School kids aren’t the only bullies

As one of my Facebook friends noted, October wins the prize for “Awareness” month; among a long list of causes is bullying. Public service announcements, news broadcasts and school events all encouraged us to protect our children from bullying and teach them it is unacceptable behavior. Many programs added it only takes one or two dissenting voices to stop bullies in their tracks.

Fast forward to the election and events following, and I’m hearing an adult voice in my head sneer, “Do as I say, not as I do!”

In case you missed it, prior to the election, a number of corporate CEO’s threatened to lay off employees or cut hours if the president was re-elected. Such intimidation is bullying. And as an aside, such behavior is exactly why unions were formed.

But I digress. Now that President Obama has been re-elected, these same CEO’s are pledging to carry out their threats in public temper tantrums that demonstrate they have zero compassion for employees and customers – the very people who allow them to make a living.

Let’s start with Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, whose company mines coal. As this Washington Post article outlines http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/after-obama-re-election-ceo-reads-prayer-to-staff-announces-layoffs/2012/11/09/e9bca204-2a63-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_story.html, he blames his decision to lay off employees in Ohio and Utah on voters’ decisive re-election of President Obama. However, as the article also notes, Murray’s business faces fierce competition from other energy suppliers, and his business practices have led to environmental disasters and charges of coercing employees to support Republicans.

Murray also cloaked his decision to fire employees in religion, reading a prayer before discharging them. In it, he slams the U.S. as a “country of redistribution” and selectively quotes scripture to support his action, a practice known as proof-texting. This allows Murray, and many others, to ignore Biblical calls for economic justice, from Moses through the prophets to Jesus and beyond. In fact, Jewish law in Leviticus 25 specifically calls for the return of wealth to the poor every 50 years via a festival termed the Jubilee.

But Murray isn’t the only CEO throwing a tantrum. Papa John’s pizza CEO John Schnatter previously railed against the Affordable Care Act and worked as a supporter and fundraiser for Romney.

This week, Schnatter announced ACA’s requirement for him to insure employees working more than 30 hours per week will require a 10-14 cent increase per pizza. Either that or he’ll be forced to cut employees or their hours, a practice already widely used by retail and service corporations to pad their profits.

Yet Caleb Melby at Forbes Magazine http://blogs.forbes.com/calebmelby/ crunched the numbers and concluded Papa John’s math is off. “So how much would prices go up, under these 50/50 conditions, if they were to fairly reflect the increased cost of doing business onset by Obamacare? Roughly 3.4 to 4.6 cents a pie.”

Melby lays out the entire picture by examining Papa John’s profits, dividends to shareholders, and Schnatter’s salary for the last few years. It left me wondering if Schnatter’s actions are simply an excuse to increase his profits by scapegoating Obamacare -- a business plan cloaked in politics.

So I ask, “How much is enough?” Does corporate America really need the profit margins they’ve been demanding to keep doors open and people working?

And how much intimidation and twisting of figures will citizens take before demanding facts and fairness? I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough.

Post-election: Where do we go from here?

Regardless of the outcome of this election, Americans need to unite if we expect to solve our collective problems. I have been thinking about that a lot as we approached Election Day, in large part as a consequence of get-out-the-vote canvassing.

Knocking on strangers’ doors to ask them a series of questions and hopefully move them to act is not an easy task. But what strikes me is the difficulty we have in engaging in conversation. I don’t think I have a threatening persona, so I am always bemused by people who refuse to open their doors to me.

I am also curious about the people from the other end of the political spectrum who flatly refuse to speak me. Are they so certain they are correct that they won’t waste time trying to change my mind? Or are they so afraid I might have some valid points they refuse to risk confronting that possibility?

Whatever the reason, I am saddened and disappointed at our society’s inability to converse honestly about our situation.

And yes, I’ve heard it’s “not polite to talk about politics or religion.” But you know, I think that’s flat out wrong. We can only learn and grow when we confront new or different ideas and grapple with them. We wouldn’t have a Constitution if members of the Continental Congress had been unable to meet, discuss (or argue) and negotiate a document for a new government for these United States.

No matter what the shouting talking heads on talk radio and political TV tell you, I’m willing to listen to your point of view. You just need to be prepared that I will ask you lots of questions and expect you to hear out my perspective. You might even be surprised to find we agree on points. This is how we make progress.

Contrast this to our Congress, particularly Conservative members, during the last four years. The entire Republican agenda has been to block the Democratic President at every turn; no negotiating. That is not governing.

Whether you are a Republican, Democrat, Independent or something else, tomorrow we will need to stand together to demand our new representatives work for citizen interests, not corporate dollars. If we expect to get anything out of our government, and the fourth estate of the press (corporate media especially), we are going to have to demand and protest for changes.

Because a citizen’s job doesn’t end with the vote — that’s where it begins. And I think the last 30 years demonstrate clearly my school superintendent friend’s belief “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

I think that’s what Ben Franklin meant when he responded to the woman who asked about the results of the Continental Congress’ deliberations and the kind of government the new nation had.

According to the story, he responded, “A Republic – if you can keep it.”