Before

After Devastation

Father and Son after the devastation

After witnessing the devastation in Sendai, Japan caused by the recent earthquake and tsunami, and now the serious threat of a nuclear meltdown, don’t you all feel silly and stupid for continuing this endless war-game you have thrown us, the global citizens, into?

Will you all (and by all that also includes political parties, special interest groups, corporatists and war-mongers) lay aside your anger and hatred, your fragile egos, and self-centered pride, and direct those feelings into compassion for our brothers and sisters in Sendai, Japan whose lives have been gravely impacted by recent events.

WE have had enough wars to last us hundreds of lifetimes. These senseless conflicts have burdened and ruined economies, displaced people from their homes, killed thousands of innocent victims , created strife and suffering for the aged and sick, women and children. Need I go on?

WE must open the door instead of looking through the keyhole to see the larger scope of what is happening right before our eyes. We’re in dire shape. Life on the planet is becoming worse by the day. And waging war is not the solution to the problem. Even before the Sendai cataclysms occurred, we have been experiencing serious global changes that are going to kick our arses big-time.

When it comes right down to it, WE are all facing the inevitability of death. It’s not how long you live for? It’s HOW you live? Do you want to go out in anger and hatred with regret and resentment for what you could’ve, should’ve or would’ve done? Or, leave this world with a clear mind that you did your best — no regrets with plenty of compassion and forgiveness to spare?

WE all share this planet. No one owns it. So let’s own our responsibility as custodians of the earth. There is no more time to waste – right now is the only moment that counts. Do something good for those who need help! Whether you believe in positive thoughts, prayers, meditation, rosaries, donations . . . whatever it may be – YOU and only YOU can own that moment!

Cheers!

Below is a list of well-established organizations that are providing relief for Japan’s survivors:

Action Against Hunger/ACF-USA
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
AmeriCares
Architecture for Humanity
Catholic Medical Mission Board
Convoy of Hope
Direct Relief International
Doctors Without Borders, USA
Food for the Hungry
International Rescue Committee
Relief International
Save the Children
Stop Hunger Now
World Vision
American Red Cross
GlobalGiving
International Medical Corps
Mercy Corps
Oxfam America
Samaritan’s Purse

Today is Labor Day. All across America, millions of people are discovering that the best way to celebrate Labor Day is by not working.

Do you live to work, or do you work to live?

If you are married, look at your wedding album; are there any pictures in there of you at work?

And on your tombstone, do you want it to say, “I wish that I could have spent more time at work”?

Here is what Robert Kennedy had to say about this, 42 years ago:

“Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product … if we should judge America by that – counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

“Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”

When Robert Kennedy said these words, the unemployment rate in America was 3.7%. Today, it is almost three times as high. Too many of our working brothers and sisters are out of work, thanks to over a decade of economic mismanagement. 10% of us are unemployed, and the other 90% work like dogs to try to avoid joining them. Which is just what the bosses want.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. I look forward to a Labor Day where every worker has a job, every worker has a pension, every worker has paid vacations, and every worker has the health care to enjoy life.

My opponents call that France. I call it America, an America that is Number One.

Not #1 in wasted military expenditures.

Not #1 in number of foreign countries occupied.

Number One in jobs. Number One in health. Number One in education. Number One in happiness.

As Robert Kennedy famously said, “I dream of things that never were, and ask ‘why not?’” Why not? Let’s make it happen.

And then all of us who are Americans, including the ones today who are jobless, homeless, sick and suffering, we all can then say, “I am proud to be an American.”

Are you with me?

Truth,

Alan Grayson

Let’s begin with why our country is in such dire straits.

Outsourcing Jobs.

