Discussions/Solutions

Darien Heard on January 11, 2012 at 9:02 pm.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they’re out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this
contract with Congressmen/women.

Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their
term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Don’t you think it’s time?

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete.

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Darien Heard on July 26, 2011 at 8:09 pm.

Recognizing Racism introduced us to blatant/overt and covert messages and behaviors that can be labeled/identified as racists. We used concrete examples to “bring it home” to those of us unfamiliar with them and to get an Amen from those of us already tuned in.

This week a girlfriend of mine whose “racist’s antennae” were a bit tarnished realized in a conversation we were having about the blog that she indeed had just experienced a “racists” event. She described to me that a probably well- meaning older white man had approached her, an older black woman, in the grocery store to ask if Obama was going to sell us all down the river with the debt reconciliation package. At the time she was surprised, mildly disturbed and just said she didn’t know. She now realized that she had been put in the position, again, to speak for the whole Black race, to defend the whole race and to be expected to be privy to whatever the whole race and everyone in it thought and was doing. She suddenly got mad. I suggested to her that as a“Solution” for the next time, and surely there would be another, to ask the person what was Boehner planning to do and why he and they thought that way? Perhaps by tactfully embarrassing him he would “get it.” Our community has always been thought to be and treated as if monolithic in its opinions. We have historically been held responsible for the actions of any one of us. {Sidebar: I remember the incident at Columbine High School in Colorado. After that incident the world did not turn on all young white teenage boys as bad. It was considered an isolated event. “They” were troubled. We never saw their families. However, when one gang rivalry results in a death, the media paints all young Black boys as gang members (eligible for racial profiling) and visits their neighborhood and homes interviewing their neighbors.} SHE RECOGNIZED RACISM and got mad. I wished she had commented on the blog for us all to share. I guess I just did. We need Solutions and not just anger.

A comment we received on our Facebook page from a reader complimented the blog site by stating: “Brilliant, spot on, and unbiased analysis. This is what writing on issues and events should be.” We want to thank Deborah L. for her observations and kind words. We are trying to be just that. I would love to have more people comment about our blog as that is what helps the direction and scope of this discussion. Remember we need Solutions. Intelligent conversation is good but even better when accompanied by intelligent action.

I am having fun with this opportunity to teach and preach. I hope that you too are doing the same. We do this to change and improve the world we all have to live in, peacefully. I suggest that we can’t afford to become Denmark.

Dare to Be Heard

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Darien Heard on July 17, 2011 at 6:33 pm.

This week’s Discussion and Solutions page is the submission of a letter that I sent to one of my doctors who chose to have a conversation with me, in his office while treating me, about the platform/talking points of the “New” Republican Party that he found both interest in and support for. I did not. This was my “Solution” to his talking points/sound bites that I found ill -informed and offensive. I am submitting this as an example of a solution that we can all use as we encounter “racist” psycho- talk.

I must say that I left your office today with many more thoughts than I had entered it with. My thoughts mostly are about what I consider to be the “sound bites” of the Republican Party that you so eagerly shared with me. I am African American and by definition am repulsed by what they propose, tolerate and encourage in their platform, candidates and policies. All of the “moderate” Republicans were expelled in the last election so as to “cleanse “themselves of any humanity, tolerance, and/or compromise to their extremist platform. The Tea Party is synonymous with the Ku Klux Klan, for me. It wasn’t until a Black man became President of the United States that we heard a cry for “I want my country back.” No other Democratic President or Democratic sponsored policies has ever before elicited that chant.

I am responding to some of your “Sound Bites” from my experience in America in hopes of educating and familiarizing you with another perspective and set of eyes on the issues you spoke of.
1) You don’t believe in governmental interference as you believe America to be the touted “land of opportunity” for its people who can be/become whatever they dream of and work to be/become. The Land of Opportunity didn’t, by laws, design and by force, become that for me until I was 22 years of age and the Civil Rights Bill was enacted into law in 1968. The Constitution of this land still says that I am 3/5 of a person. There is still the Voting Rights Bill in place for African Americans, the only natural citizens in this country that need one to have the “opportunity” to vote for how they are treated, regarded and governed in this country. And that had an expiration date.

