Tina, Talking.

Can This Nomination Be Justified?

Thanks to Democracy Guy for pointing out the following:

Can This Nomination Be Justified?.

I've always been unable to resist George Will, mainly because of ... Baseball. I know, it's a moderately shallow reasoning, but I dropped off watching baseball as much since the kids have been born. They really don't enjoy it all that much yet. I have been encouraging Sage to follow the box scores, and she's starting to get percentages. It's a start.

In any case, I don't read George Will as much as I used to, but I'm happy to be pointed over there today! Dense-ish, as always, but a good read. And this, at least, should get through to my Dad!

Stop Loss Measures

I think the main reason I can't support Wal-Mart in Cleveland is because allowing it to happen shows a frightening lack of understanding on the part of those who would welcome it. A lack of understanding about poverty. Being the big city with the highest rate of poverty in the country (within the margin of error, but certainly within the top three), we need to be approaching every issue with an eye toward both bringing families and individuals out of poverty, and preventing more from becoming (statistically) impoverished.

While I am not a huge supporter of the military establishment, I see the thought process behind, and the sense within their stop-loss measures. They're not getting enough recruits, so they are not allowing current members to leave. Not necessarily nice, not what the troops planned for, but there's no other feasible option.

Here, we have a lot of people living in poverty. Yes, one of our main goals should be to increase the conditions of their specific lives. But we also need to put in place whatever stop-loss measures we can come up with to make the number of people living in poverty stop increasing. Wal-Mart has been clearly identified to increase poverty and decrease the general living conditions of the working poor; it's also been shown to increase reliance on government assistance, which in a city like this is a big deal. The first thought any of the people in a position to assist with this decision, and any major decision in town should have been "Will it increase the number of poor people in Cleveland?" and the answer to that question is inescapably, "Yes."

So the answer to the Wal-Mart question as a whole should have been "No."

If they cared about the future of Cleveland, they'd see there was no other feasible option.

A couple of the facts from Purple Ocean.org are listed on Brewed Fresh Daily today. Look it up. It's scary, folks.

If that damn flying Smiley-zorro price thing shows up here ...

OK. I know I told everyone I was going to be writing about race in Cleveland, and I will be, but as often happens, something possibly more crucial, annoying, and in some ways related has intervened.

After much handwringing and letters to the editoring by many of us around here, it’s been determined/decreed that the feared Wal-Mart will be coming to Cleveland. The only way it seems to me that it won’t happen at this point is if it’s all a big scheme by Jane Campbell and that she’s planning on at some later date supporting the actual people of Cleveland and forbidding Wal-Mart from darkening our Steelyards. I give that about the same chances as ... well, none, OK?

I am a staunch supporter of locally owned businesses. A locally owned and operated business employs my husband and supports my family. I choose independent retailers over national chains, often to my own fiscal detriment. Among larger stores, when we have no comparable options, or no other place to get the items in question, again, I choose with my conscience over convenience.

I absolutely recognize that I am in a privileged position to be able to make these choices (If this hadn’t come up, I was even going to post today about the NYT Class In America Series , with it’s really cool graphic, but that’ll also have to wait a few days). I do not fault anyone who is in a position where choosing Wal-Mart for the cost saving aspect is a necessity. I will not fault anyone who will anxiously await a job at Wal-Mart, or who knows that a job of any type will mean so much to them and their family.

These are the people I fault:

Frank Jackson -- for not saying, at any point in the last several months, “My feelings on Wal-Mart are beside the point. Joe Cimperman’s got some good legislation here that could benifit the city for years to come (not to mention help my run for Mayor, because 90% of the informed public is against this particular development), and we need to get it enacted, whether Wal-Mart remains interested or not. Let’s do this now.” Because if he had said that, chances are the law would be in force now, and Wal-Mart would not be coming.

Mitchell Schneider -- for obvious reasons (shortsightedness, general sneakery, selfishness, etc...)

