The Right Doubles Down on Discrimination

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But James O’Keefe is a real journalist

But James O’Keefe is a real journalist

Remember that guy who went into Acorn and Acorn Housing offices with a girl pretending to be a prostitute?  Remember how the doctored tapes shut Acorn and Acorn Housing down?  Well that guy, has to pay one of the staffers he filmed $100,000.

Save me San Francisco… updated

Me and my cousin Melanie in Minneapolis when we were much younger. Though dang, Melanie, how’d you find the hooch so early?

Train has an album (yes, they are still called that), “Save me San Francisco.”  I love that title, maybe because I love San Francisco so much. As this is Thanksgiving week, I am going to publish this earlier than I meant to.  Here is a list of some of the things to which I need to say, “Thank you!”

My family:  Maybe you read my blog or have met my mother, you may think my family all come from American Horror Story.  They don’t.  The photo on the left was taken one year when we went to Minneapolis for Christmas or Thanksgiving.  For years, my holiday season meant Christmas in Minnesota and New Years in California.  Nothing says Christmas like Minneapolis.  The snow.  The cold.  The indoor shopping and the inevitable time when my Uncle Roger (who will only be referred to as “Roger” from here on) would try to get us all to go ice skating, cross country skiing or something else in negative 20 degree weather.  As I got older I opted out.  One of my favorite injuries was from when I was 10.  I chipped my right hip ice skating on a lake or pond or something.  Seriously, I had a bruise that was black for over a year.  Not kidding.  Not a complaint.

I like to call Roger my “Uncle Flanders” (sorry Melanie, he really is and I mean that in the best

Roger “Uncle Flanders” Clarke — from his web site.

possible way).  Some of the best memories of my childhood are from when my Minnesota family came to Long Island in the summer.  We had a lobster party every year on my grandmother’s patio.  The day of the bash Roger and I would spend the afternoon clamming and digging for muscles in the creek behind the house.  We always also had an outing to West Hampton.

I am going to write more about these times and what they meant to me but for now, I am just thankful that I have gotten to be closer with some members of my family and want the people who have always been there for me to know how much that has meant.  Thank you Roger, Sandy, Melanie, Abbie, Bonnie, Tom & Libby.  Thank you for  getting back in touch (I am looking at you Bonnie, she started reading my blog and following me on Facebook and it has been really nice getting to know you again through social media, cannot wait to see you next month).

Friends who have stood by me though too much craziness and drama: I am a red headed Leo from New York so I know there’s always going to be a certain amount of drama in my life but this has been crazy.  Throughout it all, I have some friends, you know who you are, who have not given up on me.  Even when I gave up on me.  Some of you have travelled with me all over the globe looking for adventure and booty (just kidding about the booty but Kilimanjaro and Everest were pretty exciting).

San Francisco:  I was born in the city by the Bay (call it anything that starts with F and is six letters and I will cut you, CUT YOU LIKE A FISH) and spent a decent amount of my youth there. I often think of it as a sea of sanity in an otherwise crazy world.

San Francisco is one of the most awesome cities in the country.  When I was in high school, my mom and her husband found an amazing apartment in Noe Valley.  From the back deck we had the most unbelievable view of the Bay Bridge.  It looked like a post card.  Every morning I would sit on that deck and have my coffee and was never not impressed.  I remain grateful for every moment in that wonderful city.

Sports:  Love sports.  So much fun to get so into something that actually means so little.

COMEDY!  Thank you Chris Coccia and the DC Improv for giving me the hobby that helps me cling to the sliver of sanity I have left.  LOVE YOU.

The thing I am most thankful for: YOU!  Thank you for reading my blog and giving me your feedback.  It means the world to me.  THANK YOU!!!

My Arlen Specter story

Sen. Arlen Specter (Photo credit: Talk Radio News Service)

I wrote this some time ago and thought I had published it.  As the former Senator from Pennsylvania recently passed away and I never had published it, I am now.

Several lifetimes ago,  I worked for Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).  One thing young staffers get to do is deal with constituents — in person, on the phone and through their always well thought out and researched correspondence.  I firmly believe if our founding fathers were to travel in time to now and judged us solely on the people who visit and call their Congressional representatives, we would have a vastly different form of government.

One evening, a very peculiar woman came in.   She was convinced that anyone born in California (or Hawaii) could vote in France.  She also thought I was 45 years old.  I am not even that old now — several lifetimes later — so you can appreciate how well that went over with me.  She wasn’t too scary but she liked mu boss and made that clear.  What she said on her way out was how much she hated Senator Specter and she was going to give him a piece of her mind (Is it snarky of me to note that this was more than she could afford to give?).

One idea that I cling to, even when I am not sure why, is that people who get involved in politics do so because they care about the country.  In that respect, Hill staffers have several things in common; a strong work ethic, long hours, low pay, a hatred of all things related to the Close Up foundation.  So, when this woman, made that comment, I called Senator Specter’s office immediately (he was a Republican then.)

Me: Hi this is Alyson from Senator Feinstein’s office.  A really freaky woman was just in here and she is headed your way.  Just wanted to let you know.

