Thursday Night DL at D'railed

Trayvon

A caterpillar.  Or not.

This week’s special guest:  Kay Finley from our local Occupy Idaho Falls organization is running as a delegate from congressional district ID-02 to the 99% Declaration movement.  She and Angie Swacina will join us this Thursday to discuss the 99% Declaration and the status of the Occupy movement in general.  Should be fascinating.

Here is the current list from the 99% Declaration.  It will be edited and pared down to 10, apparently.

1. Elimination of the Corporate State
2. Overturning the “Citizens United” Case
3. Elimination of All Private Benefits to Public Servants
4. Term Limits
5. A Fair Tax Code
6. Health Care for All
7. Protection of the Planet
8. Debt Reduction
9. Jobs for All Americans
10. Student Loan Debt Refinancing
11. Ending Perpetual War for Profit
12. Emergency Reform of Public Education
13. End Outsourcing and Currency Manipulation
14. Banking and Securities Reform
15. Foreclosure Moratorium, Mortgage Refinancing and Principal Write Downs
16. Review and Reform of the Federal Reserve Banking System
17. Ending the Electoral College and Enactment of Uniform Federal Election Rules
18. Ending the War in Afghanistan and Take Care of Veterans
19. No Censorship of the Internet
20. Reinstitution of Civil Rights Including the Repeal of the NDAA
21. Curtailing the Private Prison Industrial Complex

Personally, I’d dump 4, 8, and the first half of 17, and add marriage equality, support for Social Security and Medicare, and a move to universal health care.  But then they’d be one Declaration further away from that magical number of 10.

What do you all think?

Unfortunately, Hollis and I will be out of town this Thursday night.  Also, next Thursday night is the Idaho Humanities Council dinner and lecture.  That’s two consecutive DL meetings that I’ll miss, if you’re keeping count.  I may go through withdrawals.

Most of you know Hollis and me and my kids.  You probably noticed the unusually wide range of pigmentation in our family.  So it may not be such a surprise to you just how much the Trayvon Martin case has touched me.

You all know the details by now.  The cable news networks have been hitting the story hard.  Too hard, really.  Except for Fox News, which only jumped on the story when they realized that there was a dead hoodie-wearing black kid that needed a little demonizing.

As usual, Ed at Gin and Tacos has an excellent commentary.  And one of my new favorites, Crommunist, has a couple interesting posts.

There are facts that just hurt, though:  the Skittles that Trayvon bought were for his little brother.  And perhaps you did not hear this:  it appears that they tested Trayvon for drugs, but not George Zimmerman.

But beyond all that, I so hate to think about the fact that my kids have to grow up in a society where travesties like this take place.  It is hard to explain the uproar to your eleven-year-old son and to have him ask if he’s safe.

Even worse, we have a major political party claiming that we’re living in a post-racial country with a black president (except when they claim he’s not black), and we need to stop paying attention to race.  That party is dead-set on eliminating affirmative action, gutting the Voting Rights Act, blaiming the poor for the financial crisis, instituting Voter ID laws, killing the Dream Act, building walls to keep out brown-skinned people, cutting entitlement spending and jobs programs, and eliminating the Housing and Urban Development department.  Have I missed anything?

I honestly didn’t set out to write such a depressing commentary.  I really just wanted to tell all of you – my Drinking Liberally family – just how much I appreciate the fact that you get this.  You are a rare breed here in Idaho, and I am so proud to know you all and call you my friends.

Please join us at DL this week and we’ll have a big group hug.  Wear a hoodie if you’ve got one.

Cheers,
Dan

Here are a few things that happened on this day (i.e.,  the day of our next Drinking Liberally meeting) that might serve to motivate you to attend.

In 1973, the last American combat troops left South Vietnam.

And in 1990, the leaders of the former Russian satellite country of Czechoslovakia failed to agree on how to spell the name of the new country after the fall of communism, sparking the Hyphen War.

“Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific values. … it requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason.  I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, to take one example, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I can’t simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will.  I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.”
– Barack Obama, pre-President

“Brittany is apparently unaware of the negative externalities of the lack of health insurance.  In an enlightened and moral society that at least claims to not let people die of disease or injury because of a lack of ability to pay if I become ill and lack health insurance I’m going to be cared for anyway.  The question then becomes where will I go to receive this care?  The answer most often will be the emergency room where the cost of care is much higher than in other settings.  So who ultimately pays this inflated bill?  All of you with health insurance pay this bill.  All of you who in any way pay for health care pay this bill.  If you hope to claim that health care providers don’t pass on the cost of the unpaid care they provide to others you’re fooling yourself.  So what I am saying?  I’m saying that you’re going to pay for the care of others whether you like it or not.  However, by mandating that everyone have health insurance and providing it to those who cannot obtain it themselves you’ll actually save yourself money.  What do you think costs more, the cleaning and dressing of a wound and the providing of antibiotics or the amputation and aftercare of a gangrenous limb that wasn’t tended to in time?  And there are numerous other examples I can expound for you.  Even if you don’t support universal healthcare for moral or humanitarian reasons you should support it for your own selfish economic reasons.”
– Austin Carnes, on Facebook

“If Justice Anthony M. Kennedy can locate a limiting principle in the federal government’s defense of the new individual health insurance mandate, or can think of one on his own, the mandate may well survive.  If he does, he may take Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and a majority along with him.  But if he does not, the mandate is gone.  That is where Tuesday’s argument wound up – with Kennedy, after first displaying a very deep skepticism, leaving the impression that he might yet be the mandate’s savior.”
– Lyle Dennison

Once by the Pacific

The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God’s last Put out the light was spoken.

Link to calendar