Have you ever made bread from adding liquid with flour and other ingredients such as salt, shortening and yeast? Small groups go through a similar fermentation period eventually maturing into a full blown and living group culture. Webster’s New World Dictionary describes a small group as “a number of persons gathered closely together and forming a recognizable unit.” The social psychologist would add that the group’s birth is dependent upon at least three members in regular interaction over time. The group’s active life is at stake whenever member attendance begins to decrease.
Is a social group, then, a living organism? Like humans, a group also goes through a life-cycle. Like us, groups have early, middle and late stages of development. Each group’s development undergoes a series of changes. Also, like humans, most groups also have a life expectancy. The group members, when in regular interaction, literally make up the life-blood of the social group. Webster actually defines the word “life” or “living” as “to have a wide variety of social/group experiences.” Life is also defined as “the activities of a given time or in a given setting and the people who take part in them.” Between the beginning of the group and its ending, like a human, there is indeed life in the group.
Some would even argue that groups also have a spirit or soul. The group’s life is carried on in the individual members’ consciousness or subconscious, often long after the active phase of the group as ceased. In this very real sense the spirit of the group endures far beyond its active or living state. One can argue that as long as three or more members continue to consciously hold in their mind the group’s memory, actions and values, the group’s spirit lives on. Robert Merton and other sociologists refer to this phenomenon as a person’s significant reference groups.
One’s group membership in this sense never fully ends and its imprint on the member continues throughout life. Social psychologists would argue that it is the series of group affiliations throughout our lives that truly make us human. Life in a group changes the human being. Members are never quite the same after they have experienced membership in a small group.
This group’s formation process begins when the members convene their very first meeting and ends when the very last meeting is held former group members, long after the last meeting, continue to carry that group’s unique culture and character on throughout their life. When new members first convene there is excitement, often near elation, on the part of its members. Expectations are high. The group’s early phase can also be described like fruit and other growing things as ripening, budding, blooming, flourishing, and later shedding and decaying.
So you have decided to join a small group. Joining a new group is like starting kindergarten all over again. New faces, new rules and new situations. Joining a new small group can sometimes really be a bummer. Suddenly, after being relatively satisfied and comfortable in your existing family and work groups you must begin all over again in a strange land and learn a new small group culture and language. When one joins a new group they first must decide to give up some time with their existing group affiliations at home, work and in the larger community.
Joining a small group induces self-examination, renegotiation and a temporary retreat from other already enduring social relationships. Membership in a group is also about both growth and regression. After all you will now become a new and different person. Many of your group experiences will vicariously be shared with your friends and family members. In fact it may be that your closest family member or friend will see your new membership as ranging from mild annoyance to “a pain in the ass” if you will pardon my expression.
Joining a group is always a seductive new adventure. One imagines new friends, opportunities and experiences. Members agree to commit themselves and especially their time to the group’s purpose and goals. There is a mutual social contract which also requires that the members give their time and energy to the new group over a sustained period. Members often see the new group as an opportunity to explore issues of both deep personal and social concern and interest.
Joining a new group can be as strange and exciting as your first bicycle ride. There is the fear of uncertainty and failure, of possibly proving to be incompetent, and feelings of ambivalence and perhaps initial second thoughts of “who really needs this?”
For many the desire to join and participate in a small group over a period of one or two years is the result of an awareness of a need for radical change in some critical aspects of one’s life. Joining a small group may represent a general dissatisfaction with existing group affiliations or with your present lifestyle.
Small group membership is a perilous journey with many roadblocks and mine fields but also with opportunities and delights along the way. Joining a small group can be compared to an older adult who returns to school after a long absence. After functioning quite well in her many social roles she may suddenly find a strange disequilibrium and confusion.
Have you ever thought about what effect your membership will have on your family and others? New members do not always realize how their commitment and time apart from family and friends will be viewed by others.
Members may need to give up certain evenings and weekends with their loved ones to this strange new group. Both parties can expect to experience stress on the home front as the new member learns to divide her energy between her new group and existing demands.
After all you are suddenly incorporating new “family-like” members into your life. It’s fair to say that in many respects you have just added a dozen or more new siblings to your larger “family.” You now have another small family-like group but with a totally different culture – new house rules, new expectations and values, new affections and repulsions. You have journeyed into a new territory.
Therefore it will be perfectly natural for you to experience levels of stress and anxiety as you pass through these various stages and crises of any new group. For example we can expect at least one or more members will be subject to some form of scape-goating during the life of the group. After all with each new relationship each member can be seen as lying somewhere along a “deviance scale” of one to ten when compared with your existing repertoire of relationships.
