And Now, a Word About the Good Guys

It’s easy to get discouraged about what is happening to America, easy to forget how many really wonderful people are working in every community to make a positive difference and fulfill America’s promise.

 

I have been working on a small research project. Most recently, that research has involved interviewing the directors of community and human development organizations. These people head up all kinds of projects, from all parts of the country—there’s a Mission on an Arizona reservation, several neighborhood organizers in Chicago and Indianapolis, a youth leadership program in Witchita, and many others.

 

These were very different people, with very different organizational missions. But all were dedicated, street-smart, and utterly without self-importance. Their offices were often difficult to find (admittedly, I’m direction-impaired), and always what real estate types would classify as “Type C” or worse. They had computers, but no gee-whiz technologies. No self-respecting CEO would work an hour for what they were being paid.

 

What they did have were compelling stories: of this refugee helped to create a new life, of that worker still able to get to his job thanks to a campaign that kept the neighborhood’s bus service, of the garbage collector given the encouragement (and tutoring) that allowed him to address a state senate committee and ultimately change public policy, of the middle manager who had been a welfare mother the organization taught to read while providing child care.

 

Not earth-shattering victories, to be sure. But the people I interviewed were nothing if not realists. They relished their victories, small as those might seem to our political pontificators. Every single one used the phrase “one on one” to describe their work with clients and volunteers. Every single one cited “patience” as a necessary quality for the changes they were trying to effect. Every single one stressed the importance of listening—to their volunteers, to their clients, and to their communities. There wasn’t an ideologue among them.  

 

Coincidentally, I’d just gotten home from a round of these interviews when I picked up the Indianapolis Star and saw that Karl Schneider had died. Karl was vice-Principal at Arsenal Tech when I first moved downtown with three teenage boys still in school. I’d heard about how “dangerous” Tech was, and that was the image I took to my first conversation with Karl. He looked at me over his glasses, and asked “have your sons had fights at their other schools?” When I said no, he said “Then they probably won’t here. If kids want to find trouble, they can find it at Tech; if they don’t, they won’t.”

 

He was right. My kids had a fabulous experience at Tech. Karl was one of Tech’s many dedicated, gifted teachers who believed in young people, and in the power of education.

 

On this 4th of July, I celebrated the Americans like Karl Schneider and the people I had interviewed. Their unsung, unrelenting, and often unrewarded efforts to achieve America’s promise of “equality and justice for all,” may save us yet.  

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Healthy Societies

One reason the legal recognition of gay marriage or civil unions is so important is very prosaic: health insurance. Currently, if you are gay and don’t work for an enlightened employer, you cannot put your partner (or your partner’s children unless you have somehow established a legal relationship with them—itself not easy) on your health insurance.

 Of course, that assumes your employer even offers health insurance. And the number of employers who do is declining.

 The bottom line is that America’s refusal to deal with our dysfunctional health system in a rational way affects gays and lesbians and poor people disproportionately. It is one more example why bad public policy—and not just bad policy on obviously gay-related issues—is especially important to the gay community. (The same thing is true of the battle over “net neutrality”—if the giant telecoms get their way, the web sites that will be hurt will disproportionately be those with fewer resources, those espousing less “mainstream” opinions. There are many issues with grave consequences to the community that are not “gay” issues.)

 So what would a rational, economically and fiscally sound, humanitarian and fair health system look like? What if the country were to go to a “single payer” health insurance system funded through tax revenues and administered through selected insurance companies, as is done in western Europe?

