Who I’m Voting for in 2012
As a professor of government and politics, people expect me to have my finger on the pulse of things like the current election cycle. After feeling around with said finger I’ve determined that all of these mainstream candidates are lifeless. But now I’ve found a pair I can support.
Piper Bayard and Kristen Lamb are not only candidates for office, they’re also friends and, if everything works out, will be letting me shoot guns in Texas later this year. So when I discovered that they were running for office I did what any friend of a political candidate would do–asked for a job.
So you’re reading the words of the future United States Secretary of EduClaytion. The fabulous femmes are here today to talk about our plans to take over the country and fix stuff. Let’s get to the interview.
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1. Let’s start with the important stuff. As Secretary of Education, how many interns do I get?
Considering the precedent set in the Clintonian Era for the meaning of the word intern, we believe we should throw out that euphemism and simply call it what it is. Your harem. That way they can’t sue for sexual harassment because the job description is accurate. Our people are contacting Kate Beckinsale’s and Emily Blunt’s people even as we type. We’re sure they will volunteer for the job since they are both reputed to have crushes on you, and they’re used to the attention that will come with the job. Read more »
Politics and Religion: The Party Taboos
One of my favorite parts of being a professor is that I work in places where the open exchange of ideas is expected. They say you should never talk about politics and religion at a party, but I get to teach about that stuff in the academy.
The biggest reason these topics are taboo is that so many people get too emotional at the expense of intellect. But it shouldn’t be that way.
I like to think about these things, especially at a time like this when Time magazine makes The Protester it’s “Person of the Year.” That’s a great call when you think about how much the world changed over these past few months.
I have a lot of unpublished thoughts on all kinds of spiritual-cultural topics but try to use this space sparingly for much of that. In a few days I’m going to post about my new web presence coming in 2012 and will be asking you for specific ideas to help design the new direction*.
One part of that new web stuff will be a place to bring a different side of my brain to the internet discussion. I like the phrase that Donald Miller used in the subtitle of his phenomenal book Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
I’ve written a guest post along these lines for my friend Kim Wilson about how Christians can look like ignorant protesters if we’re not careful. I hope you’ll head over there, check it out, and join the discussion.
*No, eduClaytion isn’t going anywhere, just getting a face lift.
Bin Laden, Terrorists, & the Mendenhall Controversy
Image by Hawk Eyes via Flickr
As the history-political science-professor-writer guy, people tend to ask me questions when big events happen around the world. As quiet as I’ve been about the recent death of Osama bin Laden, I still hear from plenty of folks wondering what I think.
Combine that historic occasion with today’s controversy over comments made on Twitter by Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall and these questions aren’t going away.
So let me offer a short perspective before asking you a question of my own.
First, what did I think/how did I feel upon hearing the news Sunday evening that bin Laden had been killed. A comment response I left at Lessons from Teachers and Twits on Renee’s thoughtful post should suffice. Quoting myself:
“I felt pretty unmoved when I first heard the news. Bin Laden was dead. Brought to justice is a fitting description of that. I thought of the forces on the ground and was happy they did not suffer a loss.
I turned on the news and saw the celebrants. I had an unpleasant feeling too. I thought of the Scriptures and wondered how I should react. Just me. What was the right thing for me to feel and do. The love your enemies part still makes my head twist.
Then I went back to work because my life is no different today than it was before Sunday.”
Secondly, when I awoke today the Rashard Mendenhall story was already raging. If you are unfamiliar, Mendenhall is the Steelers running back (yes, my hometown team) who led the team in rushing on the way to and fumbled during Super Bowl 45. Read more »
The Golden Rule’s Gettin’ Freaky
[This post is part of the SUMMER JUSTICE SERIES. You can start with Part 1 here.]
(Final) Part 7: Make Justice Personal
One of my crunchy friends recently told me about Freegans. I am officially fascinated. As I began to learn about these folks, my mind felt like someone had sawed open my head and sprinkled pop rocks amidst the brain tissue up there. I believe there is hope for the future while simultaneously wondering how long our civilization could possibly go on. We humans are capable of making absolutely anything unhealthy, including virtue.
This week’s finale to our summer justice series is all about making justice personal by creating rhythyms of social awareness and focusing on caring for those we are most compelled to help. I suppose there’s all sorts of levels to this type of living. And then there are Freegans.
