A better idea for honoring Cesar Chavez – OregonLive.com

A better idea for honoring Cesar Chavez – OregonLive.com.  I’m in (online) print!

Cesar Chavez – A Street Renaming

Cesar Chavez needs to be truly honored. People need to see, hear, and read why he is important. Moreover, this can be done along any street. Imagine a teaching tool: a memorable, artistic series of drawings and sculptures teaching onlookers about the importance of food, respecting those who grow and harvest our food, and knowing where our food comes from. Those who want to honor Chavez could channel their efforts in organizing ideas, funding, and volunteers to create and install an educational memorial. These acts would foster direct involvement and bring people together. This alternative will honor Chavez more than renaming a street.

The memorial could be similar to the Japanese Interment Memorial at the Expo Center MAX Stop. Here, in an elegant way, the harsh truths of World War II are for all to see and ponder. One can read newspapers published, see the many tags issued, and get a sense of the atrocities carried out in the name of security and freedom. At the Expo Center, where people come together for many reasons, we have a teaching tool that makes one stop in awe and wonder, keeping history alive giving us a chance to correct wrongs from the past.

Correcting wrongs from the past would be accomplished better with a teaching tool. So, for Chavez, we could create a teaching tool along each MAX stop at one of two locations linking transportation to food to people. One location option would be along the Interstate Ave Yellow Line, beginning with the Overlook Stop (linking it with the Wednesday Farmer’s Market) ending at the Delta Park Stop. A second option could be along the new Green Line route in downtown Portland, running near PSU and the Saturday-Portland Farmer’s Market. Either place could host a series of artwork and information, delicately balanced with education. The art could show snapshots of Chavez’s life, explain why supporting labor and civil rights is important, and explain the origin of our food. Again, the teaching tool would capstone with linking the importance of food, knowing where it comes from, and honoring those that work very hard to ensure a better life for us all. Chavez’s supporters, rallying the community to engage in ideas, could organize the work with discussions about how to best display this honor and execute the work together. This type of memorial would do more to honor Chavez and his legacy.

If we continue to spend our precious time and money engaging in street renamings and the political rhetoric surrounding it, we tend to lose sight of the real point. When we fight for the idea of something, what we perceive it to be, instead of including a diversity of folks, engaging in compassionate conflict to resolve problems; we lose sight of the real point. Street renaming sounds like an honor, but the reality is a disservice to the public in foregoing an educational opportunity. An educational opportunity of this magnitude could show how we are Better Together, and that’s something that could truly Cesar Chavez.

House OKs 90% Tax on Bonuses from Bailout Firms

I laughed when I read the headline to the article in the Oregonian, as reported by the Associated Press.  A psychologist explained on Talk of the Nation back in September that we (the American people) are experiencing a desire to “stick it to them”, which is why many of us would like to see these large companies fail rather than getting bailed out.  What’s the average mean income in the US for example?  According to the census, in 2007, it was $50,233.  Now, how much are these folks receiving bonuses getting in their annual salary?  Six figures?  A six figure salary greater than $100,000 a year?  That’s more than 2 times the median family income in the U.S.  We live off of $30,000 a year before taxes.  So, I laughed when I read that their poor little bonus of $1 million or more would be taxed at a rate of 90%.  Poor baby-AIG-failed-employees (remember, these guys are getting bonuses for doing bad work) are only allowed to keep $100,000 of every million they were issued.  How will they ever survive?

(Wow, that’s three times our annual income!  How will they survive?)

But I stopped laughing when I read one small, not very clear paragraph on how this all could have been avoided.

Republicans took Democrats to task for rushing to tax AIG bonuses worth an estimated $165 million after the majority party stripped from last month’s economic stimulus bill a provision that could have banned such payouts.  It would apply to any such bonuses issued since Dec. 31.

Did I read that correctly?  The Democrats took out instructions to forbid bonuses?  Democrats took out instructions to forbid bonuses, and when a bonus occurred, they went back to rescue, or play hero offering a solution to fix the problem… Interesting… It almost sounds as if they are creating their own job security by excluding things that would have fixed the problem to begin with…

Notes

Income – http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/012528.html

Oregonian article – http://tinyurl.com/cmbp6e

Roussseau Was Wrong

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about specialists and how they fit into our society.  First off, I consider myself a generalist.  I always have been.  I enjoy knowing a little bit about a lot of things so that I may understand the big picture and how everything fits into the system.  For example, I am more interested in having a basic understanding of how the clock works (cogs work with each other to make the hands tick along) than in understanding the specifics (which cog operates what and how they are each calibrated).

