Costs of Living

How High Can they go?

We didn’t go blindly into retirement.  As is my bent, I studied and researched it thoroughly.  I knew the projected retirement income we would receive after 35 years of gainful employment on my part as well as 10 years of graduate work.  My husband chalked up another 49 years and his income would include Social Security as well as retirement income from his job.  Both of us felt that we would be very secure on our retirement income for years to come.   We were ready for the future!  Bring it on! 

What we didn’t see coming down the road was escalating prices for everything!  Food, fuel, utilities, clothing, travel and healthcare co-pays.  What a shock to the system!  Do we have no recourse?  Do our elected officials not see or feel this unprecedented pinch on our budget.  Where is the outrage and the congressional hearings on gouging by supermarket chains and others simply because they can?  I want to demand a hearing today.  I understand that peanut butter will go up this year because of problems with the peanut crop.  Okay, fine, I accept that.  At least there is a rational explanation. 

Today, I literally hate going to the grocery store.  I have hated it for more than 2 ½ years now and I keep waiting for the prices to stabilize and allow me to budget adequately to put decent, nourishing food on our table.  I have been so appalled at the rapid increase in food prices that I have begun to keep a diary of prices for selected products.   As an example, since 2011 the price of the generic sourdough bread at my town’s Wal-Mart has gone up 16%.    Generic French bread has gone up 7%.  This reflects the overall rise in the prices I pay for everything!  Initially, higher gas prices were blamed for the first severe rise in cost, but since then gas prices here have fluctuated vastly, and for a period of time were relatively low, but none of the prices have come down.  The cost of all commodities continues to go up.  I have a theory that supermarkets continuously change the location of products in the store so that we are so frustrated we won’t be as liable to complain about the price hike when we do find what we came for.  For some reason, after a frantic search, we simply have a sense of relief.

Today we take better care of our cars than ever before in order to postpone the inevitable built in obsolescence we know is coming.  We take advantage of every relevant bargain we come across.  We drive less than ever to conserve on our gas consumption.  We use our fireplace all the time during winter to avoid higher natural gas prices.  I say we are doing everything we can to cope with this situation.  I am truly concerned with family members and friends who don’t have the assurance of a guaranteed monthly income (which doesn’t increase by the way).  Every recent conversation revolves around the high cost of living.

I suspect very strongly that we, the citizens are being manipulated and put  through a corporative ringer and that no one, except the shopper is paying any attention to.  I’m stretching my dollar as much as I can.  Is anyone listening?   I am going to write my senators and congressmen as soon as I finish this post.  Hey, why don’t you join me?  Take a few minutes and contact your representatives too.  You have nothing to lose.  Below is a link that will help you find out how to contact them.  Contact the Congress (there are 539 electronic contacts for U S elected officials as well as their office phone numbers),  either is equally effective in making a point.  Go for it – Express yourself.   http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

The Courage of Your Convictions

   “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

                                                                            Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do you have convictions?  Strong beliefs about right and wrong, about justice (criminal as well as social), moral obligations, and good old every day ethics!  Do you see regrettable things happening all around you and sometimes feel helpless to stop them.  Do you consider yourself to be a strong, brave and even a visionary leader of sorts?  If you answered yes to any of these questions then you must act!

If you really have the courage of your convictions, you are brave enough to do what you feel is right, despite any pressure for you to do something different.   Sometimes your choice is between doing something different or doing nothing!   The real danger lies in thinking it won’t matter either way.

For generations Americans, great and small, have demonstrated the courage of their convictions in ways that made them vulnerable, disliked, vilified and even made outcasts from their immediate society as well as the greater world at large.   Because they were willing to stand tall and speak out on important issues that face our country they were susceptible to pain, torture and even death.   So think about my question again. Do you have convictions?   Do you have the courage of your convictions?  What are you, individually, or as part of a group, willing to do?  What are you willing to risk, to make sure that America not only lives up to it’s promise but also ensures and disseminates those rights and privileges equitably. 

We all know and readily acknowledge the sacrifices of leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.  Individuals who also gave their lives and were martyred for what they believed include James E. Chaney, Andrew Goodman; and Michael Schwerner, three murdered freedom riders for civil rights.  See this link from the Southern Poverty Law Center http://www.crmvet.org/mem/41lives.htm that lists some individuals you may not have heard of.  They are all listed as martyrs for civil rights in the U. S.  I am positive that the actual number is incalculable.

