Cowardly Democrats Succumb to Tea Party 

People who know me know that I despise the Tea Party.  At best it’s misguided, and at worst it is greedy, insensitive and cruel.

It was bad enough when the Tea Party was just a bunch of angry old white people venting.  It got worse when the it became the tail that wags the dog in the Republican Party. 

But last week, when the Democrats in Congress kowtowed to Tea Party thinking to make life easier for moneyed people, it became disgusting.  

Some background:   The whole purpose of “sequestration” was to make things so uncomfortable for everyone -- repeat, everyone -- that Congress would be forced to do its job and pass a budget.

But when sequestration began delaying flights and thus inconveniencing business people and others with enough money to fly a lot, well, sequestration be damned.  Congress leaped to their defense by approving a plan  to put sequestrationed air controllers back to work and spare moneyed people their inconvenience.  Then the senators and representatives scurried out of town for a vacation. 

And what did Congress do for people who sequestration is truly hurting, not merely inconveniencing?   I’m talking about destitute mothers who are being denied milk for their children, children who have been locked out of Head Start, adults who lost their jobs through no fault of their own and have been forced to depend on rental vouchers and jobless benefits.  Et cetera ad infinitum.   What did Congress do for them? 

Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  Why care about them?  Let them suffer. 

Ah, but don’t let moneyed people be inconvenienced.

A single Democratic senator could have stopped this cowardness.   None did.    

It’s disgusting. 

-Skip

A Personal Note to my Readers 

A couple of things: 

First, up until now I’ve been writing this blog on a sporadic schedule, whenever the mood struck.   But starting Monday, April 29, it will go online once a week  --  in early afternoon every Monday. 

If you are receiving the blog via email, I suggest you click on the bar at the top of the page that says in big letters “Short Takes by Skip Johnson.”  That will take you to the official blog page, which not only is more readable, but also allows you to do such things as write replies and buy books.

If you have earmarked the page and check it occasionally, you might want to scroll down a bit on the right, click the email box, and you won’t have to check for it ever again. 

Second, I just wanted to let you know that, as of yesterday, both of my books are now available as eBooks, each at about half the price of the physical books.

The Gospel of Yeshua is a highly detailed, fictionalized chronology of the life and teaching of Jesus the man.  Paperback version is $19.95, and eBook version is $9.95.  (Hint:  The real drama of Jesus’ last year on earth begins at Chapter 5, when he begins his ministry.  The rest is background matter.)

A Charleston Primer for Yankees is a 68-page straightforward telling of this little city’s remarkable but largely forgotten history.  I wrote it specifically to give Charleston’s visitors an easy way to learn that history in one or two sittings. Softcover book is about $10.  The eBook version is $5.

Finally, thank you for reading my blog.  And feel free to comment. I do not screen comments. 

See you Monday. 

-Skip

Socialism/Capitalism:  Either/Or?

We know that socialism doesn’t work.  Witness the old U.S.S.R.

But we also should know that capitalism doesn’t work either.  Witness the mess the capitalist-driven world is in right now.  

So why not try something new?  

Why don’t both sides admit they don’t have all the answers,  accept that the other side might have some good ideas, and build a new form of government based on both?

It can happen.  It’s very possible for opposite ideals to work together and create something new.  America itself is an example.  

Take justice and mercy.  They are opposites that cannot exist side-by-side, and cannot be bridged.  If we based our courts system on justice alone we would have eye-for-eye and tooth-for-tooth justice.  But if we based our courts on mercy alone we’d live in pandemonium. Yet we base our court system on both, and it works.  

Or take freedom and order.  Freedom lets you do anything you want to,  and order makes you a prisoner.   They cannot exist together.  But in our society, they do.

How?  

As E.F.Schumacher wrote in his classic book, A Guide for the Perplexed, instead of bridging differences, we transcend them.  We admit our weaknesses, appreciate each other’s strengths, work together, and give birth to something new.   It’s called transcending problems that cannot be bridged.  It’s called love.

Actually, we’ve been moving in that direction for a long time although neither side likes to admit it.  Capitalists love their police forces, their  fire departments, their libraries -- all of them socialist organizations. And in recent years communist China has discovered the beauties of capitalism. 

My dream is that capitalists and socialists will someday admit they are moving toward each other, hang up their pride, and move faster.

-Skip