Month: September 2018

On December 16, 2017, I posted a blog called “Distance.”  It looked at the distance between legislators and children who depend on the CHIP health insurance program.  The legislators are removed from the people whose lives they are affecting.  The blog suggests that legislators should be required to perform community service in the hospitals and doctors’ offices where these children are served in order to know them first hand.

Yesterday, the distance between a Senator and the victims of sexual assault was reduced to near zero when two survivors of sexual assault, Maria Gallagher and Ana Maria Archil, confronted Arizona Senator Jeff Flake in an elevator.  These women wanted Flake to know that rushing to confirm Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination as a Supreme Court Judge before fully investigating the sexual assault accusations brought forth by Dr. Ford and others, diminished the credibility of all victims of sexual assault who come forward to tell their stories.  One of these woman said to Flake “…look me in the eyes when I am talking to you.”  Guess what?  He did.

The distance was gone.  The Senator’s humanity was moved.  The vote has been postponed for a week while the FBI investigates the accusations.  This was an example of true democracy in action.  True democracy occurs when citizens are heard by legislators.     REDUCE THE DISTANCE!

The President is reporting that the GDP is up,  unemployment is historically low, and the economy is the best it’s ever been.  Sadly, it is not great for 60% of American households who are not earning a livable wage for full-time work.

Many jobs are undervalued in our country, but for this blog entry I am going to focus on Special Education Para-professionals.  As a Special Education Teacher of high school students with autism, I am dependent on para-professionals to carry out each student’s highly individualized educational program that requires one-to-one interaction.

These para-professionals are expected to professionally facilitate and implement intensive teaching sessions based in applied behavior analysis, discrete trial and verbal behavior techniques.  They are expected to follow complex behavior plans and collect data in this evidence-based program.  They also help students care for all their personal needs and at times sustain injuries when students become upset.  Most importantly they bring love and understanding to these students everyday.

The implemented skills of these para-professionals can mean the difference between life in an institution or a life of self-determination and independence to one’s highest potential.  WOW!

And these amazing people do NOT earn a LIVABLE WAGE!  This is WRONG!  Many have college degrees and most have to work two and three other part-time jobs to make ends meet.  These are not slackers looking for a handout.  These are caring and hard working people that deserve a livable wage.

Essential jobs, like these, need to pay a livable wage and our country needs to invest in education and training to help others fill job openings that need greater expertise.  The booming economy should work for all Americans!

American society has become increasingly stratified.  Government policies and regulations are exacerbating the problem.  The latter is very complex and beyond the scope of today’s post, but change is warranted for our democracy.  Today, I’m going to examine the social stratification and inequality in current day America.

The following information is from http://www.sparknotes.com, Social Stratification and Inequality.

UPPER CLASS – consists of the top one percent of Americans.  These are the people of old money.  People who have inherited their wealth and have no need to work.

NEW MONEY – represents fifteen percent of Americans who have made their fortunes and have no day-to-day financial concerns.  They may or may not work.

MIDDLE CLASS – includes thirty-four percent of Americans.  This is the professional class made up of doctors, lawyers, professors, teachers, and managers, for example.

The above group represents the top 50 percent of Americans.  One commonalty among these groups is that most have a college education.

WORKING CLASS – consists of thirty percent of Americans.  This group includes the skilled trades, truck and bus drivers, factory workers, police and first responders among others.  Some may have a college education or vocational training.

WORKING POOR – includes twenty percent of Americans.  This group usually has a low-level of education and low skill levels.  They most often earn minimum wage with no health insurance or pension benefits.  Their jobs are easily outsourced to cheaper foreigner workers.

The working poor need opportunities for education and training, and to earn a living wage while attending classes.  The working class must be fairly compensated for the essential jobs they fill.  Touting a low unemployment rate when full-time workers are considered poor is not a true accomplishment deserving of bragging.  All workers must be valued and not used!  The author of this article writes, “Every economy needs a group of workers that it can hire during an economic upswing and lay off when the economy weakens,  the members of the working poor are such people, they are the last hired, and first fired.”

One of the main reasons some people have a low-level education or low-level skills is the inequality of public education.  Public education is one of the founding tenets of our democracy.  A successful democracy requires an educated electorate.  Why are some not receiving a quality education?  It is actually very simple.  Since school budgets are based on real estate taxes, poorer areas have less funding for education.  Books, facilities, equipment, technology and staff require adequate funding to produce quality educations.  Federal funding must be used to provide poorer areas with quality schools.

The top fifty percent have devalued the working class and the working poor, even though they depend on the services they provide.  That is disgraceful and must be remedied.   America is not working for half of Americans!  All workers need to be valued!

According to Wikipedia, anomie is a condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals.  It is the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the community, and the fragmentation of social identity and rejection of self-regulatory values.

Jean Paul Azzopardi in America’s Overdose of Anomie, Medium 1/10/2017 writes that “anomie is a condition of instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values from a lack of purpose or ideals,” Encyclopedia Britannica.  He continues, “American society is in a permanent state of anomie in which competitive individualism and weak social institutions lead many Americans to actively resist institutional controls.”

I believe that the extremes of the religious right and the white supremacy movement are attempts to relieve the anomie they are feeling in current day America.  They are trying to impose their beliefs on our entire multicultural country  in order to feel secure.  Others are seeking views and groups that confirm the way they think things should be which is resulting in tribalism.  We need to find common ground.

Growing up in the mid-20th century America provided me and my age-mates with a bright and predictable future.  Graduate high school, get a respectable job and live the American Dream of a simple home in a safe community.  As good paying jobs for the bottom 100 million have become scarce, an uncertain future has become a reality for what use to be the core and strength of America, the working class which was once known as the middle class.

Anomie can result in a positive reboot or an unsolvable decline.  Some say that the election of Donald Trump is the result of anomie in the United States.  For me, and I hope many others, the current Presidency has focused our attention on this anomie and will inspire us to break out of our apathy and vote responsibly.

THE UNITED STATES IS IN A STATE OF ANOMIE.  THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE OUTCOME IS UP TO YOU!