Written by Editor-in-Chief Jodi Jacobson for RH Reality Check. This diary is cross-posted; commenters wishing to engage directly with the author should do so at the original post.
The House GOP is nothing if not determined to show just how little regard they have for the health and well-being of women in this country.
Just a day or two after launching a politically-motivated “investigation” of Planned Parenthood–demanding audits with taxpayer funds of programs that have already been audited with taxpayer funds–the House leadership released a draft Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill that is a retread of attacks on women and the working poor. The bill would:
- Prohibit federal funding for Planned Parenthood through programs such as Medicaid which provides low-income women with preventive health care, including birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings, annual exams, and STD testing and treatment;
- Eliminate funding for the Title X Family Planning Program, which provides access to birth control, cancer screenings, and other family planning services to five million low-income women each year, and through which women can avoid unintended pregnancies that would otherwise lead to abortion;
- Ban insurance coverage of abortion in the new health exchanges under the Affordable Care Act — taking away a common health benefit that most women currently have;
- Prevent the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (the health care reform law passed last year by Congress), and eliminate the new benefits that include insurance coverage of women’s preventive services like mammograms, cancer screenings, and birth control, with no additional co-pays;
- Cut the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative by $64.79 million — from $ 104.79 million to $40 million — stipulating that $20 million of that money must be used for grants to provide ineffective, abstinence-only education; and
- put in place a sweeping new refusal provision that undermines patients’ access to quality health care, effectively imposing a religious ideology test on access to essential care.
Written by Annamarya Scaccia for RH Reality Check. This diary is cross-posted; commenters wishing to engage directly with the author should do so at the original post.
A change was made to this article at 11:48 am, Friday September 30th to include a missing piece of the following sentence: “The points raised in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ letter may be flawed at best. In its attempt to underscore the narrowness of the religious exemption, the group cites the Church Amendment to the “Health Programs Extension Act of 1973,” as evidence of long-standing federal conscience protections.”
New guidelines applied August 1 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the Affordable Care Act, requiring that employers include coverage of women’s preventive care, including birth control have drawn fierce opposition from the religious.
The new guidelines require all new private insurance plans to cover preventive services—including, for example, breast exams and pap smears, maternity care, HPV testing, gestational diabetes screening and breastfeeding support—sans co-payment, co-insurance or a deductible and without cost-sharing. The guidelines, which go into effect as of August 1, 2012, also require coverage without a co-pay of FDA-approved contraception and contraceptive counseling. And there’s the rub. The Guttmacher Institute recently reported that 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women have used modern forms of birth control banned by the Catholic Church hierarchy, yet some Catholic organizations are crying foul over the birth control mandate.
Based on language from conscience clauses found in 28 states, non-profit religious institutions that exist for religious purposes, and primarily employ and serve those who share their religious values can opt out of offering contraceptive coverage in their group health plans. The HHS opened the interim policy for public comment for 60 days since the announcement, which closes on Friday, September 30.
This option and its interim religious exemption is a point of contention for some religious groups.
Charles and David Koch built an distortion machine to do their dirty work for them. Through think tanks, academic research, political donations and conservative media, the Koch brothers have steamrolled Americans into believing things that are false and into supporting policies that benefit the Koch brothers’ profits.
Social Security has long been among the brothers’ favorite punching bags, but new reporting by the Nation shows Charles Koch praising, advocating—practically begging an ultra-free market economist and mentor to participate and enjoy Social Security benefits.
That Charles Koch would promote and grow Social Security is at odds with his efforts and donations to politicians and think tanks to destroy Social Security, as our Koch Brothers Exposed campaign has proven.
Among the Koch ‘experts’ featured in the video is Jose Pinera. Many experts exposed by our film were working to dismantle Social Security from inside the Bush administration before being Koch-funded, but Pinera was working under the Kochs for many years. The Nation reports Pinera was a key player in the Koch-funded plan to dismantle Social Security and adds that Pinera’s knowledge about public health systems stemmed from his time implementing Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s privatization plans, which had the effect of robbing poor and middle class families.
In one letter cited by the Nation, Charles Koch’s colleagues at another think tank, the Institute for Humane Studies, detail a loophole whereby the Austrian-born and ultra-laissez faire economist Friedrich Hayek could opt into Social Security. Soon after that letter was shipped off, Koch wrote a personal appeal extolling the benefits of Social Security to Hayek. He brought up Medicare too. Koch said the program would cover Hayek’s medical needs even further.
