Wake up and Get Real

What a difference a week makes, sunny and warm, Spring has sprung. And with it renewal is in the air, a sense that we Tennesseans are ready to solve our problems and move forward into a great future. But when I make the mistake of turning on the TV, I see another story playing out. These news stories sound like more than a few “bad apples” to me. In the last week, epithets have been hurled, windows have been smashed, cars have been crashed, and now, violent criminals have been arrested and charged with sedition and plotting to use weapons of mass-destruction. Are they illegal aliens, brown skinned terrorists coming from foreign lands to blow us up because they hate our freedom? No. They are born and bred Americans, pale skin, calling themselves Christians, determined to murder law enforcement officers and blow up the funeral’s mourners.

We need to wake up and get real.

We have traditions in this land of ours. Values I call them. They come from our common interests, embodied by the words of our founders. You know them. Say the Pledge of Allegiance to yourself: "...with liberty and justice for all."
Our Declaration of Independence rings true in our minds:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”

But these are not easy values to hold. What happens when people find the easy way more palatable? The way of hate, fear, and unrestrained anger lights the way to violence. These are not America’s values. These are not Tennessee’s values. If you are old enough, you remember for yourself (or if not, I hope you have been taught your history) that we have been through the days of mobs, screaming and spitting, and hurling much more than epithets. They are not days to harken back to in fond memories. We must wake up. We must get real.

Tennesseans work hard every day, all over our communities to heal the old divisions. Build secure, safe homes for ourselves and our loved ones. It is purely nonsense for our politicians, our representatives, and our community leaders to raise the specter of violence in our streets, threaten each other with broken windows, “targets” on our peoples backs, and drunkards careening cars into bumper stickers. What broken promises are we forcing our children to live with? That they will bear the debt of health care reform? Unconscionable lies! Our children already bear the debt, not of future good health, but the debt of unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy to splurge and unpaid for wars for the sons of the common man to fight.

We Tennesseans will not sleep through the challenges that rise in front of us. Instead we will proudly claim the best of our history: the civility, the Southern hospitality, the manners and honor of our land. We will heal the worst of our past: with fairness, with justice for all. We will take pride when we no longer fear our neighbors, but instead sit down with strangers to break bread and go home as friends. We will move with determination into a future of exceptional security, freedom, and prosperity. Get real and join us.

The Lemons are Out to Get Me

I hear that everyone is tired of politics these days. So, let’s us take a break here too. Why not? Spring feels like it’s on the move and now that we’ve all gotten used to the time change, well, there’s a lot of flower beds and bar-b-que grills that need some refreshing. So let me ask my last political question of the day and move on: Is there really a divide between Republicans and Democrats in this country?

Not nearly as huge a chasm as lies between optimists and pessimists. That’s what it all boils down to if you ask me. There’s been a huge trade in pessimism here in America lately. Pessimistic fears and doomsday scenarios attract viewers to all kinds of disaster-junkie TV programs; books about the end of the world span any number of book store sections. Well, that’s the American way I suppose, ratings and profits that feed our appetites aren’t going away.

Pessimists see the glass half empty, we’ve all heard that one, but it appears these days they also think the glass is out to get them! And should the glass be full to overflowing, the pessimist in the crowd denies even a sip to anyone else. What would happen if they suddenly got thirsty themselves and didn’t have enough? Among the most devoted of pessimists, the dominant chord can become so deeply negative that they lose their sense of pride, not just in themselves, but in their country. When everything around you is wrong, and nothing can go right, it’s a sad and scary place to be.

Optimists get a bad rap too. You know, the “cock-eyed optimist,” the Polly-Anna who sugar coats everything and can’t face facts. That’s the kind I hated most when I was a young woman: always seeing the bright side, making lemonade out of lemons, and being driven to cheer everyone up just wasn’t for me. I had no use for it. But one day, too many years ago to admit, I realized that there are some things that hard-bitten skepticism and a worldly bias against silver-linings can’t inoculate you from. When you find yourself up against the knocks only the real world can give, both false cheer and habitual gloom fall away. How many of us have found ourselves in a world of pain, hoping for hope? Slowly realizing that the only way up lies through our own hearts, and our own willingness to start making that lemonade. Slowly the silver linings become easier to find and before you know it, you start to expect good to happen, even when you least expect it. Gratitude is the technical term I believe.

