(Proposed standards and regulations for State-funded for-profit stem cell research.)
A Proposed State Policy for Wisconsin for State-funded For-Profit Stem Cell Research
Terms and conditions for State funded grants to for-profit entities engaged in stem sell research.
1. The State of Wisconsin will realize a return on state funded grants and stipends, as well as non-financial state benefits and dispensations granted to for-profit stem cell entities whenever a commercial project generates a pre-determined amount of revenue, i.e., $500,000.
2. The state’s financial participation will rise with a project’s financial success and will include royalty payments for any private initiative that achieves an inordinate financial status of a pre-determined (and significantly higher than above) amount of revenue, i.e. $500 million dollars.
3. In addition to financial returns, the State of Wisconsin expects to benefit from its investment by requiring for-profit grant recipients to make stem cell therapies available to uninsured Wisconsin residents consistent with industry standards; to provide discounted prices to publicly funded health care plans; and to grant Wisconsin residents preference if therapies are in short supply.
(This model for terms and conditions for grants to for-profit stem cell entities is taken from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine’s Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (ICOC), December 7, 2006.)
(http://www.cirm.ca.gov/pressreleases/2006/12/12-07-06.asp)
Friday, December 15, 2006
Sunday, December 10, 2006
DVD Showing on Campaign Finance Reform
Unity of Madison
Social Justice Ministry Advisory Council (SJMAC)
This PBS video is both inspiring and refreshing. It is about reaching out and connecting with your neighbor. It’s about ordinary people like you and me and making a difference. You will hear a nurse in California talk about her support for Proposition 89 - The Clean Money and Fair Elections Act of 2006. She declares that in her fight for campaign finance reform and clean elections she is also fighting for clean air, clean water, fair gas and drug prices and a better educational system for her children.
Sixty five thousand nurses went directly to the heart of the problem in sponsoring and fighting for campaign finance reform in California. They saw this as the first step in trying to restrict the heavy handed role of HMOs, drug and insurance companies and other special interests that have blocked significant healthcare reform in California, including safe RN-to-patient ratio laws and universal health care.
Several states have passed legislation which provides public funding for political campaigns to eliminate the power of corporations and other special interests have over our legislators. The power of money that dictates laws designed to help the special interests and not the people. Money that dictates who can even run for public office!
Following reforms in their states a Democrat in Arizona and a conservative Republican in Connecticut are now using public dollars to run for governor. The film helps the viewer to see that our present way of financing election campaigns is a systemic problem that has to be solved before we can make meaningful progress on a whole host of core human needs including protecting our civil liberties, maintaining a clean and sustainable earth, greater economic justice, health care, education, and most of all, a lasting peace.
Our goal in sponsoring this video and inviting Mike McCabe from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign to talk with us on January 7th is to raise greater awareness about how Wisconsin presently finances its elections and to begin a discussion of the problem and the need for a solution. We owe it to our grandchildren and future generations to participate in this problem-solving process. We also expect the seven week study program that begins in February; “We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For” will significantly facilitate this dialogue. We hope you will join us.
Social Justice Ministry Advisory Council (SJMAC)
This PBS video is both inspiring and refreshing. It is about reaching out and connecting with your neighbor. It’s about ordinary people like you and me and making a difference. You will hear a nurse in California talk about her support for Proposition 89 - The Clean Money and Fair Elections Act of 2006. She declares that in her fight for campaign finance reform and clean elections she is also fighting for clean air, clean water, fair gas and drug prices and a better educational system for her children.
Sixty five thousand nurses went directly to the heart of the problem in sponsoring and fighting for campaign finance reform in California. They saw this as the first step in trying to restrict the heavy handed role of HMOs, drug and insurance companies and other special interests that have blocked significant healthcare reform in California, including safe RN-to-patient ratio laws and universal health care.
Several states have passed legislation which provides public funding for political campaigns to eliminate the power of corporations and other special interests have over our legislators. The power of money that dictates laws designed to help the special interests and not the people. Money that dictates who can even run for public office!
Following reforms in their states a Democrat in Arizona and a conservative Republican in Connecticut are now using public dollars to run for governor. The film helps the viewer to see that our present way of financing election campaigns is a systemic problem that has to be solved before we can make meaningful progress on a whole host of core human needs including protecting our civil liberties, maintaining a clean and sustainable earth, greater economic justice, health care, education, and most of all, a lasting peace.
Our goal in sponsoring this video and inviting Mike McCabe from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign to talk with us on January 7th is to raise greater awareness about how Wisconsin presently finances its elections and to begin a discussion of the problem and the need for a solution. We owe it to our grandchildren and future generations to participate in this problem-solving process. We also expect the seven week study program that begins in February; “We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For” will significantly facilitate this dialogue. We hope you will join us.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Taxpayers need state’s stem-cells investment
Guest Column - Wisconsin State Journal
The recent guest column entitled, “Wisconsin’s entrepreneurs of the future,” by the head of Georgia’s Research Alliance commended the State Journal for urging Wisconsin to invest more in scientific research and development.
The writer was responding to a recent editorial about James Thomson’s research commercialization model which noted that Thomson has recently founded two companies based upon his stem cell research.
The writer then proceeded to tout Georgia’s own research alliance, designed to nurture the growth and success of young companies with research dollars and a state-wide university research infrastructure.
State support for a friendlier research environment for young companies like Thomson’s was seen in Gov. Jim Doyle’s recent announcement that companies sponsoring stem-cell research exclusively in Wisconsin will no longer have to buy a costly license to use Wisconsin’s leading stem-cell technology.
The governor’s generous support for his $750 million dollar public-private research initiative sent a message to the nation that Wisconsin intends to be the leader in this new and exciting field.
Clearly this message has also been received by hundreds of brilliant and enterprising scientists throughout our country. Wisconsin citizens can be proud of our governor.
Both our governor and the media regularly hammer home the view that a vibrant and growing stem cell research program in Wisconsin will produce high paying jobs for our state in the future.
What both governor and the media have failed to do, however, is to point out the narrow window of opportunity that exists for Wisconsin to lead this nascent research enterprise toward both higher paying jobs and, at the same time, affordable cures for Wisconsin citizens with cell-based diseases ---Parkinson’s and diabetes to mention only two.
Wisconsin needs a state wide, non-profit, non-partisan and independent consumer-based watchdog group to ensure that our taxpayers and future consumers of these stem cell discoveries can both afford and access them. As thousands of baby boomers are about to enter the health care delivery system as elders they will need both affordable and accessible treatments, many of them for cell-based diseases...
It seems ironic to me that a state with such progressive and innovative traditions as Wisconsin, which now presumes to be the preeminent leader in stem-cell research, may be a “Johnny-come-lately” in bringing more affordable and accessible medical treatments to all its citizens. The need for Wisconsin taxpayers to develop policy and rules to govern and control who owns any future stem cell discoveries made by for-profit businesses but funded in part or whole by the Wisconsin taxpayer is clear.
There also exists a need for greater transparency in the relationship between the Wisconsin’s Department of Administration (DOA), the University of Wisconsin (UW), including its affiliate the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and its subsidiary, The WiCell Research Institute, and other for-profit biotech commercial interests. Without greater citizen understanding and input into decisions regarding Wisconsin’s growing bio-tech industry, the cost to consumers will only increase.
Citizen advocates from the many cell-based disease groups need to band together and pull up a seat at the stem-cell stakeholders table and become full partners in these deliberations.
The fundamental question that Wisconsin taxpayers need to be asking is whether or not they will have any control over private profits from medical cures resulting from taxpayer funding of stem cell research. And, will the people’s representatives in our legislature step forward, before it is too late, to ensure that all Wisconsin taxpayers will benefit from more accessible, affordable and accountable medical products resulting from their stem cell invested tax dollars? The worst thing that Wisconsin taxpayers and potential consumers can do is to continue to sit passively by and rely on the promised “trickle down” effect.
Wisconsin citizens deserve better than that. They deserve both more affordable health care and jobs!
The recent guest column entitled, “Wisconsin’s entrepreneurs of the future,” by the head of Georgia’s Research Alliance commended the State Journal for urging Wisconsin to invest more in scientific research and development.
The writer was responding to a recent editorial about James Thomson’s research commercialization model which noted that Thomson has recently founded two companies based upon his stem cell research.
The writer then proceeded to tout Georgia’s own research alliance, designed to nurture the growth and success of young companies with research dollars and a state-wide university research infrastructure.
State support for a friendlier research environment for young companies like Thomson’s was seen in Gov. Jim Doyle’s recent announcement that companies sponsoring stem-cell research exclusively in Wisconsin will no longer have to buy a costly license to use Wisconsin’s leading stem-cell technology.
The governor’s generous support for his $750 million dollar public-private research initiative sent a message to the nation that Wisconsin intends to be the leader in this new and exciting field.
Clearly this message has also been received by hundreds of brilliant and enterprising scientists throughout our country. Wisconsin citizens can be proud of our governor.
Both our governor and the media regularly hammer home the view that a vibrant and growing stem cell research program in Wisconsin will produce high paying jobs for our state in the future.
What both governor and the media have failed to do, however, is to point out the narrow window of opportunity that exists for Wisconsin to lead this nascent research enterprise toward both higher paying jobs and, at the same time, affordable cures for Wisconsin citizens with cell-based diseases ---Parkinson’s and diabetes to mention only two.
Wisconsin needs a state wide, non-profit, non-partisan and independent consumer-based watchdog group to ensure that our taxpayers and future consumers of these stem cell discoveries can both afford and access them. As thousands of baby boomers are about to enter the health care delivery system as elders they will need both affordable and accessible treatments, many of them for cell-based diseases...
It seems ironic to me that a state with such progressive and innovative traditions as Wisconsin, which now presumes to be the preeminent leader in stem-cell research, may be a “Johnny-come-lately” in bringing more affordable and accessible medical treatments to all its citizens. The need for Wisconsin taxpayers to develop policy and rules to govern and control who owns any future stem cell discoveries made by for-profit businesses but funded in part or whole by the Wisconsin taxpayer is clear.
There also exists a need for greater transparency in the relationship between the Wisconsin’s Department of Administration (DOA), the University of Wisconsin (UW), including its affiliate the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and its subsidiary, The WiCell Research Institute, and other for-profit biotech commercial interests. Without greater citizen understanding and input into decisions regarding Wisconsin’s growing bio-tech industry, the cost to consumers will only increase.
Citizen advocates from the many cell-based disease groups need to band together and pull up a seat at the stem-cell stakeholders table and become full partners in these deliberations.
The fundamental question that Wisconsin taxpayers need to be asking is whether or not they will have any control over private profits from medical cures resulting from taxpayer funding of stem cell research. And, will the people’s representatives in our legislature step forward, before it is too late, to ensure that all Wisconsin taxpayers will benefit from more accessible, affordable and accountable medical products resulting from their stem cell invested tax dollars? The worst thing that Wisconsin taxpayers and potential consumers can do is to continue to sit passively by and rely on the promised “trickle down” effect.
Wisconsin citizens deserve better than that. They deserve both more affordable health care and jobs!
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Katrina
Housing markets
The economic and social ladder
Community access to surrounding environment
Federal gov’t can help with Housing choice vouchers
Subsidized rent in private sector
To get out of public projects
Retrenchment in concentrated poverty since 2000
Federal income supplements such as the Earned Income Tax Credit can play an important role in making housing more affordable for low-income families
How are the poor faring in the ownership society?
Abject poverty in New Orleans
School choice vouchers
Out of wedlock births and teen pregnancy or non-marital births
40% are living below the poverty level
Extreme poverty
Norms exist from multiple generations, peer pressure
Home vouchers are school vouchers
Decades of research
Two parent home environment is best
Strong connection between out of wedlock births and extreme poverty
The social class gap in growing
Our middle class is shrinking
Poverty is 18,000 for a family of 4
More and more moving into the 25,000 income level – moderate poverty
This moderate income level is only possible when both parents work outside the home
The federal governments role is to create effective policy tools and funding including
Home vouchers, mixed income housing, earned income tax credits
The 550 million dollar program reduced to 100 million and since dropped completely
Public housing money to restore the 5% poorest housing into economic integrated/mixed housing – now all funding has stopped
More housing units for medrate and middle income housing
Don’t segregate the poor form jobs and schools
Economic and social mobility is slowing
Concentrated clusters of poverty in the cities
Causes are due to the reduced manufacturing industry, the 1950 interstate highway system, opened up suburbia to development but isolated the poor in the ghettos,
Destroyed moderate income homes, large congregate apartments segregated the poor from middle class schools and jobs
Less and less social mobility
Inclusionary zoning
Manufacturing dropped from 25% to 10%
Milwaukee, Cleveland, Philly, Detroit, the great migration north, in 20th century
95% concentrated poverty, in spite of the barriers they face at home and in their neighborhood,
Need mor access to integrated neighborhoods both racially and economically
The suffer disproportionately
The need to include low and moderate housing in your developments, inclusionary housing
The economic and social ladder
Community access to surrounding environment
Federal gov’t can help with Housing choice vouchers
Subsidized rent in private sector
To get out of public projects
Retrenchment in concentrated poverty since 2000
Federal income supplements such as the Earned Income Tax Credit can play an important role in making housing more affordable for low-income families
How are the poor faring in the ownership society?
Abject poverty in New Orleans
School choice vouchers
Out of wedlock births and teen pregnancy or non-marital births
40% are living below the poverty level
Extreme poverty
Norms exist from multiple generations, peer pressure
Home vouchers are school vouchers
Decades of research
Two parent home environment is best
Strong connection between out of wedlock births and extreme poverty
The social class gap in growing
Our middle class is shrinking
Poverty is 18,000 for a family of 4
More and more moving into the 25,000 income level – moderate poverty
This moderate income level is only possible when both parents work outside the home
The federal governments role is to create effective policy tools and funding including
Home vouchers, mixed income housing, earned income tax credits
The 550 million dollar program reduced to 100 million and since dropped completely
Public housing money to restore the 5% poorest housing into economic integrated/mixed housing – now all funding has stopped
More housing units for medrate and middle income housing
Don’t segregate the poor form jobs and schools
Economic and social mobility is slowing
Concentrated clusters of poverty in the cities
Causes are due to the reduced manufacturing industry, the 1950 interstate highway system, opened up suburbia to development but isolated the poor in the ghettos,
Destroyed moderate income homes, large congregate apartments segregated the poor from middle class schools and jobs
Less and less social mobility
Inclusionary zoning
Manufacturing dropped from 25% to 10%
Milwaukee, Cleveland, Philly, Detroit, the great migration north, in 20th century
95% concentrated poverty, in spite of the barriers they face at home and in their neighborhood,
Need mor access to integrated neighborhoods both racially and economically
The suffer disproportionately
The need to include low and moderate housing in your developments, inclusionary housing
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
The Marriage Amendment
(This Guest Column first appeared in Unity of Madison’s October 2006 Grace Notes Newsletter It has been revised and is not necessarily the views of Unity of Madison.)