He sends Hayek a Social Security brochure along with the note: “You may be interested in the information that we uncovered on the insurance and other benefits that would be available to you in this country… you are entitled to Social Security payments while living anywhere in the Free World.”
The Koch brothers have donated $28.4 million to think thanks that aim to destroy a social safety net for middle class Americans, and Hayek pioneered that ideology in many ways. Through the Tea Party and Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers have found a new audience for Hayek’s philosophy.
Not only could an Austrian-born crusader against social safety nets draw entitlements from American taxpayers, but according to Koch, Hayek could do so while residing (and paying taxes) in the U.S. or any nation on Earth. This is a dramatic leap of faith from Koch orthodoxy, where government and public service are problems that hamper the Koch brothers’ $100 billion business.
As the Nation rightfully points out, when Texas Governor Rick Perry says Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme,” that sentiment stems directly from the Kochs, who through their wealth have given Hayek a resurgence of popularity through the brothers’ echo chamber and billion dollar distortion machine.
The Nation wonders why Charles Koch didn’t offer some of his own money to treat Hayek’s health issues. The reason is because the Koch brothers are selfish. Indeed the Koch brothers, and how they spend their wealth, is transforming selfishness into an American virtue.
The one African-American running for the GOP presidential nomination said Wednesday the black community was ‘brainwashed’ for traditionally siding with liberal politicians.
“African-Americans have been brainwashed into not being open minded, not even considering a conservative point of view,” Cain said on CNN’s “The Situation Room” in an interview airing Wednesday between 5-7 p.m. ET.
“I have received some of that same vitriol simply because I am running for the Republican nomination as a conservative. So it’s just brainwashing and people not being open minded, pure and simple.”
Herman Cain writes history with lightning.
I have written a good deal about Herman Cain. I do not know how history will remember me for calling out Herman Cain for his race minstrelesque routine and buckdancing role as the human chaff and melanin infused shield against charges that the Tea Party GOP is a movement motivated by white racial resentment.
Perhaps, I will be judged harshly for making him the story of the week back in February 2011 where my short piece here on Alternet got him some shine from the Right-wing blogosphere and Fox News. Maybe some will even praise me for saying what needed to be said and by doing it unapologetically.
Months later, I still consider him an object of great fascination for he is the embodiment of a darkly tragic, and indeed quite painful part of the African American experience in this country that many are loathe to acknowledge: retreat; assimilation; cowardice; and accommodation as a practical type of surrender in the face of white supremacy is a survival tactic deployed by some who are born the Other.
We are not proud of this fact. We discuss it in quiet whispers and scorn those who chose that path. Nevertheless, this dynamic is real as some long ago realized the utility of white patronage as a means to help navigate the perils of the colorline.
Alas, and without regret, I stand by my controversial claim that Herman Cain is a racial projection from the deepest part of the White Conservative Id. In all, Herman Cain is a “good one,” he who does not challenge white folks on racism or dare to speak truth to power.
Although I am very familiar with the Black Conservative script where people of color who do not vote Republican are viewed as being zombies, mentally defective, and “slaves” on the “Democrat Plantation,” sitting, waiting for Black Conservatives to play Harriet Tubman as they lead us to the promised land and the Great White Father that is the Tea Party GOP, I still find such an argument loathsome and a rape of history.
Why? Because such claims stand in the face of overwhelming data on the sophistication of black voters and our role in making American democracy whole. And as a practical matter, such arguments by black Conservatives that other black folks are stupid and dumb ignores a basic fact: maybe African Americans as a group have made a rational choice to support the Democratic Party because of its policy positions? No trickery is needed; no slight of hand is necessary.
Herman Cain’s pronouncements about black inferiority and lack of political sophistication are the echoes of history. History teaches us again and again my friends, as in the Age of Obama a prominent Black Conservative gives life to stereotypes about the simple mindedness of African Americans and paints a picture of a people not fit for democracy.
This is the irony of all ironies: in post-racial America an African American Tea Party GOP front runner named Herman Cain can channel the worst sentiments of the white supremacist tracts of the 19th and 20th century as he belittles the black community while fulfilling the fantasies of the White Conservative Soul.
Thomas Dixon Jr., author of the racist novel The Clansmen (and basis of the film Birth of a Nation) would be proud.
