A New Economy-Back to the Future and Karl Marx

Having just returned from two weeks in Sayulita, Mexico where the news whenever I saw it was a couple of copies of items in the NY Times on a sheet of paper printed and left at the coffee houses. Iam refreshed and seeing a little differently than before. I've decided to take myself away from the addiction of having the TV on blasting away all day with the same headlines generating and regurgitating the same headlines all day long. And the moderators who give the impression they are in a position to make a judgement we the public should respond to, agree with or the like. Kind of like going to the grocer and having the grocer tell you what you should have for dinner authoritatively. How would the grocer know what you require or what you should consume. Even Rachel Maddow is a bit taxing and she is fresher than most with questions that provoke your thinking, not rehasing and selling specific viewpoints that engrandize her importance. I am being selective with The Nation Magazine, Newsweek and the New York Times, Daily Kos and the Huffington Post. But the best info this week in reference to "Economic Crisis and the Bailout" I found on Public radio; a series on how Cuba formed community during their economic crisis when the US had an embargo that had oil, gas and food become non existent for their people's use. Also on KPFA, there was an Economist, Rick Wolf,in New York who basically gave a view of our situation that Karl Marx spoke of long ago. Karl Marx is coming up in references as the discussions of the economy; in that the infusion of $787 trillion may not do more than emergency repair to our economic problem we're being asked to take a deeper look. Looking deeper into the means by which we got where wee are and a shift in our relationships and our lifestyles may be the necessary true element of change that is required. Comparing our sitation with Cuba may be like Apples and organges given our ethos and identity are embedded in individualism and competition; this does not exclude a shift to seeing our lives through shared goals and common good or community, but it does require a step in that we have not considered but may now need to take on.

Marxism speaks of the fact that when you separate people from their ability to produce their own food, specifically out of the farm land and into the urban area, you have lessened people's power in their own lives. They now need to go to the city, get a job and with the money from the job purchase the food, pay the rent. A breakdown in the job and the money loss leaves the person unable to provide for themselves or their families. Well, Rick Wolf of the New School of New York, gives a full discussion of how our lives have changed specifically since 1970. That is the monies we have available have decreased since then. Money had more value relative to the costs at that time, and the families had women at home to take care of them, and the women had the means to be taken care of throughout their lives. At that time only 7% of the women worked outside the home; in the households and these women were in the position of taking emotional and physical care of their families and had the expectation of being taken care of themselves. Divorce was rare. At that time the cost of living began to increase and even with the increase in salaries, the actual value of the monies was reduced ongoingly. These monies were important to the workers in relation to their ability to consume, Wolf says. Consumption is vital because when people are separate from the power of producing their work, consumption becomes increasingly important. The lack of satisfaction in work that is not creative nor does it include the power of the individual to determine its outcome or use, Wolf points out, is the basis for the need for the shopping malls and the entertainment required by the worker. Since the paychecks by the men don't cover the lifestyle and haven't for sometime, the women have gone to work now at a rate of 74% of women work and those monies only allow the family to keep up. 4% of the women worked in 1970. The caretaking of the family is still on the woman's shoulders primarily as the sociologist have maintained, and the women come home tired and cope with the stress of their situations in many cases by the use of antidepressents-some 43% of the population use one form of antidepressent, Wolf claims.

OK, so what is the opportunity given these facts by Wolf and other economists? Back to the land, back to the future is what it looks like to me. Sharing households-only 22% of the population are in the man/woman/children scenario, the remainder are a mixture of friends and family members or living alone. A shift in our reality to see our lives through a different lense that offers more clumping of resourses, clusters of arrangements in dealing with the costs of our lives, financially and psychologically it would seem. Every word about the US economy says we are not going back, can't go back to the economy we have exploited and maybe it's not all bad is what I'm saying. What are your thoughts on this subject? Let's engage in nothing less than creating the future that lies ahead with intelligent optimism-what do you say?

Stone Cold Winter in 75 degree weather

Living in California, Winter has in the past been several weeks of rain off and on and enough chill in the air to make the hot tub in our back yard a rewarding excursion-warming us to the bone, a warming that stays with you, takes the stuff out of you. Whatever you've been carrying around, in the chilled darkness as you dissolve into the liquid heat of 102 degrees, disappears as your body is enveloped by the heat. No more bones, no more sharp angles or sharp thoughts-it mellows you out. Well, that is not this year. It's hot. And it feels wrong. The winter duldrums, the stone gardens bereft of new life in the 75 degree weather and strange white sun light have me longing for rain to cool the earth, to feed the earth, to replenish the earth. The promise of the mission of the Spring to bring life to everything around us is not now. The winter's gray and wet imposes our sealing ourselves off from the outside. That provides the opportunity to regroup, rethink, reevaluate, take less action and more focus and concentration as a response to the demand of the outside being difficult to deal with at best. Waiting for spring, waiting for the buds to appear that's how it is in Winter, but how it is is that the red maple has not lost it's leaves and some other trees have started to bloom-out of synch, out of time.

