Capitalism’s Ugly Underbelly

The faces of homelessness in Cape May, N.J. Photo by Donato Dicamillo.

As economic systems go, capitalism is a very good one. Countless individuals have been able to rise from the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder to the uppermost ones by dint of hard work, talent and perseverance. But unbridled capitalism can have the reverse effect, as former Labor Secretary and Berkely professor Robert Reich reminds us.

There is a middle ground that makes some Americans uncomfortable because it is equated with socialism. John F. Kennedy summed it up when he quoted from the Bible, “For those to whom much is given much is required.” Likewise, when Jesus said, what you do to my brothers and sisters you do to me.

The dichotomy that exists between the haves and have-nots is brought into focus by Universal Studios Hollywood theme park, a hugely successful money-making machine that doesn’t appear to share that view. The theme park was the subject of a recent study by the UCLA Labor Center, which found that one-quarter of Universal’s employees qualify for and rely on food stamps and help from local food banks. Many of the employees have been working 40 hours a week at Universal for years, and live in fear of eviction from their homes in Los Angeles County where there is an affordable housing crisis.

UCLA Labor Center’s project director Victor Narro said he was surprised by the study’s findings. “We suspected there were issues. But at these levels? Universal Studios is a major tourist attraction. It generates a lot of wealth. You wouldn’t think these problems would be so prevalent and intense there.”

UCLA has analyzed data about other corporate entities such as Disneyland, where worker conditions similar to those at Universal exist. Among the solutions UCLA proposed, in addition to raising wages, are providing on-site childcare and conditioning corporate tax credits on adherence to basic employee economic standards. This would mean that businesses whose lowest wage earners must rely on public assistance would not receive tax credits.

Universal and Disneyland are not unique. In businesses large and small throughout America, workers struggle to make ends meet. Unfortunately, for some the ultimate plight is homelessness. My home county Cape May, N.J, which is sparsely populated by about 90,000 year-round residents, is a microcosm of the bigger economic picture. In summer, Cape May is the place to be and the population balloons to more than 750,000. Several towns in the county boast some of the highest home values in the nation. Houses in Avalon, where Oprah once owned a property, Stone Harbor and the City of Cape May are priced in the millions and largely occupied only in the summer.

Meanwhile, just miles away from Avalon, Stone Harbor and Cape May City, there is an affordable housing problem and homeless population. It is one of life’s cruel ironies that there are people who are homeless in winter while just miles away, multimillion dollar homes sit empty.

Cape Hope is a homeless advocacy organization in Cape May County that is working to do something about the crisis, and offset county government’s failure to effectively address affordable housing and homelessness. The group’s president, Denise Venturini-South, outlined Cape Hope’s two-pronged plan to address homelessness in the area.

The first part of the plan is to open a community care center that Venturini-South said will offer “supportive housing services and homeless prevention.” The second part consists of long-term housing for homeless mothers and their children at a property donated by a local Baptist Church. Cape Hope is in the fundraising phase for each of the two projects. For information about how you can help Cape Hope help the homeless, visit https://capehopecares.org/.

The faces of homeless men and women in Cape May were captured with incredible clarity and perspective by New York street photographer Donato Dicamillo. With his lens, Dicamillo reminds us that we are all part of the human family, and that when one of us suffers, we all suffer. As economic systems go, capitalism is a very good one, so long as we remember, “For those to whom much is given much is required.”

A Walk in the Woods

         I waited last year from late fall through early spring

         for the woods behind our house to fill with snow.

         But it was not to be. Learning to live with disappointment

          is something of an art, as long as we don’t accept it as fate.

          The seasons persist, winter returns each year, and there

          will always be the prospect of snow filling the woods.

          Today, it happened! And I reveled anew as snow fell ever

          so gently over the pines, insulating the landscape so that

          quietude enveloped the land, pierced only by the occasional

          squawking of ducks in the distance. I traipsed through snow in

          and around fallen trees and wetlands that hadn’t frozen over

          with my wife and our four-legged companion, who ran with

          abandon. I could sense her joy. Today, in those moments,

          I came home to a place in my mind periodically traversed, but

          not as frequently as I would prefer. And yet, in these snow-filled woods,

          it occurred to me that my home is in nature and that she will

          always welcome me back like a prodigal son who has wandered

          afar, only to return to the place where I began.

