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Arizona could learn lesson from Lincoln

by Andrei Cherny

One hundred fifty years ago this week, Abraham Lincoln was celebrating his birthday aboard the train carrying him on his journey from Springfield, Ill., to Washington, D.C. He would never return home again. Lincoln and so many others perished in the furies of the Civil War in defense of our Constitution and the very idea of America.

Today, those battles are being revisited through the actions of Arizona Republicans led by Senate President Russell Pearce and through the acquiescence of other Republicans who allow these actions to go forward with a wink and a nod. By pushing to give Arizona authority to nullify federal laws and change birthright citizenship as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, Republicans are trying to refight the Civil War-and they've picked the wrong side.

Illegal immigration is wrong, and we need tough measures to stop the smuggling rings. As a former Arizona prosecutor, I was on the front lines of that fight. But birthright citizenship isn't the problem; it's at the heart of what makes America the greatest nation in the world.

One could be born in China and never be Chinese; one could be born in Turkey and never be a Turk. But all children born in America are as American as anyone else-no matter who their parents are or where they came from or the color of their skin. That is the "proposition" that Lincoln enunciated at Gettysburg and that so many gave "the last full measure of devotion" to defend.

Attempting to ignore the Constitution to overrule federal laws and reopening the question of who is considered an American are the very sources of what led to the Civil War. At a time we should be striding into the 21st century, the Russell Pearce Republicans' motto seems to be "Bring Back the Worst Ideas of the 19th Century."

There is a better way forward for Arizona-one that rejects the Jefferson Davis agenda and embraces Abraham Lincoln's vision. Even in the depths of the Civil War, Lincoln took measures that grew our economy and threw open the doors of opportunity for all who were willing to work hard.

Just as Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, let's create new Arizona Enterprise Zones to help entrepreneurs and innovators start up the new companies that will create jobs for the future.

Just as Lincoln signed the Land-Grant College Act, let's create a 21st-century education system for Arizona by reforming our public schools and refashioning our higher-education system so that schools prepare kids for a competitive economy.

And just as Lincoln provided businesses with the incentives to build the transcontinental railroad, let's make Arizona "the Solar State" by working with cutting-edge companies that are searching for a home.

That's the mainstream agenda Arizona Democrats believe in. We are the "big tent party" that welcomes independents and fed-up Republicans who are willing to work with us to put partisanship aside and rebuild the Arizona economy.

We're confident Abraham Lincoln would be standing with us in our tent if he were around today, but-more importantly-we're certain we are standing with him.

Andrei Cherny, Arizona Democratic Party chair, is a business consultant and former state treasurer candidate.

Joe Republican

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised. All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It's noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression. Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe is home from work.