Let’s stroll down memory lane to the early 1980’s when the U.S. was experiencing a slow economic growth period compounded by high unemployment and high inflation commonly referred to as “stagflation”. Back then our government began to sell high-yield government bonds to foreigners who saw this as an opportunity for safe investment. When a bond is purchased, the purchaser is lending money to a government, municipality, corporation, federal agency or other entity known as an “issuer”. The issuer provides a bond that promises to pay a specified rate of interest during the life of the bond and to repay the face value of the bond (the principal) when it matures.1 Imagine how the foreign investors must have felt knowing that as long as the US government is obligated to repay the principal and interest on the bonds, this gave them the peace of mind to know that they could maintain steady rates and be guaranteed a cost advantage.

That created a big problem for American industries.

Certain industries were plagued during that time, despite assistance from the government. Michigan and Pennsylvania that were once strong industrial states were experiencing massive job losses. American car companies had to create radical changes to ensure cost parity and profitability. GM closed one of its largest factories in Flint, Michigan and moved it to Mexico. Outsourcing manufacturing jobs to cheap labor was a way for companies to return to profitability. The trend toward outsourcing which started in the 80’s had exploded in the 90’s. Thus NAFTA was formed during the Clinton administration creating the “free trade” agreement with Mexico and Canada. NAFTA opened the doors for jobs to leave America in pursuit of lower wage rates, non-existent environmental standards and trade without restrictions.1

With Outsourcing came Globalization.

U.S. multinationals were already experienced with manufacturing overseas, so they took the next step and began setting up IT and research departments overseas as well. Now we come to China and India. With advancement made in technology and communications, this allowed transnational companies to fully globalize with little out-of-pocket expense. Again, cheap labor with the same level of technology expertise found in America, but without the $100,000 per year entitlement and the added expense of health and medical insurance coverage per worker.

For every dollar we spend in buying products made in China, we increase the size of their economy and decrease the value of our own American workers. I’m all for each country to climb out of the poverty well and into a better and healthier lifestyle which should be the intention of all governments to pursue. To care for their people. To make sure that they have the very basic infrastructure for a society to flourish. Wait a minute, isn’t that our very own “American Dream” that so many people believe in?

We’re now in such debt to foreign countries, especially China, that I can’t even fathom how our government, no matter which political party is in office, can pull us out and stabilize our debt to these foreign investors? According to U.S. Treasury data released on June 15, China held $900.2 billion in U.S. Treasuries at the end of April. Add to that two foreign wars against countries that never attacked us or any of our allies, and we have financial and human loss in unfathomable proportions. We have racked up trillions of dollars of deficit, a suspicious housing crisis, unthinkable job losses, and now we are experiencing an unprecedented environmental catastrophe on our own shores that will critically impact generations to come. Most of this debt will hit the American taxpayer — who else? Yeah, perhaps BP is paying for the current clean-up and offering payouts to those workers or business affected by this calamity, but the future repercussions aren’t even tallied yet.

Now there’s talk of risk of a “double dip” recession according to certain economists, and the political stakes for the Obama administration are rising as the midterm elections get nearer. Don’t blame the Obama administration for the massive economic crisis we’re experiencing as a country. Read and investigate where all the wealth and power has gone before you start pointing the finger. Come election day, we can either elect the same kind of mentality that got us in this predicament in the first place. Or we can use our gray matter and start assessing information. A well informed mind can make an educated guess. Our disappearing society is something that will have an impact on every single American rich or poor.

The banks, the corporatists, the manufacturers should all be held accountable. As long as they are making profits, they are not in any hurry to create jobs or to help those who are losing their homes. As long as government funding streams in to bail out bad debt, the banks are growing into behemoth entities and becoming more powerful than our own government. It seems as though they knew something like this was going to happen way before it did. Stop property speculation from ever happening again, and bring back some normalcy to real property investment. Refinance the existing mortgages that were formed before the housing crash, which would ease their own debt or give those home-owners a chance to sell without taking a huge loss. Everyone wins. The banks get their money. The owner gets to breath again, and new home-owners get to purchase a home at a reasonable interest rate. The market will grow at a steady pace, American investors can re-invest in their own country, people will find jobs and feel proud of what they do, and markets will begin to flourish without the exaggeration of Wall Street howlers. And the government can start increasing tariffs on foreign investors which will keep greedy investors and sellers from running amok.

