A CURE MORE HARMFUL THAN THE DISEASE

WE NEED TO REPEAL TO HEAL 

I believe all Americans (and for humanitarian reasons all non-citizens residing in our country legally or not) are entitled to and should be granted universal access to affordable and high quality health care promised by the inalienable right named as “the pursuit of happiness” in the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE and to “promote the General Welfare” as promised in the Preamble of the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.


Accordingly I believe Congress can constitutionally exercise the power granted to them under Section 8 and pass National Health Care Legislation.


However when they passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, though I supported some of the provisions therein and still believe we need a form of national health care covering all, it is now apparent the problems and potential flaws I outlined in the articles below* have only grown worse and parts of this flawed law threaten our Constitutional freedoms and violates the Natural Moral Law that served as the very foundation for our DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE.


The more we learn about this hastily passed and poorly constructed collection of bureaucratic regulations, unfunded mandates, and unprecedented federal infringement on personal and religious freedom there is no other recourse but to repeal it and replace it with a more efficient, just and financially sustainable program.


Besides its aforementioned deficiencies, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has no realistic or secure funding mechanism and threatens the financial integrity of Medicare, the healthcare of our heroic veterans, and the National Budget. It could literally bankrupt our nation.


It gives me no pleasure to suggest this action and we should insist that both parties commit to work for a viable program with a secure funding mechanism, but when the cure is worse than the disease it is insane and harmful to use it.

President Obama could show great leadership by admitting this failure, demand its repeal, and call for a program to cover the uninsured; improve healthcare for children, seniors, and veterans; help small businesses cover their employees; reduce pharmaceutical costs (there should be no reason for the price of the exact same drug to be greater in Detroit than in Canada or Mexico); encourage preventive medicine; ensure portability; and keep the popular, common sense and bipartisan supported elements of his current plan.


If Republican’s give the President trouble he should offer them President Nixon’s 1974 Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan (C.H.I.P.) as a framework.

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/September/03/nixon-proposal.aspx  If Teddy Kennedy would have embraced it we would be enjoying our fourth decade of national health care.

Sure it’s a political risk to admit mistakes, tell the truth, and try to make things better but isn’t that the hope and change Americans expected from this President. Repeal and heal may become the central theme of the 2012 general election, one way or another!


BELOW PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED ARTICLES I WROTE ON THIS LAW AS A BADLY CONSTRUCTED BILL


*Monday, May 10, 2010


PRESIDENT OBAMA MAKES NATIONAL HEALTH CARE THE LAW OF THE LAND

With the rhetorical flair of FDR and the legislative muscle of LBJ, President Obama obtained what none of his predecessors could--- the passage of National Health Care legislation, the aptly named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Love it or hate it was a monumental victory for the President and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi now elevated to the level of Congressional legends Sam Rayburn and Tip O’Neill. History will remember forever the high drama! Tea Party members and other opponents stormed Washington and surrounded the Capital in protest. Seizing an obvious public relations coup, Madame Speaker played the angry protestors like a violin. With a knowing smile she led Democratic House Members, parting the angry crowd into the Capitol carrying a gigantic gavel of justice like a judge leading a jury through a mob. Visceral reactions and hurled epithets, proven or not, changed the health care debate at that moment into a civil rights issue.

President Obama put a key foreign trip on hold to stay home and lobby uncertain Democrats while shoring up others. Republicans held like Stonewall Jackson in solid opposition to the health care legislation warning of Armageddon while seemingly relishing being branded as the party of No, though a sarcastic Conservative friend of mine tagged we Democrats as the party of Knowing Better. The stage was set. The House of Representatives had to pass the Senate Bill with the promise the Senate would fix a number of offense able items through the filibuster proof Reconciliation Process. Speaker Pelosi and the President needed 216 Democratic votes to pass the bill. They had no Republicans. 

US REPRESENTATIVE BART STUPAK

It was Sunday, March 21 and hard core political junkies flipped the remote between March Madness and C-Span not sure which was more exciting. Usually Tom Izzo would be the dominant UPer at this point on the calendar but that day all eyes were focused on the Congressman from Menominee, Michigan –Bart Stupak. 

His hometown bears the name of a Native American tribe, but also shares the name with a Great Lakes whitefish variety know for being a delicacy yet extremely hard for anglers to catch since their delicate mouths break after being hooked. Menominee are bottom feeders rarely coming into the shallows and are usually caught commercially in nets. 


For nearly two decades Stupak represented Michigan’s First Congressional District one of the largest geographically in the nation consisting of the Upper Peninsula and the very northernmost part of the lower one. A former state trooper known for his hard work and integrity Stupak reflected the views of his constituency continually defeating opponents by large margins. Speaking with the clipped style of the UPer, Bart was a low-key member of Congress known most for public safety and Great Lakes issues and serving on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. In most cases Stupak was a reliable Democrat vote on core party issues. Since his first day in office he had supported health care reform. He also supported pro-life values from the womb to the tomb and in fact was a leader of pro-life Democrats in Congress. Suddenly two issues he felt strongly about seemed to be competing with each other. 


For years a law known as the Hyde Amendment had prevention US tax dollars from being used for abortions. When the House first passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Bart had led a group of Democratic legislators called the Stupak 12 and held up passage of the bill until strong language was placed in preserving the intent of the Hyde Amendment. Lacking the votes to move the legislation out of the House without Stupak and company’s support, Speaker Pelosi accepted his language and moved it on to the Senate with Bart’s support. That was in November of last year. 


