YEAR-END MUSINGS, 2009

This year of 2009 has proven to be a very unique, active, puzzling, and frustrating one. It began as a year of great optimism and hope, with the hated far-right war criminals George W. Bush and DICK Cheney being replaced by our nation's first African-American, (and seemingly left-of-center) President, Barack Obama. He immediately signed an executive order closing down the war crimes torture center Guantanamo prison, pushed for and passed a massive stimulus program to provide jobs and get our very sluggish economy going again, and began a drive for (we thought) a universal national health insurance program. He reaffirmed his pledge to end our occupation of Iraq and intensify our effort to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden and destroy the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. He also reached out to moderate Muslims by traveling to both Turkey and Egypt to give them a taste of the kinder, gentler, more tolerant side of America (i.e. the REAL America) which his far-right, nationalistic predecessor had all but destroyed. Now, at year's end, we have encountered some unexpected bumps in the road to progress which are confusing and unsettling...

Most of us on the left hoped that President Obama would act to rapidly wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our brave and vastly overworked and overstretched troops home at last. Regrettably, this has not occurred. Troop levels are being reduced in Iraq, but are actually being boosted in Afghanistan, where there is now growing hatred among the local populace of our presence there. The country's government is mired in corruption; Al Qaeda is now sequestered in the mountains of neighboring Pakistan, our shaky "ally", and billions are still being spent on this conflict, with no capture of Bin Laden, destruction of Al Qaeda, or end to the war against them in plain sight. The Afghan "government" only controls the capitol of Kabul and little else. The Taliban or tribal leaders control the rest. Our Treasury is being drained daily by this war; our troops' body counts and numbers of injured are again rising. We seem to be caught in a Vietnam-like quagmire, and that is not good. It will be at least summer before we will know any tangible results from this latest troop surge, and summer is a long way off...

Our long time friend and great "liberal lion" Ted Kennedy passed from us this year. His loss means the loss of a most strong and very devoted advocate for the poor, the elderly, the handicapped, working Americans, as well as for the cause of universal health care. Thankfully, and in part due to his forty-plus year efforts on behalf of health care reform, the House and Senate have just passed an historic health care reform bill, which, if finally reconciled and passed into law, should ideally cover many millions of now-uninsured, and end insurance company discrimination against chronically sick people. It will not be a perfect bill (far from it), but it provides a toehold for further future advance. And Ted Kennedy will be sorely missed. Hopefully, a few of the newer progressive Senators like Sherrod Brown, Ron Wyden, Al Franken, Barbara Boxer, Sheldon Whitehouse, and others, will be able to rise to the occasion and carry on Teddy's great tradition of service to the people who need help most...

The rise in prominence of delusional, disruptive, dishonest, combative, shrill, ignorant, and downright stupid conservative Republicans like Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Virginia Foxx, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Jim DeMint, and a whole host of others, as well as the re-emergence of a mouthy and increasingly visible DICK Cheney on the scene is VERY disturbing. Today's Republicans are nearly universally far-right ideologues, who are committed to only two things: the total political destruction of President Obama and the Democratic Party, and the return to the complete governmental control they had from 2001-2007. Today's Republicans are no longer the "loyal opposition" (as they were when out of power in the 1960s, and as the Democrats were in the Reagan and Bush I years). Today, they are instead a combative, wholly uncooperative, obstructionist force which is not at all healthy for the country. They offer no solution to our problems beyond the failed policies they effected during much of the past three decades. They place their own agenda far ahead of the national good. With them, EVERYTHING is a calculated political move designed to self-servingly maximize their own benefit. They are obsessed with power and total control. Their prior total control of government, as we all know, led directly to the rich getting far richer at everybody else's expense, the manifestation of an all-powerful and unaccountable presidency, a weakening of individual rights, illegal imperialistic warfare, war crimes, severe damage to our prestige and credibility around the world, and an economic collapse and near-depression. WE PROGRESSIVES MUST DO ALL WE CAN NEXT YEAR AND BEYOND TO ENSURE THEY NEVER AGAIN ACHIEVE TOTAL GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL! Until this party returns to its more sensible, cooperative, and moderate previous state, it must never again control our government or dominate its agenda!