Specter staffer: You do know our senator is a Republican, right?

Me:  That doesn’t matter right now.  Crazy person, coming to your office any minute.

They took my advice seriously and locked their front door — it was around 6:00 pm so that made some sense.  The woman in question shook the glass doors so much that they called the Capitol police.

The next morning, I received 15 pounds of Hershey chocolate of several flavors.  The note read; Thanks for yesterday, we would not have done the same for you.  WTF?  You wouldn’t?  Really?  REALLY?  Guess not.

We need to treat each other better.

 

Who are we?

Who are we?  Who do we want to be?

 

History has shown that from time to time a society has to decide who they are and what they want to be.  This is not something they do on purpose but are more often forced into it when things get really tough.  It makes some sense as when things are going well, people don’t have the need for such thoughts.  The United States has been in that position several times; just before and during the Revolution, the Civil War and during the Great Depression and World War II.  As we enter the second year of the worst economy since the Depression and are entrenched in two wars, we find ourselves again at that point.  These are not the only issues that beg these questions, however.

 

·         Torture:  Does protecting our national security ever give us the right to use this?  No, it does not.  I reject the suggestion that we need to do away with our values to stay safe and believe when we turn our backs on our core beliefs we increase the risks we will be attacked. 

o   Torture is the antithesis of everything we stand for.  Benjamin Franklin said ‘Those who would give up liberty for security deserve neither.’  He was right.  There are a number of reasons for this.  I am honestly torn about which I think it more important – the precedent with set abroad or the one we set at home?  If we can torture others, we inch closer to the day when we can torture our own citizens.  This isn’t just my opinion, it was that of several George W. Bush lawyers who opposed it.  Moreover, one can see this in action when they see how long some American citizens have been detained for suspected anti-American activities.  These are the very things our founding fathers wanted to prevent.  There’s also the point that we see ourselves as a benevolent force in the world but not everyone else does.  When we forfeit our belief in the rule of law as it pertains to others, we become hypocrites and pave the way for others to do as we have done.

o   Torture doesn’t work.  Don’t take my word for it, read a little about how investigators get decent information.  It is not through torture.  Al Qaeda trains its people to deal with torture so they aren’t going to talk.  Ask John McCain how much he gave up during his seven years in a POW camp.  Plus, the people who would talk, generally would say anything to stop the pain so whatever intel they give cannot be relied on.  Dick Cheney has said that we got good information through these methods but has never said if we could have gotten it any other way or if better information was missed because of what we did.  In fairness, he probably doesn’t know and that is a whole different problem.

o   We follow the Geneva Convention to protect our soldiers.  If we can find loopholes in the Geneva Convention, do we really think other countries won’t do the same thing?  Really?  Are we that stupid?

·         Social safety net:  Our political debates tend to center around a few themes and one is how big our government should be.  Do we want a small government with almost no taxes where we all fend for ourselves or do we want one that does for all of us collectively what we cannot do individually?  I would opt for the latter.  The irony is I know we don’t want to decide, we want both.  Exhibit a for this theory is California, which has the closest thing to direct democracy in the US.  The Californian electorate is confused about this as anyone.  Because they can hold direct referendums, they prove they want it both ways.  Prop 13 gutted the state's ability to tax the citizens (yes, I know property taxes were crazy back then) but the same people vote for plans to expand health care and improve education.  It seems we all want decent roads, a good military, an education system that doesn’t suck but you know what?  Taxes pay for that.  Oliver Wendell Holmes said, ‘Taxes are the price you pay for a civilized society.’  Who are we then?    

·         Why do we care about places outside the US and even in space?  

o   Foreign aid:  When polled, people will consistently think that we both spend too much money helping other countries but then think we should be spending more than we are (their estimates are that we spend at least 10 percent of our budget on aid and should spend something closer to that but less while the real amount is less than three percent.)  I think a huge chunk of this is that most people cannot find most other counties on a globe.  President Clinton said that we should have a policy where we have more friends than enemies, and I agree with that.  A first step would be to know more about other cultures.  It is hard for us to ‘get’ the India/Pakistan situation if we do not know the history and/or cannot find either on a map.  Africa is not only not a country but is much larger than Europe yet we learn a lot more about England than anything in Africa.

o   Spacedust:  I attended an event this week where people seemed to think the space program is just not worth anything.  They are not alone.  At least a few Members of Congress have supported ending NASA and using that money for things closer to home.  President Kennedy was right when he said we should go to the moon, though it’s too bad he didn’t live to see it.  Studying the stars does more than waste tax dollars, it inspires innovation.  It creates jobs.  It teaches about who we are and why we are here.  Plus if we don’t get global warming under control it might find us a new place to live… (no, I don’t think we will do that – at least in my lifetime)

o   The arts & humanities:  Such an easy target and so important to our society.  We may not always see the immediate value of either but should they go away we would see the impact of their absence.  

 

Barack Obama’s victory in November was, to me, a sign that we want to go in a new direction.  The course he has set for the country is one that I think we will make life better for all of us and inch us closer to being what we want to be.  My hope is that we will not just look to him but to each other and start to openly talk about this and not just debate it.   

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