For those just walking into the middle of this movie, Hapless Harry Reid and his 60 vote majority managed to almost kill health care with incompetence and sheer stupidity. 

To be filled in on that soap opera read A Clunker Full of Cash, my column on the disaster from February’s Issue. The Senate passed their version on Christmas Eve and then all hell broke loose against the bill. Republican Scott Brown won Teddy Kennedy’s seat and it looked like things were finished with the momentum going in the opposite direction, but Nancy Pelosi and the President decided to go for broke by deciding to have the House concur without changing the Senate Bill and then fix it in the Senate through Reconciliation. 


In American politics few leaders have charged ahead against such odds. Oh, did I mention the polls were all running against the health care bill. Yet President Obama and the Speaker rolled up their sleeves and started securing votes. Two hundred and sixteen Democrats was the magic number. 


One big obstacle stood in their way, Bart Stupak and his dozen of supporters. The Senate had weakened the Stupak language on abortion and the Congressman from Michigan would not agree to support the bill without it. Tough as the iron range in his district, on this matter Stupak would not yield. 


In the UP it was said Bart had Sisu like the Finns he represented. Look it up it will explain a lot.  http://www.finlandia.edu/index.php?id=88 

The eyes of the nation were focused on the Man from Menominee and he wouldn’t flinch. For different reasons he became the man for all seasons. Reviled by some and revered by others cable news constantly carried interviews with the soft spoken silver haired Stupak. The refrain was the same, “I want to pass health care but I will not support federal tax dollars subsiding abortions.” Nancy Pelosi is staunchly pro-choice but not once did she or the President defame or denounce Mr. Stupak. The Speaker is alleged to have even convened a meeting with pro-choice Democrats testing the water for accepting the Stupak language or seeing if common ground could be found. 


Not able to go through him they went around him as best they could. The Stupak 12 were being peeled off. Long time pro-lifers Jim Oberstar and Marcy Kaptur announced they felt the Senate language against abortion was sufficient protection against tax payer abortions and they would vote for passage. Stupak’s own Michigan colleague the pro-life champion Dale Kildee announced his support of the bill ironically after consulting with Cardinal Wolsey, I mean his parish priest. Still Stupak stood strong as his supporters dwindled, yet he still held enough to prevent passage without his language being accepted. Dan Lipinski of Illinois stood with him and the magic number could not be reached. Then the Sunday vote came. Bart said he wanted to find an agreement and offered compromises, there were counter offers and yet no agreement. Remotes flipped tournament, Congress, tournament, Congress, news channels, tournament, Congress, carpal tunnel. Suddenly it was announced Stupak and Lipinski were huddled on the House floor. President Obama was working the phones while the Speaker did her magic. Finally word came out there was an agreement reached and Stupak would support passage. 


What was the compromise? President Obama had assured Mr. Stupak he would issue an executive order prohibiting taxpayers’ funds being used for abortion. To each side of the abortion debate Bart Stupak turned from hero to villain depending on your point of view on the issue. The Congressman wanting healthcare for all citizens while preserving his pro-life values seemed satisfied. 

Yet what of Lipinski and the others, would they vote for it? Lipinski would not yield, the others might. It appeared the compromise angered both sides of the abortion debate, often the sign of a well done agreement. Finally though, it looked like health care would pass. Stupak lionized earlier by some as a 21st century Thomas More was condemned instead as a modern Duke of Norfolk. Lipinski took his place. Imagine their floor conversation? Allow me to try paraphrasing and quoting from Robert Bolt’s Oscar winning script, A Man for All Seasons. Stupak/Norfolk: “Oh confound all this. I’m not a scholar, I don’t know whether the abortion language is sufficient or not but dammit, Dan, look at these names! We all need to support this bill. Why can’t you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!” Lipinski/More: “And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?” Those lines always chill me to the bone as a call to conscience.


I've veered into fantasy, but the conversation between the two must have been interesting to say the least. Stupak endorsed the bill and 219 Democrats voted for history while Lipinski and 31 other Democrats joined every single Republican in opposition. Oh, yeah to top it off Texas Republican Rep. Randy Neugebauer yelled baby killer at Bart as he delivered his floor speech. 


Onward to the Senate went the critical legislation where Harry Reid then remarkably did his part well and shepherded the agreed changes through a reconciliation bill which then was concurred by the House. President Barack Obama signed it making good on his pledge and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act became law. He also signed an executive order banning taxpayer funding for abortions behind closed doors with a small group including Bart Stupak. The obstacle became the hero of health care or the villain to its opponents. Tea Party members marked him for defeat as did enraged Republicans. Conservative commentators and talk show hosts pronounced him public enemy number one. They said he caved under pressure. Legal scholars said an executive order is only good until a President rescinds it or a court nullifies it. Some claimed Bart was taken in and the health care law itself trumps the order. Representative Stupak responded in a phone call to Mitch Albom on WJR, “The greatest executive order ever issued was the Emancipation Proclamation. This is an executive order that will protect the sanctity of life.”


