Has lack of participation driven us to the brink?

We live in a society based on participation. Democracy, the form of government our founders chose, requires citizens’ participation for the common good. Yet at every level today, citizens choose to drop out. They may complain, but they refuse to participate.

I see it locally. Churches, civic groups and political parties struggle to find people willing to attend meetings and take part. I see it nationally with the decline in voting and in unions.

Folks, this is by design.

Our lack of participation has allowed a small group of ultra wealthy and connected individuals to work us to the bone for less and less. The more productive we become, the less they pay and the more hours they demand. Meanwhile, our civic institutions are weakened as these same individuals and their constituent organizations tilt the tax code to ensure they pay less and less to support our common infrastructure.

So instead of standing up, yelling and pushing back, we’ve all retreated to our living rooms to watch American Idol or Survivor. We’ve ceased to read about the policies they’ve pushed through not only Congress, but our statehouses. Instead, we keep track of politicians’ selfies and follow celebrity news.

These power brokers work secretively, but via the efforts of a tiny band of persistent scholars and investigative journalists, we are learning about their efforts.

First, the Center for Media and Democracy was blessed with a document dump about the efforts of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). This organization was formed in 1973 by corporate conservative activist Paul Weyrich; they’ve had 40 years to build a network and institute their initiatives.

The State Policy Network is a related organization, also now under the microscope thanks to the Center for Media and Democracy’s stinktanks.org web site. This group works to publish the phony research of fake think tanks; of course, said research supports corporate initiatives and is camouflaged to fool gullible pundits and media outlets.

And speaking of the media, most corporate media in the U.S. (network and cable radio and TV stations and large metropolitan papers) are owned by a handful of corporations. It is the owners who shape the perspective and tone of news reports, and they make sure it protects their interests. News consumers must remember that – always.

Organizations like Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) monitor news reports continuously to highlight the most egregious instances of bias and untruth. And if you enjoy satire, John Stewart’s Daily Show, Stephen Colbert’s Colbert Report, and The Onion also catch many of the media’s worst cases of misinformation.

But again, citizens must participate in the process. It’s a simple thing. Pick a group and attend a meeting. Be willing to help with an event. Talk to someone new, and listen to them, too. Engage.

This is how the 99% will take back their country – by barreling through the divisions these secretive special interests have erected between us. When we stop accepting just what they give us and demand better, everything will change. When we stand up for the interests of people instead of shilling for corporate interests by parroting anti-union, anti-worker, anti-tax rhetoric, our representatives will start changing their votes. When we inform ourselves based on facts instead of reacting in anger at swirling internet rumors, they’ll begin to lose their power.

Americans have done this before; we can do it again -- if we are willing to participate.

Basic skills testing: What’s in a number?

Education has been on my mind a lot lately. But then, I live with a teacher and student, so it is always front and center at my house.

The past week, my daughter has been sharing about the annual run-up to basic skills testing. We’ve shared conversations about the importance of the tests, how the results affect not only her, but her teachers, school and, by virtue of the school being one of the largest employers, our entire community. We’ve searched the house for pencils to be sure she has a ready supply to thoroughly fill each answer bubble. And it’s been early to bed with a healthy breakfast every morning.

But this year, as I do every year, I wonder what my daughter and her teachers are missing out on while they go through this data-collection process? How many irreplaceable opportunities to experience the joy of learning are missed in the quest for some numbers?

In addition, I’ve been tracking our Iowa legislature as they debate what the governor has termed his education “reform” package and, once again, missed the deadline to pass funding for the next year. This deadline was missed not just because of disagreement about how much the state can afford. It’s also because the governor tied his reform plan (which is really just a repackaging of things many schools are already doing) to the money in an effort to push it through. Some of this plan includes which assessments or tests we’ll be using to evaluate Iowa schools.

That’s when I came across an article comparing our military and education systems. Written by Professor William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, and entitled “Why Johnny Can’t Read or Win Wars,” this article took a closer look at the misperceptions created when we reduce the results of our actions to numbers. His example compares the use of the body count during recent wars to the new penchant for test scores in education.

“What’s missing is the old-fashioned sense of education as a public good, as essential to democracy,” he writes. “ . . . Instead, today’s ultimate metric of educational success is not empowerment but rather employment. Education is reduced to training and success is measured by a post-college paycheck. Call it another form of body count: the number of (student) bodies who graduate with jobs. Never mind the ideals or morals of those students. Never mind their virtue. Those qualities can’t be readily measured, so we’ll ignore or dismiss them.”

I read this a week after I watched my daughter’s teachers and older school mates band together to provide for the immediate necessities of a student who lost everything in a house fire. What’s the measure for that?

As Astore concludes, it’s up to us to decide whether we want to churn out workers for jobs or people who can think critically, solve problems and lead.

What do we get with corporate-backed politicians?

Recently, I’ve had an old Tennessee Ernie Ford song rattlin’ round in my head:

You load 16 tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store.

