reilly m gray

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!

MAGA (Make America Great Again) is the wrong message.  It is a false message.  It is a disheartening message that undermines America by causing us to question our greatness.  WE ARE THE GREATEST NATION THAT THE WORLD HAS EVER WITNESSED!  We are first economically, militarily, technologically and, most important, first in human rights.

Our values make us first.  Our faith, truth, honor, integrity, justice, human rights, tolerance and our willingness to work together make us a leader in the world of democracies and a rampart against authoritarian dictatorships.

Our democracy makes us great.  But, democracy is hard work.  Sometimes we run off course, we pull too far to the left or too far to the right.  But, when we work together in good faith, we run true north.  We need to find common ground for the common good.  America is already great, we only need to work together to make it better for all.

America is an ideal, not a single culture or race.  We are a country of immigrants who have come together by the ideal of freedom from tyrants.  Let’s make sure that we all exercise our right to participate in our government by voting and being politically active to protect ourselves from our homegrown tyrants fueled by greed, a greed that is fortified  by unfair government policies that favor the wealthy.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS ALREADY GREAT!!!  Your participation and vote will make it great for all Americans.  Remember a democracy in not easy, but worth the work for we all yearn to live free together.

…doesn’t make it right.  Who didn’t learn this in childhood?  This was Trump’s defense of Paul Manafort’s crimes.  He feels bad for him because all the lobbyists do this and he was the unfortunate one that got caught.  Well, what happened to the promise to drain the swamp?

The scourge of greed is rampant in Washington, big business and the wealthy class.  Financial crimes cost the American people billions of dollars every year.  Dollars that are desperately needed to repair and improve infrastructure, education, and healthcare, and to support the scientific research and development needed to keep America in the forefront.

The cavalier attitude of the President to these financial crimes is not good for America.  These destructive financial crimes are seemingly seen on the same level as speeding.  A lot of people speed, but only a few get tickets.  A lot of people are engaging in tax evasion, misuse of public funds and other financial crimes, but only a few are held accountable.

Some speeders harm others, but all financial criminals hurt others.  Financial crimes cause people to lose their homes, jobs, healthcare and their opportunities, just to name a few of the atrocities created by unfettered greed.

Greed is a sickness, an addiction.  There is never enough.  Paul Manafort is the personification of greed addiction.  He blew through 80 million dollars and borrowed 20 million more.  That is more than the life’s savings of hundreds of retired middle class families.  He used these millions to buy things, not to help others, not to create, not to make the world a better place, not to secure his own retirement or invest in his children’s and grandchildren’s futures.

Manafort is only one sad example of a greed addict in America.  There are many, many more.  They are more dangerous to our country than inner-city crime committed for survival.  Big money needs to be banned from campaign finance and financial crimes must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Republican, Democrat, left, right, center, conservative or liberal are all meaningless without respect, honor, honesty, authenticity, decency, integrity, accountability, empathy, inspiration, empowerment, collaboration, considered decision-making and national stewardship.  These are the qualities I expect from an American President regardless of their political affiliation and leanings.

Our current president is blatantly lacking in nearly all these qualities except for authenticity.  Due to his impulsivity, we are subjected to the first, unconsidered thoughts, that come into his mind through a Twitter feed and this is seen by many as authenticity.  However, to be authentic, every thought does not need to be made public.  Responsible authenticity would involve revealing the collaborative and considered process that was behind presidential decision-making.  These impulsive utterances posted on Twitter are creating unintended consequences and unnecessary anxiety for American citizens.  This is simply irresponsible and dangerous for our country and democracy.

Please vote with these expected qualities in mind…  character is of the utmost importance.

 

American Democracy is gravely at risk, along with western democracies across Europe.  The forces or entities that are working together to destroy democracy, to me, are shocking and almost unbelievable.  Who would ever think that the Russian dictatorship and the greedy world oligarchs bent on destroying democracy across the world would be supported by the President of the United States, the American upper classes blinded by greed, the American lower classes succumbing to Trump’s lies, Christian evangelicals supporting racism, sexism and anti-LGBTQ rights, the NRA and complicit Republicans?  Why is this happening?

Putin wants to dismantle western democracies because they hold him accountable to human rights and international law, including the rule of law, equal rights, free speech, decency and respect, free secret ballot elections, universal suffrage, separation of powers, civil rights and liberties, political freedom for all, an uncodified social contract, limits on the authority of government and an independent judiciary.  Holding him accountable to these ideals keeps him and his oligarchs from the massive amounts of wealth they have stolen from the people of Russia and stashed in democratic countries.

Putin is using computer hacking and social media to undermine democracy from within by dividing us through lies.  Trump is doing Putin’s bidding from the Whitehouse by lying to the American people and by denouncing our NATO alliances.  Trump only has two motivations in life, self-aggrandizement and money (including Russian money).  He has no loyalty to the Constitution of the United States, democratic principles or the American people.  He ran for the presidency because he thought it would be good for his brand.  He uses people’s economic struggles to promote racism, sexism and anti-immigrant sentiment, even hatred, instead of finding legitimate avenues for Americans to find work that pays  livable wages.