 But the debate raged on and several weeks later the Congressman from Menominee announced his retirement. “I have spent more than 30 years in public service as a police officer in Escanaba, a Michigan State Police Trooper, a State Representative and now a United States Congressman. My service to the people of Michigan has been the greatest honor of my life. But, it is time to begin a new chapter…I will always serve the people of the First District, but have chosen not to do so as their Congressman.” That was it. Mr. Stupak was leaving Washington after accomplishing health care reform something he set out 18 years ago to do. Tea party supporters claimed victory for driving him from office as did Republicans, that awesome force never able to come close to defeating him. Pundits wrote him off and commentators either praised or vilified him. Yet, the majority of his colleagues from both sides of the aisle praised him for his work. What’s the truth? We may never know. Maybe he was fed up. Maybe he was tired. Maybe he lost something in himself, or maybe we should just take him at his word. So Stupak goes and health care is here. 


Why did I spend so much time on a single Member of Congress’ role in this drama? Because it was historic and brought principled stands into a complex issue. Stupak embodied the debate and President Obama and Speaker Pelosi would not have this victory without him. 


As for the bill itself, key provisions are outlined some have said it is not as great as its proponents claim and it is not as bad as its detractors pronounce it to be. However it will probably be a decisive factor in the November elections. To its merits, 32 million people currently uninsured will now be covered, giving 94% of Americans health care insurance. That is no small thing and this is one victory I don’t think will ever be repealed. Other elements of the law may be replaced or removed but this provision, and other key ones such as ending pre-existing condition discrimination, filling the Medicare prescription drug donut hole, and allowing parents to keep their young adult children on their insurance are so just and appealing to the citizens they won’t allow them to be taken away. 


The Congressional Budget Office asserts this legislation will reduce the deficit by $143 billion over the next ten years, with $1.2 trillion in additional deficit reduction in the following 10 years. I pray they are right. We are running out of money and our debt is growing which concerns me deeply. I believe this debate over health care is far from over, but both sides need to drop caricatures and demonization. We should be able to have a civil, educated debate on the merits. 


I was an ardent supporter of health care reform but I have concerns about this bill. It is however a foundation from which to build upon. Let’s do so and make our nation better. Allow me to end with two more quotes from Robert Bolt’s seminal masterpiece delivered adroitly by his Sir Thomas More. “I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.” And letting the great man speak for me, “I trust I make myself obscure.”






Sunday, January 31, 2010


A Clunker Full of Cash

Health care costs continue to skyrocket threatening the financial stability of our families, our businesses, and indeed our very country. Unpaid medical bills are one of the main forces spurring record numbers of personal bankruptcies. Millions of uninsured Americans, self ration their healthcare and roll the dice with their very lives every day avoiding needed health care because they cannot afford insurance or are prevented from obtaining coverage because of preexisting conditions.


Many have jobs but no benefits and can’t afford health coverage on their own. Businesses are dropping coverage for employees. Emergency treatment for the uninsured drives up the price of health care while hurting providers pass the cost on to insurance companies and they pass the cost on to consumers through rising premiums. Medicare is facing looming deficits with the massive demographic of the baby boomers only adding to its loss of solvency. Congress will have no choice but to put this critical program on strong financial footing. 


Clearly the system is broke and we need comprehensive health care reform. Doing nothing is not an option. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the United States House of Representatives passed a comprehensive bill covering 96 percent of legal residents younger than 65 at a cost of $1.055 trillion over 10 years. It includes a new public plan to be run by the federal government, expands Medicaid to all individuals younger than 65 with incomes up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, mandates employers provide insurance to their employees or face a penalty of 8 percent of their payroll for companies with payrolls over $500,000 annually(those under $500,000 would be exempt), mandates individuals buy insurance or face a tax on their income of 2.5%(hardship waivers are available if coverage is unavailable or unaffordable), and ends denial of coverage for preexisting conditions starting in 2013 among others things. 


The House bill is not a perfect piece of legislation, but it laid the foundation for an honest dialogue about critically needed health care reform. It passed on a partisan vote and I’m disappointed that most Republican Members of Congress presented no real viable alternatives in this discussion but instead focused on defeating the Democratic bill. 


For some, genuine philosophical and/or fiscal concerns kept them from supporting the legislation, but many party leaders, activists, and even some elected officials publicly called for defeating health care reform as a vehicle for destroying the presidency of Barack Obama. That is the worst brand of politics, subverting policy to political power and ambition. Both parties have played this game at times hoping the other fails in order to gain control of the levers of power. It is wrong no matter who does it and has led to distrust of elected officials at every level. It is time to stop politics as usual. 


Unfortunately, the Health Care Reform bill passed by the United State Senate is a clunker full of cash payments to Senators more interested in bringing home pork to their respective states, instead of an effective vehicle for true health care reform. 

Written by lobbyists and filled with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of pork barrel projects doled out by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to win the votes of individual Senators, the Senate health care bill is a flawed embarrassment and a financial catastrophe. Using enhanced vote getting procedures that torture the limits of decency and the federal budget, Reid has turned support for a key piece of legislation into an auction for pork barrel projects to avoid a filibuster. 


LBJ would have threatened, cajoled, and pleaded his way to 60, grabbing Lieberman and asking him if he enjoyed being chair of his committee, told Nelson his dog wouldn’t hunt those kind of birds in Nebraska, and doing what else was needed to secure cloture and win passage of the bill.

