Categories
Work Life

On Minimum Wage

At Sunset
At Sunset

LAKE MACBRIDE— The talk of raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, as President Obama suggested in his state of the union address, is from another country. He means well, but at $10.10 per hour, a life is hardly sustainable, even with overtime. What would better serve low wage workers is lifting the entire economy, combined with reducing regulations that hinder the efforts of small scale entrepreneurs. Where I live, the future is not about wage rates as much as it is about putting together a life that may include a job or jobs, but is not dependent upon them. Sustainability will be about creating local answers to the question, how shall we live?

The current discussion about wages is not really about sustainability. It is about boosting income for lowly paid workers. There are arguments that posit a relationship between increasing the minimum wage and reducing poverty. If increasing the minimum wage is an anti-poverty program, then I’m all for it. Especially if we agree that the action would not address the overall struggle people have to exit working poor status. Unless our elected officials index any potential increase in minimum wages to a formula that tracks buying power, all that will have been accomplished by raising the minimum wage is to throw the working poor a bone for today’s soup pot.

When I was a child I asked my father if we were poor. He said being poor was an attitude, and he did not consider our family to be poor. As I wrote elsewhere, “I had a normal city childhood among people who never had much money, but had a well defined culture centered on family, work and church.” It’s the presumptions about how today’s culture is defined with regard to the minimum wage that drive me mad.

Robert Reich has written that wages should track the economy. He said, if people have money to buy things, the economy does better. Government plays a role in stimulating the economy by making monetary payments to individuals through social programs, giving them more money to spend. Yet, most people I know don’t look at living with the same macroeconomic view Reich espouses, and are not fans of consumerism. Everyone wants to be a global strategist, but few want to apply equal skill and energy to improving life on a more granular level.

The analysis local people use, one that starts spending the new money that an increase in minimum wages would generate on education, training and the like, is ridiculous. People who are working poor, or living from paycheck to paycheck, already know how they will spend any extra money that comes into a household budget. The annual five or six thousand dollars we are talking about, in many cases, has already been spent on loans, medical bills, using credit cards, and incurring other forms of debt that are part of how people make cash flow without adequate income. To say that a $2.85 per hour increase in minimum wages would enable the working poor to exit poverty and join the middle class reflects a basic lack of understanding of the situation.

Advocating for an increase in the minimum wage is okay for those who are financially established, but it is a middle class progressive perquisite. Where I have trouble with it is in differentiating myself from the rest of the people on the planet as someone who is better than anyone else. I don’t do everything I would in the community; I wish I could do more. I also believe someone has to be working on a granular level to find a sustainable, replicable answer to the question, how shall we live? There is not much pay in doing that.

Categories
Writing

First Story Filed

Newspaper Office
Newspaper Office

LAKE MACBRIDE— The newspaper where I proofread offered me an opportunity to write a few articles on city council and school board meetings. I filed my first story yesterday morning and it was more work than I anticipated. By the end of a 5-hour writing session, my shoulder was sore, and I was reminded that journalism requires a different kind of energy and intensity. One down and four more to go during an initial, mutually agreed trail period.

I attended the Iowa City Community School District Board of Directors meeting on Jan. 28, and took notes while making a voice recording of the meeting. Getting to the meeting and attending took the better part of four hours. What surprised me was how little work actually got done at the formal board meeting. There was no substantial discussion, only ratification of work that occurred outside the meeting.

The operations committee meeting that occurred after the formal board meeting appealed to my inherent process orientation. It went on for more than two hours, and I felt engaged the entire time.

The budget assumption presentation was particularly enjoyable and I interviewed the district CFO afterward. Because of story length constraints, the budget information ended up on the virtual newsroom floor. What I noticed about the Iowa City school district is they are spending money like they have it. Because of the strong tax base they do have it.