All human groups and group members experience natural cycles that affect both group morale and individual member feelings. This is best illustrated by what is known as the “Meninger Morale Curve” which follows a set pattern. It simply states that there will likely be a periodic change in the morale and feeling of group members over time due to three kinds of “crises” inherent in the group’s development. Initially, morale tends to be somewhat elevated due to the hopes, expectations, and dreams of those who have expended their time and energy to join the group.
As the realities of the group’s purpose and goals and competing demands on the member’s time become clear, including the limited resources and so on, this involvement often produces a depressing skid downward. Nothing is quite as good as it initially appears.
Nonetheless, a reasonable well functioning group can manage to pull itself up by accepting and confronting the challenges and mobilizing its energy. The third or final downturn is produced by the approaching end of the group and the inevitable separation. This up and down process often blocks the members’ initial optimistic and rational expectations concerning group development. Small group members must learn to be adventurous and take risks during these downward spirals and be prepared to support or “buck-up” individual members when their spirits naturally begin to sag.
With a new group the new member naturally must change her existing activity pattern. She will expend considerable time and energy trying to redefine herself with both her existing groups and her new group. One’s old lifestyle is now changed and old routines and expectations are now forever altered. You will never be quite the same person!
Especially in the early stages of the group, members begin to critically assess the other members capacities both for their ability to gratify their own personal interests and needs as well as the extent that each can meet the welfare and needs of the larger group. How does each member measure up and what will be expected of me?
The risk of messing things up abounds on the part of every member in this new enterprise. To expect maturity and competence from each member, while allowing a measure of regression for each, is always a challenging and vital balance. Membership is always a delicate balance between support and challenge. In every new group experience each member asks herself to what degree will I risk myself while also encouraging others around me the same opportunities to grow?
If at the close of the group experience members can see that some of their original expectations for the group have been met, then the group has been a success.
I began these remarks by comparing the development of a small group to making bread. I would like to conclude by expanding on this analogy by calling attention to the complexity and diversity of small groups. When members interact they must simultaneously adjust their behavior to each individual in the group as well as to the group as a whole. This often makes for a very lively and exciting experience for all. Just like good bread requires the right blending of liquid, flour, yeast, salt, shortening, and perhaps some special spices, groups too, in order to create a viable and creative group culture, need all the diverse personality traits, talents, and energy that we as members can bring to the table.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
The Left Hand of God - A Book Review
Chapter 3
“The Voice of Fear and the Voice of Hope”
Rabbi Michael Lerner has written a book entitled, The Left Hand of God---Taking Back our Country From the Religious Right. In Chapter 3, The Voice of Fear and the Voice of Hope, pages 77-92, he writes about two world views.
The first world view he describes, he calls the Right Hand of God. It is the view of fear, isolation and selfishness. The Left Hand of God he refers to as generosity and hope. The former he also refers to as the Cynical Realism view, and the latter as the Spiritually Conscious view.
Cynical Realism views each of us as looking after ourselves as we try to keep an advantage over all others. In fact this fear of others is considered just plain common sense. This is also the state of “heightened alert and fear.”
The Spiritually Conscious view, on the other hand, sees the human being as one who desires a loving connection with others and seeks ways to cooperate with one another. He or she is most fulfilled when we are needed by others and can provide generously to others. He or she feels that their state is intrinsically bound to all others. This state of consciousness Learner calls the “heightened generosity and hope.”
These two world views can also be seen as two opposite paradigms or cultures. The culture of hope is often viewed by the Cynical Realists as being “out of touch with reality, and just plain nonsense. These two world views can be viewed as existing on two opposite poles and on a continuum. Along this continuum at any given time in our history social, political and spiritual energy flows or oscillates back and forth between these two poles. During the Great Depression of 1929, The Joe McCarthy era, the Cold War, and more recently 9/11 Americans adopted a state of fear mentality. This can best be seen in the color codes and alerts, the suspicion, the spying and the assigning certain groups and nations with divine rights, and the others as part of the evil empire.
In contrast during the New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement eras the spirit of hope and generosity reigned. In this culture of hope and greater solidarity all humans are treated as being in this divine image and in our essence as all being good. We are gentle and compassionate with one another. We believe that evil and injustice can be overcome and that we need not to live in fear. We believe in the continuous transformation for a greater good for all. God commands us to pursue justice. God is caring and generous and so are we.
In the culture of fear, God is seen as an all powerful Warrior with a Strong Right Hand and strong judgment and combativeness.
