Ferguson, Facebook, Friends and Fakers

I let the internet outrage me occasionally.

At the moment, it's Ferguson, Missouri where an unarmed black boy was shot to death by a cop. The resulting outrage gained international notoriety when the police responded by rolling out armored personal carriers, troops equipped more for Iraq than main street, and started arresting reporters for reporting.

I post political musings pretty regularly on Facebook. A few of my friends are strong Republicans, who think Obama is a dictator (if not the anti-Christ) and Obamacare signals the fiscal and moral decay of our nation. I feel like I'm all over the board on issues, I try to support the best idea over political parties. I am strongly for Obamacare, for example. And I'm also very argumentative at times. So at times I get into epic back-and-forths.

I think it's great I have Facebook friends I absolutely disagree with. If I didn't, I'd be inside a dangerous echo chamber just reinforcing my own beliefs with lots and lots of likes.

One group I've had a love-hate relationship with is the Tea Party. I think many of their ideas are ruinous and downright horrible. I think their passion and commitment to the Constitution is admirable. Indeed, my second favorite politician is a Tea Party congressmen from Michigan, Representative Justin Amash.

The death of Mike Brown is horrible, and the police response unfathomable in America. You would think the segment of America who thinks that Obamacare is tyranny, and fiercely pushes back on any attempt to restrict any type of gun in America after another horrible shooting would be up in arms about a military style crack down on protesters and media.

But no. With few exceptions, the Right side of the spectrum has been silent. I would say "you don't get to pick and choose who the Constitution applies to" but the sad thing is, for a lot of our history we did. The rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution only applied to whites. One would hope that era was over, but a quick scan of any of the comments on any Ferguson news story will show you its not.

The crackdown on the first amendment in Ferguson separates the wheat from the chaff. If you only get all sentimental about the Constitution when talking about Obamacare or the Bundy ranch, but aren't when journalists get arrested and tear-gassed, you aren't really the Constitutionalist you think you are. The thing those self-proclaimed patriots miss is that when you don't stand up for other people's rights, you are only eroding your own. A classic poem explains it well.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Smaller is Better

My flight lesson got cancelled today due to rain. So I'm forced to stay indoors and blog while my dog look at me with accusing eyes, asking when we'll go play fetch.

The idea behind our American republic is awesome. We don't have a king who rules us just because his father did. We elect leaders to enact the laws and policies we want to see. And during the time known to historians as "the Good Old Days" we rubbed shoulders with our elected representatives regularly and shared our views in the market, at church, or even in the latrine. Colonial New England is most celebrated for having this remarkable familiarity between elected representatives and their constituents.

And their timeless fashion sense.

That whole mechanism of representative government gets a little distorted, especially at the Federal level. We only see our federal politicians on TV or in the news so its hard for them to really hear our voice. That's part of the reason why we so dislike our federal leaders most of the time.

But at the state and local level, you can still sometimes get a taste of how it used to be. The other day at a local festival I saw my state representative Vic Gilliam walking around. He is probably my favorite politician, though he has a different party registration than me. Not only does he respond to every letter my students ever wrote him, he shovels the poop after our town's annual pet parade.

I went up and said hello, and introduced him to my father who used to be involved in state politics. While I felt bad for taking his time, Vic Gilliam seemed to just want to chat (maybe that's why he is a politician). Best of all, I got to ask him what he thought of open primaries, which I would love to see happen here in Oregon. He told me what he thought, said he'd really been considering them, and thanked me for sharing my opinion.

It was a little thing, but it felt great to have a voice. So many of us feel so helpless and disenfranchised by what happens at the national level, but we have so much more access at the state and local level. More and more, I think that's where real change happens, and where the average citizen can make the biggest difference.

Election Day, When Shoveling Poop Matters

It's Oregon's primary election day. The day when citizens vote to elect leaders to represent them in government. In theory.

Oregon has closed primaries, which are the worst way possible to elect our someone that really represents his/her constituency. But that's a blog post for later.

I hate our closed primaries, because as a registered Democrat I can not vote for this man

Public service at its finest

This is Vic Gilliam, the state representative for my area. I like him for two reasons aside from his moderate voting record.

