The Political Playbook of Tuesday, January 25, 2022 includes a lengthy description of how Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s leadership strategy has led to considerable simmering among Democrats.

Reporters Rachel Bade and Tara Palmeri spoke with a half-dozen Democratic staffers in both houses of Congress Monday night and heard frustration with how Schumer and other Democratic leaders are treating Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ).

Apparently, Manchin continues to be furious at how he has been treated. Other Democrats are now upset with Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others for having stated the obvious. For either the Build Back Better Act or the Voting Rights Acts to have passed, the votes of both Manchin and Sinema were needed. Obviously, that didn’t happen with the voting rights proposals and a Senate vote on BBB has been indefinitely postponed because of a lack of affirmative votes.

In an earlier iteration of Manchin saying that he would not vote to change the filibuster rule, he implied on Fox News Sunday that the Biden Administration was not working respectfully enough with him. It may indeed be possible that some staff members in the White House were expressing their exasperation with Manchin either to him directly or to outside sources.

Manchin and Sinema are entitled to view issues differently than the other 48 members of the Senate Democratic caucus. What they don’t have a right to do is to get upset with other Democrats who have increasingly been frustrated with them.

Had Manchin and Sinema joined the other 48:

1. Two voting rights bills would have passed and the discriminatory election and voting laws that Republicans have passed in nineteen states would either be negated, or involved in court cases, the types of which the federal government has traditionally won.
2. The Build Back Better Act would be law meaning child tax credits would be expanded, there would be child care subsidies, free universal preschool, health care subsidies, paid family leave and a host of other provisions that would help families and bring the American economic and social safety web closer to those in other industrial countries.
3. President Biden’s popularity would be much higher and the prospects for Democrats in the 2022 and 2024 elections would be much better.

Who could blame Democrats for being upset that these two senators have greatly damaged their party politically, and deprived the country of perhaps the two most necessary pieces of legislation currently being considered?

Manchin could whine and pout about how he is being treated, but other Democrats were not entitled to express frustration over how two senators are using antiquated rules to hold the country hostage.

Strictly speaking, the reporting in of Bade and Palmeri is accurate. Democrats other than Manchin and Sinema are expressing their frustration with other Democrats. But the reporting is not in context, with inclusion of how Manchin and Sinema set off a chain of bad feelings within the party.

It seems that the two wayward Democratic senators have the same privilege as Mitch McConnell and essentially the entire Republican caucus. They can speak of hurt feelings as if they are righteous victims and have been unjustly attacked, while other Democrats cannot say “ouch” for fear of being called wimps. The press needs to take a leading role in not perpetuating this unfair and false equivalency.

The post Who on Capitol Hill is Allowed to Whine appeared first on Occasional Planet.

I was first introduced to Civitas through my middle school gifted program. My teacher had us participate in the Civitas Model United Nations program, which I found both stimulating and engaging. Since my mother is from the island nation The Kingdom of Tonga, I opted to represent Tonga in the Model U.N. program. This would be a trend that continued as I sustained my participation in the Model U.N. program throughout my high school career.

One of the early resolutions I drafted was focused on providing clean water sources to under-resourced communities throughout the islands. The plan of action was to bring over LifeStraws, a water purification and filtration device that can provide an individual user with clean drinking water for approximately five years. Doing research and drafting this resolution opened up my juvenile mind to real issues that citizens face in Tonga, and for the first time ever, as a thirteen year old, I began to think about plausible solutions.

Fast forward 9 years. I graduated from the University of Missouri – Columbia with a degree in International Studies with an emphasis in Peace Studies and a minor in Leadership and Public Service. Following my May 2018 graduation, I went off to Tonga in August to serve as an English Literacy Facilitator with the United States Peace Corps. It was decided by the Peace Corps that I would serve on the outer island of ‘Eua in the most remote and under-resourced village on the island. They hadn’t sent a Peace Corps Volunteer to this village in over 10 years.

My primary assignment was working at the village’s government primary school, G.P.S. Houma. There were only 3 staff at the whole school, with a student body of approximately 47 students. Each staff person was a teacher for one of the composite classes (grades 1 and 2, grades 3 and 4, grades 5 and 6), and the grade 1 and 2 teacher also doubled as the school principal. My chief role within the school was to teach English to grades 3-6.

While working at the primary school I quickly noticed that the principal was calling half-days most days of the week. When I inquired with her why this was the case, she said it was because there was no drinking water for the children on the school compound, and that the only water available was reserved for the use of teachers and their families living on the school grounds. Given this information, I constructed a grant proposal to install rainwater tanks on the school compound. My grant proposal received many rejections from various organizations. Eventually, I was able to pitch the idea to a Rotary Club in the United States and obtain funding for the purchase and installation of rainwater tanks over two fiscal years. 2020 is the second fiscal year, and as of September the Rotary Club has already initiated the second installation of rainwater tanks in the village.