 Sure he was a horse trader, but would never have made the sausage this messy under public scrutiny. Johnson of course stuck contracts to defense contractors in congressional districts, throughout the country to secure support for Vietnam and his war budgets and he helped many Senators and Members of Congress bring home the bacon as a reward for votes, but he also knew how to appeal to their egos and consciences. LBJ would have sat down with McConnell, McCain, and others saying, “Let’s pass this bill and make history”. 


There are numerous ways to get to yes with a Senator without stooping to legislative bribery. Alas we’re stuck with Reid and the havoc he has wrought to win passage of the Senate bill.

DR. KING’S MORAL AUTHORITY WAS GROUNDED IN NATURAL LAW

In the issues facing us today we need to remember the faith driven strength, eloquence and moral authority of Dr. King.  He challenged entrenched power appealing to the justice demanded according to natural law the only code grounded in objective truth, inscribed deep in the soul of every being and through whose prism a person should instinctively (indeed the only way they can) know what rights are self evident.

In the tradition of Augustine, Gandhi, and Aquinas--Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter from Birmingham Jail gave us a clear teaching on the difference between just and unjust laws saying, “We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws.”

Today and tomorrow as we honor this great apostle of freedom and advocate for justice let us not forget he believed, in fact insisted on, the involvement of both the secular and sacred communities in the public square and proclaimed a philosophy of natural law available to all willing to employ reason to find the truth.

This video captures his philosophy of non-violence. A group of young people acting in the spirit of Dr. King, it is fitting they be celebrated as we commemorate his birthday.

I leave you with passages from his seminal letter as we pay tribute to him on his birthday!

Excerpts:  Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.

April 16, 1963

 “…One may well ask, "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "An unjust law is no law at all…

…In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, "Those are social issues which the gospel has nothing to do with," and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which made a strange distinction between bodies and souls, the sacred and the secular.

“There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.

“Things are different now. The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before.

“If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I meet young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust. I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour.

“But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of

America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America.

“Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages of history the majestic word of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. For more than two centuries our fore parents labored here without wages; they made cotton king; and they built the homes of their masters in the midst of brutal injustice and shameful humiliation -- and yet out of a bottomless vitality our people continue to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.”

AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH

A HEARTSIDE ADVENT & CHRISTMAS REFLECTION FROM 2001

“In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”.  Thus begins John’s Gospel and in the fourteenth verse of the first chapter he unveils the mystery of the Incarnation in its full glory. “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”.

As we enter Advent, our time of preparation for the Celebration of Christmas, how do those scripture verses penned over two thousand years ago impact our Heartside community and a country, indeed a world, plunged into horror and uncertainty following the events of September 11?

Our belief is we are made in the image of God.  Peter Chrysologus asked and answered, “Why then are you so worthless in your own eyes and yet so precious to God?   Why render yourself such dishonor when God honors you?...It was for you that light dispelled the overshadowing gloom, for your sake was the night regulated and the day measured, and for you were the heavens embellished with the varying brilliance of the sun, the moon and the stars…You were made in God’s image that you might in your person make the invisible Creator present on earth…"

Ok, God is in everyone.  Then why is the world so screwed up?  It is and it isn’t and God is! Really confused?  For the answers to the mystery of the Incarnation we need only look around us and sometimes in us.

How many times have the neighbors of Heartside rallied to the aid of each other, and more often than not, complete strangers?   I have witnessed the “Word made  Flesh” incarnate in our neighbors as they constantly protect the weak, welcome the different, defend the oppressed, and give whatever they sometimes have to others in need.  Our Benevolent Fund is often replenished with dollars and dimes at a time from those who benefited from the generosity of neighbors and want to return the kindness they received by giving to others.

On a national level we witnessed the “Word made Flesh” incarnate through the carnage of the Towers and the actions of individuals like Abe Zelmanowitz who refused to allow a quadriplegic friend to die  alone forfeiting his own life, recovering alcoholic Father Mike Judge who perished while ministering to a fallen firefighter, the heroes of Flight 93 whose actions saved the United States Capitol, and the countless ordinary people who lived out the noble conclusion of the Incarnation by showing that there is no greater love than giving your life for your friends, thereby joining their sufferings to Christ and participating in the Mystery of Redemption.

And lest we fall victims to the normal emotions of righteous indignation and vengeance, let’s reflect on the Restorative Justice we try to practice at Heartside.  Christ came and died for all, no one is ever beyond God’s mercy.  

The story of Saul persecuting Stephen shows the power of love over violence as illustrated in a sermon by Fulgentius of Ruspe, “And so the love that brought Christ from heaven to earth raised Stephen from earth to heaven…Love was Stephen’s weapon by which he gained every battle…love for his neighbor made him pray for those who were stoning him…Strengthened by the power of his love, he overcame the raging cruelty of Saul and won his persecutor on earth as his companion in heaven.  In his holy and tireless love he longed to gain by prayer those whom he could not convert by admonition…It was Stephen’s love that prevailed over the cruelty of the mob, and it was Paul’s love that covered a multitude of his sins, it was love that won for both the kingdom of heaven…Love is the source of all good things…One who walks in love can neither go astray nor be afraid: love guides, protects, and brings you to your journey’s end.”

As we remember the Child born in a manager, we should reflect on why he is called Immanuel. It means God With Us.  Our faith, our hope and our love incarnate in each one of us.  The greatest gift of all that we share with everyone.  For “the Word was made Flesh and DWELLS amongst us!"  Love triumphs!  Merry Christmas!