On November 7th, 2006, Wisconsin voters will be asked whether we should add an amendment to the state constitution. The proposed amendment reads:
“Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.”
This constitutional ban would permanently deny civil unions and marriage for lesbian and gay couples, and it would seriously jeopardize other legal protections for thousands of unmarried opposite sex couples who are presently living together. While this amendment is aimed principally at gay couples, many citizens may not be aware that this mean-spirited amendment could also affect your non-gay best friend, your parents, grandparents, children, and perhaps like me, even yourself someday.
My case I believe is a good example. After reading this I believe you will see that this proposed amendment is really an anti-family amendment. If passed, it will exclude legal and civil rights for over 109,000 unmarried opposite sex couples who are now living together in Wisconsin. Thousands of these couples, like my partner and I, are senior citizens. I worked for over forty years as a professional social worker. My ex-wife and I married and raised four beautiful children, and we now have five lovely grandchildren. After our youngest entered her freshman year at UW-Madison we amicably parted.
I am now seventy one years old. Several years after my divorce, I met a woman I will call Sue. After living apart for about eight years and after my health continued to worsen, we decided to share a home together. Both Sue and I had experienced painful divorces and were wary of pursuing another marriage this late in our lives.
Both of us have had professionally fulfilling and productive careers. Sue’s family has become my family and my family has become hers. Together we now live a secure and modest life together. Throughout our lives we have both been and continue to be good tax paying citizens. We have both pursued careers serving others while also being active in civic and community affairs. For this we believe we have earned a right to continue to pursue our happiness in a private life of our own choosing.
There is no doubt in our minds that if this mean-spirited amendment passes my health insurance and other legal protections and privileges that we now jointly share will end. Up until now Sue has participated in my health planning, sat with me in the hospital through several major surgeries, and signed on as a power of attorneys for my health care. As a domestic partner I am also on Sue’s family insurance plan. These and innumerable other legal and civil rights, which we now enjoy as domestic partners, will come under attack if this amendment is passed.
Before you vote on November 7th I urge you to ponder why, after fighting for racial and women’s rights, we are now being asked by our legislators to once again deny another segment of Americans their legal rights and personal freedom and happiness.
Our legislators, who now remain perpetually in office based on a pay-to-play arrangement with powerful special interests, have decided to appeal to fear and our darker side and to use a small minority group to divide us and draw our attention away from real social ills, such as lack of adequate health care, our right to decide and address our own local community problems, and shrinking resources for education and human services, to name only a few. On November 7th let all Wisconsinites stand together and vote NO and send a loud voice to the politicians that we have had enough.
Respectfully,
William R. Benedict, NSP Steering Committee Member
On November 7th, 2006, Wisconsin voters will be asked whether we should add an amendment to the state constitution. The proposed amendment reads:
“Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.”
This constitutional ban would permanently deny civil unions and marriage for lesbian and gay couples, and it would seriously jeopardize other legal protections for thousands of unmarried opposite sex couples who are presently living together. While this amendment is aimed principally at gay couples, many citizens may not be aware that this mean-spirited amendment could also affect your non-gay best friend, your parents, grandparents, children, and perhaps like me, even yourself someday.
My case I believe is a good example. After reading this I believe you will see that this proposed amendment is really an anti-family amendment. If passed, it will exclude legal and civil rights for over 109,000 unmarried opposite sex couples who are now living together in Wisconsin. Thousands of these couples, like my partner and I, are senior citizens. I worked for over forty years as a professional social worker. My ex-wife and I married and raised four beautiful children, and we now have five lovely grandchildren. After our youngest entered her freshman year at UW-Madison we amicably parted.
I am now seventy one years old. Several years after my divorce, I met a woman I will call Sue. After living apart for about eight years and after my health continued to worsen, we decided to share a home together. Both Sue and I had experienced painful divorces and were wary of pursuing another marriage this late in our lives.
Both of us have had professionally fulfilling and productive careers. Sue’s family has become my family and my family has become hers. Together we now live a secure and modest life together. Throughout our lives we have both been and continue to be good tax paying citizens. We have both pursued careers serving others while also being active in civic and community affairs. For this we believe we have earned a right to continue to pursue our happiness in a private life of our own choosing.
There is no doubt in our minds that if this mean-spirited amendment passes my health insurance and other legal protections and privileges that we now jointly share will end. Up until now Sue has participated in my health planning, sat with me in the hospital through several major surgeries, and signed on as a power of attorneys for my health care. As a domestic partner I am also on Sue’s family insurance plan. These and innumerable other legal and civil rights, which we now enjoy as domestic partners, will come under attack if this amendment is passed.
Before you vote on November 7th I urge you to ponder why, after fighting for racial and women’s rights, we are now being asked by our legislators to once again deny another segment of Americans their legal rights and personal freedom and happiness.
Our legislators, who now remain perpetually in office based on a pay-to-play arrangement with powerful special interests, have decided to appeal to fear and our darker side and to use a small minority group to divide us and draw our attention away from real social ills, such as lack of adequate health care, our right to decide and address our own local community problems, and shrinking resources for education and human services, to name only a few. On November 7th let all Wisconsinites stand together and vote NO and send a loud voice to the politicians that we have had enough.
Respectfully,
William R. Benedict, NSP Steering Committee Member
Friday, September 1, 2006
New Spiritual Network Afoot
There is a spiritual network afoot which has a political agenda: The Network of Spiritual Progressives. The NSP’s basic message and plea is that America shift its political, issue centered dialogue from partisan, stereotypical rhetoric to using broad moral values as a framework for reasoned discussion, including: Should we really love our neighbors as our self? Is wealth and power more important than love and peace? Should our bottom line value be profit and self-interest or caring and justice? Do we prefer an ethic of selfishness or generosity?
This movement is being led by Rabbi Michael Lerner who recently convened a national meeting in Washington D.C. which included leaders from all walks of American life. His book, “The Left Hand of God---Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right,” includes a new national agenda called “A Spiritual Covenant with America.” The NSP is an offshoot of the Jewish interfaith movement magazine, Tikkun. Lerner’s national visibility on recent national news shows like Meet the Press, and in other national media recently is testimony to the success of this movement.
In June a new NSP chapter was formed here in Madison and will hold its next membership meeting on Monday, September 25, 2006 at 6:30 p.m. at the Madison Friends Meeting House at 1704 Roberts Court. All are welcome!
I want to share just one example how a value clarification approach to national and world problem solving might work. It appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal’s Opinion page on August 15, 2006: “Internal medicine: How to cure a nation’s culture” by national columnist, David Brooks. In this article Brooks draws from certain cultural east-west value studies in order to better examine this question: “Can another country, presumably the United States, effectively change another culture or country so as to encourage its development and modernization?” Brooks concluded, based on a broad values analysis that it would be foolish to think we can address root cultural differences, and that we need to be satisfied to fight “symptoms” for many years to come.
Why? Because recent studies of cultural transformation now clearly show that such change can not be imposed from the outside but must be led from the inside. Western nations desiring such change in Middle East nations would be more effective spending their resources in helping to raise national literacy indexes than supporting political or military interventions.
I contend, as Michael Lerner does, that such political discussions, when based upon widely accepted moral values, can go a long way toward enhancing our political debate and help to reduce hyperbolic partisan rhetoric. To help promote a more reasoned, constructive and dispassionate political dialogue I urge you to consider joining us on September 25th. (Contact Beth Wortzel at 608-233-0241)
This movement is being led by Rabbi Michael Lerner who recently convened a national meeting in Washington D.C. which included leaders from all walks of American life. His book, “The Left Hand of God---Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right,” includes a new national agenda called “A Spiritual Covenant with America.” The NSP is an offshoot of the Jewish interfaith movement magazine, Tikkun. Lerner’s national visibility on recent national news shows like Meet the Press, and in other national media recently is testimony to the success of this movement.
In June a new NSP chapter was formed here in Madison and will hold its next membership meeting on Monday, September 25, 2006 at 6:30 p.m. at the Madison Friends Meeting House at 1704 Roberts Court. All are welcome!
I want to share just one example how a value clarification approach to national and world problem solving might work. It appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal’s Opinion page on August 15, 2006: “Internal medicine: How to cure a nation’s culture” by national columnist, David Brooks. In this article Brooks draws from certain cultural east-west value studies in order to better examine this question: “Can another country, presumably the United States, effectively change another culture or country so as to encourage its development and modernization?” Brooks concluded, based on a broad values analysis that it would be foolish to think we can address root cultural differences, and that we need to be satisfied to fight “symptoms” for many years to come.
Why? Because recent studies of cultural transformation now clearly show that such change can not be imposed from the outside but must be led from the inside. Western nations desiring such change in Middle East nations would be more effective spending their resources in helping to raise national literacy indexes than supporting political or military interventions.
I contend, as Michael Lerner does, that such political discussions, when based upon widely accepted moral values, can go a long way toward enhancing our political debate and help to reduce hyperbolic partisan rhetoric. To help promote a more reasoned, constructive and dispassionate political dialogue I urge you to consider joining us on September 25th. (Contact Beth Wortzel at 608-233-0241)
New Spiritual Network Afoot
by William R. Benedict – Guest Column
There is a spiritual network afoot which has a political agenda: The Network of Spiritual Progressives. The NSP’s basic message and plea is that America shift its political, issue centered dialogue from partisan, stereotypical rhetoric to using broad moral values as a framework for reasoned discussion, including: Should we really love our neighbors as our self? Is wealth and power more important than love and peace? Should our bottom line value be profit and self-interest or caring and justice? Do we prefer an ethic of selfishness or generosity?
This movement is being led by Rabbi Michael Lerner who recently convened a national meeting in Washington D.C. which included leaders from all walks of American life. His book, “The Left Hand of God---Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right,” includes a new national agenda called “A Spiritual Covenant with America.” The NSP is an offshoot of the Jewish interfaith movement magazine, Tikkun. Lerner’s national visibility on recent national news shows like Meet the Press, and in other national media recently is testimony to the success of this movement.
In June a new NSP chapter was formed here in Madison and will hold its next membership meeting on Monday, September 25, 2006 at 6:30 p.m. at the Madison Friends Meeting House at 1704 Roberts Court. All are welcome!
I want to share just one example how a value clarification approach to national and world problem solving might work. It appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal’s Opinion page on August 15, 2006: “Internal medicine: How to cure a nation’s culture” by national columnist, David Brooks. In this article Brooks draws from certain cultural east-west value studies in order to better examine this question: “Can another country, presumably the United States, effectively change another culture or country so as to encourage its development and modernization?” Brooks concluded, based on a broad values analysis that it would be foolish to think we can address root cultural differences, and that we need to be satisfied to fight “symptoms” for many years to come.
Why? Because recent studies of cultural transformation now clearly show that such change can not be imposed from the outside but must be led from the inside. Western nations desiring such change in Middle East nations would be more effective spending their resources in helping to raise national literacy indexes than supporting political or military interventions.
I contend, as Michael Lerner does, that such political discussions, when based upon widely accepted moral values, can go a long way toward enhancing our political debate and help to reduce hyperbolic partisan rhetoric. To help promote a more reasoned, constructive and dispassionate political dialogue I urge you to consider joining us on September 25th. (Contact Bill Benedict 608-249-5672)
Respectfully,
William R. Benedict
249-5672
There is a spiritual network afoot which has a political agenda: The Network of Spiritual Progressives. The NSP’s basic message and plea is that America shift its political, issue centered dialogue from partisan, stereotypical rhetoric to using broad moral values as a framework for reasoned discussion, including: Should we really love our neighbors as our self? Is wealth and power more important than love and peace? Should our bottom line value be profit and self-interest or caring and justice? Do we prefer an ethic of selfishness or generosity?
This movement is being led by Rabbi Michael Lerner who recently convened a national meeting in Washington D.C. which included leaders from all walks of American life. His book, “The Left Hand of God---Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right,” includes a new national agenda called “A Spiritual Covenant with America.” The NSP is an offshoot of the Jewish interfaith movement magazine, Tikkun. Lerner’s national visibility on recent national news shows like Meet the Press, and in other national media recently is testimony to the success of this movement.
In June a new NSP chapter was formed here in Madison and will hold its next membership meeting on Monday, September 25, 2006 at 6:30 p.m. at the Madison Friends Meeting House at 1704 Roberts Court. All are welcome!
I want to share just one example how a value clarification approach to national and world problem solving might work. It appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal’s Opinion page on August 15, 2006: “Internal medicine: How to cure a nation’s culture” by national columnist, David Brooks. In this article Brooks draws from certain cultural east-west value studies in order to better examine this question: “Can another country, presumably the United States, effectively change another culture or country so as to encourage its development and modernization?” Brooks concluded, based on a broad values analysis that it would be foolish to think we can address root cultural differences, and that we need to be satisfied to fight “symptoms” for many years to come.
Why? Because recent studies of cultural transformation now clearly show that such change can not be imposed from the outside but must be led from the inside. Western nations desiring such change in Middle East nations would be more effective spending their resources in helping to raise national literacy indexes than supporting political or military interventions.
I contend, as Michael Lerner does, that such political discussions, when based upon widely accepted moral values, can go a long way toward enhancing our political debate and help to reduce hyperbolic partisan rhetoric. To help promote a more reasoned, constructive and dispassionate political dialogue I urge you to consider joining us on September 25th. (Contact Bill Benedict 608-249-5672)
Respectfully,
William R. Benedict
249-5672
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Clarifying Values Can Help Reform Politics
The Capital Times - Guest Column
There is a new spiritual movement afoot in Madison, and it’s committed to reforming our political system. It is not focused around any single issue. Instead, it is asking the American people to participate in a national value clarification discussion.
The Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) is an off-shoot of the Jewish Interfaith movement magazine, Tikkun. Editor Rabbi Michael Lerner, a renowned social theorist and theologian has recently written a book, The Left Hand of God --Taking Back Our Community From the Religious Right.
In June 2006 a group met at Unity of Madison to organize an NSP chapter here. The NSP is intended as an alternative to the political Right, and what it calls “the ethos of selfishness, materialism and cynicism.” (see: www.nsp.wisconsinwi.us/)
The Tikkun Community believes that the Right’s values, situated in a larger context of fear, have led America into a frantic search for money and power and away from a life of hope, love, kindness and generosity.
There are five value comparisons that have been used extensively in cultural studies and to contrast the American corporation sub-culture with our larger society. In the following list, corporate values are listed first and followed by family values:
• Discourage feeling expression vs. encourage feeling expression;
• Self interest vs. community interest;
• Treat a person based on a rule or principal vs. your relationship to the person;
• Treat a person based on her achievement vs. on her total attributes;
• Respond to a person’s needs on a very narrow basis, i.e. employer/employee vs. responding to a person’s diverse and diffuse needs, i.e. mother/child or husband/wife.
