around in an expensive car, using drugs, going to the tanning beds, and essentially doing nothing useful for more than 40 years and completely unmotivated. After all, why bother trying to achieve something on your own when daddy’s wallet is perpetually open? I look at countries operating liberal social medicine programs (England and Germany come to mind) and see the enormous tax burden it places on the masses of working people. Yet, and maybe this would not be the case here, both countries have an entire generation of people who draw pension benefits and receive basically free healthcare, while they themselves have never worked a day in their lives. Are Americans better than that? I cannot adequately address funding education, but I thought we already did to some degree?
Are societies with more social programs more successful as a whole? I suppose one would first have to define success. Wow, I would have to spend a considerable amount of time thinking about that one. I like to think helping someone out for a time would make society a better place, but the unknown outcome is pretty unsettling. I don’t think people don’t care about others or are unyieldingly selfish, but I do believe fear of the unknown leaves most people content to simply go about their business. I also believe most people, at least the ones I know, recoil at the idea that our government would oversee this enormous task.
Have you read, by chance, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood? I was able to see the author (Janise Ray) speak at my university. She offered some amazing insight into various pressing social issues. You might also enjoy her because she hails from Georgia.
Care REPLIED: Here is what I think:
In order to end poverty we need to change our frame of reference from us and them, haves and have nots (I'm not giving up what I've worked so hard for, I will work so hard and never have what that person has) to an attitude of partners. We need to become partners in our combined success, and in doing so hold ourselves and others accountable. We are accountable for the country we live in. Becoming more accountable as people will help us feel more empowered so that the "burden" gets transformed into a contribution. I don't actually hope that our country as a whole will do that, but I know that there are a lot of people out there who work for partnerships to create a better quality of life and more opportunity for everyone. When we are a nation of partners we will see an end to poverty and inequity.
"Handouts" versus "support to succeed." Handouts are a complete waste of resources. Absolutely. But in order to learn children need to be well-nourished. Poverty is a self-perpetuating problem: no money, no food, desperation, crime, health problems without treatment, no education, fewer employment opportunities, no money, and so on. A child who is not fed properly will not learn well and will not succeed academically. Interventions that happen early are shown to work. Headstart. WIC programs. But many of our best programs struggle to be more than a series of handouts. Welfare as we know it should be tied to higher education and employment support. It seems to be moving in that direction. Yes, there are people who will take advantage of any system and not pull their own weight, but I'd be willing to bet that, like most human behavior, there is a bell curve with the vast majority of people doing the best they can and showing up with what they've got, which of course varies from person to person.
I think it is a mistake to withhold services that would improve the quality of life of the whole country just to keep a few people from taking advantage. Plus, the same analogy holds true for corporations, the most egregious examples being the bailouts we've seen in the last 4 years. But I'm not arguing against those bailouts as long as the loans are tied to outcomes and is repaid. Whatever happened to those guys in the 80s, Milken and that lot, did they ever repay their bailout?
Also, a lot of where we are now is still tied to our recent history. Through the practice of Red Lining
in real estate Black families were denied the kind of accumulation of wealth that white families benefited from. I think the banks that participated and profited from Red Lining owe a huge debt to people of color who were cheated. Red Lining was outlawed in 1968, but it's practice devastated entire neighborhoods, and the poverty it created can still be seen today.
I agree with you about growing up in the military, I didn't realize until I was 16 that there was so much inequity. One of the ministers at the church on RAF Lakenheath was the 4th female military chaplain in the entire DOD. 4th! in 1980! I'm not sure how any chaplains there were, but I'm sure it was in the 100s if not the 1000s. And I never saw so many racially and religiously mixed marriages per capita as on base at RAFL. But I didn't keep any statistics... ;)
And yes, the question is why do we undervalue ourselves? But look around, traditionally women's work is undervalued throughout our society. Caregiving, home-making, even teaching are all undervalued in their own way as far as social status and compensation is concerned. I read an article recently that pointed out that businesses and corporations, when polled, indicated that women were paid less because they tend to ask for raises less. Does that mean it's the women's fault for not asking? Or does the employer bear some ethical responsibility to pay everyone at equal levels based on productivity and evaluation/audit results? It certainly goes against my sense of fair play that we, as women, are taught to put our needs last from a very early age, and then it's used it against us to avoid paying us what we are worth. (this is why I like accountability so much: an employer who is accountable to the employees wouldn't tolerate that kind of inequity. And indeed, the government I work for, for better or worse, holds itself accountable to some degree and pay scales are equal among like job titles. I am not arguing that the government is the highest arbiter of fairness, it's just an example of an attempt at equity in pay.