I think that pretty well describes working America – a country I often feel like the masters of the universe in Washington D.C. (and our state capital) have forgotten.

And then I live through periods like this first week in June and I have to wonder, “Do working Americans recognize themselves in Ford’s song?”

Of course I am referring to Wisconsin’s recall election, in which voters retained a governor who made it his mission to break state public employees’ unions.

Never mind these unions had already conceded to pay a larger share of benefit costs and to limit pay increases. Walker’s goal was not to ease Wisconsin taxpayers’ burden, but to do away with collective bargaining and worker protections for public employees, and thus for all workers.

Walker’s efforts were bankrolled by a handful of multi-billionaire business owners, led by the Koch brothers.

And they outspent Democrats by a ratio of 7-1 to retain Walker.

Their funds allowed saturation advertising and publicity designed to question the democratic nature of a recall election petitioned for by hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters.

Yet by the time the election rolled around, voters suddenly felt recalls should only be held in the case of criminal wrongdoing.

John Nichols outlines events in “Framed: How Redefining Direct Democracy as Anti-Democratic Won Wisconsin.” http://www.thenation.com/blog/168335/framed-how-redefining-direct-democracy-anti-democratic-won-wisconsin?rel=emailNation#

I’ve never been a big believer in advertising, but I’m disappointed to say it worked this time. Walker’s corporate funders managed to manipulate voters into keeping their man in office.

Why? Because big business profits when workers can’t organize. It is no coincidence that since President Reagan broken the air traffic controllers’ union, workers’ wages in this country have stagnated.

And it’s ironic for those Wisconsin voters who cast their vote for the principle that recalls be held only for criminal wrongdoing. They may get it yet because investigations of Walker continue.

But what capped a strange confluence of events was the death of Ray Bradbury the same week. Bradbury was the author of Fahrenheit 451. This prophetic science fiction novel tells the story of a future in which firemen no longer put out fires. Instead, they start them – to burn books.

In this futuristic America, people sit enthralled to their interactive television screens, now three full living room walls.

Meanwhile, the government sends firemen to destroy books and historic documents that would encourage free thinking.

But, one day the book’s main character opens a book perched on the pile for the next bonfire. And it changes his life.

He begins to read and discovers radical texts like the Bible and our founding documents, and he finally questions what he is doing.

He sees his wife mesmerized in front of her TV screen and walks away from his old life.

I keep wondering when we will. Americans must wake up to the fact that government is our responsibility.

Until then, the company store owned by the Koch brothers and their colleagues will continue to buy our government and own our souls.

As they did in Wisconsin and are already doing in the general election, they are flooding the airwaves with ads and appearances by paid representatives for their candidates (chiefly Republican) who will blindly push through policies to benefit them.

So unplug the TV and radio. And before it’s too late, start reading and asking questions. It’s our job, and if we don’t do it, that sixteen tons will never get any lighter.

Why I’m “obsessed” with politics

If you’re on my Facebook Friends list, you know I’m a serious political junkie. And even if you’re not, you probably know it’s a vice I admit to freely. But you may not understand why.

I grew up with a quiet father who observed the world closely. He didn’t say a lot, but he didn’t miss much. And he read constantly. I spent evenings in his lap as he read the paper and a host of magazines. He read a variety of sources, and he never took any of them as the gospel truth. He asked a lot of questions, and he never assumed he had all the answers. But he worked diligently to inform himself. I’d venture he was one of the best read men in the neighborhood.

That’s how I was raised. And like my father, I read – a lot. Why?

I learned from my father that it mattered. The political decisions we make – not individually but as a society – set our course. So if we choose poorly, we all pay. That is the tyranny of the majority. That’s our democracy.

So for 30 years I’ve been tracking our political record, and it sucks. I’ve paid more in student loan interest, earned less and am now watching my kids (and yours too) struggle even harder than I did because my generation and succeeding ones have made poor choices based on misinformation we’ve been fed by corporate media.

How do I know this? I’m part of the system.

I was trained as an artist to create illusion, and I work in business communication and public relations. I know how word choice affects perception, and I know how color, perspective and design play on emotions. I can spot the frame almost before the words are out.

Additionally, I care about the people I live with. I’ve spent 30 years watching family, friends and neighbors get hoodwinked by politicians bought and paid for by corporate interests. Election after election I watch them vote based on emotional reactions to ads and mangled rhetoric, rather than facts, then wonder what happened when they get screwed later.

Consequently, I get a little frustrated when people assume I’ve just “drunk the Kool-Aid.” As I did in drawing class, I try to walk around situations and see them from as many sides as possible. I came very late to choosing a political party, and I’m not terribly comfortable there yet.

So instead of assuming I’m an ideologue, maybe you need to join me in the search for real information and solutions. Maybe you need to start asking questions and looking beyond the morning radio broadcast and the evening TV news for information. (And trash the e-mails – please!) Maybe we need to talk.

Because democracy begins with dialogue; tell that to your congress people as they play chicken with the debt ceiling.

Happy Independence Day.