When I read about Freegans, I see a group of people that has decided to fight social injustices like poverty and societal decay by creating a system of poverty and societal decay. Lewis Black once said he saw the end of the universe, and it was a Starbucks across the street from another Starbucks. Well, there are people rooting through the dumpsters behind those Starbucks, and those people are Freegans.
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Remarkably, I don’t even need Wikipedia here because Freegan.Info says it all. Take a look and you’ll see this stuff writes itself. According to this mother ship page, “Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.” I’m almost with them so far except for the part where they pretend human nature doesn’t exist.
Let me see if I can sum up the basic philosophy here. Freeganism combines freedom and veganism. These folks once believed in all the possibilities of being conscientious in a society run by businesses that consistently hurt people. They tried all the things we’ve discussed here over the past few weeks only to find that no matter what they did they just ended up supporting some other evil company. So basically they’re socialists; no surprises there.
Now let’s look at their principle based “strategies for practical living,” or as I like to call it, acid candy in my brain matter.
1) “Urban Foraging”
Let’s get right to it: what we’re talking about here is dumpster diving for whatever you need including food. I’m not making this up. Take it from their own site. “Despite our society’s sterotypes about garbage, the goods recovered by freegans are safe, useable, clean, and in perfect or near-perfect condition…” Am I the only one who didn’t realize we had societal stereotypes about garbage? I mean, garbage earned its reputation without being attacked by organized groups.
"Can you believe someone would throw this away?"
So you shouldn’t eat food unless it comes from a dumpster or has been discarded. Oh yeah, anything else you want must never be purchased at a store, but if you find those products in the trash then have at them. So shopping at Ikea is evil, but owning Ikea furniture is fine. Sound principles there. I could say so much here but my brain is really starting to sizzle.
2) “Rent-Free Housing”
The real word here is squatting, to live in a building where you have no legal claim. It’s not just about residences either. (Remember this actually comes from their site.) “…squatters often convert abandoned buildings into community centers with programs including art activities for children…” I know you were probably thinking children weren’t involved, but who else is gonna squeeze into all those tight corners where the good potato chunks fall? Read more »
Reception and Rape
[This post is part of the SUMMER JUSTICE SERIES. You can start with Part 1 here.]
Part 6: Conflict-Free Cell Phones
So I saw my first iPad the other day. Pretty neat. I’ve never been a gadget guy. Most of the time I pick up cool new technology after it’s been out a while. Granted that makes it less cool but way more affordable. I have yet to hold an iPhone or even see a Droid. My last two cell phones have been love-worn hand-me-downs that I’ve switched over to my number. Maybe that’s why I missed so many documented accounts of violence connected to mining minerals necessary for making those little talking rectangles that we just can’t live without.
We’ve arrived at the last major issue of social justice in a series to figure out if and how we can make the world a better place by changing our daily habits. Now to our list of Fair Trade coffee, slave-free chocolate, sweatshop-free clothing and more we add conflict-free cell phones.
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Guerilla warfare, murder, and gang rape are terrifying realities in Congo. The center of Africa is no stranger to civil strife. Nearby Rwanda is still feeling the effects of the 1994 genocide as refugees from that brutal conflict struggle to find peace in a war-torn land.
Squads of fighters battle for control of lucrative mines that produce raw materials found in electronics like cell phones, cameras, video games, and more. These profits fund ongoing acts of violence including mass rape which is used to terrorize anyone who would oppose this brutal system. As we constantly see in Africa, the local people gain no benefit from the lucrative resources beneath their feet.
The most valuable minerals are called the big four: gold, tungsten, tin, and tantalum. Our electronics are filled with these valuable commodities which are sent to nearby African nations and smuggled off to Asia for convoluted processing. According to the organization Enough over 5 million have already died as a result of bloody competition for control of these earthy treasures.
This topic is especially timely right now since the banking reform bill was just signed into law by President Obama last week. Apparently, somewhere in the 2,300+ behemoth of legislation (don’t get me started) there’s a new requirement for companies to prove their materials don’t come from conflicted areas like Congo.* Some folks are jubilant, yet other pundits are quick to point out that:
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1. Proving where minerals came from is very difficult (see video below).
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2. Regulation of this type will turn companies away from Congo altogether thereby destroying the lives of a million plus people reliant on the work from mines.