LYRICS FOR THE SONG: LA VEILLE DE NOEL

la veille de Noël

This is the night

when children dream,

of flying reindeer and Santa,

sugar plums and wreaths.

This is a night full of magic

and presents under the tree.

This is the night of all nights

it’s Christmas Eve.

      

This is the night

When parents dream,

of childhood memories

so precious, dear and sweet.

 A time to remember loved ones,

who once gathered round the tree.

This is the night of all nights

It’s Christmas Eve.

                                              

This is the night

promised of old.

When the Virgin gave birth in a stable

windy, dark and cold.

Our Father sent to us His son

the greatest gift we could receive.

This is the holiest of Nights

It’s Christmas Eve.

This is the night of all nights

It’s Christmas Eve.

WHETHER IT’S OVER BENEFITS OR INCOME- ENVY DESTROYS THE COMMUNITY AND THE INDIVIDUAL

 “The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor.” Socrates

“Envy and wrath shorten the life.” Ecclesiastes

“There is no sweeter sound than the crumbling of one’s fellow man.”

Groucho Marx

Whether it’s theology, philosophy, or satire envy doesn’t come off well, nor should it.  It’s human, it’s understandable, but it’s also deadly and divisive. Envy can only tear down and divide, never build or unite.

Faith and reason both despise it.  If you believe in sin it’s the second oldest. Ancient philosophers recognized its deadly consequences. Sacred or secular, through grace, reason, or both envy has been identified and decried since the beginning of humanity. Because of envy Cain killed Abel and the dog in the manager kept the ox from eating the straw. Genesis or Aesop the truth is the same, envy begrudges others what it cannot enjoy itself.

Envy isn’t just an emotion, but a crippling and corrosive impulse. Both a verb and a noun Webster’s defines it as a feeling of grudging admiration and desire to have something possessed by another.

Why all this talk about envy?  Because envy over the benefits and income of workers has become an aliment afflicting members of our society.

While we’re defining terms let’s look at what a benefit means. Once more we have a noun and a verb. Citing Webster’s again, financial assistance in time of need or something that aids or promotes well-being: “for the common good” and to derive benefit from or be beneficial for; “This will do you good”.

Cutting to the chase a large number of people seem to “envy” the “benefits” of certain workers.

In the heyday of automobile manufacturing organized labor earned high wages and other hard won contractual benefits agreed to by Detroit’s Big Three and others in a thriving manufacturing climate. From cars to cereal, furniture to frozen food and everything in between, whatever America made everyone wanted, and the manufacturing sector and everyone in it thrived.  Living standards increase, the quality of life improved for everyone because the unionized companies caused a rising tide elevating incomes and benefits in all sectors. Spin offs included growing the service sector while igniting a purchasing cycle that drove a robust economy, the most powerful economic engine the world has ever known.  

Taxes of well paid workers provided stability and jobs in state and local government and public schools. Yet some even then derided the unions and their employers apparently for having a higher standard of living than they had.

Why? Envy would seem one possible reason.  The Capital Sin defined as sadness or melancholy at the good fortune or success of another precisely because they are seen as a loss to oneself.

Things began to change.

Over the last several decades poorly, negotiated unfair trade agreements closed factories and sent jobs overseas or across our borders. Corporations left communities not out of need but out of greed. Not because they were losing money, but because they were not making enough. Wall Street and big banks lusting after higher profits went on irresponsible spending sprees and then the Great Recession hit.

Unemployment and underemployment caused a downward spiral of economic disaster. Unions took reasonable concessions to help employers stem the financial bleeding, the operative word being reasonable. Management makes the decisions yet many try to use the workers as scapegoats. Unions therefore have to balance the need to save jobs with ensuring the jobs saved are worthwhile. They also bear the responsibility of protecting the rights of the retirees who built the economic giant that once existed.

As I’ve said before, low paid workers are not going to return us to economic prosperity. That can only be done on the shoulders, buying power, and tax paying ability of well paid American workers.

Back to what I referred to as benefit envy.

When concessions are made the goal should be how to make the corporation or governmental entity more efficient and cost productive. It may mean changes in operation and the reduction of compensation and benefits, but it should be done in a just and honest fashion. Shared sacrifice and shared success. If the bottom line is REALLY ABOUT saving money then how the concessions are made and what is sacrificed---benefits or wages --shouldn’t matter if the shared financial goal is achieved. Remember a benefit is for the common good, it builds community.

Now I’ll concede the public sector is different in that it is taxpayer funded and delivers services mandated by law and vital to the community, along with other services either wanted by the people or directed by elected officials. We the people are the government and the elected representatives answer to us and our priorities. Never-the-less the standards of justice and efficiency remain. Public workers and unions did not create this situation and should not be the fall guys. Priorities on funding and how to best run our governmental entities to serve the public should be our goal. Administration and middle management should be reduced to lean, effective levels with the excess eliminated just like in the private sector before rank and file workers are touched. Then we decide what services we want delivered and resize accordingly. If there is a need for concessions after that again have it done justly and not as an excuse to erode fair wages and benefits.

