A Symbol of Healing and Hope

The Society of Mutual Autopsy has a timely essay on the meaning of the cross:

How is it that Jesus and his cross can be so effortlessly aligned with political and ecclesial imperialism, representing not love but hatred, not mercy but brutality, not life but death? There are regions of the world where many see the cross as an image of so-called “Christian” America, which is not a compliment. Launching wars in the name of God, proclaiming Christian values around the world with smug arrogance while squandering our own resources and neglecting our own citizens, we have become a mockery of all of the values Jesus espoused, tainting the authenticity and integrity of the Christian life. [...]

The cross is displaced when what it signifies is grossly at odds with its message. And considerable blame for this rests upon the Christian community. The church has twisted the symbol of Jesus’ love and compassion for humanity to such an extent that we find ourselves at cross purposes with its message, complicit in its distortion.

In the true cross we find a counter-cultural vision where all the prevailing values of the world are judged and overturned. Strength, power, and victory are now defined by this Jesus who in the eyes of the world was weak and powerless, a victim. Yet, this is the one raised by God, according to the Gospels, the one willing to suffer with humanity in all our pain, alienation, and sorrow.

It is Easter. He is risen. May we as Christians also rise and reclaim the cross, from a symbol of arrogance and oppression to one of healing and hope.

Amen.

PSU Republicans Catch Heck

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, here's an example of Republican values that probably left a lot of parents unhappy.

College Republicans at Penn State University wanted to enter the debate about the nation's borders by playing a "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Game."

People would be invited to "catch" group members wearing orange shirts symbolizing illegal aliens.

As you might imagine, this caused quite an outcry.

Yesterday, about 150 students and some faculty opposed to the idea rallied in the student union building. And the university itself joined the fray, urging the College Republicans to "re-think their approach as a step toward fostering civility on campus."

Penn State President Graham Spanier labeled the original idea "unproductive and offensive."

The students relented and called the event illegal immigration awareness day, but several students were still puzzled by all the fuss.

Even as groups such as the Black Caucus and Latino Caucus registered passionate objections, others said they viewed the Republicans' plan -- the game included -- as a reasonable way to highlight concern about the nation's porous borders.

"You have to be creative to get students to listen to you," sophomore Chuck Knight wrote in a letter to the editor published recently in the student newspaper, The Daily Collegian. "For that matter, you have to be creative anytime you are trying to raise concern about something."

I think the students showed poor taste and a lack of concern for people's feelings - not exactly the values I would be proud of in my own children - but they do have the right to free speech as the Penn State officials pointed out. Considering there are similar events planned by conservative students on other campuses, including the University of North Texas, this might be the time for them to season their creativity with a dose of civility and consideration.

Blogging Potpourri

I'm linking to several blogs today that I've been remiss in mentioning lately:

ExPat Brian gives us a glimpse of how much easier it is to file income tax in Singapore.

I just did my 2005 taxes. That involved logging on to the government tax site, entering my ID, filling in the amount I made and hitting the Submit button. The entire process took about a minute. Took me longer than that to boot up my pc. Two weeks later... I received my tax bill for last year. As I had already calculated, it was a whopping 2.3%! (chuckle chuckle) Oops, sorry.

Yeah, I'm sorry too, sorry the tax code is so darn complicated (another Bush campaign promise unfulfilled).

If filing your income tax has reduced you to tears, turn to The Impolitic for a few laughs. Libby has a great post with lots of funny bumper stickers. These are my favorites:

ANNOY A CONSERVATIVE; THINK FOR YOURSELF
STOP MAD COWBOY DISEASE
Laughter certainly helps relieve our anxiety, but as pissed off Patricia at Morning Martini reminds us, "Thirty five soldiers have been killed this month alone" and she has had "Enough Already".

Along the blogging highway, we all make friends - and enemies. Some friendly commenters have left me remarks and I'd like to share their names with everyone:

Kathleen Callon describes herself as an Independent voter on her blog Rhodian Attic. Where does that name come from? In Kathleen's words, "Rhodian and attic are two forms of rhetoric. Rhodian is defined as "middle of the road," and attic is defined as "plain and simple."'

Steven is a new father and he blogs at Gracious Rants. I love the title of his blog. The world would be so much nicer if we all used a little more graciousness as we ranted on the state of our world.

