Puget Sound Liberals Weekly Newsletter #171
Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in Puget Sound and
Beyond
Through informing and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.
Our vision is hundreds of thousands of well-informed Puget Sound Liberals
working together.
Our
Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean
Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and
Competent Spending ·
Investment for
Productivity ·
Quality
Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental
Protection and Energy Independence ·
Security and
Equal Rights ·
Justice and
Peace Everywhere ·
International
Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these Let’s
End Our National Nightmare
Let’s
Restore Our American Dream More on Conservative opposition to our
American Dream Washington State’s 5 Major Needs ·
Federal
Funding for Health and Education · Substitute
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week It is from numberless
diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he
sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million
different centers of energy and daring those ripples to build a current
which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Robert
Kennedy
Calendar of Events
Friday, April 24 (3-9 PM); Saturday, April 25 (9 AM-6 PM); and Sunday,
April 26 (9 AM – 3:30 PM) at Seattle – Camp
Wellstone training for citizen activists, campaign workers and
candidates. $50 - $200. To
register.
Thursday, April 30 at 6:30 PM at Sammamish Public Library (825 228th
Ave NE, Sammamish) - Issues
in American Democracy presents a dinner and discussion of America’s current
economic crisis, led by Dave Miller, who will make a presentation on the economic crisis from the "The
Quiet Coup" by Simon Johnson featured in the May edition of The Atlantic Monthly. Reference
the article at the 5th District Democrats website.
Saturday, May 9 at 11 AM registration, 12 Noon step-off at
Tuesday, May 13 at 7 PM at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center (Yesler
and 17th Avenue South, Seattle) – Free Educational Forum:
Afghanistan: Giving Peace a Chance, presented by Abe Keller Peace Education Fund
and SNOW, featuring Tamim Ansary,
Cabeire DeBerghe Robinson and Stephen Zunes.
Co-sponsors: American Friends Service
Committee, Justice and Peace Committee of
Saturday, May 16 at 6:30 PM at 6:30PM at Candy Sullivan and Jule
Sugarman’s home (
Communication
with Our Members
We now have hundreds of members from
beyond Puget Sound, including
Opportunities
and Petitions
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Obtain Progressive
States Networks resources for improving many state government services.
See all of President Obama’s
weekly (Saturday) addresses.
Petitions
Tell Attorney
General Eric Holder to appoint special prosecutor for torture policy authors.
A similar petition to
Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor for torture policy authors.
Sign a
petition to require health care reform to include a public health coverage
option.
Tell
your congress members to support the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
Tell your congress members to
support the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act.
Tell
your congress members to support trust funds for constructing affordable
housing.
Tell
your congress member to support the American Clean Energy and Security Act of
2009.
Tell
President Obama to immediately use his power to initiate climate control
measures.
Tell
our Fisheries Service to protect beluga whales.
Tell
our EPA to stop mercury and other pollution by cement kilns.
Tell
your senators to vote to ratify the Law of the Seas Treaty.
Tell
Interior and Commerce Secretaries to restore science to Endangered Species
decisions.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Gerald Houseman:
Read My Book
Greetings Puget Sound Liberals from
This is a real de-bunker, building its arguments
around the scientific proofs developed by Stiglitz in 1986 (relatively long
ago!) showing that "free enterprise" cannot exist and has never
existed. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics for this finding
in 2001. It:
1.
Examines
globalization in considerable detail and it predicts (not all that unusual!)
the recession of 2008-2009.
2.
Carefully lists
(Appendix C) the various organizations which still use the term "free
enterprise" as though it exists, and points out the obvious (that these
organizations --- Cato, Heritage, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Hudson,
AEI, the Ayn Rand Institute, etc. --- have nothing to do except fold up!
3.
Calls (Appendix
D) for a new thinking and creativity in political economy and demonstrates this
need by thoroughly trashing one of the "saints" of the "free
enterprise" disease, F. von Hayek.