The conservative Republicans, aided by their corrupt and wealthy corporate insurance backers, as well as their unscrupulous propaganda media organ, Fox "News", were successful in creating public outrage from an extremely loud minority over mythical upcoming tax increases and a mythical upcoming government takeover of the economy and our health care system. Through repeated exaggeration, distortion, and outright lies, they succeeded in scaring hundreds of thousands of elderly and ill-informed people into actually believing the President is a Nazi (how utterly ridiculous), or, paradoxically, that he has a socialist agenda (equally ridiculous). They whipped these unfortunate people and a good number of uninformed malcontents into a frenzy of government-hatred by manufacturing "tea party" protests at the Capitol and elsewhere. They encouraged these "teabaggers" to disrupt Democratic congresspersons' town hall meetings in August, actively busing people in and giving them precise instructions on what to say as they shouted down the congresspersons and their legitimate citizen participants. The underlying theme was that Obama and Democrats wanted to take away their freedoms, which was preposterous. As we all know, the real Democratic agenda is to roll back the power of the wealthy and big business and prevent them from denying people insurance and continually raising prices. Sarah Palin and Iowa Senator Charles Grassley conjured up whopping lies about Obama "death panels" and "throwing grandma under the bus." These teabaggers, many of whom aren't all that bright (witness the spelling of "mortgage" on the protestor's sign in the picture), and especially their corporate and Republican sponsors, were subverting democracy with these Nazi Brown Shirt bullying tactics. Their actions were FAR more akin to Nazis and national socialism than ANYTHING President Obama had proposed, said, or done. They were the personnification of the great conservative Republican anti-democratic, anti-Democratic lie. In effect, these conservative Republican and corporate organizers like Dick Armey and Rick Scott were manipulating stupid teabaggers into cutting their own economic throats by getting them to argue for a preservation of the status quo in our current broken health care and regressive tax systems. Their entire aim was to derail the health care reform effort with fear and hysteria, and to weaken and discredit the President. That is not loyal opposition, my friends: that is agitation, subversion, and insurrection.


This poster at left, brandished by some of the teabaggers, is a perfect illustration of the hatred, intolerance, racism, ignorance, and total dishonesty being expressed by far-right conservative Republican elements in this country today. It is also proof positive of their anti-democracy tendencies. Again, this is not loyal opposition. This is a malevolent, power-hungry force which MUST be overcome! THESE PEOPLE DO NOT BELONG IN GOVERNMENT AND WE MUST WORK EXTRA HARD IN 2010 TO KEEP THEM OUT!
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There are many important initiatives lying ahead which must be undertaken and put into effect, and QUICKLY. We MUST get money out of the hands of huge Wall Street banks and lent out to Main Street small businesses! We MUST create more jobs, especially "green" jobs and those which repair and renew our rapidly decaying infrastructure! We MUST reduce pollution and reverse the effects of global warming! We MUST roll back Bush's insane tax cuts for the very rich and tax them more fairly and heavier, so that the majority of the rest of the country can have some much-needed tax relief! There is far too much pressing and important work which MUST begin SOON to allow it to be delayed or derailed by anti-progress, anti-democratic conservative Republican obstructionist naysayers! That's why 2010 will be such a pivotal year. The Republican forces of disruption, obstruction, and reaction MUST be turned away and thrown out of office, and a new progressive tide of fairness, justice, and vision must replace them and sweep this country! We progressives, along with our President, have been far too genteel and conciliatory with these beasts. We have allowed them to get away with constant lying and distorting. We have been standing still in the face of a fierce Republican assault for far too long. Rather than taking a defensive posture, we need to go on the attack, BIG time! We need a unified voice shouting out these conservatives for what they are: friends of the wealthy and enemies of working America. Stodgy gulpers at the public trough who are helping to deny us health care and wasting time and tax dollars on political ploys like filibusters and staged demonstrations. Bought-out shills who place outlandish corporate profit well in front of the people's need. Servants to billionaires and scourges of everyday ordinary people, who are oblivious to the true pressing needs of the country. They need to have their lies immediately and loudly dispelled, so they can be called on the carpet and exposed for the money-wasting frauds they are! Unlike them, we do not have to lie and spin to paint them as the useless and dangerous group that they are. We cannot allow Republican gains in the congressional elections next fall, period. The President has been pushed rightward off the campaign pledges he made last year which got him elected. WE must push him back leftward by relieving the nonstop Republican pressure he has been getting. WE must actively press for and support the election of more progressive, preferably progressive Democratic or Democratic-caucusing candidates to achieve this. I believe that pushing for a MASSIVE conservative Republican defeat at next year's polls will also have a ripple effect on turning some of the aggravating "Blue Dog" Democrats further leftward, too. This can only result, though, if we work hard for it - harder even than we did to get Obama elected. That is why we cannot afford to dejectedly sit on our hands and not vote come next November. The stakes are crucial, my progressive friends. As I write this today, I wonder: are we on the left up to the task?