Which view we choose to take is influenced by the following factors:
1. Our family legacy
2. The socialization process that we experienced at school and in our neighborhood
3. Our current life situation, i.e., do we feel left out, estranged, alienated, discriminated against, etc..
4. Our religious beliefs
5. Current popular ideas, i.e., the media, Hollywood, etc.
6. How the people closest around us act.
We can use this fear vs. hope paradigm to assess any phenomenon in our lives, including our own campaign finance reform project: Do public funded political campaigns create more generosity, goodness and compassion in this world, than privately funded campaigns? Which one is more likely to produce power over and which one will more likely produce power sharing with others? Will the marriage referendum bring about a greater generosity and hope for all or will it further isolate and create barriers to our democracy?
We can use the fear/hope or faith standard to assess the effect of a TV show, a sermon or speech, a movie, a news story, a commercial or advertisement, and a small group meeting like our own.
As a further standard or screening device, I would add here our own moral values. For example, we can use Talcott Parsons’ five pattern variables: Self vs. the larger collectivity; our family or tribe vs. more universalistic values; one’s performance and achievement vs. the diffuse quality of the person; seeing people narrowly for what they can do for us or more diffusely as divine beings; and seeing people only economically and rationally or also with feelings, or affectivity vs. affectivity neutrality.
At the small group level or at the nation state level we can survey the four functional requirements or functions and choose the more just direction.
1. Do we wish to spiral outward into the larger community and participate as full citizens in an ever more inclusive democracy or do we wish to assume a more insular and parochial role in our in-group or nation state?
2. Do we wish to participate in goal achievement as equals or should we abdicate or rights and influence to the elites of this world.
3. Do we wish to recognize the worth and divinity in each of us and see each person as a multidimensional and complex human being or only as a consumer or employee?
4. Are we to be satisfied within the narrow solidarity of our own special group or nation/state or do we wish to play a larger and more integrative and inclusive role in this universe?
“The Voice of Fear and the Voice of Hope”
Rabbi Michael Lerner has written a book entitled, The Left Hand of God---Taking Back our Country From the Religious Right. In Chapter 3, The Voice of Fear and the Voice of Hope, pages 77-92, he writes about two world views.
The first world view he describes, he calls the Right Hand of God. It is the view of fear, isolation and selfishness. The Left Hand of God he refers to as generosity and hope. The former he also refers to as the Cynical Realism view, and the latter as the Spiritually Conscious view.
Cynical Realism views each of us as looking after ourselves as we try to keep an advantage over all others. In fact this fear of others is considered just plain common sense. This is also the state of “heightened alert and fear.”
The Spiritually Conscious view, on the other hand, sees the human being as one who desires a loving connection with others and seeks ways to cooperate with one another. He or she is most fulfilled when we are needed by others and can provide generously to others. He or she feels that their state is intrinsically bound to all others. This state of consciousness Learner calls the “heightened generosity and hope.”
These two world views can also be seen as two opposite paradigms or cultures. The culture of hope is often viewed by the Cynical Realists as being “out of touch with reality, and just plain nonsense. These two world views can be viewed as existing on two opposite poles and on a continuum. Along this continuum at any given time in our history social, political and spiritual energy flows or oscillates back and forth between these two poles. During the Great Depression of 1929, The Joe McCarthy era, the Cold War, and more recently 9/11 Americans adopted a state of fear mentality. This can best be seen in the color codes and alerts, the suspicion, the spying and the assigning certain groups and nations with divine rights, and the others as part of the evil empire.
In contrast during the New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement eras the spirit of hope and generosity reigned. In this culture of hope and greater solidarity all humans are treated as being in this divine image and in our essence as all being good. We are gentle and compassionate with one another. We believe that evil and injustice can be overcome and that we need not to live in fear. We believe in the continuous transformation for a greater good for all. God commands us to pursue justice. God is caring and generous and so are we.
In the culture of fear, God is seen as an all powerful Warrior with a Strong Right Hand and strong judgment and combativeness.
Which view we choose to take is influenced by the following factors:
1. Our family legacy
2. The socialization process that we experienced at school and in our neighborhood
3. Our current life situation, i.e., do we feel left out, estranged, alienated, discriminated against, etc..
4. Our religious beliefs
5. Current popular ideas, i.e., the media, Hollywood, etc.
6. How the people closest around us act.
We can use this fear vs. hope paradigm to assess any phenomenon in our lives, including our own campaign finance reform project: Do public funded political campaigns create more generosity, goodness and compassion in this world, than privately funded campaigns? Which one is more likely to produce power over and which one will more likely produce power sharing with others? Will the marriage referendum bring about a greater generosity and hope for all or will it further isolate and create barriers to our democracy?