Fate is a trickster. History lives on as it is channeled through surprising totems and oracles such as folks like the Tea Party GOP’s best black friend Mr. Herman Cain:
Since the dawn of history the Negro has owned the continent of Africa rich beyond the poet’s fancy, crunching acres of diamonds beneath his bare black feet. Yet he never picked one up from the dust until a White man showed him its light. His land swarmed with powerful and docile animals, yet he never built a harness, cart or sled.
A hunter by necessity, he never made an axe, spear or arrowhead worth preserving beyond the moment of its use. He lived as an ox, content to graze for an hour. In a land of stone and timber, he never carved a block, sawed a foot of lumber or built a house save of broken sticks and mud.
With league on league of ocean strand and miles of inland seas, for 4,000 years he watched their surface ripple under the wind, heard the thunder of the surf on his beach, the howl of the storm over his head, gazed on the dim blue horizons calling him to worlds that lie beyond, and yet he never dreamed of a sail. He lived as his fathers lived – stole his food, worked his wife, sold his children, ate his brother, content to drink, sing, to dance, and sport as the ape.
And this creature, half child, half animal, the creature of impulse, whim and conceit, pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw; a being who left to his will, roams at night and sleeps in the day, whose speech knows no word of love, whose passions once aroused, are as the fury of the tiger – they have set this thing to rule over the Southern people … Merciful God … it surpasses human belief.”
The House Natural Resources Committee has some explaining to do.
In a blatant disregard of the concerns of affected West Virginia coalfield residents who actually live under the fallout of devastating mountaintop removal operations, a press release summary from the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources’ field hearing on “Jobs at Risk: Community Impacts of the Obama Administration’s Effort to Rewrite the Stream Buffer Zone Rule” completely deleted any mention of the official testimonies by Appalachian coalfield leaders Maria Gunnoe and Bo Webb. The press release reported exclusively on testimony from coal industry representatives, Big Coal-bankrolled politicians and hired coal industry supporters.
“Yesterday a House Natural Resources subcommittee tried its very hardest not to hear West Virginians’ concerns about the destruction and heartbreak of mountaintop removal in their communities,” noted Natural Resources Defense Council staff Melissa Waage. “Now the subcommittee leadership is trying to pretend these people don’t even exist.”
Makes you wonder: Is such censorship in an official document released by the House committee a violation of Congressional rules? And will Democrats on the subcommittee or Natural Resources Committee follow up with an investigation and hold responsible committee staff and members accountable?
A resident of Raleigh County, West Virginia, and a long-time mountaintop removal critic, Webb had openly challenged the hearing’s focus: “The very title of this hearing indicates a bias from this committee against those that are living (and dying) in mountaintop removal mining communities. The title suggests that jobs are at risk if the SBZ rule is corrected. The SBZ rule must be corrected in order to protect The People’s health. It was rewritten by George W. Bush at the cost of people’s health and it needs fixed.”
Gunnoe, who was awarded the prestigious Goldman Prize in 2009, foretold such unfair tactics: “The coal industry and the politicians have for most of my life manipulated and twisted the law in order to legally break this law by destroying our valuable headwater streams. Surface mining has demolished our quality of life and life expectancy in our native homes.”
Here’s the video of Goldman Prize-winner Maria Gunnoe:
Maria Gunnoe testifies at Congressional hearing from jordan freeman on Vimeo.
Video courtesy of Jordan Freedman and Mari-Lynn Evans
Here’s the video of Purpose Prize-winner Bo Webb:
Untitled from jordan freeman on Vimeo.
Video courtesy of Jordan Freeman and Mari-Lynn Evans
As late as three days ago, September 26, the leadership at the U.S. Air Force Academy was still unwilling to distribute a watershed memorandum issued by Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz on “Maintaining Government Neutrality Regarding Religion.” Coming on the heels of the recent revelation by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) that a mandatory part of the Air Force’s nuclear missile launch officer “ethics” training was a Christian theological presentation, nicknamed the “Jesus Loves Nukes speech” by some nuclear missile officers, General Schwartz’s memorandum — an edict that stated in no uncertain terms that no commander or other leader in the Air Force can promote, or even give the appearance of promoting, their personal religious beliefs to any subordinate personnel — was received by all Air Force commands on or around September 13.
General Schwartz’s memorandum (the full text of which can be found in my previous post) quickly made its way down through the ranks at bases throughout the Air Force, as one would expect an important statement of policy from the Chief of Staff would. One notable exception, however, was the Air Force Academy, where the top leadership did not distribute it to either cadets or staff, but kept it confined to a small group of senior officers at a staff meeting.
