Our Lady of Drinking Liberally

(Cross posted on Square State)

I have always had a love/hate relationship with organized religion. I love the food, the holidays, the hugs, the community, the caring and the belonging. I despise the judgment, dogma, us-against-them, and hypocricy. I have to admit, though, those religious people sure know how to organize when their is a bee in their Fox news-watching bonnet.

My religious journey took me from a conservative Christian upbringing in the midwest with eight brothers and sisters, more than one hundred first cousins, and a loving Southern Baptist Grandma who would not allow us to play cards, roll dice, wear pants, play with the unsaved neighbors, or turn the window fan on high because "the Lord loves moderation". From there, after going to a Methodist church some, I found peace within a community of Jewish Humanists who did not care if I believed in God, and most definitely assured me, if there was a Hell, which none of them believed in, I wasn't going there for piercing my ears or doing other things normal young people do. So, I converted to Judaism.

Humanistic Jews often overlap with the Unitarian Universalist Churches, where I was reintroduced to Christianity through a liberals-only side door. As I studied world faiths and Biblical history to become an interfaith community Chaplain through an on-line program (I have married about 75 interfaith, atheist and GLBTQ couples to date), I started to see how fundamentalist Christianity really held its favor with at least 33% of the nation's citizens.
The secret to Fundamentalist Christian organizing during the Reagan and Bush years was potlucks. Yes, potlucks. Let this inter-spiritual Jew explain.

I learned from two of my much-loved, Sarah Palin-supporting,"tea-bagging" sisters that people will come to events, they will call their legislators, and they will write letters, if it is part of a community event that is FUN. As we say in Judaism as well, "If you feed them, they will come". Have a potluck, and give everyone a phone sheet. Have a Bible Study meeting with cake and prizes on a Tuesday morning, and give your guests letters to sign. Have a chocolate party on Saturday, then go canvassing. Have a church picnic, then go demonstrate outside Planned Parenthood. Have a pizza party with the youth, then introduce them to the local President of the Young Republicans.

What were Democrats doing during those years (before the grassroots Obama revolution)? We poured our long-suffering volunteers into hot library rooms and made them listen to intellectuals like John Kerry or Al Gore, complete with charts and graphs on Powerpoint, and references to the New York Times. Snore. (Or as I often felt, "Kill me now".)

What would Jesus do?

Jesus had suppers. Not well-planned, fundraising suppers in Aspen with organic farm-raised chickens on arugula with brie and the best merlot, either. In fact, he often didn't have enough food, and improvised. "How much bread and fish do we have? Well, we'll make it work somehow."

He broke bread with his friends all the time, then talked long into the night about social justice. Jesus was a long haired, homeless, Jewish hippy who preached conventional mystical Rabbinic wisdom peppered with common sense: "Throw out your rules and just LOVE each other. Feed the poor. Care for sick people. Love your neighbor. Love your enemies, even. Don't worry. Be happy". (Kind of like an early Bob Marley, if you will.) If you read the red-letters in a Christian Bible (the words Jesus actually said), he never bashed gays, condemned people for being sexually intimate within a committed relationship, warned people not to watch Harry Potter, or burned library books. He would be appalled at the richest nation in the world having 50 million people without health care. I'm quite sure of that.

Jesus was a pretty cool progressive Rabbi if you ask me.

In fact, Jesus was probably gay. In Biblical Judaism, many children were betrothed as early as 5 years old, and were often married at puberty. For Jesus to be wandering around with his BFFs without a wife, and in his thirties(!), he had to be either (a) very rebellious, or (b) trying to avoid someting. Was he married to Mary Magdeleine, as some scholars believe? Maybe. Could she have been a Queen Bee (that sounds so much kinder than the other phrase)? No one knows for sure.

All I know is, I sat at Living Liberal-ly Centennial yesterday (we changed our name to reflect that fact we are more a group of progressive friends than drinking buddies), surrounded at our extra-long table by people of many ages and genders and colors, and thought, "This is holy". We drank a glass of wine, we broke bread, and we talked about feeding the poor (economic recovery), caring for the sick (health care reform), loving our neighbors (goodwill ambassadors), and being able to forgive those who trespassed against us (Bush and Cheney).

Watch out - fundamentalists, liberals have discovered your secret.