Sounds simple. But with so many hands in the pot, and so many puppeteers pulling the strings of our politicians, that simple idea is something that will probably remain just that, a simple idea.

Please remember who started these wars. Remember who walked away from one of the worst financial crises in our history without so much as “I’m sorry”. He lives on a ranch in oil land and hasn’t a care in the world. Nice job “Brownie”!

by the Editor of Gram-of-truth.com

1History of Outsourcing
by Thomas Heffner
August 2010

The Destinee Charity Foundation believe that in order to ensure the economic and social well being of each country, and subsequently, the world, we must start by investing in those most marginalized – our children – in addressing their basic human rights and needs.

“A child will forever benefit from primary education… “ as stated by Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General, United Nations, reporting on the progress of Millennium Development Goals 2008.

By 2015, the Millennium Development Goals hope to achieve universal primary education. According to their statistics: Globally, 570 million children are enrolled in school. The number of children of primary school age who were out of school fell from 103 million in 1999 to 73 million in 2006. In that year, primary school enrolment in developing countries reached 88 per cent on average, up from 83 per cent in 2000. In sub-Saharan Africa, the net primary school enrolment ratio has only recently reached 71 per cent, even after a significant jump in enrolment that began in 2000. Around 38 million children of primary school age in this region are still out of school. www.un.org/millenniumgoals.

Sadly, most of the indigenous communities in Cameroon in Western Africa lack the very basic educational facilities; therefore, the children remain uneducated and unskilled. An appalling ninety-nine percent (99%) of the children cannot read or write, and girls view their bodies, instead of their minds, as their only means of survival. Though the girls are the most marginalized and vulnerable members of these communities and though their future looks bleak, they are the most eager to learn and improve their lives.

To help them, Destinee Charity Foundation is in the process of constructing and equipping a fully functional basic primary school for the indigenous children of Kilombo-Kribi, in southern Cameroon. But right now, their resources are being stretched. Children in Kilombo desperately need your help now more than ever. The total cost of construction, equipment, and managing the school amounts to $50,000.00 USD. They’ve managed to start construction, raising almost half the budget of the project through government funding and private donations, but they need help making it the rest of the way.

With your extraordinary support, children can go to school for basic programs in math, reading, and writing; gain access to health care, better nutrition, and cleaner water; and ultimately help their communities find sustainable solutions for themselves. Please give in any way (money, supplies, clothing) and any amount that you can. Find out how you can help now by going to their website – www.destineecharity.org

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With the highest illiteracy rates found in the less developed nations of Africa, Asia, and South America; the lowest are in Australia, Japan, North Korea, and the more technologically advanced nations of Europe and North America. Using the UN definition of illiteracy, the United States and Canada have an overall illiteracy rate of about 1%. In certain disadvantaged areas, however, such as the rural South in the United States, the illiteracy rate is much higher.1

Literacy is at the heart of basic education for all, and essential for diminishing poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy.

You can participate in the International Literacy Day by organizing a marathon race, a 100-mile hike, a movie-fest in order to raise literacy awareness. You can blog about it, twitter it — but by all means remember the millions of illiterate children and adults who have not had the means to pursue a proper education. Find a charity and donate, or volunteer your services in promoting the building and managing of schools, raise funds to hire teachers, or teach the teachers if you are qualified to do so. Give back so that you may know how much has been given to you.

Increase literacy and you can increase self-empowerment!

www.bloggersunite.org/event/international-literacy-day

through every child’s joy, adults will enhance their own joy!

1See C. Jeffries, Illiteracy: A World Problem (1967); F. Laubach, Forty Years with the Silent Billion (1970); H. Graff, The Literacy Myth (1979) and The Legacies of Literacy (1987).

2UNESCO

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