Fear and Trembling with the Congressmen
BANGOR, MAINE...February 22, 2005
A nice mid snowy day in Bangor, Maine...The last outpost of civilization in the Northeast... I walked by the courthouse; there was a tall distinguished looking man in an orange jumpsuit with INMATE sewn on the back shoveling snow. I wonder what his crime had been. Surely not mass murder...maybe a bit of embezzlement. I wondered what Dubya Bush will look like in his jumpsuit with WAR CRIMINAL sewn on the back.
The Senior Center right downtown was hosting a forum on the future of Social Security. Congressmen Tom Allen and Mike Michaud were slated to be there so I schlepped on over. A few years ago I applied for membership in the Senior Center and was very pleased that April at the desk asked for I.D.
I walked upstairs to the meeting room and as always sat up front in an aisle seat.
Something you should remember ...(you probably already know)..about learning theory is that people tend to remember the first part of the lesson and the last part of the lesson more than what is in the middle.
So after the panel did their presentations....I jumped up as the first questioner.... Please remember that I have never met a microphone that I didn't like....
I said, "I remember when I was a kid that my father told me that his grandmother had to ask her children for money so that she could buy Christmas presents for them...That was in the days before Social Security....How humiliating and degrading that must have been for my great grandmother.
We are lucky to these congressmen who understand the issues so thoroughly. I am from New Hampshire and I noted that Republican Representative Bradley is on your side in this battle so that is good news.
We should all remember that there are people who have fought Social Security since it was passed on August 14, 1935....Look up on your computer and see who voted against it....The same kinds of people who are against it now. Who would benefit from privatization of Social Security.?.. As in Watergate days....Remember to follow the money. Wall Street could get 60 billion dollars plus in fees and commissions from privatization.
In 1974 George W. Bush said that Social Security would be bankrupt in the year 1984. Well, 1984 was twenty years ago in time....even though we live in a 1984 George Orwell world.
And remember what the Bushies' plan is...to privatize Social Security, privatize the schools, privatize all the prisons, privatize veterans' benefits. There are now 8 categories of veterans' benefits and half of all veterans get no benefits at all.
If you want to know the truth,keep your eye on Grover Norquist.....Grover never lies....Grover was a student in the high school class of a friend of mine John Barclay in Weston, Massachusetts. Grover's father used to take him to the Howard Johnson's on Wallaston Beach and buy him an ice cream cone. Then Grover's father would take the ice cream cone and take a bite out of it..."Sales tax"...then another bite..."Income tax"....then another bite..."Property tax"....when Mr. Norquist was done the little kid had just the sugar cone left with no ice cream.
Grover Norquist speaking for the Bushies has said,"Our goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
Other very knowledgable folks then asked specific questions and made comments about the future of Social Security.
One feisty octogenarian woman approached the microphone and asked," I want to know what you intend to do about these Republicans who want to steal my Social Securtiy?"
The congressmen said that they would fight as hard as they could.
The program was to run from from 1 to 3 PM. When the clock struck 3pm....Congressman Michaud thanked the staff of the Senior Center....thanked the panelists...thanked the people for being there.........
And remembering learning theory I went over to the microphone which was still on...(Thank goodness).....and said....." Scott mentioned that we should not be in the defensive on this issue....We should attack the Republicans for their greed...Hank mentioned alternatives...Bob mentioned "budget busters"....Let's remember the war in Iraq...the biggest budget buster of them all.
We have heard Democratic Senator Biden publically tell Condi Rice that he loved her ; we have seen Democratic Senator Lieberman and President Bush kiss each other in public; and now that the Democrats including Senators Clinton, Lieberman , Kerry and others in the senate and the house have jumped on the War Party's bandwagon indicating that the US will be in Iraq indefinitely, what do we tell the relatives of soldiers who have died and will continue to die in Iraq?
What do we tell our children and grandchildren about the rule of law, personal honor, and human decency in the face of an illegal and immoral occupation of a foreign country? In the UK they have what is called an "opposition party"...Do you see any hope of such a party catching on here in the US...? That is what I want....an "opposition party." "
Afterwards Scott Ruffner who is putting 50 hours a week into organizing a progressive caucus in the Maine Democratic Party walked up the hill near his office...We stopped into Mrs. Thistle's little cafe and nice cups of hot minestrone soup. Scott flies out of Boston tomorrow on his way to Germany. He is to be the Gottvater to two little kids.