Who Is Training the Next Generation of Conservative Leaders?

Bridget Ziegler, pictured above with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has been doing her part to make America great again by standing strong with DeSantis in support of the “don’t say gay” law in public schools, and fighting to protect children from the influence of the LGBTQ community.

The co-founder of the ultra-conservative Moms for Liberty served until recently as president of the Sarasota County School Board. Ziegler currently heads up school board programs for the Leadership Institute, where according to her page on LinkedIn, she develops and leads the nation’s premier programs for conservative school board and education leaders.

Ziegler and her husband, Florida Republican Party chair Christian Ziegler, are a power couple and a force to be reckoned with in their tireless efforts to ban critical race theory, eliminate Black history and restrict the rights of trans people. Family values, no doubt, are the driving force in the Ziegler’s’ quest to return America to traditional values.

Training the next generation of conservative leaders is Bridget Ziegler’s tagline on LinkedIn. But her house of cards looks to be collapsing fast. News outlets report Christian Ziegler has been accused of rape. It’s also reported that he and Bridget have been indulging themselves in a three-way with another woman. The Ziegler’s even have videotapes to prove it.

I suppose the hue and cry from the far right will be that those scurrilous Democrats are at it again, trying to smear yet another staunch defender of family values. But according to news reports, the Sarasota County School Board is pressing Ziegler to step down. It’s also reported that DeSantis and former Florida Republican governor Scott Perry are urging Christian Ziegler to step down as chair of Florida’s Republican Party.

Bridget, in reflecting on a tumultuous past year, observed on her Facebook page, “The last year was certainly full of rough waters, challenges, and even a few disappointments. However, I believe it will prove to be the beginning of the most transformational years for the Sarasota County School Board, in which years of tolerating people, policies, and practices…will no longer be tolerated.”

Transformational, indeed. She does not, however, elaborate on the “people, policies, and practices” in question. Her use of the word “tolerating” is telling. What she’s really saying is that people with different points of view or orientation are not acceptable. This from a woman who reportedly digs getting it on with another woman and her husband. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, except for the obvious hypocrisy.

Ziegler’s words contrast with those of Tom Edwards, a fellow Sarasota school board member who self-identifies as gay, and who demonstrated empathy and kindness when he told a reporter in the wake of the Ziegler’s’ scandal, “If you are the parents of trans children, or if you are an LGBTQ+ adolescent, you need to know there is nothing wrong with you. You are right as rain. You are just you. It’s just a different orientation.”

In an ethical and authentic world, Tom Edwards represents traditional values and the conviction that we are all created equal. He stands for tolerance in an increasingly intolerant world. Edwards reminds us of how we used to be…a people that cared for and looked out for each other.

As for the Ziegler’s, a power couple and force to be reckoned with, I’d love to be a fly on the wall when their kids are old enough to ask them, “what’s a threesome?” And just like that, their star is plummeting. Now who will train the next generation of conservative leaders?

Prayers Tonight for Israel

Prayers tonight for our brothers and sisters in Israel and all those who were killed or kidnapped.

Prayers for Palestinians who do not support Hamas but are trapped in the crossfire.

Prayers these last two years for the innocents killed, maimed or who lost their homes and the lives they knew in Ukraine.

And prayers for the millions lost worldwide, and the million of my fellow Americans, who died from COVID-19.

It seems there is no end to the sadness. In my mind, I hear the fading strains of “We shall overcome” and I wonder, will we?

What happens at the end of life?

By Amy Oscar

Blogger’s note: While I don’t typically post other people’s material on my blog site, this beautiful essay by Amy Oscar will resonate with all those who have lived or who are currently living through the end-of-life experience with a loved one or friend.

My mother has never been willing to talk about dying before. In the past, if I mentioned death, she’d turn her head and stare into space.

Yesterday, while I was sitting beside her holding her hand, she said, “I’m scared.””What are you scared about?” I asked.”I’m dying,” she said.”I know,” I said. “Do you want to talk about it – about what scares you?”