Michael Bains is from Cleveland, Ohio, which makes him a neighbor to me here in Michigan. He describes himself as a personally evolving organism on his blog Silly Humans. How true that is for all of us. We're never too old to grow or learn.

Finally, I wanted to point to a question Midwestern Progressive asked today:

Does anyone really believe that Bush was unaware that two days before he made his statement ("We have found the weapons of mass destruction.") that a "secret fact-finding mission to Iraq had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons?"

Apparently so, as the poll Midwestern linked to indicates. What's the matter with these people? Do they all have "mad cowboy" disease? Sorry, I guess that wasn't very gracious of me.

Outsourcing Fast Food Jobs

All I can say is, this was inevitable:

[Hat tip: The Mayor of Simpleton]

The next time you run through the drive-through window at McDonald's the person taking your order might be a thousand miles away. The fast-food chain is experimenting with using call-centers to take the orders, which will then transmit the orders back to the kitchen.

Fast Company calls it out-of-state-sourcing and reports that for the last year-plus, the Big Mac of fast food has been working with a call center that handles drive-through orders at 40 restaurants around the country. The remote order-takers earn the minimum wage, do not get health benefits and do not wear uniforms.

Not to be left out of the loop, Hardee's and Carl's Jr., CKE Restaurants, plans to deploy a similar system later this year in restaurants in California.

American Tax Code: Backwards Socialism

Backwards socialism is how Pulitzer Prize-winning tax reporter David Cay Johnston describes our tax code in his book, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--And Cheat Everybody Else. According to a recent interview with the author in Mother Jones, Johnston's book "clearly shows that if Americans want a genuinely progressive tax system, one in which people pay what they can afford for the benefit of society, the current setup simply cannot continue."

Mother Jones: You write in your book that we have what amounts to a flat tax in this country - that the rich pay the same percentage of their income in taxes as the poor do. People would be very surprised to hear that. How do you figure?

David Cay Johnston: Politicians like to talk about the income tax when they talk about overtaxing the rich, but the income tax is just one part of the total tax system. There are sales taxes, Medicare taxes, social security taxes, unemployment taxes, gasoline taxes, excise taxes, and when you add up all of those taxes [many of which are quite regressive], and then you look at how they affect the rich and the poor, you essentially end up with a system in which the best off 20 percent of Americans pay one percentage point more of their income than the worst off 20 percent of Americans.

Johnston goes on to describe the myriad ways in which the rich avoid paying taxes through loopholes, shelters and deferrals, and then explains why Congress seems to lack the courage to fight for fairer tax laws.

There are a lot of politicians who want to do this. But they run into this falsehood that has been inculcated into a lot of Americans that a progressive income tax is some kind of lefty scandal. Progressive tax of any kind is the most conservative principle in western civilization. Indeed, it is the very principle upon which democracy began in Athens 2500 years ago: Those that get the greatest economic benefit from living in a civilization should bear the greatest burden of maintaining that civilization. Now that's not to defend the current system we have. It is a complete and indefensible mess, and so there are people who want to fix it. But you can't fix it if everyone sees these things through a lens that's based on a lie.

Taxes are simply the price of civilization according to Johnston.

There is no America without taxes. The question isn't, "Do we want to have taxes?" The question is, "How heavy is the burden, and who bears that burden?"

And corporate America isn't bearing as much of the burden as one might think. "Sixty-one percent of large corporations paid no federal income taxes for the five-year period from 1996 to 2000," according to Johnston. He also maintains that our high taxes are just a result of our success as a nation, and that "wealthy countries have high taxes because wealth requires lots of common goods, from clean water to public education to a justice system."

Johnston believes we need to do more than simply change tax laws, we also need an attitude adjustment:

The important issues are the principles they figured out in [ancient] Athens - that the greater the economic gain that you derive from living in a society, the greater the burden of the taxes you should bear. Because if not for that society you could not become wealthy. We live in a society that is all I, I, I, I. That's the culture of the CEO. I did this, I did that. I should get one-third of all the stock options in this company I lead with 37,000 workers because I got them to work so hard.