We can use the fear/hope or faith standard to assess the effect of a TV show, a sermon or speech, a movie, a news story, a commercial or advertisement, and a small group meeting like our own.
As a further standard or screening device, I would add here our own moral values. For example, we can use Talcott Parsons’ five pattern variables: Self vs. the larger collectivity; our family or tribe vs. more universalistic values; one’s performance and achievement vs. the diffuse quality of the person; seeing people narrowly for what they can do for us or more diffusely as divine beings; and seeing people only economically and rationally or also with feelings, or affectivity vs. affectivity neutrality.
At the small group level or at the nation state level we can survey the four functional requirements or functions and choose the more just direction.
1. Do we wish to spiral outward into the larger community and participate as full citizens in an ever more inclusive democracy or do we wish to assume a more insular and parochial role in our in-group or nation state?
2. Do we wish to participate in goal achievement as equals or should we abdicate or rights and influence to the elites of this world.
3. Do we wish to recognize the worth and divinity in each of us and see each person as a multidimensional and complex human being or only as a consumer or employee?
4. Are we to be satisfied within the narrow solidarity of our own special group or nation/state or do we wish to play a larger and more integrative and inclusive role in this universe?
Thursday, September 27, 2007
I Had a Dream Last Night
- I dreamed of a day when the average citizen will be able to have equal time with her legislator, and corporate executives and lobbyists will have to wait their turn.
- I dreamed that it’s now common practice for all state and national political campaigns to be fully funded out of our state and federal budget.
- I dreamed that someday soon, talk of the “public interest” will no longer be empty rhetoric or a joke at our State Capitol.
- I dreamed of the day when candidates will spend all their time debating the issues in stead of raising corporate and special interest dollars in order to hold on to their seat.
- I dreamed of a day when my grand children will grow up and be able to run for public office without placing their family’s lively hood in jeopardy.
- I dreamed of a day when the people of Wisconsin will take back their democratic institutions from corporate and special interests.
- I dreamed of a day when once again a public safety net will be placed snugly around each of our children regardless of their parents’ economic status.
- I dreamed that America will begin to value people for more than what they can earn or achieve but also for who they are.
- I dreamed that America will begin to develop universal values that transcend our own personal, state and national interests and begin to consider the interests of all of life.
- I dreamed that it’s now common practice for all state and national political campaigns to be fully funded out of our state and federal budget.
- I dreamed that someday soon, talk of the “public interest” will no longer be empty rhetoric or a joke at our State Capitol.
- I dreamed of the day when candidates will spend all their time debating the issues in stead of raising corporate and special interest dollars in order to hold on to their seat.
- I dreamed of a day when my grand children will grow up and be able to run for public office without placing their family’s lively hood in jeopardy.
- I dreamed of a day when the people of Wisconsin will take back their democratic institutions from corporate and special interests.
- I dreamed of a day when once again a public safety net will be placed snugly around each of our children regardless of their parents’ economic status.
- I dreamed that America will begin to value people for more than what they can earn or achieve but also for who they are.
- I dreamed that America will begin to develop universal values that transcend our own personal, state and national interests and begin to consider the interests of all of life.
A New Land Use Ethic Needed
The Journal’s Friday editorial – “Take aim at safe, productive hunting” - it seems to me was one sided and missed the mark. The Journal confused the reader by pairing a discussion of hunter gun safety with the tragic trespassing incident of just a year ago. It chose to deny and ignore the real problems which had to do with trespassing and the need for greater civility on the part of both hunter and land owner. While the Journal article is correct that there is a declining pattern in hunting gun safety incidents, it missed both the opportunity and a critical public need to speak to the real issue – more and more hunters with less and less non-congested space to hunt in. It failed to mention the fact that the number of private property incursions is steadily rising.
The real problem is more hunters and an ever increasing number of smaller private property holdings creating more boundaries to cross, combined with an outdated land use ethic that encourages confrontation, exclusivity and elitism. What is called for is a land use ethic which emphasizes mutual respect and trust on the part of both the hunter and the landowner. It calls for greater camaraderie and compassion and less and less focus on both actors’ differences. The hunter and the landowner are both special in their common love of respect for mother earth. That is the bond that can bring both land owner and hunter together in the years ahead.
The real problem is more hunters and an ever increasing number of smaller private property holdings creating more boundaries to cross, combined with an outdated land use ethic that encourages confrontation, exclusivity and elitism. What is called for is a land use ethic which emphasizes mutual respect and trust on the part of both the hunter and the landowner. It calls for greater camaraderie and compassion and less and less focus on both actors’ differences. The hunter and the landowner are both special in their common love of respect for mother earth. That is the bond that can bring both land owner and hunter together in the years ahead.
