wordsmithlind

I propose a new unemployment system here in the United States.  I have heard too many times of people who are on unemployment who spend their time on the couch, drinking beer and watching TV while others struggle to eat.  I have heard too many times of people buying luxury items with their unemployment money while others fight to pay their bills.  My proposed system will work to stem these trends.  First off, the money should be tracked.  Money should be used first and foremost to pay bills, pay for food, and then create savings for the future in case the individual cannot find a job after his six months of payment run up.  Special bank accounts will be issued where the money is rarely issued as cash and given directly to the landlord, credit card company or grocery store.  Second, people on unemployment must volunteer at least ten hours a week.  This can be for a homeless shelter, animal shelter, forest preserve, after-school tutor program, etc.  This prevents the individual from becoming lethargic and depressed and it keeps the individual from losing the rhythms of work.  In addition, it forces the individual to give back to the community.  While many people do not abuse the system, many do, and this will at least prevent them from giving the system a bad name.  Third, for those who do not qualify, the option should be available to receive benefits based on a volunteer system.  For instance, the individual qualifies for unemployment benefits each week based on the amount of hours volunteered with a cap set based on need.  It would basically be like a job except the pay comes from the Federal and State governments.  It is always shown that volunteerism decreases in times of economic uncertainty thus the need for volunteers increases, hence there would always be more than enough volunteer opportunities.      

If Americans ever wonder why people of the rest of the world hate or dislike the United States, Black Friday (when did it get this name?) would be a good place to start.  The world is in an economic crisis—caused by the US—yet at the same time people in the US are waking up at 4 AM to fight their way into stores, killing a Wal-Mart worker in the process and injuring others (see link below).  If this does not show that America’s and American’s priorities are out of line with reality nothing does.  American consumers are waiting in their pajamas to consume products they do not need while the world looks on in disbelief.  Imagine how this must look to an outside observer; imagine the thoughts running through their head: “I thought their economy was failing, too; I thought people were losing their houses, are we supposed to feel sorry for them?”  The obvious answer is no, this sort of consumer gluttony only hinders any real change in the worldview of the United States.  Here is a country that caused the world economy to falter and somehow its citizens are oblivious.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081128/ap_on_re_us/wal_mart_death

There is something that I would really like to know, when did holidays in this country become shopping days?  I remember not too long ago, I am talking less than three years ago, when everything was closed on Thanksgiving Day.  I am hearing from the shoppers in my family that many chain stores such as K-Mart and chain restaurants like Ruby Tuesday are open.  This complete disrespect for the American people and American labor needs to cease.  This country really needs to re-evaluate itself and the way it views the world, and, somehow, in these economic times, it still appears that consumerism is of vast importance.  This consumer-based economy cannot and will not last much longer.  It is a notion of the 20^th century, and like many things from the 20^th century, it should be left there.

Some progress has been made in the name of Gay Rights (aka basic human rights), and in an odd place strangely enough.  A judge in Florida ruled that the 31-year-old Florida state law forbidding homosexuals from adopting children is unconstitutional.  This is an unexpected ray of hope for the gay community, especially since Florida was one of the states to pass laws outlawing gay marriage in the November elections.  Of course, the state will try to fight this, just as they did earlier this year when the state brought in “experts” (a relative term), “who claimed there was a higher incidence of drug and alcohol abuse among gay couples, that they were more unstable than heterosexual unions and that the children of gay couples suffer a societal stigma,” even though the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association, amongst other groups, all support homosexual adoption.  Why is there such fear of the homosexual in this country?  My answer: too many people grew up in the John Wayne 1950s.    

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081125/ap_on_re_us/gay_adoptions

Enough about bailing out Wall Street, enough it of it already.  Now Citigroup is getting bailed?  A giant credit card company that gets rich ripping people off is getting a government bailout?  What about the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free—free to not worry about repaying a credit card company that has ripped them off for years, free from worrying about the next meal on the table, free those boggled with student loans and other debts, free from the consumer society we all live in.  Wall Street has had its chance numerous times in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, and it has failed numerous times.  It is time for a change.   

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20081125/us_time/08599186184300

I am definitely not the first person to draw attention to this, but Obama filling his cabinet full of ex-Clinton disciples is not exactly the definition of change.  Clinton road to the presidency on a liberal ticket and then less than a week in he reneged and presided as a moderate.  If this is the type of change we can expect, then do not expect much from Obama.  The American political system is exactly what that says: a system.  Throwing a hockey stick into the spokes will disrupt the system; adjusting the spokes either improves or hinders but still keeps the system intact.  Change is a hockey stick, the stick that will never appear.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081122/ap_on_el_pr/obama_building_a_team;_ylt=AhPXXQDbmYBAbToyifMqZHxvzwcF

It’s hard to pay attention to other parts of the world when Obama appointments, Auto Industry bailouts, and seasonal shopping are at the forefront of importance in the news.  Haiti, a country often plagued with suffering, is at its worst in decades.  The hurricanes and tropical storms earlier this ravaged the island nation, destroying crops and farmland.  Malnutrition is killing children and families are subsisting on just a few grams of food a day.  But who cares about this, Christmas might not be so great this year without all the gifts.  This goes back to an earlier blog I wrote, the news needs to report news—not speculation.  We are at the beginning of a worldwide food crisis and the US media is ignoring it. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081121/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_food_crisis

I have read countless times about the implied reason for the Big Three Automaker’s failing- Labor.  That’s right, good old fashioned unionized labor.  The people that brought the world the 40 hour workweek and the weekend, the people that fought for benefits while being shot at by Pinkerton Thugs, the people that turned working in a factory into a somewhat respectable job, that’s right, this is the reason for Detroit’s failing.  Not the shitty products they are paid to produce, not the mismanagement of resources, not the misallocation of finances, not the outdated technology, nope, none of this.  Detroit has failed because of the people that give their sweat and their toil on a daily basis to companies that will throw them out at the flick of a match.  These people, the workers, go everyday to help keep dinosaurs alive, ideological dinosaurs that kill their own future (THINK sounds like a pretty good idea now, good one, Ford).  The media, the politicians, and Detroit need to stop blaming the workers, otherwise they will have a real crisis on hand once everyone decides to stop showing up for work.

Good news, great news out of Alaska.  Convicted felon, Republican Ted Stevens pretty much has officially lost his re-election bid to Democrat Mark Begich, thus officially shutting one of Sara Palin’s God-given doorways to the Senate and thus a step closer to legitimacy and then the presidency.  The sigh of relief can be heard and felt from coast to coast knowing Palin won’t be able to ride an election wave which would have been caused by a Stevens’ win and thus a second election in Alaska for this crucial Senate seat.  With this, the final nail in Palin’s presence in the national media will be buried.  Good-bye governor, have fun building that pipeline you bragged so much about now that Alaska’s economy is suffering at your hands.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/stevens

In San Francisco over the weekend, a massive protest against Proposition 8 marched down Marker St, disrupting weekend traffic and shoppers.  Thousands of people came out to support the LGBT community; it was a healthy showing of people of all walks of life vocally speaking out against an unjust law. 

This protest had many admirable characteristics.  First off, there was no police lining the edges of the streets, creating a line between the observers and the participants.  Second, the cohesive nature of the protest, unlike most protests during the Bush years, this protest had an objective and a goal.  No discombobulating, no straying from the topics, no post-modern breakdown.  Finally, the protest disrupted main roads.  I think of this in light of the protests I have attended in Chicago which always fail to make it onto Michigan Avenue and State Street.  The People of the US can learn a lesson from the organizers of this movement.