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Romney and the Tax Debate
Typically in most campaigns we end up with weeks of coverage over an issue, that while important, seems to suck the air out of any other important topics. So far in the Obama v. Romney campaign it is whether or not Romney should disclose fully his taxes.
On Monday we got a “sneak peek” into Romney’s finances and an interesting fact floated to the surface. Last year Mitt Romney made $20.9 million just from his investments. How many people anywhere in the world are in this position?
This partial revelation needs to open a new and important set of questions for Mr. Romney and President Obama. A set of questions that has been plaguing our civic debates and hampering our ability to pass legislation that increases jobs, asserts responsible regulation and protects the most vulnerable.
A debate that asks: how do we create a balance between the individual and his or her right to make a living and the shared responsibility we all have for clean water, safe bridges, robust schools, and job opportunities? Please note this is not asking if we should do this but how we should do this.
We share this responsibility because we share this planet and its resources and no amount of money should buy anyone out of his or her common humanity.
Roosevelt put it this way: “A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people’s property, other people’s money, other people’s labor, other people’s lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness … These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power.”
I am not saying that Romney is a part of this small group or shares this mentality. However Roosevelt’s words could well sum up the economic conversation we have or have not been having as a country. And if Romney and Obama want to govern they need to be able to explain how one person can amass $20 million in one year while 24% of American children are living in poverty.
We need a debate not just about transparency surrounding wealth but how we close a gap that is not created because one person works harder than another but is created because institutions and their elected leaders are failing – and that is a lot more than a failure to disclose.
Hunger Games: May the odds be ever in your favor!
This post will make the most sense for those of you who have read the Hunger Games series or at least seen the first movie. If you are reading this and have not seen the movie or read the books I recommend giving them a try if only for the questions they raise.
Simple low down – Katniss Everdeen lives in the future United States. Through different past events the U.S. has shifted from states into regional districts and the districts are ruled by the Capitol, the nation’s largest city. Katniss lives in District 12, one of the poorest districts and the one responsible for providing coal to the Capitol for energy.
The Capitol, in an effort to maintain control over the districts, holds an annual “Hunger Games.” Each district (excluding the Capitol) holds a “reaping” in which a female and male “contender” who are between the ages of 12 – 18 are selected in a drawing ran by Capitol officials. These contenders are then brought to the Capitol to live in an arena where they will fight to the death. The last one standing is considered the “victor” and when they return home may live in the “Victors Village” in their own district.
The entire “games” is televised and seen by Capitol citizens as entertainment while the families in the district must watch as one of their own children kills or is killed or both. Katniss’ sister, Primrose is chosen, but Katniss volunteers to replace her in the games. And so begins an incredible story of survival, the bounds of love, and the power of the powerful to change a life.
The Hunger Games is a gruesome story line and one that is easy to dismiss as too fantastic. When would any country demand that their children fight to the death in a televised spectacle?
And yet as you read the book or watch the film there is something chilling and familiar in the lines of the story – tell me if any of this rings a bell …
A part of the world that guzzles resources while those who live around it are cast into poverty…
A part of the world that watches “real life” on T.V. finding humor, entertainment, and even pleasure in the struggles, humiliations, and tragedies of others…
A part of the world where a child who dies in one neighborhood is treated differently than a child who may die in another neighborhood…
Sound at all familiar?
The Hunger Games draws from realities in the present and casts them into the future – what will it look one hundred years from now? Reality T.V., consumerism, government, how we are in relationship to one another?
Will the great – great grandchildren of today’s first graders stand in a line praying that their name is not called ? What do we need to create today, what do we need to change today to make sure that the “odds” will be forever in everyone’s favor.
Read the book, see the movie, have a conversation and tell me what you think.
We remember them: the Kandahar killing spree
I am haunted this week by the Kandahar killing spree. I keep thinking of the young men I met through the Afghan Youth Peace Initiative, some as young as 12, and I wonder what if they were one of the 16? What if one of those brave young men working for peace in Afghanistan had been dragged from their bed at 3 a.m. and shot in the head?
I am haunted by this soldier. After his third tour and traumatic brain injury he believed he would be sent to Hawaii for a desk job, instead he was sent to the most unstable area in yet another war zone. What had happened to him that the only option left was to shoot men, women and children in the middle of the night and then light their bodies on fire?
I am haunted by Leon Panetta who bluntly told the press, “war is hell,” and to expect that this type of tragedy would happen again.
I am haunted by the story we keep telling ourselves that in this war there are “good” deaths and “bad” deaths as if the loss of any human life fits into such cheap categories.
I am haunted and yet I know that peace, justice and healing find their roots in what haunts us, what disturbs us and what will not allow us to say death and suffering and horror are what we should expect. So I borrow from the traditions of healing I have been taught in Colombia. Another war zone, another place where too often death is treated as a normalized outcome of “war.”
The Colombians have taught me the power of memory and how in honoring those who have suffered, those who have died, you hold open the space for what can be – for what we do not yet see but refuse to ever relinquish our hope for…
So as a way to honor memory and pray for hope I offer this prayer for all those who have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and all the places of war around the world…
Leader: In the rising of the sun and in its going down,
All: We remember them.
Leader: In the glowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,
All: We remember them.
Leader: In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of spring,
All: We remember them.
Leader: In the blueness of sky and in the warmth of summer,
All: We remember them.
Leader: In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn,
All: We remember them.
Leader: In the beginning of the year and when it ends,
All: We remember them.
Leader: When we are weary and in need of strength,
All: We remember them.
Leader: When we are lost and sick at heart,
All: We remember them.
Leader: When we have joys we yearn to share,
All: We remember them. So long as we live, they too shall live,
For they are now a part of us, as we remember them.
From Prayers for Life, Edited By: Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon
Recall Elections, Recalling Democracy
Wisconsin continues to make national news and has become the bell weather for the health of democracy in the United States.
The country is watching and gaining hope from watching the grass-roots struggles of the people in Wisconsin who are refusing to respond to the extreme agenda of Gov. Walker with apathy and fear.
Check out this piece from Democracy Now and a link to an interesting website called “Scott Walker Watch”…it even has the first round of a petition to recall Gov. Walker! Thank you for leading the way!
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/10/wi_recall_marks_labor_win_election
Saving Monsignor Ryan
Sorry for the link last week that did not work. Sadly I still cannot get it to work, however I have a new way to participate in the budget talks.
MoveOn.org is providing an online forum for people to share ideas and build momentum to create a “new contract” for America that honors workers, elderly, children/persons with disabilities and those who are undocumented .It also calls for accountability in how resources are divided and taxed.
http://contract.rebuildthedream.com/
Also, below is a quick read on remembering our own heritage of Catholic Social Teaching from National Catholic Reporter.
Cong. Ryan on Catholic Social Teaching
by Michael Sean Winters on Jul. 12, 2011
Congressman Paul Ryan, House Budget Chairman, has a post up at Our Sunday Visitor [3] in which he explains how he understands Catholic social teaching and its applicability to the budget he has proposed. He neglects to mention that the USCCB, which knows rather a lot about social programs, how they work, and whom they help, disagree with his proposed cuts.
Still, Ryan gets points for trying. I just wish he would read a bit more deeply in the writings of another Ryan, Msgr. John A. Ryan, who is sort of the father of Catholic social teaching in the U.S. Ryan, the Monsignor, understood the need for government to assist those who have been marginalized by our incredibly dynamic society. He also recognized that unrestrained capitalism was a great danger to the stability of society, which is why he advocated for the very programs that Ryan, the Congressman, is aiming to gut.