Off to the library to check out all of their Hunter Thompson books.....G
A nice mid snowy day in Bangor, Maine...The last outpost of civilization in the Northeast... I walked by the courthouse; there was a tall distinguished looking man in an orange jumpsuit with INMATE sewn on the back shoveling snow. I wonder what his crime had been. Surely not mass murder...maybe a bit of embezzlement. I wondered what Dubya Bush will look like in his jumpsuit with WAR CRIMINAL sewn on the back.
The Senior Center right downtown was hosting a forum on the future of Social Security. Congressmen Tom Allen and Mike Michaud were slated to be there so I schlepped on over. A few years ago I applied for membership in the Senior Center and was very pleased that April at the desk asked for I.D.
I walked upstairs to the meeting room and as always sat up front in an aisle seat.
Something you should remember ...(you probably already know)..about learning theory is that people tend to remember the first part of the lesson and the last part of the lesson more than what is in the middle.
So after the panel did their presentations....I jumped up as the first questioner.... Please remember that I have never met a microphone that I didn't like....
I said, "I remember when I was a kid that my father told me that his grandmother had to ask her children for money so that she could buy Christmas presents for them...That was in the days before Social Security....How humiliating and degrading that must have been for my great grandmother.
We are lucky to these congressmen who understand the issues so thoroughly. I am from New Hampshire and I noted that Republican Representative Bradley is on your side in this battle so that is good news.
We should all remember that there are people who have fought Social Security since it was passed on August 14, 1935....Look up on your computer and see who voted against it....The same kinds of people who are against it now. Who would benefit from privatization of Social Security.?.. As in Watergate days....Remember to follow the money. Wall Street could get 60 billion dollars plus in fees and commissions from privatization.
In 1974 George W. Bush said that Social Security would be bankrupt in the year 1984. Well, 1984 was twenty years ago in time....even though we live in a 1984 George Orwell world.
And remember what the Bushies' plan is...to privatize Social Security, privatize the schools, privatize all the prisons, privatize veterans' benefits. There are now 8 categories of veterans' benefits and half of all veterans get no benefits at all.
If you want to know the truth,keep your eye on Grover Norquist.....Grover never lies....Grover was a student in the high school class of a friend of mine John Barclay in Weston, Massachusetts. Grover's father used to take him to the Howard Johnson's on Wallaston Beach and buy him an ice cream cone. Then Grover's father would take the ice cream cone and take a bite out of it..."Sales tax"...then another bite..."Income tax"....then another bite..."Property tax"....when Mr. Norquist was done the little kid had just the sugar cone left with no ice cream.
Grover Norquist speaking for the Bushies has said,"Our goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
Other very knowledgable folks then asked specific questions and made comments about the future of Social Security.
One feisty octogenarian woman approached the microphone and asked," I want to know what you intend to do about these Republicans who want to steal my Social Securtiy?"
The congressmen said that they would fight as hard as they could.
The program was to run from from 1 to 3 PM. When the clock struck 3pm....Congressman Michaud thanked the staff of the Senior Center....thanked the panelists...thanked the people for being there.........
And remembering learning theory I went over to the microphone which was still on...(Thank goodness).....and said....." Scott mentioned that we should not be in the defensive on this issue....We should attack the Republicans for their greed...Hank mentioned alternatives...Bob mentioned "budget busters"....Let's remember the war in Iraq...the biggest budget buster of them all.
We have heard Democratic Senator Biden publically tell Condi Rice that he loved her ; we have seen Democratic Senator Lieberman and President Bush kiss each other in public; and now that the Democrats including Senators Clinton, Lieberman , Kerry and others in the senate and the house have jumped on the War Party's bandwagon indicating that the US will be in Iraq indefinitely, what do we tell the relatives of soldiers who have died and will continue to die in Iraq?
What do we tell our children and grandchildren about the rule of law, personal honor, and human decency in the face of an illegal and immoral occupation of a foreign country? In the UK they have what is called an "opposition party"...Do you see any hope of such a party catching on here in the US...? That is what I want....an "opposition party." "
Afterwards Scott Ruffner who is putting 50 hours a week into organizing a progressive caucus in the Maine Democratic Party walked up the hill near his office...We stopped into Mrs. Thistle's little cafe and nice cups of hot minestrone soup. Scott flies out of Boston tomorrow on his way to Germany. He is to be the Gottvater to two little kids.
Off to the library to check out all of their Hunter Thompson books.....G
posted by Rev. G. | 3:53 PM
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