We’ve seen these types of statements on almost every other similar issue. Evil practices must be stopped whatever it takes. Read more »
Lasting Footprints
[This post is part of the SUMMER JUSTICE SERIES. You can start with Part 1 here.]
Part 5: Reduce Your Waste
A couple of weeks back, Paul Lawrence saw an air conditioner sitting on a sidewalk in Queens, New York. He decided to grab it since the thing had been left for trash. As Lawrence placed the unit in his car, borrowed from an aunt, a city official from the Department of Sanitation approached him, slapped a $2,000 fine on him, and impounded the car. His 73-year-old aunt was also slapped with a $2,000 fine for allowing him to use the vehicle for such a heinous crime.
One of my childhood heroes actually LIVES in garbage.
This is normally the part where I fight back an aneurysm over civilization-dooming government control but not today. We’re past the halfway post of a series on social justice issues, and this week is about how much waste we create, whether or not it matters, and what should be done about it.
Apparently trash on a city sidewalk is city property, and recycling is a major source of revenueso we’ll leave Mr. Lawrence to the court battle he no doubt has coming. Call me naive, but I never realized how massive the business of garbage is in our country. Government controls are just the tip of a trashy heap of problems connected to our waste.
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We live in a disposable world. According to Julie Clawson–whose book Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of our Daily Choices inspired this series–the average American creates a few pounds of trash everyday. She continues by saying:
“…for every 100 pounds of product we acquire, 3,200 pounds of waste were created in the manufacturing process. This waste adds up…”
I agree that waste adds up (check out the video below), but the impact of that waste is being debated by many different voices.
The first argument against waste is usually the claim that we are filling landfills and running out of space. Then I read articles with statistics saying we have way too much space to even come close to filling it all.
Before long recycling enters the debate. I always thought recycling was a fairly positive thing and had no idea how many problems exist worldwide as a result of saving plastics, metals, and more for reuse. I never thought of recycling as an expensive government venture that costs states millions of dollars. The UK found this out not long ago as entire warehouses were filled with discarded products that were supposed to be used as raw materials for future production. That production isn’t always there so governments have to pay to store garbage. But read a few more articles and you’ll hear how recycling creates jobs while saving the planet!
Finally, I’ve heard that the real problem of disposable things is the pollution it creates in our rivers and oceans while harmful toxins are released into the air. So I’m hearing a lot, but what is true? Read more »
Are Sweatshops A Necessary Evil?
[This post is part of the SUMMER JUSTICE SERIES. You can start with Part 1 here.]
Part 4: Sweatshop-Free Goods
What do you think of when you hear the word sweatshop? What images enter your mind? Maybe you’re picturing a dark room somewhere on the other side of the world. What type of people are there? What are these individuals doing? Have you formed some kind of scene in your mind?
The ideas that inform our perspective come from many different places. Depending on your personal view you could have envisioned women in Asia, children in Africa, illegal immigrants in the United States, or even poor white folks somewhere in Alabama. Regardless of your view, most people immediately think of negative, perhaps evil, things. Sweatshops are violative places where laws, rights, and sometimes even workers are abused. You don’t need me to tell you what’s wrong with such pratices.
Like the previous issues in this Summer Justice series, most of us would never support systems that promote injustice if we knew what they were and how to disconnect. The problem is that the line we seek is often blurry and gray. That’s why we’re examining the most common ways people around the world are exploited. The existence of sweatshops gets people passionate in a hurry, but the debate includes prominent voices from all sides.
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Sweatshops are most easily defined as places that produce goods while violating labor laws. They are most common in developing countries but still exist in the most powerful nations on the earth. These facilities exist in the largest cities of the world, and that includes New York and Los Angeles. Common violations include child labor, low pay, long hours, and poor working conditions.
One common misconception is that sweatshops have only existed in recent years. They’ve acutally been around since the Industrial Revolution early in the 19th century. Governments have been instituting labor laws since the 1820s and 30s. Some groups (abolitionists) of those times fought to eliminate slavery. Once they accomplished that objective they turned their attention to abusive labor practices. America finally changed laws to end some of the worst of these practices in the early 20th century.
In the past century companies have continued to receive goods, finished and raw, from facilities where the overhead is low enough to increase profits. Everybody talks about “made in China” but you’ll find goods made in Honduras, Bangladesh, Jordan, Taiwan, and beyond. I just saw hacky sacks at the mall made in Guatemala. In America we swim through millions of products made cheaply in a variety of ways in countries all over the world.
