On poverty

I subscribe to a livejournal community called "Poorskills" The community gives tips on how to save money on various things, ways to do things better or more cheaply, and so although I'm not today poor, I find these skills valuable.
Today I woke up to see this post.

The poster talks about how this country has gone from at least tolerating the poor ( of course, there wouldn't have been any need for Reverend Jackson to do something like this if there hadn't been some stigma even then) to a time when something like this is seen as totally out of nowhere. And it's true - today, to do a piece like this, where someone publicly led the poor in chanting that they had inherent worth, would be pretty much unthinkable - even on Sesame Street.

What has happened to us as a nation? Even in the comments, I notice a few people talking about people gaming the system - and sure, there are people doing that, but people end up gaming the system when the system can't meet their needs. It's not great and fun to be on welfare. You don't live well, and it's not luxury. People who are lying to receive more benefits are doing it because they can't get along any other way.

And we are so judgmental about who is on welfare. But there's not way to know who is really on welfare, or who will need it. The Torah tells us that when our hands are open the poor will disappear from the land. Our hands should be open, because all of us are just a few bad days away from welfare and charity ourselves - a car accident, your health insurance refusing to pay up for a serious condition (or disenrolling you after years of honest payment, because they don't want to pay out for your condition), a job loss (which in this economy people should understand, but somehow don't seem to) a job that doesn't pay enough - there are people out there working two or three jobs and still not really making enough to pay for rent and food, let alone health care.

I wish for more generosity of heart for all of us. Not just because any of us, at anytime, could need help - indeed, that is the very premise of religion - all of us depend upon God's grace - the Torah says that when we are wealthy, we will come to believe that our comfort is the result of our hands and the work of our hands, but that we are wrong. None of us own anything, no matter how we fool ourselves.
But even if we did, those who didn't are still, all of us, God's children.



By the way, I had occasion to meet the Reverend Jackson once,and the man is just enormously tall.

Yes we can...

I have not, generally, been the sort of person who gets overly emotional at sporting events, or other competitive opportunities. I have always hated pep rallies, and don't care for watching sports (I like to listen to Baseball and womens' college basketball, but not to watch), especially the sort of sports that encourage louts to drink and cheer.
I don't generally, in fact, care much about or for any sort of emotional group activity. But, this election, well, is it okay if I sniffle a little and my eyes get a little watery? I promise not to cry next election. But I am... proud of my country for electing a man whose ancestors could have been owned as property not so long ago, or more recently would not have been able to sit next to a white person on the bus, or go to school with one. None of this was all so long ago, which makes it all the more wonderful that we have elected him. Not because he is black, but because he is the better candidate, because he is a promise of better things to come, of caring for others, and serving the will of the people - all o us, and not just the wealthy.

May we see blessing from this new president, and may God bless the work of our hands.

35 years...

Today is the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.
These years have not been easy years, and certainly for many of them, we have had to spend our energy trying to fight those who would overturn it. But it is a struggle we must continue with. To go back to the days before Roe v. Wade would be a disaster: in the dark days in which abortions were outlawed in most states, women died, regularly, of botched abortions. I don't suppose it's news to anyone that that's the case, but just in case, let's review a current case: Nicaragua.
Since Nicaragua outlawed abortions once again in 2006, we know of - for certain- over 100 women who have died. Keep in mind those are the ones who were reported, who made news; we will probably never know how many women really.
Over at Human Rights Watch, check out their report, from which I quote:

A medical doctor at a large public hospital in Managua, however, testified to one case:

Here [at this hospital] we have had women who have died.… For example, [name withheld] came here and had an ultrasound. It was clear that she needed a therapeutic abortion. No one wanted to carry out the abortion because the fetus was still alive. The woman was here two days without treatment until she expulsed the fetus on her own. And by then she was already in septic shock and died five days later. That was in March 2007.

