Original Poetry

Inauguration Day
by maria Brewer

Stretching dreams Pop into reality
and breathe deep. The air of now.
Grunting, emerging, we blink.
Anticipating beauty in the new expectation of fresh wisdom.
Layers of caring, and percolating joy, and
deep strength surge and we
Rush forward to meet the calm:
the sprout that pushes through the soil,
the Beginning.

The American Dream is a noble ideal: equality and reward for hard work. Establishing values like fairness, independence, and empowerment, Americans have long sacrificed to better themselves. But in America, we have always dreamed of bringing along our communities: our palaces have been our public schools; our monuments not towering statues unless surrounded by broad public parks and playgrounds; our legacy is ensconced in public libraries, common thoroughfares, and rural electrification projects. As America grew in wealth, so rose our great middle class, all together as boats in a tide of public pride and progress. Today’s public pride is privatized, the middle class carved up with it: contracted out to the no-bid crony, with greed riding rough-shot over civic duty or service.

Take the 1.8b tax cut for Corporations in MI. A gift from Republican Governor Rick Snyder, courtesy of increasing taxes on old people & poor children's families. So the corporations can create jobs? Only if wages drop below poverty level and destroy the middle class. No weekends, no vacations, not a better life for our children. But that's nothing new. That economy "thrives" in shanty-towns all over the globe. The question for America is: do you relate to the middle class American Dream that is being destroyed? Or do you relate to an over-class living in a secure compound it calls home? If we start to aspire only to a gated ruling-class lifestyle, then our despotic future is here.

Greed has overwhelmed our dreams of community. Paranoia has made scapegoats out of teachers, enemies out of neighbors, terrorists out of worshippers. We citizens have taken our freedom for granted. Now we realize that we are only as free as we demand to be. Power, whether of kings, despots, or petty tyrants, whether monarchists or corporatists, has never given anything without a demand, not once. Unless we demand our liberty, we will not have it. Unless we demand our right to public education, to public infrastructures that better us all, to a just and equitable society, we will not have it.

Some elected officials act like winning an election is winning a crown to be queen or king for a day, or a even a legislative session. One of our Sumner County, TN Representatives is Debra Maggart, sponsor of the bill to outlaw Teacher’s Rights to bargain for safe and effective working conditions. Sadly, she has used her positions, both as our public servant and as Executive Director of the non-profit group Compass, to further her own self-serving goals, no matter whose privacy she invades or guidelines she breaks. In an email response to a citizen recently she sought input on the “Radical Right Master Plan.” An un-American plan that would presumably install a rich ruling class in perpetual security, while the rest of us only aspire to rise to the level of a middle class that no longer exists.

We deserve accountability from our representatives even after they have won an election. We don’t elect dictators, we elect servants. How many of our leaders have forgotten that our consent isn’t a one-time event.

Original Poetry

To-Do List
by Maria Brewer

Be radiant
Always find connection
Burn through limits
Remain out of control
Demand the room to laugh
Have awe for the infinity that fills creation
Sanctify the utter void it springs from
Transfigure self, standing on the cusp of both

Take a Lunch with Democracy

Today is going to be Rally day on the steps of the Tennessee State House downtown. People are coming from all over Tennessee to be heard by their state legislators. And it's going to be live streamed at the website http://march15.info/

What's the use of a rally? Well, haven't you heard? This is What Democracy Looks Like.

Devastation comes in small packages as well...

Since Friday's disaster in Japan began, we Americans have watched its unfolding. So far away, yet so close at hand; unimaginably vast disaster striking a society so much like our own. Many of the photos are of an unimaginable scale. The stuff of our civilization made wholly uncivil and unrecognizable.













Unlike most of the pictures from Japan, this picture of baby and mother being checked for radiation holds a kind of devastation we can't see. I'm not a nuclear power fear-monger, but I am a realist. We can do better. If we don't, it shouldn't be because profit-making corporations ruled our world and stole our potential.
These pictures comes from the NY Times photo record of the Japanese earthquake/Tsunami/radiation disaster.