Reading this tome, I am told, is a learning experience
and also good fun. Consider it for your list, OK? Gerald L.
Houseman (
Rich Austin: Lawmakers
Beholden to Medical-Industrial Complex May Obstruct Health Care Reform
Could it be that Sen. Baucus and lots of other lawmakers are beholden to
the medical-industry complex? In a five
year stretch, the man from
Sen. Evan Bayh (D – IN) has a wife named Susan, who is on the board of
directors of Wellpoint, one of the largest insurers in the U.S. Wellpoint has
been generous to the Bayh’s, giving Susan hundreds of thousands of
dollars. In return, Bayh’ has been
extremely generous to Wellpoint. Arranging a $24.7 million tax payer funded
grant for the company. Wellpoint is known to the courts too. The company has paid millions of dollars to settle
lawsuits brought by patients and governmental agencies.
Not to be outdone, Republicans have their share of charlatans. Former
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN)
raked in millions of dollars as
founder of the for-profit
Hospital Corporation of
The moral to all this is that until we are able to remove the greedy
hands of some members of Congress from the money bags of the medical-industry
complex, we will not get true health
care reform. We’ll wind up with a
half-measure. If that happens, real reform will be shoved back another
15 or 20 years…again! 66% of the
residents in our nation support a national, single payer health program such as
the one embodied in HR 676, the United States National Health Insurance
Act. Congress needs to listen to us!
Ed Schultz opined that the battle for true health care reform may be as
difficult as the struggle for civil rights, and that we might have to march in the
streets and picket Congressional offices en masse to win health care
justice. That’s fine by me. The time to remind members of Congress that
they are our employees is long overdue. Rich Austin
Craig Salins:
Health Care Reform Requires Campaign Financing Reform
WashClean friends, the national debate over health care reform has begun in
earnest, in Congress.
Please
read: Health Care Reform - Necessary Features (available
as a PDF download). This provides an important perspective on the
emerging debate over health care reform in Congress. Comments welcome.
Whatever law emerges from Congress in the next few months will shape health
care in
In 2008, health industry players spent $97 million on direct campaign
contributions and $464 million on lobbying - to influence Congress. By
itself, the insurance industry spent almost $200 million on
lobbying and campaign contributions! We
need the Fair
Elections Now Act, because we believe Congress should be accountable to the
people - not to lobbyists or Wall Street corporate interests. Business
enterprise drives our economy, and that's great. But today's huge
corporations should not be running our government and deciding public policy -
because they are concerned about profit and the bottom line, whereas Americans
are concerned about a sustainable quality of life.
The emerging health care debate is intimately connected to our goal of
public campaign financing. How? Real
health care reform depends on Fair Elections (public campaign financing) - so
that decisions by Congress are made in the public interest, not
skewed by lobbyists and campaign cash from insurance and
pharmaceutical corporations.
Conversely, the Fair Elections Now Act needs the support of citizen
organizations - like health care reform groups - who realize we won't
make real progress on issues without curtailing the political influence of
lobbyists and special-interest campaign donors in Congress. When public
interest advocacy groups run into the wall of corporate lobbyists and
special-interest campaign spending, it's a wakeup call that we need
campaign finance reform in
These two issue campaigns need each other. Neither will make
significant progress without the other. As we talk with friends and
neighbors who care about either issue, let's connect the dots. Craig
Salins, Executive Director, Washington Public
Campaigns
Just this month Gregoire declared, "I will not
walk away from our longstanding commitment to K-12 or higher education. Education
is the lifeblood of this state's economy."
She is honoring this commitment by reversing course. I guess her statement is
factually accurate, because when you propose to cut state investment in four
year colleges and community colleges by more than 20 percent, you are not
walking away. You are sprinting away from
investment in education. More.
Rosa Franklin: Our
Thank you for your interest in SB 5104 – Fiscal Reform.
I have been introducing the bill along with a constitutional amendment
since 2003.
As for sponsorship, many times there are bills with only one name.