The system is not going to change. Globalization is not going to end. So what are we to do? Some people tell us to stop buying clothing and goods made in sweatshops, but that’s easier said than done when you consider the confusion over the origins of our products and the amount of cheap labor involved in our national marketplace. We’ve already established that we consume too much, but that doesn’t mean we will never consume.
The average person can’t always afford to buy from companies offering a sweatshop-free guarantee. In some ways, you’ll do just as much good buying your goods second-hand. March with me fellow thrift-shoppers and we’ll change the world! Read more »
Blood Chocolate?
[This post is part of the SUMMER JUSTICE SERIES. You can start with Part 1 here.]
Part 3: Slave-Free Chocolate
How many of us really think about child slavery when we grab a candy bar? Most of us just don’t; that doesn’t make us bad people. What is slave chocolate? I set out to learn if any of my snack money could possibly be going to companies that are operating a business on the backs of children falling victims to human trafficking.
To be honest, I didn’t know very much about the exploitation of people to produce one of our favorite treats, but I’ve been eager to learn more for some time. This issue is one of the main reasons I chose to focus on what is often called social justice for these few short weeks.
In case you’re not sure how this works, chocolate comes from cocoa beans. Most of the world’s chocolate originates from the Cote d’Ivoire or Ivory Coast in Africa. Chocolate became all the rage in Europe by the 1600s after the Spaniards discovered it as a favored treat of Aztec royalty. Moctezuma was a huge fan, a total chocoholic by modern standards.
Although centuries have passed, reports indicate that our basest cruelty instincts persist. Let’s establish two straight-forward aspects here. First, what kind of abuse is reportedly taking place in pursuit of “brown gold” as it’s called around the globe? Secondly, are we supporting companies that offer products tainted by these terrible practices?
“The Bitter Truth”
The involvement of slave labor in chocolate production became a major issue about a decade ago. Since then, international community leaders including the U.S. Congress have been setting threatening deadlines warning the global chocolate industry to avoid all involvement with child slavery.
Nothing pierces the heart like some of the first-hand accounts of young people who have escaped or been rescued from these farms. A recent entry on Tropic Post details a small bit of the experiences of these children, usually boys but sometimes girls between ages 11-16.
“The children work under inhumane conditions and extreme abuse, working with sharp machetes and poisonous sprays, from 6 in the morning, till 6 at night…One ex-child slave said 18 children were locked into a 24 X 20 foot room, sleeping on a wooden plank. A small hole was just big enough to let in some air, but they were forced to urinate in a can.”
The article goes onto say the kids were too afraid to attempt escape after others were caught and brutally beaten for attempting to do so.
At this point, slave chocolate gets a lot more attention in other parts of the world than here in the states. BBC News produced this short video on child cocoa workers in 2007. More recently, Paul Kenyon went undercover for a BBC Panorama investigation called Chocolate: The Bitter Truth. He discovered plenty of injustices still occuring in West Africa. Read more »
Is Fair Trade A Farce?
[This post is part of the SUMMER JUSTICE SERIES. You can start with Part 1 here.]
Part 2: Coffee and Commies and Nazis, Oh My!
When Adolf Hitler’s name is dropped, you probably don’t immediately think of Starbucks. Don’t worry latte lovers, I don’t have any secret demons to reveal about the top coffee establishment in the world. You may be surprised, however, to learn the interesting tale that bridges the gap between Nazi Germany and your favorite Frappuccino.
We’re in part 2 of a series and following some ideas by Julie Clawson, author of last year’s Everyday Justice (IVP), a book about the impact our decisions can have on folks all over the world.
You might not think of coffee as a world changer, but individuals all over the planet believe this hot commodity to actually be a consistent cause of injustice. After pouring over some facts, I’m not so sure about that. Regardless, we should examine what we know with open minds.
Many right-leaning folks assume that topics like fair trade and social justice are simply machinations of the left. Many lefties just want to find injustice everywhere they turn, so they have an excuse to tell rich people why they’re so terrible. Either way, this issue warrants investigation. After oil, coffee is the world’s second most valuable traded commodity.
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Many of you have probably seen the Fair Trade label on coffee products. The stated goal of that movement is to provide coffee farmers with a decent income for their work. Most of these poor farmers toil in Latin America, but they didn’t always struggle to earn a decent wage.