I would like to see a statewide discussion about what America’s core values are and should be. Are corporate values taking root and perhaps even beginning to dominate our family and larger community culture, and if so, is this good for America? What impact is the American corporate culture having on our global economy and world peace, not to mention community values?
Based on these five value alternatives we can see that corporate America’s culture requires that in work or business dealings employees generally are encouraged to repress emotional expression; that the corporation’s principal interest is its own welfare and the bottom line; that business activity will be based on rules and only secondarily on personal relationships.
Also the company will treat their employees principally on the basis of how they perform or achieve rather than on who they are; that the employer will restrict his interaction with employees more narrowly around job descriptions and matters of business. Finally, the company’s relationship to their employees is segmented and circumscribed.
In stark contrast, a community or family culture is largely based on very different values that allow for a broad range of impulse and emotional expression. Interdependence is valued and members’ concerns for others extend into caring and love for one another. Here a family member should expect to find supportive primary relationships. While a person’s achievement is recognized, the person is also rewarded for a wide range of personal and social attributes. There is the promise of many diffuse relationships and multiple human needs are met.
It is useful to examine these five core value alternatives in the context of our major social institutions, i.e., government, church, courts and the family. Part of our discussion needs to consider the consequences to our country when economic-centered values begin to infiltrate and replace our other traditional institutional values. Regretfully, I believe this is what is happening.
It’s clear emotional expression in the family is being blunted and often ignored resulting in ever increasing depression and violence in our society. It can be seen in an ever increasing culture of selfishness and materialism. It can also be seen in our growing homeless population and in the denial of economic entitlements for our poorest and neediest children. Finally, it can be seen in the disintegration of our civic life and in our increasing insulation and isolation from our neighbors.
A 1995-2005 comparative ten year study found that the average American when asked how many friends they had now reported having twenty fewer friends, and when asked how many “best friends” changed their answer from three down to only two. Many youngsters when asked this same question now often list only “virtual” on-line friendships. Studies also tell us that more and more adults report less and less time for family, civic and other community involvement. All trends seem to be telling us that our jobs and consumer-related activities are squeezing more and more time out of our family and leisure hours.
It is hoped that an on-going discussion of these values will soften and quiet the now loud stereotypical rehashing of the same old left-right issues and allow for a more in depth and rational dialogue.
William R. Benedict lives in Madison. For more on the local NSP chapter, contact Beth Wortzel at 233-0241.
There is a new spiritual movement afoot in Madison, and it’s committed to reforming our political system. It is not focused around any single issue. Instead, it is asking the American people to participate in a national value clarification discussion.
The Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) is an off-shoot of the Jewish Interfaith movement magazine, Tikkun. Editor Rabbi Michael Lerner, a renowned social theorist and theologian has recently written a book, The Left Hand of God --Taking Back Our Community From the Religious Right.
In June 2006 a group met at Unity of Madison to organize an NSP chapter here. The NSP is intended as an alternative to the political Right, and what it calls “the ethos of selfishness, materialism and cynicism.” (see: www.nsp.wisconsinwi.us/)
The Tikkun Community believes that the Right’s values, situated in a larger context of fear, have led America into a frantic search for money and power and away from a life of hope, love, kindness and generosity.
There are five value comparisons that have been used extensively in cultural studies and to contrast the American corporation sub-culture with our larger society. In the following list, corporate values are listed first and followed by family values:
• Discourage feeling expression vs. encourage feeling expression;
• Self interest vs. community interest;
• Treat a person based on a rule or principal vs. your relationship to the person;
• Treat a person based on her achievement vs. on her total attributes;
• Respond to a person’s needs on a very narrow basis, i.e. employer/employee vs. responding to a person’s diverse and diffuse needs, i.e. mother/child or husband/wife.
I would like to see a statewide discussion about what America’s core values are and should be. Are corporate values taking root and perhaps even beginning to dominate our family and larger community culture, and if so, is this good for America? What impact is the American corporate culture having on our global economy and world peace, not to mention community values?
Based on these five value alternatives we can see that corporate America’s culture requires that in work or business dealings employees generally are encouraged to repress emotional expression; that the corporation’s principal interest is its own welfare and the bottom line; that business activity will be based on rules and only secondarily on personal relationships.
Also the company will treat their employees principally on the basis of how they perform or achieve rather than on who they are; that the employer will restrict his interaction with employees more narrowly around job descriptions and matters of business. Finally, the company’s relationship to their employees is segmented and circumscribed.
In stark contrast, a community or family culture is largely based on very different values that allow for a broad range of impulse and emotional expression. Interdependence is valued and members’ concerns for others extend into caring and love for one another. Here a family member should expect to find supportive primary relationships. While a person’s achievement is recognized, the person is also rewarded for a wide range of personal and social attributes. There is the promise of many diffuse relationships and multiple human needs are met.
It is useful to examine these five core value alternatives in the context of our major social institutions, i.e., government, church, courts and the family. Part of our discussion needs to consider the consequences to our country when economic-centered values begin to infiltrate and replace our other traditional institutional values. Regretfully, I believe this is what is happening.
It’s clear emotional expression in the family is being blunted and often ignored resulting in ever increasing depression and violence in our society. It can be seen in an ever increasing culture of selfishness and materialism. It can also be seen in our growing homeless population and in the denial of economic entitlements for our poorest and neediest children. Finally, it can be seen in the disintegration of our civic life and in our increasing insulation and isolation from our neighbors.
A 1995-2005 comparative ten year study found that the average American when asked how many friends they had now reported having twenty fewer friends, and when asked how many “best friends” changed their answer from three down to only two. Many youngsters when asked this same question now often list only “virtual” on-line friendships. Studies also tell us that more and more adults report less and less time for family, civic and other community involvement. All trends seem to be telling us that our jobs and consumer-related activities are squeezing more and more time out of our family and leisure hours.
It is hoped that an on-going discussion of these values will soften and quiet the now loud stereotypical rehashing of the same old left-right issues and allow for a more in depth and rational dialogue.
William R. Benedict lives in Madison. For more on the local NSP chapter, contact Beth Wortzel at 233-0241.
Clarifying Values Can Help Reform Politics
The Capital Times – Guest Column
There is a new spiritual movement afoot in Madison, and it’s committed to reforming our political system. It is not focused around any single issue. Instead, it is asking the American people to participate in a national value clarification discussion.
The Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) is an off-shoot of the Jewish Interfaith movement magazine, Tikkun. Editor Rabbi Michael Lerner, a renowned social theorist and theologian has recently written a book, The Left Hand of God --Taking Back Our Community From the Religious Right.
In June 2006 a group met at Unity of Madison to organize an NSP chapter here. The NSP is intended as an alternative to the political Right, and what it calls “the ethos of selfishness, materialism and cynicism.” (see: www.nsp.wisconsinwi.us/)
The Tikkun Community believes that the Right’s values, situated in a larger context of fear, have led America into a frantic search for money and power and away from a life of hope, love, kindness and generosity.
There are five value comparisons that have been used extensively in cultural studies and to contrast the American corporation sub-culture with our larger society. In the following list, corporate values are listed first and followed by family values:
ß Discourage feeling expression vs. encourage feeling expression;
ß Self interest vs. community interest;
ß Treat a person based on a rule or principal vs. your relationship to the person;
ß Treat a person based on her achievement vs. on her total attributes;
ß Respond to a person’s needs on a very narrow basis, i.e. employer/employee vs. responding to a person’s diverse and diffuse needs, i.e. mother/child or husband/wife.
I would like to see a statewide discussion about what America’s core values are and should be. Are corporate values taking root and perhaps even beginning to dominate our family and larger community culture, and if so, is this good for America? What impact is the American corporate culture having on our global economy and world peace, not to mention community values?
Based on these five value alternatives we can see that corporate America’s culture requires that in work or business dealings employees generally are encouraged to repress emotional expression; that the corporation’s principal interest is its own welfare and the bottom line; that business activity will be based on rules and only secondarily on personal relationships.
Also the company will treat their employees principally on the basis of how they perform or achieve rather than on who they are; that the employer will restrict his interaction with employees more narrowly around job descriptions and matters of business. Finally, the company’s relationship to their employees is segmented and circumscribed.
In stark contrast, a community or family culture is largely based on very different values that allow for a broad range of impulse and emotional expression. Interdependence is valued and members’ concerns for others extend into caring and love for one another. Here a family member should expect to find supportive primary relationships. While a person’s achievement is recognized, the person is also rewarded for a wide range of personal and social attributes. There is the promise of many diffuse relationships and multiple human needs are met.
It is useful to examine these five core value alternatives in the context of our major social institutions, i.e., government, church, courts and the family. Part of our discussion needs to consider the consequences to our country when economic-centered values begin to infiltrate and replace our other traditional institutional values. Regretfully, I believe this is what is happening.
It’s clear emotional expression in the family is being blunted and often ignored resulting in ever increasing depression and violence in our society. It can be seen in an ever increasing culture of selfishness and materialism. It can also be seen in our growing homeless population and in the denial of economic entitlements for our poorest and neediest children. Finally, it can be seen in the disintegration of our civic life and in our increasing insulation and isolation from our neighbors.
A 1995-2005 comparative ten year study found that the average American when asked how many friends they had now reported having twenty fewer friends, and when asked how many “best friends” changed their answer from three down to only two. Many youngsters when asked this same question now often list only “virtual” on-line friendships. Studies also tell us that more and more adults report less and less time for family, civic and other community involvement. All trends seem to be telling us that our jobs and consumer-related activities are squeezing more and more time out of our family and leisure hours.
It is hoped that an on-going discussion of these values will soften and quiet the now loud stereotypical rehashing of the same old left-right issues and allow for a more in depth and rational dialogue.
William R. Benedict lives in Madison. For more on the local NSP chapter, contact Beth Wortzel at 233-0241.
There is a new spiritual movement afoot in Madison, and it’s committed to reforming our political system. It is not focused around any single issue. Instead, it is asking the American people to participate in a national value clarification discussion.
The Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) is an off-shoot of the Jewish Interfaith movement magazine, Tikkun. Editor Rabbi Michael Lerner, a renowned social theorist and theologian has recently written a book, The Left Hand of God --Taking Back Our Community From the Religious Right.
In June 2006 a group met at Unity of Madison to organize an NSP chapter here. The NSP is intended as an alternative to the political Right, and what it calls “the ethos of selfishness, materialism and cynicism.” (see: www.nsp.wisconsinwi.us/)
The Tikkun Community believes that the Right’s values, situated in a larger context of fear, have led America into a frantic search for money and power and away from a life of hope, love, kindness and generosity.
There are five value comparisons that have been used extensively in cultural studies and to contrast the American corporation sub-culture with our larger society. In the following list, corporate values are listed first and followed by family values:
ß Discourage feeling expression vs. encourage feeling expression;
ß Self interest vs. community interest;
ß Treat a person based on a rule or principal vs. your relationship to the person;
ß Treat a person based on her achievement vs. on her total attributes;
ß Respond to a person’s needs on a very narrow basis, i.e. employer/employee vs. responding to a person’s diverse and diffuse needs, i.e. mother/child or husband/wife.
I would like to see a statewide discussion about what America’s core values are and should be. Are corporate values taking root and perhaps even beginning to dominate our family and larger community culture, and if so, is this good for America? What impact is the American corporate culture having on our global economy and world peace, not to mention community values?
Based on these five value alternatives we can see that corporate America’s culture requires that in work or business dealings employees generally are encouraged to repress emotional expression; that the corporation’s principal interest is its own welfare and the bottom line; that business activity will be based on rules and only secondarily on personal relationships.
Also the company will treat their employees principally on the basis of how they perform or achieve rather than on who they are; that the employer will restrict his interaction with employees more narrowly around job descriptions and matters of business. Finally, the company’s relationship to their employees is segmented and circumscribed.
In stark contrast, a community or family culture is largely based on very different values that allow for a broad range of impulse and emotional expression. Interdependence is valued and members’ concerns for others extend into caring and love for one another. Here a family member should expect to find supportive primary relationships. While a person’s achievement is recognized, the person is also rewarded for a wide range of personal and social attributes. There is the promise of many diffuse relationships and multiple human needs are met.
It is useful to examine these five core value alternatives in the context of our major social institutions, i.e., government, church, courts and the family. Part of our discussion needs to consider the consequences to our country when economic-centered values begin to infiltrate and replace our other traditional institutional values. Regretfully, I believe this is what is happening.
It’s clear emotional expression in the family is being blunted and often ignored resulting in ever increasing depression and violence in our society. It can be seen in an ever increasing culture of selfishness and materialism. It can also be seen in our growing homeless population and in the denial of economic entitlements for our poorest and neediest children. Finally, it can be seen in the disintegration of our civic life and in our increasing insulation and isolation from our neighbors.
A 1995-2005 comparative ten year study found that the average American when asked how many friends they had now reported having twenty fewer friends, and when asked how many “best friends” changed their answer from three down to only two. Many youngsters when asked this same question now often list only “virtual” on-line friendships. Studies also tell us that more and more adults report less and less time for family, civic and other community involvement. All trends seem to be telling us that our jobs and consumer-related activities are squeezing more and more time out of our family and leisure hours.
It is hoped that an on-going discussion of these values will soften and quiet the now loud stereotypical rehashing of the same old left-right issues and allow for a more in depth and rational dialogue.
William R. Benedict lives in Madison. For more on the local NSP chapter, contact Beth Wortzel at 233-0241.
Clarifying Values Can Help Reform Politics
The Capital Times – August 17, 2006
Guest Column by
William R. Benedict
There is a new spiritual movement afoot in Madison, and it’s committed to reforming our political system. It is not focused around any single issue. Instead, it is asking the American people to participate in a national value clarification discussion.
The Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) is an off-shoot of the Jewish Interfaith movement magazine, Tikkun. Editor Rabbi Michael Lerner, a renowned social theorist and theologian has recently written a book, The Left Hand of God --Taking Back Our Community From the Religious Right.
In June 2006 a group met at Unity of Madison to organize an NSP chapter here. The NSP is intended as an alternative to the political Right, and what it calls “the ethos of selfishness, materialism and cynicism.” (see: www.nsp.wisconsinwi.us/)
The Tikkun Community believes that the Right’s values, situated in a larger context of fear, have led America into a frantic search for money and power and away from a life of hope, love, kindness and generosity.
There are five value comparisons that have been used extensively in cultural studies and to contrast the American corporation sub-culture with our larger society. In the following list, corporate values are listed first and followed by family values:
ß Discourage feeling expression vs. encourage feeling expression;
ß Self interest vs. community interest;
ß Treat a person based on a rule or principal vs. your relationship to the person;
ß Treat a person based on her achievement vs. on her total attributes;
ß Respond to a person’s needs on a very narrow basis, i.e. employer/employee vs. responding to a person’s diverse and diffuse needs, i.e. mother/child or husband/wife.
