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  • Politics Is Like Hiring A Hitman
    by Scott Woods inPolitical on2020-08-13

    For me, politics is like hiring a hitman. I have values and things I care about. I care enough about them to at least bother voting for 5 minutes every year for one issue or another. And because I care at least that much, I vote for people who align with the ability to realize the things I care about.

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  • Punching Above Our Weight
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-07-24

    I believe our vote is the punctuation of our voice. Without that resounding exclamation mark, I believe our voices are just incoherent noise.

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  • BLACK PROGRESS AMIDST SOCIAL CHAOS
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-06-16

    Recent events have raised the profile of historical injustice and inequities here in the USA. The entire world has taken note of the fact that BLACK LIVES MATTER.   We invite all of our friends to engage in actions that result in the greatest movement for change in our history. It is imperative that we take advantage of this opportunity to affect a positive change by ACTING IN OUR SELF-INTERESTS.

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  • Living in a Black No-Man's Land
    by Roger Madison Jr. inOur Community on2019-10-28

    There are many narratives that define the Black experience in America in this 2nd decade of the 21st century. Our striving over the centuries of our sojourn in this nation is a tapestry of every human experience -- oppression, enslavement, forced assimilation, dehumanization, exclusion, segregation, isolation, struggle, perseverance, achievement, excellence, celebration, mourning, despair, progress, setbacks, lynching, assassination, genocide, terror, self-hatred, low esteem, pride,...

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  • Fighting Racism
    by Scott Woods inOur Community on2018-10-25

    I had a boss who was racist. Not an outright bigot, of course; her toolbox was more subtle than most. We bumped heads a lot over inconsequential things. She frequently couldn’t keep my name out her mouth. Lot of gaslighting. You know…2018 style. I tried a lot of ways to combat or navigate her issues. None of them worked, and that’s saying a lot because I’m really good at fighting racism. But at the end of the day – every day – she was my boss, I had to deal with her, and that was that. Finally I...

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Solving the Economic Crisis in the USA

I have been watching the political postering since the November elections, and the scene is becoming hilarious -- as in insanity.

First, there are those who say the message of the November elections was about runaway spending and the size of big government.  They propose cutting taxes and slashing government programs to solve the problems.  That is like asking a family to stop eating and turn off the heat to pay down the credit card bills.  They will starve or freeze, but they will save money to pay the debt.  Smart families in this situation know that the answer is more revenue.  Reduce spending, yes.  But starve and freeze, no.  More income, and better financial discipline going forward will get them closer to solving the financial crisis.  It doesn't matter how they got there.

 Our government has the same problem.  We need medical care.  We need social security as a safety net for our seniors.  We need education, and defense.  We are stuck in two wars that our President is trying to end (circumstances don't permit us to simply walk away).  And we are spending faster than we are collecting revenue because of the recession.

Second,  the loudest voices from the Republican Party keep saying "cut taxes and reduce government spending" to get us out of this mess.  That is like our family above saying that they should cut back on the hours they work when they cut of the heat and spend less on food.  The answer that everyone is avoiding is that government needs to increase taxes (specifically on the rich who are fattening their wallets as they lead the way out of the 'jobless recovery' by watching their stock portfolios grow).  The rich are not creating jobs.  They are simply getting richer with tax cuts.  Government needs tax revenues to deliver essential services -- police, fire, education, unemployment payments, and health care for the poor and needy.

Hubert humphrey said "...the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."

Guess what America?  We are there.  This is a crisis of conscious for our government.   The massive cuts that are being proposed will only hurt the most vulnerable more than they are already suffering.  The current course that the congress and the President are on will place them at the edge of a cliff.  Will they throw the vulnerable off the cliff? Or will they stand up to the rich and pwerful and insist that they do what only they can do -- pay their fair share.  Because they have unfairly benefitted from the poor decisions that got us into this mess.

In closing, I am glad that I am not an elected politician.  The truth is that I don't know how I would handle the complicated negotiations that they must go through.  I just know that from the bottom, it is clear that we cannot cut and save our way to prosperity.  We have a revenue problem that requires a tax increase -- on those who can afford to pay -- to solve.