As to the question of how to measure the success of a society, there are a couple of well-accepted standards that point to the over-all health and well-being of a country. GDP is one, and the US is the richest country in the world. Infant mortality is another, and the US is one of the poorest countries in the developed nations. The World Health Organization ranked the US 36th out of all the nations in the world for overall health provisions to its citizens. That's 36th, behind nearly every European nation. Another measure of success could be the overall happiness of a country's citizens. I'm not even sure how this is measured, other than by asking people a series of questions about how happy each individual thinks she or he is. There have been some studies on this, which show that Sweden's people consider themselves very happy. But doesn't Sweden have one of the highest suicide rates? Apparently, what makes the people unhappy enough to kill themselves is the darkness of winter, Vit. D deficiency if you will, not the amount of taxes they pay. So, of course, I prefer the health related measures of success.
As to tax burden: Healthcare, education, and nutrition cost money. We all pay one way or another--either through supporting unemployed people, or by footing the bill for sick people, or by housing criminals in jails and prisons. Taking a meta view of our economy, the cost of doing business is pretty much going to be the same whether we pay out of pocket, our employers pay for us, or whether we pay through taxes. We have an opportunity to build a partnership between individual, groups, communities, and governments, to invest in a richer, stronger, healthier, better educated nation. Our practice of providing the basic necessities to people doesn't have to mimic those that operate in other countries (even though they work pretty well in most cases). We can create our own model for success. I want to know why, if we have a government that is by the people for the people, so many folks feel the government can't be accountable to the people? If folks really feel that way, why don't they participate more and get involved? The voter turnout rate in this country is appallingly low. Accountability starts with the individuals exercising their responsibility to participate. I have always thought that rights come with responsibilities.
Food for thought here are two approaches to making national change from a federal initiative:
the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibited discrimination based on physical or mental ability, and thus mandated access to people with disabilities to all public spaces, with few exceptions. There was no funding attached to the program, no taxes. Yet it worked and we now have curb cuts, accessible bathrooms, tweeting intersections, and lots of other amenities that makes the world accessible to all of us, and doesn't hurt able bodied people.
the Medicare Part D program: carefully crafted program for spending federal money on providing medication coverage to people who qualify for Medicare. It was micromanaged to death and comes to us as an overly complicated behemoth that blatantly benefits pharmacorporations. I interpret that as a subsidy for corporations that are already making astronomical profits.
(just as a fun fact, the ADA was signed into law by Bush the 1st, and Part D was signed into law by Bush the 2nd)
OK, I know some of what I've written here has been disjointed, and even unsupportable since I don't have all my sources sited, but to my knowledge it's all true.
Did you see this video when I linked it on my FB page? It's got some great information on a global scale. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html
Oh, I almost forgot, about Christopher Hitchens, I haven't actually spent a lot of time listening to him or reading anything he's written, so I don't have much of an opinion either way. For some reason he hasn't made much of an impression on me. That in itself is a mystery. I think I've heard him on NPR, but it's such a foggy memory. Of course I'll go look him up now.
D. WROTE: I did, however, want to tell you YES, YES, YES---what you say makes perfect sense! Some of what you mentioned (i.e., WIC, Head Start, etc.) has been shown to work wonderfully and are indeed fantastic programs. We need to start with the children. No child anywhere, but especially in America, should go hungry. Ever. We have also got to improve our literacy rates. Yes, you are right in that it is about changing the mindset and feeling we are working toward a common good for the whole. I need to read up on Red Lining…I saw an Oprah episode last year where one of her crew went to either Sweden or Denmark to illustrate how their society lives. As you mentioned, they are heavily taxed to fund numerous social programs. I saw that they were amazingly happy. The extent of their happiness was mind boggling! New mothers received something like either 6 months or a year of paid maternity leave and were guaranteed the same job when they returned to work. They felt safe in their communities. Amazing stuff.
Gosh, I wish I felt there was some way to make a difference somewhere. Look where we live, though. The heart of the Bible Belt, where the mindset of the old south is still very much alive and kicking. I regularly hear the dreaded “n” word in conversations, people participate in prayer circles, church services are held 2 days a week or more, you cannot buy alcohol on sacred Sunday, sex stores cannot sell their goods on Sunday, and if you aren’t white, heterosexual, male, and believe in the same God they do you don’t belong. It is SO discouraging. We are closet atheists, so we really don’t fit. We have found a nonreligious group and joined up to meet for lunches, talks on specific subjects, etc., but I am really worried about being discovered. We are just one level above pedophiles in their eyes.
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