Let’s take the fiscal problems facing the City of Grand Rapids. Instead of focusing on priorities and efficiencies some are calling for even more massive reductions in wages and benefits. Concessions  have been made and there may be more to come, but again in a just way and meeting the test of common sense, not capriciously in order to protect sacred cows or a bloated bureaucracy.

Grand Rapids employees’ health care benefits have been pointed out as too expensive, yet name me another entity that has saved millions in health care costs over the last 5 years with the help of their employees. The unions still stand ready to help as always yet want to be recognized for what they’ve sacrificed already and simply be treated fairly.

The same situation exists with their pensions that are targeted as too generous. Tell that to current retirees struggling to make ends meet. Examine the facts. For fifteen years the City didn’t have to put a dime into the pension fund while the employees did.  Additionally, if the City had to pay the Social Security payroll tax on the salaries of police officers and fire fighters the current deficit would be three times larger and millions more added in budget expenses every fiscal year. That’s right, Grand Rapids police and fire fighters retirees don’t receive social security benefits from their city jobs.  Again changes may have to made, but justly.

Does benefit envy drive some of this anger fueled by politicians and editorial boards? All I know is I’ve heard people say I pay this and they don’t and their pensions are better than mine, though I’m not sure they know the real truth. Why let facts get in the way of scapegoating?

Benefit envy is toxic, corrodes the good in a community and divides us. Maybe I’m too hard using the term envy, but it sure seems to fit.

I believe the person with envy suffers more from it then the object of envy does. Aristotle defined envy as the sorrow caused by the good fortune of others. How sad? Shouldn’t we be happy for a person with adequate health care or a secure pension during their golden years? How do we build ourselves up by tearing others down?

Again there is a legitimate role in deciding want is fair and sustainable. Let’s have that discussion, but let it be fact based, devoid of emotion, and minus envy.

From another perspective workers and citizens are rightfully angry over the financial shenanigans, legal or not, performed by banks and corporations profiting from the taxpayers bail out and the misfortunes of others.  

Predatory lenders, Wall Street Wolves, greedy Multi National corporations and their lapdog elected officials game the system, crash the market and then blame average workers and unions for making too much and having health and pension benefits. Many pensions were depleted by this chicanery. Our Middle Class is being squeezed out of existence by unemployment, underemployment, and foreclosures along with skyrocketing medical dental, fuel, and utility costs. Even families with stable and decent incomes face major fiscal crises as they try to assist friends and family. Johnny and Suzie face unpaid college loans and unemployment. Grandpa and Grandma can’t make it on their fixed income. So everyone ends up scrimping and living under one roof out of need.  Small businesses and local governments are failing from reduced customer purchasing power and an eroding tax base.

Ironically most states, counties, and municipalities’ pension liabilities, as mentioned previously, are largely the result of Wall Street losses yet employees who sacrificed raises for a secure pension in their senior years are blamed heaping insult onto injury. 

Yet it’s been revealed finally under the Freedom of Information Act that beyond the $700 Billion TARP  authorized by Congress to bail out our financial institutions the Federal Reserve dedicated $7.7 trillion as of March 2009 to prop up our banking system.   Imagine what that sum could have accomplished being applied elsewhere? To put this mind blowing sum of $7.7 Trillion in perspective it’s almost half our National Debt and more the 50% of the value of EVERYTHING produced in our country during 2009! 

Rubbing more salt in the wounds, a number of banks scored an estimated $13 Billion in profits from the bailout. Banks too big to fail have gotten bigger and even more powerful. Without reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act (It stood the test of time for nearly 80 years) which mandated separating customer deposits from speculative and risky investment banking there is no effective regulatory restraint to prevent the 2008 crisis from happening again.  Dodd-Frank provides some transparency but lacks the teeth to take on the biggest banks.  It’s like giving Paul Blart: Mall Cop a whistle and having him keep an eye on John Dillinger.

The Occupy Wall Street Movement was born out of this injustice (as was to some degree the Tea Party). 

 Entrenched wealth controlling government and fiscal decisions is a threat to us all, but we must be cautious righteous anger and the need to change the system does not turn into the envy of wholesale class warfare. 

Remove policies favoring the ultra rich, close loopholes, mandate payment of their fair share of taxes, and work for a system that provides an even playing field of opportunity, education and just wages while treating human labor as capital.  It is very American to protect private property and not take others’ wealth for our own. Envy of the rich is no better than benefit envy and as caustic.  Though it is just as American to demand fair trade laws; effective and reasonable safety, health, and environmental protections; the right to form unions and collectively bargain to gain a share of the fruits of your own labors; establish a system of taxation sensitive to income levels; and most importantly ensure small businesses are treated in the same manner as large corporations and our citizens (rich or poor equally) are treated better than any business or institution.

Empowering the people through improving our current system to gain economic justice for all, not envy which often throws out the good with the bad is the road we need to take.  Looking at alternatives such as Distributism and The Just Third Way also make sense to consider as economic solutions to our problems.

It’s the height of irony when a billionaire blithely claims “workers high wages” are to blame for Michigan’s economic woes, multi-millionaires, and even over paid elected officials and top salaried government bureaucrats, begrudge the fairly earned benefits and wages of law enforcement officers, fire fighters, teachers and other hard working public employees yet scream class warfare when anyone questions their economic status.

Without a Middle Class America will fall, not to mention the only ones with incomes left to pay taxes will be the super rich.