At Risk: Our Children, Our Teachers.

Your family works together to take care of each other. Your children deserve a community that works together to create a prosperous, competitive future. When politicians turn on that community, we see the result of electing radicals to office. The Tennessee Legislature returns this week dominated by such radical conservatives, bent on destroying the middle class that elected them. Two bills that would disastrously harm our communities have turned heads here at home, because the victims would be among our most vulnerable: our school children.

SB102 removes the right of the professional teaching community to elect teacher representatives to the Board of Trustees of the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System. Teachers have every right to be involved in decision making regarding their hard- earned retirement benefits: it’s their money, earned honestly. This bill weakens the teachers’ voice, making seats on the Retirement Board into plum political appointments. HB 130/SB 113 is a bill that would completely repeal the Tennessee Professional Negotiations Act. This bill would silence the voice of teachers regarding all aspects of employment, including working conditions, salaries, and benefits. But remember, working conditions for teachers equal learning conditions for our children.

The Legislature can be a down-right confounding place, but one thing is crystal clear: when our leaders are willing to sell-out our children’s futures, traditional values have gone AWOL. They've been replaced by fear, fed by politicians willing to scapegoat large groups of American citizens for wanting one of our most precious American institutions: representation. Our teachers and children will pay the price. And why? Why in the world shouldn't we pay fairly for teachers? I’ve loved every one of my son’s teachers; they have been among the most dedicated, loving, and talented people I have ever met, and not a penny over-paid. But even had they not been stellar, how would taking away benefits, having less job security, no pension, and no voice improve the situation? We have to keep our American values and priorities in sight: our future lies in our children and we need great teachers for them. And we get what we pay for.

Without the ability to negotiate fairly for themselves, teachers will be left to the mercy of government bureaucracies. If Sumner County won’t pay our hard-working teachers decently, we will gut the future prosperity of our county, undercutting our competitive edge, making us the losers, unable to grow our economy with new business. Now broaden your view: Sumner County Public Schools is the county’s single largest employer. Our county budget depends not on how little we pay our teachers, but on our sales tax revenues. Restricting the money spent here in our home county on groceries, clothes, movies, household goods, by the largest group of people living and working here is indeed cutting our own throats.

These are the pragmatic reasons we should support our teachers. But there’s also this: we all want to share in a proud public school experience that pulls our community together and gives our children memories for a lifetime. Children of all incomes have the same right to an education and our county has the solemn obligation to provide the education that every child deserves. Universal educational opportunity is the defining feature of equitable, modern and competitive societies. All the children of Sumner County have the right to a high quality educational opportunity. That opportunity should not hinge on their parents’ income. If it does, we will take ourselves back in time to a nobility class, lording over the rest of us commoners, whose education simply needs to be good enough to serve the rich. Our founding fathers believed that America is about much more than that, and so do you.

Sadly, radical conservatives are merely delivering on their promises. Representative Debra Maggart was all but invisible here at home during her recent re-election. She spent more time campaigning for leadership among other politicians than talking to voters at home. Now she’s leading the radical movement to gut our state’s middle class; slapping a quality public education out of the hands of our children, and cutting the throats of the dedicated stalwarts of the middle class, our teachers. Instead of representing her hard working constituents, Maggart’s allegiance lies with an authoritarian mind-set. A kind of thinking that sacrifices real people on an altar of ideological rigor. Why inflict this violence on our community? Debra Maggart leads the movement to punish those whose political goals clash with her own, regardless of the suffering of innocents. The blunt lies being told about our teachers and their right to representation hurt us all. Our children, from poorest to richest deserve a great education and our teachers have the right to security, respect, and most importantly, a voice.

HR3: the Rapist Right to Inseminate their Victims bill

Welcome to the brave new Congress, where rapists and pedophiles will be happy to note that the campaign to reinstate their long-eroded right to inseminate their victims no longer falls on deaf ears.