She wouldn’t look at me. But she squeezed my hand.”Are you scared because you don’t know what will happen to you when you die?”She nodded.“Do you want me to tell you what happened when Matthew’s dad died?”She nodded.So, I told her that one day, Stanley, who’d been declining for a while, stopped eating and the next day he stopped speaking and the next day, he closed his eyes and after a little while, he died.

“Oh,” she said. “That was easy.” “It doesn’t have to be hard,” I said. And she looked at me, and we smiled.

Read entire essay…

Faith, Christmas and a Sense of Loss

This Christmas is different. As I grow older, I see some things with greater clarity and others less so. The innocence of childhood is still, for me, the essence of the Christmas story. But while the years bring greater perspective and, hopefully, some shred of wisdom, they also bring a keener understanding of the nature of human suffering.

The child in me longs for the naiveté to listen for the sound of sleigh bells and reindeer hooves in the night, if only for one silly, blissful moment. But while loved ones in my own and my extended families struggle with various challenges including mental illness, and many people try to just get through the holidays while missing a loved one who has passed on, there is instead sadness, estrangement and a profound sense of loss.

As I write on Christmas Eve 2022, the free world watches and holds its breath as the people of Ukraine have their way of life destroyed. Even their children have not been spared, their innocence and very lives ripped from them for no reason. Surely their faith has been tested beyond limit.

Yet, an image shown this week on television portrayed a bombed-out city in Ukraine with its citizens, who have lost almost everything, still managing to sing and celebrate the lighting of the Christmas tree in the public square. Their faith was surely shaken, but not destroyed.

Amid a rising wave of antisemitism, Jews around the world will light the eighth Hanukkah candle the day after Christmas, another sign of our collective faith that light will ultimately overcome darkness. I have never been able to wrap my head around the fact that antisemites, who tend to be Christian and racists as well, seem to overlook a minor detail of history – Jesus was a Jew.

The other day an old friend wrote with an update on his wife who suffers with Alzheimer’s. He spoke of the overwhelming difficulty in watching his partner, best friend and mother of his children deteriorate before his eyes. We corresponded about the nature of faith, and how at times like these, it is tested and stressed to the limit.

My friend went on to write that his daughter and her husband had taken in a Ukrainian boy until it is safe for him to return to his homeland, and that the whole family has been embracing and welcoming him. It occurred to me that people of goodwill somehow shine their light in the very darkest corners. They keep faith while spreading hope.

While his own faith has been pushed to the limit, my friend wrote he was praying for only one thing this Christmas…JOY. Some might wonder how a person whose wife is suffering with Alzheimer’s could find it in himself to pray for joy. But it is really no different than the courageous Ukrainians who sang for joy at the lighting of their Christmas tree.

Yes, this Christmas is different for me. I am still learning about the nature of faith, and how to keep faith in the most trying times. Tonight, I join my friend in praying for JOY in the hope that light will ultimately prevail over the darkness, bringing order and peace in the world so that children, regardless where they live, can be children. And so their innocence will be a light unto the world and a continuous reflection of the essence of Christmas.

As Election Day Looms, We Must Hang Together

In less than 24 hours voters will begin casting their ballots at election polls around the country. It is an election that will decide which party controls congress and the senate, and it will reflect the emotional as well as political mindset of America.

The question, in the face of one existential threat after another – global warming, a pandemic and Russia’s nuclear saber rattling – is whether we will overcome the divisiveness that has infected the country or yield to it. We know our adversaries in China and Russia have been planning and working to ensure the latter outcome.

I believe, perhaps naively, that the majority of Republicans and Democrats view themselves as Americans first, rather than in terms of their political affiliation. What then can be done about the divisiveness and hostility that has become so widespread?

For one thing, are our children being taught enough in school about the meaning of democracy and representative government? After all, they are the leaders and legislators of tomorrow.

Are we preparing them to be good citizens with critical thinking skills who view others not by their politics or by race, religion or sexual orientation, but rather, in the words of Martin Luther King, by the content of their character?

