Bird's Eye View

Could Not Have Said It Better Myself...

2005-09-09T16:38:00.000-05:00

If you cannot see the brilliant picture below, go to this link: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/120/868/1600/Bushdisaster1.jpg.

Progressive Organizing and Door-to-Door Evangelism

2005-03-27T10:29:00.000-05:00

For those of you interested in progressive political organizing, check out this interesting article written by a Kerry canvasser from Madison, WI. He draws interesting corollaries between Mormon door-to-door proselytizing and political canvassing.

Going door to door was hard enough. My pulse would quicken at each door, and after three hours tromping through numbing subdivisions I invariably got the urge to fill in numbers on my walk sheet, grab a soda and wait for the carpool to pick me up. And all we wanted was three minutes of someone's time to ask a few questions, give a short pitch and hand out some literature. A missionary who approaches a stranger's door is seeking nothing less than a complete reconstitution of that person's worldview. One imagines a lot of door slamming, unpleasant words and icy stares.
And yet the improbable fact about missionary activity is that it works, regardless of the faith's specific dogma. Mormons are the fastest-growing church in the country. Evangelical protestant congregations make up 58 percent of all new churches in the United States. Globally, Islam continues to reach into new and unfamiliar lands, experiencing explosive growth in China. Religions that actively proselytize--Pentecostals, Mormons, Muslims--grow, almost without exception.

He continues with what is the real problem with today's progressive organizing: it is not really organizing at all.

Once upon a time, organizing meant more than coordinating e-mail petitions or hosting house parties to raise money and awareness. It meant something much closer to what we now think of as missionary work. A union would send an organizer into, say, a small mining town in Pennsylvania. He would reach out to the miners, get to know them and their families, and tell them what a union was and how it could help them. He would try to convince them to risk their livelihoods by banding together and demanding a safer workplace and better wages. This was difficult, often bloody work. But when it worked--and often it didn't--it effected a transformation of the miners who joined the union. They now had a new identity. Even if they had joined solely for higher wages or a mine less likely to kill them, after suffering lockouts, harassment and possibly beatings, they would have an entirely new perspective on bosses and power. They would be more progressive.
This is what social movements at their best do. They pull back the curtain on power and expose its workings. They politicize those without political engagements by transforming personal grievances in the workplace, at home and in society into political issues.

Right on. We need more real organizing and more of it needs to be done to the non-converted. There is no silent progressive majority out there waiting for the right Messiah. We need to build it.

Bush's Immoral Budget

2005-03-14T11:43:00.000-05:00

The religious left has finally started attacking Bush for his unjust and immoral 2006 budget. Mitch Cohen writes an excellent column in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal covering the religious left's condemnation of Bush's 2006 budget.

This past week, leaders of five mainstream Protestant denominations came together to speak in one voice. Standing shoulder to shoulder, leaders of the Episcopal Church USA, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, and United Methodist Church together condemned the 2006 Federal budget proposed by President Bush as unjust by biblical standards. They couldn't be more correct.

The President's budget cuts at least $45 million from Medicaid and shifts most of the payment to states that will not be able to afford the burden. As AFSCME's budget analysis notes, almost one-third of Bush's domestic program cuts are in education, with funding reductions totaling $1.3 billion. He has proposed total elimination of 48 programs, including Drug-Free Schools State Grants, the Perkins Loan program for students with exceptional financial need and the Even Start family literacy program. Adult education would be cut by 63 percent. The budget also reduces or eliminates 150 programs, block granting and slashing vital public services for a wide range of needs. The cuts are especially harmful for job training, community development programs, social services, veterans' health care, law enforcement, housing, election reform assistance to the states, and child care. And on top of all of this, we are told that the President's tax cuts, those that benefit the wealthiest Americans, should not only be made permanent but that more tax cuts should be enacted for the wealthy.

As Cohen rightly argues, the biblical prophets would be on the front lawn of the White House "condemning the outright aggression of this administration against the poor."

America is the wealthiest, mightiest nation on the planet, spending billions of dollars perpetuating a foreign policy based primarily on threats of war, but when it comes to clothing the needy, sheltering the homeless, or feeding the poor, there is a sore lack of both vision and moral will coming from Washington. There is much for the rich man, and precious little for Lazarus.