So, long story short, I was redeemed from pessimistic limbo and got so excited that I began considering starting a business making enough lemonade to perk everyone up! Stopped just short of buying the franchise. It was being down that brought me up, and I’d hate to try to steal that experience from anyone.

It’s hard not to be optimistic these days, when flowers and green things are springing out from every spot that used to be drab and brown. But even on the rainy afternoons and during the cold spells, let me simply remind you that you never know what’s just around the corner, and if you’re an optimist, like me, it can make you smile just thinking about it.

A New Spirit of Patriotism

I wrote this column last fall, and it took a reminiscent tone at the time, which makes it doubly retrospective now I suppose. But in light of the victorious passage of the Health Care Legislation, I felt it would serve as a reminder of where we are coming from, the work we have yet to do, and the great potential held in this election year 2010....

“We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people. Yes we can.”
Barack Obama, New Hampshire, January 8, 2008

Time has a way of sneaking up on us. And this fall, some things have really taken me by surprise. October has sped by, spurred by a dizzying combination of Little League, deep family loss, and rare sunny days where the best thing to do was sit silently on the back porch soaking up as much of the sun’s warmth as possible. We’ve been slow to get the decorations out, the pumpkins ready to carve. But I was still caught short when I realized that waiting right around the corner is the 1 year anniversary of Election Day 2008. What a wonderful moment in time! Americans worked around the clock leading up to that day, and our relief when it passed in victory was immense. We could hardy hold ourselves in, filled with wonder that after 8 years of frustration and bedevilment, we were going to be able to take this country in a new and hopeful direction.

And when America’s voters spoke, we also knew it wasn’t the end of anything:

“The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth."
Barack Obama, St Paul, MN June 3, 2008

And now, our work to reclaim our civic duties as Americans has just begun. It was an election like no other, and now it is an administration, a time of keeping promises like no other. I remember other words of Barack Obama’s, stuck in my head from so many various campaign speeches, that I can only paraphrase them here: “I am going to need your help. I can’t do this alone. When we win the Whitehouse, we are going to have to keep working and I am going to turn to you all to do the work."

This was something new, not a campaign promise of rosy-colored-glasses proportions, but a campaign challenge. It rang out to me like the legacy of the famous JFK quote “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

The Obama administration wants nothing more than to see America’s political will restored. Civic responsibility placed back in the hands of the people. Do we want health care reform? We must organize and make our will known. Do we want energy policy that will create jobs, new investments, and a bright prosperous future? Then we must take action and educate. Do we want to see the poor lifted up as Jesus taught us, see middle class families protected, and create a marketplace of justice and true democracy? Then we must get busy envisioning our future and make this world real through our work. Americans, it is the least we can do to give back to this country so great.

“This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.
It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.”
Barack Obama, Chicago, IL Nov 4th, 2008

My Open Letter to Bart Gordon: One More for the Health Care Road

As spring struggles to regain its footing after a winter to remember, Democrats are reawakening, stepping up their involvement in local, statewide, and national issues. This week, though I’ve tried to refocus on the up and coming in my garden and the news, my mind is still very much on the unfinished business of health insurance reform.

So, I am sharing with my readers an open-letter I penned to Congressman Bart Gordon. He’s your Congressman if you live here in Sumner County and if you support health insurance reform, don't let yourself feel outnumbered. He hears from all sides of the issues, and I know he’d like to hear from you too. (Washington202-225-4231 Gallatin 451-5174)

Dear Congressman Gordon,

I'm writing to let you know that I strongly support health insurance reform. But you already know that. I sat with you in your Gallatin office and we talked about how difficult it is for people to understand the complexity and enormity of our current system and the necessity to address it as a whole. We regretted that this is made especially difficult when so many of your constituents have been whipped by fear into incoherence.

I want you to know how grateful I am for your service over the years, and I respect your decision to retire after this session. I have a six year old too; they grow too fast and you shouldn’t miss it.

I'm grateful for all the hard work you’ve done for your constituents, especially when you did what was right despite strong opposition and stood with the President to create as many as 3.9 million jobs with the Recovery Act. That vote alone sets you aside from the Washington Hypocrites that voted to obstruct our Nation’s economic recovery, but attend every ribbon cutting, every job training center opening, and take glory for every bit of that funding flowing into our state and regions directly from this measure.