We’ll see how this project goes, but I hope to become more efficient in producing stories, to reduce the investment of time, and to get better at writing news articles. The financial contribution will be, as my editor described it, “pocket change.” It will be another check predestined to go toward sustaining a life on the Iowa prairie.

Categories
Juke Box

Juke Box: Angie

Categories
Milestones

On Pete Seeger

LAKE MACBRIDE— Pete Seeger died on Jan. 27, 2014. He influenced my life, and so many others. Others have written obituaries, including the New York Times and Singout!

I’ll remember him for his song Abiyoyo, and so many others.

Categories
Writing

Meditation On Writing

Bison at Yellowstone
Bison at Yellowstone

LAKE MACBRIDE— Journal and blog writing is an open book filled with blank pages and freedom. There are few rules, and readership is limited, even when posting publicly on the Internet. Sometimes a writer wants to be read, and others, not so much. There is a formative urge that drives us to understand our world through language. Not everything we write is suitable for framing, in fact, most isn’t. We are driven to write, and occasionally to be read.

In the darkness of night, by the glow of the laptop, it is quiet. Mistake not this silence and solitude for separation from society. What we sense of the world is from constant acculturation beginning before our birth. If we write well at all, it is because of engagement in a world beyond the walls we see. There are no walls, there is no other, only the one of which we are all a part.

Categories
Living in Society

Tobacco Control in 2014

Gauloises CaporalLAKE MACBRIDE— When I was in the military, I bought my first and only packs of cigarettes. I tried a few puffs, and never had another. Tobacco control is a complicated issue that affects much of society, and has little to do with one person’s choices about tobacco use. It is one where tobacco control advocates need to stick together.

Tobacco products are readily available to anyone who wants them today, despite restrictions on sales to minors. Tobacco is a legal, addictive substance, the use of which is widely accepted. The disease treatment costs of tobacco use have been quantified, and tobacco use presents a tangible, persistent and preventable threat to public health.

Both of my parents smoked tobacco when I was a child, and until the Iowa Smoke Free Air Act was passed in 2008, the air in many public places contained tobacco smoke. We don’t hear as much about tobacco issues these days, despite the ubiquitous presence of tobacco products in retail stores. The legal struggle between tobacco companies and tobacco control advocacy groups has continued, but has largely gone silent.

In Iowa, the coalition of tobacco control advocates includes the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Stroke Association, American Lung Association, the Iowa Tobacco Prevention Alliance (ITPA) and Clean Air For Everyone Iowa Citizen’s Action Network (CAFE Iowa CAN). I was previously a board member for the latter organization. The work of this coalition is focused on securing government funds for a comprehensive tobacco control program.

In a December 2013 letter to legislators, the group wrote,

Smoking cessation efforts are essential public health initiatives that both directly and indirectly impact our entire state.  Statewide programs that are funded through the Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control can help reduce the enormous financial toll attributed to tobacco related use, not to mention the 4,400 Iowans who die each year from usage. Annually, tobacco related disease costs Iowans nearly $3 billion, of which $301 million is billed to Medicaid. To substantially reduce this expenditure, the CDC recommends Iowa appropriate $36.7 million annually to properly implement a comprehensive tobacco control policy.  However, last year the division only received $5.3 million.

Governor Branstad’s budget proposal would reduce expenditures in the tobacco control program by $75,000, with reductions targeted to printed educational materials and social media funding. It is a small percentage of the total, and depending upon who the governor appoints to fill the vacant director of the Iowa Department of Public Health position, the proposed budget should have support. It is a modest budget compared to the CDC recommendation.

What is at issue during the remainder of the 85th Iowa General Assembly is regulation of e-cigarettes, which are currently unregulated. Tobacco control advocates want e-cigarettes regulated as a tobacco product, something the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would like as well. The tobacco industry is working toward creating an environment where e-cigarettes are socially acceptable, are widely available, and can be used everywhere.  At the beginning of the legislative session, the issue was largely off the radar of legislators who were focused on the youth prevention aspect of this issue. Tobacco control advocates are expected to change that, and are trying to pass legislation they can support.