That does not indicate a lack of support. Bills are filed with one
sponsor for various reasons.
Income tax in our state has become code words for fear and wedge issues
on the campaign trail. I saw and withstood the same in 1993 when our
state passed health care reform when Mike Lowry was Governor. We have
eventually seen the erosion of that legislation and more people without health
care insurance.
In reviewing your e-mail conversation regarding the issue of the WA
State Tax Structure, some of your ideas parallel my own. My goal since
2003 has been to begin the dialogue at the legislative level and let public
discussion drive the issue across the state in local communities. To
accomplish this, I sponsored a bill to create a citizen driven Commission (SB
5049). Had we acted upon all of the measures I that I filed
based on the “03 Gates Commission Report, I feel that we would be in a better
position to ride out this recession. All of the bills are lingering in
the Senate Ways & Means Committee.
Should we stumble again and not take the opportunity to engage the
public to help reform tax structure during this downturn, the opportunity will
have been lost for another 50 or more years.
Admittedly, it’s a difficult issue because opponents do not allow it in
the public square for honest discussion. I will press on.
Leadership requires boldness and risk taking for the public good. Rosa
Franklin, State Senator, 29th Legislative District
Jack Smith:
Reelection Shouldn’t Be the Highest Priority
Frank Chopp and the Governor elect to suppress
discussion of the Death Penalty. I think they put that in the same basket as
the one they label "state income tax." I view this as a disappointing
case of reelections becoming a higher priority than analyzing and enacting the
best action for the State. That is not my expectation for elected officials,
but, silly me, I worked for the Governor twice and have voted for Frank every
time he was on my ballot.
I strongly suggest people view Sean Penn's
portrayal of Huey Long in All the Kings
Men. When the politician becomes too important too dialogue with the
people, sad things happen, or in this case don't happen. Jack Smith
Don Smith: Teabag Parties Were a Sham
The tax protests sure were clever spectacle. But, like
the war in
Protesting against taxes is rather like protesting
against death. After all, there are bills to pay. The previous, Republican
administration left $11 trillion in debt, two mismanaged wars, unprecedented
corruption and waste, and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Economists agree that massive governmental spending and bailouts (which started
last year) are needed to avert an even worse disaster.
Moreover, both concentration of wealth and public debt
have increased dramatically, while tax rates on the wealthiest Americans have
fallen far below historic averages. In 1955 the 400 richest Americans paid over
51 percent of their income in taxes; in 2006 they paid a mere 17 percent,
despite earning 20 times as much. (Source: The Nation, April 27)
The Republicans would like to blame it all on the
Dems, drown government in a bathtub, and turn America into a lawless state like
Somalia, where everyone carries guns, government provides no services, and the
poor, the weak and the elderly are abandoned.
Donald A. Smith
Dow
Growing up on
Please take a look at the video and visit my web page to learn more, make a contribution, or check out upcoming
events--including
Thursday night's all-star lineup of live music at the completely renewed
Crocodile in Seattle! You can also
follow the campaign through Twitter, Facebook, and other (paper-free) ways!. Sincerely, Dow
Liberals
and Democrats
Obama Watch – Week 13 (April 14 – 21)
Also go to Whitehouse.gov.
During
the first 10 weeks of Barack Obama’s presidency, the focus was on our economy. The stimulus-investment package, the
remaining 2009 appropriations bills and the State Children’s Health Insurance
Program were passed. More money was
given to AIG and other large financial companies. A program was initiated for avoiding some
mortgage defaults.
Then, Obama went to
A
Wednesday Commentary on the week.
Latin American Trip and Policy
President Obama
comments on Latin American issues, policies and visit.
President
Obama visits Mexico. Obama
is unwilling to oppose International Rifle Association to restrict guns used by
drug cartels.
In a Washington Post Op Ed, President Obama called for
a new
day of American Nations meeting shared challenges. This
continues his approach to foreign policy. But Washington
still appears to reject the independent thinking of new strong Liberal democratic
Latin American administrations. For
more.
