Well...I was able to carve out $25 to spend on some books, this year, for at least some Christmas presents this year...out of necessity, I have to put off bills until my next paycheck...there wasn't enough money whether I wanted to or not...and I don't know where I'm going to have money for my other student loan payment...but I'm sure I'll get something figured out...something always does get figured out...
I'm still in negotiations about my contract...the human resources persons offered a pretty significantly bigger amount than the school board offered...so we still have to get that resolved...if not...I'll guess the student loan folks will have to wait on their money until we negotiate an amount that I can pay...
It's only money, I always tell myself...because when you don't have any...and never have, in my case...you get some perspective on what really matters in life...I've never really been a poor person who was terribly angry about wealth inequity...and always hopeful that it would be addressed...and grew up in a family that believed not only in taking care of its own, as much as it could...but also earning its way through the world...I still know it will...you can't make it go away because you ignore it...and there are clearly major consequences for individual businesses and the economy, generally, from the politics of wealth inequity that imposes all kinds of restrictions and costs on businesses in the name of "doing something" about its sad legacy...
The truth is that wealth inequity will have to be addressed voluntarily by people...just like racism...and sexism...and every other terrible legacy in our country's history...
People's consciences have to change...not any laws...
There is no union...or law...or tax...or whatever...that will make it go away...either we will face our responsibility to create wealth equity in this country...or we will live with its sad legacy on our hearts and minds until we do...and all of the terrible consequences that it has on us and our societies, as well...
We'll figure it out, I'm confident...you can only put off your conscience and your enlightened self-interest and for so long...otherwise, you're culture begins to so degenerate that it doesn't even know who or what it is anymore...
Huh?...sounds like pop culture, these days:):):)LOL:):):)...
People have a natural need for growth beyond that kind of degeneration...poor or rich...so we'll get it resolved...I'm pretty clear...
And...in the meantime...we are responsible for the legacy of the destructiveness of financial pressure to serve our own greed...and our own desire not to get fucked over by own our creditors...by banks...and our various creditors...
It's such a sad legacy...our greed...
It's so self-serving...and hinders so much growth on all our our parts, in the meantime...it's shortsided...a part of the hyper-competitive, hyper-aggressive, ugly side of our natures...that will pass once people stop feeling like such victims...about what they "can't" do..."I 'can't help others and support greater wealth equity" so many businesses reason...I'm here to look out for profits...I have to be selfish, so many business folks, rationalize:):):)...I have no choice:):):)LOL:):):)...
Don't you feel sorry for all the poor people in business and in life who just have no choice but to be selfish:):):)LOL:):):)...it just breaks your heart, doesn't it:):):)LOL:):):)...
We are all such dumbasses, I swear:):):)...oh well...we learn...we fuck it up...we get better:):):)...
It's very much what Dr. Martin Luther King finally came to realize with the civil rights movement...civil rights, Dr. King started to realize, was a matter of changing hearts and minds:):)...there were elements of civil rights that inevitably meant changing the law...because they had to do with how the law and how policy affected African Americans...and how African Americans affected the law and policy...the Voting Rights Act...voting in the South...the murder of civil rights activists...
And something had to be done to improve and change segregated conditions in the South and all over the country...and while forced integration has certainly had a mixed legacy, at best...it served a purpose...
In retrospect...conservatives...like Bill Buckley...and others...who argued -- without racism, I don't think -- that forced integration would just inflame racial antagonisms, more, were probably right...and certainly blacks and whites, alike, have taken issue with the still-remaining legacies of forced integration, like forced bussing...but that particular period in our history -- when National Guardspersons were needed to integrate blacks and whites in public schools and public universities -- is over...the on-going legacy of court-orders in schools around desegration and using force, generally, to resolve race matters -- the NCAA very bad ruling around the use of Native mascots by college sports teams is one that comes to mind, here -- is the darker side of an otherwise noble effort to integrate blacks and whites and teach us to live together...it was a compromise...but a compromise that we have to move beyond, now, into an era where we choose to care for another because it's the right thing to do...and not because we're forced to...
I don't know why so many people fail to learn that very simple and important maxim...
Might doesn't make right...
But they do...persistently...and totally take for granted the wisdom that comes with it...
Does Pope Benedict really believe that if he fires priests and scholars who are gay or who disagree with his belief that homosexuality is a sin...that he'll make homosexuality go away?...or that he'll lead the Catholic Church to believe that way?...and that perversion will finally be eliminated from the fold of the Church?:):):):):):) (the naivete of such a belief makes me chuckle a little:):):)...