There are at least three bills pertaining to e-cigarettes written by the tobacco industry (companies like Altria and RJ Reynolds). In parentheses are the tobacco control advocates’ concerns with the legislation as written. The bills were all introduced by Democratic legislators:

HF 2034, which will define e-cigarettes as other tobacco products, regulating them like most other tobacco products. (In this bill, e-cigarettes are not rolled into the Iowa Smoke Free Air Act).
SF 2038, prohibits the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. (The bill doesn’t define e-cigarettes as other tobacco products).
SSB 3101, prohibits the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. (The bill doesn’t define e-cigarettes as other tobacco products).

Like with any legislation, the pro- and anti-tobacco control lobbyists will advocate with legislators to get favorable wording in any potential law. I have lived in Iowa long enough to know that the probable outcome of the legislative initiative may be for Iowa to wait until the FDA rules on e-cigarettes, then deal with the regulatory issues. I’m not hopeful the legislature will pass any of these three bills this session. Preventing the tobacco industry wording in them would be a victory of sorts for tobacco control advocates.

Categories
Work Life

Monday After the Storm

Snowfall
Snowfall

LAKE MACBRIDE— We had just made it home from dinner at a relative’s home when the wind picked up. We timed the visit so as to return before yesterday’s storm. When we got in, the windows rattled while a neighbor’s wind chimes clanged in the stiff breeze. Snow blew all night, covering our tire tracks leading to the garage. “Blizzard conditions, strong winds and life-threatening wind chill values (were) all possible in Iowa on Sunday,” according to the National Weather Service. This morning, the wind has died down, leaving temperatures below zero and the driveway to shovel.

Two new paying jobs are in the works. I am officially a newspaper correspondent. The publisher gave me a couple of story assignments on a trial basis. There is a school board meeting in the county seat tomorrow, and a city council meeting the following week. I’m to write a brief article about the events for publication in our local papers. Saturday morning I spent an hour training with one of the editors, talking about process and expectations. I’m looking forward to the challenges of a new form of writing. As she said Saturday, the pay is pocket change.

The other new job is as a shift supervisor at a warehouse club in Coralville. I will be part of a three-person management team for a company that does in-store product demonstrations. It has been a very social job, comprised of constant interaction with retail shoppers. I enjoyed that aspect of the work during my first week’s training. With the new work, about 85 percent of the year’s expenses are funded, which means the hunt for more paying work will continue.

Bison
Hunt for Revenue

Final news of the weekend is the seed packets arrived on Saturday. By my grandmother’s oral tradition, the time to plant “Belgian lettuce” is March 2, so there is plenty of time to write a plan for the garden. Last year, the ground was still frozen on March 2, and with the crazy weather we have been having during recent years, I won’t predict. As soon as the ground is workable, I’ll plant the remainder of last year’s lettuce seeds in a tribute to Grandmother.

Seeds Have Arrived
Seeds Have Arrived

I bought celery seeds, and am looking forward to the experiment in growing this vegetable. There are also a lot of carrot seeds, seven varieties of tomatoes, six varieties of peppers, and much more. I have worked a garden of some kind every year since our wedding. This year’s garden is expected to be another layer of refinement in a process that has developed steadily over more than 30 years. I’m looking forward to setting up the table near the south-facing window to start seeds indoors again. Simply put, there is hope on Monday, after the storm.

Categories
Home Life

‘Like’ the Bubonic Plague

Snow Tracks
Snow Tracks

LAKE MACBRIDE— An article in yesterday’s issue of The Telegraph began with the sentence, “Facebook will lose 80 per cent of users within three years before eventually dying out ‘like the bubonic plague,’ according to U.S. scientists.” I don’t know about that, but I posted a link to the article on my Facebook wall with the following comment:

I don’t know about FB dying out “like the bubonic plague,” but for me the newness is worn off, and there may be better platforms (electronic and otherwise) to more easily connect with people and ideas that matter. In March, I will have been on the social network for five years. I downloaded my archive and while I knew FB was collecting my data, I was stunned by how much info they have about me, especially info that doesn’t seem related to my FB activity. Why do you like it?