As a generalist, I see a need for folks who are specialists.  Although I understand the importance of and the basic ideas of how a clock works, I would need a watchmaker or clock maker to explain the intricacies to me and fix the clock should it break.  Which brings me to Rousseau.

While undergoing my studies at Michigan State University in the Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy program, we had one fabulous professor, Curtis Stokes, who taught mostly about Rousseau.   The first paper we had to write for this class was a discussion of Rousseau’s First Discourse.  In this discourse (forgive me, it’s been 7-10 years since I read it), Rousseau criticizes the modern day (around 1780) for having too many specialists.  Rousseau saw specialization as dehumanizing and chided folks for labeling themselves as Mathematicians, Chemists, or Engineers.

I still understand the argument, but I find Rousseau’s criticism too harsh today.  Today, I see a need for having people who specialize in things like IT, or grants, or coaching.  As a generalist, someone who embraces the big picture but also recognizes the importance of the tiny details, I cherish those who can explain the intricacies of a thing, like IT, and own their operations.  Specialists are so integral to our society… how would we survive without mechanics, phone repair, home repair, or food specialists?  Not to mention those who ensure our good health – MDs, ODs, Chiropractors, Pharmacy experts, etc.

Perhaps what is important about Rousseau’s complaint is the place where we label ourselves after our professions… when it leaks into introductions, like, “Hi, my name is Michelle and I am a generalist.”  Well, a ‘generalist’ is one small caveat to my being.  I am also a mother, a sister, a daughter, and a wife.  I am an amateur artist, web-designer, web-manager, project manager, and an author.  I am a graduate and a student of life.  All these labels and more describe me.  My brother calls me a hippie and my husband calls me a liberal Democrat.  I call myself just me.  I am.  But, I am one who appreciates these specialities and the desire to label ourselves after our specialities.  After all, many of us have been schooled and have years of experience that help to define that which defines us.

Honor

GVSU Women’s Center has a Silent Witness Project where they honor DV victim’s with a short bio and a call to remember the victim’s name.

My sister, Cristi Curtis was placed on this list.  When I saw this, just a few moments ago, I felt anger and rage that my sister would be honored in such a shallow manner.

Sure, I understand the point that Domestic Violence victims span ethnicity, race, color, religion, and economic backgrounds.  Cristi was a teacher, a sister, a friend, a coach, an all-star athlete, an exceptional student.  Her boyfriend, who killed her, held similar credentials.  But is this the way to honor their spirit with 3 sentences that shallowly describe their accomplishments with a weak plea to remember their name?

I don’t know who submitted Cristi’s name to this list.  It feels like someone from the Women’s Center was trying to do a favor to our family and her friends, and the other victims on the list, by creating this call to remember her name, Cristi Curtis.  But, for something so impersonal?

The two sentences used to describe my sister, Cristi Curtis, sound like they were excerpted directly from the newspaper articles that splattered the news when she was killed, July 19, 2007.  It’s impersonal and shallow, which in my opinion only serves to dishonor my sister’s name, Cristi Curtis.

Let me tell you, whomever is reading this, who Cristi was.

Cristi was an individual who had a very big heart.  She wanted to please everyone all the time, and often stretched herself quite thin to accomplish that task.  She was a part of a large family that required split holidays to spend time with her parents and siblings.  Cristi had a drive and ambition to succeed I have seen in few people.  She excelled in school, a 4.0 student in high school and college.  She was a three-sport athlete, earning a scholarship to Winthrop University, where she graduated in 2000.  She always desired to teach kids with special needs, and as her sister, I have no idea where that desire came from.  She spent most of her time giving to others.  At Winthrop, she was the first recipient of a humanitarian award.  At Winthrop, she was recently inducted, posthumously, into the Athletic Hall of Fame.

At her job, she not only taught kids valuable school lessons, but valuable life lessons.  She stayed up helping girls write papers and even talking some students into the value of living.

If we want to remember Cristi’s name, we’d do better to honor her spirit.  Her spirit was giving back, time and time again, and by really valuing life and living life to the fullfest.  We’d do better to remember more than a few impersonal newspaper articles and shallow snippets at that.  We’d do better to remember her name, and her spirit.  So give back, and when you give back, remember Cristi Curtis.