For most of the 20th century, Western nations abided by agreements to ensure good wages for coffee farmers. An International American Coffee Agreement (IACA) was established way back during World War II. The fear was that if poor people weren’t paid they might turn to Nazi Germany or some other fascist group for help. The IACA was dead by 1948, and coffee prices declined into the 1950s.
Cold War fears of communism became all too real by 1959 when Fidel Castro took power in nearby Cuba. By that time, African nations were also pressuring the international community for help. JFK took office and America began backing the International Coffee Agreement (ICA), another attempt to fix prices in order to prevent instability in Third World nations that could turn to communist powers if they got desperate enough.
The ICA had a sorted history and plenty of problems to go around yet kept prices up enough until 1989 when communism proved to be one of the worst failures in human history and the Soviet Union fell apart. That was great news for Eastern Europeans and freedom lovers, but without any type of agreement coffee prices soon took another swan dive. Those poor coffee farmers again faced the challenge of getting paid a fair price for their labor.
Enter Fair Trade Certified Coffee.
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The goal of Fair Trade Coffee is to ensure a good living wage by assuring a floor for coffee prices. Think of it as coffee insurance. The program involves other things like access to credit and more. In the past decade, a lot of big money has gotten behind the fair trade label. Retailers such as Starbucks, Sam’s Club, Green Mountain, McDonald’s and many more include coffee products with the guarantee to assist struggling farmers.
The alleged moral dilemma comes in when someone tells you that if you drink coffee without a fair trade label you are actually endorsing evil practices of big companies who cheat laborers out of their profits. If we want to alleviate the pain of some 25 million bean growers worldwide, they say, be sure to purchase the Fair Trade label.
That might be true if we knew the system worked, but critics of Fair Trade have emerged from both sides of the political spectrum. Read more »
Doing “Small Things With Great Love”
SUMMER JUSTICE SERIES
PART 1: Do With Less
Can you do something today that will change the life of someone on the other side of the planet? The choices we make everyday impact people–many of them desperately poor–all over the world. We need to recognize the consequences that result from our decisions. We may be the land of the free, but as Uncle Ben told Peter Parker, ”With great power comes great responsibility.” 
The world is changed one decision at a time. Our focus here is often how to impact lives around us, but what about thousands in far away lands? Many of us in the West see pictures and hear stories of poverty and hunger around the globe but feel helpless to do anything about it. Throughout the summer, this site will look at ways we can help improve the lives of needy men, women, and children across the Earth.
And we can start right now.
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Earlier this year, Relevant Magazine ran a piece by Texan author Julie Clawson which is based on her 2009 book Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices. She has highlighted ways our lifestyles and purchases impact our neighbors around the world.
The focus of this summer series is often called social justice, although I would call it The Golden Rule globalized. Most of us decry suffering when we see it, but it’s easy to feel distanced from far away problems. We may not be directly doing anything wrong or hurting anybody, but we’re often unaware of the price that’s paid elsewhere so that we can have great items at a low-cost. As we’ll see, the cost is often higher than we’ve ever known.
Clawson covers some important issues. Each week I’m going to expand on one of these. If we can change the lives of people who are hurting by simply altering our daily habits yet don’t, do we become complicit in the suffering of others? Knowledge is power but must be unleashed through action. What can you do for “the least of these?” There’s only one place to begin. Read more »
To The Class of 2010 (and Helen Thomas)
I was recently surprised to learn that Helen Thomas was still alive. The great irony here is that I learned this as she was killing her career. No, I’m not making crass zombie jokes. Wh
en I think of a trailblazing woman who became White House Press Corps royalty and covered over 10 presidents, the name that comes to mind is Sarah McClendon (read her book Mr. President, Mr. President! ).
But alas, we’ve been stuck with Helen Thomas, front and center on the seating chart but oh-so-left otherwise, in recent years at presidential press conferences. Until now. Thomas went too far last week.
In case you didn’t know or care, Thomas–the so-called “dean” of reporters–destroyed her career by providing a succinct, anti-Semitic soundbite in front of a recording camera. She feels that Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Germany or Poland or America. You know, places where they should be. Matter of fact, why did the Jews even leave in the first place? Ooh…
Robert Byrd: Available but call soon
But this article is about students not Thomas who was dumped from giving a commencement address at Walt Whitman High in Maryland this month. I have been working with teenagers for years and have no clue what 18-year-old would want to hear a speech from the curmudgeony 89-year-old Thomas. Those graduating seniors can let out a big sigh because the replacement has been chosen and it’s, ooh…, Bob Schieffer of CBS who comes in at a spry 73 years of age and was five years into AARP membership when these kids were born. Good Lord! Was Robert Byrd unavailable? Sorry gang.