I know the Health Care Reform Bill that is at hand now is not perfect. The "perfect" bill for some would be a much more aggressive series of changes. The "perfect" for others is to do nothing, no change at all. I would posit that the Do-Nothing crowd has gotten their way long enough. That doing nothing is the perfect choice only for those profiting from business as usual. And doing nothing is what has gotten us to the state we are in: a perfect mess.

I agree with Natoma Canfield, whose private insurance got so expensive that she had to drop it, right before she was diagnosed with leukemia. She said in a TV interview from her hospital bed, "Well, it just seems to me that everything needs a start."

Yes, everything needs a start and health insurance reform in this country needs this start. So now, at the end of your political career that has started so many very very good things, you can set in motion one more lasting legacy for my family, your family, and the rest of your constituents. Vote yes to pass the Health Insurance Reform Bill that is now before you in Congress. Stand with the President, with your party, and with the majority of Americans who voted for the Democrats to start America back on the road to strength, unity, and health.

With Sincere Respect,

Maria Brewer

A Health Care Retrospective

Health care reform is on a trajectory to become reality. When the voters spoke in the fall of 2008, they elected a Democratic President and Democratic majorities to both the US House and Senate. And those majorities are about to represent the will of the people and enact an historic first step to, as our Constitution proclaims, “provide for the common defense, (and) promote the general welfare” of our nation’s most precious resource: the strength and health of our citizens.

For those of us who have been watching the misinformation stream coming out of the Obstructionist’s Party on the right, it has been a head-scratching fight. Though the Republican Party had ten years in the majority to study and pass health care reform legislation to their liking, they did nothing. They continued to let an ever increasing portion of America’s GDP get sucked out of our hides and into the pockets of an industry whose profiteering callousness knows no bounds. Every day American families spend 18% and still rising of our household budgets on healthcare. Well, those of us lucky enough to get it. And now the right’s rallying cry is a weak “Code Red.” Indeed, they have waited until the patient is dying on the table to start their inadequate wails of “save us,” blaming those who are trying to sort through a difficult diagnosis as if we caused the disease.

Health care reform has been in the national spotlight many long months, but frankly, I’m not surprised it has taken so long to get the little distance we’ve come. Our Health Care system has been broken by a long string of policies and strategies that have weakened both our economy and our spirits. In August of last year, I wrote about this issue:

The fact is, Americans are worried about their health. That is a real fear. They worry about their kids getting asthma and autism. They worry about their parents having Alzheimer’s, debilitating arthritis, and strokes. They worry about themselves and the specter of heart disease, diabetes, or cancer. We are proud that America has the most fantastic treatment facilities and cutting edge operating rooms. But we are worried that we won’t have access to those facilities when we need them, and we are trying desperately to hang on to what we have. Or what we think we have.

Of course, it hasn’t helped America a bit that in order to gain political advantage, the Republican Party has given up all pretense of honest policy debate and dissolved itself into a mire of hypocrisy and paranoia. Their fanciest trick has been to turn Americans against each other. As we watched the town-halls of August, complete with their choreographed protests and anti-democratic mobs I wrote in this column:

When people are angry at their own government, in a self- governing country, it betrays a level of self-loathing that should not go untreated. .. We have real problems to solve ... Can government ever be the answer? Can government ever help us? Or should we always rely on our family, church, and good luck for answers when life becomes more than an individual can bear alone. The whole conversation takes off from such an unbearably misguided conceit: that we have no power in creating and directing the government and so should fear it. This is an illusion that has been brought on by something. Could it be an engineered state, designed by the corporations that profit off of a distracted and disgusted populace?

Now, as the Congress readies itself to pass legislation, we must look past the hype, the media moment of the day, the manufactured winners and losers of the horse race. No one thinks this legislation is perfect, but the Republican Party needs to start telling the truth about this issue. There is no time to start over, they had their chance, and they lost their majorities.

Perhaps we have reached the end of one battle, but this is really just another step on the long path of liberty and justice for all. Thanks to our Founding Fathers, we are no longer yoked by fealty to King or Crown, but my how the Framers would be appalled by our bent knees before the throne of Corporatism and Profiteering.