2009 HEAD AND HEART AWARDS

Regular followers of this blog know I have had a propensity to focus on many of the problems in our country as well as on those whom I believe are contributing, or have contributed to, those problems. I have done so to draw attention to the many flaws we have in this country, in hopes that an improvement can be made. I will continue doing so on a regular basis.

Near year's end last year, I started what will become an annual December feature, which I called "Bozo of the Year." It portrayed some of the fools and clowns in public life whose antics were deserving of ridicule. I thought, today, I would take an opposite approach and begin another annual feature, this one near mid-year, which will spotlight those individuals of today or the relatively recent past whose contributions to humanity and/or our country have been so spectacular and noteworthy that they should be lauded near and far as good examples of what we as humans can achieve, if we only put our minds to it. After all, not everything going on in the world is doom and gloom. So here is the first installment of this annual mid-year feature I will name "Head and Heart Awards." The individuals shown here have used their heads and hearts to produce great things for humankind. They should serve as inspirations to us all to DO something, using OUR heads and hearts, on behalf of our fellow brothers and sisters, rather than merely sitting back complacently enjoying the relatively good life we have experienced here in the United States.

Honorable mention for the award this year goes to former Senator Chuck Hagel, who was a Republican from Nebraska. I did not always agree with Senator Hagel on economic matters (he was a big supporter of "trickle down" economics and the Bush tax cuts, both of which I hated), but I admired his straight-talk and deep conviction to what he believed was right. He never engaged in the doubletalk or misspeak we have heard so repeatedly in recent years coming from so many Republicans. He served the country as a young man in Vietnam, and again served it, and well, by voting his conscience in the Senate. Like a number of moderate Republicans, he grew disenchanted with the direction the country was being pushed in by the neocons of the George W. Bush administration, and he became a vocal critic of our misguided imperialistic war in Iraq. We could use more honest clear-thinkers like him in our government, and it is a terrible shame he is no longer serving. Straight-shooting, level-headed people like Chuck Hagel could really straighten out the GOP and contribute a great deal more to our nation. I certainly hope we have not heard the last of him!

Another Honorable Mention goes to Investor/Philanthropist Warren Buffett. The man was an absolute genius at making money and investments grow. Currently the 2nd wealthiest man in the world, Buffett donated a huge share of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006. The $30.7 BILLION he donated has been, and will continue to be, used for a wide variety of benevolent causes, ranging from global health and children's vaccine programs to financial services for the poor to international agricultural development to educational programs to libraries, and many, many other endeavors as well. Buffett had the wisdom to see that our economy was being ruined by the neocon Republican Bush crowd, so he threw his support solidly behind Barack Obama for President.