Envy- benefit, income or any other kind- poisons whoever touches it and never leads to lifting up only tearing down.  It’s about time we realized no one wins in a race to the bottom and revolutions rarely turn out well with ours directed by leaders of honor, intellect and vision as a notable exception (yet in some ways America still is paying the price of their prejudices).

A wise person once told me never compare yourself to anyone, you’ll either end up being arrogant or envious and either way you will lose something of yourself.

Sage advice, I envy such wisdom. 

NOVEMBER 8, 2011 THE DAY THE CITY OF KENTWOOD BECAME NO MERCY, MICHIGAN

Forgiveness was ordered out of town on November 8, 2011 when virtue lost and ignorance prevailed at the ballot box and the City of Kentwood officially became No Mercy, Michigan. Prodigal sons might be welcome if they know their place and never try to hold elective office but they’re banned from taking any position with government as the Chief Executive officer has bragged many times about denying jobs to felons.

Stunned by the lack of compassion and common sense displayed by the majority of voters falling for this vengeful and distorted campaign to rid the City Commission of one duly elected member, it has taken me over two weeks to absorb and analyze this political farce. Yet perhaps the day after Thanksgiving is the perfect time to dissect this turkey of a law.

True the ballot measure had a lot of political appeal because it allowed people to vent anger against two unpopular groups, ex-felons and elected officials.  Combine the two and you have the perfect scapegoat for electoral slaughter.

According to the Grand Rapids Press article (KENTWOOD VOTES OUT FELONS, November 9, 2011) the gloating Mayor of No Mercy Richard Root Out My Non-Rubber Stamp Commissioner declared “…citizens have spoken and are upholding community values…” Really Mayor McFaultless?

Like the values you and the other Commissioners displayed when you did nothing but huff, puff, and bloviate but failed to act in any substantial way to remove a sitting Commissioner convicted of  soliciting prostitution while in office.  You could have moved for a re-call or asked the Governor to remove your colleague but you and the other Commissioners did nothing of consequence but blather in self-righteous pontifications.  Apparently the degrading and disgusting treatment of women is not an evil worth amending the charter or asking the Governor to expel a sitting newly convicted criminal to uphold community values.  Seems hypocritical at the  very least to not act then,  yet this year seemingly mount a crusade against a Commissioner you cannot control in what looks like a selfish act of political vengeance.

I must admit my shock at the voters aiding and abetting your apparent personal vendetta.  It seems like the majority asked, “how many times must we refuse to forgive Lord Mayor?” and you I guess commanded them “I say to you not seven votes, but at least seven times two hundred and forty nine votes must be cast to exorcise this sinner from our midst!”  Sadly 68% of the less than 13% of the city’s registered voters responded out of fear, ignorance, confusion or misguided trust while 31% of the citizens showing up at the polls backed forgiveness and redemption. Which group truly spoke for community values and virtue?

In the aforementioned GR press article His Honor Cotton Mather, I mean Richard Root (easy mistake to make), according to Press Reporter Julie Makarewicz “…expects commissioners will have a hearing Dec. 6 to determine whether VerWys should serve out the remaining two years of his term of office  or face immediate removal from the board.”

Kentwood Second Ward City Commissioner Ray VerWys  is the “felon”  all of this expense and fuss is about.  VerWys  was guilty of two felony convictions for embezzlement at a young age, did his time and was elected by his constituents in 2009 even after they were made aware of his record.  He committed a stupid crime and there is no excuse for it, but I believe it’s not as bad as exploiting a prostitute and degrading your elective office.  Obviously Mayor Root views community standards and values differently.  Perhaps Commissioner VerWys’ greatest sin was defeating an incumbent political favorite and daring to challenge the Mayor on some policies.

Yes I know Ray, and he has co-hosted on my show in the past, but I have never been involved with his campaigns and we disagree on a number of issues. Clearly I am not defending his actions in the past, rather what I’m speaking out for is his right to be given a second chance and have the opportunity to serve in government if his constituents want to elect him. It also disturbs me to see such rank hypocrisy and political vengeance being disguised as concern for the common good.  Finally I firmly believe in the virtue of mercy and the message of redemption putting me at odds with Mayor Root and his band of punishers passing as community guardians. 

I agree with President Lincoln who wisely said, “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.”  Too bad Honest Abe with his “Malice toward none and charity for all” would not meet the community values of Richard Root.

Not to exempt the Yes voters from blame, their ballot -their responsibility, but when the majority of elected leaders are telling them it’s needed and their Mayor is proud the city doesn’t give felons a second chance and operating under the misguided belief Commissioner VerWys  tried everything to conceal his record when he ran for office there was some room for confusion.

In fact Ray publicly told his story on radio before even the primary.  If his opponent  didn’t  have the unbridled arrogance of many incumbents he could have easily done a Lexus Nexus or other search of public records and then he and Mayor Root could have released it or planted the info with the media. Maybe it would have made a difference and maybe it would not have?  To blame Ray VerWys for their lack of opposition research and lazy campaigning is ridiculous.

Ray was not required to show up at the doors of voters and say, “ Hi my name is Ray and I’m a felon but vote for me”, anymore than Richard Root, Commissioner Cummings or any of the other Unforgiving Five authors of this vindictive amendment are required to say when campaigning, “ Hi I’m Richard or (fill-in your favorite ex-con tormentor)and I didn’t use the charter to remove a sitting Commissioner convicted of soliciting for prostitution or speak out when a County Commissioner played with  dangerous weapons almost injuring a person  and another one cowardly beat up a woman but hey those were only misdemeanors and they aren’t a thorn in my side like Ray VerWys.   Why the voters had the gall to elect him to office with us, the moral judges of this city!”  