1.)  He shovels poop at the end of the Silverton Pet Parade, which shows he doesn't take himself too seriously.

2.)  He responds to every single letter my students have ever sent him.  Which shows he cares about what his constituents, even the youngest of them, have to say.   

Do you have a local politician this cool? If so, please share. 

Interactive Democracy

I've long believed a nation is only as good as its citizens.  An apathetic, uninformed citizenry will probably elect poor leaders.  An involved citzenry will demand an efficient, transparent government.  At least in theory.

The worst thing: apathy.  In a nation of 300,000,000+ it's easy to think that your voice doesn't matter.  Add to that the frustrating gridlock in D.C., billions of dollars spent by special interest groups, and you start to feel like a pretty small fish.

Maybe that's why a lot of people don't vote.  We feel like our voice doesn't matter.  Wrong.

The very thing this country needs is for you, me and everyone else to do the opposite.  Stand up when you see something wrong.  Let your approbation be heard if you see something right.

It's a hard habit to get into, but I've been trying to practice what I preach.  Two examples this week:

I read this article in the local paper.  Long story short: a man flips off a cop, gets pulled over for speeding (the driver insists he wasn't).  It's implied he was pulled over for flipping the cop off.  The man informs the deputy he has a concealed weapons permit and weapon.  The officer draws his gun on the driver and his wife, and takes his gun.  Check the whole thing out.

This bugs me in a lot of ways.  I'm not a huge fan of concealed weapons, but I believe without a doubt that free speech in America needs to be protected, no matter how offensive. A man shouldn't be detained by law enforcement for a distasteful gesture. And if the citizen had his weapon lawfully and wasn't threatening the cop, he shouldn't be drawn on.

So what did I do?  I called the Marion County Sheriff's Office and voiced my complaint to the voice mail of a man named Dan, who incredibly enough called me back.

The other example:

Listened to Oregon Public Radio interview my Congressman Kurt Schrader.  For 20 minutes the guy spoike, and every word he said sounded like it came from my own mind.  I've never agreed so much with a politician!

1.)  He spoke about solving our budget deficet by simplifying the tax code and restructuring entitlements.

2.)  He described how sustainably logging our forests would prevent the catastrophic forest fires we've been suffering.

3.)  Most interestingly, Schrader publically said he doesn't trust the NSA, even what they tell him in the classfied Congressional briefings. He wants to end all the mass survaillence of our phone and email records.

So yeah, check, check, check.

I was so excited I called his local office and told them I supported the Congressman one hundred percent and would be happy to help however I could.  The lady seemed delighted to get a call like that and happily took my info.

So in my own way, I've made my voice heard this week.  I plan on doing it more and more.  It might not make much of a difference, but it will make some.  Now imagine if we ALL did that.  

The Tide Has Turned (Why I'm a D)

I got my Democratic Ballot in the mail recently, first one I've ever recieved. Up until last month I had been a Republican all my life. I remember sitting up late with my dad in 2000, watching networks call Florida for Gore, then Bush, and then toasting to his victory. How much has changed since then!
Republicans have recently lost three special Congressional elections in districts they had controlled for years, the most recently in heavily conservative Mississippi.
What's behind the change? Lets look at what the typical conservative cares about:

• Fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget
• Ethical and moral behavior from elected officials
• A strong military
• Anti-abortion

After 7 years of Bush, including 4 with a Republican-controlled Congress we have:

• Historic budget deficiets and embarassing pork-barrel spending like Sen. Ted Stevens' Bridge to Nowhere.
• Scandal everywhere you look: Cheney's office outing an undercover CIA agent for questioning Iraq intelligence. Florida Rep Mark Foley diddling interns. Dirty money. Ethics scandals.
• Our blood and treasure is being drained daily in Iraq.
• And abortion is still happening!

Not to mention Republican's failure to wean us from foreign oil has enriched our enemies like Venezuela while resulting in sky-rocketing gas prices.

Nor the fact that Republicans have stood in the way of protecting our environment for years.

We gave them power and they abused it. Look where we are now. If the God-fearing people of Mississippi are willing to throw in their lot with the Democratics, far left wackos included, 2008 will not be a good year for the Republican Party.