Yet another Honorable Mention goes to the late great Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. Had Senator Wellstone not died in a mysterious plane crash just before the 2002 elections, he would undoubtedly have just been reelected to a fourth term. How he would have enjoyed the Democrats' return to power, and how effectively he would have continued working for the poor and middle class! For Wellstone knew that government can and should be an aid to and protection for the weak and the average person. He knew the little guy seldom gets a break in our society and in government, and that the wealthy and powerful often get all the attention and government favors. So he made a conscious effort to deliver for the average person in our country. Regrettably, he is gone, but we could use an entire Congress filled with Paul Wellstones!

Third place for this award goes to Senator Ted Kennedy. Yes, in his younger days, Teddy was recklessly wild and carefree, and this behavior led to the death of a young lady as well as the eventual breakup of his first marriage. He didn't use his head in those days. But for a good many years now, Kennedy has made up for lost ground. He has straightened out his personal life and become one of our hardest working Senators. Born to privilege, he could have easily become a George W. Bush and used government to reward his ego and further enrich the already well to do. But Senator Kennedy has spent his entire 46 years of public service to advance the cause of the disadvantaged and to help enable government to be a positive force for fairness and opportunity for the downtrodden. Now in the autumn of his years, and suffering from terminal brain cancer, he is still working tirelessly on a project he has long championed: national health care for every American citizen. I greatly admire his tenacity, and I hope THIS current Congress will be able to deliver his dying wish of affordable health care for all.

Second place goes to our current President, Barack Obama. A brilliant student, he could have easily gone straight from college into a lucrative, cushy career in corporate law. But instead, he sacrified great wealth to live a very modest life as a low-paid community organizer in service to the poor on the south side of Chicago. He taught those in need how to develop themselves and pull themselves up from despair. He showed us all that our country is still a place where even those in the humblest of surroundings can rise and shine. He showed the world that hope can be acted upon and turned into reality when he became the first African-American to be elected President. He continues to work tirelessly on behalf of all citizens and realizes there is room at the national table for all people, not just the wealthy and powerful. He is using his head and his heart in a positive way, for all the people, by joining Ted Kennedy in the fight for a national health care program. I support his efforts wholeheartedly and hope he will find great success with his people-oriented agenda.

My first place winner of this year's (2009's) Head and Heart Award goes posthumously to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who spent many years selflessly tending to the needs of the poor, the orphaned, the sick, and the dying in Calcutta, India, and all over the world. Hers was not the lifestyle of a detached, comfortable charity director. No, she rolled up her sleeves and got her hands really dirty, working in and among the filth, stench, disease, and discomfort of some of the most horrible slums in the world. She constantly sacrificed and gave of herself for the comfort of others, and did so for nearly 50 years, from 1950 until her death in 1997! By the time she died, she had established an incredible 4,000 clinics to tend to the needs of the wretchedly poor. Mother Teresa exemplified many of the finest attributes of Christianity. Hers was a world of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. Hers was not to condemn others or turn them away for any reason. When asked why she worked so hard for the poor and miserable, this remarkable woman replied unhesitatingly, "Each one of them is Jesus in disguise." Another time, she stated, "I am a little pencil in the hands of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." Mother Teresa's selfless devotion to others, especially those in dire need, should be studied by every government leader and every business CEO in the world. Our planet would be much better off if this were to happen. Though she has been gone for 12 years now, her beautiful example of selfless, activist love will shine for the rest of time and serve as a daily example of how to live for each of us. For it is not only the powerful or wealthy who can benefit from her example. We ALL can, by daily following her simple advice: "Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."

MEMORABLE QUOTES

I am still working on and gathering information on what I hope will be a significantly interesting piece on government-run health care systems. I apologize for the delay, but the subject is important enough to deserve all the accuracy it can get, so that particular post may be a while in coming. But it WILL be worth the wait! Meanwhile, I present you with a treasure trove of thoughtful, memorable quotes to mull over. Thank you for your patience.


