See Ya!
Well, my guest blogging stint has come to an end. Thank you to Jill and the rest of the Feministe crew for allowing me to share some of my thoughts with all of you and thank you to the commentariat for being so engaging. I had a blast and enjoyed all of your comments. But [...]
...read moreEquality and Justice – Bringing it Back to Where We Live
So we generally agree that equality should, at a minimum, include: [T]hat each person be free to choose what they believe is best for themselves, knowing that they will always have the resources they need to survive and that no one will have access to a quality of life that far outstrips their own. Ahem…let [...]
...read moreEquality and Justice, Part II
Last time on posts about esoteric philosophical concepts,* we deconstructed various definitions of distributional equality and attempted (unsuccessfully, in my view) to reconstruct them in a way that fits both our human limits and our sense of justice. Given the difficulty of constructing a definition of equality – one might wonder when the concept of [...]
...read moreLIBOR Manipulation and Why You Should Care
For those of you who don’t follow banking industry news, we are about to enter another banking related shitstorm. The short version is that a large group of banks colluded to steal very small amounts of money from basically every person on Earth for about five years. The money siphoned off from consumers is estimated [...]
...read moreEquality and Justice
Often when I talk to people about equality (I do not just inflict these questions on Feministe readers), the first response is “we should just treat each other the same.” A statement that is typically followed by the assertion that they always treat everyone the same. But, of course, people aren’t the same. We live [...]
...read moreHealth Care and a Dirty Word Called “Tax”
There’s a lot we can talk about in response to the U.S. Supreme Court (“SCOTUS”) decision on the Affordable Care Act. It may have created a deep schism in the conservative wing of the Court [Huffington Post]. Its clear from dicta in the various opinions that there are five justices willing to further restrict federal [...]
...read moreEvangelical Christian Movement: Voting and Elections
During the earlier series on the Evangelical Christian Movement I skimmed over the discussion of the Movement’s political influence in the U.S. It’s a story that’s been covered at length by the mainstream media [New York Times, Huffington Post, CNN]. There is no doubt the Movement is having a powerful impact on our upcoming Presidential [...]
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How do you define Equality?
If there could be said to be a single cohesive idea behind (Mainstream) Feminism [See ed note], I think it would be that feminism is the pursuit of gender equality. But Equality is a highly contentious concept. Are we seeking distributional equality? Equality of outcomes? Equality of welfare? Equality of opportunity? Do you value preferences? [...]
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Summertime! And I’m Back!
Hey All, Guess what? That’s right! I’m guest blogging for a couple of weeks! As most of you know, I’m a frequent commentor around these parts. I’m obsessed with my dog, gardening, and how big, esoteric philosophical questions impact actual human beings. For you that means I’m probably going to post pictures of Chi. In [...]
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So Long!
Well, it’s that time! Thank you for taking the time to read and comment. I learned a lot in these conversations and had a blast doing it. Now the furry despot is calling. See you in the comments!
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Fuck Gratitude
(Have you noticed I start nearly every post with an anecdote? I’m disturbed to discover I don’t know how to begin explaining something without sharing my context. I’m sure its a character flaw somehow. In any event, I wrote this post about a year ago to put up at my non-blog, but decided…eh…no one reads that shit anyway. But since I have the opportunity to inflict one last philosophical post on you guys…I’m going to share it here.)
To me, the concept of gratitude is inextricably linked with the Christian sect I abandoned years ago. As part of our religious practice, I was compelled to write a list each week of the things for which I was grateful. At the time we were poor, periodically homeless in a rural stretch of the bible belt. I was young living with untreated asthma and chronic bronchitis.
I was not grateful.
But, as I was taught, God required gratitude. He was God, we were pots…commence bowing and scraping, otherwise Remember Job! It wasn’t clear to me then what more the Head Sky Cheese could take away, but in an abundance of caution, I dutifully made a list every Saturday night. I practiced gratitude to appease those with power…to ensure power was aware that I knew my place.
***
Last Saturday, I met with a client over at McDs. The details are unimportant, but I had happy news. The orgs working on her case had been able to remove an impediment that was preventing her from obtaining emergency housing for herself and her daughter. In fact, Mr Kristen had twisted some arms and gotten the property manager to come out on a weekend to sign the necessary paperwork so they could move in immediately. While I drove my client and her daughter to pick up their belongings, Mr Kristen coordinated with the orgs to have linens, groceries, and even a few toys and videos delivered. For once, the process worked exactly as we envisioned.
I bring up the success of this effort because usually by the time we’ve reached this point in the process I’m pissed off and apologizing for the continual fuck ups. But this time, I was probably beaming with happiness.
After seeing them settled in Mr Kristen and I started heading for the door. My client moved to get up and I waived her back down and said I’d lock up on the way out. And then she said “I wouldn’t want you to think we were ungrateful.”
Wham…like a stack of bricks.
She’s exhausted, stressed, near to dropping with relief. She’s left her home, her belongings. She doesn’t have a job. Beyond the tiny cash envelop in her kitchen, she had real means to care for her self or her daughter.
And yet she felt the need to be grateful. To express gratitude in case we might somehow take offense if she failed to do so.
...read moreThe Rights of Children – Yeah, I Went There
The U.N Convention on the Rights of the Child is the latest in a line of international agreements on the human rights of children and has been ratified by every member of the United Nations with the exception of Somalia and the United States. Somalia hasn’t refused to ratify the treaty, they’ve just not had the institutions in place to make treaty ratification a reality. In the US, the Convention has met staunch opposition from the right where opponents argue that it strips away parental rights, conflicts with the US Constitution and is generally bad news. So what does the heinous piece of international law say?
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