Participating in Model U.N. and other enrichment activities with Civitas has greatly influenced how I have showed up in the world in my adult life. Had I not begun thinking about global issues at age 13, I may not have completed my first global aid project by age 23. I strongly believe that having conversations with young people about the impact they can have on the world will encourage them to become active global citizens.

The post Nine years later, my Model U.N. idea became a reality appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Today, I accompanied a group of 28 fourth-grade students on a tour of my local election headquarters. I’ve taken this tour at least four times, but never with anyone—adults or teens—who asked more creative or challenging questions.

I’ll list some of them below. Some may strike you as amusing, in a “Kids Say the Darndest Things” way. That’s not why I’m sharing them. I’m not here to demean or condescend to these kids, or to draw a laugh at their expense.  I’m awed by them–and not in an “Aww, aren’t they cute way.” They earned my respect and admiration for their confidence and their creative thinking.

Observing them, I could see that they haven’t yet learned much about how elections work. (I’m sure that’s about to change, as their fourth grade theme is “Citizens Making A Difference.”) But the questions they asked reflected a level of curiosity and engagement that was very impressive. The first question was, “How do you register to vote?” I think the sophistication of that question impressed the staff, and they knew, instantly, that this was a group of really smart and well-prepared kids.

These young people will be eligible to vote in eight years. If they manage to stay civically engaged until then–and beyond–and if schools, religion, mass media and the entertainment world don’t kill their souls and brains before then, we’ll have a new generation of voters who just might save us all.

Here are some of their questions and the responses (paraphrased) they received from the election staff. (I learned a few things, myself.)  Kudos to the staff for taking every question seriously and not talking down to the students.

Q: Do people have to vote?

A: No. But there are some countries where you’re required to vote, and if you don’t, you pay a fine. That’s how it is in Australia and Brazil, and maybe some other places, too.  Some people in those countries go to the polls and sign in, but then just leave their ballots blank.

Q: Which part of government are you? [Last week, these same students visited the state capitol, so government branches may have been on this student’s mind.}

A: Great question! We’re not part of the judiciary branch, because we’re not judges. We’re not part of the legislature, because we don’t make the laws. And we’re not part of the executive branch, either. Elections are sort of a branch of their own. It’s kind of odd.

Q: So, if you guys are in charge of running the elections, are you allowed to vote?

A: Yes. But we have to vote absentee, because on Election Day, we have to be here in the office from 4 a.m. until we finish counting and reporting the votes—that can be after midnight.

Q: If you think you’re a Republican, can you still vote for a Democrat?

A: Yes. Anybody can vote for anybody.

Q: Can the President vote for himself? Does the President’s vote count more than anyone else’s?

A: The President can definitely vote for himself, or herself. I’d be surprised if candidates didn’t vote for themselves. The President gets one vote, just like everyone else: One person, one vote.

Q: Can you vote if you’re on house arrest? Can you vote if you’re in jail?

A: In Missouri, if you’ve been convicted of a crime and you’re in prison, you can’t vote. If you haven’t been convicted yet, and you’re in jail waiting for your trial, you can vote. If you’re on house arrest, that means you can’t leave home. But in that case, you can vote absentee.

Q: Do celebrities get special votes?

A: No. But in some states, if people don’t want to be seen in public, they can vote absentee, too. In Missouri, you have to have a better reason than that if you want to vote absentee. And you can’t vote early in Missouri, either.

Q: Is there a dress code for voting?

A: No. Well, actually, you have to be wearing something. We won’t let you in if you don’t have any clothes on. It’s okay to vote wearing flip flops, workout clothes, a business suit, or even a bathing suit. We’ve even had people come to vote wearing Halloween costumes.

Q: Can you go to jail if you cheat at voting? How do you make sure no one steals the votes or changes stuff around?

A: We have a lot of security. Everything is locked up. We have security cameras everywhere. We have a lot of checks and balances. Every time someone touches a ballot, there has to be a Republican and a Democrat to okay it. None of our counting machines or voting equipment is connected to the internet. And yes, you can go to jail if you cheat at voting.

[As a bonus, the election staff set up a mock election for the students, where they used the county’s new paper ballot-on-demand system and digital scanners to cast their votes for fictitious and/or historical candidates. One staffer told me that the the students did a much better job of filling out the ballots than many adults. Voting was clearly the highlight of the tour. It prompted questions, too.]