The GOP's Plan to Redefine Rape

Some things are so unbelievable that it's hard not to fall into the defensive position of satire.

taken from the American Century for Inseminationist Rights lobbying newsletter:

Rape not Yet in the Clear

The new law is not without some caveats. The new Republican dominated Congress has decided that the decades-old ban on "roughing up" your victim will stand. The new standard that rapists and pedophiles will need to acquaint themselves with will be "forcible rape." This new definition of rape opens up an avenue of non-forcible rape for the RAP (rapists and pedophiles) community to explore. While Statutory Rape remains illegal, the adult seducers of young girls will be secure knowing that this new kinder, gentler rape means their progeny has a chance. Even though most likely incarcerated (the pre-born constitute a particularly viable genetic evidence trail), a rapist or pedophile who successfully inseminates their victim won't be the only one sentenced. Underage rape victims without financial means will no longer be eligible for pregnancy termination under Medicare, unless they can meet the undefined new "Forcible Rape" standard. Clearly, it lies in the hands of adult predators to navigate this tricky gray area.

Date Rape Baby Boom

Expectations run high for serial acquaintance-rapists. While regularly hidden in the so-called "gender-role confusion" community, rapists who formerly limited their enthusiasm to taking their victims by surprise when they switch out of their "nice guy who paid for dinner" persona to assume their "she wants it rough" demeanor, are feeling empowered to set higher goals. "I've always wanted to be a dad," states one convicted rapist, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The 6 months probation I served after my last rape conviction didn't take my heart out of it, but I felt I'd been there, done that. Now with fatherhood on the horizon, all I have to do is find the right impoverished hottie and I can become a baby-daddy. With privileges."

Satire off. //

The devil is in the details, and apparently in these legislators hearts. Rape is evil. Purposely creating a society where rapists rights are more important that the victim's is abhorrent. Why do these radical conservatives love rapists so much? I know. Apparently to these minds, unless a woman is battered, broken, and otherwise physically harmed in ADDITION to having her innermost self violated, it's not heinous enough to warrant their notice. Children who are seduced by pedophiles, women who are drugged and raped while unconscious, women whose bodies go into shock and paralysis under trauma, who don't come out with broken ribs, concussions, and savage rips: these are all cases of rape that could be described without the word "forcible." This law would say that all these women and children, their spirits and bodies and futures, their individual liberty and right to own their own decisions, are less important than the sperm a rapist would inseminate them with. We have to say no to this. No one wants to hear about rape, but we can't go backwards. Why do these radical conservatives love rape so much?

Sign petition here
Stop HR3: the Rapist's Right to Inseminate Victims bill.

Check out my new Congressman, send her a note and ask:
Why do radical conservatives love rapists & pedophiles so much? Diane Black, you owe your grand-daughter an answer.

A fascinating way to look at the numbers.

Now Democrats, what do you want to do with this information?

What does watching this video essay make you think about? Does it make you want to hold a sign that says “Stop War” on a street corner? Does it make you want to present facts and debate with people who don’t seem to think worldwide sanitation or the rest of these super important things are important? Maybe it makes you want to join the Peace Corp and dig wells. That is all great. Really. Mean it.

But what it makes me think about is, how the hell can the moral rightness of implementing these programs even be questioned? How do we live in a world that is so smart, but so dumb? As part of the reality-based community, this is what we have to face, and figure out how to transform…

So, let’s think together about the underlying connection between the “less expensive” programs. What kind of thinking has relegated these empowering and humanitarian programs to the “less important than weapons” part of our collective political brain? (Now is where some of us will begin to posit vast right-wing conspiracies.) The point made by the video is that if we weren’t spending 1600 black-flagged billions on war, we could afford the good stuff. And I bet most of “us” see the implicit rightness of that premise, and see it so strongly that we under-appreciate the importance of carrying that moral rightness into all our arguments. And, because of this, the reality of today’s politics is that we do not accurately analyze how it is possible that this moral rightness has lost the policy war all over our globe. Over & over we lose our moral authority to be convincing in policy details and segment our thinking into rational arguments for implementation. All that would be great stuff, if the 316 rainbow-flagged billions in the video are ever allocated to be spent.