When Will We Ever Learn?
As I read my newspaper this week a song lyric kept coming to my mind. “Why won’t they ever learn?” I read three articles: the serious food pantry shortage, the West Virginia mine tragedy and about the recent chanting incident at East High School. The food pantry article reported that it’s been a hard year for private food pantry officials. It then went on to give a litany of reasons why this was so. Starting with acts of God, citing hurricanes and earthquakes resulting in public “donor fatigue.” It then went on to report the household “food insecurity” index which has risen thirteen percent since 1999.
The article then speculated that perhaps this food shortage was due to a “weakness in the economy” and the heating/energy crisis. As I read on I began to wonder to whom and why this news was being reported and why the reporter failed to say a word about “welfare reform” --- the federal governments retreat from the family entitlement program ---a much needed safety net for the poor children in this country.
Was the article intended to give succor or assuage the guilt of the American people for increasingly allowing the poor children of this country to go hungry and cold throughout another winter? How would this article relieve the pain and suffering of one third of our children?
It seems that now that the poor single mothers “have got their act together and have learned how to wind an alarm clock,” and now that our government has withdrawn its “handouts” that we are no longer able to blame the poor families of this country. It now seems to be in vogue to blame God and our economy. “Oh, when will we ever learn?”
Who could not feel sad and mourn for the thirteen miners who died, and the one now in a deep coma, and their families? One follow-up news article informed the reader about the upcoming investigation and speculated about the likely causes of the explosion. Here again God was called forth in the form of “lighting” and perhaps a faulty ventilation system as the most likely culprits. No mention was made of all the mining company’s safety violations or that it was a non-union company.
We were assured however that the Mine Safety and Health Administration officials were on the job and justice would be done. Not in this article, or any of the earlier articles, or on the talk shows I listened to about this incident, was it reported that this was a non-union mine. None of the miners’ families mentioned this ---probably out of fear of other family members losing their jobs. “Oh, when will we ever learn?
Finally, I read about the high school students who at a basketball game chanted “food-stamps,” “food-stamps” and how they appeared so insensitive, so out of touch, and yet, so innocent! Yes, so politically incorrect. They only knew that, yes indeed, there are two Americas! Don’t we adults contribute to such a lack of “history” when we continue to deny our country’s social problems?
I am daily amazed at how little citizens in our last two generations know about the important role the American union movement played in our country’s past. Historically, since the turn of the twentieth century, unions have fought and sacrificed for safe working conditions, a decent wage, pensions, and many more rights for workers. I have found that many people under forty also sincerely believe that the “homeless” have always been with us. The food pantry and Christmas basket is now indeed a “cherished institution” in this country. “Oh, when will we ever learn.”
The article then speculated that perhaps this food shortage was due to a “weakness in the economy” and the heating/energy crisis. As I read on I began to wonder to whom and why this news was being reported and why the reporter failed to say a word about “welfare reform” --- the federal governments retreat from the family entitlement program ---a much needed safety net for the poor children in this country.
Was the article intended to give succor or assuage the guilt of the American people for increasingly allowing the poor children of this country to go hungry and cold throughout another winter? How would this article relieve the pain and suffering of one third of our children?
It seems that now that the poor single mothers “have got their act together and have learned how to wind an alarm clock,” and now that our government has withdrawn its “handouts” that we are no longer able to blame the poor families of this country. It now seems to be in vogue to blame God and our economy. “Oh, when will we ever learn?”
Who could not feel sad and mourn for the thirteen miners who died, and the one now in a deep coma, and their families? One follow-up news article informed the reader about the upcoming investigation and speculated about the likely causes of the explosion. Here again God was called forth in the form of “lighting” and perhaps a faulty ventilation system as the most likely culprits. No mention was made of all the mining company’s safety violations or that it was a non-union company.
We were assured however that the Mine Safety and Health Administration officials were on the job and justice would be done. Not in this article, or any of the earlier articles, or on the talk shows I listened to about this incident, was it reported that this was a non-union mine. None of the miners’ families mentioned this ---probably out of fear of other family members losing their jobs. “Oh, when will we ever learn?
Finally, I read about the high school students who at a basketball game chanted “food-stamps,” “food-stamps” and how they appeared so insensitive, so out of touch, and yet, so innocent! Yes, so politically incorrect. They only knew that, yes indeed, there are two Americas! Don’t we adults contribute to such a lack of “history” when we continue to deny our country’s social problems?