Q: Where should I sign my ballot?

A: Nowhere. You might have to sign a test paper at school, but in voting, we have a secret ballot. No one gets to see how you voted, and we don’t keep track of who each person voted for.

Q: […As she placed her paper ballot into the scanner…] Is that a shredder? Does it just eat the ballot?

A: It’s definitely not a shredder. It’s a ballot box. When you feed your ballot into the scanner, it records your vote and then drops the paper into the ballot box. We collect all the paper ballots, and we count them  by hand, if we need to.

Q: Do you get paid to do this?

A: Yes. [Author’s note: But not enough for the level of democratic responsibility they take on, or for the long hours they work, especially during Presidential election years, but in “off-years” as well. We got a free tour today. It was worth a lot.]

The post 12 election questions posed by smart 10 year-olds appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Entering the contemporary art space located just a few minutes’ walk from my home in the Hudson Valley last fall, I had no idea what to expect. Gallerist Jack Shainman had just opened an exhibition by the Botswana-born artist Meleko Mokgosi. Entitled “Democratic Intuition,” Mokgosi’s opus fills all three floors of the stunning 30,000-square-foot building called The School. The artist’s massive paintings feature jarring mash-ups of people, places, objects, and animals that draw from the lives of the people of southern Africa. To write that the exhibition fills the space barely captures how the paintings burst off of the walls, confronting viewers with image overload and leaving the visitor with the challenge of coping with the unexpected discomfort the images conjure.

Mokgosi’s paintings are gorgeous, with saturated colors that sting the eyes. At least one of the pictorial pieces is paired with a canvas covered with dense, hand-written verbiage that maps the artist’s philosophical explorations. In that piece and others, Mokgosi makes visible his desire to reveal in painstaking detail his underlying thought process. But unlike the work of many other contemporary artists, Mokgosi’s powerful imagery requires no verbal explanation. In truth, Mokgosi gives the game away in a modestly scaled, straight-on self-portrait that the gallery’s curators had the wisdom to hang in a light-filled back-hall space that allows the achingly honest and unsparing self-image to stand on its own.

It is there, in the quiet of that space, that Mokgosi’s intention is laid bare. The artist’s eyes, staring straight ahead, burn into the viewers’ eyes with unblinking confrontation. Mokgosi’s expression seems to hide a complex mixture of tightly held messages. A polite invitation is not one of them. Instead, his expression signals a demand to those of us who take for granted our place in a predominantly white, privileged, first-world society to step outside our self-imposed indifference to the lives of minorities, people of color, the poor, and the disadvantaged. Mokgosi implores us to open our eyes. “We are here,” he demands. “Look at us. See us.”

Mokgosi’s paintings were still churning around in my brain when I happened upon reporting and devastating video footage from ProPublica about the tragic death of Carlos Gregoria Hernandez Vasquez. Carlos, a sixteen-year-old Guatemalan taken into custody by ICE, died of flu-related complications in the bathroom of a quarantine cell at a border station in Weslaco, Texas, in the early hours of May 20, 2019. The crime — and the shame — is that Carlos didn’t die because he was ill with a 103-degree fever. He died because he was denied proper care. He died because the guards at the facility acted as if his life was of so little value that they ignored instructions to check on his condition every few hours. He died because the border-patrol station lacked the proper facilities, personnel, and adequate funds to care for sick, quarantined children. He died because the Trump administration made the cynical and cruel decision to punish children like Carlos whose parents’ only crime was to make the heart-rending decision to send their loved ones alone on a dangerous journey to the U.S. border in a desperate bid to find a safer life.

Carlos is one of twenty-three immigrants – including two children under the age of ten — who have died in custody since the Trump administration came into office. In the end, the sad truth is that Carlos Gregoria Hernandez Vasquez and the others died because we just didn’t bother to see them.

Meleko Mokgosi’s “Democratic Intuition.” Saturdays, 11am to 6pm, until Spring 2020 at The School I Jack Shainman Gallery, 25 Broad Street, Kinderhook, New York.

The post A powerful art exhibit, a death in Texas appeared first on Occasional Planet.

On December 8, 2018, seven-year-old Jakeli Caal, a Guatemalan refugee who endured a grueling journey with her father to seek asylum in the U.S., died at a children’s hospital in El Paso after awaiting transport by bus to a border-patrol station in New Mexico.  Sixteen days later, on Christmas eve, eight-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo died while in U.S. custody after displaying flu-like symptoms and being held for observation for just ninety minutes at a local hospital. Jakeli and Felipe—and the unimaginable grief and trauma their families have suffered–have become tragic symbols for the legions of refugees who continue every day to suffer the indignities and cruelty of Donald Trump’s morally indefensible zero-tolerance immigration policy.

