Miner Queries: Author wonders.....what do we value?
I have to ask that question as we look back on the election and forward to Thanksgiving.
Do we value our rights to vote and to fair elections? In this last election, the few voters who cast ballots resoundingly voted for candidates financed by dark money donors like the Koch Brothers. These candidates will continue Republican efforts to block voting through voter ID laws and gerrymandering of legislative districts.
Do we value work and the right to earn enough to live in financial stability? Because voters also elected candidates who oppose a living wage for workers and demonize the unemployed as lazy.
As the director of a Methodist non-profit, I meet struggling families. I see kids who are hungry, and I know adults who would love a stable job with solid pay and benefits. These folks seek the dignity of work; they don’t want charity. They want justice.
Do we value programs that feed and educate people? Not really, as Stephen Colbert pointed out last week in a segment about stores selling heavily discounted expired food.
“I’m giving a tip of the hat to salvage stores for showing the least we can do for the hungry is less than any of us thought,” Colbert said. “Sure, it might seem sad to eat things that are expired or damaged, but this is America, folks. If you work hard and play by the rules, you will eventually earn the dignity of an intact box of Triscuits.
“You’re welcome, America’s hungry, because this is as good as it’s going to get,” he continued. “We just voted in the people who want more cuts. . . .”
These same people are out to rewrite the tax code to avoid further taxes. Stephen Wamhoff, legislative director for Citizens for Tax Justice, explains in a recent AlterNet article “that Republicans want to keep cutting corporate taxes—even if America’s biggest businesses aren’t paying an estimated $100 billion a year.” The article, which highlights Wal-Mart’s tax avoidance schemes, continues, “But what’s especially dangerous now is that on the tax front, both parties seem willing to perpetuate the right-wing’s ‘starve the beast’ philosophy, which bleeds public programs and keeps giant tax evaders off the hook.”
Yet Americans have been unable to unify their desire for liberal economic policies (a safety net) with their ideological ambivalence about government (taxes).
Social Security, Medicare and the Veterans’ Administration are great examples. Tea Partiers decrying government interference in their life have sported signs declaring, “Hands off my Medicare!” Clearly, they were unaware it’s a government program, and a liberal one, to boot.
Ignorance about history and government and unwillingness to vote make me wonder if we value the system about which we love to wax patriotic. We certainly don’t appear willing to fight political battles to help each other rise out of poverty or guarantee benefits earned for civil or military service. Instead, we let a tiny group of special interests tell us “the other” guy is a taker.
This also flies in the face of those crying for a “Christian” nation and greater morality. Judeo-Christian ethics overwhelmingly demand we address economic justice – from the prophets through Jesus and the apostles.
So as we prepare for Thanksgiving, I wonder how many people we are leaving out in the cold. What does that say about our values?
Cherie Miner is a local parent, community volunteer, freelance writer and artist. In a former life, she was a corporate writer and public relations professional. Contact her at news@redoakexpress.com or on Facebook.