What Would Your Grandmother Say?

In many instances, the best lessons are passed down from generation to generation. That is especially true when talking about interacting with others. What would your grandmother say? I have invoked this question in meetings where we were trying to decide how to modify or improve our product. It is surprising how many grown men would, after the shock wore off, say the same thing.

Right now congress is wrestling with a major tax reform bill and they are rushing to get it done before the end of the year, without Democrat support, and in spite of the possibility of causing great harm to a majority of the citizens for which they work.  What would your grandmother say? Mine would say, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”

There is probably not a person in the country who does not think the deficit should be reduced and step number one is to stop spending more than we take in. Right there is a point on which we can all agree. Right now, we are working with a skewed system. It is not balanced, and it appears that fairness is not even on the table.

This tax bill that has been designed to reward the largest donors to the republican party is enormously unpopular with the majority of the population. It has been rushed. It has not been adequately vetted and there are a large number of economists with impeccable reputations that say it will inflate the deficit and hurt the economy.

It is the desperate measure, thrown down by a desperate legislature that has completely lost the ability to work across the aisle. They no longer even pretend to try. They think they can’t accomplish anything unless they hold all the cards and they can accept no evidence that does not support their pre-conceived idea.

This bill should have been built by a committee of equal numbers of Democrats and republicans. It should have included input from economists, historians, and experts from a large range of business and financial institutions. It should take enough time to evaluate the information available and it should have as its aim, what is best for the country. The country is comprised of all of us, not some of us, not a few of us, not just the wealthy.

This bill needs to be tabled and begun again with a different end-goal. Kill it now before it destroys our economy, our healthcare system and the very democracy on which we depend.

Thank You Alabama

I want to say a big “Thank You” to Alabama for showing up at the polls last night. This is a huge victory for us, and by “us” I mean many different things. Politically speaking, I believe we need more than one strong party and I really think we would function better as a nation with three strong, hard-working, reliable parties committed to the good of the country. We are diverse. We have different perspectives. We need input from and action for us all. For that reason, it has distressed me to watch the decline of the Republican Party and the weakening of the Democratic Party.

It has stressed the very fabric of our nation and tried our democracy as nothing before has. This was painfully obvious when our president insisted on stating his position on the election in Alabama. “We can’t have another liberal Democrat in the Senate,” he stated. At this time, Republicans still have a majority in the Senate, the House, a Republican President and they are quickly populating the courts with conservative judges.

This blocks the checks and balances that have made this government work for us in the past. And still he would rather stack that deck higher, even at the expense of seating a Senator that is accused of heinous actions, that has twice been removed from the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to follow the laws he swore to uphold. He would rather have seated a man unfit for the office who is a republican, than to have to work through legislation, letting the process play out as it was designed to. That is against the fundamental workings of the government and is a danger to democracy itself.

We need representation of the people (you and me) that works for all of us. Right now, big money is in control and “the people” are suffering because the reigning party has too much control and their agenda favors big money over a strong and vibrant population. The victory for Democrats in Alabama added to the other recent victories around the country is a step in the right direction.

It is also a victory for the values of the citizens of this country. Donald Trump’s presidential campaign completely destroyed any semblance decency as he mowed everyone out of his way. Lies have now become the normal conversation of every day. Russia interfered with the election more aggressively than ever before and employed mind bending tactics that influenced voters and clouded the issues, so that no one had a clear view of what was happening. I don’t believe the majority of our citizens are horrid, bigoted and hate-filled. I do believe that many are struggling and fearful and many of those have been targeted for exploitation and that this swayed their votes. These very people are going to be devastated by the current Republican agenda.

The people that voted for Roy Moore did not vote for him because he is accused of mishandling young girls, but they did vote for him in spite of it and this is distressing. Quite frankly, it is not surprising. It has been accepted for a very long time that women and girls are held to a different standard from men and boys. Not anymore. This is a victory for those of who value respect for and from others around us. Regardless of our political views, our religious beliefs, our sex and sexual orientation, our culture or the color of our skin, our economic strata, our mental or physical health state, we have the right to be treated with respect in this country.

We have the right to expect the truth from our representatives. We have the right to be recognized as equal in our needs and our opinions. We have the right to vote and to have our vote count. We have the right to know what is happening in our government, local, state and federal. We have the right to feel safe with our representatives.

This was a victory for women and women’s rights and a victory for the resisters of the Republican agenda. We have fought hard for a year against an administration that is admittedly trying to dissemble our government process and destroy democracy. We have fought against legislation that will cause harm and hardship for our citizens. We have fought against discriminatory practices that harm our friends and neighbors. We have fought to keep America robust, vital, welcoming and strong. This victory belongs to all of us.

So, thank you, Alabama for not giving in and giving up. Thank you to the Republicans who have made some difficult decisions in the past few months and done the right thing. We may have differing opinions and differing views, but as long as we ALL work FOR the good of the country, we will be able to work together. Carry on.