A story about one such individual that stands out in my mind is that of Harry T. Moore, a former Florida Educator that devoted his life to fairness, social justice and civil rights in a time when the local, state and federal government either had no interest, power or incentive to protect him.   I’ll bet most readers will never have heard of him.  Read more about Harry at http://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/harry/index.html, and see the documentary about his life from PBS, Freedom Never Dies.  He is a real unsung hero.

We must speak up about our beliefs at every opportunity while we can.  Educate your children, family, your friends, your neighbors about what you see as injustices and threats to our freedom.  The worst they can do is reject your message.  In the end, what have you lost?  On the other hand, you may have awakened a fellow vocal patriot!

The Political Money Game

We, as part of the 99%, don't really stand a chance in terms of supporting a candidate or even running for political office ourselves since the U. S. Supreme Court made Citizens United decision legal.  Two years ago the Roberts Supreme Court issued its most controversial ruling to date.  Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, overturned long-standing campaign finance laws restricting corporate political expenditures.  The court reasoning that the political speech of corporations was as important to the marketplace of ideas as the voices of human citizens.    The opinion allowed groups to raise and spend unlimited amounts supporting or opposing candidates.  President Obama criticized the court while delivering his 2010 State of the Union address.  Who can forget Justice Alito shaking his head in denial.   As the rise of the super PACs has already shown in the current Republican primaries, the coming presidential election will be swamped with cash, and our representative democracy will not be better for it.  The transparency that has been so ballyhooed doesn't happen until after the election.  How will you feel when you find out the opposing candidate was backed by a corporation bent on exporting their production to some other country, resulting in many more jobs.  Suppose it is some group of corporations devoted to developing franchises to replace our public schools, civic leadership or even public service employees.  Don't you need to know before you vote?  Or, it would be like sticking your hand in a bag blindly and pulling out your reward for a hard days work.  


Of course, this doesn't take away the blatant dishonesty the permeates the system.  Look at the agendas of Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Mitch Daniels in Indiana who now support laws that take away collective bargaining and even the right to belong to unions.  Stances that were not even mentioned in their platforms as they both ran for governor of their respective states in 2010.  As a prime example of big money influencing politics, research shows that super PACs backed by the notoriously wealthy, Kansas based  Koch brothers lead the way in attempting to control the actions of our elected officials.  In June 2011, near Aspen, Colorado, the billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch welcomed hundreds of wealthy guests and legislators to the latest of the secret fundraising and strategy seminars they host twice a year.  Political leaders included in the June  strategy meetings (entitled “Understanding and Addressing Threats to American Enterprise and Prosperity”) were governors Rick Scott, Florida, John Kasich, Ohio,  and Bob McDonnell, Virginia.  Rick Perry, Governor of Texas addressed the group on Sunday.   “The purpose of this conference is to develop support for the kind of free-market policies and initiatives that can get our country back on the path to economic prosperity and sustained job creation,” a spokeswoman for Koch Industries told The Denver Post. 

Billionaire industrialist Charles Koch of Koch Industries

Koch Industries is the second largest privately owned company in the United States, and earned $100 billion in 2009.  They have donated more than $100 million to conservative GOP causes over the past three decades, according to a New Yorker profile. The pair have recently donated to tea party groups and organizations opposed to President Obama.  Now, I call that big money.  I call that a threat to fairness and to a true representative Democracy.

Can you imagine the people behind the $16 Million dollars spent by Mitt Romney in bombarding the people of Florida prior to the 2012 Republican Primary?  The airwaves were swamped 24/7 with negative campaign ads against Newt Gingrich.  Rational people in Florida were appalled if not actually repulsed by these practices.  Nonetheless, the less astute populace went for it!  Big money won!

I have nothing against wealthy people running and winning political office.   I do have a problem with people running for office in order to become a member of the 1% themselves, and thereafter doing only what the lobbyist tell them to, as well as everything they can to perpetuate that new found wealth.  Forget what is best for their constituents.  In our system today, it really appears that the citizens back home in their districts are the last things on their minds.  Do they even hear us?  Do nationwide polls mean nothing?  Or, do they just hear the rustle and clinking of money?