I would like to see a statewide discussion about what America’s core values are and should be. Are corporate values taking root and perhaps even beginning to dominate our family and larger community culture, and if so, is this good for America? What impact is the American corporate culture having on our global economy and world peace, not to mention community values?
Based on these five value alternatives we can see that corporate America’s culture requires that in work or business dealings employees generally are encouraged to repress emotional expression; that the corporation’s principal interest is its own welfare and the bottom line; that business activity will be based on rules and only secondarily on personal relationships. Also the company will treat their employees principally on the basis of how they perform or achieve rather than on who they are; that the employer will restrict his interaction with employees more narrowly around job descriptions and matters of business. Finally, the company’s relationship to their employees is segmented and circumscribed.
In stark contrast, a community or family culture is largely based on very different values that allow for a broad range of impulse and emotional expression. Interdependence is valued and members’ concerns for others extend into caring and love for one another. Here a family member should expect to find supportive primary relationships. While a person’s achievement is recognized, the person is also rewarded for a wide range of personal and social attributes. There is the promise of many diffuse relationships and multiple human needs are met.
It is useful to examine these five core value alternatives in the context of our major social institutions, i.e., government, church, courts and the family. Part of our discussion needs to consider the consequences to our country when economic-centered values begin to infiltrate and replace our other traditional institutional values. Regretfully, I believe this is what is happening.
It’s clear emotional expression in the family is being blunted and often ignored resulting in ever increasing depression and violence in our society. It can be seen in an ever increasing culture of selfishness and materialism. It can also be seen in our growing homeless population and in the denial of economic entitlements for our poorest and neediest children. Finally, it can be seen in the disintegration of our civic life and in our increasing insulation and isolation from our neighbors.
A 1995-2005 comparative ten year study found that the average American when asked how many friends they had now reported having twenty fewer friends, and when asked how many “best friends” changed their answer from three down to only two. Many youngsters when asked this same question now often list only “virtual” on-line friendships. Studies also tell us that more and more adults report less and less time for family, civic and other community involvement. All trends seem to be telling us that our jobs and consumer-related activities are squeezing more and more time out of our family and leisure hours.
It is hoped that an on-going discussion of these values will soften and quiet the now loud stereotypical rehashing of the same old left-right issues and allow for a more in depth and rational dialogue.
William R. Benedict lives in Madison. For more on the local NSP chapter, contact Beth Wortzel at 233-0241.
Guest Column by
William R. Benedict
There is a new spiritual movement afoot in Madison, and it’s committed to reforming our political system. It is not focused around any single issue. Instead, it is asking the American people to participate in a national value clarification discussion.
The Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) is an off-shoot of the Jewish Interfaith movement magazine, Tikkun. Editor Rabbi Michael Lerner, a renowned social theorist and theologian has recently written a book, The Left Hand of God --Taking Back Our Community From the Religious Right.
In June 2006 a group met at Unity of Madison to organize an NSP chapter here. The NSP is intended as an alternative to the political Right, and what it calls “the ethos of selfishness, materialism and cynicism.” (see: www.nsp.wisconsinwi.us/)
The Tikkun Community believes that the Right’s values, situated in a larger context of fear, have led America into a frantic search for money and power and away from a life of hope, love, kindness and generosity.
There are five value comparisons that have been used extensively in cultural studies and to contrast the American corporation sub-culture with our larger society. In the following list, corporate values are listed first and followed by family values:
ß Discourage feeling expression vs. encourage feeling expression;
ß Self interest vs. community interest;
ß Treat a person based on a rule or principal vs. your relationship to the person;
ß Treat a person based on her achievement vs. on her total attributes;
ß Respond to a person’s needs on a very narrow basis, i.e. employer/employee vs. responding to a person’s diverse and diffuse needs, i.e. mother/child or husband/wife.
I would like to see a statewide discussion about what America’s core values are and should be. Are corporate values taking root and perhaps even beginning to dominate our family and larger community culture, and if so, is this good for America? What impact is the American corporate culture having on our global economy and world peace, not to mention community values?
Based on these five value alternatives we can see that corporate America’s culture requires that in work or business dealings employees generally are encouraged to repress emotional expression; that the corporation’s principal interest is its own welfare and the bottom line; that business activity will be based on rules and only secondarily on personal relationships. Also the company will treat their employees principally on the basis of how they perform or achieve rather than on who they are; that the employer will restrict his interaction with employees more narrowly around job descriptions and matters of business. Finally, the company’s relationship to their employees is segmented and circumscribed.
In stark contrast, a community or family culture is largely based on very different values that allow for a broad range of impulse and emotional expression. Interdependence is valued and members’ concerns for others extend into caring and love for one another. Here a family member should expect to find supportive primary relationships. While a person’s achievement is recognized, the person is also rewarded for a wide range of personal and social attributes. There is the promise of many diffuse relationships and multiple human needs are met.
It is useful to examine these five core value alternatives in the context of our major social institutions, i.e., government, church, courts and the family. Part of our discussion needs to consider the consequences to our country when economic-centered values begin to infiltrate and replace our other traditional institutional values. Regretfully, I believe this is what is happening.
It’s clear emotional expression in the family is being blunted and often ignored resulting in ever increasing depression and violence in our society. It can be seen in an ever increasing culture of selfishness and materialism. It can also be seen in our growing homeless population and in the denial of economic entitlements for our poorest and neediest children. Finally, it can be seen in the disintegration of our civic life and in our increasing insulation and isolation from our neighbors.
A 1995-2005 comparative ten year study found that the average American when asked how many friends they had now reported having twenty fewer friends, and when asked how many “best friends” changed their answer from three down to only two. Many youngsters when asked this same question now often list only “virtual” on-line friendships. Studies also tell us that more and more adults report less and less time for family, civic and other community involvement. All trends seem to be telling us that our jobs and consumer-related activities are squeezing more and more time out of our family and leisure hours.
It is hoped that an on-going discussion of these values will soften and quiet the now loud stereotypical rehashing of the same old left-right issues and allow for a more in depth and rational dialogue.
William R. Benedict lives in Madison. For more on the local NSP chapter, contact Beth Wortzel at 233-0241.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Letter to the Editor – Making Madison Work Series
The Wisconsin State Journal is to be congratulated on a well written, interesting and comprehensive four part series on Madison’s economy and how it needs to plan for the future. It graphically depicts how the city of Madison is changing and suggests six important things that the city can do to create more jobs and protect the quality of life.
When I try to distill the essence of this series, however, I have to say that in none of the four part series was the Journal’s laissez faire philosophy or bias far from the page. Nor were its conclusions very different from their almost daily editorial sermons. The City of Madison must have “a new relationship between the Council’s political left and business.” Is there anyone in Madison who hasn’t heard this mantra?
There was certainly no surprise here! This, in spite of the fact however that the Journal’s extensive investigation could find absolutely no evidence that the Council’s political left had actually significantly hurt Madison business one iota.
Implicit throughout but less so in the series’ conclusions, was the meta message that Madison citizens should keep it’s hands off the business community regardless of how dirty or how clean, or how tall or how wide, or how big or how powerful it might choose to grow.
Fortunately, in spite of this bias the Journal research also found that Madison’s democracy is vibrant and strong, even if at times, to the chagrin business and the Journal. From this series, the citizens of Madison can take a deep and rewarding breath and celebrate that this study also found that its many neighborhood associations are thriving and healthy. The famous nineteenth century observer of American life, Alexis de Tocqueville, if he could visit our city today, would find that Madison’s civic pride and industry is also very strong and getting more powerful!
Most respectfully,
William R. Benedict
When I try to distill the essence of this series, however, I have to say that in none of the four part series was the Journal’s laissez faire philosophy or bias far from the page. Nor were its conclusions very different from their almost daily editorial sermons. The City of Madison must have “a new relationship between the Council’s political left and business.” Is there anyone in Madison who hasn’t heard this mantra?
There was certainly no surprise here! This, in spite of the fact however that the Journal’s extensive investigation could find absolutely no evidence that the Council’s political left had actually significantly hurt Madison business one iota.
Implicit throughout but less so in the series’ conclusions, was the meta message that Madison citizens should keep it’s hands off the business community regardless of how dirty or how clean, or how tall or how wide, or how big or how powerful it might choose to grow.
Fortunately, in spite of this bias the Journal research also found that Madison’s democracy is vibrant and strong, even if at times, to the chagrin business and the Journal. From this series, the citizens of Madison can take a deep and rewarding breath and celebrate that this study also found that its many neighborhood associations are thriving and healthy. The famous nineteenth century observer of American life, Alexis de Tocqueville, if he could visit our city today, would find that Madison’s civic pride and industry is also very strong and getting more powerful!
Most respectfully,
William R. Benedict
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Put heart into W-2 program
Published in the Wisconsin State Journal’s ‘Your Opinion’ Section
As reported by Brenda Ingersoll in the June 27 Wisconsin State Journal, the number of Wisconsin children living in families whose earnings are 50 percent below the poverty level nearly doubled between 2000 and 2004, from 44,000 up to 84,000
Ingersoll noted that such poverty “has an impact on all sorts of other conditions for children—instability in their housing, their schooling, their safety and their health.” It’s clear from this report that the Department of Workforce Development’s “Wisconsin Works” (W-2) Program failed.
What a stark contrast between these long term findings, and what Rep. John Gard, author of Wisconsin Works Program, boasted on the PBS NewsHour in 1996.“A lot of folks have moved in to work. We’ve seen tremendous success with people moving into private sector work.” In fact the Legislative Audit Bureau indicates that 43% of W-2 participants were employed by temporary staffing agencies.
Then Sen. Gwendolynne Moore, who appeared with Gard, had it right then and now when she said: “To say, as Rep. Gard has just said, to be cynical and say, we’re going to take away the safety net for children so as to force people into the low-wage work force…is a smoking gun.
The W-2 program has slowly transitioned into a “sanction-centered” program. Its principal activity is bureaucratic watchdog asking participants to jump through more and more eligibility and program hoops. The Audit Bureau noted that W-2 agencies imposed over $30.2 million in financial sanctions, often inconsistent, and that seven W-2 agencies sanctioned more than 20 percent of their participants.
And while W-2 is required to administer barrier screening assessments to identify obstacles to employment, only about 40 percent were actually done. Missed assessments result in fewer W-2 eligible program participants. And without assessments, needed services are denied to the detriment of both the participants and taxpayers. A growing number of W-2 participants are nearing their lifetime limit of program eligibility.
The real issue is how are we going to provide meaningful work assistance? Will we adopt a service-centered job assisted program which provides adequate child care, transportation, remedial education, job training, comprehensive health care, including paid sick leave, or are we going to continue to create bureaucratic barriers and sanctions?
With the number of Wisconsin families living in poverty steadily increasing we cannot be content with being ranked 13th in an otherwise top ranked state. Most importantly, how can we assist and protect young mothers who have legitimate barriers, but who continue to go undetected and underserved or who just can’t work?
As a professional social worker, I know that human service professionals working at Dane County Family Services, The Mental Health Center of Dane County, in domestic abuse programs, in our schools and child care centers, see underserved children daily.
W-2 requires that, after the participants use up their eligibility extensions, regardless of need and even if they have met every requirement, they will be abandoned. W-2 treats the economically disenfranchised differently than any other constituency. Those who are least able will get the least assistance.
It’s time for the citizens of Wisconsin to help our most needy and deserving families. Will this program continue its harsh policies, or will the Department of Workforce Development begin their own reform program to include compassion, love, kindness, hope and generosity?
As reported by Brenda Ingersoll in the June 27 Wisconsin State Journal, the number of Wisconsin children living in families whose earnings are 50 percent below the poverty level nearly doubled between 2000 and 2004, from 44,000 up to 84,000
Ingersoll noted that such poverty “has an impact on all sorts of other conditions for children—instability in their housing, their schooling, their safety and their health.” It’s clear from this report that the Department of Workforce Development’s “Wisconsin Works” (W-2) Program failed.
What a stark contrast between these long term findings, and what Rep. John Gard, author of Wisconsin Works Program, boasted on the PBS NewsHour in 1996.“A lot of folks have moved in to work. We’ve seen tremendous success with people moving into private sector work.” In fact the Legislative Audit Bureau indicates that 43% of W-2 participants were employed by temporary staffing agencies.
Then Sen. Gwendolynne Moore, who appeared with Gard, had it right then and now when she said: “To say, as Rep. Gard has just said, to be cynical and say, we’re going to take away the safety net for children so as to force people into the low-wage work force…is a smoking gun.
The W-2 program has slowly transitioned into a “sanction-centered” program. Its principal activity is bureaucratic watchdog asking participants to jump through more and more eligibility and program hoops. The Audit Bureau noted that W-2 agencies imposed over $30.2 million in financial sanctions, often inconsistent, and that seven W-2 agencies sanctioned more than 20 percent of their participants.
And while W-2 is required to administer barrier screening assessments to identify obstacles to employment, only about 40 percent were actually done. Missed assessments result in fewer W-2 eligible program participants. And without assessments, needed services are denied to the detriment of both the participants and taxpayers. A growing number of W-2 participants are nearing their lifetime limit of program eligibility.
The real issue is how are we going to provide meaningful work assistance? Will we adopt a service-centered job assisted program which provides adequate child care, transportation, remedial education, job training, comprehensive health care, including paid sick leave, or are we going to continue to create bureaucratic barriers and sanctions?
With the number of Wisconsin families living in poverty steadily increasing we cannot be content with being ranked 13th in an otherwise top ranked state. Most importantly, how can we assist and protect young mothers who have legitimate barriers, but who continue to go undetected and underserved or who just can’t work?
As a professional social worker, I know that human service professionals working at Dane County Family Services, The Mental Health Center of Dane County, in domestic abuse programs, in our schools and child care centers, see underserved children daily.
W-2 requires that, after the participants use up their eligibility extensions, regardless of need and even if they have met every requirement, they will be abandoned. W-2 treats the economically disenfranchised differently than any other constituency. Those who are least able will get the least assistance.
It’s time for the citizens of Wisconsin to help our most needy and deserving families. Will this program continue its harsh policies, or will the Department of Workforce Development begin their own reform program to include compassion, love, kindness, hope and generosity?
Monday, June 19, 2006
Let’s Talk Values
There is a new spiritual movement afoot in Madison that is committed to reforming our political system. It is not focused around any single issue. Instead, it is asking the American people to participate in a national value-clarification discussion. The Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) is an off-shoot of the Jewish Interfaith movement magazine, Tikkun. The editor, Rabbi Michael Lerner, is a renowned social theorist and theologian. Lerner has recently written a book, The Left Hand of God --Taking Back Our Community From the Religious Right.
On June 19, 2006 a group met at Unity of Madison and took steps to organize an NSP chapter here in Madison. The NSP is intended as an alternative to the political Right, and what it calls “the ethos of selfishness, materialism and cynicism.” The Tikkun Community believes that the Right’s values, situated in a larger context of fear, have led America into a frantic search for money and power and away from a life of hope, love, kindness and generosity. The nature of the NSP’s spirituality is one that is based on fundamental values.