Jane Campbell -- because this seems to me to be her way of saying she’s not going to run for re-election. She’s going to take a bunch of contributions to her war chest from developers and other people unconcerned with the future of Cleveland, and she’s going to leave the city at the end of her term. Because she’s unconcerned with Cleveland, it makes no difference to her if more people end up on welfare. After all, she’s losing support as it is. Our city ranks highest in poverty. And if she does run, she’s just made her re-election so much less likely. If she takes her war chest elsewhere, she will have a much better chance. I can’t imagine she doesn’t realize this. And I know that this announcement coming when it did (following the DFAS realignment possibility) was no kind of coincidence.

It’s very sad to me. The reports are out there, showing what the addition of a Wal-Mart to a struggling area does. I don’t know that there’s anything left to do, but if there is, some of the other local bloggers who have started discussing this, like Democracy Guy , Callahan’s Cleveland Diary , and Jeff Hess will clue me in, I’m sure.

Ohio -- Blue Living

I'm finally getting around to posting something of minimal substance here, because I've realized that it has to be started before it can be continued; basically, every couple of days or so, I think "This would be great to post on a blog" about something that happens, or I see, or whatever. And then I realize that I've been trying to start posting to a blog since January, and it hasn't happened yet.

So now, while the whole family has been sick off and on for a couple of months, Sage is well and fully settled into first grade, Solana is enjoying pre-school, and Mike and I have cancelled our plans to emigrate (definitely more on that later), and I couldn't possibly additionally delay my work on my NaNoWriMo piece, I've decided to squeeze in a couple of minutes to start this thing. It figures.

I've posted my real name in my profile, in case anyone is actually seeking me -- they'll find me. I know that a High School friend and I have been actively looking for another friend, and while we've found many suggestions as to her whereabouts, she has, as far as we can tell, no reasonably available email address associated with her real name. While it's unlikely that anyone who wants to find me is having a hard time, since I'm pretty much as obvious as I always was, if you are someone I know from real life, even distant real life, welcome! I can't wait to hear from you!

Most of my online acquaintances know the following stuff about me, but I'll put it all here again, for the sake of jogging my own memory as to what I still need to post about, and what I've already done. I guess I could potentially link from this paragraph to the 'full stories', too. We'll see.

I have a husband and two daughters who are all wonderful. We live near Cleveland, Ohio. My husband is a jazz musician, and I stay at home with the girls. I'm thinking about going (back) to work, or school, soon. The option I like the most is art school; for the past couple of years I've been doing some textile art, having a lot of fun with it and finding that art was something I had never really considered as a career. And it might be worth considering. Then again, I think about studying to be a nurse. Many of the things I've studied before are not conducive to poor economic times -- much like art school would not be -- and sometimes, lately, I get really scared that I'm going to need a seriously lucrative job on the spur of the moment. I hope not, and it doesn't have anything to do with the way things are going in my specific life, but sometimes politics and whatnot seem so unstable and creepy, that it seems prudent to have an RN in ones pocket. I'm sure it is prudent, but I haven't yet decided if it's necessary. I love it that I'm able to take my time and decide.

Despite the recent election results here in Ohio, and the fact that it would make absolute sense if every adult with any kind of reasonable thought process were fleeing Ohio and possibly even the country, Mike and I have decided to stick it out here for a while longer. At least. It would be a strictly politically motivated move, and to leave the country, move away from our families and restart everything seems kind of preposterous, when we'd just be doing it to protest the election (well, the last two major elections, really, and mostly the new bigoted Ohio marriage act), and I still think I can feel optimistic about the way that'll all play out in the courts.

Because I find it beyond insane that not only can the voters not clearly articulate what 'separation of church and state' means (if you doubt this, read a couple of days worth of letters to the editor in the Cleveland Plain Dealer), but someone is encouraging people to petition for religion based laws, and they're passing because of (one can only hope) the lack of education of the electorate. What I'm planning on doing while I stay here in Ohio is some educational activism. Really.