2) You stated your belief in the need for smaller government and a return to more local governmental control by each state for the governance of its residents. States’ Rights and Control means the return to segregation, discrimination and unequal education, housing and job opportunities. Look at which states are requesting it and threatening succession, largely Confederate states. They also comprise the majority of your RED states. They want their (white privileges) and country back. It was the large Federal government that sent in Federal troops to protect Black students sitting at restaurant counters, helping Black people to register to vote, allow little Black children to attend schools against the small local and state policing forces that were part and parcel with the Ku Klux Klan who were systematically attacking protestors for human rights with water hoses and dogs. States Right and Control would mean the end to the integration of schools, housing, jobs, etc. It was the large Federal government that put laws into effect, Affirmative Action, to require the hiring of Black people who were systematically not being hired regardless of their qualifications, credential, training and/or experience. States Right and Control was and would be again simply the GOOD OLE BOY NETWORK that still exists in too many venues. It is that Good Ole Boy network in the Republican Party that questioned(s) Obama’s citizenship and education STILL because they can’t believe that somehow they F – – – –D up and he got through all the obstacles they have placed in front of Black people to limit and prevent their success. Certainly he must be foreign because they wouldn’t have let that happen here in “their” America. His Presidency is their rallying call for the end of Affirmative Action. Oh Hell No, not ever again!!!

3) Bring the troops home is a convenient cry now for Republicans who sent them out everywhere during the impossibly long eight years of the Bush administration that spent billions on a non- issue, IRAQ. Now everyone is tired. Why didn’t Republicans get TIRED with Bush’s war mongering? If Obama brings home all the troops then the Republicans can complain about the escalating unemployment without ever acknowledging that it is a result of all the now unemployed military personnel they brought home without jobs. The economy also would falter and Obama could be further blamed for that as all the industries supplying the Armed forces would lose revenue, Obama’s fault. No Republican administration has ever brought home the troops, only Democratic ones, Wilson, Roosevelt, Johnson, Clinton and Obama. Why, because Republicans own the industries that supply the military. War is a billion dollar money making industry for them.

4) The Three Trillion Dollar deficit that you profusely complained about is a result of the about Two Trillion dollar deficit that Obama inherited from Bush who took about a Trillion dollar surplus during his impossibly long eight year tenure and turned it into about a two trillion dollar deficit to hand over to Obama. Then while Bush was still President he orchestrated the Recovery Act and had his Republican held Congress pass it on over to Obama to enact. Obama simply put in place what Bush and his people proposed and passed into law, as required by law. That increased the deficit further. It was NOT his legislation. He was a senator when it was proposed and voted on. Now Obama is expected to have cleaned up all the S- – -T created over eight years and was handed over to him by someone totally incompetent, except where it benefitted his friends and cohorts, in less than his three years in office.

No one has forgotten the past. No one has really forgotten Bush. I went to the inaugural. The loudest cheer all day was when Bush’s helicopter taking him away from the city, the capital, passed overhead. What a Relief!

I should say that I don’t believe in Sound Bites. They, by nature don’t require thought, evaluation or judgment. That’s why they are used for those who can’t, don’t or won’t engage in thought, evaluation or judgment. I find nothing “patriotic” by the chant “I want my country back,” as if it doesn’t belong to everybody who pays taxes here, equally. I had to tolerate Bush, who stole the election in 2000 in Florida with his brother’s and father’s subversive help. Obama was at least voted in by an overwhelming majority of the voting public and not as a result that was overturned by questionable chads and chaos.

I FEAR the new Republican Party and suggest that you should too. They have been infiltrated by those who preach Hate. I can see their white hoods. I hear their homophobic rants. I suspect their anti-Muslim rhetoric. How do you avoid seeing their swastikas? No matter what their platform, their policies, and/or their rhetoric may suggest, their membership speaks louder to me than any of those. I know who they are.

Submitted for educational purposes,
Your patient,
Darien Heard

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