How do we get it to happen? How do we change minds? This is the question we must answer. Not just explain why it should happen.

What we can no longer afford is to splinter our minds into specific cases involving myriad policy decisions. We have to see that the common factor linking all these programs is empathy and empowerment. When we spend these billions on people, we are consistent with a morality that values humanity. And we must begin to find ways to communicate these moral values and reinforce this way of thinking. Without these fundamentals, we cannot make the changes we know are needed.

Thought Control is a Reality in Arizona

Just reading a bit from the Christian Science Monitor and reported by Truth-out.
2011 meet your brave new world.

The law bans classes that promote the overthrow of the United States government and resentment toward a race or class of people. Also outlawed are courses designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group and those that advocate ethnic solidarity rather than treat students as individuals.

How do we, in a free and open society, make the study of ANYTHING illegal?? Is this about immigration, or is it about the continued attack on our personal freedom? Apparently, many Americans no longer understand what personal freedom means. Do you understand how the principles enshrined in our founding documents must be applied in order to protect our liberty?

Of all the words I quoted in the above description of the Arizona law in question, the basic premise that must be fought with all our strength is the fact that "the law bans classes." We can discuss, debate, explore, expose, protest, advocate to our wits end all the issues surrounding immigration, racism, economic and security policy. Yes, of course.

But how can any American with a shred of respect for our constitution and open society think that it is allowable to ban a scholarly study or academic course? Arizona's elected officials are literally legislating thought control. Think about it, while you still can.

Starting off the new decade sounds a little like this inside my head....

I guess it is just human nature, but most people take a "don't argue with a crazy person" attitude when they see another human that doesn't make sense. It seems like that is back-firing, as more & more people think that radical (and factually incorrect) points of view are normal. I think we really haven't adjusted as a society (or species) to the amplifying nature of media in our culture.

It is all about perspective. I picture a seed: planted in the soil, germinating, ready to sprout and break through the earth's crust. Whether that is good or bad depends on your POV. Are we ready to grow and transform? Or are we standing at the edge of a gaping fissure waiting to fall into blackness?

I don't think we need a 3rd party. But we do need a strong movement that defines itself outside of party and influences the process. And it better be aimed at a long term shift in thinking.

What We Need Now More Than Ever… Community

In the last two weeks, communities all over Tennessee have been rocked by a widespread, almost slow-motion disaster. Flood waters rising and falling have left their muddy trail, high water marks 10, 15, 20 feet up in the trees. As I drive by the hollowed-out shells of what were warm and inviting homes a mere mile from my own, I see the world from the perspective of the water. Its nature unstoppable, always seeking its own level, flowing and filling regardless of what stands in its way. People, cars, roads, houses, trees, even mountains yield to water. Like a giant game of rock, paper, scissors: whether a rushing flow or in standing feet, water always get the last slap.

Today the shelters continue to live up to their name, water is still being distributed, food brought to families without kitchens. Clothing drives, volunteer demolition teams, cleaning supplies collected, each community brings its resources together and shares them: time, compassion, labor, food, love. I’m enthused by the unity, by the single-minded mandate: help each other.

And I hope, as we so often do, that it lasts. That as the waters recede, compassion and generosity do not recede with it. That as the homes are rebuilt, we do not rebuild our divisions and our distrust. For apparently there are those who still cling to their resentment as if it were a life raft in swift water. Those who refuse to be shaken awake, even by Interstates made rivers, malls and hotels made lakes, and homes made piles of mud & timbers. When I read emails comparing our flood to Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, I shudder, hoping that it won’t actually take over 1800 lives lost for Tennesseans to fully understand why Katrina was far, far worse than our flood. Because if even this tragic flood that took 23 precious lives in Tennessee alone, over 30 in the region, that has put so many of us on equally desperate footing, can be used to march forward an agenda of fear and anger, then there truly is no bridge too far.

