SEARCH - EVERYWHERE OR JUST HERE!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Republicans the Party of the Wealthy



A week ago, I took my friends Alfred and Lorie out for lunch at William's Landing restaurant in Astor, Florida. Alfred and Lorie are moving to Pennsylvania and it was a sad farewell. Alfred has already voted by absentee balot, which he applied for long ago since he's frequently away from home on business. Lorie took advantage of "early voting" this past week in order to cast her vote before moving.

As the owner of his own small business, Alfred works his fingers to the bone, sacrificing personal wants and needs over paying the business's bills, and burning the midnight oil to get work done while he envies those who get to punch a time clock and put their work behind them as they go home to their families each night.

Both Lorie and Alfred are voting for Obama this election. Alfred is a registered Republican.

Alfred explained to me that he is no longer happy with his party. The very reasons why he became a Republican, the core principals of fiscal responsibility and small government, seem to have vanished. The Democrats have adopted many of his values embracing charter schools, healthcare and gun rights. The Republicans have lost their way and lost touch with the average American.

I understand what he is talking about. I too, was a Republican, having joined the party in 1978 after listening to a talk at my school by a North Carolina Democrat running for office about the virtues of government handouts for the poor and destitute. I'll never forget his closing question to the audience, "Do you think we should make sure everyone has a home, food on their table, and the comforts of life regardless of whether or not they have a job, or do you think they should have to work for it?" It seemed a simple question to me. Of course, they should have to work for it. I mean, I did. Why not make them work, too?

At that time, in 1978, the difference between the haves and the have nots was not nearly as disproportionate as what it has become today and the Federally mandated minimum wage paid a living wage. Driving through the "poor" neighborhoods in my hometown in North Carolina, you could not find the poetic ramshackle hovels from the Grapes of Wrath where the poor were living in filth and despair. No, this was tobacco and textile production country and "poor" meant that you drove a used Cadillac instead of a new one, or maybe just a good old rusty Ford truck handed down from your grandfather.

I was born into the middle class, but my parents felt that earning your own way builds character, so I had to make it on my own. My first job as a cashier, paying minimum wage of $3.35 per hour or $6,700 per year, barely paid my meager bills of rent, utilities, food and toiletries. At that time, about $6,000 per year marked the official poverty level. I could not afford a car and walked to work, a mile away. I also could not afford health insurance, even then, but did not care, since I was young and healthy. I hated paying taxes, especially since I personally knew people who sat at home watching TV all day and didn't work, but got welfare checks, food stamps, and free housing for doing absolutely nothing.

Despite my own meager existence, I had no problem proudly announcing to the world that I was a Republican. I campaigned for Jesse Helms for Senate and Beverly Lake for governor, and a few other candidates who I've forgotten since then. I campaigned for the working American. I wanted us to keep what we earned and for the government to tighten their belts and stop giving out free handouts. Instead, I wanted the Federal government to concentrate on the big jobs -- fixing highways, making and enforcing laws to protect us, and training the military to keep us safe. I wanted the local State government to build schools; maintain libraries, museums, and parks; police the streets; and keep my house from burning down.

Wow! Things have changed dramatically, haven't they? The government has fallen down on the job. Like a prima donna employee, our typical Republican governing official has let the primary task of serving the general public fall to the wayside, instead choosing to take care of personal wants and needs. Most Republican spending, whether it has been to fight a war in Iraq or build a "bridge to nowhere," has not served the general public. Instead, it has been directed at helping big corporations, such as oil companies, who have earned record profits due to wars in Middle Eastern oil producing countries, or Haliburton, who has been awarded no bid contracts for the military. Big insurance companies and big banks get bigger, all with the help of the government. Many Republicans, including our own President Bush and Vice President Cheney, have stock in these companies or receive pensions from previous high level positions, and have personally profited from the legislation.