I will close the way I closed my column in October of last year, because the job is not done:

So, I hope you don’t blame me when I rub my eyes and wonder what’s coming around the corner, and hope it’s the shape of democracy. I hope that you’ll join me as I make those phone calls to Congress and spill out my 5 seconds of support for health care reform, or forward an encouraging email, or hold a hand painted sign next to a waving American flag.

Now it is We the People’s turn, and bit by bit, this country will turn back to unity and together we will renew the cause of liberty. We must take this first step toward a just and patriotic health care system as a call to all Americans to wake up and smell the coffee!

Dear Mr Baker

To the CEO of Hospitality Association, Mr. Walt Baker who forwarded an email comparing First Lady Michele Obama to a chimpanzee...

I don't care about what you are. I care about what you did.



(The silver lining to this is that I get to share that video.)

Walt Baker's marketing firm has been fired by The Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau. Yes, Mr Baker is the kind of business leader who got big contracts to make Nashville seem like a welcoming and hospitable place, while at the same time sending out racist emails as an inside political jab "... in the spirit of having some fun with some close friends."

It's not the first time that dehumanizing racist materials, used as a political bludgeon meant to erode power and cultivate hate, have brought Tennessee the national spotlight. The email that was forwarded from Republican State Sen. Diane Black's office was described by it's sender as a mistake. "I inadvertently hit the wrong button," the sender was quoted as saying. "I'm very sick about it, and it's one of those things I can't change or take back." How human it is to regret being caught being ourselves. I still can't stop asking the question I asked last June: who is on the right list?

But instead, let's focus on the bottom line that affects us all.

In 2008, Tennessee's tourism generated a $14.4 billion economic impact to the state's economy. More than 182,300 Tennesseans are now employed in the state's tourism industry.

Meditate not on the inner heart of these people, but on their actions. In economic times such as these, can Tennessee afford to cultivate a niche market of racism that hangs like a "whites only" sign above our tourism and hospitality industry?

Mr Baker: it's not what you are, it's what you did.

You can give a starving man a fish, or you can give him a fishing pole and teach him how to fish…. That’s the classic saying about investing in the future. Some things are a one-time benefit, some keep giving back. Two recent local news items that caught my attention brought this to mind. The first, an investment in broadband internet access for rural parts of Sumner County; the second, the installation of a new Heating and Cooling system at City Hall and the Police Department in Hendersonville.

The new HVAC units sitting on top of the Hendersonville City Hall are a perfect example of an investment that keeps giving back. Paid for wholly with stimulus dollars, these high efficiency units are an excellent long term investment in our infrastructure. Would City leaders have put borrowing money to buy these units at the top of their priority list? Certainly not in this time of layoffs and diminishing City services. But the benefit of this grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is that we will reap savings month after month in reduced energy bills, easing the City’s budget and perhaps helping to retain a job or service for our City.

Sadly, certain forces of monetary interest and political malaise continue to work steadily to pit Americans against each other and many would have us believe that the stimulus money that paid for this grant are a sign of the evil in politics and the first steps on a dangerous path where Americans have mortgaged our children’s future for temporary political gain. We should all be grateful that the public servants who applied for this grant didn’t see it that way. Yes, the ARRA is money borrowed against our future. But you cannot boil the state of our economy down into such a simplistic and misleading view. If you feel you cannot relate, ask yourself: how many times do families choose to go into debt in order to save money, or provide for a better future for ourselves? Our homes, our children’s college educations, even the braces for their teeth are often financed on the idea that the future will be more prosperous and more secure if we make this investment now.

Take the decision to buy a car. Even if you have cared for your auto well, there still usually comes a time when continued maintenance, repairs, and the replacement of major systems make you feel like you are buying a whole new car one piece at a time, minus the new car smell. Projected years of repairs cost more than the future of the car is worth. Not to mention this risk of driving a break down hazard. At that point it becomes wiser to take the thousands of dollars that would be spent on new parts and labor, and invest that money in a newer vehicle, with years of repair free performance banked under the hood. Whether your family has budgeted and has cash waiting to buy the car outright, or whether, like the majority of us here in Hendersonville, you carry a car note, it was still wiser to invest in the new car, than to throw good money after bad.

