“Poor”? Or “poor poor”?
October 14th, 2011 § 1 Comment
I don’t know what’s wrong with Michigan. But I’ll get to that in a minute.
The War on Poverty is said to be the war that former president Lyndon B. Johnson actually wanted to fight. On March 16, 1964, in an address to Congress, Johnson delivered his proposal for what he called “A Nationwide War on the Sources of Poverty”. His lofty goal was not just to put a bandaid over the consequences of poverty, but to attack it at its very core; he wanted to eliminate the causes of poverty. Johnson believed in opportunity, not handouts. He believed, as I do, that nearly every person in the United States would work for their living, and work hard, if only the opportunity to do so were there. People don’t want to be poor. People don’t want to rely on strangers or the state for their own well-being. People want to earn their own way to a better life. Sometimes, they just need a little help getting there.
We’ve lost sight of the value of humanity; lost sight of what it means to live in “the greatest country on Earth”. Somewhere along the way, we’ve decided that “it’s not my job” to reach out to my fellow man. It’s not my job to help create opportunities. It’s not my job to help build a better world. It’s not my job to work with other humans to increase the standard of living for us all. But it is my job to watch you, and judge you, and make sure that you don’t end up with a better life than mine.
We play a dangerous game of reactionary politics where rules are built around the small number of assholes who take advantage of the goodness in others and of the opportunities created by a government that has the welfare of all of its citizens in mind through programs designed to help people start businesses, to pick them up if those businesses fail, to keep education and innovation thriving so that the world benefits from great minds that, without a social safety net, may never produce. We use a small number of people who take advantage and hold them up as the norm.
They are not the norm. I am. You probably are, too.
The truest measure of a great nation is not in how it treats the most successful, but in the opportunities it presents to the least successful within it. We are not a great nation.
And Michigan is not a great state. As of October 1, 2011, people are being kicked off of cash assistance if they’ve been on it for 48 months or more. Now, I know what you’re thinking. That seems like an awful long time to be receiving cash assistance from the state. But who are these people that are coming off of assistance? And instead of just taking them off of assistance, we should be asking why they still need assistance in the first place. Why, after four years, has this family not found a better life? Is it their fault, or is it that the state provides a bandaid when stitches are needed? Was job training provided? Budgeting classes? Are there any jobs that this person is qualified to do? Are they working full-time and still qualifying for assistance because their job doesn’t pay them enough to actually live on?
Are we asking any questions at all?
Michigan is also rolling out a new requirement to receive assistance – asset testing. If you own your home, but lost your job and need food assistance in order to survive while looking for a new job, well, it sucks to be you because you’ll have to get rid of your home first. Don’t you have relatives or friends you can move in with? Have a decent car because you saved money for a few years and bought it with cash before your company outsourced your job? If it’s worth more than $15,000 you’re going to have to get rid of it before we can help you. No, we don’t care that it’s your only way to get to work at the company paying you minimum wage that doesn’t cover your bills which is why you need assistance in the first place.
Assets are a big part of what helps to break the cycle of poverty. So, why are we trying to take these assets away? The term “cutting your nose off to spite your face” comes to mind.
Today.
January 18th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Nothing interesting happened. And then Dennis and I were invited to Trivia Night at Harvey’s with Melanie and Andrew (whom we love!).
The last time we did trivia with them, we failed hard. I think we maybe got seven correct answers for the two rounds (of fifteen questions each).
This time, however, was different.
The first round, we got something like EIGHT right. Tremendous! It wasn’t enough to win, though, as the Awesome Team of Awesome won with ten. They always win, apparently.
But they didn’t win the second round. You know why? Andrew said “NASA”. We won the second round by a single answer. As a result, we now have two Harvey’s glasses and shot glasses, got $25 off the table’s bill, and $50 for the team to split.
The best part was Dennis’s new name for the Awesome Team of Awesome: the Awesome Team of We Got Second Place.
Oh! And our team name? “Don’t call me stupid.” Care to guess the movie?