Arbitration expose by former judge

Former chief justice of the West Virgina supreme court, to be exact.
warning: the image at the top is really, really disgusting. Almost as disgusting as the arbitration firms the article is about.

ht to Consumerist.com

Beware waldemart, they've got your number

This reminds me of a bumpersticker I saw a long time ago equating a certain presidential candidate to Voldemort.

But seriously, this is a serious issue, well treated in a funny way. They who shall not be mentioned destroy economies, mistreat employees, and rip off our national support systems so that we can pay higher taxes for them to pay lower wages.




Hattip to Danya

A very important thing to do

Dr. Aryeh Cohen, my teacher and friend, told me some weeks ago about this new organization that he was starting together with a small group of exceptional folks (Dr. Adam Rubin, Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater, Sarah Newman, Dr. Shaul Magid) who are just dog tired of not having this matter addressed. One of my favorite quotes from the Talmud introduces the statement of Jews Against the War, "One who is able to protest against a wrong that is being done in his family, his city, his nation or the world and does not do so is held accountable for that wrong being done."
–Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 54b

Jews Against the War is bringing the war to the American Jewish table. It is long past high time that it is known that Jews overwhelmingly disapprove of the Iraq war. According to a recent Gallup Poll 77 percent of American Jews think that going to war in Iraq was a mistake, compared to 52 percent of Americans overall. Yet for some reason, Jewish groups have shied away from discussing this disgraceful, continuing tragedy.

JTA reports, "'We couldn't continue to remain silent on one of the most catastrophic, immoral and tragic foreign policy decisions in the history of our country,' Cohen said in the press release. 'The Talmud teaches that silence is akin to assent.'"


Please read the statement here, and sign the petition here

Jews Against the War

Here is a video from VideoVets, which will be sponsored by MoveOn.org with veteran (sergeant) John Bruhns speaking of his experiences in Iraq.

VT

What I'm not going to say: what a senseless tragedy.
It may be horrible, but it was not, unfortunately, senseless.
It is perfectly sensible given what we know about both suicide and homicide in our culture, that this happened. Moreover, it's going to happen again.
Unless - as the lorax said.
There is an unless:
The media needs to stop reporting so thoroughly on such murders as these: if we want, its fine to talk about the victims, but say nothing about the killer. If you must, mention the name of the suspect or whatever- but don't talk about his (and so far it's been all "his," which doesn't mean it will continue that way - but again, it may), neighbors, his family( who are most probably not to blame for his psychopathic actions - they may be, but in any case, at this point it's unlikely to do any good, but most often, they're not), his depression, his this, his that. That's what the murderer wants, and worse, it's what prompts copycats.
At most, maybe a mention of how sad and pathetic this mentally unstable loser is. Perhaps being pitying and superior will encourage fewer copycats. Certainly what's been done so far is not good, and only encourages others.

Second, yes, gun availability does make a difference. As Australia pointed out: when this started happening there, they passed laws that tightly controlled guns - and guess what, it hasn't happened again there - not in 30-odd years, anyway. Not saying it won't again, but that's a lot less than us.
And for all the nuts out there who rant about the right to bear arms, let's face it, even the legal right to own automatic weapons wouldn't do you much good if the government decided to turn the army against us. My friends, they have tanks. Not to mention - bigger things. SO that argument doesn't much cut it with me. As for "self-defense": turns out in the majority of cases, an intruder is more likely to turn the gun on you. Or will turn out not to be an intruder, but your wife, boyfriend, or cat. Oops. Sorry about that George.

As a colleague of mine, Rabbi Shamai Kanter, noted:

"a noted american jurist (was it Oliver Wendell Holmes?) once declared,
'the constitution is not a suicide pact.'

but thanks to second amendment absolutists, it appears that our
constitution has indeed become a suicide pact."

SO, I feel deeply for the students of VT, and wish that none of them would have to wake up tomorrow missing their friends. I wish that someone had had the foresight to do something about this profoundly deranged individual. But if we are to make this mean anything, the only thing we can do is to act to curtail it happening again, and most of us are not willing to do that.
Are you?