Guest Contributor Dr. Carol Blackard: Letter to Polis and Markey

Response to Rep's Polis and Markey's letter of opposition to House Health Care Reform bill
Sunday, July 19 , 2009

Representative Jared Polis Representative Betsy Markey

Dear Representatives Polis and Markey:

This is a response to your letter of July 16, 2009 to Speaker Pelosi opposing the financing provision of the HR 3200, America's Affordable Choices Act.

Although your contention that persons with incomes over $500,000 may well experience tax rates of 45% as new health care taxes are introduced is technically correct,your claim that small business owners are singled out unfairly is untrue. Large corporate investors also face changes in the tax code in 2010 as the 15% qualified dividend tax expires and reverts back to the previous higher tax rate. It is also important to point out that S Corporation filings have been benefiting small business owners for decades by allowing them to avoid having earnings taxed first at the business level and then again at the personal income level. Large corporate dealings have never had this shelter and their earnings are taxed at both the business and then again at the personal level. After the Bush tax cuts sunset in 2010, it is expected that dividends will once again be subject toan individualincome tax rate as high as 39%. So,owners of a C corporation will end up paying a combined tax of approximately 60% (35% + (39% * .65 after tax dividend distribution) versus the maximum of45% tax for an S corporation. This doesn't seem so unfair to us.

We also question your assumption that small business owners would be unable to save enough capital to buy large equipment and other assets if such legislation is enacted. Businesses thatcan show a consistent profitability of $250-300K per year, should have no difficulty obtaining a line of credit from a bank to finance all or a portion of a large piece of equipment. Even without a line of credit, large equipment sellers can nearly always secure financing for strong businesses with healthy earnings histories. In fact, it is generally a poor business practice to always pay cash for large capital expenditures. As a successful businessman, you know that there is a benefit to having some leverage in one's business, so "saving up" for a purchase is not a common occurrence in the real world.

When you ask for the financing burden to be "collected from a larger base," we assume you mean that more people should be taxed. If you oppose taxes on those with high incomes, we must assume you favor a tax increase for the middle class. When difficult decisions about financing must be made, we expect you as representatives of your constituencies to remember that the middle class has been slammed for the past eight years in favor of all higher income groups, no matter what IRS form they use. Do we really need to remind you that during the Bush administration, the income groups over $250,000 were treated to huge tax cuts while the middle class suffered escalating health care costs and lack of basic human rights regarding their health? It is time for the higher income groups to contribute a bigger share to the communal good. Otherwise, the economy will not have the middle class underpinning that it requires. Even businesses must understand that it is in their own best interests. Please don't ask the middle class to pay again and again. We're broke.

One point you failed to address is what a great boon portable health care would be to small businesses. Once employees have a public option that can provide security and portability of health benefits, they will be free to move to small businesses, including innovative start-up businesses, and offer their expertise and newly-awakened creativity, instead of feeling trapped in jobs solely because of employer-based insurance. Small businesses will greatly benefit from these health care reforms.

Finally, representatives, we are disappointed in your apparent lack of empathy for and understanding of the desperate straits of the middle class. The health care reform bills before Congress at this time are a beacon of hope for those of us in the middle class. When we hear of our own democratic representatives trying to derail our hope, we are disillusioned and have to wonder what is going wrong in Washington, DC or in our electoral process. HR 3200 is a fine start at health care reform and should not be sabotaged by the very democrats that we should be able to count on to support it.

Sincerely, Carol Blackard, MD Todd Mata, JD, LL.M, CPA

PS - A response from Rep Polis on July 20 clarifies that he does not support taxing the middle class, nor does he seek to weaken the current House bill. He does strongly support it, but has applied substantial pressure on the Speaker and others to change the financing mechanism based on his special concern for small businesses filing tax returns where personal and business income are combined. He prefers taxing wealthy Medicare beneficiaries, or perhaps increasing capital gains taxation or adding to large corporation taxation, and wants the surcharge changed to start at $1,000,000 instead of $350,000. It's too bad Rep Polis could not have taken a more supportive stance for HR 3200 from the beginning. Voting against this solid attempt at health care reform in committee was a power play we cannot support, and sent a divisive message that in our opinion was unnecessary and, in fact, harmful to the effort to achieve health care reform which is already beset by opposition from conservatives on both sides of the aisle.

Dr. Blackard's addendum after a telephone conversation with Rep. Polis Monday night: Voting against HR3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act was an unfortunate expression to say the least. Small business persons making >$350,000 per year, having to pay an additional $500 or $1500 per year - are you kidding me, representatives? That's your reason to oppose this promising bill? I suggest to you that this is a time for solidarity and leadership to support these efforts, not sabotage and power plays.