I am daily amazed at how little citizens in our last two generations know about the important role the American union movement played in our country’s past. Historically, since the turn of the twentieth century, unions have fought and sacrificed for safe working conditions, a decent wage, pensions, and many more rights for workers. I have found that many people under forty also sincerely believe that the “homeless” have always been with us. The food pantry and Christmas basket is now indeed a “cherished institution” in this country. “Oh, when will we ever learn.”
An Invitation to Partner
Dear Friends,
About two years ago I retired and at about the same time I joined the Unity Church of Madison. Soon afterwards I joined Unity’s Social Justice Ministry Advisory Council. Unity established a Social Justice Ministry program about six months ago and I have been on the Council for about four months. For me this opportunity to serve has been a real privilege and I am looking forward to continuing to serve in this way.
During this same time period however while reading my newspaper I become increasingly aware of the corruption at our State Capitol and of the extent that our state legislators are now only serving those special interest groups that financially support their re-election. I learned that as an individual citizen, your interests and mine, is really of little concern to those who represent us anymore. They have only two primary concerns: serving those special interests with the most money, and getting re-elected.
While daily reading of the corruption at our Capitol I also learned of a non-partisan group called the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC). The WDC is a citizen advocacy group that has been working for campaign finance reform since 1995. To learn more about WDC or to join, visit their website or at wisdc@wisdc.org or call 608-255-4260.
Now that I am retired I have decided that I want to work and do whatever I can to help take back our Legislature (our democracy) for our grandchildren. I am wonder if you feel about this issue as I do? If so, I would like to work with you and for you on this concern. I know that you are probably not retired, and maybe not as able at this time to give as much time to this issue as me. Nevertheless you may feel that you have some time and want to do something to help. If you would like, I would like it if you could see me as working for you, at least part time, on your behalf. In exchange I would like your ideas and your participation at whatever level will work for you.
This letter is an invitation to you from me to partner with me on this important issue. If you are interested in staying in contact with me on this issue or would be interested in having me contact you in the future for your help with one or more very specific assignments, (e.g., signing a petition or a letter, making a call, etc.) then please contact me at 608-249-5672 or e-mail me at bergentown@sbc.global.net.
Sincerely yours,
Bill Benedict
About two years ago I retired and at about the same time I joined the Unity Church of Madison. Soon afterwards I joined Unity’s Social Justice Ministry Advisory Council. Unity established a Social Justice Ministry program about six months ago and I have been on the Council for about four months. For me this opportunity to serve has been a real privilege and I am looking forward to continuing to serve in this way.
During this same time period however while reading my newspaper I become increasingly aware of the corruption at our State Capitol and of the extent that our state legislators are now only serving those special interest groups that financially support their re-election. I learned that as an individual citizen, your interests and mine, is really of little concern to those who represent us anymore. They have only two primary concerns: serving those special interests with the most money, and getting re-elected.
While daily reading of the corruption at our Capitol I also learned of a non-partisan group called the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC). The WDC is a citizen advocacy group that has been working for campaign finance reform since 1995. To learn more about WDC or to join, visit their website or at wisdc@wisdc.org or call 608-255-4260.
Now that I am retired I have decided that I want to work and do whatever I can to help take back our Legislature (our democracy) for our grandchildren. I am wonder if you feel about this issue as I do? If so, I would like to work with you and for you on this concern. I know that you are probably not retired, and maybe not as able at this time to give as much time to this issue as me. Nevertheless you may feel that you have some time and want to do something to help. If you would like, I would like it if you could see me as working for you, at least part time, on your behalf. In exchange I would like your ideas and your participation at whatever level will work for you.
This letter is an invitation to you from me to partner with me on this important issue. If you are interested in staying in contact with me on this issue or would be interested in having me contact you in the future for your help with one or more very specific assignments, (e.g., signing a petition or a letter, making a call, etc.) then please contact me at 608-249-5672 or e-mail me at bergentown@sbc.global.net.
Sincerely yours,
Bill Benedict
Friday, September 21, 2007
Need for Watchdog Citizen Group For Stem-cell Research
The State of Wisconsin needs a state wide, non-profit, non-partisan, consumer and taxpayer based watchdog group to ensure affordable and accessible pharmaceuticals for Wisconsin citizens in the twenty-first century. As thousands of baby boomers are about to enter the health care delivery system one of the major components of their health care is affordable and accessible medication. Our present medication crisis, particularly for our older and low income citizens, will only grow larger in the years ahead.
It seems ironic to me that a state with such progressive and innovative traditions as Wisconsin, and which now presumes to be the preeminent leader in stem-cell research, may become a “Johnny-come-lately” player in the struggle to bring about more affordable and accessible health care to all its citizens. There is a clear 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 the private biotech commercial interests.