When Academy cadets and staff started seeing General Schwartz’s memorandum in other places, like the September 16 article from the Air Force Times, many started contacting MRFF, disgusted and angry that something this important had not been immediately distributed to everyone at the Academy.
One cadet wrote to MRFF reporting that when he asked if he could post the Chief of Staff’s memorandum on a bulletin board at the Academy, the response he got was, “Don’t go there. Who’s side are you on?” Apparently, wanting to post a memorandum from the Chief of Staff of the Air Force now means you’re on the “wrong side” at the Air Force Academy. Like most Academy cadets and staff who have contacted MRFF about the Academy’s failure to distribute the memorandum, this cadet first contacted a friend at another Air Force base to find out what other bases had done with it. This cadet, who identified himself as a Baptist in his email, has now become a MRFF client, and he’s not alone. In fact, the number of MRFF’s clients at the Academy jumped from 297 to 341 in the week and a half between the Air Force Times article and this Wednesday, when the Academy finally decided to distribute the memorandum, weeks after it was issued. (This cadet’s email, along with emails from two other cadets, are included at the end of this post. I urge everyone to please read these emails, which describe the situation at the Academy far better than anything I could ever write.)
So, why the sudden change of heart on the part of the Academy leadership? Why did they finally decide to distribute General Schwartz’s memorandum after weeks of withholding it? Well, maybe it was this nice big billboard, containing the entire text of the memorandum, put up by MRFF on Tuesday at a very busy intersection in Colorado Springs, the home of the Air Force Academy.
Of course, the Air Force Academy is doing its best to deny that the billboard had anything to do with its sudden decision to distribute the memorandum right after the billboard went up. But, in doing so, Academy spokesman Lt. Col. John Bryan has succeeded only in contradicting himself to a point where nobody could possibly believe the version of the story he’s putting out.
Lt. Col. Bryan said to the Colorado Springs Independent, “I don’t know why it’s such an issue. Has every cadet seen this? Probably not. Has every permanent party [faculty and staff] seen this? Probably not. That memo wasn’t written for the academy.”
OK, so Lt. Col. Bryan is saying that the memorandum doesn’t apply to the Academy. That’s his reason for it not being distributed at the Academy.
But wait! Lt. Col Bryan also told the Independent that Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Mike Gould had directed the handful of officers at their staff meeting weeks earlier to distribute the memorandum to all staff and cadets, saying that at this staff meeting Lt. Gen. Gould “passed out some copies of the CSAF memo and discussed its message with those senior USAFA commanders and directors — directing them to ensure this message got out to permanent party, staff and cadets, here.” Huh? If the memorandum wasn’t meant to apply to the Academy, as Lt. Col Bryan claims, then why would the Academy Superintendent have allegedly directed it to be distributed to everyone at the Academy, as Lt. Col Bryan also claims?
So, which is it? Was the memorandum only intended for Vandenberg Air Force Base, the base where the “Jesus Loves Nukes” nuclear missile training was exposed, as Lt. Col. Bryan also told the Independent, or did it also apply to the Air Force Academy. Well, that’s not hard question to answer, and Lt. Col. Bryan, as spokesman for the Academy, should have had no problem figuring this out. Besides the obvious — why would the Chief of Staff send a memorandum to all bases if it was only meant to apply to one particular base — the memorandum was very clearly addressed in big capital letters right at the top to “ALMAJCOM-FOA-DRU/CC.” That string of acronyms means all Major Commands and every Field Operating Agency and Direct Reporting Unit, as Lt.. Col. Bryan would know. What is the Air Force Academy? Well, it’s a Direct Reporting Unit, as Lt. Col. Bryan would also know. Yet he is now trying to get away with saying that the memorandum didn’t apply to the Academy!
(As I’ve been writing this piece, the Independent posted the following update to its article: “Academy spokesman Lt. Col. John Bryan has called to tell us he misspoke: Bryan now says he doesn’t know specifically the impetus for Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz’s letter, but that the academy fully understands the message it contains.” So now Lt. Col. Bryan is saying that the “Jesus Loves Nukes” missle officer training wasn’t what led to General Schwartz’s “Religious Neutrality” memorandum? I give up. I’m not even going to try to sort out any more of this guy’s confusingly conflicting statements.)