This
Serve
President
Obama signed the Serve America Act, greatly increasing the number of
participants in various volunteers programs.
For
more. This act will employ a small
percentage of the number who were employed by WPA and CCC programs of the
1930s. But in 1930, a small wage was
sufficient for men who didn’t have large mortgages and other obligations.
Other Initiatives
Release
of Bush Administration memos concerning interrogation techniques. More. More. More.
President
Obama promotes high speed rail. For
more. About
Pacific NW rail.
President
Obama spoke of building a new economy on a sound foundation. For
more.
President
Obama’s weekly address introduced a Chief Performance Officer and Chief
Technology Officer. He is
asking his department heads to cut costs by $100 million.
President
Obama appoints border czar, but may delay immigration reform to later this
year.
FDA approves making Plan B
EPA
takes first step toward regulating green house gases.
Energy
and Labor Secretaries say now is time to build a clean energy economy.
President
Obama may offer Iran a nuclear deal they will accept.
Stress
test results will be released on May 4th.
Health Care Reform
·
Various
factors favor passage of health care reform this year.
·
Read about the top 10
opponents of single payer public health insurance.
·
Bill
Greider calls for Liberal opposition to Democrats who are beholden to moneyed
interests. Some
corporations are pretending to support health care reform while spreading
disinformation to obstruct it.
·
Howard
Dean rejoins Democracy for America to promote public health insurance. Sign
his petition.
·
One
issue is whether health care reform can pass the senate with a simple majority. For
more.
·
Robert
Reich says passing health care reform quickly to reduce costs requires fast
tracking it.
·
Senate
plans to markup health reform bill in June, which will likely include some form
of public health insurance. For
more.
·
Health and Human
Services Secretary Designate Kathleen Sebelius has described Obama’s
rationale for including a public health insurance option.
·
Medicare
pays too much to HMO providers who then offer extra services to attract more
clients.
Reflection
President
Obama’s popularity increases a bit more to 69%. If fewer bailouts are performed, this will
help President Obama’s reputation. Imagine
that health care reform passes and our economy shows definite signs of recovery
this year. President Obama will then
have the political capital to spend on such controversial subjects as
immigration reform. Until then, he is
delaying action on Immigration reform and various other issues.
Beginning
next week, we can expect things to be more routine, with both congress and
President Obama attending to a variety of issues. After
Easter Recess, congress will have many issues to resolve. What
to expect from congress.
What Tea Baggers Profess,
Obama Is Doing
Tea
bag demonstrations (supported
by Fox cable news and corporate interests) profess to want lower taxes,
lower deficits, lower debt and less government.
For more. For
more. For
more. More
about protests in Washington State. Unlike
President Clinton, President Obama has fulfilled his campaign promise to lower
taxes. He has lowered taxes for 95% of
American people, those having incomes less that $250,000 people. Income
taxes are near their historic low, with average families paying 9% and
middle income families paying 3%. For
more. Although our immediate
deficits are larger than before, the total deficits and debt over the next 10
years will be less than would occur if no stimulus-investment package was
implemented.
While
our government will be funding more investments and a more comprehensive safety
net, the Obama Administration and Congress are not proposing to employ large
numbers of additional government workers.
Unlike President Roosevelt’s New Deal CCC and WPA programs, Obama is not
proposing programs to hire our unemployed.
Private contractors will instead by hired by federal, state and local
governments to fix our infrastructure, private businesses will be stimulated to
create green and other jobs, and tax cuts will provide demand for private
employment.
But
the tea baggers are clearly not supporting the President Obama. Instead, they are expressing hatred for
him. The
tea baggers are a Conservative response to the new Liberal dominance of our
federal government. Mouthing long
time Conservative misconceptions of Liberals, they accuse the Obama
Administration of what more appropriately applies to the Bush Administration. Their
expression of hate harms their appeal to others.
