45. Starving the Beast

Austerity. Grover Norquist. The merging of investment and commercial banking. A major party's insistence that shifting the nation's tax burden away from "job creators" and onto the poor and middle class is the only way out, despite the fact that tax cuts for the wealthy do nothing at all to spur economic growth.

 It reads like a paranoid conspiracy theory. Only it isn't. It's the story of how we came to our current place of deficits, income inequality, and economic instability. And you don't need a degree in economics to understand it. (A plus!)

Interested closet members can read more in this article, written by Tim Dickenson for the November 24, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. You'll be glad you did.

Then again, maybe you'll just want to flee to Canada.

Economist Paul Krugman on economic morality.

(Click here to view an interactive timeline of the Global Economic Crisis, courtesy of the non-partisan, non-profit Council on Foreign Relations.)

44. "The story of unwavering hope, grounded in unyielding struggle..."

In case you missed our First Lady's speech at the DNC:


Speech Highlights

 "Like so many American families, our families weren't asking for much.

...They simply believed in that fundamental American promise that, even if you don't start out with much, if you work hard and do what you're supposed to do, then you should be able to build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids and grandkids.

That's how they raised us. That's what we learned from their example.

We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make, that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself.

We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters, that you don't take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules, and success doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square.

We learned about gratitude and humility – that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean…and we were taught to value everyone's contribution and treat everyone with respect.

.....

Barack knows the American Dream because he's lived it. And he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we're from, or what we look like, or who we love.

And he believes that when you've worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.

.....

... Change is hard, and change is slow, and it never happens all at once.

But eventually we get there, we always do.

We get there because of folks like my Dad, folks like Barack's grandmother, men and women who said to themselves, "I may not have a chance to fulfill my dreams, but maybe my children will, maybe my grandchildren will."

So many of us stand here tonight because of their sacrifice, and longing, and steadfast love. Because time and again, they swallowed their fears and doubts and did what was hard.

So today, when the challenges we face start to seem overwhelming – or even impossible – let us never forget that doing the impossible is the history of this nation. It's who we are as Americans. It's how this country was built.

And if our parents and grandparents could toil and struggle for us, if they could raise beams of steel to the sky, send a man to the moon, and connect the world with the touch of a button, then surely we can keep on sacrificing and building for our own kids and grandkids.

And if so many brave men and women could wear our country's uniform and sacrifice their lives for our most fundamental rights, then surely we can do our part as citizens of this great democracy to exercise those rights, surely, we can get to the polls and make our voices heard on Election Day.

If farmers and blacksmiths could win independence from an empire, if immigrants could leave behind everything they knew for a better life on our shores, if women could be dragged to jail for seeking the vote, if a generation could defeat a depression, and define greatness for all time, if a young preacher could lift us to the mountaintop with his righteous dream, and if proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love, then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.

Because in the end, more than anything else, that is the story of this country – the story of unwavering hope grounded in unyielding struggle.

...If I truly want to leave a better world for my daughters, and all our sons and daughters, if we want to give all our children a foundation for their dreams and opportunities worthy of their promise, if we want to give them that sense of limitless possibility – that belief that here in America, there is always something better out there if you're willing to work for it -- then we must work like never before. And we must once again come together and stand together for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward -- my husband, our President, President Barack Obama."

43. An Atheist's Defense of the 9/11 Cross

(Alternate Title: How to Alienate the Tiny Handful of People Who Still Listen to You*)

The world knows what happened on 9/11. I don't need to recount the tragedy in order for you to remember the hours and days spent staring at the television through teary eyes as you agonized over every word, every image. Maybe you even remember this one.

I do. It was discovered in the rubble two days after the towers fell. One of the few things left standing, albeit barely. As the men and women of the FDNY, NYPD, and other brave responders labored beneath it, those with access reportedly deferred to the steel crossbeams when their burden became too much to bear. When the public could reach it, they adorned it with flowers, photos, and messages for lost loved ones, wreathing it in their hope as well as their heartache. It mattered to them. In more ways than I, as a person separated as much by geography as by ideology, could ever put into words.

Ten years later, the cross was submitted for placement in the 9/11 Memorial Museum. While the move was opposed by the Coalition for Jewish Concerns, the American Atheists organization went above and beyond by responding with a lawsuit. The suit stated, "Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to require those responsible for the September 11 Memorial and Museum to remove a 20-foot cross from the Memorial and Museum or to provide equal space to memorials from other beliefs. That either the cross be removed from the museum, or symbols representing all religious and nonreligious groups be displayed alongside the cross."

Far from being well-received (as no one thought it would be...), the demand was immediately characterized as a shrieking expression of hatred for the religious. Atheist though I am, I don't hate the cross. I don't hate anything. But, when my haphazardly-donned title is represented on the national stage by a seemingly knee-jerk suit like this one, where the symbol is targeted for bringing honor to some and zero dishonor to anyone, it's easy to understand why people might think I do.

"We're talking about public lands. We're talking about public funds... We're talking about an eighteen-foot memorial," said American Atheists president David Silverman, who believes the cross is an endorsement of Christianity by the government, in violation of the separation of church and state. "It does not represent Jews, Muslims, Mormons, or atheists."

I don't disagree. In fact, were this any other suit, where the object in question had been planned, contracted, and displayed with the intent to memorialize some to the exclusion of others, this post would read very differently. But in this? Let them have it.

No one carved this cross. No one paid for it, and no one picked up a welding torch under the belief that their religion was the only one worthy of recognition. This was a leftover remnant from a building swallowed by terror. It was a real thing that brought real comfort to many.

And I want them to be comforted.

I want the pain of my fellow Americans -- responders, survivors, and family members who underwent an appalling experience -- to be alleviated in any way that it can. So let them bless the tower's skeleton. Let them see in it a joy that is uniquely theirs. Let them lean on it and use it to shoulder weight of their grief so that they might move forward. I may not share in it. I may not understand it. But I can honor these steel beams for doing what I could not as I sat on the other side of the country, staring at the television through teary eyes. It gave them an outlet. It gave them peace.

Let them have it.

Above and beyond anything, I believe in a balance between reason and compassion. According to Silverman, “What we seek is any remedy that honors everyone equally, be they Christian, Muslim, Jew, or atheist. This can either be done with a totally neutral memorial that concentrates on the tragedy and not religion, or one that allows everyone to put up a display of equal size and prominence. In the latter case, we have offered to pay for a display ourselves. If everyone is provided equal treatment, we will drop our lawsuit because fair is fair.” Under this premise, the suit may indeed be reasonable, but it defies compassion. If I'd the power, I would ask them to choose another cause, on another battlefield, one that desperately needs their heartfelt fervor, as well as their funds. I would ask them to give blood, or donate to the Michael Lynch Memorial Foundation. I would ask them to preserve the integrity of reasonableness and decency alike. Because, as much as I respect the struggle to bring equality to everyone whose contributions have been silenced or ignored by religion, in this case, I can't help but feel that no one stopped to remind themselves of the simplest of adages:

It takes nothing away from you to be kind.


*This is me, crossing my fingers, hoping I'm wrong!