Does anyone believe that the deaths of Jakeli and Felipe were inevitable? I certainly do not. I have no doubt that their deaths could have been prevented—if only. If only the system had not been stretched to the limit by a policy designed to punish rather than aid. If only there had been better training of border employees or more medical staff on the ground. If only there had been more empathy among those charged with the daily management of the facilities where refugees are being held. If only there had been more respect for the humanity of desperate families unfairly maligned and demonized as criminals by government officials at the highest levels.

There may be uncertainty and unanswered questions about the deaths of Jakeli and Felipe. There should be no uncertainty about who is responsible for the tragedy. It is certainly not the families, whom Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had the audacity to blame for embarking on their desperate journeys to save the lives of their children from violence and poverty. The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the cynical architects of the policy—Donald Trump, former attorney general Jeff Sessions, and Trump whisperer Stephen Miller.

Sadly, zero-tolerance and the separation of refugee children from their families are not one-off examples of the cruelty and harm this administration is inflicting. There are a host of other Trump-era policies that seem intentionally designed to create a climate of uncertainty and fear across the country—and even across the world. Consider these:

• the partial Muslim travel ban that denies the reunification of families and prevents deserving students, business people, and artists from contributing their talents and experience to enrich our society
• the reinstatement of the global gag rule that denies the neediest women in developing nations the reproductive health services they so desperately need, resulting in unnecessary injury and death
• the signing of a law that weakens the firearms background- check system and undermines enforcement of the law that prohibits individuals with serious mental illness from possessing firearms
• the reinterpretation of a law that now makes it easier for fugitives to purchase and possess firearms
• the blocking of commonsense policy for legalizing the status of 800,000 Dreamers
• the thirty-five-day federal government shut down that caused untold financial hardship for 800,000 federal workers
• the cancellation of support for the United Nations Palestinian fund, which provided funds for secular education
• the holding back of funds specifically intended to publicize the Affordable Care Act and the resulting decrease in the numbers of insured.
• the halting of rules limiting power plants from dumping toxins in waterways and the resultant health risks
• the threat of immigration enforcement in Latino communities and the dissemination of anti-immigrant rhetoric that make immigrant survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault fearful of contacting law enforcement for help. 

As citizens of what we hope is a just society, isn’t it our duty to speak out and to declare zero tolerance for the policies and conditions that led to the deaths of Jakeli and Felipe? When will we say “no more” to the suffering inflicted on so many nameless and innocent people by a host of Trump-era policies and executive orders?

We are better than this. It is time to declare that we will no longer be silent as our government perpetrates trauma and fear in our name.

When Cruelty Is the Message

In this video, reporter Adam Serwer posits that for Donald Trump and his base “cruelty is the point” and that it’s Trump’s penchant for reveling in insults and cruelty toward those his supporters hate and fear that sustains the unbreakable bond between the president and his most ardent supporters.

“Trump Thrives on Cruelty” is part of The Atlantic’s ongoing, provocative video series called “The Atlantic Argument.”

The post Zero tolerance for Trump’s cruel immigration policies appeared first on Occasional Planet.

My local school district, the Ichabod Crane Central School District in New York’s Hudson Valley, recently held a vote on a capital improvement project with a price tag of $27,115,200. This massive project—passed by less than seventy votes—will update and modernize the district’s facilities and buildings and address long-deferred repairs to the deteriorating infrastructure of the district’s primary, middle, and high schools.

The project will address five key areas: health and safety,academics and program, physical education and athletics, building infrastructure, and site infrastructure. Upon reviewing the outline of the scope of work, my attention focused on a few of the bullet points listed under the “health and safety” category. There I discovered that the proposal calls for modest, enhanced security features for the campus’s three school buildings.These include security glazing film at the entry vestibules and the installation of bullet-resistant security transaction windows and drawers.

 Thankfully, my school district has so far escaped the tragedy of an active-shooter incident. Still, the threat is present and real. As we’ve learned from the tragedies at schools across the country, it takes just one angry, lost kid with access to deadly firearms to carry out a violent incident that becomes everyone’s worst nightmare. With that threat always present, school districts and communities are being forced to consider expensive security measures that would have been unthinkable in the past.  

