New York City

The Unsung Public Employees Prove Themselves Again: Time To Stop Trashing Them!

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The massive human and property tragedy of Hurricane Sandy has proved once again how much we depend upon, and yet overlook, the sacrifices of public employees.

When one sees the sacrifices, hard work, and dedication of New York fire fighters, police officers, nurses, paramedics and others, who are working non stop in the crisis presented by the hurricane, it reminds us of September 11.

And this is multiplied by the similar sacrifices of public employees all over the Northeast, not just New York City.

And yet, we have politicians, particularly Republicans, who love to trash and dismiss the importance of public employees, and do not wish to pay them properly and give them appropriate benefits, as with the “Bully” governors, including Chris Christie of New Jersey, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, and others of their ilk!

These unsung public employees deserve our respect and thanks, and politicians who use them as a whipping boy need to be repudiated, including Mitt Romney, who has no regard for workers in general, and public employees in particular!

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Throws Down The Gauntlet To Barack Obama And Mitt Romney: Come Up With A Plan For Responsible Gun Regulation After The Aurora, Colorado Massacre!

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has thrown down the gauntlet to President Barack Obama and Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney to take responsibility for coming up with a plan for gun regulation, in the aftermath of the Aurora, Colorado Massacre last Friday. The fact that a Presidential campaign is on is a perfect time to force the issue to be addressed NOW, not later!

Both candidates and many political leaders of both parties have avoided the subject, as it is seen as toxic, with the tremendous power and impact of the National Rifle Association, arguably the most powerful pressure group in American politics.

But as Bloomberg said, on the average, 12,000 people are murdered every year by gun violence, which adds up to 48,000 in a four year Presidential term.

We lost 58,000 in Vietnam over a period of nine years, it should be pointed out, and here, we would have close to that amount in just four years!

This is inexcusable and unacceptable, and the American people, at least those who are rational and reasonable, demand something be done about this carnage NOW!

Public opinion polls are making it clear that action must be taken soon to attempt to cut down this tragedy in the future, in the most dangerous society on the face of the earth, because of the power of the gun industry, which has no concern other than profits!

The “Old Confederacy”, Republicans, Health Care, And HIV AIDS Infections

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The “Old Confederacy”, the states that broke away from the Union during the Civil War, remain the poorest part of the nation even in 2012, in all social and economic statistics.

Once held back by the Democratic Party before the era of civil rights, now it is the Republicans who dominate in these states, and are holding back progress through their propaganda on race and religion, and resentment of the federal government.

So it is the governors of these states that refuse to move ahead on health care coverage for their poorer citizens, of all races, rejecting Medicaid expansion and forming health care exchanges to enforce ObamaCare in 2014 and beyond. They have no concern about the welfare of their less fortunate men, women, and children, while always professing their ‘Christian values”!

In the midst of this hypocrisy, Dan Rather, former CBS News anchor and journalist, has revealed new evidence that HIV AIDs infections are spreading most rapidly in these states, much more than in New York City and San Francisco, the typical stereotype that it is only gays that have this disease, when it is actually spreading among uneducated white and minorities and in the heterosexual community at a far greater rate.

Does one think that these state governments and their representatives in Congress have any concern or interest in combating this epidemic?

The clear answer is NO, as long as race and religion can be manipulated for political power by the GOP!

America’s Future: A Majority “Minority” Nation! Time To Adjust To Reality!

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The US Census Bureau has made it official: America is on the way to becoming a majority “minority” country , which will occur by the 2040s, no matter what the white majority, which has dominated America, wishes.

This is so because, for the first time, a majority of children being born are non white by definition, as in the twelve months ending June 30, 2011, 50.4 percent of the births in America were to Hispanic and Latino, African American, and Asian American parents.

Only 49.6 percent of births were to white parents.The economy, politics, and identity of the nation is changing rapidly, and we will never be the same!

Whites are no longer the majority in four states, and in such cities as New York, Las Vegas and Memphis. About 350 counties nationwide have a majority of nonwhites, and about double that number when one considers young children.

And the baby boomer generation, now aging, was vastly white, and now sees a younger generation growing up which is going to be majority nonwhite, a cultural clash already showing up in the fact that senior citizen whites are overwhelmingly Republicans, who are fighting the future, but represent basically the past that is quickly dying out before their eyes!

While whites still represent 63 percent of all Americans, the average median age for whites is 42, past prime child bearing age, while for Hispanics and Latinos, it is 27, and more Hispanic children were born in America in the past decade than Hispanic immigration to the United States in that period.

So minorities were 92 percent of all growth in the past decade, an astounding figure!

This reality is creating tensions between white elderly and minority young, particularly in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and California.

This is a growing crisis particularly regarding education, as only 13 percent of Hispanics and Latinos have a college degree, only 18 percent of African Americans, but 31 percent of whites.

Education is the future for the nation, or else we will have a lot of minority young who cannot make a living and sustain the elderly whites who are retired and receive Social Security and Medicare.

This is the major social crisis of the future, and the political parties need to come to grips with it, and not only think about how the situation is at present. A vision for the future is essential!