There are five value comparisons that have been used extensively in cultural studies and to contrast the values of the American corporation sub-culture with our larger society. In the following list, corporate values are listed first and followed by family values: Discourage feeling expression vs. encourage feeling expression; Self interest vs. community interest; Treat a person based on a rule or principal vs. your relationship to the person; Treat a person based on her achievement vs. on her total attributes; respond to a person’s needs on a very narrow basis, i.e. employer/employee vs. responding to a person’s diverse and diffuse needs, i.e. mother/child or husband/wife.
By introducing and discussing these above values this writer hopes to begin a larger State of Wisconsin discussion about what America’s core values are and should be. Are corporate values taking root and perhaps even beginning to dominate our family and larger community culture, and if so, is this good for America? What impact is the American corporate culture having on our global economy and world peace? Finally, our readers may want to use these five value comparisons to further clarify their own family and community values.
Based on these five value alternatives we can see that corporate America’s culture requires that in work or business dealings employees generally are encouraged to repress emotional expression; that the corporation’s principal interest is its own welfare and the bottom line; that business activity will be based on rules and only secondarily on personal relationships. That the company will treat their employees principally on the basis of how they perform or achieve rather than on who they are; that the employer will restrict their interaction with employees more narrowly around job descriptions and matters of business. Finally, the company’s relationship to their employees is segmented and circumscribed.
In stark contrast, a community or family culture is largely based on very different values that allow for a broad range of impulse and emotional expression. Interdependence is valued and members’ concerns for others extend into caring and love for one another. Here a family member should expect to find supportive primary relationships. While a person’s achievement is recognized, the person is also rewarded for a wide range of personal and social attributes. There is the promise of many diffuse relationships and multiple human needs are met.
It is useful to examine these five core value alternatives in the context of our major social institutions, i.e. government, church, courts and the family. Part of our discussion needs to consider the consequences to our country when economic-centered values begin to infiltrate and replace our other traditional institutional values. Regretfully, I believe this is what is happening.
It’s clear emotional expression in the family is being blunted and often ignored resulting in ever increasing depression and violence in our society. It can be seen in an ever increasing culture of selfishness and materialism. It can also be seen in our growing homeless population and in the denial of economic entitlements for our poorest and neediest children. It can be seen in our national educational reform program (NCLB) which values achievement and ever higher competitive testing compliance more than rewarding moral character building and life-long social and emotional competencies. Finally, it can be seen in the disintegration of our civic life and in our increasing insulation and isolation from our neighbors.
A 1995-2005 comparative ten year study found that the average American when asked how many friends they had now reported having twenty fewer friends, and when asked how many “best friends” changed their answer from three down to only two. Many youngsters when asked this same question now often list only “virtual” on-line friendships. Studies also tell us that more and more adults report less and less time for family, civic and other community involvement. All trends seem to be telling us that our jobs and consumer-related activities are squeezing more and more time out of our family and leisure hours.
Hopefully an on-going discussion of these values will soften and quiet the now loud stereotypical rehashing of the same old left-right issues and allow for a more in depth and rational dialogue.
On June 19, 2006 a group met at Unity of Madison and took steps to organize an NSP chapter here in Madison. The NSP is intended as an alternative to the political Right, and what it calls “the ethos of selfishness, materialism and cynicism.” The Tikkun Community believes that the Right’s values, situated in a larger context of fear, have led America into a frantic search for money and power and away from a life of hope, love, kindness and generosity. The nature of the NSP’s spirituality is one that is based on fundamental values.
There are five value comparisons that have been used extensively in cultural studies and to contrast the values of the American corporation sub-culture with our larger society. In the following list, corporate values are listed first and followed by family values: Discourage feeling expression vs. encourage feeling expression; Self interest vs. community interest; Treat a person based on a rule or principal vs. your relationship to the person; Treat a person based on her achievement vs. on her total attributes; respond to a person’s needs on a very narrow basis, i.e. employer/employee vs. responding to a person’s diverse and diffuse needs, i.e. mother/child or husband/wife.
By introducing and discussing these above values this writer hopes to begin a larger State of Wisconsin discussion about what America’s core values are and should be. Are corporate values taking root and perhaps even beginning to dominate our family and larger community culture, and if so, is this good for America? What impact is the American corporate culture having on our global economy and world peace? Finally, our readers may want to use these five value comparisons to further clarify their own family and community values.
Based on these five value alternatives we can see that corporate America’s culture requires that in work or business dealings employees generally are encouraged to repress emotional expression; that the corporation’s principal interest is its own welfare and the bottom line; that business activity will be based on rules and only secondarily on personal relationships. That the company will treat their employees principally on the basis of how they perform or achieve rather than on who they are; that the employer will restrict their interaction with employees more narrowly around job descriptions and matters of business. Finally, the company’s relationship to their employees is segmented and circumscribed.
In stark contrast, a community or family culture is largely based on very different values that allow for a broad range of impulse and emotional expression. Interdependence is valued and members’ concerns for others extend into caring and love for one another. Here a family member should expect to find supportive primary relationships. While a person’s achievement is recognized, the person is also rewarded for a wide range of personal and social attributes. There is the promise of many diffuse relationships and multiple human needs are met.
It is useful to examine these five core value alternatives in the context of our major social institutions, i.e. government, church, courts and the family. Part of our discussion needs to consider the consequences to our country when economic-centered values begin to infiltrate and replace our other traditional institutional values. Regretfully, I believe this is what is happening.
It’s clear emotional expression in the family is being blunted and often ignored resulting in ever increasing depression and violence in our society. It can be seen in an ever increasing culture of selfishness and materialism. It can also be seen in our growing homeless population and in the denial of economic entitlements for our poorest and neediest children. It can be seen in our national educational reform program (NCLB) which values achievement and ever higher competitive testing compliance more than rewarding moral character building and life-long social and emotional competencies. Finally, it can be seen in the disintegration of our civic life and in our increasing insulation and isolation from our neighbors.
A 1995-2005 comparative ten year study found that the average American when asked how many friends they had now reported having twenty fewer friends, and when asked how many “best friends” changed their answer from three down to only two. Many youngsters when asked this same question now often list only “virtual” on-line friendships. Studies also tell us that more and more adults report less and less time for family, civic and other community involvement. All trends seem to be telling us that our jobs and consumer-related activities are squeezing more and more time out of our family and leisure hours.
Hopefully an on-going discussion of these values will soften and quiet the now loud stereotypical rehashing of the same old left-right issues and allow for a more in depth and rational dialogue.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
No Need to Worry!
Letter to the Editor – Wisconsin State Journal
Phil Brinkman’s Wednesday article on the Georgia Thompson verdict reported that state union officials were concerned that state prosecutors were “over-reaching” by charging Thompson under laws normally cited in bribery and fraud cases.
The unions reportedly were concerned that “the routine lawful performance of their job may put them potentially at risk for similar criminal prosecutions.” This writer, partly facetiously, partly cynically, and partly very seriously, believes that they need not worry about this eventuality, inasmuch as big corporations and unions routinely assess each of our state legislators’ capacity to deliver for them, and then blatantly give them big money for their next re-election campaign. If readers wish to see just how much such corporations give your legislators for favors, they can simply click on the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s link to access its extensive data base: wisdc.org.
Phil Brinkman’s Wednesday article on the Georgia Thompson verdict reported that state union officials were concerned that state prosecutors were “over-reaching” by charging Thompson under laws normally cited in bribery and fraud cases.
The unions reportedly were concerned that “the routine lawful performance of their job may put them potentially at risk for similar criminal prosecutions.” This writer, partly facetiously, partly cynically, and partly very seriously, believes that they need not worry about this eventuality, inasmuch as big corporations and unions routinely assess each of our state legislators’ capacity to deliver for them, and then blatantly give them big money for their next re-election campaign. If readers wish to see just how much such corporations give your legislators for favors, they can simply click on the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s link to access its extensive data base: wisdc.org.
Monday, June 5, 2006
Pop Culture Story
Since my retirement I have been spending a lot of my time working for campaign finance reform. How can I help average Joe and Sally citizen regain control of their government? How can we take back our state government from the control of big corporations? I continued to be dismayed at how few citizens, in spite of the recent legislature corruption, still have precious little time to contribute to this cause.
This morning I read how much time and money parents spent trying to protect their children from our popular culture which has now completely taken over our country. (See: ”Non-Drinking Fun For Grads” by Kate Schuman, Wisconsin State Journal 6/5/06). It soon became clear that a significant component of the parents’ planning strategy was to keep their older teens safely confined and strictly supervised within their public high school during a significant portion of their graduation-day celebration. As a former professional institutional youth worker, who knows something about program structure and programming, I was truly impressed with how creatively and thoroughly these parents were in helping the school plan their child’s graduation prom night.
This story made it abundantly clear how parents perceive some of the dangers lurking in their child’s environment ---a culture of alcohol, drugs, cars, young romance and their feelings of invincibility. You may rightly be thinking, “So what’s new?” What is new I think is their increasing feeling of powerlessness, fear and anxiety. Already ever and ever more extended both at home and at work, out of both love and fear, they give of themselves so unselfishly and lovingly. After giving and caring for so long and so deeply for 17 or 18 years, their child’s graduation day certainly is not the time to let down.
What I don’t understand is why more of our retirees, singles and parents, don’t allocate at least a little bit of up-stream time and effort toward working to protect their children and their grandchildren, to take back control of their communities from corporate exploitation and greed. Instead, as citizens and parents, we become more and more complicit and dependent upon the corporate backed and commercially-supported popular culture. Like in our State government, the corporations have literally moved all of what has now become “standard” staples and corporate commodities right into our school houses. This was so graphically seen Schuman’s story.
Her story illustrated, I think, just how desperate and co-dependent parents have become on our pop culture to help them seduce, manage and control their children. The story included the fact that the parents raised over $16,000 dollars to hold one medium size high school prom. While at the same time less that 8% of our citizens check off 1% of their income tax to pay for public campaign financing, which if fully implemented, would take our state legislature back and give it to the average tax paying citizen. In reading this story I had to wonder how much pop culture values and choices has now replaced old time and trusted child raising virtues of building in their child trust, self-discipline, responsibility, self-reliance and common sense.
The $10,000 dollar gift giving bonanza, including Target’s gift to every graduate, clearly illustrates just how much our popular culture is synonymous with our commercial culture and all of its trappings, i.e., “Deal or No Deal, case cubic, iPods, futons, play stations and DVD players. These were just some of the gifts that were given to the graduates. As one student graduate aptly put it, “With all these prizes you might as well spend a night at school.” If all the money raised and spent, the expensive gifts, the corporate sponsor, are not enough evidence to show how the corporations have now hooked both our youth and their parents I don’t know what is.
Certainly the ever-present, all powerful and impersonal corporate giants, like adopted step-parents, are beginning more and more to make our parents feel ever more fearful and co-dependent on corporate influence. This impotence and powerlessness can be stopped. The people can reclaim their legitimate influence both in their home and in the larger community by getting corporate power and influence out of our State Capitol and our schools NOW.
This morning I read how much time and money parents spent trying to protect their children from our popular culture which has now completely taken over our country. (See: ”Non-Drinking Fun For Grads” by Kate Schuman, Wisconsin State Journal 6/5/06). It soon became clear that a significant component of the parents’ planning strategy was to keep their older teens safely confined and strictly supervised within their public high school during a significant portion of their graduation-day celebration. As a former professional institutional youth worker, who knows something about program structure and programming, I was truly impressed with how creatively and thoroughly these parents were in helping the school plan their child’s graduation prom night.
This story made it abundantly clear how parents perceive some of the dangers lurking in their child’s environment ---a culture of alcohol, drugs, cars, young romance and their feelings of invincibility. You may rightly be thinking, “So what’s new?” What is new I think is their increasing feeling of powerlessness, fear and anxiety. Already ever and ever more extended both at home and at work, out of both love and fear, they give of themselves so unselfishly and lovingly. After giving and caring for so long and so deeply for 17 or 18 years, their child’s graduation day certainly is not the time to let down.
What I don’t understand is why more of our retirees, singles and parents, don’t allocate at least a little bit of up-stream time and effort toward working to protect their children and their grandchildren, to take back control of their communities from corporate exploitation and greed. Instead, as citizens and parents, we become more and more complicit and dependent upon the corporate backed and commercially-supported popular culture. Like in our State government, the corporations have literally moved all of what has now become “standard” staples and corporate commodities right into our school houses. This was so graphically seen Schuman’s story.
Her story illustrated, I think, just how desperate and co-dependent parents have become on our pop culture to help them seduce, manage and control their children. The story included the fact that the parents raised over $16,000 dollars to hold one medium size high school prom. While at the same time less that 8% of our citizens check off 1% of their income tax to pay for public campaign financing, which if fully implemented, would take our state legislature back and give it to the average tax paying citizen. In reading this story I had to wonder how much pop culture values and choices has now replaced old time and trusted child raising virtues of building in their child trust, self-discipline, responsibility, self-reliance and common sense.
The $10,000 dollar gift giving bonanza, including Target’s gift to every graduate, clearly illustrates just how much our popular culture is synonymous with our commercial culture and all of its trappings, i.e., “Deal or No Deal, case cubic, iPods, futons, play stations and DVD players. These were just some of the gifts that were given to the graduates. As one student graduate aptly put it, “With all these prizes you might as well spend a night at school.” If all the money raised and spent, the expensive gifts, the corporate sponsor, are not enough evidence to show how the corporations have now hooked both our youth and their parents I don’t know what is.
Certainly the ever-present, all powerful and impersonal corporate giants, like adopted step-parents, are beginning more and more to make our parents feel ever more fearful and co-dependent on corporate influence. This impotence and powerlessness can be stopped. The people can reclaim their legitimate influence both in their home and in the larger community by getting corporate power and influence out of our State Capitol and our schools NOW.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Just More Hollow Words
In your lead editorial of May 8th, your editor’s chastised Mayor Dave Cieslewicz for not doing enough to bring the business community and the political progressives closer together, and I quote, “he needs more than just words to get the city’s feuding factions to reconcile.”
Paradoxically, the readers then are given only more words! We are again given the same old subjective clichés about the tension existing between our local government’s desire for greater social justice and the sacrosanct business community’s desire for less and less regulation.
Why is it, that in this erudite university community with all of our prestigious scientists, including economists and mathematicians, that our public conversations are almost totally absent of empirical substance which would allow an ever continuing and transformative dialogue to occur? Why can’t our dialogue be raised to the point where the reader is given some comparative indicators, some standards, and some parameters, measures that will inform and raise the level of our public discourse?