 The range of security measures runs the gamut from modest retrofits, like those proposed by my local school district, to more extensive and expensive planning, such as complete building redesign, like the plan for the rebuild of the Sandy Hook Elementary School.  In answer to the public health crisis of school shootings, administrators and school boards are being forced to consider an array of new security measures, such as bullet-proof doors, replacement of entryways with a single, administrator- or security officer-monitored main entrance, safe rooms constructed of concrete, bullet-resistant window and door glass, and even building siting on raised ground and landscaping to increase visibility and control exterior access. And, of course, there’s the additional cost of human and behavioral security upgrades and training, such as generating active-shooter and evacuation plans, the hiring of additional security staff, and, in some districts, the dangerous and ill-conceived proposal that would allow teachers to be armed with firearms in the classroom.

 How did we get to the point where we have been forced to consider covering the costs of school security as a result of our schools devolving from being safe havens to places of danger that threaten the lives of children?

There are certainly many answers—both sociological and political—to that difficult question. But beyond any doubt, one of the primary answers is that the threat to our children is the inevitable result of the failure of our elected representatives in our states and at the federal level to muster the political will to pass common sense gun laws favored by an overwhelming majority of Americans, including gun owners and NRA members.

 Universal background checks. A ban on the sale of military-style weapons. These are measures that studies show will protect our children and make it more difficult for kids to harm kids. 

 What’s the result of failing to pass common sense laws that will keep our children safe?  Statistics show the story of our government’s malfeasance. Since 2009, there have been 288 school shootings. The U.S. has the highest rate of gun-related deaths,suicides, and homicides among the top thirty-four advanced economies in the world where access to firearms is restricted.

 The fact is that school-security measures come with a price tag that communities may simply be unable to afford. With all of the other costs that communities need to fund for the education of our children—facility maintenance and upgrades, teacher salaries, transportation, healthcare costs for school employees—we may ultimately be forced to face the impossible choice of choosing whether to fund improvement of the educational experience or voting to fund security measures. With that thorny dilemma poised to become reality, shouldn’t we be questioning who should be responsible for the cost of the security measures required to keep schools safe in a culture that is flooded with dangerous firearms?

 The answer may be that we need to begin a serious conversation about considering the creation of a school-safety tax to be levied on the industry that profits royally from the sales of the weapons that are harming our children. That is, the gun manufacturers.

The post Who should pay for school-security upgrades? gun manufacturers appeared first on Occasional Planet.

America’s gun laws are shot through with irony and illogic. Some would want you to believe that our national attitude regarding guns reflects a reverence for the Second Amendment. In reality, the gun laws passed—or should I say, not passed— in Congress and state legislatures are based less on ideology and more on the purely mercenary goals of the gun and ammunition manufacturers who are the true drivers of the NRA.

So, instead of a sane approach that acknowledges that gun deaths are a public health problem, we have an irrational patchwork of laws that often defy logic and do nothing to protect us. I’ve compiled some bullet points to illustrate the insanity of our gun laws:

• As we recently learned, via the Parkland tragedy, in Florida, you cannot buy a beer until you are 21. You can buy an assault weapon at 18.
• Florida and other states also have implemented strict ID requirements for voting, but none for buying an assault weapon.
•  You must be 25 to rent a car. You can buy an assault weapon at 18 in many states.
• In Iowa and other states, you must be 21 to by a scratch-off lottery ticket. You can buy a rifle in Iowa at 18, without a state permit.
• State legislatures have passed laws allowing guns in schools, churches, bars and public parks, while at the same time barring guns from the legislative chambers of their state capitols.
• In most states, you need a license to: use a scissors to cut people’s hair or trim their toenails; use a nail file to perform a manicure or pedicure; use a razor to shave a customer; use your fingers to braid someone’s hair. But you do not need a license to wield a weapon that, used for the purpose for which it was designed, can kill multiple people.
• In many states, you can bring a gun into a bar, but you cannot serve alcohol without a state license.
• In many states, under open carry laws, you can brandish a weapon openly, but if you are driving a car, you cannot have an open container of alcohol with you. By law, your child must be secured in a safety seat, but you can have a loaded gun concealed in the glove compartment or the console.
• Federal product-safety laws mandate safety standards for baby strollers and cribs, to prevent them from pinching a child’s finger or enabling a child’s head to get stuck between the crib slats. Similar protections—such as trigger locks on guns—are not required for guns in a bedroom drawer, in a purse, or in a closet.
• You can sue McDonald’s for serving too-hot coffee; you can sue a toy manufacturer, a food company or a lawn-mower company if you are accidentally injured by their product. You can sue a doctor or a hospital for malpractice if they prescribe the wrong dosage. Gun manufacturers and gun stores are protected, by federal law, from lawsuits stemming from injuries caused by their products.
• You need a state license to perform a healing massage, but—in many states—you do not need a permit to carry a gun into a spa.
• Right-wing, anti-LBGTQ fanatics consider the act of selling a wedding cake to a gay couple as tantamount to participating in the wedding, thus violating their religious “rights.” Selling a gun to someone who uses it to kill people is not seen as participating in murder.
• If you want to fly a drone or a model airplane, you must register it with the Federal Aviation Administration. No federal registration is required for buying or shooting a gun.
• After a would-be terrorist was found to have a non-functioning bomb wired into his shoes, the Department of Homeland Security mandated that all travelers have to remove their shoes for inspection at TSA checkpoints. After mass murderers armed with military assault weapons succeeded in killing of hundreds of people, laws regarding AR-15s and other semi-automatic weapons remained unchanged.
• Pharmacies and supermarkets limit the number of Sudafed cold tablets you can purchase. You can buy as much ammunition for your handguns, rifles and assault weapons as you want to.
• Supermarkets now keep Tide detergent pods locked up, to protect children from swallowing them. After a scare in which Tylenol tablets were found to be contaminated, drug manufacturers were required to package over-the-counter and prescription drugs in “child-proof” packaging. Congress and state legislatures continue to reject the notion of mandatory gun locks that could prevent children from accidentally discharging guns.

