In a previous post I mentioned that my Grave’s Disease has come back. The hormone levels didn’t even take long to get out of range. I am already feeling the difference: my handwriting isn’t as controlled, I’m not napping as well, I’m not sleeping as well, and I feel more jazzed up. So, my doctor prescribed another Beta Blocker for me. Last night was the first night with this new Beta Blocker and I slept. Sure, I had to read a bit to calm my mind; but I slept.
Many of the things I write about detail sustainability and sustainable living. I’d like to take this post to discuss sustainability on a technological level. Previous posts have described my frustration with computers and the next new thing. Clearly, constantly eliminating technology in replace of newer hardware where the old hardware is simply thrown out isn’t sustainable. But, what would an alternative be? Open Source software that works with hardware of many ages is one such option. Open Source software also speaks to a philosophy of shared knowledge, which in many circles is an underlying aspect to sustainability. Read the rest of this entry »
Amy Ephron: Help Save the Moon.
Maybe I live on the dark side of the moon because I hadn’t heard about this until perusing my facebook page and noticed some Michigan friends commenting on a local News 8 story (www.woodtv.com). Regardless, does this sound like the dumbest, most irresponsible thing to anyone else?
My favorite time to write is in the morning after I’ve read the paper. Usually, I’ve read something that spurs me to write… getting my creative juices flowing, so to speak. I write, in these moments, to react against or to something I’ve just read in my morning Oregonian. Today, I”m writing about the health care debate, or lack thereof.
I’ve been wanting to write about health care for a while. But, I haven’t really looked at the issue itself, only a few cursory glances towards some things that have come my way. In the end, I think health care for all is better than nothing. I hope that the system will correct itself after the initial several SNAFUs. I hope that citizens will write to their elected officials and tell them what they need.
Links for your own research:
I just added Zementa to my firefox. I’m testing to see how it works. It looks like I have to log in and register first… Okay, we’ll have to come back to this. Maybe you don’t have to register…
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Year’s ago, I saw a comic that highlighted the plight of the temporary employee.
Series of images highlighting how we treat employees as a society.
The original image I saw simply had a man sitting awkwardly in a trash can, as if he’d just been thrown away.
When I began temping, that was my only job. I felt great joy in finally doing something that required a little more thought and skill. But, I felt very disheartened by being used for such short assignments. Thank the Lord, I was always able to pay rent – but not without help from my mother. Finally, after temping for over a year, I was able to secure a full time placement.
Several years have gone by since that initial stint being a form of a ‘contract employee’ and my life has changed as has my outlook. Knowing that I can be quite sensitive, I remind myself of the firm end dates, understand that jobs can change at any moments notice, and I am thankful if any employment date is extended or I get called back.
Regardless, temporary work doesn’t bode well for our long term goal of paying off my loans, buying a house, visiting family, etc. Now that my husband works days, we have to balance the net income from the job to the cost of paying daycare. Although the pay-scale I am at is certainly not what I’m worth, it is what the job is worth. So, now I’m learning to negotiate higher wages because I simply cannot work for less than a certain amount because it would cease to be cost effective.
The Triple Bottom Line, a policy theory for enacting sustainable ideas, argues we need to balance equally the economy, the environment, and equity. If we fail to do those things, then we have not ensured our Triple Bottom Line is balanced and are most likely not moving towards a sustainable society.
The way temp work is structured, it fails to balance all three bottom lines. The economy isn’t in balance with temp work because the jobs are often sporadic and not dependable. Additionally, the wages vary, so it makes it difficult for a person, especially a single person relying on that income, to create a monthly budget. Without a monthly budget, extra income is hard to come by let alone ensuring the basics are paid for. When someone is unstable, one could argue that link is weak, and as the cliché states, “We’re only as strong as our weakest link.”
The environment isn’t in balance for probably many reasons, but the thought that occurred to me relates to transportation. Here, in Portland, the public transportation is better than adequate. However, some jobs require short notice, which yields to lack of proper alternative transportation. When we have a set schedule or a schedule that’s announced with planning time, finding alternate routes to work can avoid nasty car emissions. At minimum, one can find good bus routes that expedite travel time. At best, one could find a route that utilizes no green house gases during travel – like riding a bike. Reducing our green house gas emissions reduces our carbon footrpint which lends itself towards balancing the Triple Bottom Line.
Finally, the equity portion is out of balance. Sometimes, temporary workers are viewed with disdain, “Just a temp.” It’s easy to acquire temps – simply call the staffing service for they have a line of folks chomping at the bit. It’s also easy to let a temp go – and you can do it with minimal personal interaction, thereby relieving yourself of seeing the pain in someone’s eyes as they are let go. Here, I’m speaking specifically about how we view and then in-turn treat others. We, as a society, view temps as less than human, instead of the co-worker you sat next for the last 6 weeks, that co-worker is demoralized and dehumanized into “just a temp.” We do this in many places, somehow bolstering our own existence by lessening anothers. That’s the thing that needs to stop. When we finally began to view each other as equal and cease looking at one another with contempt, we will begin to balance the equity portion of the Triple Bottom Line.
Granted, many jobs require a burst of labor to get a job done. My concern is how we, as a society, frame temporary workers whether it be in an office setting or for manual labor.
I came to a realization several years ago that we all kind of want the same thing. We all want our loved ones taken care of, and often we want to be able to give support to those loved ones when they need it. Loved ones can vary person to person, for instance an oil man might love his oil company and a pastor might love his parishioners. The two examples might have very different best-interests regarding their ‘loved ones.’ But, I believe, the goal is the same – they want their loved ones taken care of. Now, the goal we have as a society is to be able to mesh these opposing goals to create a win-win solution for everyone. If we extend everyone to mean all creatures on this planet, then we begin to incorporate the triple bottom line.
And maybe that’s how we should frame our days – what do we want the world to look like for our loved ones. Now, trade places with someone opposed to your ideals and really put yourself in their shoes. How can we make both visions mesh? How can we balance the triple bottom line so we cease to have such a disposable society.
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.
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
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.
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