  •  Increased economic development/job creation and competitiveness with foreign companies. Businesses currently expend an amount in excess of total net profits on health insurance for employees. The cost of health insurance is the single largest “drag” on new job creation. For companies that can afford to offer health insurance, negotiating and administering those benefits, and complying with government regulations attendant to them, consumes untold hours of HR time as well. (It should be noted that doctors’ overhead would similarly decline: currently, medical offices spend considerable sums on personnel whose sole job is confirming insurance coverage, complying with insurer regulations, submitting claims and collecting amounts due.) Smaller companies—the engines of economic growth—are often unable to offer benefits, putting them at a competitive disadvantage for good employees. If health coverage was de-coupled from employment, these enterprises would be able to add workers. Employers could also increase wages by some percentage of the amount currently being paid for insurance.
  • The additional tax revenues needed to accomplish this would be minimal, for the following reasons: governments at all levels already expend huge amounts for health, through Medicaid and other federally required programs (Mothers and Children, AIDS, etc.), through benefits for public employees (Universities, police, public school teachers, etc.), and through support for public hospitals. A national system could effect considerable savings, by standardizing paperwork and administrative procedures (it is estimated that 30% of U.S. healthcare costs are administrative); negotiating with insurers to administer the program on condition that the premium structure eliminate marketing costs that are now included; providing more effective public health and prevention services; and by negotiating with drug manufacturers and other medical vendors for lower prices. Cost controls would also be enhanced by eliminating the practice of cost-shifting by hospitals (where those with insurance pay prices that have been inflated in order to cover the costs that cannot be recovered from those without), and by efficiencies of scale. Costs also decline when people are able to access routine medical care soon after the onset of symptoms, rather than visiting far more expensive emergency rooms when they can no longer ignore the problem.
  •  Individuals would save money. Auto and homeowners insurance premiums would decline, because the underwriting would no longer need to take the costs of medical care into account. The considerable percentage of citizens who are currently uninsured would not incur significant out-of-pocket costs attributable to illness or accident.
  • If all citizens had basic health coverage, we would also experience a decline in the social costs associated with the current dysfunctional system. Over 50% of personal bankruptcies are attributable to medical bills; those bankruptcies cost businesses millions of dollars, and are a drag on the economy. Employees with pre-existing conditions would no longer be chained to jobs they dislike. Absenteeism could be expected to decline. Immunizations would increase, and infant mortality decline. Studies also suggest that violent crime rates decline as social safety nets increase. While not quantifiable, these consequences are significant.

 And gay families would no longer face barriers to adequate medical care that straight citizens don’t face.    

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Desecrating the Flag

Nothing demonstrates the differences in Americans’ worldviews more vividly than disagreements over periodic efforts to ban flag “desecration.”

 

Many officeholders who are currently promoting this effort are, of course, doing so cynically, in a frantic effort to change the national dialogue and divert attention from a government that looks more dysfunctional every day. But many people support a constitutional amendment out of a sincere belief that such a move would demonstrate respect for the country and recognize the sacrifices so many of our soldiers have made over the years.

 

Many, if not most, of the amendment’s supporters readily acknowledge that flag-burnings are rare (according to the numbers I’ve seen, there have been fewer than 45 documented cases in the last half-century). Some of them will even concede that the passage of such an amendment is likely to spur more such acts of defiance rather than reducing that already low number. But putting a halt to some epidemic of civil disrespect is not the point; supporters don’t want to control social behavior, they want to send a “patriotic message.”

 

Those of us who look at this proposal with dismay are not—as the Ann Coulters of the world insist—traitors, terrorists or anti-American provocateurs. Actually, we believe we are the real patriots. We just define patriotism differently.

 

The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights gave America the best, most workable, most enlightened governing structure yet devised. Certainly, it is the system most respectful of individual dignity and autonomy. The flag—the cloth emblem that legend tells us was devised by Betsy Ross—is a physical symbol of that system. People honor the flag by respecting the Constitution, and they desecrate it when they elevate the piece of cloth over the principles and values that make it worthy of respect.

 

When we approve government actions inconsistent with our most basic governing premises, we are desecrating the flag.

 

When those we elect to high office routinely ignore the foundations of republican government—separation of powers, accountability, the insistence that—as John Adams put it—we are “a government of laws, not men,” they are desecrating the flag.

 

When our lawmakers intrude in areas that are simply no business of the government, whether it’s Congress insisting that fourteen state court decisions have been wrong, and Terry Schaivo’s feeding tube cannot be disconnected, or South Dakota lawmakers deciding that it is their place to criminalize a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy, or a Pennsylvania school board deciding that their religion should be taught in lieu of science in public school classrooms, those lawmakers are desecrating the flag.

 

A President who unilaterally designates people as “enemy combatants” and imprisons them indefinitely without permitting review of that designation by the courts, or who issues “signing statements” declaring that he has no obligation to comply with acts of Congress he doesn’t like, is desecrating the flag.

 

I have a radical suggestion: let’s honor the flag by insisting that our elected officials respect the Constitution it symbolizes. 

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Making War on Making Love

A blog that I read fairly regularly calls it the “War on Fucking.” 

 

I think the blogger is on to something. As she points out, it is a mistake to look at the right-wing attacks on gays, abortion, “pornography,” “non-traditional” families and the like as separate issues; at base, what these people are against is sex, sexuality, and anything that smacks of acceptance of the role sex plays in human existence.

 

Her explanation for this war is that those waging it are people who have terrible difficulty controlling their own urges, and who assume that everyone else is having an equally difficult time controlling theirs. If there are not strict—indeed, inviolable—social controls to keep these passions in check, they are sure the result would be social chaos. (This theory may or may not be true, but it sure would help to explain all those child molesting cases involving pastors and choir directors…….). As a result, they live in a state of fear, and they cling tightly to the “eternal verities” provided by highly restrictive religious doctrines and punitive laws, which they see as the only alternative to social disintegration.