24 hours afterward, no one liked or commented on the post out of the 750 Facebook friends with whom I shared it. There is no evidence that anyone else even saw the post. Guess I’ll have to answer my own question.

The reason I joined Facebook was to follow our family and close friends. I registered my account on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 6:44 p.m. CDT, according to the service. By then, our daughter had moved out of state, and along with my blogging, Facebook became a way to bridge the geographical distance.  The social media became much more.

I began connecting with real world friends on Facebook. During 2010, I created a Facebook group for our 40th high school class reunion, and a number of classmates joined the group and friended me on Facebook. As time went on, I started friending people I knew from other associations, and then people in those circles that I did not know. While there is a reason for each one of my Facebook friends, some I know well, some I have gotten to know, and some I don’t know except for the point of contact that brought us together. As I mentioned I am up to 750 friends as of this writing.

In general, I log in and update on Facebook about ten times a day, depending upon my schedule. I know this because of the detailed statistics Facebook keeps on my activity. Mostly, I like to see what’s circulating in my news feed. Most of it is trash, but some of it is interesting. I like what people I know post the best, and family photos are particularly engaging. It isn’t that much time, but there is something built into Facebook that speaks to our inner voice, “it’s time to do something more constructive with your time.”

With my fifth anniversary as a Facebooker coming up, what will this milestone represent? Not much. I expect I’ll keep the service, and cut back on some of my inactive friends. In the end, it’s primary uses remain: to keep up with family and personal friends, and to follow about half a dozen clusters of people with whom I have associations outside Facebook: The Climate Reality Project, people who live near me, my Veterans for Peace chapter, the peace and justice movement, and some others. It’s not my life. One could argue it isn’t even a life viewing the blue-toned screen.

In the end, some form of Facebook is expected to be around despite the prediction of it’s arc, because while it goes viral from time to time, a plague it isn’t.

Categories
Writing

The Garden Seeds Have Shipped

Garden Planning
Garden Planning

LAKE MACBRIDE— Almost every creative person could use more money. This has been true, not only for the vast majority of writers I have known, but for artists, musicians, potters, actors, dancers, painters, singers, theater technicians, and others who pursue creative endeavor. Very few people make a living in creative endeavor without working at something else for money that pays basic living expenses. It is tough to blend a personal economy with being creative without compromise. It is impossible to keep the two in separate isolation chambers, nor would we want to.

During my senior year at the university, a group of creative people shared expenses in an old house in Iowa City. We each had our own room, but shared the common space, holding periodic meetings when an issue arose. Residents came and went, poets, artists, musicians, a travel guide, a tropical fish breeder, and a mechanic. There was always something going on, most of it interesting, and some of it annoying. It was the creative life.

One day a poet arrived to set up shop. She found a job in town, and wrote every morning in the entryway. As an early riser, I encountered her often, and tried not to disturb the work in progress as I walked to the kitchen to make breakfast and get on with my day. After a while, and after giving a few readings in town, she left for California with another poet who was a frequent guest. She adjusted to a sparse life, focused on experience and her writing. Our shared moments seemed to be a way station on her longer journey. She swiped the cooking pans my grandmother had given me when she left, evidence she could have used more money.

That living arrangement and my undergraduate years were a way station for me as well. Early on, I was an admirer of people who worked a career and wrote, notably the pediatrician/poet William Carlos Williams. I thought I could do something similar. It takes a certain kind of career to avoid disrupting one’s creative outlook and I found my time in transportation and logistics wasn’t it. I’m thankful for the ability to earn a living, and led a full life. For 25 years, creativity wasn’t as much a part of my life as I would have liked. It took leaving the security of that work environment to enable writing. Now there is new hope.