Rick Santorum Bashes New York City And Los Angeles, And By Implication, Boston! What It Says About Him!

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Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, challenging Mitt Romney for the Republican Presidential nomination, has now gone on the attack against New York City and Los Angeles, and by implication, Boston, since Massachusetts is the state in which Mitt Romney was governor,

This reminds us of Barry Goldwater in 1964, suggesting that the Atlantic Coast of North America be cut off and sent out to sea.

It also reminds us of Sarah Palin in 2008, who criticized the coastlines of America, and claimed the “real America” was in the heartland.

The problem is that one can attack those three cities, and the states that they are part of, but there is no way to claim that the heartland of the nation matches the significance and influence of New York City, Los Angeles, and Boston, in the present, or historically!

These are the cultural, financial, business, intellectual and educational centers of America.

These cities have among the best universities in the world, and their states easily have had a greater impact on America than all of the heartland states combined, both past and present.

People can have proud regional biases, but the reality is that these three cities and states are the center of American progress and accomplishments, and that will not change.

So to condemn these cities and states is pure stupidity and ignorance, and proves that Rick Santorum, like Sarah Palin and Barry Goldwater, is not qualified for the Presidency, since he does not recognize the reality of the influence and significance of these coastline cities and states! And to pit a portion of the nation against other areas is also demagogic and despicable to the core!

Iraq War Veterans Parades In New York City And Elsewhere Very Appropriate Now!

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St. Louis, Missouri became the first city to host an Iraq War Veterans Parade to honor the soldiers who fought bravely for our country in the nearly nine year war in that country.

New York City has shown reluctance, led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to host such a party, as the war in Afghanistan continues, but veterans groups are calling for parades not only in New York City but elsewhere, and there is nothing wrong with that.

As it is, the White House will be hosting 200 invited veterans at a special dinner to honor the veterans, but why should not the average citizen be able to demonstrate their patriotism and respect for those who fought, those wounded, and those killed in the line of duty now, rather than in an undetermined future when the Afghanistan War ends?

Honoring our soldiers is the least we can do, as they protected us and fought for the principles of our country. So let’s see a parade very soon in New York City and elsewhere!

A Path Breaking Week For Gay Rights In America!

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This week in July 2011 will be remembered as the week of path breaking events for gay rights in America!

After a long period of patience, major progress is being made in the following ways:

1. On Sunday, the first gay marriages will be performed in New York City and around the state of New York, a month after the state legislature enacted this basic human rights issue.

2. The Department of Justice under President Obama is now advocating the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, and hearings have been held to move toward repeal, although it is likely that will lead to resistance by Republicans in the House of Representatives.

3. The Defense Department is today certifying that they back the formal end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the military, and that they see no problem of gays being openly accepted in the military, and that it will not interfere with the internal cohesion and unity of the armed forces.

4. Additionally, in a very touching manner, comedian Stephen Colbert of the Comedy Channel issued a video in which he talked about children being bullied and called “Queer” in middle school, and how when he was so bullied, although not being gay, a friend reacted in a way that disarmed bullies harrassing his friend. Colbert said, in serious terms, words cannot hurt you if you decide to think of yourself as a person who has value and significance and purpose, and that things will get better if one understands that words should not be allowed to interfere with one’s self esteem, so hang in there, and one’s life will become better with patience. This is a beautiful message that needs to be spread all over America, to prevent bullying from leading to young men and women committing suicide, and was the best possible action Stephen Colbert could possibly have taken to deal with the epidemic of bullying and resultant suicide occurring in America!

So the long road to human rights advancement in a new area of concern has been successful, and the New York legislature, Governor Andrew Cuomo, President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, and comedian Stephen Colbert must be acknowledged and applauded for their courageous efforts in this regard!

Maine Republican Governor Paul LePage And Labor History

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Maine’s new Republican Governor, Paul LePage, may not be noticed nationally very much, but he is now drawing attention as another GOP state executive who is a disgrace in so many ways, and anyone who voted for him should be ashamed at what they have wrought by putting him into the Governorship!

Riding a wave or bitterness and resentment by the Tea Party Movement, LePage was elected Governor, much like Rick Scott in Florida, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan, and Chris Christie in New Jersey.

All of the above, and LePage, have declared war on organized labor and working people in general, and have shown how they do not understand the history of this nation, and the long, hard fought battles of the labor movement over the past 150 years to better the conditions of workers, with millions of workers in all fields who never were members of labor unions, but benefiting from the labor struggles and rising to the middle class from poverty because of the sacrifices of others!

Now the wealthy corporate world has declared war on working people, both in unions and outside, setting out to add to their wealth and power while impoverishing every day working people, and they have had willing allies on Capitol Hill from House and Senate Republicans, as well as from Republican Governors, and have succeeded in destroying a century and a half of progress in a very short time!

If what has been happening just since this year began does not cause average, every day working people to rise in protest and to demand an end to the further aggrandizement of power by the wealthy and corporations, then we have truly and, likely, permanently, lost our concept of democracy, and have become a plutocracy, and that plants the seeds for eventual disintegration of our society and potential threat of civil war in the future, on a scale far greater than the event of 150 years ago, which will be commemorated on its opening day tragedy at Fort Sumter on April 12, and over the next four years to follow!