What’s the single most important thing you accomplished in 2010?
January 2nd, 2011 § Leave a Comment
The single most important thing I accomplished in 2010? Single most? Single. Just one thing?
There are so many things that happened this year. So many dreams that came true. I went to England and Ireland, for fuck’s sake! I ran a second half marathon. I found a job that I love with a boss that’s awesome.
Are you sick of me yet?
What I would consider my most important accomplishment for 2010 centers around school. I finallyfinallyfinally got my BA!!! And, not only that, but I got accepted into the Masters in Public Policy and Administration (MPPA) program at Northwestern University.
In case you don’t know, Northwestern University is a “Big Ten” school. Which is a Big Deal. Maybe just to me.
I can’t even describe how happy I was when my diploma from the Metropolitan State College of Denver came in the mail. No, I didn’t walk in commencement. I actually had to get an exception from Metro State to finish my last semester at a school in Michigan since I had divorced and moved back to Michigan mid-way through my last year. So. I finally got my shit together and went to Western for a single semester, transferred the credits back to Metro State, and waited.
I do wish that I would have gone back to Colorado and walked in commencement. I wanted to wear a Phi Sigma Sigma sash and give hugs to all the professors who were a giant part of my success. But I didn’t. Time, money, etc. just weren’t going to let it happen.
But I graduated. I did it. And then I got into the only grad program to which I applied.
2011 has giant shoes to fill.
So, what about you? What’s the most important thing you accomplished in 2010?
“Gubernatorial” just sounds silly, doesn’t it?
November 2nd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Image by wmrice via Flickr
When elections start being called I start wondering how many people actually know anything at all – other than political party – about the people for whom they have cast their votes. I would bet that it’s a pretty small percentage. I just don’t have the energy to cover all the races that are of interest to me (all of them), so I opted to just address Michigan’s gubernatorial.
With 44% of precincts reporting (10:30pm), the projection is that Rick Snyder will be the next governor of the state of Michigan. For those of you who didn’t do your homework, here’s a bit about “Rick Michigan”.
- Creating jobs: “Jobs is the No. 1 issue by far.” No. Really? You mean Michigan isn’t just crawling with jobs? Well, Mr. Michigan, what do you plan on doing about it? “Government doesn’t create jobs, we create an environment where jobs can flourish.” Oh, and no business taxes. Hm. That sounds a lot like helping corporations rather than people. Exactly what I would expect from a venture capitalist.
- Tax incentives: No, not for you, you greedy liberal with your hand outstretched. For corporations. Specifically, a lower tax structure. Again, not for you. For corporations.
- Budget cuts: Public employees will be seeing pay cuts or job elimination. Probably because they aren’t corporations.
- Education: Rick Snyder believes that K-12 funding levels are sufficient and wants to encourage consolidation among school districts. Why not encourage consolidation among corporations? We don’t really need Pfizer *and* Perrigo, do we? Consolidate them under a single CEO and cut his pay back. Oh, wait. I forgot. We have to protect the corporations.
- Social issues: Anti-choice, opposed to gay marriage (supports state-sanctioned relationships between same-sex partners – no word on whether this includes extending benefits to same-sex partners), favors stem cell research (good), supports gun rights (also good).
So, we’re going to bring companies to Michigan with our low business taxes. Sounds good. What kind of wages are these companies going to pay? What kind of jobs will these be? In such a difficult economic climate, will these companies be bringing low-paying, low-benefit jobs to an economically depressed state simply because the desperate throngs of Michigan unemployed will take *any* job? If that’s the case, then we’re just creating an even worse problem with Michigan’s economy, the burden of which will be shouldered by those lucky enough to be able to work for a living. What good is a lower unemployment rate if the jobs are so low-paying that families still need social assistance programs to make ends meet?
Where is the real plan for change, Rick “Rick Michigan” Snyder? You’re a businessman. If one of your executives brought you this generic outline in response to the task of creating a measurable plan of action, you’d fire them. You’re giving us talking points when we need details. Rhetoric when we need real change.