The
tea baggers include racists who carry racist signs. Note that Conservatives
are reacting negatively to a newly released Homeland
Security Report which labels hate groups (which target ethnic and religious
groups) as right wing extremists. For more. This despite the fact that prominent
Republicans often appear at hate group conferences and endorse many of their
views toward immigrants and others. Conservative radio and television commentators
don’t condemn hate groups. Instead they
express many of the same views. For more. For more. Tea
bag parties may be harming image of Republicans.
Here’s the Beef
More
voters are allowed to vote before election day.
Democratic
Leadership Council seeks credit for Democratic victories. Says it is changing emphasis.
President
Obama’s seeks to provide incentives for businesses to act to produce desired
outcomes.
Texas
Governor Rick Perry suggests Texas should secede from our U.S. For
more. Wasn’t one civil war
enough? Or should we encourage
Conservatives
accuse community organizers and volunteer programs of brainwashing Americans.
Commercial
media pundits blame Obama for Conservative obstructionism. Suggest he give in to them.
State
and Local
Lisa Brown Advocates a Progressive
Income Tax
Recent legislative dialogue and a bill
introducing a tax on high incomes have injected new life into state budget
discussions, a welcome change from the debate thus far. Tough times call for
creative thinking about our public investments, not a slash and burn approach
that endangers our quality of life. More
Almost alone among our legislators, Lisa
Brown has advocated a progressive income tax. She bases her views on fairness as much as
increasing revenue. Few have followed
her lead.
Instead an increasing
number of advocacy groups and legislators are now promoting allowing voters to
consider a 0.3 % increase in our sales tax, perhaps with a working family’s
tax credit. Note that Seattle area voters have approved tax
increases for specific purposes.
What Type of
I have expressed my impression that Democratic
Washington legislators fail to share a vision for
I am
now pleasantly surprised to learn that our legislature is creating a vision for
education. Our
legislature has passed a bill that broadens our definition of basic education
which is mandated by our constitution. For
more. Since it doesn’t set a date for funding this
basic education, Governor Gregoire also supports it. Superintendent of Public
Instruction Randy Dorn backs the bill, as does the League of Education Voters,
the state PTA, and Mary Jean Ryan, chairwoman of the state Board of Education. In addition, major changes
in the way our educational funding is distributed have been recommended.
I hope that our advocacy groups and legislature can
develop a vision which refers to many aspects of our state and people, which
promotes excellence by comparison with other states. We need to measure where we are and where we
want to be, concerning tens and maybe hundreds of variables concerning our
natural environment, infrastructure, work opportunities, and safety net. It should include health, crime, family
welfare, access to affordable housing near jobs and other variables that often
receive little attention. Once such
visions are created and conditions identified, focus can shift to strategies
for improving our state.
Here’s the Beef
Both State legislative bodies pass popular
vote compact bill.
Hundreds
of millions of stimulus dollars will support Washington State science projects.
Stimulus
money hastens removal of two dams and national park improvements. For more.
70%
of certified organic acres in Washington are in the Eastside.
How much of
$30 million stimulus funds for building energy conservation should go for
houses?
Kitsap
County awards many green initiatives.
Maria
Cantwell favors ‘cap and dividend’ which varies from ‘cap and trade’.
Research
attempts to reduce cow’s flatulence which contributes to global warming.
Floating
offshore wind turbines will produce steady flow of electricity.
On
July 18, 2009, we finally get chance to ride Seattle’s light rail.
See
how revenue from temporary sales tax increase would be allocated to health care
programs.
Patty
Murray and Maria Cantwell voted with mostly Republicans to lower estate taxes
for the wealthy.