They should be learning about a fundamental aspect of democracy, i.e., when candidates run for office and win, they take a victory lap graciously and when they lose, they congratulate their opponent and wish them, and America, Godspeed. They do this because they are an American first, and a Republican or Democrat second.

Sen. John McCain was a shining example of this, not only when he served and nearly lost his life in the Vietnam war, but when he challenged a voter during his 2008 presidential run. He corrected a woman who questioned Barak Obama’s citizenship and allegiance, telling her that Barak Obama was a good man and a good American.

But things have changed, giving rise to a new breed of politicians who, when asked whether they’ll accept election results respond, “If I win, yes.” Their response is antithetical to the very underpinnings of democracy, which only works when we all buy into a shared vision, not the idiosyncratic view of reality held by a small but vocal minority. Denying election results despite numerous court decisions and election recounts upholding them is as idiosyncratic as one can get.

After the polls close tomorrow and the last vote is counted, which may take several or more days, we would do well to heed the words of Ben Franklin who famously said, “We must all hang together or, assuredly, we will all hang separately.” His words are as relevant today as they were 246 years ago.

Hanging With the Boys: A Reflection on Friendship

We are men of a certain age who gather every fall in the rolling hills of Adams County, Pa., friends who have known each other since our pre-adult personas. We travel from around the country to golf, break bread and talk about everything from politics, music and sports to social justice, spirituality and relationships. This year we added bicycling to our itinerary.

As I drove the 120 miles from our outing last week to my home in South Jersey, I had time to think about the nature of friendship and the wonderful sense of belonging that comes with it. The comradery that stems from having known each other since our early teenage years is special.

Consumers Will Lose Access to Affordable Prescription Drugs If Big Pharma Has Its Way

Approximately 19 million adults in the U.S. have imported prescription drugs at one time or another, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, and with good reason. Many prescription medicines cost half or less than in the U.S. when purchased online from sources outside the country.

Canada, which is a major supplier of safe, affordable online drugs, offers lower medication prices than in the U.S. because of government price controls that were put in place in 1987. The Canadian Patented Medicine Prices Review Board regulates medication prices in Canada and limits the maximum price that can be charged for medications.

Big pharma has opposed consumer access to prescription drugs from online pharmacies outside the U.S. for decades. According to AARP, one of the tactics pharmaceutical companies use to impede importation of drugs is to cut off supplies to legitimate pharmacies that sell lower-cost drugs to Americans.

On the other hand, while the Internet has made it easier for Americans to buy prescription drugs abroad, frequently it is from disreputable sources, according to Jaime Ruiz, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. And some of those drugs are addictive and deadly.

In just the past year, 100,000 Americans have died from drug overdose. Two-thirds of these overdoses are attributed to synthetic opioids. One of them, fentanyl, is 50 times more potent than heroin. It therefore made sense when Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Congressmen David McKinley (R-WV) and Bobby Rush (D-IL) introduced legislation in late 2021 in the Senate and House aimed at curbing online access to opioids and fentanyl.

“The opioid epidemic is hurting communities across our nation,” Klobuchar said in introducing the legislation. “None have been immune to its devastating effects.” Rubio said, “We need to crack down on bad actors, including those from China, that target our youth and families with the online sales of counterfeit and illicit drugs like fentanyl.”

But the legislation, S.3399, Domain Reform for Unlawful Drug Sellers (DRUGS) Act, and the House version, H.R. 6352, has a major flaw. The proposed law would eliminate consumer access to unlawfully dispensed opioids from tier 3 non-US online pharmacies which are not certified by a credentialing agency. But it doesn’t distinguish between those websites and tier 2 online pharmacies that are highly credentialed and sell non-addictive medications to treat conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis and COPD.

The House and Senate bills require any website offering prescription drugs to U.S. residents, whether tier 2 or tier 3, to demonstrate that it holds a pharmacy license where it operates and where its patients live. This will effectively prevent consumers from obtaining affordable drugs from tier 2 non-US online pharmacies that are credentialed and do not sell opioids or controlled drugs.

Eliminating access to highly credentialed online pharmacies outside the U.S. that are a safe, trusted source of daily medications will place substantial financial burden on consumers and may cause some to go off their medication. Meanwhile, the legislation has the backing and support of big pharma, which uses its influence over special interest groups in seeking to eliminate access to online medicines from outside the U.S.