So, the only question that remains is this: Was the Air Force Academy really planning to distribute the Chief of Staff’s “Religious Neutrality” edict to its staff and cadets all along, or was it the posting of it on the billboard in their own backyard that forced their hand? Well, it is mighty coincidental that the memorandum was suddenly distributed immediately after the billboard went up, after being withheld for weeks. But, the accompanying cover letter from Commandant of Cadets Brig. Gen. Richard Clark, sent to cadets along with the memorandum, was dated September 19, which was before the billboard went up. Why would Brig. Gen. Clark have prepared this letter on September 19 if he wasn’t planning to distribute the memorandum. Well, two things would account for that. September 19 (a Monday) was the first working day after the Air Force Times article came out (a Friday), and cadets and staff were starting to question why they had heard nothing of this memorandum until reading about it in the Air Force Times article. And it was also the day that MRFF’s founder and president Mikey Weinstein, after a weekend of hearing from countless Academy cadets and staff who were disgusted with the Academy’s leadership for not distributing the memorandum, sent a strongly worded warning to the Academy Superintendent, demanding that it be immediately distributed. Weinstein didn’t indicate in this warning exactly what MRFF was planning to do if the memorandum wasn’t distributed, but the Academy knows MRFF well enough by now to have been worried enough to have something prepared just in case their hand was forced and they did end up having to distribute it. And it appears that the billboard was what did it. Nothing else could explain why Brig. Gen. Clark held onto his letter, dated September 19, and the memorandum, until September 28, the day after the billboard went up. Of course the Academy will certainly deny that one thing had anything to do with the other, but the many Academy cadets and staff members who have emailed MRFF since finally receiving the memorandum are all attributing this completely out of the blue turnaround by the Academy’s leadership to the billboard, and aren’t buying any other excuses or explanations. And neither is MRFF, as Mikey Weinstein wrote in the following statement he issued as the calls and emails started flooding in on Wednesday morning from Academy cadets who had at long last received the Chief of Staff’s memorandum.
“Earlier this morning, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) was notified by many of its now 341 Air Force Academy clients, that the Commandant of Cadets, Brigadier General Richard Clark, had sent out to all members of the Academy’s Cadet Wing a cover letter emphasizing the import of Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz’s Sept. 1, 2011 watershed directive of ‘Religious Neutrality.’ Academy Commandant Clark’s cover letter had Gen. Schwartz’s letter appended thereto. This mass distribution by the Air Force Academy Commandant is a true victory for the Constitution. It is also a sad lesson to contemplate in that, but for MRFF’s plastering of Gen. Schwartz’s edict on a giant billboard in a busy area of Colorado Springs just the day before, Commandant Clark’s distribution of Gen. Schwartz’s directive would NEVER have happened.
“I am certain that the Air Force Academy will fall all over itself denying that the MRFF billboard had ANYTHING to do with this morning’s sudden mass distribution to the Cadet Wing of Gen. Schwartz’s ground-breaking ‘Religious Neutrality’ edict. If anyone is either naive or stupid enough to believe THAT ‘coincidence,’ then they would immediately be qualified to replace Academy Superintendent Michael Gould who, apparently, has STILL not yet distributed the Chief of Staff’s directive to either the thousands of airmen who comprise the Academy’s 10th Air Base Wing or the faculty at the Academy.
“We note, in closing, that it was NOT Lt. Gen. Gould himself who distributed Gen. Schwartz’s directive, and that the person who did distribute it, Brig. Gen. Richard Clark, dated his cover letter as ‘Sept. 19, 2011,’ some 10 days ago, even though it only went out today. Interesting mystery there? Maybe not. As recently as yesterday, the Academy was responding to press inquiries about the MRFF billboard by saying that the Academy didn’t have to distribute Gen. Schwartz’s memo because ‘it was never mandated’ to be done. Meanwhile, MRFF will enthusiastically celebrate this clear victory for our hundreds of Air Force Academy clients. We will await all other Academy personnel being likewise in swift receipt of Gen. Schwartz’s ‘Religious Neutrality’ edict. How much longer will Lt. Gen. Gould make them all wait? I don’t know, but right now I’m going to go have a celebratory beer because, as Sammy Davis, Jr. said, alcohol gives you infinite patience for stupidity.”
(As of this writing, the memorandum has still not been distributed to Academy’s faculty and 10th Air Base Wing.)
What follow are three of the many emails that MRFF has received from Academy cadets, the first from September 25, three days before the Academy finally distributed the Chief of Staff’s memorandum; the second from September 28, the day the memorandum was distributed; and the third this morning, September 29, the day after the memorandum was distributed.