Nation
and World
Featured Advocacy Group ---------
Global Solutions ------------------------------
Citizens for Global Solutions envisions a future in which nations work
together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve the
problems facing humanity that no nation can solve alone. This vision requires
effective democratic global institutions that will apply the rule of law while
respecting the diversity and autonomy of national and local communities. It is
a membership organization working to build political will in the
Priorities are:
·
Ratifying
the Convention on the Law of the Sea
·
Working
for an effective International Criminal Court
·
Stepping up
·
Promoting a world
without nuclear weapons
·
Promoting
equitable climate change policies
·
Restoring human
rights
·
Championing a more
effective and empowered United Nations
Their report card on
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Creating a Sustainable Global Economy
In
summary, Jeffrey Sachs’ 2008 book, Commonwealth.
Economics for a Crowded Planet expresses:
Sustainable
development means prosperity that is globally shared and environmentally
sustainable including:
·
Quick development
and adoption of sustainable technologies that allow high levels of prosperity
with low environmental impact
·
Stabilize global
population, especially in our poorest countries
·
Help our poorest
countries escape poverty
Market
forces alone cannot provide sustainable development. They don’t guarantee that:
·
Scientists and
engineers develop needed technologies
·
Widespread
adoption of needed technologies
·
Appropriate
population changes
·
Meeting of basic
needs by our poorest people
Our
Millennium Promises for sustainable development include the
·
Sustainable
systems of energy, water, land and resource use that avert climate change,
species extinction and destruction of ecosystems
·
Stabilization of
our world’s population at or below 8 billion people, through improving child
survival, educating girls, empowering women, providing access to reproductive
health services, boosting farm productivity, urbanization, legalizing abortion,
providing old age financial security and public leadership
·
Ending extreme
poverty by 2025 and improving economic security in rich and poor countries,
through boosting farm productivity, providing access to health care, education
and infrastructure (power, roads, safe water, phone and internet connectivity
and port services. Temporary aid can
boost productivity which can increase saving and investment which can lead to
sustained economic growth
·
An approach to
global problem solving based upon cooperation among nations and the dynamism
and creativity of the nongovernmental sector
We
need to reinvent global cooperation with:
·
Clear goals and
time tables
·
Public financing
by developed and middle-income countries
·
Global problem
solving by developed and developing countries
·
Mobilization of
participation by private and non-profit sectors
·
Harness expert
scientific and technical knowledge
·
Support for
innovation at every stage from start-up to scale-up
Basic
responsibilities include:
·
Public Sector
·
Fund basic
science
·
Promote
development and demonstration of early stage technologies
·
Create a global
policy framework for solutions
·
Finance scale-up
of successful innovations and technologies
Private
Sector
·
Invest in research
and development, often with public funding
·
Implement
large-scale technological solutions in partnership with public sector
Not-for-Profit
Sector
·
Public advocacy
·
Social
entrepreneurship and problem solving
·
Seed funding of
solutions
·
Accountability of
government and private sector
·
Scientific
research, notably in academic institutions
Individual
responsibilities include:
·
Learn about the
underlying science of sustainable development
·
Understand common
interests, aspirations and special challenges through international travel
·
Start or join an
organization committed to sustainable development
·
Inspire others
and your community to join the cause for sustainable development
·
Promote
sustainable development through social networking sites
·
Politically
engage to demand that politicians honor our government’s Millennium Promises
·
Push your
employer to adhere to norms and standards of U.N. Global Compact
·
Live personally
according to the standards of the Millennium Promises.
To transform our security policy toward creating a sustainable global
economy, our
· Embrace multilateralism and international law
· Create an International Sustainable Development
Department
· Shift financing from our military to an international
sustainable development budget
· Address demography and the environment
· Negotiate the framework for nuclear nonproliferation
· Understand the
Non-carbon Based Energy Is Necessary, Even
Though Oil Prices Will Increase
The
reason to convert to non-carbon based energies is not to reduce oil
prices. It is to make us less dependent
upon using oil and dirty coal which contributes to acid rain and global
warming. Reduced oil production will produce
increased oil prices, which has the beneficial effect of making non-carbon
based energy more competitive. For more.