"People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights."
- Indira Gandhi -

"The school is the last expenditure upon which Americans should be willing to economize."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt -

"The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes."
- Aristotle -

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wicked of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."
- John Maynard Keynes -

"When the rich think about the poor, they have poor ideas."
- Evita Peron -

"The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."
- Teddy Roosevelt -

"We must confront the privileged elite who have destroyed a large part of the world."
- Hugo Chavez -

"Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light."
- Helen Keller -

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."
- Margaret Thatcher -

"Poverty is the worst form of violence."
- Mahatma Gandhi -

"Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle or impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance."
- William O. Douglas -

"We must stop thinking about the individual and start thinking about what is best for society."
- Hillary Rodham Clinton -

"America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand."
- Harry S Truman -

"Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity of which our heritage of religious freedom inspired."
- Robert F. Kennedy -

"Politics is a profession, a serious, complicated and, in its true sense, a noble one."
- Dwight David Eisenhower -

"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."
- Mother Teresa -

"Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative."
- John Kenneth Galbraith -

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
- Barack Obama -

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people."
- Teddy Roosevelt -

"Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt -

"Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism."
- Earl Warren -

"The salary of the chief executive of a large corporation is not a market award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself."
- John Kenneth Galbraith -

FREE AT LAST!!!

"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!"
- Old Negro Spiritual, quoted by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. -

Today, all Americans are once again free. We have demonstrated this freedom through the civilized transfer of executive power from one man and party to another man and party, in the symbolic and very real empowerment of us all granted by our Constitution. We are now free at last from the ineptitude of one President George W. Bush (deservedly low approval rating of only 22% as he leaves office) and the arrogance and irresponsibility of another Vice President Dick Cheney (a VERY deservedly low approval rating of only 13% as he leaves office). We are free of the snide and press-hating press secretary Dana Perrino, the very mistaken and compliant Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and all the other devious characters who have wrought great harm on our rights and freedoms these past 8 years, like John Yoo, Paul Wolfowitz, and a long list of other political and philosophical deviants who have plagued us under the Bush-Cheney umbrella. We are free, hopefully forever, from the politics of fear, division, deception, darkness, and exclusion. We can all now breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Barack Obama takes office today representing the dawn of a very hopeful new era of progress and possibility. He enters office with a deservedly and astoundingly high approval rating of 83%. He has demonstrated broad vision and an obvious grasp of our need for a new style of inclusive practical politics, most notably in his choices for cabinet posts and in the way he has conducted his transition to power. Unlike his predecessor, he is no rigid ideologue who wishes to surround himself only with yes-men. He recognizes that no party or political persuasion holds a monopoly on good ideas, and he is willing to incorporate all. THIS is a REAL President!

President Obama (how nice THAT sounds!) also represents our country's triumph over more than 300 years of needless institutionalized racism, and our recognition, at long last, that ability, competency, decency, and character do not carry ethnic prerequisites. Yes, even though wildly popular, he still has detractors who mockingly and skeptically refer to him as "messiah." Alas, it is a sad fact that there will always be bitter, fearful, and ignorant people who will never "get it", thus the 22% still approving of Bush. But the rest of us correctly see competence, intelligence, and opportunity springing forth from our long-awaited new President. And we know how beneficial this will be for us and the entire world!

These are shaping up to be exciting and eventful new days, reminiscent of the earliest LBJ days and the ascendancy of the Beatles. Obama has a great deal of sorely-needed ambition, idealism, and drive. He will undoubtedly fail at times, as have all other Presidents. But by employing inclusiveness as he will, I dare say those failures will be far less frequent or severe than those of many before him. Ideologues left and right will be frustrated by his unorthodoxy at times, but it will prove healthy for us. I can't wait for this new era to ripen and come to bloom to see the many blessings it will bestow on us!

Before I go, I would encourage you to pay a visit, as I do daily, to http://www.fairandunbalanced.com/. The writer at that site, Burr Deming, has a real gift. He is always insightful and thought-provoking, and skillfully employs his talents in a folksy, common-sense manner. He writes with heart AND brain! His blog is one not to be missed, and he posts nearly every day. Thank you, everybody, and let us now look to our future with hope and great confidence!