But, I have a deep faith in the power of transformation, and in the power of water. It’s not until something happens to wake us from our routines, when roads are cut off, when power is out, phone service spotty, or water is limited, that we see what we have truly lost: our connectedness to each other. We live in a great illusion that we are independent in our daily lives. Yet we don’t know what we’ve got until it’s gone. We are all connected, interdependent, and that is what makes us strong. Our society, our laws, our culture, our ways all feed us and clothe us and let us make our way. Our common humanity grants us our liberty. One by one, people will discover that fact. I know that the weeks and months to come will be life changing for so many. In the months following my closest brush with disaster, the tornado that skipped over my son and I as we huddled on a neighbor’s front porch, I watched how the world changed before my eyes: my priorities shifted, my sense of gratitude deepened, and my willingness to listen to others, to value my relationships near and far, expanded.

We are given a great opportunity to renew our spirits, to rekindle our sense of belonging, not in a narrow, self-interested way, but in a broad sense of community-mindedness. In the midst of the communal upheaval we have all shared, a friend of mine suffered a tragic personal loss. Just today he said: “Sometimes things happen to you at the time that may seem horrible, painful and unfair, but in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realized your potential, strength, will power or heart. And so life trudges on.”
We will all trudge on.

Just WHO Are They Listening To?

According to a very recent Pew poll, people are madder at the government than ever, but if you ask me, dissatisfaction has never been a rare phenomenon. What I did find very interesting was this fact:

“While the public is wary of too much government involvement with the economy,” the Pew study says, “it suspends that concern when it comes to stricter regulation of major financial companies. A clear majority (61%) says it is a good idea for the government to more strictly regulate the way major financial companies do business….”

That’s good news. It means that a common sense approach to Wall Street regulatory reform should sail through the Congress. Now that’s getting something accomplished the American way! But wait…

Why have 41 Republican Senators already written a letter stating opposition to the Wall Street Regulation bill? Doesn’t sound like they are listing to their constituents, does it? Or maybe it’s their corporate constituents, the ones that finance their huge campaign war chests, which have their ear. Maybe it’s the influence of banking industry lobbyists who greatly outnumber our elected representatives who are drowning out the voice of We the People.

I know this; it's time to hold these big banks accountable. Accountable to the nation whose strength allows them to prosper, and to the people whose character and hard work create the strength of this nation. We must establish the strongest consumer protections in this country's history, ensuring that taxpayers will never have their arms twisted like this again; forced to bail out irresponsible tycoons and fraudsters living lives of unconscionable waste at the expense of everyone else. We can no longer afford to pay tribute to the few who sap our country’s strength for their own narrow special interests.

I stand with President Obama to:

• Create the strongest consumer protections in history so that Americans always get the information they need to make smart financial decisions; and

• Rein in Wall Street abuses, hold the big banks accountable, and ensure that taxpayers never again have to bail them out; and

• Prevent lobbyist loopholes or exemptions from weakening reform.

Take action today to speak out about Wall Street Reform, demand it.

The President puts it best and I will close with his words and a call to action:

“It has now been well over a year since the near collapse of our entire financial system that cost the nation more than 8 million jobs. To this day, hard-working families struggle to make ends meet.

We've made strides -- businesses are starting to hire, Americans are finding jobs, and neighbors who had given up looking are returning to the job market with new hope. But the flaws in our financial system that led to this crisis remain unresolved.

Wall Street titans still recklessly speculate with borrowed money. Big banks and credit card companies stack the deck to earn millions while far too many middle-class families, who have done everything right, can barely pay their bills or save for a better future.

We cannot delay action any longer. It is time to hold the big banks accountable to the people they serve, establish the strongest consumer protections in our nation's history -- and ensure that taxpayers will never again be forced to bail out big banks because they are "too big to fail."

That is what Wall Street reform will achieve, why I am so committed to making it happen, and why I'm asking for your help today.

Please stand with me to show your support for Wall Street reform.