Where were the faith leaders or the voices of restorative justice and the advocates for ex-felons?  If they spoke out I never heard them. This was a teachable moment  yet only silence.  Love should have won, but the lost sheep were not deemed worthy of help.

St. Thomas  Aquinas defined the virtue of "mercy" as "the compassion in our hearts for another person's misery, a compassion which drives us to do what we can to help him." Most religions hold that mercy must temper justice. Sin has you miss the mark and mercy restores you.  It is Divine grace healing and making people whole.

Clarence Darrow the great lawyer and agnostic called mercy, “the highest attribute of man.”

Secular or sacred mercy defines and impacts a society.  What is a town without Mercy? (Sorry Gene Pitney)

Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7BRraVMZzc

Travel with me for few moments into a world of fantasy that as Chesterton might say is more real than our own.

We can just imagine when December 6^th arrives. Mayor Root will be cranky after St. Nickolas leaves a note in one shoe simply saying, “Luke 11:14” and  in his other one just, “Matthew 5:7”.  He will spend the day with the truth gnawing at him as he tries to prepare himself to execute the political career of his enemy.

Preparing his statement is difficult as the verses of scripture torture his conscience and the words of Shakespeare’s Portia haunt him echoing maddeningly through his mind.

“The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes the throned monarch better than his crown. His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this scept'red sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings; It is an attribute to God himself, And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice.”

A legal fight is also looming born out of legitimate Constitutional and Michigan Home Rule Act questions.  Scarce tax dollars squandered to rid him of this miserable felon. Expulsion may not be possible under the law.  What if he has to testify with other Commissioners in open court on their legislative intent for the amendment? How will he and others answer under oath and pain of perjury why no action was taken against a previous sitting City Commissioner who committed and was convicted of a vile crime while holding office?  Was this amendment personally directed at Commissioner VerWys?  Is it right to use the powers of your office and amend the charter to eliminate a particular Commissioner?  Is that not an abuse of power?

Root is sweating like Nixon in the first 1960 Presidential TV Debate. Fortunately Screwtape dispatches one of his most skilled tempters to aid the confused Mayor. Eschewing the ones adept at corrupting great leaders, instead choosing  Magnanimofarinata a specialist in seducing minor officeholders by convincing them instead of  being bound by a public trust to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States they have a personal obligation to  rise above politics and determine the values of their less qualified and confused constituents, for their own good of course .

With Hell’s finest assuring him nothing is more important than his duty to purify his city from ex-felons Richard Root once again feels the passion needed to expel his adversary.

Screwtape himself trained the demon using that damnable but useful play by T.S. Eliot MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL.   Magnanimofarinata subtlety twisted the temptations to fit the need:

“Mr. Mayor you hold the keys to purify politics in this city.

Power to improve the quality of office holders.

Improve, Richard improve and bind good representation into law.

Bind all future Commissioners, Mayors and especially the poor voters to high standards

Good honest government ensured by your actions despite those meddlesome critics!”

The thoughts take  root in the Mayor’s mind and he is prepared to clean every taint of criminal pasts and questionable judgment from his beloved city.

Sadly Richard Root was not like the real or even TS Elliot’s literary Thomas Beckett who replied to his tempters in that great play:

“Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain:

Temptation shall not come in this kind again.

The last temptation is the greatest treason:

To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”

With the deed yet not done, Screwtape and Magnanimofarinata will fret until the action is finally carried out.  The Enemy’s love for these miserable creatures is as infinite as His patience even with those denying his greatest gift-- Mercy.

Using Elliot was a risk. Real Truth is far too easily untwisted and many times Screwtape and his minions themselves bungle into aiding the Enemy with His Mysterious ways to the anger, but not the surprise, of their father below.  Hope was a curse they could not destroy.

Pardon me for my humble and poor imitation of literary greats.  I presumptuously created a fantasy imagining the internal struggle of one I am barely acquainted with, but it was to make a point regarding human nature and particularly the temptations facing well meaning and sincere politicians that I know personally far too well.  Screwtape, if he exists, may be waiting to toast with a draught of Rick Tormala even more than a sip of Richard Root.  

Returning to the tragic vote of November 8^th, I urge Mayor Root and his colleagues to abandon any efforts to expel Commissioner VerWys. It is wrong will cost your city legally and embarrass it even more publicly. Besides: Pulchrum est vitam donare minori;  It is noble to grant life to the vanquished, and Lord knows a little act of nobleness couldn’t hurt right now.

I still hope you and your colleagues will gathered the moral courage needed to admit this all was a misguided, cruel and unnecessary measure, apologize to the voters for confusing them and move to repeal this nonsense at the next election.  People will forgive you and it would be a good step towards showing your city understands and believes in Redemption.  The City of Kentwood would be rid of the title No Mercy, Michigan!

Yet if you continue with your vendetta than please strip “ by the Grace of God” from the Preamble of your City’s charter.  You rejected governing by His Grace when you decided to become No Mercy, Michigan though I am certain it is still available. He forgives, so should you. So should we all!