Global warming, that's what they say. A perfectly brilliant woman said today-oh how can they talk about global warming when it's freezing cold, extrememely cold in different parts of the country, more freezing than usual. Well, of course, that's global warming also actually. What I think is there is adaptation, there is accommodation and change is underway and we will meet this change. We already are becoming conscious of the our carbon offset, the steps we can take to account for our use of the planet is the green book philosophy and this is huge compared to 5 years ago when only the "freaks" were looking in that direction. Now we're all some degree aware and some degree responsible. More would be good, but everyone has the question: are we going to get to keep the world as we know it and if so what can we personally do to have it be that way. Give up our cars and bike or walk, some amount of that goes on where I live but it's because this is a university town and walking is definitely reasonable and biking, a bit of a gamble out there with cars and an occasional bust up with the bike participant being the loser of any such occurance.

The New Year! The New President!

Today in my dance class, Evelyn, who inspires and drives us to an effort that took abit after my taking a 3 week vacation from class, was talking about going to Washington to see Barrack Obama become President. Just getting on the plane with her husband, putting on a backpack and doing whatever it takes to get close enough to see the new President come down Pennsylvania Avenue is her goal. Sounds good to me!

What are your plans for the 20th of January 2009? My friend, Nancy, just invited me to go to Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on Nob Hill where there will be a vigil the night before and a service at Grace Cathedral for the new President. That's the night before. But the day of the actual Inaguration, we plan to be at the Ella Baker Center. Now, especially now, that's where I want us to be.

I was introduced to the Ella Baker Center after hearing Van Jones speak at a Pachimama event; I was so taken by him, what he had to say. He said the Pachimama people had heard of his work in Oakland to stop the Violence on the streets. Young black men killing young black men. Police shooting young black men; young black men shooting police often enough to have the city of Oakland on edge and the people in a state of resignation about what to do. I had experienced the grief of a family that lost their twin sons 21 years old years back. The thing I most remember about that experience was the minister saying: remember the young black men - in prison or dead- are not the end users. They are being exploited, their lives wasted --used and spit out or laid out on the concrete while the people making the money and the people with the money to purchase walk on. Ab and Ob were the twins. I also remember their mother singing with all that she had surrendering her pain to the Lord she said.

But what drew me to Van Jones and the Ella Baker Center was that they are dealing with this loss with the families, with the community and they ARE having an effect. In a meeting I attended not long ago for the families affected by the violence, I realized that both sides of the violence are victims and in the context of this work, both are brought in, both are given the knowledge that they are not alone. When you figure that something like 48% of the young black men bail on high school and have little to look forward to in the future, you can see that the excitement and the glory of having a moment even if it involves a gun but that they don't plan on getting killed or being killed, but think this action might bring them a semblence of a life, you can see where they'e coming from. So what I witnessed in this last meeting was the embrace of the people who come to the Ella Baker Center: to show love to all the parties involved. The Center wants to give hope to young people by giving them training and a dorm instead of a dead end jail that communicates they're nothing to anyone. The Center wants to educate the public on the fact that in the current youth system produces a recidivist rate of 68%, offering no hope and a turn around almost guaranteed. And very simply what I saw was inclusion and compassion in their mission is making a dent.

There are people who have worked with the Ella Baker Center and Van Jones since the beginning, I think it started with 400 seven or eight years ago, and at awards dinner, there were 4000; a growing recognition that a difference is being made. In 2008, there was a reduction in the killings on the street, and in the meeting I attended, a solid number present were the young people speaking about the part they want to make in having this change happen. The lights are on. Someone is home. And there is going to be a new president.

And then you have a man of 22, at the Fruitvale Bart station, two other friends sitting next to him on the concrete platform, he is pushed down on his face by one BART officer who has his knee in his back while another officer is looking in the direction of the car full of New Years Eve celebrants on the train taking the picture shouting out in outrage at the treatment they can see from the BART train. Another officer has his knee on the back of this young man, this young man having at best only his mouth as a means to respond to the officers pressing him to the concrete when the BART policemen reaches for his gun and fires it into this 22 year old's body point blank.