This list is far from comprehensive—unfortunately. I welcome additions that further demonstrate the hypocrisy and madness. We live in a country where even the deaths of 20 first-graders don’t move the needle even one centimeter on gun laws. This is just plain crazy.

The post Gun laws: the irony, the agony, the insanity appeared first on Occasional Planet.

It may be that I’m romanticizing the past, but I feel so fortunate that when I was younger I had limited exposure to organized sports and lots of time for sandlot sports. I fear that the tsunami of organized sports that is flooding America with Harvey-like intensity is:

1. Taking much of the fun out of life for kids.
2. Running parents ragged.
3. Running many parents close to bankruptcy.
4. Segregating kids on the basis of all kinds of ability levels and interests (which may be their own interests, or the ones that adults think that they should have).
5. Making us more of a militaristic society.
6. Possibly reducing empathy in the body politic because we’re so competitive.

I remember playing one year of little league baseball, but couldn’t wait for it to end because the coaches were so didactic and seemingly inhumane. Fortunately, in high school, the coaches I had were warmer (and probably more knowledgeable) but then again, my football coaches were largely shouters and sometimes beraters.

When I think of playing baseball or football as a kid, I think of playing one-on-one baseball on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, using a big tree on the quadrangle as our combination catcher, backstop. Later we moved to stickball (a great sport because it doesn’t hurt when you get hit in the head with a tennis ball). We learned to umpire for ourselves and make up other rules on the fly. In the fall, we switched to touch football. We seemed to have an awareness of the beauty of making it democratic; allowing everyone into the game. We made up bizarre plays, and would draw up more of them when bored in class. It was sport based on getting along with friends, because what could be better than sports and friends?

I was reminded of this a couple of weeks ago with a Harry Smith report on NBC about kids enjoying baseball in what really is a “league of their own.” No adults allowed; just play ball with friends.

But lest I think that this is becoming a trend, two days ago the latest Time Magazine arrived in our mailbox with a cover story on “How Kids Sports Became a $15 Billion Industry.”

As no surprise to anyone, sports are no longer games in the generic sense of the term. Instead, they are part of an industry that milks players, parents, consumers, and society of $15 billion a year. The dollars go in, and for many, the joy goes out.

But the big question is what does this mean to our society? The growth of organized sports for kids comes at a time when increasing pressuring suffocates kids from all directions. In some schools, homework begins in kindergarten. As students get a few years old, specialty camps seek the most talented kids, whether it is in art, drama, or even test-taking.

Misguided federal intervention into education by the George W. Bush and Obama Administrations turned schools into test factories, not so much for the students, but more so for the teachers, administrators, and ultimately bragging rights for the parents in the district. But it was the kids who paid the price.

For a kid who would just like to learn some literature, history, math, science, social studies and lots of electives in high school, it is virtually an impossible task unless you want to get onto the treadmill of AP classes. It is as if nothing osmotically happens in learning; it all must be categorized and regurgitated for the tests.

It may be that the tip-off as to what is happening comes to us from the Time headline about the $15 billion industry. There is money to be made by prescribing life for American kids playing sports, and the same is true as students become more performers for parents, teachers, and upcoming colleges.

If we leave decisions about how we raise our kids to those who make money off these decisions, then we are in deep trouble.

