It was April. Oregon would soon have its primary election. I was going from house to house of registered Democrats and people that had declared themselves “Non-Affiliated” to record whom each individual preferred to be the Democratic Party’s choice to become the party’s nominee for President. I was startled to see so many Obama lawn signs displayed. I discovered not long afterward that a young advocate for Obama from Eugene was working for his campaign independent of the Florence Area Democratic Club. I was canvassing for all Democratic candidates running for political office. She was focused solely on Obama. We would meet and discuss joining forces after Obama won the Oregon primary.
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I began my letter-writing for Obama in May.
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Exploiting idealistic young enlisted men like Karen Mitchell’s son (letters, April 29), George Bush lied us into invading Iraq, creating thusly a war that is indeed “a grievous offense against our troops and the Iraqi people,” the worst of numerous wrongdoings he and his cronies have inflicted on “we, the people.”
Now we have the prime opportunity to “right the ship.”
Not able to square with most Americans its selfish policies, to win elections the Republican Party must vigorously malign all opposition. Because so many Americans have little time, energy, or inclination to research issues and candidates and corporate-owned mainstream media’s purpose is to provide entertaining controversy, not honest, in-depth reporting, Karl Rove’s Right, employing emotion-laden, short-cut justifications, has persuaded susceptible voters to vote against their economic interests. Hence the GOP’s recent focus on flag lapel pins not worn, Muslim middle names, hands not positioned over hearts, irate ministers, and Weathermen bombers.
Who should be our next president: the tolerant, young idealist that will reverse the disastrous, foul direction this country has taken or the pandering, befuddled codger that insists we must prolong it? As always, the Right will frame the choice this way: moral, tax-cutting, common sense-deciding, heroic, authoritarian defender of freedom or immoral, dishonest, defeatist, budget-busting, weak-kneed, elitist socialist.
This time we need to wise up.
Printed May 10, 2008, in the Register-Guard
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The Republican Party disenfranchisement tactics used in the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections and the chicanery that occurred in Ohio in 2004, never officially investigated, had me convinced that Obama had to win big to overcome the substantial handicaps that would surely be placed upon him. I felt I had to warn the reading public of the impending peril.
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Five years ago July 1 the Register-Guard printed a letter of mine that at its end posed the question, “Does it bother you that President Bush … very much resembles Napoleon of George Orwell’s Animal Farm …?”
A critical reader, responding (July 17) that the comparison was “absurd,” wrote that America “enjoys peaceful transfers of power on a regular basis” and “with our numerous checks and balances, a sound structure is in place that makes it very difficult for one individual … to become a dictator.”
My letter’s purpose had been to emphasize Bush’s extreme duplicity. Since then numerous administration crimes and one stolen presidential election have transpired. What I had not intended with my comparison now appears to be well within the realm of possibility.
Author Mark Crispin Miller certainly thinks so. In a recent interview Miller said he believes that if McCain is within 10 percentage points of Obama this November, the GOP will try to steal the election. “They can’t afford to give up power because they are extremely vulnerable to prosecution on many fronts.” If McCain isn’t within 10 points, “they’re going to have to do something else. … This regime has lately been taking some very serious steps in the direction of martial law.”
Ridiculous! Absurd! you say. Why, they would be going against the will of the American people!
Dick Cheney has already said it. “So?”
Printed June 28, 2008, in the Register-Guard
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I was campaigning also for other Democratic candidates. Jim Rassmann hosted a political gathering at a state park south of Florence to enable voters to meet Oregon’s Democratic candidate of the U. S. Senate, Jeff Merkley. I was the last person in line to speak to him individually. I suspect that he had been told by his staff that I was a big cheese, being that I was chair of the local Democratic Club. (Big only in size, truth be told) I remember how intently he engaged me. I had already liked him. He had been an effective speaker of the Oregon House. Our values coincided. He seemed genuine. Therefore, I wanted to write a letter of support, focusing on information about his opponent that was not widely known.
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You will be hearing plenty about how Oregon’s Republican Senator Gordon Smith has voted with President Bush 90% of the time, how he has cancelled out 94% of Ron Wyden’s cloture votes, and how he voted more than 20 times to authorize and fund the Iraq War. There are plenty of examples that debunk the image he wants to project that he is a moderate, independent-acting Republican.
One especially abhorrent to me was a vote he cast in 2006 that would have punished tip workers in Oregon and six other states. These states do not allow employers to count the tips that their workers receive as part of their state minimum wage income. Most Oregon waitresses in 2006 were paid the state minimum wage, $7.50 an hour. What they received in tips was extra income. In states like Alabama, however, an employer was able to pay his worker $2.13 an hour, figuring that the tips she got brought her income up to the minimum wage level. Senator Smith wanted that to happen here.
The next time a waitress greets you at the Olive Garden or a maid cleans your room at Best Western, remember whose interests Gordon Smith represents.
Send Jeff Merkley to the Senate.
Printed July 19, 2008, in the Siuslaw News
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Since 2000 I have found it exceedingly hard to feel optimistic about any Presidential election. Obama seemed up against so much bullshit. This state of mind led me to write the following letter.