And part of the reason I'm starting to write now is that people need to know that there are educated, tolerant people in Ohio. I hope that at some point, someone will come across this blog and believe that. I am disappointed that Kerry lost, but I can surely deal with it. I'm actually a registered Independent, and evaluate each candidate individually, and on their own merits (or, sadly, the lack thereof). Designating oneself Republican or Democrat really makes no impact on me, as there are so many shades of both red and blue. [as I've seen in many, many cool graphics people have made this week. I'll link later if I can find them again] I've recently really enjoyed looking at the really neat quiz and graphs at Political Compass. I'm not at all where I'd expect on that, based on how Americans define their affiliations. Even my husband (who I'll have take the quiz later today) was surprised to hear where I fell. But he admitted I was in good company.

I could go on about the election for some time, but my overall point is that in the United States of America, religion has no place in politics, or the voting booth, or the legislature. People who make claims that the anti-gay legislation is *not* about religion scare the hell out of me. Because if it's not about religion, it's about bigotry, and while both thoughts are hurtful, I'd much rather be living amid a bunch of religious maniacs than a bunch of bigots. And the problem is that right now, I just can't tell who these people are. Or how they've remained so hidden -- or how they're so disingenuous about their true beliefs.

In my city, I have seen more diversity than I have in any other city I've ever visited. Yes, more than New York, more than San Francisco... (I'm not saying these cities are less diverse -- I'm saying it's more apparent here because there are fewer of us, and the differences are spread out evenly -- you can and do find the same variety in those bigger cities, but because they're bigger, you have to move around to see it all. Here, it's all just ... here.) I can't think of any other allegedly diverse areas to which I've traveled (I've been to probably 40 states and maybe 7 countries, but I'm trying to think of cities noted for diversity). And this diversity was a huge draw for us in choosing to live here.

My goodness -- we have two kids we believe absolutely deserve to be around people of all types, appearances, abilities, talents, financial means and cultures. [This doesn't mean we accept some things as diversity -- you'll never convince me that bigotry, for example, is a trait that should be embraced and heralded. Some things seem made specifically to cause confusion and anger, so we know just what to work against. I only add this because I've seen a lot of people lately going around commenting on blogs about how people need to be tolerant of those who voted against gay rights, etc..., and that's not only a cop out, it's frightening in a lot of ways. Ways that I won't get into here, but rest assured, you will find no quarter here if what you have to say is 'embrace intolerance'. No way.] As Americans, my daughters have the right to be a part of an integrated, tolerant community that requires no adherence to any religious dogma as a prerequisite to full inclusion. Honestly, for the time being, we have that here.

My city is pretty small, but there are a wide range of people from an enormous diversity. I see Muslim women who wear the veil every day, and many days I see Orthodox Jewish women who cover their hair. Of course we know many Jewish people who do not adhere to Orthodox customs, and Muslims who choose not to 'cover'. I see blind people everyday, some with guide dogs, some with canes or friends helping them. Our city is very wheelchair friendly, and people of differing abilities are a significant part of the population. We know a lot of Unitarians and a lot of Catholics. We know a lot of businesspeople and a lot of artists. There is every color in the range of human skin tone here, and that's reflected in every venture out of the house (Not to mention the four of us in our house cover a good portion of that range ourselves). There are many single parent families. There are people struggling to get by and multimillionaires. And of course, there are tons of gay people. So many that it's not even an issue -- which is how I think things should be. Which is why I was so stunned and tortured this week after hearing the ridiculousness of the Ohio electorate. (I should mention that my city overwhelmingly voted against banning gay marriage, and voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry. We're just a virtual island.)

Anyway, what I've been working on for awhile, in anticipation of actually blogging, was a 100 things list. Only I kept thinking about how where I live informs more about me than do random facts about my life. And so I've been working on a 100 things list of reasons why I love where I live. And it makes more sense now, because much of the nation -- and world -- is under the impression that Ohio is a creepy inbred backwater. But it's totally not. And yes, I am eternally optimistic. I can't help it, I'm a Sagittarius, through and through. Which is also why I spend so much time thinking about philosophical and political issues. Also why I could probably continue writing this for another week -- or editing it for another year -- but I won't. (This is why NaNoWriMo will be good for me, but also why I'm really behind already) And my older daughter is a Gemini, so I also know that this could be much worse, and I should thank my lucky stars that I am so optimistic. 'Cause otherwise, I'd totally be out of here.