Only two years ago, my husband and I considered ourselves to be fairly comfortable. After paying the mortgage, utilities, food, gas, healthcare, and paying off the credit card each month, we were still able to keep 25% of our pay for frivolous expenses, such as travel, eating out at restaurants, going to shows, buying electronic gizmos, giving spending money to our young relatives in college, and other splurges. Now, only one year later, we are lucky if we have anything left after paying our bills. For this reason, we have had to dip into savings intended for emergencies and retirement.

So, the farewell dinner we treated our friends to could not be at the pricey, but special, Blackwater Inn in Astor, FL. No, it had to be upstairs in the more affordable, William's Landing which serves some of the best fried fish sandwiches you'll find in central Florida.

My friend, Alfred says, "The Republicans have become split in two. On one side, they are the party of the haves. On the other, they are the party of the far Christian rights, the extreme social conservatives. I don't fit into either category."

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Clearwater Riot of 2008?


The 1935 lynching of Rubin Stacy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The story behind the lynching is as follows: Six deputies were escorting Stacy to Dade County jail in Miami on 19th July, 1935, when he was taken by a white mob and hanged by the side of the home of Marion Jones the woman who had made the original complaint against him. The New York Times later revealed that "subsequent investigation revealed that Stacy, a homeless tenant farmer, had gone to the house to ask for food; the woman became frightened and screamed when she saw Stacy's face."

Florida is no stranger to racial adversity. Between 1967 and 1996, Florida has been the site of seven more race riots. All were initiated over the accusation of law enforcement taking sides based on race.

In 1923, an angry mob of about 100 to 150 whites, several who had come from out of state, attacked, tortured, and shot at the black residents of the little town of Rosewood, FL after it was rumored that they had helped a black man rape and kill a white woman. Much later, it was discovered that the married woman was most likely actually beaten up by her white boyfriend with whom she was having an affair, and not raped, nor killed. However, the crowd had been excited and would not turn back. While law enforcement and even the Governor of Florida ignored the riot, the little black town of Rosewood was burned to the ground and essentially wiped off the map, the surviving residents fleeing to other cities and states to escape persecution for their skin color. The full story can be found at: www.afgen.com/roswood2.html

Could Florida be the site of another riot, perhaps whites raging against other whites, over their support of a black presidential candidate? The 2008 landmark presidential election of a white man vs. a black has had an unusual outcome. It has brought out into the open the ugly pale underbelly of the south – the white supremacist.

The McCain/Palin crowd has not just become vocal, they’ve become violent. A Washington Post October 7, 2008 article reported that during a Palin rally in Clearwater, Florida on October 6, the crowd turned on the media after Palin blamed reporters, such as CBS news anchor Katie Couric, for making her look bad.

One attendee, further riled up, resorted to yelling racial epithets at a black sound man, then told him to, “Sit down, boy,” an term meant to demean an adult black male.

As Palin read off a “guilty by association” list of terrorists Obama has crossed paths with over the length of his entire political career, a man in the audience suggested:

“Kill him!”

White Barack Obama supporters have an interesting challenge. They will be voting “black” in a part of the country where having a son with a gay partner is more socially acceptable than having a white daughter married to a black man. It’s no wonder people are afraid to admit their allegiance to Obama, for there are still those in the south who say they would like to send all the blacks back to Africa.

This past weekend, I and several others volunteered for the Obama campaign to register voters at a street festival in Port Orange, a city in Central Florida. I wore my official Obama/Biden t-shirt, one of only three I saw while walking the entire length of the festival. As my friend Trish and I surveyed the crowd for unregistered voters, we handed out Obama stickers. I was surprised at the number of people who were nervous about wearing a sticker in public.

“That’s my guy,” whispered one woman to me.

“Would you like a sticker?” I asked.

“Oh no!” she shook her head and scurried away. I felt as if I was handing out something truly embarrassing, such as condoms.

A fireman told me, “My union’s voting Obama, but I don’t dare wear that,” he confessed.