We know that without enforceable, commonsense rules to check abuse and protect families, markets are not truly free. Wall Street reform will foster a strong and vibrant financial sector so that businesses can get loans; families can afford mortgages; entrepreneurs can find the capital to start a new company, sell a new product, or offer a new service.

Consumer financial protections are currently spread across seven different government agencies. Wall Street reform will create one single Consumer Financial Protection Agency -- tasked with preventing predatory practices and making sure you get the clear information, not fine print, needed to avoid ballooning mortgage payments or credit card rate hikes.

Reform will provide crucial new oversight, give shareholders a say on salaries and bonuses, and create new tools to break up failing financial firms so that taxpayers aren't forced into another unfair bailout. And reform will keep our economy secure by ensuring that no single firm can bring down the whole financial system.

With so much at stake, it is not surprising that allies of the big banks and Wall Street lenders have already launched a multi-million-dollar ad campaign to fight these changes. Arm-twisting lobbyists are already storming Capitol Hill, seeking to undermine the strong bipartisan foundation of reform with loopholes and exemptions for the most egregious abusers of consumers.

I won't accept anything short of the full protection that our citizens deserve and our economy needs. It's a fight worth having, and it is a fight we can win -- if we stand up and speak out together.

So I'm asking you to join me, starting today, by adding your name as a strong supporter of Wall Street reform:

http://my.barackobama.com/StandForWallStreetReform

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

Defenders of Liberty Declare Tolerance Will Not Be Tolerated

When the Tea Party protests began last year, I’ll buy the idea that they grew spontaneously and naturally, their dissenting nature drawing them to the institutions of government. Namely, the parking lot in front of Hendersonville City Hall (long known as a hotbed of communist sympathizers and baby-killing Nazis, right?) where hundreds of disgruntled Republicans, disappointed in their Nov 2008 tromping at the polls gathered to stretch their First Amendment rights to complain at their government on April 15th 2009.

But wait, fast-forward to 2010. The spontaneous Tea Party movement in Sumner County has become the SURG, a highly organized, well nourished group whose main diet consists of John Birch newsletters, old Ron Paul Revolution signs, a sprinkling of kerosene to taste (just in case anyone feels an itch to burn something), and a high gloss frosting of pig’s lipstick. As advertised, the Tax Day Tea Party of 2010 includes fun booths for the kiddies, an essay contest for High Schoolers, restaurant sponsors hawking food, and supposedly, sound stages fit for a music super-star. Great I say. Hendersonville has no lack of municipal parks that anyone can reserve, provided they are sufficiently organized to safely adhere to the City’s regulations for use of public facilities.

But after being offered numerous parks locations and rejecting them because of their lack of proximity to Main Street, the SURG brain trust decided to have their event (I’m sure out of deep nostalgia) in the same City Hall Parking lot as last year. And when they requested a permit for the parking lot, law abiding and upstanding that they are, did they get one? No. Parking lots are public property, but not event facilities. To the extent that anyone can gather on public property, they are of course exercising their multitude of First Amendment rights : the right to freedom of speech, the right peaceably to assemble, and the right, perhaps most precious, to petition the government for redress of grievances. (Though what Hendersonville City Hall can do to repeal Health Care or stop the Bail Out, with their stimulus-money-air-conditioners sitting on the roof, I know not. But I get it: symbolism. Check.)

But to the extent that they gather on public property without a permit, they are beholden to the same laws as anyone else. And here is where it gets Rich, as in John Rich, the show-stopping music-star-cum-political-scion extraordinaire head-lining the infotainment portion of the program. How do you suppose the city and its citizens would look on it if you & I decided to show up some evening, set up a sound system and start blasting music, speeches, and so on? How about if we opened up a little food stand selling Barbeque in the median of a busy street, or on any grassy knoll the city mows? How about if we invite a few thousand people, Woodstock style, to an “impromptu” gathering? Well, you answer, we’d be shut down, asked to move on, fined, at the very least.