For example, in the Journal’s most recent editorial, “Replace city IZ law with a better plan” (5/22/06), I note the same use of right-wing innuendo fluff and pro-market value bias trying to substitute for otherwise hard empirical evidenced based on factual data. I quote, “…a social engineering experiment with obvious flaws. The city tried and it failed.” How so, and precisely, based on what objective indicators does the Journal base its conclusions? Journal readers should consider Doug Piper’s guest column on the adjoining page (“Evaluation part of plan to prevent obesity”) where he tells us how the people will really know whether a public program is working? We will only know when consensually agreed upon measures are put in place at the onset of the project’s initial implementation.
Perhaps we could begin by obtaining some simple but broad metrics and ratios regarding the economic health of the business community and the quality of life that most citizens of Madison expect. If indeed no such consensual measures now exist, it is high time we get to work and develop some.
Without such familiar and generally accepted measures, our public dialogue in Madison will continue to be hollow and random. And because almost all complex new projects, like IZ, require several years to produce the desired outcomes, numerous sequential benchmarks must be put in place. Only then can the public know whether a new joint initiative is really working.
For the Journal to come up with its own arbitrary and independent project evaluation measures , i.e. “number of unsubsidized buyers over a set time period,” after less than one full operational development year, is premature and has little credibility. The role of responsible journalism in this context is to be advocating that consensually negotiated program evaluation measures be put in place prior to the adoption of all public funded projects would be far more productive. This would replace the rhetorical and ideological infighting and allow for a more informative and constructive dialogue among all the special interests involved.
As a program evaluator for over thirty years I am convinced that without more consensually derived objective and quantitative measures, that are familiar and respected by both the business and political progressive communities, the goal of helping both sides see their common interests will continue to evade us.
Paradoxically, the readers then are given only more words! We are again given the same old subjective clichés about the tension existing between our local government’s desire for greater social justice and the sacrosanct business community’s desire for less and less regulation.
Why is it, that in this erudite university community with all of our prestigious scientists, including economists and mathematicians, that our public conversations are almost totally absent of empirical substance which would allow an ever continuing and transformative dialogue to occur? Why can’t our dialogue be raised to the point where the reader is given some comparative indicators, some standards, and some parameters, measures that will inform and raise the level of our public discourse?
For example, in the Journal’s most recent editorial, “Replace city IZ law with a better plan” (5/22/06), I note the same use of right-wing innuendo fluff and pro-market value bias trying to substitute for otherwise hard empirical evidenced based on factual data. I quote, “…a social engineering experiment with obvious flaws. The city tried and it failed.” How so, and precisely, based on what objective indicators does the Journal base its conclusions? Journal readers should consider Doug Piper’s guest column on the adjoining page (“Evaluation part of plan to prevent obesity”) where he tells us how the people will really know whether a public program is working? We will only know when consensually agreed upon measures are put in place at the onset of the project’s initial implementation.
Perhaps we could begin by obtaining some simple but broad metrics and ratios regarding the economic health of the business community and the quality of life that most citizens of Madison expect. If indeed no such consensual measures now exist, it is high time we get to work and develop some.
Without such familiar and generally accepted measures, our public dialogue in Madison will continue to be hollow and random. And because almost all complex new projects, like IZ, require several years to produce the desired outcomes, numerous sequential benchmarks must be put in place. Only then can the public know whether a new joint initiative is really working.
For the Journal to come up with its own arbitrary and independent project evaluation measures , i.e. “number of unsubsidized buyers over a set time period,” after less than one full operational development year, is premature and has little credibility. The role of responsible journalism in this context is to be advocating that consensually negotiated program evaluation measures be put in place prior to the adoption of all public funded projects would be far more productive. This would replace the rhetorical and ideological infighting and allow for a more informative and constructive dialogue among all the special interests involved.
As a program evaluator for over thirty years I am convinced that without more consensually derived objective and quantitative measures, that are familiar and respected by both the business and political progressive communities, the goal of helping both sides see their common interests will continue to evade us.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Re: Input into MUM’s needs assessment, 2006 strategic planning process
Ms. Linda Ketcham
Executive Director
Madison Urban Ministry
2300 South Park Street, Ste. 5
Madison, WI 53713
Dear Ms. Ketcham:
I had the privilege of attending and participating in MUM’s annual meeting and the first phase of your strategic planning process. I too was extremely impressed with the commitment and clarity of the MUM membership regarding the agency’s core key strengths and customs. I felt our discussion captured the essence of MUM’s unique identity. You may recall that we briefly met following the meeting. It was a pleasure to meet you and wish you well on your new journey.
If you will allow me as a MUM member I would like to share with you and the MUM Board my deepest concern for our community. I pray that as you move further into this planning and discovery process you will ask whether your agency is now being called to respond to the ever increasing estrangement between our law makers and the people of Wisconsin ---especially the people with little or moderate means and influence.
Of course I am referring to the recent caucus scandals and the growing special interest influence now playing out in our legislative halls. More specifically I am referring to the fact:
1.) That citizen apathy has reached such a high level that now only less than 8% of our citizens earmark the mere one dollar voluntary contribution from their state income tax to help maintain the Wisconsin Election Campaign Fund (WECF). This fact represents a 66% drop from when the State adopted a comprehensive campaign finance reform law in 1977. This apathy has served to deplete this fund and signaled our legislators that as taxpayers we really don’t care where their campaign money comes from.
2.) Our legislators have not chosen to adjust the spending limits for conducting political campaigns since 1982 and thus allowing this money management mechanism to die a slow death and to open the door to special interests groups and ad issue funding. Less than a half dozen legislators now elect to use these dwindling public funds. This has opened the flood gates to a wide open special interest contribution bonanza.
3.) The insidious effects of issue ads sponsored by special interest groups beginning in 1996 has now removed almost completely the people’s capacity to any longer elect their representative without being outspend many, many times over by special interests groups that have a narrow self interest monetary (verses public welfare) motive. Issue ads, combined with unlimited campaign spending, have produced gigantic campaign race expenditures.
It is now not unusual for incumbents to hold a 14 to 1 cash advantage over their challengers. From my own research, I counted only 37 of our 95 assembly races where the citizens of this state will actually be given a choice of two or more candidates.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of these seats will be uncontested. In Senate seat races it’s even worse with sixty-eight percent (68%) are going uncontested. This compares to 1970 when there were no uncontested races for the legislature
The mad money chase that legislators now have to run means that most of the incumbent’s time is now given over to listening to and serving their dozen or more major special interest contributors. If you are not a corporate head or a lobbyist your chance of getting your legislator’s ear is increasingly difficult if not impossible. The fact now is they no longer have time to study your issues or to represent you or me in the legislature. This has done profound harm to our electoral process. Voters have been robbed of competitive races and of making meaningful choices at the ballot box.
4.) The breakdown of Wisconsin’s campaign finance system has now led to distortion of our public policymaking process as well. For example, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), a public advocate and non-partisan watchdog organization, shows that lawmakers who crafted the most recent state budget included items worth $819 million in special tax breaks, pork barrel spending projects and other budget favors --- benefiting special interests groups. Get this! This was in exchange for their $3 million in campaign contributions to legislators while budget decisions were being made.
This special interest money is increasingly concentrated and centralized in the legislature’s leadership where one legislative leader reported special contributions totaling $560 thousand. This amount was then broken down into the following special interest categories for analysis: Health Professionals 12%, Construction 9%, Manufacturing and Distribution 9%, Health Services 8%, Tourism and Entertainment 8%, Road Construction 7%, Bank and Financing 6%, Law Firms and Lobbyists 6%, etc..
The recent prosecutions disclosed gross misuse of the public offices and resources by our lawmakers for electioneering purposes as well as widespread allegations that legislators are trading public policy for campaign donations.
With so much special interest money pouring into our “democratic process” it is now foolish and naive to believe and hope that this government institution will reform itself. After all, it’s the legislators who are the principal beneficiaries of this corrupt system. . Special interest groups have totally hijacked our representative democracy. Northing short of raising the awareness of all the people – you and I - and our neighbors, will cause this takeover of our liberty be undone.
As a father and grandfather I most humbly and respectfully, but urgently, ask MUM to closely consider by request for your interest and possible action on this grave issue that is looming over our State and Nation. This is a struggle and reform that will not be accomplished in a year or five years, but a reform that is so critical to our freedom that it must be begin NOW! There are few if any informed critics who believe that the recent prosecutions will have any significant effect on the “pay to play” mind set or culture that now pervades our Capitol.
If you begin to get close enough to it, as I have, you clearly sense a confident arrogance and disdain for the “common person” or citizen. It is a culture that is so well established now that to raise this issue to a moral level would, for most of the legislators, be considered a waste of time for any concerned citizen. The fact that our Supreme Court has used our First Amendment to define money as the same as “freedom of speech” only goes to show how insidious and all powerful this “pay to play” norm is now ensconced in our state and country. This brazen arrogance was best seen just this past month when your legislature refused to bring to the floor, Senate Bill 1, intended to establish an independent and bi-partisan commission to reform our existing ethics and election boards, and to oversee, and if necessary, investigate and prosecute wrong doing.
I ask for your deliberation of my concern because I know that MUM is committed to the poor and needy, to the abused and neglected, to the underemployed, prison reform, to families, and most of all, to the well being and solidarity of our community, state and nation.
I am truly convinced that working for campaign finance reform must become a permanent program staple on the program menu of every social agency, church and civic group. It can no longer be taken for granted. Our freedoms must constantly be won and re-won for our children and grandchildren. What is at stake is the very essence of our democratic freedoms. It must become a part of every group’s mission and armamentarium. It must be a “up stream” concern for all of us while we still continue to work in the social vineyards of the present.
MUM’s twenty-five year reputation as an interfaith beacon for people without a voice knows better than most what it means to be daily oppressed by feeling “powerless” and not heard. This is exactly the condition which now exist in our State Capitol. I truly believe that there is not one social problem or issue in this community that would not best be served if people like you and I could succeed in taking back our State Legislature.
I dream for the day when your grandchildren and mine can run for public office without mortgaging their homes; when our legislators take time to listen to the average citizen while the special interest lobbyist waits her/his turn. I dream for the day when a legislator is no longer beholden to any person or group except to his constituency. I dream for a time when a fraction of our tax dollars will be spent willingly and generously to publicly finance our elections in order to insure that the people’s basic needs will be addressed for the common good rather than for the benefit of special interests.
My vision and hope as a MUM member is that MUM will take some action to begin to address this deep concern. It may take the form of simply signing off on a referendum to demonstrate its support for this cause. It might take the form of conducting an educational forum geared toward raising your supporters’ awareness of this dire threat to our freedom. Perhaps the first step would be to hold study circles for MUM’s staff and Board by inviting in a local representative from Common Cause or the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign or have a few churches hold such study circles as well.
I now must end by apologizing for such a long letter. This is due in part to the complexity of this issue, and also to my lack of experience doing personal advocacy. I thank you in advance for giving me this time, as well as the time involved in bringing this issue to your staff and Board.
Sincerely yours,
William R. Benedict
Executive Director
Madison Urban Ministry
2300 South Park Street, Ste. 5
Madison, WI 53713
Dear Ms. Ketcham:
I had the privilege of attending and participating in MUM’s annual meeting and the first phase of your strategic planning process. I too was extremely impressed with the commitment and clarity of the MUM membership regarding the agency’s core key strengths and customs. I felt our discussion captured the essence of MUM’s unique identity. You may recall that we briefly met following the meeting. It was a pleasure to meet you and wish you well on your new journey.
If you will allow me as a MUM member I would like to share with you and the MUM Board my deepest concern for our community. I pray that as you move further into this planning and discovery process you will ask whether your agency is now being called to respond to the ever increasing estrangement between our law makers and the people of Wisconsin ---especially the people with little or moderate means and influence.
Of course I am referring to the recent caucus scandals and the growing special interest influence now playing out in our legislative halls. More specifically I am referring to the fact:
1.) That citizen apathy has reached such a high level that now only less than 8% of our citizens earmark the mere one dollar voluntary contribution from their state income tax to help maintain the Wisconsin Election Campaign Fund (WECF). This fact represents a 66% drop from when the State adopted a comprehensive campaign finance reform law in 1977. This apathy has served to deplete this fund and signaled our legislators that as taxpayers we really don’t care where their campaign money comes from.
2.) Our legislators have not chosen to adjust the spending limits for conducting political campaigns since 1982 and thus allowing this money management mechanism to die a slow death and to open the door to special interests groups and ad issue funding. Less than a half dozen legislators now elect to use these dwindling public funds. This has opened the flood gates to a wide open special interest contribution bonanza.
3.) The insidious effects of issue ads sponsored by special interest groups beginning in 1996 has now removed almost completely the people’s capacity to any longer elect their representative without being outspend many, many times over by special interests groups that have a narrow self interest monetary (verses public welfare) motive. Issue ads, combined with unlimited campaign spending, have produced gigantic campaign race expenditures.
It is now not unusual for incumbents to hold a 14 to 1 cash advantage over their challengers. From my own research, I counted only 37 of our 95 assembly races where the citizens of this state will actually be given a choice of two or more candidates.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of these seats will be uncontested. In Senate seat races it’s even worse with sixty-eight percent (68%) are going uncontested. This compares to 1970 when there were no uncontested races for the legislature
The mad money chase that legislators now have to run means that most of the incumbent’s time is now given over to listening to and serving their dozen or more major special interest contributors. If you are not a corporate head or a lobbyist your chance of getting your legislator’s ear is increasingly difficult if not impossible. The fact now is they no longer have time to study your issues or to represent you or me in the legislature. This has done profound harm to our electoral process. Voters have been robbed of competitive races and of making meaningful choices at the ballot box.
4.) The breakdown of Wisconsin’s campaign finance system has now led to distortion of our public policymaking process as well. For example, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), a public advocate and non-partisan watchdog organization, shows that lawmakers who crafted the most recent state budget included items worth $819 million in special tax breaks, pork barrel spending projects and other budget favors --- benefiting special interests groups. Get this! This was in exchange for their $3 million in campaign contributions to legislators while budget decisions were being made.
This special interest money is increasingly concentrated and centralized in the legislature’s leadership where one legislative leader reported special contributions totaling $560 thousand. This amount was then broken down into the following special interest categories for analysis: Health Professionals 12%, Construction 9%, Manufacturing and Distribution 9%, Health Services 8%, Tourism and Entertainment 8%, Road Construction 7%, Bank and Financing 6%, Law Firms and Lobbyists 6%, etc..
The recent prosecutions disclosed gross misuse of the public offices and resources by our lawmakers for electioneering purposes as well as widespread allegations that legislators are trading public policy for campaign donations.
With so much special interest money pouring into our “democratic process” it is now foolish and naive to believe and hope that this government institution will reform itself. After all, it’s the legislators who are the principal beneficiaries of this corrupt system. . Special interest groups have totally hijacked our representative democracy. Northing short of raising the awareness of all the people – you and I - and our neighbors, will cause this takeover of our liberty be undone.
