Category: Columns

by Jim Miller

These are grim times. The worst are full of passionate intensity and the best lack all conviction. The Democrats at the state and national levels seem ready to embrace economic scarcity and budget cutting as the “new normal” while the right smells blood in the water and is going in for the kill on collective bargaining rights, women’s rights, environmental regulations, funding for education, and long untouchable social programs. While the Democrats play prevent defense, the corporate-funded right is going for it all, working to change the rules of the game permanently, short-term costs be damned.

My family and I moved to Ocean Beach in 1966. What a wonderful place it was then.

There was always a lot of activity on Newport, and there were so many stores that the locals could shop at and find almost everything they needed: Lownes Department Store; Elms Men Clothing; Para’s Book and Magazine shop; Denny’s Restaurant and later Mayfair Market.

As I write this, the US Congress has still not agreed on a budget to keep our government from shutting down. The sticking point between paying our soldiers and keeping federal offices functioning is a rider which the Republicans introduced to eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood—or as they pitch it, to eliminate funding for abortions.

On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King was in Memphis providing support and encouragement to 1300 African-American sanitation workers who had walked off their jobs in that city. His soaring prose repeats the mission that defined his life- the achievement of justice and equality for African-Americans which our constitution promised to each and every one of us. He made it clear that “We mean business now and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God’s world.”

Thoughts Stemming from Viewing “Precious Knowledge”

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the range of ethnicities in our country, of how all human beings innately identify with racial and cultural ties that go back ages and ages in our personal histories. Who we are was set in place in ancient times. It’s natural, the way its supposed to be.

But somehow in the mix some human beings decide that their ethnicity is the ultimate of ethnicities and looks at others fearfully and fitfully.

I could hardly believe what I was reading in the San Diego Union on Saturday, March 26, 2011. Across 5 columns was the headline, “FDA OKS FIRST MELANOMA DRUG THAT EXTENDS LIFE.” I couldn’t help but wonder what my husband’s oncologist would say about that headline.

The drug is known as “Ipilimumab” and will be marketed under the name of “Yervoy.” Let me tell you about my experience with this drug.

Hey, Jihmye, I send these words directly to you because I know based on your Baha’i faith that although you’re no longer here carrying on with us physically your journey has not come to an end.

But, oh, what an existence your earth bound life has been, my friend. From the beginning to the end. Dropping out of school early, fleeing Dixie in Uncle Sam’s army, blessing all within your reach with your art and your poetry and your very presence. To me you were like a breath of fresh air in a world that can, without reason or rhyme, be so suffocating and crushing at times.

Every time I hear someone who is anti-gay use the tired and sorry modern day cliche: “God meant Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” I think back to how it was instilled in me as a child that “God is love.” So I cannot even imagine a God who would be complicit which such un-Godly ways of thinking.

This video news clip is about the unknown Japanese workers who are putting their lives in peril to avert a nuclear disaster. This is a sobering reminder about what workers do.

The right in this country has declared war upon the working class. It is hard for me to imagine the Koch brothers putting their lives in peril to avert nuclear disaster. Maybe that’s worth thinking about too.

Sometimes when I look at our species, at the things we do, the wars, the isms, the way we so easily cast aside opportunities to better our lives, I wonder are our brains fried? Have we no spiritual pride? Have we no natural instincts imbedded inside our hearts and souls that can lead us to be more loving towards each other and act as our moral guide?

Aren’t we aware that our children are watching at our side and they, like other animals, cannot survive if they don’t see a model for how they should live their lives?

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