Most days I get a chance to write here or off line. I continue to need monetary income to pay monthly bills, although I am no longer in search of a career, having left the one I had. That’s where gardening comes in.

The less than $200 in seeds and supplies will multiply tenfold in value during the growing season: home grown food reduces the need for money. I have a couple of paying jobs, and need one or two more to make ends meet. That’s life in the personal era of creativity. The good news is the garden seeds have been shipped.

I hopefully await arrival of the germinal package, and the chance to forget about money for a while and work directly with Earth’s bounty. Money may always be tight, but nature can help us survive if we are paying attention— and invest in the work.

Categories
Living in Society

Caucus Night in Big Grove

Off-Year Caucus
Off-Year Caucus

SOLON— If not careful, I will get sucked into partisan politics again. It’s physics. The general lack of interest in partisan politics, combined with party work needing to be done, creates a vacuum that sucks all willing volunteers into the chambers of events.

There is the Democratic county convention (March 8), the district convention (April 26) and the state convention (June 21), to organize and attend. In our precinct, there were seven caucus goers, and we elected one of two central committee members. We all know how much work is involved in being on the central committee, and for most of us, we have been there and done that, resulting in a position remained unfilled. I agreed to be on the committee on committees, mainly interested in the work of preparing for the county convention. All other committee slots went unfilled. Par for the course among experienced caucus goers in our rural part of the county.

A big part of the work at the caucus is signing the nominating petitions. There were more than 20 of them from federal, state-wide and local candidates. Bruce Braley is running to replace U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, Dave Loebsack is running for re-election to a fifth term in the U.S. Congress without a primary opponent, Jack Hatch was the only Democratic candidate for governor with nominating petitions, and it seemed that all of the state-wide offices had candidates. At the local level, county attorney Janet Lyness had a nominating petition for re-election, and four supervisor candidates had thrown their hats into the ring: Mike Carberry, Lisa Green-Douglas, Gerry Kuhl and incumbent Janelle Rettig.

David Johnson of West Branch, who is running for state representative in House District 73, spoke to the caucus cluster of five precincts. I spoke on behalf of supervisor candidate Mike Carberry. We were the only two speakers for candidates.

This year there were only three resolutions, so the most painful part of the caucuses went quickly. I made a motion to accept all resolutions. It was seconded, but during the discussion someone asked that they all be read. What was on our minds was support for the locked out CWA workers at South Slope Cooperative Communications in North Liberty, setting a minimum Social Security benefit of $1,000 per month, and bringing electronic cigarettes under the same regulatory umbrella as tobacco products. What little discussion there was was useful and brief. My motion passed.

Because of the caucuses, the Iowa legislature was not in session. I ran into both my state senator and state representative by chance in the district before arriving at the caucus. Naturally I covered an issue with each of them. Dump trucking more than one issue during a chance meeting diminishes chances of anything being heard, so I picked carefully. I had an email response from my state representative before I went to bed. They are both people committed to making Iowa a better place to live, and I enjoy working with them, even though I don’t always agree with them.

When I arrived home, a buddy called me and said he had been elected to the Republican party’s county central committee. His resolution to repeal the Patriot Act was accepted without discussion. He indicated the dynamic was the governor’s supporters were trying to limit the influence of the Ron Paul wing of the party, presumably to get out of the pickle they found themselves in during the 2012 cycle, and to prevent a challenge to lieutenant governor Kim Reynolds at their state convention. He offered to collaborate on shaking up both parties’ establishment, and I made a note.

After our conversation I made a post on twitter about the second district Republican congressional candidates, and eventually identified there may be three Republican primary candidates for the seat, state representative Mark Lofgren, third time candidate Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Some Dude Matthew Waldren.

What I failed to mention is among the mostly grey-haired caucus goers are a lot of long time friends. Getting a chance to socialize with them was the best part of the evening.