Comment

Comment by Joan Denoo on April 17, 2018 at 3:07pm

I sent the photo of the starving mother nursing her starving child with an explanation of wealth and poverty to my grandchildren, ranging in age from 10 to 18. My son, the father of two boys, ages 12 & 14 rebuked me for sending such a scene to his two sons. One of them opened the photo on his iPhone at school and his friends teased him about it. When I found out about his experience I asked why teachers didn't guide the boys to an understanding of the meaning of poverty and starvation. Why did my son not make it clear that there are children in this world who do not go to private schools, have private music lessons and soccer teams, and they do not have families that can protect them and feed them and provide health and education for them?

The teachers and my son failed to help the boys process this information. Craig knows I have always been involved with educating the poor and I took him and his brother and sister to children's homes, housing projects in WA. D.C., and homeless shelters in Juarez, Mexico when they were younger than his boys. My children knew about hunger and homelessness because they witnessed it as children and helped me as I provided education for the poorest of the poor. 

Comment by Idaho Spud on April 17, 2018 at 9:40am

Why indeed?

Comment by Loren Miller on April 17, 2018 at 7:29am

If I could stop a man from raping a child, I would. That's the difference between me and your God.
-- Tracie Harris

To me, this simple statement gives inarguable confirmation either to the impotence or villainy of any god that would claim dominance over this planet.  If its creation is moved to improve its lot and stop wrongdoing, why isn't the creator similarly moved?

Comment by Joan Denoo on April 17, 2018 at 12:29am

"The major problem facing our terrestrial environment is human over-population. If we could cut the population density, then the waste products of human enterprise, including carbon and DDT and acid water and methane from sheep, would be cut along with it. That’s the core of the problem, the actual cause of our headache, and taking an aspirin doesn’t cure it. Anthropogenic Global Warming is a myth feeding off our collectively guilty political conscience."

~ Hilton Ratcliffe, How “Socks” began, http://www.hiltonratcliffe.com/how-socks-began/

If Ratcliffe doesn't believe Homo sapiens' activities cause global warming, then why does he point out that reduction of the human population would cut waste products of human enterprise, carbon, DDT, acid water, and methane?

From my perspective, the exponential growth of human population produces waste products of human enterprise, carbon, DDT, acid water, and methane! Anthropogenic Global Warming is not "a myth feeding off our collectively guilty political conscience."

We know the Earth cannot sustain the assault on its resources, we do not distribute food so that all living things have enough nutrition even though we can grow enough for all living people, and we pollute our rivers, lakes and drinking water sources. 

We experience a justifiable guilty political conscience. 

Taking aspirin to solve this problem will not reach the desired end. We have to change the ways we manage our resources, find better ways of distributing food, shelter, healthcare, and education so that people can rise above mere survival. We need regulations to control the misuse of chemicals and to regulate banks and financial institutions. 

These are not myths. Nor is this: 

Comment by Loren Miller on April 16, 2018 at 5:44am

The position of the Atheist is a clear and reasonable one. I know nothing about ‘God’ and therefore I do not believe in Him or in it; what you tell me about your God is self‐contradictory, and therefore incredible. I do not deny ‘God,’ which is an unknown tongue to me; I do deny your God, who is an impossibility. I am without God.
― Annie Besant

And I'm right behind you, Annie.

Comment by Loren Miller on April 16, 2018 at 5:42am

As for my own $0.02 worth, the way the haves and the have-nots are stratifying, between the 1% and what remains of the middle class, I can't escape the feeling that, unless something is done to rectify the situation, US culture is beginning to more closely resemble that of France in 1795.

NOT a good thing.

Comment by Joan Denoo on April 16, 2018 at 2:50am

Given the reality of the decline of the social health of the working class and the obscene growth of wealth in the top 1%, how can one even discuss the idea of a "Partnership Society?" 

Yes, we are a war-making people. However, we have brains, intelligence, imagination, and hope for a better world for all living things on the planet. We can be a peace-loving people. 

How?

Comment by Joan Denoo on April 16, 2018 at 2:39am

Affordable housing

Alcohol-related traffic fatalities

Child poverty

High school completion

Infant mortality

Teenage births

Unemployment

Wages

Age 65-plus poverty

Child abuse

Health care coverage

Inequality in family income

Life expectancy

Teenage drug use

Violent crime

Youth suicide

This study defines the social wellbeing of the U.S. from 1970 to 1998. Production of goods and services rise as Social health declines over the years. 

How do we measure "standard of living?"

~Marc Miringoff, director of the Fordham University Institute for Innovation in Social Policy and 

~ Marque-Luisa Miringoff, professor of sociology at Vallar College. 

Comment by Joan Denoo on April 16, 2018 at 2:10am

OK, change the language, "We are a peace-making people," is a preferred assumption and one that can be developed. Just as making war requires effort, so does making peace. 

Peace doesn't just happen, obviously, but when confronted with the current state of affairs, one can hardly see a way to turn the culture around. 

Creating a "partnership" society flies in the face of capitalism that requires growth even when the planet has limits to growth. Capitalism also requires material consumption to the point when one wonders when is enough, enough? Capitalism needs a poverty class that drives wages down. Capitalism requires war. Capitalism requires socialism for the wealthy while working class people work harder, producing more goods and services; production rises as wages remain stagnant. More good and services mean more profits for the owners of capital as wages remain stagnant. 

A new deal with capitalism requires a revolution in politics and ma...

Does capitalism require endless growth in material consumption?;

Capitalism requires a stable and dependable money system;

Away with economic quackery – capitalism requires capital;

Comment by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on April 15, 2018 at 10:56pm

Bertold, I see "We are a war-making people." as a Dominator Culture assumption which is harmful. Just because we've made war on one another, doesn't mean that's our only possibility. Habitual liars like to say "Everybody lies". It's narrowing, like blinders on a horse. We are also love-making people, caring people, thoughtful people, planners, builders, and music makers. It's similar to the logical error of blaming, which defines the worth of the whole person by one unfortunate choice, instead of using the language of responsibility, which shows respect for the whole person while denouncing the one behavior.

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