But the fact is you didn't do it, 37,000 people did it and you steered the ship. We need to realize in our tax system is that we are a society. This libertarian idea that says, "I'm responsible for everything that happens to me" - no, you aren't. Taxpayers educated you, taxpayers paid for the clean water that kept you from dying when you were a child, society created the peace that allowed your business to thrive. The tax system is how we distribute the burdens of maintaining that society. [Emphasis mine.]

What has happened is very, very wealthy people have looked at the system and decided that they can co-opt it. They figured out that ordinary Americans are so busy working to support themselves or paying attention to Paris Hilton and Jennifer Lopez and baseball that nobody will dig in to see how they made the system work for them. And I don't fault them for that, there is nothing wrong with people advocating for what they want from their government. The problem is when nobody pushes back.

Well said!

CEO Pension Envy

If you haven't filed your income tax yet, get busy; you only have one more week. We owe money again this year, and have ever since our kids got off of what we like to call "the dole." Those extra deductions sure did help reduce our tax liability. We should have had 10 children. Nah...just kidding!

Income tax time usually motivates us to review our retirement investments and consider our future. Are we in decent shape? Yes, but there's always room for improvement, especially since pensions, health insurance, and social security remain vulnerable.

Too bad we weren't born with silver spoons in our mouths. We just have to hope for the best at this point in time and trust that we've made the right decisions. We’re in good company though since most working Americans will never see the kind of retirements many CEO's enjoy:

Henry A. McKinnell of Pfizer, Inc. will collect $6,518,459 annually and Brian L. Roberts of Comcast Corp. will receive $3,600,000, but PepsiCo, Inc. CEO, Steven S. Reinemund, will only look forward to $2,170,870 a year.

Poor man! That's still a decent chunk of change. My hubby and I could live out our years quite comfortably on just one year of his retirement income. Are you listening, Mr. Reinemund? If you feel inclined to share some of your pension, I'd be willing to switch from Coke to Pepsi!

Wal-Mart Determines Port Security

Why are U.S. ports so poorly protected nearly five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001? Because Wal-Mart puts commercial interests ahead of security according to John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO.

The company, through its Washington, D.C., lobbyist, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, has time and again since 9/11 opposed new port and supply-chain security rules that might cut into Wal-Mart's record profits. Its mantra is: "Security requirements should not become a barrier to trade.

In the past few years, Wal-Mart has:

Opposed the introduction of anti-terrorist "smart containers" and electronic seals for cargo containers coming into U.S. ports. The retail industry called them "feel good (security) measures."

Opposed independent and regular inspections of supply-chain security practices around the world.

Opposed tougher rules requiring Wal-Mart to let Customs know what it's shipping in and where it comes from.

Opposed new container-handling fees to pay for improved port security.

It's worth noting that Wal-Mart can't argue the cost of implementing these security safeguards is prohibitive.

One of the United States' top port security experts, retired Coast Guard Cmdr. Stephen Flynn, puts the cost of helping protect our ports at 0.2 percent of the value of cargo in the containers. The cost to Wal-Mart would be about $36 million -- less than one-third of 1 percent of the $11.2 billion profit the company raked in last year, or several million dollars less than CEO Lee Scott's pay over the past two years.

Wal-Mart believes making cargo containers secure should be voluntary. As Sweeney puts it, "The essence of this policy is "trust, but don't verify" and that's just the way Wal-Mart and RILA want to keep it."

Yeah, right. Trust, but don't verify. Nearly two-thirds of all Wal-Mart products come from China, and "the rest comes from 70 other countries, including Pakistan, the Philippines and Indonesia, where there's a dangerous cocktail of workers' rights abuses and lax enforcement, official corruption and active terrorist organizations."

Wal-Mart and its corporate lobbyists have instead invested heavily in the members of Congress with the most sway over ports and supply-chain security issues, as well as the Bush administration and the Republican National Committee.

This leads me to ask a question: Who's running this country - Wal-Mart or Congress?

Who Are Louis Boven and Dick DeVos?

If you said both men are Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidates, then give yourself an A+. You are politically savvier than most Michiganders who recognize the DeVos name, but are completely in the dark when it comes to Louis Boven. That’s possibly because our media continues to act like there is only one person running on the Republican ticket. Today’s Oakland Press stated, “Neither DeVos nor Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm are expected to face opponents in the Aug. 8 primary,” and Wikipedia makes the same claim: "He is running unopposed for the Republican nomination for Governor, after three rivals quit the race within three months of his announcement."