Economic Recovery Issues for Dummies
The
following ‘Dummies’ commentaries have been put into one document and posted on
our website:
·
Federal Deficits
and Debt for Dummies
·
Economic
Stimulus-Investment Package for Dummies
·
Federal Budgeting
for Dummies
·
Mark to Market
for Dummies
·
Bailouts for
Dummies
·
AIG Bailout for
Dummies
·
Earnings for Dummies
Here’s the Beef
A financial transactions
tax would raise needed revenue and dampen speculation.
If
economic recession continues, more economic stimulus will be a good investment.
Consumers,
employees and shareholders call for reform of Bank of America.
Privatized Defense
Finance and Accounting Services were extremely incompetent.
National Security
Agency illegally intercepted many American email messages. For more. For More.
Legalization
of marijuana is rapidly gaining support.
For
more.
International
Monetary Fund (IMF) is still attaching harmful requirements to its loans.
Is nuclear disarmament
likely to occur?
Earth
Day has evolved from protest to mainstream.
Grassroots
environmental activists from around the world are honored by Goldman prize. For more.
Some
ways to celebrate Earth Day or any day environmentally.
10
environmental disasters to remember.
There are many kinds of
waste.
U.S. can
simultaneously reduce carbon emissions and energy costs.
Use
of solar energy is increasing electric power bills.
In
the northeast, green jobs are already being created.
Ocean
levels are rising, which may doom many coastal cities.
Israel has offered
Palestinians many types of peace, all leaving Israel in control.
Israeli
government insists Palestinians must recognize Israel; But opposes Palestinian
State.
Envoy George Mitchell
tells Israeli Government that U.S. supports creation of Palestinian State.
Our
Liberal Spirit
Diverse Acts of
Courage and Belief
Believing
that our acts won’t make a difference, we often fail to act in accordance with
even our basic values and beliefs. It
helps to recognize that whenever we act to improve our world, we are part of an
enormous movement, with colleagues who include scientists, inventors, economic
and social entrepreneurs, those who care for others and those who advocate for
better social systems and everyone when they are acting to improve the world.
While
it is difficult to determine the effects of our individual actions, our
combined actions produce great improvements, of which we can claim credit for
doing our part. Our small share may
provide the threshold for a large change.
Remember Horton Hears a Who.
Our
This
usually requires little courage. Some
may disparage our activities, but others disparage our lack of such
activities. Our major obstacle is not
fear. It is laziness. It is not being serious about our values and
beliefs. It is not using our unique
human gifts. It is being like a
contented cow, even though as human beings, we can never be as contented as
cows are. As human beings, we are always
tugged toward imagining better things.
We find lack of intentional action as discontenting as intentional
action.
Living
faithful to our values and beliefs provides many with satisfaction, beyond any
results and any recognition from other.
And our faithful living produces more social benefits than we can
identify. We should try it. We might like it.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Jeffrey Sachs, 2008, Commonwealth. Economics for a Crowded Planet
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· Babysitting
for infants (occasional evenings
and weekends) - $5 per hour- Christy Pacheco- johnpacheco01@yahoo.com 425-653-3565
· Data
Entry- $10 per 12 font, double
spaced page- Christy Pacheco (425-653-3565 johnpacheco01@yahoo.com)
· Debt
Elimination Counseling, Seminars and
Workshops – price negotiable – Sherry Brandt (206-356-8034, somerev2@comcast.net)
· Home
Repair- prices vary, depending
on job- John Pacheco 425-653-3565 johnpacheco01@yahoo.com)
· Home Repair
and Remodeling, Rick Hegdahl
(206-227-6280 vikingnw@comcast.net)
· Housekeeper, price negotiable – Laura Montano (641-5038 ambar_lau@hotmail.com)
· Life Support
Therapies, Astara Burlingame RN. (MD)
holistic care, acupuncture hypno therapy, biological medicines (206-370-0356)
· Private
Piano Lessons (students must have a
piano), afternoons - Anna Khosrowian (378-7938), price negotiable
· Psychotherapist, accepts insurance -
Sandy Mathews (462-7889, www.sandramathews.com)