The special interests backing the DRUGS Act include the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, Partnership for Safe Medicines, Pharmaceutical Security Institute, and International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers, which are heavily funded by big pharma.

Other special interest groups backing the legislation include National Association of Chain Drugstores and National Association of the Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), which seek to protect the market dominance of its pharmacy members. It is especially galling to note that NABP took $1 million from Purdue Pharma, which makes the highly addictive opioid painkiller OxyContin.

Addressing the online availability of opioids and fentanyl is critical to protecting public health. However, the DRUGS Act also targets legitimate licensed pharmacy websites that sell lower-priced non-narcotic and non-controlled maintenance medications approved by reputable health authorities in other countries. U.S. residents who struggle to afford their medications will no longer be able to purchase lower cost medicines from such websites if S.3399 and H.R. 6352 are passed as currently written.

Toward a More Perfect Union

We the people have had a rough time of it. Faced with many major challenges, we desperately need a healthy two-party system, one that places our interests as a country and a people above partisan politics and self-interest.

While there is blame enough to go around on both sides of the aisle in Congress, it seems many Republicans fall into one of three camps. Authentic conservatives who view the events of January 6 for what they are – an insurrection – and who dismiss the unfounded allegation that the 2020 election was stolen, are in one camp.

Republicans in a second camp may not be comfortable with the events of January 6, but they think or at least espouse the election was stolen despite overwhelming evidence and court decisions to the contrary, and they refuse to speak out against the insurrectionists or former President Trump’s unacceptable and possibly unlawful behavior.

Then there are the Republicans in a third camp who maintain an unwavering, fanatical allegiance to a failed presidential candidate. They not only think the election was stolen, but they believe the ends justify the means and that acts of violence to overturn election results are acceptable. Indeed, according to a recent Washington Post–University of Maryland survey, 4 in 10 Republicans and Independents think violence directed at the government is sometimes justified.

Small wonder, then, that the U.S. Justice Department announced today it is creating a new unit to counter domestic terrorism, as the debate whether democracy in America is in peril continues. Ironically, the same Washington Post–University of Maryland survey found that 36 percent of Republicans believe the January 6 insurrection was mostly peaceful.

Even in our darkest hour, and we have known more than a few these past 238 years, we are blessed with that magnificent document bequeathed to us by the Founding Fathers. The Constitution of the United States has been the one constant in our history, even as we continue the struggle to achieve a more perfect union.

Nor is the Constitution a suicide pact, as one of my political science professors, Henry Paolucci, a scholar of classical politics and literature, often observed. While the Constitution bestows on all Americans the right to “secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” that right ends where the next person’s begins.

This basic concept is one that Republicans in the third camp and even some in the second camp don’t seem to grasp. Either they slept through American history in school or they flat out don’t care about the Constitution, with the exception of the Second Amendment.

Those who assaulted police and forced their way into the Capitol in an attempt to stop the election results from being certified trampled on that magnificent document that has served us well and protected all our rights since 1789. That same Constitution even protects the right of the January 6 traitors to due process.

As Americans and full participants in this great experiment, we owe our allegiance to the Republic and the Constitution, not to a politician, political party, or some misinformed and misguided ideology. Without the Constitution and the preceding Articles of Confederation, we would never have evolved beyond 13 individual colonies, each with its own interests and agenda, and easy prey for 18th and 19^th Century world powers. 

On January 6, 2021, and for years leading up to that infamous date in our history, a segment of Americans has been working to thwart the Constitution and our collective efforts to form a more perfect union. They are non-believers in the great experiment that is America. Some of them use violence to achieve their ends, while others employ voter intimidation and legal challenges to vote counts.

We have faced many challenges in our history. This is just one more, albeit a serious one. It is a challenge that calls for all Americans of good faith, regardless of political affiliation, to stand together and make our voices heard in support of the Constitution and the Republic. We need to call out any and all elected representatives in either party that obstruct our lawful and Constitutional processes. And if we are steadfast and committed in this endeavor, democracy shall not perish from these shores.