As a father and grandfather I most humbly and respectfully, but urgently, ask MUM to closely consider by request for your interest and possible action on this grave issue that is looming over our State and Nation. This is a struggle and reform that will not be accomplished in a year or five years, but a reform that is so critical to our freedom that it must be begin NOW! There are few if any informed critics who believe that the recent prosecutions will have any significant effect on the “pay to play” mind set or culture that now pervades our Capitol.
If you begin to get close enough to it, as I have, you clearly sense a confident arrogance and disdain for the “common person” or citizen. It is a culture that is so well established now that to raise this issue to a moral level would, for most of the legislators, be considered a waste of time for any concerned citizen. The fact that our Supreme Court has used our First Amendment to define money as the same as “freedom of speech” only goes to show how insidious and all powerful this “pay to play” norm is now ensconced in our state and country. This brazen arrogance was best seen just this past month when your legislature refused to bring to the floor, Senate Bill 1, intended to establish an independent and bi-partisan commission to reform our existing ethics and election boards, and to oversee, and if necessary, investigate and prosecute wrong doing.
I ask for your deliberation of my concern because I know that MUM is committed to the poor and needy, to the abused and neglected, to the underemployed, prison reform, to families, and most of all, to the well being and solidarity of our community, state and nation.
I am truly convinced that working for campaign finance reform must become a permanent program staple on the program menu of every social agency, church and civic group. It can no longer be taken for granted. Our freedoms must constantly be won and re-won for our children and grandchildren. What is at stake is the very essence of our democratic freedoms. It must become a part of every group’s mission and armamentarium. It must be a “up stream” concern for all of us while we still continue to work in the social vineyards of the present.
MUM’s twenty-five year reputation as an interfaith beacon for people without a voice knows better than most what it means to be daily oppressed by feeling “powerless” and not heard. This is exactly the condition which now exist in our State Capitol. I truly believe that there is not one social problem or issue in this community that would not best be served if people like you and I could succeed in taking back our State Legislature.
I dream for the day when your grandchildren and mine can run for public office without mortgaging their homes; when our legislators take time to listen to the average citizen while the special interest lobbyist waits her/his turn. I dream for the day when a legislator is no longer beholden to any person or group except to his constituency. I dream for a time when a fraction of our tax dollars will be spent willingly and generously to publicly finance our elections in order to insure that the people’s basic needs will be addressed for the common good rather than for the benefit of special interests.
My vision and hope as a MUM member is that MUM will take some action to begin to address this deep concern. It may take the form of simply signing off on a referendum to demonstrate its support for this cause. It might take the form of conducting an educational forum geared toward raising your supporters’ awareness of this dire threat to our freedom. Perhaps the first step would be to hold study circles for MUM’s staff and Board by inviting in a local representative from Common Cause or the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign or have a few churches hold such study circles as well.
I now must end by apologizing for such a long letter. This is due in part to the complexity of this issue, and also to my lack of experience doing personal advocacy. I thank you in advance for giving me this time, as well as the time involved in bringing this issue to your staff and Board.
Sincerely yours,
William R. Benedict
Why We Need Campaign Finance Reform
I had the privilege of attending and participating in MUM’s annual meeting and the first phase of your strategic planning process. I too was extremely impressed with the commitment and clarity of the MUM membership regarding the agency’s core key strengths and customs. I felt our discussion captured the essence of MUM’s unique identity. You may recall that we briefly met following the meeting. It was a pleasure to meet you and wish you well on your new journey.
If you will allow me as a MUM member I would like to share with you and the MUM Board my deepest concern for our community. I pray that as you move further into this planning and discovery process you will ask whether your agency is now being called to respond to the ever increasing estrangement between our law makers and the people of Wisconsin ---especially the people with little or moderate means and influence.
Of course I am referring to the recent caucus scandals and the growing special interest influence now playing out in our legislative halls. More specifically I am referring to the fact:
1.) That citizen apathy has reached such a high level that now only less than 8% of our citizens earmark the mere one dollar voluntary contribution from their state income tax to help maintain the Wisconsin Election Campaign Fund (WECF). This fact represents a 66% drop from when the State adopted a comprehensive campaign finance reform law in 1977. This apathy has served to deplete this fund and signaled our legislators that as taxpayers we really don’t care where their campaign money comes from.
2.) Our legislators have not chosen to adjust the spending limits for conducting political campaigns since 1982 and thus allowing this money management mechanism to die a slow death and to open the door to special interests groups and ad issue funding. Less than a half dozen legislators now elect to use these dwindling public funds. This has opened the flood gates to a wide open special interest contribution bonanza.
3.) The insidious effects of issue ads sponsored by special interest groups beginning in 1996 has now removed almost completely the people’s capacity to any longer elect their representative without being outspend many, many times over by special interests groups that have a narrow self interest monetary (verses public welfare) motive. Issue ads, combined with unlimited campaign spending, have produced gigantic campaign race expenditures.
It is now not unusual for incumbents to hold a 14 to 1 cash advantage over their challengers. From my own research, I counted only 37 of our 95 assembly races where the citizens of this state will actually be given a choice of two or more candidates.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of these seats will be uncontested. In Senate seat races it’s even worse with sixty-eight percent (68%) are going uncontested. This compares to 1970 when there were no uncontested races for the legislature
The mad money chase that legislators now have to run means that most of the incumbent’s time is now given over to listening to and serving their dozen or more major special interest contributors. If you are not a corporate head or a lobbyist your chance of getting your legislator’s ear is increasingly difficult if not impossible. The fact now is they no longer have time to study your issues or to represent you or me in the legislature. This has done profound harm to our electoral process. Voters have been robbed of competitive races and of making meaningful choices at the ballot box.
4.) The breakdown of Wisconsin’s campaign finance system has now led to distortion of our public policymaking process as well. For example, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), a public advocate and non-partisan watchdog organization, shows that lawmakers who crafted the most recent state budget included items worth $819 million in special tax breaks, pork barrel spending projects and other budget favors --- benefiting special interests groups. Get this! This was in exchange for their $3 million in campaign contributions to legislators while budget decisions were being made.
This special interest money is increasingly concentrated and centralized in the legislature’s leadership where one legislative leader reported special contributions totaling $560 thousand. This amount was then broken down into the following special interest categories for analysis: Health Professionals 12%, Construction 9%, Manufacturing and Distribution 9%, Health Services 8%, Tourism and Entertainment 8%, Road Construction 7%, Bank and Financing 6%, Law Firms and Lobbyists 6%, etc..
The recent prosecutions disclosed gross misuse of the public offices and resources by our lawmakers for electioneering purposes as well as widespread allegations that legislators are trading public policy for campaign donations.
With so much special interest money pouring into our “democratic process” it is now foolish and naive to believe and hope that this government institution will reform itself. After all, it’s the legislators who are the principal beneficiaries of this corrupt system. . Special interest groups have totally hijacked our representative democracy. Northing short of raising the awareness of all the people – you and I - and our neighbors, will cause this takeover of our liberty be undone.
As a father and grandfather I most humbly and respectfully, but urgently, ask MUM to closely consider by request for your interest and possible action on this grave issue that is looming over our State and Nation. This is a struggle and reform that will not be accomplished in a year or five years, but a reform that is so critical to our freedom that it must be begin NOW!
There are few if any informed critics who believe that the recent prosecutions will have any significant effect on the “pay to play” mind set or culture that now pervades our Capitol.
If you begin to get close enough to it, as I have, you clearly sense a confident arrogance and disdain for the “common person” or citizen. It is a culture that is so well established now that to raise this issue to a moral level would, for most of the legislators, be considered a waste of time for any concerned citizen. The fact that our Supreme Court has used our First Amendment to define money as the same as “freedom of speech” only goes to show how insidious and all powerful this “pay to play” norm is now ensconced in our state and country. This brazen arrogance was best seen just this past month when your legislature refused to bring to the floor, Senate Bill 1, intended to establish an independent and bi-partisan commission to reform our existing ethics and election boards, and to oversee, and if necessary, investigate and prosecute wrong doing.
I ask for your deliberation of my concern because I know that MUM is committed to the poor and needy, to the abused and neglected, to the underemployed, prison reform, to families, and most of all, to the well being and solidarity of our community, state and nation.
I am truly convinced that working for campaign finance reform must become a permanent program staple on the program menu of every social agency, church and civic group. It can no longer be taken for granted. Our freedoms must constantly be won and re-won for our children and grandchildren. What is at stake is the very essence of our democratic freedoms. It must become a part of every group’s mission and armamentarium. It must be a “up stream” concern for all of us while we still continue to work in the social vineyards of the present.
MUM’s twenty-five year reputation as an interfaith beacon for people without a voice knows better than most what it means to be daily oppressed by feeling “powerless” and not heard. This is exactly the condition which now exist in our State Capitol. I truly believe that there is not one social problem or issue in this community that would not best be served if people like you and I could succeed in taking back our State Legislature.
I dream for the day when your grandchildren and mine can run for public office without mortgaging their homes; when our legislators take time to listen to the average citizen while the special interest lobbyist waits her/his turn. I dream for the day when a legislator is no longer beholden to any person or group except to his constituency. I dream for a time when a fraction of our tax dollars will be spent willingly and generously to publicly finance our elections in order to insure that the people’s basic needs will be addressed for the common good rather than for the benefit of special interests.
My vision and hope as a MUM member is that MUM will take some action to begin to address this deep concern. It may take the form of simply signing off on a referendum to demonstrate its support for this cause. It might take the form of conducting an educational forum geared toward raising your supporters’ awareness of this dire threat to our freedom. Perhaps the first step would be to hold study circles for MUM’s staff and Board by inviting in a local representative from Common Cause or the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign or have a few churches hold such study circles as well.
I now must end by apologizing for such a long letter. This is due in part to the complexity of this issue, and also to my lack of experience doing personal advocacy. I thank you in advance for giving me this time, as well as the time involved in bringing this issue to your staff and Board.
If you will allow me as a MUM member I would like to share with you and the MUM Board my deepest concern for our community. I pray that as you move further into this planning and discovery process you will ask whether your agency is now being called to respond to the ever increasing estrangement between our law makers and the people of Wisconsin ---especially the people with little or moderate means and influence.
Of course I am referring to the recent caucus scandals and the growing special interest influence now playing out in our legislative halls. More specifically I am referring to the fact:
1.) That citizen apathy has reached such a high level that now only less than 8% of our citizens earmark the mere one dollar voluntary contribution from their state income tax to help maintain the Wisconsin Election Campaign Fund (WECF). This fact represents a 66% drop from when the State adopted a comprehensive campaign finance reform law in 1977. This apathy has served to deplete this fund and signaled our legislators that as taxpayers we really don’t care where their campaign money comes from.
2.) Our legislators have not chosen to adjust the spending limits for conducting political campaigns since 1982 and thus allowing this money management mechanism to die a slow death and to open the door to special interests groups and ad issue funding. Less than a half dozen legislators now elect to use these dwindling public funds. This has opened the flood gates to a wide open special interest contribution bonanza.
3.) The insidious effects of issue ads sponsored by special interest groups beginning in 1996 has now removed almost completely the people’s capacity to any longer elect their representative without being outspend many, many times over by special interests groups that have a narrow self interest monetary (verses public welfare) motive. Issue ads, combined with unlimited campaign spending, have produced gigantic campaign race expenditures.
It is now not unusual for incumbents to hold a 14 to 1 cash advantage over their challengers. From my own research, I counted only 37 of our 95 assembly races where the citizens of this state will actually be given a choice of two or more candidates.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of these seats will be uncontested. In Senate seat races it’s even worse with sixty-eight percent (68%) are going uncontested. This compares to 1970 when there were no uncontested races for the legislature
The mad money chase that legislators now have to run means that most of the incumbent’s time is now given over to listening to and serving their dozen or more major special interest contributors. If you are not a corporate head or a lobbyist your chance of getting your legislator’s ear is increasingly difficult if not impossible. The fact now is they no longer have time to study your issues or to represent you or me in the legislature. This has done profound harm to our electoral process. Voters have been robbed of competitive races and of making meaningful choices at the ballot box.
4.) The breakdown of Wisconsin’s campaign finance system has now led to distortion of our public policymaking process as well. For example, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), a public advocate and non-partisan watchdog organization, shows that lawmakers who crafted the most recent state budget included items worth $819 million in special tax breaks, pork barrel spending projects and other budget favors --- benefiting special interests groups. Get this! This was in exchange for their $3 million in campaign contributions to legislators while budget decisions were being made.
This special interest money is increasingly concentrated and centralized in the legislature’s leadership where one legislative leader reported special contributions totaling $560 thousand. This amount was then broken down into the following special interest categories for analysis: Health Professionals 12%, Construction 9%, Manufacturing and Distribution 9%, Health Services 8%, Tourism and Entertainment 8%, Road Construction 7%, Bank and Financing 6%, Law Firms and Lobbyists 6%, etc..
The recent prosecutions disclosed gross misuse of the public offices and resources by our lawmakers for electioneering purposes as well as widespread allegations that legislators are trading public policy for campaign donations.
With so much special interest money pouring into our “democratic process” it is now foolish and naive to believe and hope that this government institution will reform itself. After all, it’s the legislators who are the principal beneficiaries of this corrupt system. . Special interest groups have totally hijacked our representative democracy. Northing short of raising the awareness of all the people – you and I - and our neighbors, will cause this takeover of our liberty be undone.
As a father and grandfather I most humbly and respectfully, but urgently, ask MUM to closely consider by request for your interest and possible action on this grave issue that is looming over our State and Nation. This is a struggle and reform that will not be accomplished in a year or five years, but a reform that is so critical to our freedom that it must be begin NOW!
There are few if any informed critics who believe that the recent prosecutions will have any significant effect on the “pay to play” mind set or culture that now pervades our Capitol.
If you begin to get close enough to it, as I have, you clearly sense a confident arrogance and disdain for the “common person” or citizen. It is a culture that is so well established now that to raise this issue to a moral level would, for most of the legislators, be considered a waste of time for any concerned citizen. The fact that our Supreme Court has used our First Amendment to define money as the same as “freedom of speech” only goes to show how insidious and all powerful this “pay to play” norm is now ensconced in our state and country. This brazen arrogance was best seen just this past month when your legislature refused to bring to the floor, Senate Bill 1, intended to establish an independent and bi-partisan commission to reform our existing ethics and election boards, and to oversee, and if necessary, investigate and prosecute wrong doing.
I ask for your deliberation of my concern because I know that MUM is committed to the poor and needy, to the abused and neglected, to the underemployed, prison reform, to families, and most of all, to the well being and solidarity of our community, state and nation.
I am truly convinced that working for campaign finance reform must become a permanent program staple on the program menu of every social agency, church and civic group. It can no longer be taken for granted. Our freedoms must constantly be won and re-won for our children and grandchildren. What is at stake is the very essence of our democratic freedoms. It must become a part of every group’s mission and armamentarium. It must be a “up stream” concern for all of us while we still continue to work in the social vineyards of the present.