But you know what? Who cares, right? This is a movement! A liberty loving, all American, red-blooded, constitutionally approved event! And, card carrying Civil Liberties lover that I am, who am I to stand in the way of the First Amendment rights of any member of We the People? Agree or disagree, I will defend your right to say what you think hands down, no holds barred. And hey, I’m key instigator of my own event anyway, the Sumner County Democratic Party Civility Dinner (ya’ll come! Course we are having it at a privately owned community center that we have properly attained permission to use, but that’s beside the point.) So far be it for me to hypocritically criticize or mock the size, scope, purpose, or process of another political group’s event. So party on, Tea People!

Except then, there’s this in the paper from Tea Party marketer Matt Moynihan:

Just try and crash us
A group called CrashtheTea Party.org is the latest group of liberals doing its best to take down our movement. They claim to represent "a nationwide network of Democrats, Republicans and Independents who are all sick and tired of that loose affiliation of racists, homophobes and morons; who constitute the fake grassroots movement, which calls itself 'the Tea Party.'"
Their plan is to infiltrate Tea Party protests to create the false impression that protesters are racists by… being racists. Yes, they will bring with them offensive and misspelled signs and try to give wildly offensive interviews to reporters, all with the intention of smearing a movement that would never bring those signs or give those interviews themselves. We’ve seen them before. If you are there tomorrow night, you will not be tolerated and you will be called out on the spot and asked to leave.

So, true to their mob rule mentality, not only is the Tea Party in Sumner County bluntly stating that dissenting voices will not be tolerated, they’re also attempting to erect a defense around the indefensible. So if anyone sees anything remotely stupid, offensive, or malign it isn’t the Tea Party doing it, oh no! It’s the 6 foot invisible rabbit in their midst, or maybe it’s aliens, no that’s silly! Wait, I got it: of course, it’s the Liberals did it! (In true Tea Party style let me simply ask, how do WE know THEY didn’t make that web site up themselves, hmmmm???)

Tea Party, please. You just ask all the racists and all the people holding misspelled signs to leave, and keep your group nice and pure, just the real Americans, just the real patriots. Stay nourished by the bile of your incendiary, hate-filled leaders, while the rest of America shakes their head in disgust and tries to remember the country their parents and grand-parents taught them to be proud of. But Hendersonville, when you are slogging your way home from work tonight or if you are trying to get to the Post Office on time to mail those taxes, just remember: if the traffic is at a stand-still and the grid-lock is making you pull your hair out, the Tea Party did it.

There is Only an American Problem

“And there's something 'bout the Southland in the springtime
Where the waters flow with confidence and reason
Though I miss her when I'm gone it won't ever be too long
Till I'm home again to spend my favorite season
When God made me born a yankee he was teasin'
There's no place like home and none more pleasin'
Than the Southland in the springtime”
-the Indigo Girls

I’ve lived in Tennessee longer than I’ve lived anywhere else, almost longer than I’ve lived everywhere else combined. (Oh how time does fly!) This is my home, where I’ve always been made welcome. This is the place where I’ve chosen as an adult to build my life, grow my family, and contribute to my community. And I’m proud to be here. Proud of this land, these people, and the heritage that I have immersed myself in; I know that this beautiful, rich, diverse part of the country is a jewel, a treasure that we share.

I’ve never cared for the scape-goating that Southerners get in the national culture. Especially in politics. It just isn’t true that the South is a lost cause to Democrats, or that Tennessee has become a Red State because of the so-called social issues. The “God, Guns, and Gays” trope is so often quoted by the media that it becomes common wisdom. But I know so many wonderful Christians who would never agree with Glen Beck’s twisted version of the Gospels, and so many Democrats who have gun carry permits, and so many Republicans who welcome their LGBT family members, that I just don’t think we are as divided as the political power brokers would have us believe.

It’s too bad that old stereotypes and out-dated divisions get in the way of the progress that I know myself and my neighbors want to share in: prosperity, education, healthcare, security, and the promise of all that for our children’s children, not just our selves. It’s a deep-shame that what threatens our children’s inheritance of Democracy and keeps us bound in knots of dissent is political expedience. A people who are fighting among themselves are weakened and kept at the fringes, while those who are represented by ideas, compromise, and the common rule of law are empowered and made the center piece of their own governance. This is the beauty of what the founders built into our Nation’s core: We the People.