*************************************************

The following letter was shared with me by Dr. Carol Blackard, a physician in Arapahoe County, who has studied health care reform options since working as a volunteer during the Obama campaign. She is an officer at Arapahope Community Team (ACT), a grassroots community action group, and has presented her analysis of the various health care reform options to numerous groups for the past 8 months. She wrote this letter after reading Rep. Jared Polis's letter written to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. After a long telephone conversation with Representative Jared Polis Monday night, Dr. Blackard added the addendum.

I am an American Progressive

(Cross posted on Square State)

I am an American Progressive.

I am a woman. I am a man. I am a child.

I believe in equality for all. I defend a woman's right to make decisions about her own body. I fight for a child's right to be protected, educated, nurtured and loved. I fight for a man's right to be home with his children after their birth, and to take time off work for his kids to raise them, if he wants to do that. I fight for each family to form itself based on love and commitment.

I am young, and I am old.

I fight for the young to be given a chance to make it in this world, not saddled by the debts of previous generations. I fight for the old to be respected, cherished, and cared for, until their very last breath on this Earth.

I am Christian. I am Muslim. I am Hindu, Jewish, Unitarian, Buddhist and Atheist. I have my own unique faith that is entirely personal. I am spiritual and I am inter-spiritual, and sometimes, I just don't know.

I am my brother’s keeper, and my sister’s too. And they are mine.

I believe in a Higher Power. I call the source of creation G-d, Hashem, or Allah, or by one of many other names. I believe in the power of people working together. I believe in Science, and the wondrous miracles of nature. I work to protect the rights of my neighbors who do not share my faith to worship as they wish, or not at all, as long as I am allowed to do the same. I believe there is more than one path to being the best person each of us can be. I am not threatened by the faith practices of others. I believe in the principles of the founding Fathers, as articulated by Thomas Jefferson. There shall always be a separation of church and state.

I am gay, I am straight, I am bisexual and I am transgender.

I fight for the rights of each American to be the person they are, expressing their beauty and individuality in a way that makes them happy. I believe each person has a right to choose the person they love, and to live with that person, sanctified by the religion of their choice, or not at all. I believe people who love each other have the right to define their family as they choose, and may include their beloved partners in their wills. I believe people in hospitals should be surrounded by their loved ones, whether those loved ones are legally "approved" or not.

My ancestry is Irish and Dutch, German, and Iranian, Australian, Canadian, Native American and Ethiopian. I am Mexican, African, Chinese and Filipino. I come from every country on the planet, and I bring with me my own beautiful language, culture and traditions.

My skin color is tan, mocha, beige, cocoa, butterscotch, almond, wheat, oatmeal, butter, and olive. My eyes are round, oval, and crescent. I AM BEAUTIFUL!

I honor my own family's traditions, and those of the people around me. I enjoy learning about other cultures, and celebrate them with joy, for our country's beauty is in her diversity. The flags of other countries do not bother me, for I know we are all one family, regardless of the location of our births.

I am International. I weep for my brothers and sisters in other lands who suffer, and I do what I can to help. I welcome the poor, the downtrodden, the huddled masses to my borders, knowing each person has something to offer, if only given a chance. I know I have more when I give more. I know we are richer when we work together. My country is stronger when she leads by example, and the respect of the world's nations is important to me.

I love the planet Earth, and I will do my best to take care of it. I love animals and believe they have a right to be here, just as I do. I am a steward of this land, and I have no right to destroy it. I will do everything I can to preserve it for future generations. We do not own this land, we are borrowing it from our children and grandchildren.

I love my country. I know that our history has included times of clarity and times of darkness. In the end, it is our ideals that are worth fighting for, not our land, nor the culture of just a few. We fight for equality for all, for tolerance, for acceptance, for civil rights and for diversity. We fight for peace. We fight with our words, our hearts, and our actions, doing everything we can before resorting to violence, and only when defending our highest values.

I know the path to peace includes education, diplomacy, and occasional compromise.

I am a Democrat and a Republican and an Independent. I believe in the Constitution of the United States and all of the rights it guarantees for every man, woman and child. I will work hard for Representatives who will stand up for all that is right about America, and who have the strength of character to resist the temptations of greed and power.

I believe in the future of my country, and know my vision is possible, but only if we work together, never allowing the skeptics and the nay-sayers to divide us. We are the UNITED States of America.

I AM an Americam Progressive.