Politics & Society

Because There IS Enough for Everyone

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Yesterday I went to the monthly East Bay Really Really Free Market (a.k.a. Hella Free Day), which is on the north side of Lake Merritt. It’s a non-commercial, mutually supportive event. People bring things to share to which anyone is welcome — objects they don’t want anymore, skills, their presence and company. The idea is that through convening non-commercial and mutually supportive events, our social fabric can be transformed — oh yeah, and it’s fun, too. The Really Really Free website lists some platitudes that express what Really Really Free Markets are reacting to, and what they aim to create.

Health

Narisula for President – Health Care for All?

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In 2002, a young Afghan boy named Nasrulah (we called him Narisula) taught me a lesson in government as we sat in the rubble-strewn mess that served as his home. The Afghans were in the midst of holding a Loya Jurga, a gathering of leaders of tribes, villages and cities across the country, who in a huge tent in Kabul would set the new direction for the country. We were there as part of an interfaith peace delegation, organized by Global Exchange. Months earlier, the Taliban had fled under the onslaught of coalition bombs. Narisula had become the victim of a U.S. cluster-bomblet that had not exploded on impact, and awaited him and his cousin on their way to school.

Health

The Price of Free

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America: land of the brave and home of the free. Free. One of my favorite words. Yes, equality and rights to freedom are excellent, but what I really enjoy are free giveaways. Today Starbucks is holding free pastry day – anyone who comes in with a coupon, easily printed off the Internet, and orders a beverage will receive one free pastry of choice.

Politics & Society

Democrats Drop Key Part of Bill to Assist Unions

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A rabbi and lawyer with a large Union representing health care workers has written us explaining why the latest piece of Democrat feebleness will hurt workers; or to put it less emotively, he explains why the moderate Democrats who oppose “card-check” are wrong in arguing that it is undemocratic because, they say, it gives too much power to unions to “bully” workers and not enough to employers:
I was deeply disappointed to read in the Friday July 17, 2009 edition of the New York Times that the Democrats have decided to drop “card check” from their planned legislation removing barriers from workers exercising freedom of choice for their representatives for workplace governance. As a labor lawyer for the past 28 years I have extensive exposure to the barriers faced by workers in trying to gain the right of representation in workplace governance. As a candidate for public elected office I have seen first hand how the rules for other governance bodies are free of most of the barriers that are placed in the way of workers. As a Rabbi I am saddened that the religious community has not become active on this key question of social justice and that my coreligionists who are employers have not been willing to speak out in favor of basic worker rights. The US constitution (and the Canadian one for that matter, I am a long term dual citizen residing and working in Canada) have somehow allowed corporations the human right of free speech.

Politics & Society

"Now you can pay rent AND eat" — Really?

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I snapped this photo of an ad in a BART station in September 2007. Viewed now, in the midst of a recession, the image takes on extra realism and a tone of increased urgency. Not convinced we need a New Bottom Line? It’s revealing that a line like “Now you can pay rent and eat” is an effective marketing strategy, catering to people’s anxieties and realities. Needless to say, it greatly saddens me that people find themselves having to choose between shelter and food.

Politics & Society

Our Ignorance About Homelessness

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A woman wrote to me about Tikkun Daily:

When you include pieces from poor people, and what it feels like to live on the bottom rung of this society, then there will be something for me to read. I don’t belong in the rarified company of people who aren’t interested in the daily lives of us poor people. I replied: “I hear you. Do you want to write me something of your story for me to put on the blog?” She responded:

Thank you for hearing me.

Culture

Math Gender Gap Disappears, along with Larry Summers

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A friend of mine was interviewed in the Wisconsin State Journal last Sunday on the front page of the Local Section. Janet Hyde does research on gender differences in math performance (among other research areas). In this interview Hyde told the reporter that she had taken it as a personal challenge back in 2005 when Larry Summers spouted off about women mathematicians and scientists. Summers, then president of Harvard, stated that there were fewer female scientists and mathematicians than male, because men were innately better at math and science than women. Actually when it comes to math, Hyde had already proven Summers wrong before he opened his mouth.

Politics & Society

Home Defense

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You and I know the most basic thing we could do on the mortgage crisis. We could go and stand with a bunch of neighbors outside people’s homes when the police come to evict them, and refuse the police entry. We know we could be doing that, don’t we? They did it in the 1930s. That was a major reason FDR changed the banking rules.

Politics & Society

'34 General Strike laid base for counterculture

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This is a nice idea: the radical efforts of the working class–led in this case by San Francisco longshoremen (port workers)–made possible the 1960s Haight Ashbury counterculture. I don’t know that he makes the case adequately in this article. But I like it. The first thing anyone said to me in San Francisco in 1980 when I got down off a greyhound bus–he was a very large middle-aged blue collar guy and I had long hair, a beard, rucksack and cowboy hat–was “ferkin’ hippie.” It didn’t strike me then that the unions and the counterculture had much love for each other.