Here’s what I can do for you. It’s not much but how about a few words of encouragement right here? It’s short notice, but at least I come within 9 generations of you, and my face and cheeks actually move when I smile. Right then, here goes. Ahem…
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Dear Attention Behold! Yo Seniors of the class of 2010:
Today, as you reflect on days gone by we look to the future. Congratulations on your achievements. You have survived clueless parents, spotty cell phone service, and the American public education system, even at a school that actually wanted Helen Thomas to be here speaking to you tonight. Read more »
Should Muslims Get A Mosque At Ground Zero?
Should New York build an Islamic mosque near the World Trade Center site in Manhattan? Amidst economic crisis, oil catastrophe, and the plummeting popularity of a president this heated debate has exploded onto the scene in recent weeks. Folks keep asking me what I think, so I figured I should formulate some kind of educlayted opinion.
The argument has already gotten pretty nasty since the announcement of the project. The issue remained somewhat quiet until a recent vote by Community Board 1 came down 29-1 in favor of the worship/community center. A quarter of the board members abstained.
This issue comes down to two main questions. Should Muslim leaders pursue this project? Do they have a right to build a mosque there? Everything beyond those two factors falls into the camp of emotions, lots of emotion. As one protestor stated at the board hearing: “This house of evil will be the birthplace of the next terrorist event.”
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A recent caller to a talk show on a radio station which I will leave unnamed objected to the project with this statement: “Would they build a monument for Hitler next to Auschwitz?” That’s an intense reaction. Some folks find that comparison incredibly offensive while others find it accurate. Nazism was short-lived and brutal. These days the beliefs and symbols of Hitler’s regime are outlawed in Germany. I find the Holocaust comparison somewhat off for this debate.
Perhaps a better example would be the Japanese-American conflict of the 1940s. It’s hard for this generation to understand the impact of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941, but that event felt a lot like 9/11 and cost a comparable number of lives. What would you say about a project to build a Shinto temple a few hundred yards from where the U.S.S. Arizona was sunk by Japanese fighters?
Nearly a decade after Pearl Harbor, Japan and the U.S. were building a healthy relationship. Could you imagine a Shinto priest pushing for a facility in that spot? How would Americans have reacted then? Let’s flip the scenario. How do you think Japanese people would have felt about a big, ol’ catholic church right on the doorstep to the Hiroshima memorial? Why would any American even promote such a plan? Sounds like a slap in the face.
Allow me one more distinction between 1941 and 2011. Pearl Harbor was a military facility staffed by men and women serving their country. The World Trade Center was filled with civilians just working and trying to live out their free lives.
Islam is accepted by our pluralistic society, as are many other beliefs. We tolerate opposing beliefs, but we’re under no obligation to celebrate them. Muslims who want this facility have rights in America because heroes of this nation have shed blood by the millions to guarantee freedom. To mere suggestion of this facility does not seem like the workings of peace but a stirring of conflict. Lots of folks say, ”Build a mosque, just NOT THERE!” Yet there’s another significant fact that warrants incredulity.
The Imam and company claiming a desire to “bridge the gap” between Muslims and the rest of America want to break ground on this facility to celebrate Islam on September 11, 2011–the 10th anniversary of the attack. Read more »
Susan G. Komen Foundation Controversy
I was recently taken back when someone placed an order of KFC food before me. No, I wasn’t staring at the ridiculous new Double Down, a ghastly collection of dead pig and yellow slop resting between two pieces of boneless so-called chicken. Let’s spare that for now as I’m sure Jim Gaffigan is somewhere feverishly writing one-liners for a future standup act.
The surprise that got me thinking during mashed potatoes and gravy came from the pink lid on the familiar KFC bucket o’chicken. The company is now tied to the Susan G. Komen For The Cure, the ubiquitous cancer-fighting organization most recognizable by “pinking” everything from the equipment of professional athletes to the gushing waters of the fountain in Pittsburgh’s Point State Park.