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“When exactly was it that the U.S. became a can’t-do society?” New York Times columnist Bob Herbert recently asked.
When the Supreme Court ruled that corporations had the rights of citizenship.
When the interests of industry and the Pentagon merged.
When Ronald Reagan convinced too many voters that government was their enemy, not their ally.
When our elected officials placed corporate benefit above the needs of their constituents.
When the GOP became the party of borrow and spend.
When businesses and jobs went to foreign countries.
When mainstream radio, TV, and the print media became corporate owned.
When the GOP learned it could steal state and national elections with impunity.
When the administration of justice became the exercise of power politics.
When American foreign policy became the quest for military and economic dominance.
When we became too fearful of change, too hateful of designated enemies, too desirous of wanting to feel safe.
Printed August 9, 2008, in the Register-Guard
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There was also a local school tax levy to support. Republicans are notorious for defeating any tax increase regardless of its need. I wanted to draw upon my experience as a teacher to motivate the levy’s passage.
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Tie Kobe Bryant’s right arm behind his back and he ceases to be a special basketball player. Remove the tools that an excellent teacher utilizes and he becomes a mediocre instructor.
I taught English to eighth grade students for 32 years. Teaching young minds personal pronoun usage or the use and placement in sentences of noun, pronoun, and verb modifiers was a challenge.
Teachers have to be problem solvers. Given the right tools to experiment, they can do that. What kept me from being a “blackboard, textbook” English teacher were reams of copy paper and the use of a copying machine.
How did I get students to enjoy learning how to punctuate narration and dialogue? I used their names in silly sentences. The class hero talked like a sissy. The politest girl in the class said and did outrageous things. How did I motivate students to write sharp sensory detail in narrative sentences? I gave them something interesting to observe, typed up their best sentences, ran them off the copying machine the next morning, and that day had them vote which sensory images were best and explain why.
The lesson here is that district supplies matter, much more than the general public might think. Support our children and teachers. Vote for passage of the local option tax levy this November.
Printed September 17, 2008, in the Siuslaw News
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I sent the following draft letter out to various people asking if they wanted to use, revise, and submit it to the Siuslaw News editor. I had had a lot of letters printed recently by the paper and believed that another letter that I might submit would not be accepted.
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The time has come for caring people to repair the enormous damage conservative/corporate governance has done to America.
We have important candidates to elect, and, mind you, we have a vital five-year temporary school district tax levy to act upon. Can you handle a tax increase of $0.95 per $1,000 of your property’s assessed value? That would be $285 annually if your property value is assessed at $300,000 and half that if the value is $150,000.
Our school district has cut $3,464,110 from its biennial budgets since 2003. If the levy is rejected, the district will need to cut approximately $1.2 million from its 2009-2010 budget.
What has caused this shortfall in school funding? A lousy economy. Low-paying jobs. Stagnant wages. The state legislature’s inability to change income tax rates, which favor large corporations and wealthy individuals.
People that hate public education will oppose the levy. So will people that can afford to pay for public services but seize upon convenient excuses to justify why they won’t. So, also, will low-income families so strapped by soaring living costs that losing just $12 a month is a burden too great to bear.
People that value community, however, will support this levy. There but for the grace of God go my grandchildren. A good education is an important equalizer. The son of an admiral can dilly dally through the Naval Academy, marry wealth, own eight houses, and run for President the same year the son of an Oregon mill worker runs for the U.S. Senate.
Vote for this levy. And vote for public officials that support policies that will produce good-paying jobs. Only then will the state government be able to allocate to school districts sufficient funds to ensure that our children receive quality instruction.
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One person did use it. Her September 19 letter made use of the above last three paragraphs.
By October 25, I had canvassed (since May) about 430 houses. I wrote a letter to share observations of the experience.
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Since May I have canvassed at least 250 houses of independents and Democrats. Here are three things I discovered:
Many people haven’t decided yet how they will vote, especially in the U.S. Senate race. Who is Jeff Merkley? TV does not provide sufficient information. Not enough voters utilize the Internet. Untruths circulate, like “Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden work well together.”
Three-minute ads are effective. “I don’t like either of them,” several people stated.
One Democrat declared that she was all for Jeff Merkley but she’d vote for McCain because Obama “wasn’t experienced.” A non-Democrat said that she was for Smith because of all the office furniture that “Merkley bought.”
Nearly everybody is angry – the war, the lack of health care, the miserable economy, mortgage lending thievery – why wouldn’t they be?
A disabled World War II veteran laced into Bush and McCain for the paltry benefits that the administration doles to ex-servicemen and women.
Most people paraphrased what one person said, that “Bush and his crooks have ruined the country!”
Despite his race, despite the garbage thrown at him, Barack Obama should carry Oregon. The Senate race is up for grabs. One woman told me, “I don’t know who I’ll vote for but I’ll probably vote for the Democrat because I’m a Democrat.”
There is wisdom in that. We know who has brought our country to its knees. McCain and Smith were an integral part of that. Obama and Merkley share our Democratic values, but it isn’t necessary for this election that we know that in detail. Our anger instructs us.
Printed October 25, 2008, in the Siuslaw News
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