DATE: SUNDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2011
SUBJECT: USAF CHIEF OF STAFF GENERAL NORTON SCHWARTZ’S MEMO ON RELIGIOUS NEUTRALITY
Mr. Weinstein and the MRFF, my name is (USAF Academy cadets’s name, cadet rank and title withheld). I became an official client of MRFF just a day ago after personally witnessing the appalling reaction of my USAFA Cadet chain of command and USAFA Officer chain of command to Gen. Schwartz’s awesome memo dated 1 Sept. 11 on “Religious Neutrality.” I called Mr. Weinstein to verify the truth and existence of Gen. Schwartz’s memo and we spoke for a few minutes. I couldn’t believe it was actually him himself when he answered my call. I told this to other cadets and they called him too. He answered the phone call each time himself. He told us that the memo from Gen. Schwartz was very real and did exist.
For the record, I am a Christian (Protestant/Baptist) and occasionally attend worship services here at the Air Force Academy or elsewhere downtown. I only found out about Gen Schwartz’s memo because I saw and heard an officer and 3 other cadets saying some very bad things about you and General Schwartz’s memo, Mr. Weinstein, in the Fairchild Hall academic building at the end of last week. I was really shocked by the messed up things they said about you and the MRFF in particular, very personal and hateful. I googled as Mr. Weinstein suggested and had no problem finding out about Gen. Schwartz’s memo from some websites. Including primarily of course MRFF’s, but others like Air Force Times and the C. Springs Independent and the story by Chris Rodda on Alternet. The “cow milking” thing was pretty unbelievable to me and many of my classmates as all of this sad situation is here. Noone would believe it. But we do now.
This weekend I “informally asked” so as not to arouse suspicion, my cadet chain of command if I could verbally brief my (USAF Academy cadet’s Wing/Group/Squadron designation withheld) about the Chief of Staff’s memo. I also asked, in lieu of briefing my (USAF Academy cadet’s Wing/Group/Squadron designation withheld), if I could post General Schwartz’s memo on the bulletin and message boards etc. located in my (USAF Academy cadet’s Wing/Group/Squadron designation withheld). I was told the following words exactly; “Don’t go there. Who’s side are you on”? Not knowing how to respond, and being shocked, I just said nothing. But the damage has been done and my eyes are now open to the religious bigotry of Christian bullies here at the Air Force Academy. I did not fully see it before. But I definitely do now. So do many of us. I discussed becoming a MRFF client with my mom and dad and another good friend who graduated from the Academy a few years ago. My friend (USAF Academy grad and Officer’s name and rank withheld) said that his/her Wing Commander at (USAF military installation’s name and location withheld) sent out General Schwartz’s religious neutrality memo to all USAF personnel in his/her Wing right after receiving it. Anyways, my friend and parents all encouraged me to do become a MRFF client and I’m encouraging others to do it too. Thank you Mr Weinstein and the MRFF for giving us a place to go for help. It’s clear that if you even ask for help here you are taking a bad risk.
Mr. Weinstein and the MRFF, what about an idea I have? If you wrote a letter to USAF Academy Superintendent General Gould and asked him to please send out the USAF Chief of Staff’s memo on religious neutrality to USAFA cadets and staff, do you think he would agree to it? If you can do this, please tell Gen. Gould that you have heard from many cadets in the Cadet Wing who want to see the Chief of Staff’s important memo being sent out by him, Gen. Gould. That way we would all know that our Academy and Cadet chains of command also see the Chief of Staff’s memo as equally important. If he doesn’t do it, we will all know just the opposite.
V/R
(USAF Academy cadet’s name, cadet rank and title and Wing/Group/Squadron designation withheld)
——————–
(Note: The cadet’s references to “spire” and “cru” in this email refer to the Academy’s weekly religion night, called Special Programs in Religious Education, or S.P.I.R.E., when outside parachurch military ministries such as Campus Crusade for Christ, known as “cru” for “crusade,” come into the Academy.)
Date: September 28, 2011
Subject: Progress at the Academy?