On March 16th, 1965, during a time more brutal and incendiary than today, a Southern politician moved us into a new political era, choosing to forego the political expediency of dividing the people of this great country and instead asking us all to unite in moral and Constitutional righteousness. His words will give us courage again, and much wisdom to ponder:

“There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans -- not as Democrats or Republicans. We are met here as Americans to solve that problem.

This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: "All men are created equal," "government by consent of the governed," "give me liberty or give me death." Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives.

Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man's possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being. To apply any other test -- to deny a man his hopes because of his color, or race, or his religion, or the place of his birth is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom.”

-President Lyndon Johnson

A Special Invitation for You

This week I’m going to do something special. There’s an event coming up that I don’t want you to miss just because you didn’t hear about it. It’s going to be your chance to show, in the simplest of terms, what being a proud Tennessean is all about. You see, it won’t matter how many hundreds of people are there, or what super duper music star shows up. It won’t matter what grand-standing VIPs queue up to the microphone or how many TV-cult philosophies are spouted. We’re going to keep it simple. This year on tax day, while the Tea Party in Hendersonville swarms over City Hall spreading their doom and gloom about our great country, the Sumner County Democratic Party will be doing something a little different. We’ll be welcoming you and your neighbors to an old-fashioned covered dish dinner. We’ll bring the BBQ and sweet tea, you bring the fixings.

Why should we get together? Because our county is full of good communities and friendly people who believe America is a fair and upstanding place. That’s what Democrats have always believed in: helping their neighbors and standing strong for their Country. Common sense folks are done with the anger and fear that's trading on old wounds, fanning the flames of hatred, and endangering our beautiful land of the free. And in this Land of the Free, we must not be afraid to peaceably assemble. We must come out of our houses and gather to discuss our problems and find the way to our solutions. Because America has never been short on solutions. Time after time we have risen to our Nation’s call to duty: to defend our Constitution, to gather our community’s strengths and help those in need, and to promote greater prosperity and a secure future for our children. All accomplished through the rule of law, created by We the People.

The problem isn’t that we can’t solve our problems. The problem is that Democracy isn’t being allowed to work. How can we find solutions when the market place of ideas is constantly shut down by a monopoly of anger, disinformation, and threats of violence? By any definition, “the right of the people peaceably to assemble” from our Bill of Rights does not include violence. When corporate-controlled Republicans whip up the roaring crowds, suggesting that they should “reload and take aim,” it is nothing short of un-American. The purpose of intimidation is clear. Keep folks like you and me from getting involved, diminish participation to the loudest few, and stop We the People from working together. My question is: will it work? Remember that in a recent poll, only 28% of Americans identified themselves as sympathetic with the Tea Party. Will the vast majority of Americans allow themselves to be cowed by the threats of an ill-informed, easily mislead group that resemble nothing so much as a school yard bully? A sore loser whose threats run the gamut from plain old lying and cheating to flipping over the game board? I don’t think so. We see that the Tea party is simply a back-lash. A well funded Republican media gauntlet aimed at distracting and beguiling a small number of Americans into outrageous actions. My heart fills with compassion for them, for I fear they know not what they do, or what corporate masters they serve.

So we’re hosting the Civility Dinner at the Salem Community Center. Let’s get together and just do right by each other and our country. Tell the crowds to put away the bullhorns and lay down the ugliness, you don’t have to shout to be heard. Because this year on April 15th we are going to reclaim the honor in Middle Tennessee. We’re going to feed folks, and we ask you to bring what you can. Whether you bring your best covered dish or a bag of chips, you’ll be welcomed! We’re going to talk about what we need: jobs, fairness, and honor. And we’re going to pitch in to help make it happen, here in Sumner County and all over Tennessee. Come and visit at the Civility Dinner, because civility is what makes America special.

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