Two Trump supporters at a rally were photographed wearing pro-Russia T-shirts that said they would rather “be pro-Russia then a liberal. ” I find it outrageous that they would rather live under the rule of a murderous dictator who denies his citizens basic rights and kills those who oppose him, then in our democratic nation that guarantees individual rights.  I believe they are attracted to the power of an autocrat and the fact that Russia is now a white, Christian, male dominant, anti-gay and anti-immigrant nation and that it is easy for an autocrat to do away with those who don’t fit this limited view.  What they are not taking into account is that they too will no longer be free.  They will be under the dominance of the autocrat as he wields unchecked power and takes the wealth of the country for himself and his lackeys.  Sadly, these pro-Russia sentiments are also embraced by white supremacists who are now empowered by the American president.

Some evangelical Christians have been insulted by how mainstream media sometimes depicts Christians in unflattering ways.  As a result, they have turned to right-wing media for their news where they are taught to fear immigrants, minorities, feminists, muslims and the LGBTQ community, and to distrust the mainstream media and the government that upholds civil, equal and human rights for all, seemingly unwittingly, upholding white supremacists views.  They have become one of the forces supporting those who are deconstructing American democracy.  (See Notes on Christianity below for further information)

The wealthy, the NRA and the complicit Republicans are under the spell of Russian money and power and the tax cuts for the wealthy provided by the Trump administration.  They have lost sight of real American values guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.  They can only see the now, not the future.  They are supporting a new world order, ruled by the oligarchs.  They have forgotten that liberal democracies oppose monarchies and that government exists to serve the people.

Hopefully, it is not too late for us to save our democracy.  Greed needs to be seen for what it is, stealing from all citizens.  Lies need to be uncovered by truth.  Cyber security needs to be a national priority and campaign finance needs to be changed so that all Americans are truly represented in government not just the wealthiest.  I can’t believe an American president is accepting of a murderous dictator, and that the congress of the United States is seemingly looking the other way.

 

 

 

Notes on Christianity:  As a Christian, I am particularly perplexed by the racism and intolerance being spewed by some Christians and the support of a President who promotes such hatred. As an aside, according to pewforum.org, 52% of Liberals are Christian.  What follows is what I have discovered about some Christians.  Pro-Trump evangelical Christians (80% of white evangelicals reported voting for Trump) voted for Trump for his anti-liberal and anti-mainstream media rhetoric.  Some Christians see mainstream media as biased against Christianity because  mainstream news is religiously neutral and some fictional shows, on occasion, depict Christians in a bad or comical light, as they do with other religions and practices.  In The Loudest Voice in the Room, Gabriel Sherman writes that journalist are liberals because they write “…unflattering stories about Christians.” Feeling insulted by mainstream media evangelical Christians turn to right-wing media where they are taught to fear immigrants, minorities, feminists, muslims and the LGBTQ community, and to distrust the government that upholds civil, equal and human rights for all.

Sadly, according to Keeping the Faith by Commentary qz.com in the article titled For Irreligious Evangelicals, Christianity is About Politics – Not God  (11/7/2017), “…evangelical is now associated with prejudice and intolerance.  In the era of Trump, ‘evangelical’ has come to connote not a good news message of grace, but ‘cultural conservatism.'”

Furthermore, according to the Public Religion Research Institute, evangelical views have changed.  In 2011 30% of evangelicals “…agreed that a politician’s personal life had no bearing on their public performance,” while in 2017 “…70% said they would be willing to separate the public from the personal.”  Consequently, “…the results suggest that many self-described evangelicals no longer embrace a spirit of humility, sexual fidelity, and care for those who Jesus called ‘the least of these.'”  And it allows them to support Trump in spite of his lies and infidelities.  Rather, “God is invoked to justify preserving the social order.”  (Their idea of what the American social order should be, white, straight, male dominant and Christian).

The article continues, “It’s no secret that many self-described evangelicals are actually not religiously engaged.  During the Republican primaries, Donald Trump’s base was substantially non-church going evangelicals.  And these non attendees were also more likely to agree with racist and anti muslim views.”  It is a shame that  ” …in today’s polarized culture, ‘evangelicals’ have come to be associated with Trump-supporters and intolerance,” the result of  ” …the cultural right’s takeover of evangelicalism. ”  Moreover, the far-right is using the Christian faith as a foundation to promote “…white nationalism, anti-Islam, anti-gay, anti-immigrant and anti-feminist views.” Christianity is being demeaned by these “non-attendees”  but, true Christian values, according to christianbiblereference.org, include to worship only God not things, wealth or power, to respect all people, to be humble, honest, moral, and generous with both time and money, to practice what you preach, to not be self-righteous or judgmental, to not hold a grudge, and to forgive others.  Fortunately, Ed Cairns of the University of Ulster’s Peace and Conflict research Group stated that ” …the more that people went to church, the less prejudice they showed.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  I was perplexed when I saw this picture posted on Facebook.  Since then, I have heard that some Christians believe that Trump was elected President through Divine intervention.  It is hard for me to believe that God would choose this man of sin to lead our democracy, a man who has no regard for the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law, a man who doesn’t know that its Second Corinthians and not two Corinthians, a man who even believes he is above the law. Trump is named in thousands of lawsuits for his questionable business practices including hundreds of unpaid bills from contractors, vendors and workers that he has stiffed.  Furthermore, why would God support a self-centered, engager of illicit affairs, alleged sexual assaulter and  incessant liar who has been documented lying over four thousand times since taking office?