Evangelicals: Beyond Abortion and Gay Marriage?

2005-03-13T19:16:00.000-05:00

I often criticize the right wing for its monolithic, black-and-white perception of those on the left. I also think that those on the left commit the same mistake in not spending time trying to understand those on the political right, particularly evangelical Christians. For those of you interested in at least understanding (though it will not likely lead to agreeing with) evangelicals involved in politics, the newly proposed platform, "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility," of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) might provide some insight on a more complex view of evangelical political thought.

The Hotline has a decent story on the recent document:

The Nat'l Assn of Evangelicals (NAE) opened debate "on an ambitious plan" to influence policy by developing a new platform, which 87 Christian leaders signed on 3/10 (Duin, Washington Times, 3/11). The proposed platform...contains policy goals that go "beyond the fight against abortion and same-sex marriage" and urge "evangelicals to address issues like racial injustice, religious freedom," and poverty. At the NAE's 3/10 luncheon many speakers said the new platform was "necessary" because the NAE risked being seen as "merely" a GOP "voting bloc." Speaker Barbara Williams-Skinner drew "a standing ovation" when she "criticized evangelicals who decide their votes using abortion and same-sex marriage as a litmus test." Williams-Skinner: "The litmus test is the Gospel, the whole of it."
But other "evangelical leaders voiced concern that the new platform could dilute the focus of the evangelical movement." Focus on the Family VP Tom Minnery warned other evangelical leaders against taking a "smorgasbord approach." Minnery: "Do not make this about global warming...the issues of marriage, the issues of pro-life are the issues that define us to this day." Sen Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) were among the "prominent figures" who attended the luncheon (Goodstein, New York Times, 3/11).

The 12-page document is thought-provoking. The authors are educated and eloquent. True, their biblical interpretation leads them to anti-gay discrimination that comes from a narrow reading of the Bible and a refusal to see and treat ALL people as equal. On the other hand, the authors also strongly support policies that benefit the poor, strengthen human rights, promote peace, and protect the environment.

While you may not agree with many of the sentiments in this document, I think it deserves a read because it provides a more complex and intelligent view of evangelicals than hate-filled mantras from Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. I hope that evangelicals will take the advice of Williams-Skinner and stop confining their civic engagement to anti-gay, anti-abortion activities. If they take this document seriously, they will start marching for peace and protesting against poverty and environmental abuse. Evangelicals who agree with this document might also start realizing that they have a lot less in common with Bush, Inc. than they thought.

Run for the Border

2005-03-09T11:58:00.000-05:00

Today is a good day. I can now eat Taco Bell again! Bring on the vegetarian grilled stuffed burritto baby.

The Washington Post reports on the end of a long-term Taco Bell boycott that has resulted in higher wages for TB tomato pickers.

In what both sides called an unprecedented agreement, the fast-food company said it will increase the amount it pays for tomatoes by a penny per pound, with the increase to go directly to workers' wages. Taco Bell said it will help the farmworkers' efforts to improve working and living conditions.

While it is not an end to the fight for a living wage, it is a significant win for organizing and the potential for an alliance between workers' rights groups and the faith community on poverty issues.

The Taco Bell boycott had picked up considerable support in the last two years, especially among students and church leaders. Students at 21 colleges had removed or blocked the restaurant chain from their campuses, and "Boot the Bell" campaigns were active in at least 300 colleges and universities, and in more than 50 high schools. Religious organizations actively supporting the boycott included the National Council of Churches, representing 50 million Christians. Former president Jimmy Carter, among the workers' most prominent supporters, helped negotiate the resolution reached through his center.

The Audacity of Hope

2005-02-24T15:51:00.000-05:00

Does anyone else think Barack Obama is the coolest cat in politics? This article in the Washington Post today just reaffirms my conviction that this man will be the first African American president in this country.

In case you are looking to be inspired, or perhaps re-inspired, check out his DNC Convention speech, "The Audacity of Hope."

The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an "awesome God" in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we've got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America...

I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair.

I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.

For more about his leadership thus far in the Senate, check out Barack's statement about the nomination of Alberto Gonzales on the Senate Floor. Love this line, "The job is not simply to facilitate the President's power, it is to speak truth to that power as well."