If you think you have problems now, just wait until corporations and millionaires fully usurp your voting power and your vote!  People count more than money.  Keep your political power - vote!

“The Good Ol’ Days”

They’re Planning on Bringing Them Back 

Acceptable behavior in the 'Good Ol' Days'

Governor Jan Brewer sticks her finger 

in the face of President Obama - Jan. 25, 2012

We have to take our country back?   We hear this ringing throughout the Republican and Conservative rhetoric that permeates our airwaves currently.  The same rhetoric that is tinged with racist and segregationist ideology from the days of yore.  Only now, in 2011/2012, they usually have a more politically correct way of expressing those same feelings that have long lain dormant put persisted nonetheless.  Some politicians, whether through gaffes, emotional breakdowns, or inexperience state their feelings overtly and proudly, regardless of the consequences at the polls.   Recent incidents demonstrate that these no longer dormant feelings have brought an increased disrespect to the office of the President, simply by virtue of the occupants skin color.  Take our country back from  ‘Whom’?  Didn’t we have a legal presidential and congressional election in 2008 and again in 2010?  Aren’t our leaders the people we elected.

These politicians have been emboldened by the laid back attitude of the larger populace (who seem to think someone else will handle it) and the popularity of the Tea Party attack plan.  Recently, I I found it to be amazing that none of the presidential candidates would stoop (or is that stand tall) to correct an incorrect statement by one of their colleagues when they say something that is overtly untrue or even an outright lie.  When Rick Santorum went along with an audience member in one of his Florida meetings who accused President Obama (once again) of not being an American and said that someone needs to be working to get him out of the white House.  The gist of Santorum’s answer was that ‘he was doing his best to do just that’.  No outcry from the Right to demand that he corrects the impression that he was going along with her accusation.  How about the "You lie!" shout during the President's speech before the joint session of Congress in Sept. 2009.  The posturing, walk-outs 

and tantrums thrown over the debt ceiling debate, which eventually led to our country's credit being downgraded.  Newt Gingrich constantly referring to the President as "the food stamp president" and saying that President Obama "knows how to get the whole country to resemble Detroit."  Senator Mitch McConnell's bold proclaiming that his main objective as Senate Majority Leader is to make sure that Obama is a one-term president.

Rush Limbaugh, less than a year after President Obama was elected,  saying that he wants to see this president fail.  The rantings of Former Fox News host Glenn Beck declaring on the air that the president "hates white people" and "the white culture."

Take your right to vote seriously.  The power you show at the ballot box will help determine the direction this country will be going in over the next four years.  If you take it for granted, there is a group waiting that has demonstrated that they are willing and ready to return us to a time when things were extremely good for them and the rest of the citizens were on their own.  Safety nets!  Who needs them?  They need more money for Corporations and millionaires so that their leftovers will trickle down to the rest of us.  It has never worked and it never will!

The Conservatives and the Republicans in particular want things to go back to the way they were.  The good ol’ days!  What exactly were the good ol’ days?   A bigger question is who exactly were they good for? 

Acceptable behavior in the 'Good Ol' Days'

Angry white crowds heckling Elizabeth Eckford   

as she approaches Little Rock H. S. - 1957

They were the days when no African-American or Hispanic would even dream that he or she had a chance at being the leader of the free world.  They were the days when voter’s rights were determined on the whim of a majority population who did not consider minorities to be even citizens, much less human.  They were the days when separate but equal was the accepted attitude of legislators, the courts, and the average American as well.  The days when your very life could hang in the balance if you were accused of doing something the majority populace in your vicinity didn’t like or allow.  They were the days when a family member could be abducted in the middle of the night, only to be found beaten and hung in a nearby tree at dawns early light.  The days when you were not granted employment based on your merit, because you had none!  The cruel, unjust and violent Jim Crow Days are mostly associated with the Deep South but were evident in employment, real estate and economic practices all over America.   The 'good ol’ days', who wouldn’t want to go back?  Right?

Acceptable behavior in the 'Good Ol' Days
George Meadows, lynching victim
Jefferson County AL, January 1889

Me, for one!  I am sure I represent a lot of the not so silent majority out there who are still hoping for someone else to handle it!  The reality is that we each, individually, have to fight back to make sure it never happens.