The first thing that struck me–other than the irony of KFC promoting an organization most certainly supportive of healthy dietary choices–was how huge this pinking movement has become. Who was Susan G. Komen anyway?
I wasn’t surprised to learn that Ms. Komen had suffered and been taken (in 1980) by the very cancer her namesake organization combats. Her sister, Nancy Brinker, promised to do everything she could to end breast cancer forever.
Fight Cancer & Offend Chickens
According to their website, they’ve invested nearly $1.5 billion in cancer research since 1982. That’s a whole lotta pink ribbons, but what would you expect from “the largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists.”
I was, however, a bit surprised by how much controversy has surrounded the Komen foundation in recent years. Of course there’s no way an organization with so many hands and money involved could ever escape conflict, especially one driven by passionate activists. The interesting thing is the amount of heat burning against these passionate pinkos from every direction. In short, they’ve managed to anger folks on all sides of the political spectrum.
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The very idea of partnering with KFC, which you’ll remember stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken, offended many folks right off the bat. The Washington Post produced the clearest and most useful piece on this debate. In short, the protestors argue about the wisdom of the Komen foundation locking arms with an organization known for producing less than healthy food which, by the way, usually begins with some kind of intense chicken slaughter. See how quickly you can unite medical professionals with the animal rights crowd?
Sure, KFC tosses in fifty cents for the cure with every pink bucket sold, but couldn’t the Komen group find a more sensible alternative? Personally, nothing in this debate really affects me, but as far as business decisions go we might have to qualify this one as not so bright.
While the doctors pitching in on the debate are as close to an apolitical group as we’ll find, the rest of the controversy surrounding Komen For The Cure revolves around front line issues of contention in the neverending culture wars.
Besides mechanized (or any kind of) animal slaughter, some lefties are up in arms over the fact that Komen For The Cure uses Hadassah Lieberman as a paid spokesman. If you don’t recognize the first name, you probably know the last is the same as one Senator Joseph Lieberman, the one time vice presidential candidate for the Democratic party. As most Dems will tell you, Lieberman might be the antichrist, so what would you expect from his wife right? Her sins are many, but she actually speaks on behalf of other companies like Pfizer which oppose healthcare reform. Gasp! Read more »
Almost A Century Of Reagan
The last man to win the presidency by capturing 49 states would have turned 99 today. The anti-Reagan movement has tossed and turned over the past two decades, but it’s quite okay to call the 40th president what he was: Super Awesome.
Here’s a small dose from a healthy batch of the kind of medicine America could use these days. The first clip is taken from his farewell address of January 1989. The second shortie comes from an old-fashioned press conference when reporters challenged political leaders.
Obama’s Uh-Oh Of The Month
The results are in. For those of you unaware, yesterday was actually an election day. If you missed it, don’t worry. It’s only the staple of our entire republican way of life in which we give all power to elected representatives in a free and fair process that is the hallmark of democracy. Whew. Where was I?
Oh yeah, the Democrats got trounced. Not surprising if you read history books. This trend is common. As a matter of fact, you’ve perhaps heard that in all America’s history, each time a political party takes the White House (i.e. Dems in 2008), that party loses the following midterm elections. The only two exceptions are FDR and George W. Bush. Roosevelt had the country’s attention during the Great Depression while Bush rocked America’s approval following 9/11.
So independents in key states broke for the GOP last night. That simply lines up with our history, a two century string of checks and balances where the winners eventually lose and the losers can usually make a comeback.
You can read any of a thousand articles for details, but here’s the important basics you should know to gather the meaning of these elections.
- Obama ‘s influence takes a hit. He personally campaigned a good deal for his party, most notably Democratic gubernatorial candidates in NJ (Corzine) and Virginia (Deeds). They both lost even with the president’s backing. Read more »
Life. Culture. Education.
Life as Pop Culture Professor Clay Morgan
In The Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo he can take the blue pill and go on believing whatever he wants to believe. Or he can take the red pill to stay in Wonderland and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.
This is a red pill type site that provides information in an entertaining way. It’s about clear thinking and good writing. It’s about finding meaning amidst the absurd. It’s about humor and truth.
I’m a writer / speaker who teaches history and political courses at a couple of local colleges. Where is local, you say? Well, that would be Wonderland of course.
On topics ranging from pop culture to the meaning of life, my brain’s always poppin’. Take the red pill and unplug.