If the media won’t do their job, then I consider it my duty to set the record straight on behalf of Louis Boven who doesn’t have the deep pockets of Dick DeVos.

In case you don’t recognize the name DeVos, let me give you some background. DeVos is the billionaire son of Richard DeVos, cofounder of Amway (renamed Alticor/Quixtar). He has been one of the biggest contributors to the Bush campaign and Republican Party, contributing around $602,000 according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington. [Wall Street Journal, December, 28, 2000] [Update: More recent information reports Dick DeVos and his wife and former state chairman of the Republican Party, Betsy, contributed just under $1.5 million.]

DeVos founded the Restoring American Dream PAC:

”RAD has played an essential role in maintaining Republican control of the House of Representatives in both 1998 and 2000. Dick's commitment to electing men and women of integrity and character is unmatched. I look forward to working closely with RAD in identifying and recruiting conservative candidates for the year 2002." - Congressman Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Majority Whip, U.S. House of Representatives

DeVos is also politically well connected. Business Week and the Associated Press reported in 1999 that Abramoff was “first to sign up” for a meeting with GOP House conservatives hosted by DeVos on the Amway yacht Enterprise. As a reward for his loyalty, Karl Rove called on behalf of President Bush to offer DeVos an ambassadorship:

“Michigan businessman Dick DeVos, a major Republican contributor and driving force behind last year's failed school voucher ballot campaign, has declined to become President Bush's ambassador to the Netherlands. "I am honored and flattered that the president would consider giving me the opportunity to represent our country abroad," said DeVos…"Unfortunately, however, my business commitments do not permit me to serve at this time." - George Weeks, Detroit News, March 4, 2001

One final point worth mentioning is that Dick DeVos has surpassed the $2 million mark for television advertisements in an election year ad blitz that started four months earlier than it did in 2002. Rich Robinson, spokesperson for the Michigan Campaign Finance Network in Lansing, stated: "This amount of campaign spending this early on in the campaign is unprecedented." The election is still seven months away, but pundits are already predicting the DeVos campaign will spend $50 million dollars to help get him elected.

That brings me to Louis Boven. As far as I can tell, only one newspaper reported on his campaign. I can’t say why the larger news sources failed to report this story, but I imagine it’s because they don’t give him much of a chance. Well, I’m tired of money buying elections, so I’m promoting his story:

Whatever else is propelling him, Boven, a 46-year old Holland chiropractor, certainly doesn't have the money, the name recognition or political background that would make him a natural choice to challenge presumed nominee and Amway heir Dick DeVos in the GOP gubernatorial primary.

But that's what he's planning to do. He says he's the grassroots alternative that some Republicans are seeking. He said he has traveled 25,000 miles with his wife, Mary Jo, over the past year talking to Michigan voters, coming away with the feeling that many in the GOP want another choice.

"There are a lot of Republicans that feel like the choice has been handed to them," he said.

"I don't want people to think I'm delusional," he said. "I know what the animal is out there and what the machine is. But I'm counting on the conscience of the people."
Boven is up against a campaign machine that could spend tens of millions of dollars and has the backing of the entire Republican Party structure.

But Boven is undaunted.

"We can't go toe to toe," he said. "But I've been in competition with many things I do. I measure my opposition, figure out their strengths and weaknesses."

DeVos' "most obvious" weakness, Boven said, is his rearing as heir to the Amway fortune.

"It's not his fault -- nothing against the life DeVos has lived -- but it's hard to have lived with that much money to really address the needs of the common laborer, the common businessman," he said.

"A lot of times, when you've been at the top, you tend to dictate what you think the people need instead of understanding the people's needs."

(Source Citation: "Long odds don't deter chiropractor's race against DeVos; Holland Republican 'counting on the conscience of the people' in gubernatorial bid.(State)." The Grand Rapids Press (Grand Rapids, MI) (March 23, 2006): B4. InfoTrac Custom Newspapers. Thomson Gale.)