 

A glance at history will demonstrate the effect this fear has had on women and our place in society. Women were seen as uniquely and mysteriously powerful—as magical beings whose appeal could make strong men weak. Thus, the notion that “good” women might actually enjoy sex has been an especially terrifying idea. This is the real root of support for “abstinence education” rather than accurate and effective sex education, of the campaign against Plan B, the “morning after” contraceptive, and more recently (and incredibly) the opposition to inoculation against cervical cancer. In case you haven’t read about this latter controversy, medical scientists have developed a highly effective immunization against cervical cancer. But it must be given to girls before puberty. As the Washington Post recently reported:

 

“A new vaccine that protects against cervical cancer has set up a clash between health advocates who want to use the shots aggressively to prevent thousands of malignancies and social conservatives who say immunizing teenagers could encourage sexual activity.

 

Although the vaccine will not become available until next year at the earliest, activists on both sides have begun maneuvering to influence how widely the immunizations will be employed…

 

Groups working to reduce the toll of the cancer are eagerly awaiting the vaccine and want it to become part of the standard roster of shots that children, especially girls, receive just before puberty. But because the vaccine protects against a sexually transmitted virus, many conservatives oppose making it mandatory, citing fears that it could send a subtle message condoning sexual activity before marriage. Several leading groups that promote abstinence are meeting this week to formulate official policies on the vaccine.”

 

This war on sexuality and sexual desire is the larger context within which we must understand the ferocious resistance to "legitimizing" gay relationships by allowing same-sex adoptions, marriage or civil unions, even laws protecting gays against discrimination. Because of their single-minded preoccupation with sex, social conservatives do not see the other elements of human relationships; thus they equate any legal recognition of gays with an endorsement of sex—and, in their worldview, “deviant” sex to boot.

 

It must be hard to live in a world where some sex fiend is hiding behind every bush, waiting to pounce—waiting to defile “pure” women and molest small children. And when you are terrified all the time, it is really hard to be logical, let alone fair or loving.

 

I’d pity them, if the rest of us weren’t civilians in the line of fire in their War on Fucking.

 

 

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Protect Me from the Protectors

Senate confirmation hearings on General Michael Hayden raised a number of questions about the NSA surveillance program. While the devil is always in the details, let me risk oversimplifying the arguments pro and con: one side says such programs make us safer without unacceptably invading our liberties; the other side says—to plagiarize New Hampshire’s motto—live free or die.

 That’s the wrong debate.

Leave aside the troubling issue of government honesty and accountability. For the sake of argument, let’s assume the Administration played by the rules. Let’s further assume that intrusions on our liberties are, as proponents assert, minimal. What are the risks and rewards of this data mining operation? Is it making us safer—or is it actually compromising our safety?

Whatever its effectiveness in protecting us from terrorists—a hotly debated proposition within the FBI and CIA—this program and the “War on Terror” create significant non-terrorism-related security risks. As one scholar warns, the executive’s power to do whatever he deems necessary to “conduct war” will “displace the area previously assumed to fall within the criminal justice system.” In other words, the President will increasingly have a choice whether to categorize threats as matters of national security or matters of crime and criminal justice. We are already creating a “parallel law enforcement structure” not subject to constitutional restrictions. It will be increasingly tempting to argue that the criminal justice system is too inflexible and outmoded to use during the war on terror.  

If that is too abstract a concern, consider the very immediate, practical dangers posed by the existence of such a database. To begin with, it vastly increases opportunities for identity theft. Even if (as the Administration insists) conversations aren’t being monitored, numbers are. How many times have you used your telephone’s keypad to punch in bank codes or credit card numbers? All it would take to give thieves access to that information is one breach in computer security, or one  NSA employee with financial problems or dubious ethics.

How about blackmail?  What if government had evidence that an annoying activist or legislator was calling a phone sex line? Do you think that information might be used to get votes changed, investigations dropped, or public criticisms muted? It happened to Martin Luther King—and that was before we got so technologically sophisticated. The government has already used NSA information to identify who is leaking information to the press. If whistleblowers know their calls can be tracked, how long before we stop getting any inside information about government wrongdoing?

American privacy is vanishing. Our telephone companies willingly sold the records on each of us to the government. For money. Other businesses—Amazon, Google, your doctor, your insurance company—amass huge amounts of data on us all. We trade this information for convenience, and like many people, I have considered that trade mutually beneficial. If I knew the information might be turned over to government, I would have second thoughts, and I imagine many other people would as well.

For most Americans, Big Brother poses a much greater threat than Osama Bin Ladin.

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