Dear Mikey,
This morning at about 0800 I got an email saying we had new read files, which are documents that every cadet must read and then initial that they signed it. While I believe this is a good step, I’m not sure all cadets will fully read the documents and an issue such as this should be briefed where all cadets will listen. It’s funny that it took you posting a billboard with the letter on it for the academy to do something about it. Do they really not think it is an issue or do they just not care? I thought I would give spire a chance, just to see how it was so I went to Cru. It was fine at first but when I didn’t show up one Monday a few of the cadets made small comments saying that God would help me with my grades more than EI (Academic “Extra Instruction”) will. Who says that? Seriously, I mean what are they teaching these cadets to make them think their religion and going to Spire on a Monday is going to help them more than going to get EI with a teacher. So then I stopped showing up to spire and realized just how much of a big deal this is. Yeah they try to tell us it isn’t a problem but I saw firsthand how it really is a problem, and when it takes a month to send an email to us cadets from the Chief of Staff of the Air Force it shows how messed up our leadership is. I sat around for weeks wondering if any cadets would hear about this email, if our leadership would show what kind of problem was at this school and they failed…again. They covered it up just like anything else they don’t want to deal with. I’m glad you were able to show the message to the community and force General Gould’s hand to do the right thing. Mikey you fight everyday to make this place safe for the cadets who are pressured by the spire groups, and the cadets that attend spire.
Sincerely,
A cadet who wouldn’t feel safe here without you and what you do.
——————–
Date: September 29, 2011
Subject: It’s A Jewish Thing, A Money Thing
Mr. Weinstein, my cadet roommate (cadet name and rank withheld) told me last night that one of his friends and classmates was in a class yesterday afternoon in Fairchild when another cadet in the class by the name of (cadet name and rank withheld) was telling people in the class that the only reason that Military Religious Foundation put up the billboard was to attack Christianity at the Academy. Another cadet challenged that statement and the cadet who said it responded by saying that you only put the billboard up because “It’s a Jewish thing, a money thing. He’s just crucifying Christ again for the same 20 pieces of silver.” I’m sorry to pass this on. I am not Jewish. I am Catholic and face the same pressure to convert to being a “complete Christian” all the time. All I can say is that none of us knew anything about General Schwartz’s letter until sometime on Wednesday morning which is the day after you put the sign up in the Springs. Thanks for all you do for all of us here at the Academy. If you want to hear more my class schedule is very tough today and I have alot of GR’s and some papers due but my cell number is (cadet’s cell number withheld). What the leadership has done with General Schwartz’s letter is real messed up. We see the lies. They hate you guys here. But many of us don’t.
(USAF Academy cadet’s name, rank, title and Cadet Squadron withheld)
Written by Nancy Schwartzman for RH Reality Check. This diary is cross-posted; commenters wishing to engage directly with the author should do so at the original post.
Dear Friends,
This Saturday, the International SlutWalk movement finally comes to New York City. After thousands of women marched along the streets of hundreds of cities around the globe, we will gather in New York City’s Union Square together. At The Line Campaign, we recognize that there have been many valid concerns and contentions over the name—primarily that it doesn’t speak to many women of color, or others who are offended or who aren’t in a position to parade under a “slut” banner.
“Slut Walk” as a name began as a challenge to the notion that what might fall under a contemporary description of “sluttiness”—revealing clothing, flirting, drinking—does not equate consent to sex, and never justifies rape. However, somewhere along the line it became about re-appropriating the word “slut” into an empowering term, something that many women of color have expressed feels dangerous and counter productive to combating a problematic history of racialized sexuality.
SlutWalk was never meant to be divisive—but its controversial name was both a blessing and a curse, gaining media attention, but inciting a politically theatrical debate that veered the movement off-course from a universal struggle against victim-blaming and started dividing women along race lines.
SlutWalk is a grassroots movement, often spearheaded by young people organizing for the first time. Every movement has its growing pains, and we hope that SlutWalk can work through these contentions and mature into an inclusive and groundbreaking movement that inspires conversations and further organizing that lead to real change.
At The Line Campaign we see the SlutWalk Movement as a tidal wave against rape culture and victim-blaming, something that women of all backgrounds need one another’s support in resisting. Women have organized across the world, from Toronto to Buenos Aires to Mexico City, Kyrgizstan, and Morocco under the universal agreement that we, as women, have had enough. I hope that you will continue this movement by joining us to march from Union Square at 12 noon sharp; I will be speaking along with representatives from Radical Women, Red Umbrella, Queers for Economic Justice, Domestic Workers United, STARR, Sex Worker Outreach Project, International Socialist Organization, and other independent activists.
In Solidarity,
Nancy Schwartzman
Written by Holly Meyer for RH Reality Check. This diary is cross-posted; commenters wishing to engage directly with the author should do so at the original post.