He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

~~~Originally posted on John Gray's website in 2004. Revised by Jeff Parker to give it the pinko commie cheese-eating flavor to it. Thanks for sharing this everybody!!!
Jeff Parker's facebook page (you need a fb account to see it.)

Thoughts About the Village

by Doug Ballard
Feb. 3, 2011

Yes Virginia, Arizona is crazy. The Republicans now have super majorities in the state legislature and will be unrestrained. The hypocrisy, fear and lies are clear for all who are still capable of independent thought to see. Similar things are starting to happen in other states, but we seem compelled to lead the way.

On the national scene, there's even talk of resurrecting something akin to the old McCarthy era House Committee on Un-American Activities....to root out imagined socialists and other presumed subversives. Things are spinning from the realm of reason to some type of right wing la-la land.

These next two years, leading up to 2012, will test the true character of this country. Will good people remain in their cocoons, or will they rise up and take action?

These are very scary times. Our country has, for too long, been worshiping at the altar of self interest. Our "me above all else" culture is not sustainable. The rich
are grabbing all they can, and those on the right seem determined to tear down and destroy many of the things that have made this country great. The center of gravity is shifting from below our feet, and the obscenity of the income disparity is but one indicator.

Arizona is a harbinger for things to come elsewhere. Guns in bars, SB1070, REAL Death Panels, war on public education, war on the poor, war on the middle class,...the list keeps growing.

Make no mistake....we're on the front lines.

Time to get to work....seriously. We just can't sit by the sidelines. The question is, will good people rise up and get involved, or will they just stay home and remain absorbed in their own interests.

What affects our brothers and sisters affects us all. This is a history lesson that we ignore at our peril.

So, with that being said, what is to be done?

We must, as a Party and as individuals, move beyond our comfort zone and actively engage the forces trying to drag this state and this country backward.

We must be loud and proud about what we believe in...about what our values are.

We must become actively involved in issues that will improve the lives of our fellow citizens.

We must speak out for those who may have difficulty speaking for themselves.

We must engage our friends and neighbors and motivate them to think beyond their own interests, as we must, ourselves, think beyond ours.

We must fight the corporate takeover of our democracy, the pollution of our earth, the discrimination against our neighbors.

We must be advocates for economic and social justice...advocates for a vastly improved public education system, advocates for a transformed and invigorated economy that is in harmony with the environment.

In the following weeks, we will begin work on an active strategy for next two years.

It does take a village, and we want and need your help. We will be calling on you to take those next steps needed to realize a better future for us all.

Get Active...Get Involved...Make a Difference.



 

Why Guns?

"Why Guns?"
by Marian McCollister
Jan. 19, 2011
 

 Almost 50 years ago, on November 21, 1963 I was one of thousands of people lining the streets of San Antonio, Texas to wave at President and Mrs. Kennedy before they left the next morning for their infamous trip to Dallas.  When I heard, on January 8^th, at the organizational meeting of Coconino County Democrats, that Congresswoman Giffords had been shot, I thought, "God, it never ends."  Not only does it not end, it just gets worse.  The more I hear the details about the shooting in Tucson, the more it parallels the shooting in Texas:  A crazy person with access to weapons living in an atmosphere of rage, resentment and prejudice.  The rational reaction to this is to spend more resources helping the mentally ill (Arizona is listed as 48^th in the resources it spends on services for the mentally ill, according to NPR), and limit access to guns.  Instead, gun laws are more lax then ever, gun sales are way up and spending on any type of health care is being reduced.  Our infrastructure is in shambles, our environment is being destroyed, there are no jobs, health care is still unaffordable, the economy is a disaster, its almost impossible to buy or sell property, we spend less and less on education, but we all have guns.  This sounds more like a description of Somalia rather than the supposed leader of the free world.

            Living under these conditions, I need to either try to make sense of events, or try to escape from them, such as moving to Finland, or mentally escaping through the help of the shopping network and other mind-altering experiences.  Over the years, I have been relatively unsuccessful at either of these.  This op-ed piece is just one more attempt to make sense of the irrationality that seems to surround us.

            I grew up in Texas in the 50's, first moving to Bandera, Texas-the Cowboy Capitol of the World-and later moving to San Antonio and Houston.  (Before you stop reading at this point, my Texas was the one of Ann Richards, Jim Hightower, Ralph Yarborough, Barbara Jordan, Molly Ivins, Lloyd Bentsen, Charlie Wilson, Bill Moyers, Larry McMurtry, Henry Cisneros, Henry B. Gonzalez, The Texas Observer, Jerry Jeff Walker and even LBJ.)  When I was growing up, there were lots of cowboys, but amazingly, not many guns, at least not on display.  Guns were simply a non-issue; they were a tool to use for hunting and shooting rattlesnakes.  I am sure many gun owners loved their guns, but they just weren't a big deal.  Back then, most grown-ups didn't have to prove how tough they were by brandishing weapons.  Perhaps one reason is that many adult men had in fact experienced real war first hand.  Ann Richards is my political hero, but I really thought it was ridiculous when she felt it necessary, in the 1990's, to go out and shoot some unfortunate ducks.

            Now I work with, mainly, small businesses as a bookkeeper/accountant.  Over the years several of the small business owners I have worked with increasingly identify with Fox News and right-wing talk radio.  The following scenario has actually played out in many different ways in the last five years or so.  My client/employer will come charging into the office, all riled up because Rush was talking about how liberals want to take away everyone's guns.  I believe if there was a six shooter ready at hand, my employer would strap it on and shoot the first liberal he saw.  Then it sort of dawns on him that, in fact, the first liberal he sees is actually his elderly, patient bookkeeper who just wishes he would spend more time trying to make payroll and less time arming the world.  He usually has just enough common sense to realize how inconvenient it would be it he really pissed me off, but not nearly enough common sense to comprehend the absurdity of the situation.  And that's what this fixation on guns is:  absurd and irrational.

            So how did we get to where we are now?  My understanding is that the NRA became really politicized after the assassinations in 1968 of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.  The NRA, in trying to counter the move for stricter gun control laws, started emphasizing the need of guns for self-protection, through fear of crime, paranoia, and so on.  Guns became even more symbolic of masculine identity and patriotism.  However, during the last several years violent crime has been declining.  In all my various jobs and travels, I have never had the need to defend myself with a gun, and I have never known anyone personally who had to defend themselves with a gun.  According to Dan Baum writing in Harper's (August 2010) one is more likely to be killed by bee stings than house invaders.  Gun enthusiasts, however, still present the world as an armed camp, where everyone is either predator or prey; one is never sure whether they are genuinely afraid of violence or secretly hoping for it.

            More and more, politicians have backed down from confronting the issue of gun control, principally because there appears to be so little public support.  By this avoidance, however, we have gone from the legalization of assault weapons and guns in bars to the possibility that loaded guns will be allowed in classrooms.  The ultimate goal seems to be that the threat of violence inherent in possessing a gun will mediate every relationship:  the relationship between student and teacher, between customers and vendors, between fellow patrons in bars and restaurants, and on and on.  And how does this make a society free?  This constant threat of violence requires one to be always on the alert, as in the state of red that Homeland Security used to promote.  However, this elevated state of alertness is not only ultimately very stressful, but minimizes the experience of other states of consciousness, such as the creative, the focused, or the humorous.  I drive a white Mercury Grand Prix, which looks like a police car.  I have a bumper sticker on the back that says "unmarked police car."  Various right-wing acquaintances, independently, refer to this as "my liberal bumper sticker," when, in fact, it has nothing at all to do with politics.  It's just a joke.  Obviously, humor for humor's sake is a suspicious activity.

 From a political point of view, this fixation on guns distracts us from undertaking other relevant issues, and serves to shut down critical thought and discussion.  It also undermines our ability to form relationships of trust and to create a sense of community around shared values and goals.  Fearful and threatened people are much more likely to be manipulated, disempowered and used; so while the gun lobby presents the image of the strong, self-reliant, ever-vigilant gun owner, the reality is just the opposite.

Thoughts on Hate and Hope

Aug 9, 2010

If we really believe in ourselves, and in our system, and in our society, we must call for economic and social justice for all, and justice to be brought to those who violate our most sacred principles.  Until we do this, we will not be able to regain the moral high ground that this country had been known to occupy.