MUM’s twenty-five year reputation as an interfaith beacon for people without a voice knows better than most what it means to be daily oppressed by feeling “powerless” and not heard. This is exactly the condition which now exist in our State Capitol. I truly believe that there is not one social problem or issue in this community that would not best be served if people like you and I could succeed in taking back our State Legislature.
I dream for the day when your grandchildren and mine can run for public office without mortgaging their homes; when our legislators take time to listen to the average citizen while the special interest lobbyist waits her/his turn. I dream for the day when a legislator is no longer beholden to any person or group except to his constituency. I dream for a time when a fraction of our tax dollars will be spent willingly and generously to publicly finance our elections in order to insure that the people’s basic needs will be addressed for the common good rather than for the benefit of special interests.
My vision and hope as a MUM member is that MUM will take some action to begin to address this deep concern. It may take the form of simply signing off on a referendum to demonstrate its support for this cause. It might take the form of conducting an educational forum geared toward raising your supporters’ awareness of this dire threat to our freedom. Perhaps the first step would be to hold study circles for MUM’s staff and Board by inviting in a local representative from Common Cause or the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign or have a few churches hold such study circles as well.
I now must end by apologizing for such a long letter. This is due in part to the complexity of this issue, and also to my lack of experience doing personal advocacy. I thank you in advance for giving me this time, as well as the time involved in bringing this issue to your staff and Board.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
A Prayer
Great Spirit,
We pray this evening for
Ever greater meaning and
Purpose in our lives.
Please great Spirit, give us
A purpose for Being.
We pray for the Will and courage
To commit to something
Larger than ourselves.
Great Spirit, we are ready
To risk, to serve and to commit
To the greater well being of our Universe.
As your prophet, Matthew Fox
Pleaded,
Let us Thunder for Social Justice together!
Amen
We pray this evening for
Ever greater meaning and
Purpose in our lives.
Please great Spirit, give us
A purpose for Being.
We pray for the Will and courage
To commit to something
Larger than ourselves.
Great Spirit, we are ready
To risk, to serve and to commit
To the greater well being of our Universe.
As your prophet, Matthew Fox
Pleaded,
Let us Thunder for Social Justice together!
Amen
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
I wish to speak regarding: Lincoln School land sale and lakeshore access issue
City of Madison Parks Commission Meeting
I emphatically and enthusiastically agree with the Madison Park Commission decision not to sell the half acre of city land beneath the Lincoln School apartments. I enthusiastically endorse the recent statement by the Commission’s chair which stated:
“We should not limit our options relating to land we own publicly or waver from our vision of greater access to city lakeshores, and adding open space in an increasingly dense urban area.”
When I first arrived in Dane County now almost 35 years ago, I was struck by two main impressions of the City of Madison. First, how richly blessed Madison was to lie in the midst of so many miles of beautiful lake shore land. Secondly, how sad and unjust, it seemed, that so many Madisonians had public access to so little of it.
My dream and vision for Madison is that when this city celebrates its bicentennial in 2056 its citizens can proudly boast that they reclaimed their natural right to greater public access to Madison’s lake shores. I know with out any doubt that if there was a referendum to this effect, the people of Madison would overwhelmingly support it. One way to help ensure that the citizens of Madison begin take back part of their shore line would be to measure the public’s existing shore line, and then publicly announce at our spring sesquicentennial celebration a goal to significantly increase public access to our lakes.
Martin Luther King, when talking about the need to change our values, said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation (I would add here, ‘and as a city’) must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. He then went on to say that when profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Let us support “the people’s revolution” and say no to the further diminishment of the people’s access to this beautiful and enticing lake shore. Let us begin, as a city, to say no to the further privatization and degradation of our planet earth.
If we succeed, then we can triumphantly acclaim “our radiant city of Madison on the lakes,” and mean it!
William R. Benedict
Resident of Madison/Eastside
I emphatically and enthusiastically agree with the Madison Park Commission decision not to sell the half acre of city land beneath the Lincoln School apartments. I enthusiastically endorse the recent statement by the Commission’s chair which stated:
“We should not limit our options relating to land we own publicly or waver from our vision of greater access to city lakeshores, and adding open space in an increasingly dense urban area.”
When I first arrived in Dane County now almost 35 years ago, I was struck by two main impressions of the City of Madison. First, how richly blessed Madison was to lie in the midst of so many miles of beautiful lake shore land. Secondly, how sad and unjust, it seemed, that so many Madisonians had public access to so little of it.
My dream and vision for Madison is that when this city celebrates its bicentennial in 2056 its citizens can proudly boast that they reclaimed their natural right to greater public access to Madison’s lake shores. I know with out any doubt that if there was a referendum to this effect, the people of Madison would overwhelmingly support it. One way to help ensure that the citizens of Madison begin take back part of their shore line would be to measure the public’s existing shore line, and then publicly announce at our spring sesquicentennial celebration a goal to significantly increase public access to our lakes.
Martin Luther King, when talking about the need to change our values, said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation (I would add here, ‘and as a city’) must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. He then went on to say that when profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Let us support “the people’s revolution” and say no to the further diminishment of the people’s access to this beautiful and enticing lake shore. Let us begin, as a city, to say no to the further privatization and degradation of our planet earth.
If we succeed, then we can triumphantly acclaim “our radiant city of Madison on the lakes,” and mean it!
William R. Benedict
Resident of Madison/Eastside
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
“Wake Up America” – Letter to the Editor
Did the Journal’s editorial department and the readers of the Journal not read about the First Amendment violation which Leonard Pitts Jr. reported on in his Monday column? Inasmuch as I have not read one printed word about this “homeland security incident in our local papers,” I have to say that I am dismayed and alarmed. Benjamin Franklin warned us that, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Leonard Pitts Jr., columnist for the Miami Herald, and regularly featured in the Journal’s Your Opinion page, reported a February 9th County Homeland Security incident in a Montgomery County Public Library. It seems that two Homeland Security officers in uniform entered the Little Falls branch of the county library and informed the patrons that it was forbidden to use the library’s computers to view Internet pornography.
It was later reported by the Gazette.Net, Maryland County Newspaper Online, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006, when confronted by the library staff and informed that they themselves were acting in violation of Montgomery County Public Library policy “the veteran officers continued to press their case.” Fortunately the library staff then called the police and the unwelcome intruders left.
The Gazette quoted County Councilman Michael J. Knapp, who heads the council’s Homeland Security Committee, “It was probably a good learning experience for everybody.” The Gazette also reported that Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, after learning of the incident, as calling “the guards’ actions highly inappropriate, unauthorized and in violation of county policy.” The county has since reprimanded and reassigned the guards.
Mr. Pitts reminded his readers that this incident did not happen in China, Cuba or North Korea. It happened “right here in freedom’s land.” He went on to say that he was appalled that “an agent of the government literally read over a man’s shoulder, Big Brother like, and tried to prevent him form seeing what he had chosen to see.” Pitts then went on to fully express my own exact reactions to this incident. Mainly, the fact that we are at war doesn’t make this OK, nor the fact that the library material involved was unsavory doesn’t make it OK.
When I read Pitts’ story, a chill went down my back. I am flabbergasted that I have not read or heard another word about this incident. If this incident is not an early warning signal, a clear harbinger of what is to come, I don’t know what is. If the local press in liberal Madison ignores this incident and chooses to treat it as simply a pornography story, or because the “homeland security officers” were later duly reprimanded, I believe the American people are in deep, deep denial.
The question that we should all be asking right now is, What conditions now exist in our “land of the free,” that would allow such Gestapo-like behavior to happen? What was the current context in which this incident occurred? Time magazine recently reported, “The President’s secret directive to let the NSA snoop without warrants sets off a furor.” US citizens being detained without charges, counsel or recourse, and illegal eavesdropping now being accepted by the American people as OK now that we are at war…
What will it take before Americans wake up? Now we are only being watched by big brother as we use our libraries. Will we soon need government approval to use our libraries, or to take a trip or watch a movie? Wake up America!
Leonard Pitts Jr., columnist for the Miami Herald, and regularly featured in the Journal’s Your Opinion page, reported a February 9th County Homeland Security incident in a Montgomery County Public Library. It seems that two Homeland Security officers in uniform entered the Little Falls branch of the county library and informed the patrons that it was forbidden to use the library’s computers to view Internet pornography.
It was later reported by the Gazette.Net, Maryland County Newspaper Online, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006, when confronted by the library staff and informed that they themselves were acting in violation of Montgomery County Public Library policy “the veteran officers continued to press their case.” Fortunately the library staff then called the police and the unwelcome intruders left.
The Gazette quoted County Councilman Michael J. Knapp, who heads the council’s Homeland Security Committee, “It was probably a good learning experience for everybody.” The Gazette also reported that Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, after learning of the incident, as calling “the guards’ actions highly inappropriate, unauthorized and in violation of county policy.” The county has since reprimanded and reassigned the guards.
Mr. Pitts reminded his readers that this incident did not happen in China, Cuba or North Korea. It happened “right here in freedom’s land.” He went on to say that he was appalled that “an agent of the government literally read over a man’s shoulder, Big Brother like, and tried to prevent him form seeing what he had chosen to see.” Pitts then went on to fully express my own exact reactions to this incident. Mainly, the fact that we are at war doesn’t make this OK, nor the fact that the library material involved was unsavory doesn’t make it OK.
When I read Pitts’ story, a chill went down my back. I am flabbergasted that I have not read or heard another word about this incident. If this incident is not an early warning signal, a clear harbinger of what is to come, I don’t know what is. If the local press in liberal Madison ignores this incident and chooses to treat it as simply a pornography story, or because the “homeland security officers” were later duly reprimanded, I believe the American people are in deep, deep denial.
The question that we should all be asking right now is, What conditions now exist in our “land of the free,” that would allow such Gestapo-like behavior to happen? What was the current context in which this incident occurred? Time magazine recently reported, “The President’s secret directive to let the NSA snoop without warrants sets off a furor.” US citizens being detained without charges, counsel or recourse, and illegal eavesdropping now being accepted by the American people as OK now that we are at war…
What will it take before Americans wake up? Now we are only being watched by big brother as we use our libraries. Will we soon need government approval to use our libraries, or to take a trip or watch a movie? Wake up America!
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
State must direct science with care
Wisconsin State Journal
Guest Column
Governor Jim created an emotional moment in his recent State of the State address when he recognized a mother and her 9-year-old son who has juvenile diabetes.
This was his way of calling attention to his recent stem-cell research initiative in which he proposed the aim of capturing one-tenth of the stem-cell market for research and medical therapies by 2015.
“As long as I am governor, Wisconsin will never allow politics to stand in the way of curing disease,” the governor declared.
I recalled the fraud, lies and cover-up that ended the career of a prominent South Korean stem-cell scientist, Hwang Woo-suk, along with a collaborating California-based stem-cell scientist. It is clear now that Hwang’s ground breaking discoveries over the last two years were totally fabricated.
Hwang had publicly promised a 10 year-old boy in a wheelchair that he would soon walk.
What has happened in South Korea and California can also happen in Wisconsin. World wide hopes for a quick cure are inflated. These hopes are created and stoked by both scientists and the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. The competition to be first with the most is tremendously intense
Our Governor deserves our support and respect for his wise leadership in this very competitive market. Indeed Wisconsin’s success, stature and leadership in this field as of this time is truly remarkable.
My concern however is that Wisconsin adopts the proper accountability safeguards and standards that will ensure that we do not stumble.
For 30 years I have been in the business of program evaluation and accountability. The precarious stem-cell culture includes the mixing of scientific objectives with potentially huge profits. The line between scientists and entrepreneurs and other stakeholders are being blurred. This seems to me to be fertile soil for creating more fraud, lies and corruption.
What’s needed is strict public financial and management accountability, compliance with intellectual property policy and standards, and an open and transparent organization and management process.
If there was ever a genuine need for an independent and nonpartisan oversight body to act as a watchdog, this is it.
Finally, we need to have agreements in place that will prevent Wisconsin taxpayers from paying twice---once to help finance the stem-cell initiative, and again later, as taxpayers or consumers when they have to pay for the very expensive medical products the initiative produced.
For example, the results of state-funded science, when later converted into commercial therapies, should be sold to the state and to patients, who can’t afford them, at the lowest possible cost. Significant cures resulting from stem-cell research are an eventual certainty, as will be the huge financial profit windfall for the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Both taxpayers and consumers, through their state legislature, should take control of their future and forthrightly and proudly stake out their claim.
With immediate attention to these issues, Wisconsin can become a shining star in the stem-sell research world for many years to come.
Guest Column
Governor Jim created an emotional moment in his recent State of the State address when he recognized a mother and her 9-year-old son who has juvenile diabetes.
This was his way of calling attention to his recent stem-cell research initiative in which he proposed the aim of capturing one-tenth of the stem-cell market for research and medical therapies by 2015.
“As long as I am governor, Wisconsin will never allow politics to stand in the way of curing disease,” the governor declared.
I recalled the fraud, lies and cover-up that ended the career of a prominent South Korean stem-cell scientist, Hwang Woo-suk, along with a collaborating California-based stem-cell scientist. It is clear now that Hwang’s ground breaking discoveries over the last two years were totally fabricated.
Hwang had publicly promised a 10 year-old boy in a wheelchair that he would soon walk.
What has happened in South Korea and California can also happen in Wisconsin. World wide hopes for a quick cure are inflated. These hopes are created and stoked by both scientists and the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. The competition to be first with the most is tremendously intense
Our Governor deserves our support and respect for his wise leadership in this very competitive market. Indeed Wisconsin’s success, stature and leadership in this field as of this time is truly remarkable.
My concern however is that Wisconsin adopts the proper accountability safeguards and standards that will ensure that we do not stumble.
For 30 years I have been in the business of program evaluation and accountability. The precarious stem-cell culture includes the mixing of scientific objectives with potentially huge profits. The line between scientists and entrepreneurs and other stakeholders are being blurred. This seems to me to be fertile soil for creating more fraud, lies and corruption.
What’s needed is strict public financial and management accountability, compliance with intellectual property policy and standards, and an open and transparent organization and management process.
If there was ever a genuine need for an independent and nonpartisan oversight body to act as a watchdog, this is it.
Finally, we need to have agreements in place that will prevent Wisconsin taxpayers from paying twice---once to help finance the stem-cell initiative, and again later, as taxpayers or consumers when they have to pay for the very expensive medical products the initiative produced.
For example, the results of state-funded science, when later converted into commercial therapies, should be sold to the state and to patients, who can’t afford them, at the lowest possible cost. Significant cures resulting from stem-cell research are an eventual certainty, as will be the huge financial profit windfall for the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Both taxpayers and consumers, through their state legislature, should take control of their future and forthrightly and proudly stake out their claim.
With immediate attention to these issues, Wisconsin can become a shining star in the stem-sell research world for many years to come.
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