Apparently so...though he's a damned fool for thinking so...
Because...in all likelihood...either, 1) Catholics will just start leaving the Church...or 2) Catholics will start changing the way the Church makes decisions...
And in the meantime...really brilliant Catholics, like Father Thomas Reese, are left out of some really important conversations on behalf of the Church -- though I have no doubt Father Reese's thinking will win the day on this, long term...the Catholic Church will become completely irrelevant without open debate and discussion at its center -- by his less brilliant brethren...
Homosexuality is not going away because Pope Benedict forces out priests who are gay...or priests who don't believe that homosexuality is a sin...or who want to have an open debate about whether it is a sin, as Father Thomas Reese -- a far smarter man and a far better Catholic than the Pope...and a serious scholar of the Church institutions -- was advocating at America magazine, before he was forced out...
What the Pope...and the President...and so many liberals and Democrats...and so many people, generally, who try this route fail to recognize...
Is that trying to force a question in your direction, generally -- when the question is a matter of conscience and not a matter of immediate danger -- undermines your credibility...it doesn't make your detractors or their concerns go away...
And that will be true around wealth equity, as well...
Companies that sell their soul for profits -- like Walmart -- are dealing with the consequences of those policies, now, as communities like Lawrence, foolishly, I believe, try to keep them from expanding in our town...because of their reputation with employees and competitors...
And those practices...which have very little to do with real competition, which is about improving and generating value...and are a reflection of the merit of goods and services...not of weasly effots to hurt competitors...they have everything to do with hypercompetitive practices to rationalize self-centered ends...not competition based on merit meant to help others...no reason for me or anyone else to support those practices, whether they come from Wal-mart or any other business or political action group or any other individual or group...
Sam Walton's story is pretty impressive, though, if you get a chance...
Sam Walton...Wikipedia...
I'm just getting a chance to absorb it, right now...
Most rich folks, like Sam...and my parents...have been fucked over along the way...so when they fuck others over...I think they often think it is just part of the game...which is what keeps it going, of course...and the reason why we need to call a spade a spade to get it to stop...but, like my father...Sam Walton was a good man...a really, good man, really...if you check out his biography...a man who started with very little...and built a pretty impressive collection of stores that do so much for so many Americans every day...a man who believed -- for good reason -- in free enterprise and who opposed Communism, funding scholarships for Central American students to study in America and nurture those values, and stem the tide of Communism in this part of the world...
He was ruthless...as were Rockefeller...and Carnegie...before him...and as Gates is, as well, after him...and most major and often minor business people...
But they are also hard-working and often brilliant...and innovating...
It's time for this legacy to end...the cutthroat competition...the hypercompetitiveness...the ugly side of markets and capitalism that is so self-defeating...both of the nurturing of values that support free markets and free societies...but also of those markets, as cutthroat competition has so many terrible consequences for the market -- regulation that limits innovation, consumers and competitors that are cheated, taxes that produce resentment amongst those who pay them often begrudgingly and hurts more general generosity around issues that Americans and others otherwise care about, support for big government on the left that often fuels the self-delusion of both poor communities and greedy capitalists, alike, and has led to a very tragic legacy of too many failed and repressive leftist socialist and communist governments in the the world to count...and the illusion that socialism can really create the equity that it promises...which, of course, it can't...
I can't tell you how many conversations I have with Canadian leftists who refuse to acknowledge, honestly, the problems their health system has with shortages, rationing, and problems with their research and development...all to defend the very worthy commitment to equity that socialism offers...
The United States, on the other hand, has one of the finest health care systems in the world...largely because of our commitment to the free market...and all the ways that Americans take for granted how markets care for their needs...even as it does so at far too much expense to all of us...especially poor folks like me:):):)...
And...the United States has one of the most promising and voluntary efforts to create universal access within this far better health care market...the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, I believe, both reported within the last year about efforts by major health insurance companies and providers to find a path to universal access, as a very wise effort to come to terms with the legacy of wealth inequities in the health care system...and to preserve the many wonderful qualities that a free market health care system provides...
But that will not be enough, obviously...
Businesses and financial groups of all kinds will need to follow suit...
And begin taking economic equity seriously...
They will, I'm confident...it will just take time...as more and more people become aware -- if you read David Brooks, these days, it's very touching how committed a conservative can become to resolving issues of wealth equity -- their consciences will be pricked...as Martin Luther King said they would and needed to be during our earlier civil rights period...