So where I want to be as Obama takes office is with the Ella Baker Center. I heard that Obama asked Van Jones to be on his Transition Team, and I felt like the same lines that reached people so far and so deeply in the population can be a current to actually produce light in the darkest corners of the darkest hours and shed light to heal and bring about the needed change for this segment of the population that is beginning to feel they will be heard and seen. This is the new year and the new possibility.

SIGNS OF THE TIME

Two things happened yesterday I wanted to put out there: 1) a friend in my dance class that I've attended for 8 years had gone missing for a couple of weeks; it turns out Lisa was in Japan; she is an author whose work on Japanese culture is well credited, particularly the giesha girl as her area of expertise. Last time she was gone it was to go to Hollywood to be the technical adviser for the Geisha film a couple of years ago. But this time she wasn't in Japan for that purpose. Far away from the US of A with the election happening, she and her party up and decided to take a trip Obama, Japan, a few hours away from their location. Who knew there was an Obama, Japan? But that morning, the morning after the election, her party went to the township arriving around noon only to find the whole town not on their jobs or visible. They were told the whole town was up celebrating throughout the night the win of Barrack Obama as President of the United States.

Then a very dear friend studies with Lazarus very seriously every year. She shared with me this content: Obama is the perfect leader for this time; his brings less fear and all the hope of the NEW NOW. This higher place we are all reaching for has brought Obama forth as the leader of the Western World. That's funny, he has always said 'it's about you, not about me."

Meanwhile I'm filling out the forms available at change.gov that allow any of us who want to engage to find a place where we can serve in this next Administration. I'm thinking here in oru communities, just like in the campaign. Kind of like millions of people are responsible for the election of Obama and the change underway; we might never know their names or them ours. But there is something we can all contribute. Step one - filling out the application, doubts and all, that that will result in finding that place, cog in the wheel dynamic. The hardest part!

A New Day-A New Time

Yesterday George and I went down to the flea market to hear the drums. We don't go very often, usually when we have friends from out of town who have brought us down the block to visit the market and enjoy the drums, but they can be heard from our house every Sunday late PM. On the way we met two neighbors who over the past ten years, a vague wave has been the agreed upon acknowledgement from them. But the invitation was there to speak, and visit about the project across the street and was a warm exchange. Then once we were there at the drum circle, two of the women there and a couple of the drummers made eye contact, head dipping slightly in greeting. What's so unusual about this you may well ask. Well, we have been here for ten years and this is the first time my black neighbors and the black musicians did more than than the vague wave no eye contact. And this is what I believe the election of Obama has done for us: there is the invitation to engage and a trust I haven't seen ever, an opening allowing expression beyond the limits we all agreed to. I saw that in working in the campaign office and wondered if it would prevail; it's like in that environment young old, rich poor, black, brown or white the walls were down and the commonality of our purpose and our enthusiasm prevailed. To see that out in the world we are all reaching out to have this whiff of possibility become reality is so gratifying, and makes more real the potential I experienced the night of Obama's election. No misunderstanding here, the work is all in front of us but we're ready for this NEW DAY-NEW TIME.

Oakland Convention Center Election Night

Today George and I had a very impressive experience. We went down to the Oakland Convention Center for the 36 hour Calling Party for Obama. The Convention is quite large, can hold thousands of people, and when we arrived at 10 AM we found tables set up and a very comfortable ambiance with people busily dialing up people on their cell phones. We had been to previous calling parties at the Berkeley Center, but this was IT. The election was happening as we were calling. We were calling first Missouri, then Indiana, North Carolina, Nevada being led by a staff that brought different groups to call around according to the different hour of the day given the polliing hours as people voted across the United States. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed and friendly with a substantial number of all ages, all races working together side by side. The calls were pretty straightforward and on the big screen in front of us with the sound off, what was happening across the country on MNBC. In Chicago, the big party gathering for Obama should he win, in Phoenix Mc Cain's party should he win. Right now as I write this, it's hard to concentrate because of all the horns and shouts and energetic whoopees all around town right now. But then things were a bit somber. When we called people, it wasn't a sales call in as much as we identified ourselves as calling from the Obama campaign and asked them to vote and sometimes they offered to say who they were voting for, but that wasn't required and mostly those who were voting for Obama brought up that's who they were voting for, and those who were not simply said they were voting or that they had voted without giving a candidate or being very chatty about it. We also gave Poll information, where they should go, encouraging them to vote, etc. The day went on with a rhythm of the district manager announcing now and then where we were and where we were going. The first polls closed at 3 and so we would begin to have some results then of the voting. There was only one other person that I knew from my dance group but it was a very friendly space so we all chatted as we worked together. The reports from the staff about how we were doing, the number of people we reached and so forth kept the flow moving. A group of black students from a near by high school came in and sat down to get trained to make calls and were enthusiastic about being there. When we left for some lunch at Le Cheval's right across the street, a group of young black students from another high school came marching up playing drums and shouting OOOBAM-AH. It brought tears to my eyes because I couldn't even begin to look at what their disappointment would look like if Obama were not elected. I felt a bit of panic about being in this large group of thousands if that kind of disappointment happened, or if there was some kind of weird breakdown and betrayal as in other elections.