For those parents, courageous enough to let their kids just live life and learn in a natural way, there are huge benefits with the quality of life. While some kids may prosper from high expectations, most will do just fine “on the fly.”

Can society ease up? Probably the best advocates for human rights for kids are the kids themselves. Kids, let us know what you really think.

The post Let’s have a shout-out for disorganized sports and living life appeared first on Occasional Planet.

In a few weeks, I turn 20. People keep telling me how young I am— how my life is just beginning. But today I can’t help but feel keenly how old I am— how many more years my life has had than millions of lives do.

How many Syrian refugees died before they had to use both hands to count their age? How many Iraqi, Thai, and Congolese children died soldiers before they lost their baby fat? How many Yemeni and Somali children will waste away of malnutrition without ever learning to walk? How many Afghani and Nigerian girls died giving birth to a child while themselves still children? How many trans teenagers in the United States ended their lives before their adolescence ended?

To them, my life has been eons already. By their metrics, I am ancient. I am acutely conscious of the privileges I have as a fluke of my birth that conspired to keep me alive here today rather than in a grave as small as theirs.

A month ago, Jordan Edwards was shot to death by a police officer in Dallas, TX as he drove away from a party. He was only 15 years old.

I am almost 5 years older than he will ever be. But because my body is not Black and male, here I sit. The number of unarmed Black men killed by police is so incredibly high, it is numbing. The number of lives cut short by police brutality is almost unfathomable. The number of birthdays lost to violence because a Black man’s unarmed body was seen as inherently too dangerous to exist is staggering.

How many unarmed Black boys’ and men’s lives were cut brutally short by police before they even left their teenage years?

• Tamir Rice was killed at age 12 in Cleveland, OH (11/22/2014).
• Tyre King was killed at age 13 in Columbus, OH (9/14/2016).
• Laquan McDonald was killed at age 17 in Chicago, IL (10/20/2014).
• David Joseph was killed at age 17 in Chicago, IL (2/8/2016).
• Michael Brown was killed at age 18 in Ferguson, MO (8/9/2014).
• Paterson Brown was killed at age 18 in Richmond, VA (10/17/2015).
• Tony Robinson was killed at age 19 in Madison, WI (3/6/2015).
• Keith McLeod was killed at age 19 in Reisterstown, MD (9/23/2015).
• Christian Taylor was killed at age 19 in Arlington, TX (8/7/2015).
• Dalvin Hollins was killed at age 19 in Tempe, AZ (7/27/2016).
• Dyzhawn Perkins was killed at age 19 in Buckingham County, VA (2/13/2016).

The number of candles on their birthday cakes will never increase to more than mine. How can I not feel too old?

And in none of these instances will the police officer who cut their lives abruptly short be charged with a crime.

And what about the many lives which existed for only a few years beyond 20?

• Terrance Kellom was killed at age 20 in Detroit, MI (4/27/2015).
• Zamiel Crawford was killed at age 21 in Leeds, AL (6/20/2015).
• Christopher J. Davis was killed at age 21 in Milwaukee, WI (2/24/2016).
• John Crawford was killed at age 22 in Dayton, OH (8/5/2014).
• Christopher Kimble was killed at age 22 in East Cleveland, OH (10/3/2015).
• Vernell Bing, Jr. was killed at age 22 in Jacksonville, FL (5/22/2016).
• Deravis Caine Rogers was killed at age 22 in Atlanta, GA (6/22/2016).
• Levonia Riggins was killed at age 22 in Hillsborough County, FL (8/30/2016).
• Sean Bell was killed at age 23 in Queens, NY (11/25/2006).
• Albert Davis was killed at age 23 in Orlando, FL (7/17/2015).
• Calin Roquemore was killed at age 24 in Longview, TX (2/13/2016).
• Ariel Denkins was killed at age 24 in Raleigh, NC (2/29/2016).
• Kevin Judson was killed at age 24 in McMinnville, OR (7/1/2015).
• Ezell Ford was killed at age 25 in Florence, CA (8/11/2014).
• Freddie Gray was killed at age 25 in Baltimore, MD (4/19/2015).

By a fluke of my birth, I was born into this body in these circumstances in this place with these opportunities and privileges, and so here I sit. But by a fluke of their birth, they weren’t given the same privileges as I was.

And that’s not even counting the thousands— the millions— of people whose lives may not be over, but who through a fluke of their birth were not given the opportunities and privileges by which their lives could flourish.