Famous Bird's Eye Viewers

2005-02-22T12:24:00.000-05:00

The newspapers have been brimming with stories about contributors to this site:

Lilah Pomerance's wedding was featured in the NYT this weekend. Congrats to Lilah and new hubby Dan. For those of you who do not know Lilah, check out the article anyway. If you like funny, romantic proposal stories, you will love this one.

And our old pal Sarah Holmes stars in the Portsmouth (NH) Herald today. Granted it is no New York Times, but we are all so proud of our little Holmes. Article here. Nice picture Holmes.

The article is all about campaign work, so it might interest you junkies out there. Abi Green describes campaign work well in the Herald piece: "It’s part insanity, part addiction."

The GOP's Foolish Celebration

2005-02-22T00:50:00.000-05:00

Most of you know I worked for Howard Dean in his inspiring bid for the Democratic presidential nomination last year. I'll spare you the sentimental details of how great it was to see him accept the nomination as DNC chairman a few weeks ago in DC.

Most folks over at Bush, Inc. have been celebrating his election, claiming that the liberal, vegan, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie blogging "Deaniacs" will make a mockery of the DNC. They might want to listen to one of their own.

Reed Davis is an associate professor of political science at Seattle Pacific University. He ran for the GOP nomination to the U.S. Senate last year and is a former chairman of the King County Republican Party. In his Seattle Times op-ed, Davis argues that, despite the foolish congratulations the party is giving itself over Dean's nomination, the new DNC Chair has the potential to be very dangerous to them.

NOW that Howard Dean has ascended to the chairmanship of the Democrat National Committee, Republicans are high-fiving one another with such mad glee that you'd think Democrats had just nominated Dennis Kucinich to run in 2008. The GOP needs to sit back down, recork the champagne and get back to work. Whether they know it or not, Republicans need to understand that Dean spells trouble for the Republican Party. Big trouble.

Republicans may think that the nomination of Dean is hysterically funny -- a scream, in fact, as George Will recently put it -- but they are deluding themselves if they think Dean is nothing more than a wild-eyed ideologue with a temper and a cult following.

Dean brings three talents to the chairmanship that can potentially sink not just a GOP presidential candidate in 2008 but the Republican-controlled House and maybe even the Senate well before then.

Those three talents? 1) Fund raising; 2) understanding and embracing grassroots, face-to-face politics, and 3) charisma.

Bush and Corporate Theology Part 1

2005-02-19T15:07:00.000-05:00

As a Divinity School graduate involved in progressive political organizing, I get a little unnerved at the common myth that Republicans are the party of God and all things righteous. Last time I read the New Testament Jesus had a lot to say about taking care of the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized. More importantly, he DID something about it.

Here is more recent evidence that while Bush, Inc. might shout its faith over the air waves, the company has never practiced anything close to compassion.

David Kuo's article (former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives) is a good example from a Republican insider about the hypocrisy that defines Bush, Inc: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/160/story_16092_1.html

As Kuo writes, you see priorities in the budget:

"Sadly, four years later these promises [of compassionate conservatism] remain unfulfilled in spirit and in fact. In June 2001, the promised tax incentives for charitable giving were stripped at the last minute from the $1.6 trillion tax cut legislation to make room for the estate-tax repeal that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy. The Compassion Capital Fund has received a cumulative total of $100 million during the past four years [out of a promised 200]. And new programs including those for children of prisoners, at-risk youth, and prisoners reentering society have received a little more than $500 million over four years--or approximately $6.3 billion less than the promised $6.8 billion."

Washington Post article on the Kuo story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24561-2005Feb14.html?sub=AR

Christening of the Blog

2005-02-19T11:16:00.000-05:00

Bird's Eye View will be a politically-focused personal blog of daily rants that most sane, smart people will never read. It will not change the world in any way. It will not create news or provide you with any information you need to make it through your f*ed up reality.

Words will be misspelled. Comments will be unedited. It will be cynical and jaded, yet hopeful. Editorials will be baised (towards the poor and unrelenting against the rich, elite, unethical republican leadership in this country). Actually research will be virtually non-existent.

The goal is to entertain all of my unemployed progressive brothers and sisters still reeling from our pathetic loss to the gay-bashing, fear-enticing, war-mongering repubs. And, it will provide my employed brothers and sisters another outlet other than IM to surf while "working," particularly those in the "labor" movement.