Paul LePage has proved himself totally insensitive to labor history, and he and the other GOP Governors need to be given lessons in the greatness of labor struggle to create better lives for the masses, to educate them in the history they apparently never studied or ignored in their earlier lives!

For LePage to order the withdrawal of a labor mural at the offices of the Maine Labor Department, depicting the triumphs and struggles of labor over the history of the state and nation, is an absolute outrage that needs a prompt response calling for a reversal of his ignorant, insensitive executive order, and a move to demand a recall election for the removal of this incompetent, stupid man who gives not a damn about the average Maine resident!

And for this outrage by LePage to occur on the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of March 25, 1911, causing the death of 146 men and women, and leading to the fight for greater labor reform in New York City and elsewhere, is indeed a sacrilege!

The Plight Of Organized Labor From The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Of 1911 To Wisconsin In 2011

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One hundred years ago, on March 25, 1911, 146 workers, mostly female, were killed in the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City, spurring the beginning of labor reforms.

Promotion of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and other unions moved ahead after this tragedy, and finally, in the 1930s under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, organized labor finally received recognition as an equal in collective bargaining.

By the 1960s and 1970s, about one third of all workers were in labor unions, and the middle class grew in size and prosperity as never before.

But starting with the 1981 Air Traffic Controllers Strike under President Ronald Reagan, where all the strikers were fired, leaving the nation in a dangerous, reckless situation regarding air safety, unions rapidly declined, and now are as low as 6-9 percent of the population, much of it public workers unions. Many states have become “right to work” states, or states that have worked against unionization, particularly in the South and Mountain West.

Now Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Chris Christie in New Jersey, Rick Scott in Florida, and other Republican Governors are declaring war on public service unions, and this may be the turning point where the collective bargaining rights of 1935 are lost in 2011 and beyond, and just on the centennial of the horrible tragedy of the Triangle fire coming up in a few weeks.

Before that complete collapse of labor rights occurs, one can watch a documentary on PBS on Monday night, relating the terrible events of the Triangle Fire, and that event’s centennial should make us reflect on how far we have come and how far backward we seem to be headed!

Have we learned from history, or are we again ignoring history in the name of “bully” Governors who speak for the Koch Brothers and other extremely wealthy corporate interests, who do not give a damn about the rest of America in their mad dash to obscene profits and greed?

The “Nanny State” Attacks Of Sarah Palin And Other Conservatives: Promoting Hatred And Suspicion Of Government! :(

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Sarah Palin is on a tear, seemingly now attacking some prominent figure on a daily basis, or showing her total stupidity and lack of knowledge about what a candidate for President needs, to take on the burden of that office! 🙁

No sooner than attacking former First Lady Barbara Bush and being unable to distinguish North Korea from South Korea, the former half term Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential nominee of the GOP in 2008 now is on the attack against our present First Lady, Michelle Obama, who has the highest approval rating of any public figure with 65 percent!

Why is this? It is because Michelle Obama is promoting an anti obesity campaign among the children of America, many of whom are overweight, make poor choices in what they consume, and are in danger of becoming diabetic in alarming numbers in the future! It is also a major problem among adults in this country who fail to consider that what you put in your mouth affects long term health!

This campaign comes after Nancy Reagan’s campaign against drugs in the 1980s and John F. Kennedy’s crusade for physical fitness in the 1960s!

Is it wrong of the national government to promote an anti obesity campaign, a war against drugs, and a physical fitness agenda? Any sane person would say, of course not, but not Sarah Palin, who accuses Michelle Obama of promoting a “nanny state”, a charge also leveled by conservative talk show hosts on radio and on Fox News Channel! 🙁

Under the same thought, it apparently is improper of state and local government officials, such as in California and New York City and elsewhere, to ban smoking in public places, and for the US government to be planning new, explicit pictures on cigarette packages of the damages of smoking! But is it such? NO, because it is obvious that human beings often make wrong choices which affect their health and well being, and the government is intervening to attempt to promote different behavior through the leadership of public figures who carry weight among our citizens!

Instead of applauding Michelle Obama, Nancy Reagan, John F. Kennedy, the California state government, the New York City government, and the Department of Health and Human Services for their promotion of good health, instead we are told that the “Know Nothings” who think parents always know what is best, should rule the day!

The answer is NO, as many adults make WRONG choices that affect the health and well being of their children for the rest of their lives! There is nothing wrong with promoting good health and good habits!

And, by the way, if Sarah Palin is such a good parent, then why is it she cannot teach the values in her children to avoid becoming pregnant when still teenagers and unmarried? And realize that if young women, less fortunate in their family assets than Bristol Palin, become pregnant, it often condemns them to a lifetime of poverty!

Should not the national government do everything it can through advocacy and example to avoid promoting poverty and bad health? Of course!

So what it comes down to is that Sarah Palin and other conservatives are simply promoting hatred and suspicion of government, as the Tea Party Movement has been doing! 🙁

That could be called libertarianism by many, or maybe it is actually anarchism in hiding? 🙁