We have Martin to thank, in large part, for why this most recent round of fruitless political warfare over economic issues -- as is much of the what has been going on, lately, between Democrats and Republicans and in various courts, as much as the war in Iraq -- has not taken a far worse turn...
It was Martin's commitment to a world whose conscience would be pricked around matters of wealth inequity that animates the best of wealth equity commitments, right now...amd serves as alternative to the more manipulative efforts of radicals and liberals that seek, fruitlessly, to muscle their way to minimal equity...rather than commit ourselves, freely, to full equity...
It is Martin's legacy that has, largely...led to richer nations forgiving debt...that inspires the bulk of folks who attended Live 8...and the support of efforts like the funding of international aid efforts to deal with AIDS, and tuberculosis, and malaria, right now...and support for more equitable school funding...
Though I should make clear that these efforts really will have to transfer...slowly...progressively...to voluntary and decentralized and market-driven approaches -- indendently run public and charter and private schools, in the case of education...and private, non-profit efforts, in the case of international aid -- to funding such issues and resolving matters of wealth equity...they may provide an important stop-gap, right now...but such measures also produce resentment, as long as peoples' consciences are not pricked...as consciences are pricked, that kind of resentment becomes less of a problem...but the potential of voluntary and decentralized fund-raising is still foregone....government funding simply does not have nearly the fund-raising potential that voluntary efforts by decentralized and diverse institutions have within a healthy market...decentralizing international aid and schools and health care efforts...and leaving their funding up to the American people and peoples of the world to either step up to take care of...or to be responsible for the consequences when they don't...private fundraising not only has far, far more potential ability to raise more money for such efforts, and to begin to deal with wealth equity issues inherent in them...but freeing up the economy will mean creating more money to spend on such efforts...
The scared, bullying liberal approach of regulating and taxing the economy is a long-failed approach...that has been giving way, for a quite a long time, now, to a liberal and conservative and independent and non-partisan commitment to a freer economy and the economic benefits that provides...as well as the benefit of having decentralized institutions that are each individually responsible for the results they achieve...
And, similarly...equity efforts in that economy will best be achieved by free people making free commitments...
To follow Martin Luther King's lead...
To allow their consciences to be pricked...
And to start doing the right thing...
And they will:):):)...
You know why I'm so confident of that?...
Because no matter how many very terrible mistakes humanity has made over the course of its history...
It always finds a way to clean them up...
And this generation will be no different...
Right now...it is just a matter of finding our way...
And find our way we shall...
Merry Christmas, everyone...it's now, officially, December 24th, here where I am:):):)...
I have so much more to write on this issue...about non-profit and for-profit markets in education and health care and other areas of critical importance to wealth equity...about the psychological benefits of such an approach to poor and rich people, alike...about becoming whole and decent human beings...about communities and societies that take responsibility for ourselves and each other...freely...without coercion...
About the path to our being better people...a path of freedom...of free will...as every major religion I'm familiar with tells us is needed for people to choose moral and good lives...
As Jesus believed and lived a life of that commitment...
Can you think of one person that Jesus tried to take down to make the world a better place?...
I can't...not one...
What a great man he was...and Happy Birthday to him...
Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls...Merry Christmas, you old Building and Loan...
Merry Christmas, George...
Merry Christmas, everyone...and Happy New Year...
And to all my Jewish friends...Happy Hanukah, here in a couple days...I'll be lighting candles, at some point, this year...mabye with my very Catholic family, this year...just to spice things up, a bit:):)...
And Happy Kwanzaa...I don't think I'll be making my peachy bread pudding, this year, for Kwanzaa...as I have for past Kwanzaa's:):):)...but maybe I'll find some time to reflect on the reason for that season, this year, as well:):):)...and maybe we can do some Kwanzaa celebrations with my very redneck family, this year:):):)...
And Happy New Year...I have no plans for New Year, this year...I'll have to talk with Melissa and see if she's going to be back in town for New Years (she's in Milwaukee with her family, right now:):):)...Merry Christmas, Melissa:):):)...and Judy and Melissa's dad and Melissa's brother:):):)...
And Merry Christmas to all of you:):):)...and your families:):):)...and families all over the world...
This year...when my mom's family sings Let There Be Peace on Earth...it will be a very special time to sing that song, I think...as I hope we all hope for peace...as we navigate a world that is far too often too nasty and violent and destructive and hyperaggressive and hurtful...
Have a nice holiday, everyone:):):)...
Love,
Ben