This intermingling and blurring of public with private biotech dollars can best be seen in Wisconsin’s $750 Institutes for Discovery initiative. Public guidelines and procedures should be put in place to allow independent transparency and accountability with regular audits to prevent even a shadow of misconduct.
Without a citizens’ watchdog group, the potential for conflicts of interest, fraud and corruption remains high. Similarly, the risk that consumers’ interests resulting from such research will be ignored also remains high. In reading about this joint public-private venture I have yet to see any substantive safeguards taken to help ensure that Wisconsin taxpayers’ investment will result in more affordable medication or therapy products for its citizens in the days ahead. If we are not careful, the eventual outcome will be what we have right now ---thousands of patients remaining in need and beholden and at the mercy of the pharmaceutical industry. This oversight body would help ensure that no blank checks will go to private companies in the false hope that their will somehow be a freewill trickling down effect to our most needy citizens.
The need for greater transparency in the rapidly growing stem-cell research industry is also important in the light of the most recent subterfuge attempted by a private stem-cell research company in California. Driven by the twin desires to be first and to get rich quick we have seen, first in Japan and now here in our own country, blatant deception and half-truths from stem-sell research companies claiming breakthroughs where none actually existed.
Some experts believe that when stem-cell scientists increasingly choose to either own or heavily invest in their own research companies, both bad science and a greater likelihood for fraud and political corruption results. While such systemic conflicts of interest exist, and episodes of pseudo science persist, the media has remained surprisingly quiet. This fact has left consumers without a voice. The principal mission of a watchdog group would be to ensure that public dollars spent to support private biotech research, including stem-cell research, are accompanied with contractual agreements and policies that will result in more affordable and accessible pharmaceutical products in the future.
This group’s goals would also include:
∑ To study and report back to the public on the size and status of the consumers’ stake in public funding of private biotech research in Wisconsin. This study should make explicit the political and economic arrangements that now exist between government, business, the media and the state’s consumers, and the role that each plays in Wisconsin’s bio-tech industry.
∑ To clarify and make more transparent the relationships that exist between the legislature, DOA, UW, WARF, WiCell Research Institute, and private enterprises, particularly those led by scientists/physician-owned or invested bio-tech research companies.
∑ To track and report the amount of both public and private dollars spent on stem-cell research and on the actions taken to protect the taxpayers’ investment in ensuring more affordable medications. To track and report on all licensing revenues and product royalties.
∑ To help assure that Wisconsin’s bio-tech industry is operating consonant with the very highest business, managerial, professional and medical research standards.
In a recent agreement with WARF and the DOA, Wisconsin waived stem-sell license fees for biotech companies that operate in Wisconsin. Out-of-state companies will continue to pay between $75,000 and $400,000 depending on the company’s size. We need to be concerned that Wisconsin dose not put the interests of private biotech investors, located in or out of Wisconsin, ahead of the best interests of taxpayers and perspective patients.
A portion of the money raised through this licensing of scientific studies and resulting discoveries should be used too make new therapies available to people who can’t afford them.
For example, in exchange for such fee waivers, was there any thought given to requiring firms operating in Wisconsin to agree that any therapy products resulting from their scientific discoveries be sold to Wisconsin’s poorest at a special in-state cost? And for those companies operating out of state, certainly a portion of these licensing revenues should be used to make any new therapies that result from such licensed research more affordable and accessible to all Wisconsin consumers.
Consumer related legislation should be considered that would require any biotech companies licensed by WARF or supported by public dollars to agree to sell products resulting from these discoveries at their lowest price. Such a statute could require that a label on such projects clearly state that this product will receive a discount if sold in Wisconsin. A more general consumer focused statute should be written which would deal with ownership policies and rules for all the scientific discoveries or licensed intellectual properties (IP) supported or subsidized by public funding in the State of Wisconsin.
It is not too early to take action now on this issue. For every month that passes where consumers remain outside the communication loop and absent at the stakeholders’ table, the more the public will remain exposed and beholden to the pharmaceutical industry and the ever increasing likelihood that our medication bills will continue to be priced beyond the reach of many older Americans.
The need for such a group is all the more necessary when we consider that when most citizens are attacked and suffering from a terminally threatening disease, when they are weakest and most vulnerable, they are often also in their greatest financial need. A consumer watchdog group will enable and allow us, while we are strong and healthy, to invest in a worthy and critically important cause. Lets not let Wisconsin citizens when they become ill.