Many people were willing to take a sticker, but not to wear them. In my rough estimation, women were about five times more likely than men to accept them, and out of those, about half were willing to put on and wear the sticker in public that very minute. Parents who would not wear a sticker themselves were happy to put them on their children instead.

“But they can’t vote,” said Trish.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “People need to get comfortable with the idea of a black man as president. The more people that wear the logo, the more people will feel comfortable voting for Obama,” I explained.

Older people were more likely to grimace when I offered an Obama sticker. I’ll never forget the look on one 80 year-old man’s face, as I offered him one. He opened his mouth in horror, then took his wife’s arm and led her away from me as quickly as her cane would allow her to walk.

It’s no wonder. Many older Americans were alive when lynching was a publicly acceptable form of vigilante justice and lynching photos were circulated on mass produced postcards.

Historian James Allen has assembled a collection of lynching postcards and photos on his website, www.withoutsanctuary.org. Particularly disturbing are the stories behind the lynching photos, some where the persecutors admit to getting the wrong man; others where white mobs broke the accused out of jails for the purpose of mutilating them, then killing them before they could even stand trial. Many photos show whites - standing around proudly, children in tow, laughing and smiling, the victim propped up and sometimes decorated like a hunting trophy.

Some postcards and photos date as recently as 1936, only 72 years ago. That means that my parents and my neighbors were not only alive, but were raised in an environment which advocated lynching as a form of keeping blacks “in their place.”

It is difficult for me to understand the mindset of racists. How is it possible that they can find the act of love between whites and blacks disgusting, but not the act of torturing and hanging up another human being to die?

Perhaps the angry crowd at VP Candidate Palin’s rally will go home and rethink their attitudes. Or, perhaps their public outcries will attract the extreme white supremacists from other parts of the country, eager to expend some energy. If I were Governor Charlie Christ, I would put the National Guard on standby. Palin is still in the state, after all.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Fluffy, the Demo-Cat


Fluffy, a former Re-pig-lickin', became a Demo-Cat after McCain chose Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. She now wears her Obama/Biden sticker proudly.

On October 1, 2008, it was reported on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show that the magazine, “Cat Fancy” had endorsed Senator McCain for president.

“Cancel my subscription!” cried Fluffy from her usual perch beside the window.

Fluffy, a beautiful 12-year old Angora who was rescued from a roof in Seattle in 1997 and now resides in Central Florida, is serious about her magazines. “I won’t sit on just anything,” she says.

Formerly a “Re-pig-lickin’,” Fluffy originally supported McCain, who she mistakenly thought was named, “McCan.”

“I love all cans!” she explained. “I even jump at the sound of a can opener...You never know what’s in a can. It could be beans, but, it could be tuna!”

“I’m also for off-shore fishing. The more salmon, the better. We have to lessen our dependence on foreign fish,” said Fluffy.

Fluffy had formerly admired Senator John McCain’s stands on the environment and animal rights, including his refusal to drill in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, his acknowledgment of the human species effects on Global Warming, and interest in alternative fuels and safe nuclear energy. She now wonders if that was all talk.

“He picked one of the scariest people out there to be his Vice Presidential running mate – Sarah Palin. If she had her way, she would shoot us all,” said Fluffy.

Alaska’s Governor, Sarah Palin, has a record of animal cruelty. According to a Huffington Post article on August 31, 2008, Palin wants to decrease the bear and wolf population by shooting them from hunters flying above. Why? To increase the moose and caribou population for trophy hunters. Last year, Alaska offered a $150 bounty on each wolf killed by air. Palin also filed a lawsuit against the Bush administration over the addition of polar bears on the endangered species list and doesn’t recognize mankind’s role in global warming.

Palin, a card carrying member of the National Rifle Association, also has a reputation of having a dislike for, even being afraid of cute little fluffy cats, according to a September 10, 2008 feature in the New York Times.

“Just what we need,” said Fluffy, “Another VP with a gun.”

God, save us all!