Boven sounds like the kind of levelheaded person politics has been lacking for some time now. He already has a web site - Boven For Governor - filled with information on his background (where he also gives his opinions on key issues) but the statement that caught my attention and spoke to me was this one:

I WILL STRIVE TO BE A STATESMAN, NOT A CAREER POLITICIAN;
AND I WILL SERVE THE PEOPLE, NOT THE MONEY.

Boven may be the underdog, and the media may be ignoring him, but he deserves to be heard. Money should not determine elections in Michigan – or our country.

McCain Insults American Workers

What was John McCain thinking when he made these comments after someone questioned his commitment to unionized labor because he favors guest-worker provisions for immigrants?

McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain's job offer.

"I'll take it!" one man shouted.

McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. "You can't do it, my friends."

Some in the crowd said they didn't appreciate McCain questioning their work ethic.

Is McCain out of touch with reality? How many immigrant workers get paid $50 an hour to pick lettuce or any other crop?

And what an insult to all workers when he insisted that no American would do such menial labor for a complete season. What American workers WILL NOT DO - and SHOULD NOT DO - is work menial, back-breaking jobs for minimum wage or less so corporations can earn higher profits. People can't even put a roof over their head or food on the table with minimum wage.

It sounds to me like McCain has been hanging out with the Washington elite too long.

Executing Moussaoui Will Not Bring Closure

[A contractor working in my area cut the phones lines and left me incommunicado since early Monday morning. I work from home and depend on my DSL line, so not only am I behind in blogging and e-mail, I'll also be playing catch-up with my work for the next several days. Grrr...]

I read everyone's comments on my Moussaoui death penalty post and I'm not surprised by the various opinions, but I am disappointed that the jury found Moussaoui "eligible" for the death penalty. The proceedings now move on to the second stage where jurors will decide whether or not to sentence him to death. I hope they spare his life and give him life in prison. I'm against the death penalty under all circumstances, but particularly so in this case because I believe (like many of you) that Moussaoui is getting what he wants - a chance at martyrdom - and I also feel it reduces us down to his level. We have become a lynch mob looking for someone to kill in order to vent our anger. That anger is a strong emotion, and it probably helped fuel the jury’s decision too, but what will his death accomplish?

The Boston Globe printed some responses from the families of the 9/11 victims that ranged from joy to frustration, much like the rest of America.

Rosemary Dillard of Alexandria, whose husband, Eddie, sat next to a hijacker on the flight that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, gripped the seat in front of her, smiled, and exhaled. Outside the courthouse, she pumped her fist in front of television cameras and declared that Moussaoui deserves to die.

''I'm shocked they came to this," said Stephanie Holland-Brodney of Wayland, whose mother, Cora Holland, was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11, adding that she thinks the jury found Moussaoui eligible for the death penalty because ''people so badly want to blame somebody for this. . . . [But] this was not the person to pin it on. I think if given the opportunity, he would have killed Americans. But I absolutely do not believe he was part of the plot that day."

Christie Coombs of Abington, whose husband, Jeff, was also killed on Flight 11, said she was frustrated by the verdict because she's convinced Moussaoui was ''an Al Qaeda wannabe" and that jurors are on a runaway train headed for the death penalty. ''Let him rot in jail," said Coombs...

''Killing him is not going to bring any of our loved ones back," said Cindy McGinty of Foxborough, a mother of two boys, whose husband, Michael, was attending a business meeting in one of the World Trade Center towers when he was killed.

But one woman was pleased with the verdict. ''I feel that he needs to have the death penalty," said Katherine Bailey of Lynnfield, whose husband, Garnet ''Ace" Bailey, a hockey scout and former Boston Bruin who was on United Airlines Flight 175 when it crashed into one of the towers. ''I feel he's totally evil and I don't want him in our lives. . . . We need an end to this."

We do need closure, but I seriously doubt executing Moussaoui will accomplish that. Besides, if we claim to be a country that values life, then executing him will only show the hypocrisy behind our words. This is an opportunity for our nation to rise to a higher standard or, as Elizabeth Hayden eloquently stated, "Let us instead distance ourselves from the evil wrapped in their warped behavior. Let us maintain a strand of humanity that will bond us to the value of life. Let us define ourselves as principled people not acting out of fear and hatred, but a people who under the most challenging of circumstances can transcend evil and prevail with reason and justice. Let us strive to have love for one another."