And here we have Hendersonville’s new HVAC system funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Whether this stimulus was financed with a budgetary surplus, or unfortunately with debt, it was still a wiser choice to invest in our future savings than to continue throwing away money and energy at the City Hall month after month. Not to mention keeping and creating jobs to prevent our economy from taking a total nosedive. Imagine if you kept on driving that old car until an axle broke or the transmission gave out on the interstate. How safe would your family feel as the 18 Wheelers whizzed by and the steering suddenly quit working? That’s the state our economy will be in if don’t continue to invest in our future.

Believe me, I’m not advocating trading in a perfectly good 2 year old vehicle for the shiniest new bauble on the lot. As the driver of a 2000 Ford Wagon “Mom-mobile” complete with Kroger stickers on the window and tornado scars on the door panels, I understand the value of making a conservative decision. We paid cash for the Taurus as a low mileage used car the year my son was born, and it is sticking with me.

My child’s future is of the utmost importance to me, that’s why I have decried the predictable and proven disastrous economic policies of the Republican Party. One has only to look at the 8 years of the Bush Administration, to see that we elect Republicans to get us into trouble, and elect Democrats when it’s time to get out of trouble. A fine mess we’ve been gotten into, and if you, like me, are the type that likes to participate in your government, you might want to ask yourself a few questions as you listen to the common wisdom about the debt and the stimulus. Did you support the Bush Administration with your vote, your money, or your time, W sticker proudly emblazoned? Then maybe you need to take a moment to think through your responsibility for the trillions of dollars in debt that built up over those 8 years and see if you have any lessons to learn, before you attack the democratically elected President who is working to right this ship, and the policies of the Party that knows how to create a surplus.

Decoder Rings or Shiny Pennies

Back in the golden days of civic participation (the kind that wasn’t tainted with moralistic vitriol, conspiracy theories run amok, and a mass media hoodwinking of the public) everyone lined the edge of the parade route, children perched on dad’s shoulders, waving their little American flags, Moms standing at the ready with their picnic baskets of apple pie and Coca Cola.

Maybe that’s a Norman Rockwell print I saw at my grandparents once, people full of pride, bursting with All-American goodness. It seems to be how we remember ourselves, but not how we think of ourselves today.

What happened? Even if we didn’t live through it, we grasp enough recent history to sense the difference in mood. Just look at the news of that time: from coverage of the moon-walk, to coverage of political assassinations, embattled school-houses, and White House resignations. Now my Grandfather was a Walter Cronkite kind of guy. He knew the issues, took it seriously; was a poll worker on Election Day. And when cable TV news started running all day long during the twilight of his retirement years, he ate it up with a spoon. He held on to the idea that the more information, the better. He trusted the news, believed that people walked on the moon.

But the world kept on spinning and news departments became profit making infotainment centers and “fair and balanced” became the call letters for the Bush Bureau of Misinformation.

These days, some Americans wonder if we really did land on the moon. You know the original footage is missing from the archive, right? It says so on the internet. We seem to have lost our decoder ring of factual truth. But the world is turning again. We are entering a renewed stage of civic participation. And people are figuring out what’s real again.

Reality has wedged its way into our everyday lives in the form of gas price spikes, oddly transforming seasons, healthcare that goes down the drain with lost jobs, and a deficit gifted to the new president like a blanket tainted with smallpox.

It’s time for us all to take a hand in fixing the problems of our day, step up, speak out, and make a difference. We’re not in it to rage with anger or lash out in fear. We are building a community of freedom loving, patriotic people who will work to make the future a hopeful and more prosperous place for our children. And yours. Sure, people can try to fault me for being a partisan. Much blame for today’s nasty political scene gets thrown at the boogie man of partisanship. But there’s nothing wrong with being a Democrat, or with being a Republican, like my CNN watching Grandfather was.

There is something wrong though, in vilifying everything that crosses your path as a matter of mere political strategy, and there are some “non-partisans” out there sinking to depths that even Republicans find intolerable.

This dehumanizing of the opposition hurts all Americans, crushing the civic participation once shared by Americans of every stripe. This is today’s backlash: citizens taking action, but fueled by old hatreds, new fears and worst of all, faux solutions.

It does nothing to strengthen our democracy or solve our problems to claim to be a shiny penny bright and new, yelling, "It’s the other guy" who tarnishes everything. So, next time you hear a lie parading as the truth, or a simple explanation, backed up by a way-out conspiracy theory, speak up, don’t turn away. Get out your decoder ring and get to work. You’ve been invited to participate, don’t miss the real party.