Seemingly, the Bible warns us of such a person in the following verses.

“Let no one deceive you in any way for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the destined for destruction.  He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, declaring himself to be God” – 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 NRSV 1989

“The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders and every kind of wicked deceptions of those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and to be save.”  – 2 Thessalonians 2:10 NRSV 1989

The lawlessness, destruction and lies of President Trump is not good for our democracy.  The motivation behind these abhorrent behaviors is unfettered wealth and power so that he can try to enter the realm of world oligarchs who have stolen the riches of their fellow countrymen.

He garnered support from the religious right by subliminally calling for a straight, white, Christian nation and the promise of installing conservative judges and cracking down on illegal immigration.  And for this, Christians are willing to look the other way when confronted with Trump’s seemingly unrepentant Christian shortcomings.

As a Christian, I believe we are here to love and help others and to inspire others to love and help.  We are not here to judge, demean and to be greedy.  Fear and narrow interpretations of the scriptures can cause us to believe and act in unsavory ways.  There are no simple answers because the theology of Christianity is very complex.  Sometimes, I think we (Christians) should adopt the Hippocratic Oath to simply do no harm.  As a Methodist, I try to use the Wesleyan Quadrilateral which looks at Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience to hone my beliefs and actions.  With a foundation in Scripture and Tradition, using Reason and Experience of current knowledge helps me to make, what I hope are, good decisions.

I try to respect the beliefs of others.  In fact, the motivation for this blog was to try to understand why people I respect support Trump.  However, I am struggling with believing Trump became President through Devine intervention and not Russian meddling, Jim Comey’s untimely announcement and the shortcomings of the Clinton campaign.

 

I was inspired to explore the concepts of political correctness and anti-political correctness by a letter to the editor of my local newspaper in which the writer expressed his pro-Trump standing as being based on Trump’s “…straight forward demeanor”  which is “… brash but refreshingly direct.”  In other words, he likes and supports Trump’s anti-political correctness rhetoric.

I, on the other hand, find this rhetoric racist, sexist, misogynistic, ignorant, narcissistic, autocratic, reckless, shortsighted, impulsive, irresponsible, undemocratic, un-American, destructive, dangerous and bathed in lies.

As I researched political correctness and the anti-political correctness movement on the part of the Republican right, I found that this is a complex issue that goes back decades.  I am not going to discuss this in this post as I need more time to digest what I have recently read.  I just want to say for now that I uphold respectful, compassionate, empathetic, tolerant, informed discourse of decency and civility executed with the highest character.  Beware that anti-political correctness is being used as a weapon to undermine our democracy.

Complacency is the enemy of democracy.  I think that many do not realize the dangers of recognizing autocrats (dictators, despots, tyrants) as legitimate entities that are worthy of  sharing the world stage with the United States and its allies.  Maybe many do not understand what it would mean to live in an autocracy like Russia.  Even though Russia claims to be a democracy, it is not.  An autocracy is a system of government in which one person has absolute power and is unaccountable to the law and the citizenry.  In Putin’s Russia, political opponents are murdered or sent to Siberia and put behind bars for decades, minority rights are suppressed, opposition is quashed, foreign territory is forcefully annexed, the courts are corrupt, the right to free assembly and other civil rights is limited, police intimidation is promoted and the media is state-run.  There is no freedom of speech nor the right to bear arms.   And Putin has taken the wealth of the country for himself and his friends, the Russian Oligarchs, while the Russian people suffer.

On the other hand, a democracy is ruled by the people:

• no one is above the law as the Constitution limits power
• has a system of checks and balances
• provides separation of powers divided among the executive, legislative and judicial branches
• gives power to the people
• provides personal freedom and protection and equality under the law as guaranteed by the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the laws
• power is divided between national and state governments

 

I think it is easy for Americans to take these democratic attributes for granted as we enjoy so much freedom.  Maybe we would not truly realize what we have until we have lost it.  This is the first time in my life that I fear the loss of our democracy due to the actions of Donald Trump.  Between his shameful behavior with our allies and his kowtowing to Putin, I feel he is not exercising his duty to uphold the Constitution of the United States.  For some reason, President Trump has said “I’ve always felt fine about Putin.  He’s a strong leader.  He’s a powerful leader.”  Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were also strong and powerful leaders, but they also murdered millions of their citizens.

Trump does not see Russia as an enemy of democracy, but only as a business opportunity.  He wants in on the riches stolen from the Russian people by Putin and the oligarchs.  His ignorance of history, the Constitution and the law makes he himself a very dangerous enemy of democracy.  We need to exercise our democratic rights to hold the legislative branch accountable to the people by voting for congressmen/women and senators who will not be complicit to the atrocities committed by this president and who will uphold the Constitution.

VOTE!!!