It seems ironic to me that a state with such progressive and innovative traditions as Wisconsin, and which now presumes to be the preeminent leader in stem-cell research, may become a “Johnny-come-lately” player in the struggle to bring about more affordable and accessible health care to all its citizens. There is a clear 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 the private biotech commercial interests.
This intermingling and blurring of public with private biotech dollars can best be seen in Wisconsin’s $750 Institutes for Discovery initiative. Public guidelines and procedures should be put in place to allow independent transparency and accountability with regular audits to prevent even a shadow of misconduct.
Without a citizens’ watchdog group, the potential for conflicts of interest, fraud and corruption remains high. Similarly, the risk that consumers’ interests resulting from such research will be ignored also remains high. In reading about this joint public-private venture I have yet to see any substantive safeguards taken to help ensure that Wisconsin taxpayers’ investment will result in more affordable medication or therapy products for its citizens in the days ahead. If we are not careful, the eventual outcome will be what we have right now ---thousands of patients remaining in need and beholden and at the mercy of the pharmaceutical industry. This oversight body would help ensure that no blank checks will go to private companies in the false hope that their will somehow be a freewill trickling down effect to our most needy citizens.
The need for greater transparency in the rapidly growing stem-cell research industry is also important in the light of the most recent subterfuge attempted by a private stem-cell research company in California. Driven by the twin desires to be first and to get rich quick we have seen, first in Japan and now here in our own country, blatant deception and half-truths from stem-sell research companies claiming breakthroughs where none actually existed.
Some experts believe that when stem-cell scientists increasingly choose to either own or heavily invest in their own research companies, both bad science and a greater likelihood for fraud and political corruption results. While such systemic conflicts of interest exist, and episodes of pseudo science persist, the media has remained surprisingly quiet. This fact has left consumers without a voice. The principal mission of a watchdog group would be to ensure that public dollars spent to support private biotech research, including stem-cell research, are accompanied with contractual agreements and policies that will result in more affordable and accessible pharmaceutical products in the future.
This group’s goals would also include:
∑ To study and report back to the public on the size and status of the consumers’ stake in public funding of private biotech research in Wisconsin. This study should make explicit the political and economic arrangements that now exist between government, business, the media and the state’s consumers, and the role that each plays in Wisconsin’s bio-tech industry.
∑ To clarify and make more transparent the relationships that exist between the legislature, DOA, UW, WARF, WiCell Research Institute, and private enterprises, particularly those led by scientists/physician-owned or invested bio-tech research companies.
∑ To track and report the amount of both public and private dollars spent on stem-cell research and on the actions taken to protect the taxpayers’ investment in ensuring more affordable medications. To track and report on all licensing revenues and product royalties.
∑ To help assure that Wisconsin’s bio-tech industry is operating consonant with the very highest business, managerial, professional and medical research standards.
In a recent agreement with WARF and the DOA, Wisconsin waived stem-sell license fees for biotech companies that operate in Wisconsin. Out-of-state companies will continue to pay between $75,000 and $400,000 depending on the company’s size. We need to be concerned that Wisconsin dose not put the interests of private biotech investors, located in or out of Wisconsin, ahead of the best interests of taxpayers and perspective patients.
A portion of the money raised through this licensing of scientific studies and resulting discoveries should be used too make new therapies available to people who can’t afford them.
For example, in exchange for such fee waivers, was there any thought given to requiring firms operating in Wisconsin to agree that any therapy products resulting from their scientific discoveries be sold to Wisconsin’s poorest at a special in-state cost? And for those companies operating out of state, certainly a portion of these licensing revenues should be used to make any new therapies that result from such licensed research more affordable and accessible to all Wisconsin consumers.
Consumer related legislation should be considered that would require any biotech companies licensed by WARF or supported by public dollars to agree to sell products resulting from these discoveries at their lowest price. Such a statute could require that a label on such projects clearly state that this product will receive a discount if sold in Wisconsin. A more general consumer focused statute should be written which would deal with ownership policies and rules for all the scientific discoveries or licensed intellectual properties (IP) supported or subsidized by public funding in the State of Wisconsin.
It is not too early to take action now on this issue. For every month that passes where consumers remain outside the communication loop and absent at the stakeholders’ table, the more the public will remain exposed and beholden to the pharmaceutical industry and the ever increasing likelihood that our medication bills will continue to be priced beyond the reach of many older Americans.
The need for such a group is all the more necessary when we consider that when most citizens are attacked and suffering from a terminally threatening disease, when they are weakest and most vulnerable, they are often also in their greatest financial need. A consumer watchdog group will enable and allow us, while we are strong and healthy, to invest in a worthy and critically important cause. Lets not let Wisconsin citizens when they become ill.
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