When we came back from lunch at 3:15, the pace had picked up and on the big screen reports began to come in as we were making calls to Indiana and Pennsylvania. The results didn't look that good and the huge room got quiet and I felt a kind of dread that maybe all was for naught. See, the all was about breaking a barrier, breaking a limitation. Everybody knew this was about a black man getting to be President and in so doing, projecting a new image to the world of who and what America is. And how we look at the world and how we are seen by the world will most definitely be altered. So in the Oakland Convention Center as I looked around at the worried faces, as the results came in, and felt the dread of experiencing this potential loss, it was disturbing and then I discovered next to me Bart. One of those young men who knows everything a computer can give you information about, who good naturedly told me the states that were showing up as they did were expected. The tone and the tempo picked up again as we all continued our calls now changing to another time zone of calls. Things went along like that for awhile, and then since the sound had been off and we were all busy with our tasks, it was rather stunning to see the projections appear that had Obama projected as the leader in Pennsylvania, in Indiana, in North Carolina, then in Nevada. Cheers erupted and things sped up from there. Bart, the young man who knew everything who had been very seriously at work next to me suddenly said- it's over. Barrack has one. 538, a now famous poll site, had given evidence that all the rest was going to fall into place and that Barack Obama was at 242 in electoral votes, though the TV was only saying 207. Bart picked up his cell phone and shoulder bag and was on his way out the door.

Then the floor manager announced that there had been something like 1100 people who had worked that day at the Oakland Center and they had made 300,000 calls and had done great work and things were closing down as the door between where we were calling slid open to a party room, balloons, bar, food and party tables with decorations awaiting us. We all strolled over and stood in front of yet another even bigger TV and then it was announced that Barrack Obama was elected President. I saw faces fall and collapse, many faces full of tears and kind of in a devastated state at that news as it wasn't expected. I think we all thought there would be some drama, some trauma, a set back and what there was was an amazing victory. And what I could see on those faces was the removal of the crimp. The young and old black faces trained to think in terms of their race, accepting the limits even as they fought and lost around them, were laid bare by this removal of a reality, a perception that was removed in the election of this Black man as President.

I realize not eveyrone is a Democrat and not everyone is for Barack Obama, but what I was seeing in the faces and the laid open bare and vulnerable young and old African Americans was a sharp removal of something they have carried in one form or another since they had any kind of self concept of themselves, perception of what they are and who they are and what they see in each other that has had them be and feel separate. In that ballroom, those barriers were lifted and the expression was amazing and unique. Where do we go from here I wondered? Barbara Lee, a very brave congresswoman who has time and time again stood and held the line alone quite often spoke. She and the other black congressmen present all acknowledged the impact of this experience of having this major limitation of a group excluded from the office of the Presidency.

Hearing Obama's speech, I felt further that the crimp of self perception and social relevance provided by Obama's campaign and election is responsible for removing in not only the faces of the African Americans, but other minorities in the crowd as we all looked at each other pretty laid bare by this experience. I saw others like myself, who have allowed and accepted things as they are unchallenged, as if it has to be a particular way also laid bare by the potential of what his presidency represents. Will we like animals who have lived in a cage stay within the range of our comfort even as we mumble and grumble about how confining it is, or will we go out there where we don't know how it will be and do what we can to have it be the way we truly want it to be with our fellow human beings. Like Barack said: we can, we did and now every one needs to kept shuffling, keep the essence of the work that has been started out and known to people. There is every reason for optimism though no easy answers and no short term proposition. And, we are all in it together.