One night in January after a lot of dancing at a friend’s house party in Brooklyn, a male neighbor and I made our way back to our building less than a mile away. We’d both consumed alcoholic beverages but nothing unusual for twenty-somethings on a Saturday night. My roommate had a new love interest at home with him, so to give him some privacy I went back to the neighbor’s apartment to crash, which I’d done several times before. I felt safe going back there as I’d spent a lot of time with this neighbor in a Will & Grace, Glee-watching, Katy Perry-listening kind of way. He’d had a homosexual relationship for more than a year prior to our being neighbors and for all intents and purposes I thought of him and treated him like a gay, male friend.
The next thing I know I’m feeling my pants being pulled down off my body. I heard the neighbor mutter, “Time to take charge of this situation.” And then I felt a small penis trying to enter me from behind. “No. Stop. No. Stop.” I kept repeating. I was in complete shock as I felt him enter me twice while I continued to say, “No. Stop. No. Stop.” I then felt him lift his weight off of my body and retreat. I felt frozen and totally incapacitated.
I didn’t realize fully what happened to me for at least 24 hours after the incident. I was stunned that this neighbor had just sexually violated me.
The latest episode of Reverend Billy’s Freak Storm, filmed at Liberty Plaza. Reverend Billy connects occupying banks and #OccupyWallStreet
Let’s get up from our computer, get out of our cars, come down from whatever fundamentalism keeps our America old and violent and profit-taking – and go down to the public square that sits there covered with pigeon shit and the shadow of a soldier on a horse – and sing the 1st Amendment! Start our culture over! REVOLUJAH!
There are thousands of personal finance books, magazines, radio and TV shows. Yet money anxiety persists. No one is immune.
Financial fear lurks in the once safe nooks and crannies of our daily lives. Millions of hardworking Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. With economic uncertainty so high, even those with emergency funds and retirement accounts are prone to night sweats about their financial futures.
Our money is holding us hostage. Like a bag over our heads,
financial anxiety prevents us from seeing and feeling
the truest of joys that life has to offer.
I’ve spent the past few years traveling around the country speaking and connecting with folks about money. And it’s become crystal clear to me that we are whirling around like a centrifuge when it comes to our personal finances. There is a lot of movement, but no forward progress.
Time and again I’m asked the same 20 basic money questions. Over and over I cite the same 20 core financial answers. Yet it feels like nothing is changing. As a society we remain twisted up in severe money pain.
Clearly, there’s another dimension to our personal finances that has yet to be addressed.
Lately I’ve been thinking about the concept of a “money tree.” In this image, the leaves represent the traditional financial advice we’ve all been hearing for years; the branches, our emotions; the trunk, our familial and cultural programming; and the roots (deep underground and invisible to the naked eye), our spiritual underpinnings.
To date, 90% of our energies have been focused on fixing our financial leaves. But a tree cannot be healthy if the branches are overburdened, the trunk is damaged, or the roots are weak. Likewise, my hunch is that our financial lives cannot be rejuvenated without an equally holistic remedy.
So with this post I am embarking upon a one-year journey – a quest to find financial peace of mind. My goal is to find “something” that in one fell swoop will help us never worry about money again.
Photo credit: neilio / ccl
My hope with this adventure is to find a framework or concept that can be used by all people in all situations to soothe money pain. A tool that works – regardless of your age, gender, income, occupation, or religious affiliation – to guide you to make a lifetime of financial decisions that make your heart sing. Just in the way a scared kitten might hide under a sofa, I want to help call out our money joy from wherever it has sequestered itself from so many of us for so long.
Crazy idea?
“Problems can’t be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.” -Albert Einstein.
In a couple of very messy areas of my own personal life I’ve seen how this works. With regards to food, Suze Orbach and Geneen Roth have taught us the power of “eating what our bodies want.” With regards to human interaction, Marianne Williamson and Gabrielle Bernstein have shown us the power of assessing our actions through a spectrum of “love versus fear.” These simple frameworks have powerfully transformed our relationships with ourselves and with each other. These touchstones work because they come at the underlying problem from a vastly different consciousness than the one that originally birthed the problem.
I believe deep down, at a guttural level, that there is a financial equivalent out there as well…
If this resonates with you, then please join me on this journey to MoneyZen. Together we can find the pathway to financial peace of mind.
[This post originally appeared at ManishaThakor.com.] Want to join the journey to MoneyZen? You can follow personal finance expert & author, Manisha Thakor, on Twitter at @ManishaThakor or sign up to get her MoneyZen email updates delivered right to your inbox by clicking here.
