Tuesday, July 6, 2010

78th Week Update - Miles Neighborhood Food Collection Project

Hi Folks,

What Does This Have to Do with Feeding Hungry Folks?
Confrontation is always the last thing on my list. So over the past 6 months or so I sat quietly while web and TV pundits who are supposed to be for President Obama started questioning his project management style all the while as things were being done. This puzzled me. Don’t they know what he is dealing with? Don’t they know how much Americans love change? The folks in special interest groups, most corporations and congress are people who have almost as much money as God and want to change absolutely nothing.


It’s no fun talking back to a TV so I kept my thoughts to myself even though I wanted to speak up for the man who motivated me to help my neighbors and thousands of hungry folks in Tucson. I owe President Obama a debt of gratitude for explaining how important it is to make community service a significant part of one’s life.

Then I opened my Tucson Weekly Friday night and read the opinion piece by Tom Danehy: “Many Democrats agree: So far, Obama has been a disappointment.” Well, that set me off especially when I noticed Tom’s email address right next to his name. A real outlet where my words can be heard. Maybe not considered but at least heard.

Here’s what I wrote…

Hi Tom,

Your frustration with President Obama’s project management style is palpable. Mine not so much. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind if I suggested another approach or better yet, another perspective.

It is quite ironic that millions of large and small dictatorships financially support the largest, most successful democracy in the world. Each has a President, CEO, Chairman or Chairwoman and a handpicked board to make all of the decisions. Even those millions of sole proprietorships act as dictators, too. No wonder China came back into the world and loves doing business.

They figured out that it is no different then doing their government.
Now most of those dictatorships are populated with Money Folks who spend every waking moment thinking of ways to maximize their profits by stifling or eliminating the democracy’s rule of law.

Fortunately, up against this incredible force of evil is one man who is trying to make most evil doers—and their workers, innocent or not—do something they do not want to do…change.

To date he has passed a health care bill that no president could get passed for the past 100 plus years and it probably is as weak as the Social Security bill was in the beginning. But look at SS now!

Offered a $20 billion escrow deal for the “little people” BP could not refuse.

Placed two brilliant women on the Supreme Court, the same court that just made dictatorships people.

Appointed a Democrat General to get us out of Afghanistan honorably. If the general does, hewill be a great potential presidential candidate.

President Obama did all of this in 18 months without making a grandstand scene or taking a strong position. Money Folks are beside themselves because they are fighting The Shadow…someone who really knows how to combat the “evil that lurks in the hearts of men.”

I support President Obama 100% because I know the nearly impossible challenge he faces. I am learning so much from him by just watching and thinking. I also send support emails when asked now and again.

Perhaps if we all stopped trying to second-guess one of the smartest human beings on the planet and support him by quietly applauding from the sidelines, things would go much better for us and for him, too.

Best regards,

What Next?
I haven’t heard anything back from Tom but that does not matter. What is important is that I speak out—as we all should—when our friends are chided because they are different and do things differently. Often times it is understanding and embracing that difference that is the real change we need.

A Concern So Old Even Thomas Jefferson Warned Us Before He Died.
Thomas Jefferson Feared an Aristocracy of Corporations
By John Nichols


“Jefferson might not have wanted a lot of government, but he wanted enough government to assert the sovereignty of citizens over corporations. To his view, nothing was more important to the health of the republic.”


The More CEOs Make, The Worse They Treat Workers, Says A New Study
By Nathaniel Cahners Hindman

“…professors from Harvard, Rice and the University of Utah argue that rising income inequality between executives and ordinary workers results in "power asymmetries in the workplace such that top executives come to view lower level workers as dispensable objects not worthy of human dignity."


Are Profits Hurting Capitalism?
By Yves Smith and Rob Parenteau

“Rather than incur such expenses (research, product design, prototype development, legal expenses associated with patents, lining up contractors and so on…), companies increasingly prefer to pay their executives exorbitant bonuses, or issue special dividends to shareholders, or engage in purely financial speculation. But this means they also short-circuit a major driver of economic growth.”


Summer Gardens
A neighbor on 13th Street decided to share some of the “vegetables of her labors” this week. Let’s hope this is just the beginning of the fresh produce that everybody needs. Also, to keep things in balance, we got several cream-filled oatmeal cookies. Maybe that’s not real balance but they sure looked good. We collected 170 lbs. of food including 14 lbs. from the Axis Food Mart, 1 lb. of dog food, 1 lb. of produce and $39 in cash.

See you Sunday,

Peter

1 comment:

  1. Well said, Peter! Thanks for speaking out in support of President Obama.

    ReplyDelete