I just earned my undergraduate degrees; I’m going to law school in the fall. How many people could have been world-class lawyers or doctors or engineers or politicians transforming our society but who weren’t given the opportunity to complete their education? Who were put in underfunded school systems that didn’t have the funds or resources to provide a quality education? Who had to drop out of high school? Who couldn’t afford college tuition? Who are so desperately living paycheck-to- paycheck so their children can one day go to school even though they harbor no hopes of themselves seeing a degree in their name?

When I think about the opportunities I’ve been given in almost 20 years that some people are never given their entire lives, I can’t help but think that perhaps the standards we use to measure if someone’s life is “just beginning” are just lies— cold comfort so we don’t have to think too hard about the way our life could have been if not by a fluke of our birth. And the more I think about those names and those dates, I just remember how old I am. Happy birthday.

The post Happy Birthday appeared first on Occasional Planet.

I’m sad to report that it’s Diaper Need Awareness Week here in St. Louis, and across the country–a program promoted by the National Diaper Bank Network.

It’s sad, of course, because it’s necessary. And it’s necessary because low-income people can’t afford to buy enough diapers for their infants and toddlers. And they can’t afford diapers, of course, because they don’t have enough money, and diapers are expensive. And they don’t have enough money because it is United States policy to not allow low-income people to buy diapers with SNAP [food stamp] funds or with WIC funds, which are specifically aimed at Women and Infant Children..

Yes, you read that correctly. Diapers—an absolute health necessity—are not on the list of items approved for purchase under the SNAP program. [SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.] Food stamps and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) benefits can’t be used for diapers, which get grouped with pet food, cigarettes, and alcohol.

The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 defines eligible food as any food or food product for home consumption.  The Act precludes the following items from being purchased with SNAP benefits:  alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, hot food and any food sold for on-premises consumption. Nonfood items such as pet foods, soaps, paper products, medicines and vitamins, household supplies, grooming items, and cosmetics, also are ineligible for purchase with SNAP benefits.

While it apparently doesn’t specify diapers, the wording of the act makes it clear that diapers, as a non-food item, are not eligible. If what they’re trying to do is to prevent people receiving government assistance from buying things that the Republicans running this show consider unnecessary, they’ve gone way overboard. Diapers are not a convenience item. I can understand prohibiting SNAP funds for hair-dyeing products, for example. But diapers?

[As an aside, the wording of the act also precludes feminine hygiene necessities like menstrual pads and tampons. But that’s another story for another day.]

The consequences of disallowing diapers are enormous, and the phenomenon now known as “diaper need” is widespread. According to the National Diaper Bank Network:

-Babies need an average of 6-10 diapers a day to stay clean, healthy and happy. That’s a total of up to 3,650 diapers a year for one child.

-1 in 3 mothers struggle to provide the diapers their children need. It’s estimated that an adequate supply of disposable diapers can cost as much as $100 per month for one child.

-Families try hard to extend the use of the disposable diapers they have on hand by changing diapers less often or by trying to clean and reuse them.

-Babies who go an entire day without a diaper change are uncomfortable; they develop rashes and infections; and, often, they cry more, unnerving their parents, who are already feeling guilty about not being able to afford the basics for their kids.

-Child-care providers even have a phrase— “Monday morning rash” — to describe how babies from low-income families sometimes arrive after a weekend of infrequent diaper changes.

-Most childcare centers, even free and subsidized facilities, require parents to provide a day’s supply of disposable diapers. Cloth diapers are not accepted at the vast majority of child care centers. And many parents cannot go to work or school if they can’t leave their babies at child care.

These problems are not evidence of bad parenting but of bad public policy.

So, absent a humane public policy, community groups have gotten together to form Diaper Banks. The St. Louis Area Diaper Bank is a typical example. Founded as a nonprofit in 2014 in response to tremendous diaper need in the region, the diaper bank raises money to buy diapers in bulk at deep discount. It distributes them through 10 partners that work directly with children and families.

The National Diaper Bank Network [NDBN] describes itself this way:

We are leading a national movement to safeguard one of the most basic needs of all babies and their families, access to clean, dry diapers. Fair access to clean diapers improves the physical, mental and economic well-being of babies, families, and communities.

NDBN connects and supports the country’s more than 315 community-based diaper banks that collect, store and distribute free diapers to struggling families.

In 2015, the network distributed nearly 46 million free diapers, including 20 million donated by NDBN founding sponsor Huggies®. The Network serves more than 346,000 children throughout the country each month.

It’s a noble mission, but one that wouldn’t be necessary if our Republican-led Congress wasn’t dead-set on punishing poor people–and their children– for the “sin” of being poor.

The post Diaper Banks: How Congressional disdain for poor people makes them necessary appeared first on Occasional Planet.