One Clear Message

Yesterday's primary elections move us closer to November. The elections of 2012 represent a major decision:

FORWARD to equality and fairness, or

BACK . . . . to hierarchies

 

Three advantages arise from using the frame of hierarchies to size up political candidates:

1.     Universal Frame. We no longer have to fight issue by issue. Instead, we create a crystal clear  
        choice about our future.
2.     True Colors. People on top a can be set up to appear ridiculous to the rest of us – most Americans
        – when the supporters of hierarchies are skillfully illuminated.
3.     Personal Attacks. There is little need to move into personal battles using finger pointing and
        blame.

2012 could be the year of realized change and hope. Change that lasts happens because those who support outdated hierarchies no longer have a place to hide. Hope emerges from knowing that 250 years of struggle to end individual inequities is about to pay off.

Pope's Errant Hierarchy

In his recent article, "We Are All Nuns," Nicholas Kristol describes how the Vatican recently chastised American nuns for focusing on poverty and social justice, rather than joining the errant hierarchy’s (as Kristol calls it) obsession with abortion and gay marriage. The Vatican issued a stinging reprimand, ordering a presiding bishop to oversee a makeover of the organization that represents 80 percent of the nuns.

“What Bible did that come from? If you look at who has more closely emulated Jesus's life, Pope Benedict or your average nun, it's the nuns hands down," wrote Kristol. The article notes that Jesus commanded his followers to feed the poor and embrace the outcasts; he said not a word about homosexuality or abortion. What is more Christ-like: the pampered pope in his white silk cassock and slippers, or the nun working the line in a ghetto soup kitchen?

 “I’ve seen heroic nuns face down warlords, pimps, and bandits. So Pope Benedict, all I can say is: You are crazy to mess with nuns,” said Kristol.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/kristof-we-are-all-nuns.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Is Augusta Next?

A pillar of Nashville, Tennessee society, the 111-year old Belle Meade Country Club, has finally this week admitted a woman as a full member. The club's lack of diversity came to the forefront last year when a federal judicial panel concluded that Belle Meade engages in invidious race and gender discrimination.

Another hierarchy in our home state bites the dust.   : )

Club president Timothy J. Douglas wrote, "Most importantly, it will be in the best long-term interest of the club to have a diverse membership. The future relevance of Belle Meade requires it to be a club our children will want to join."

At least three African-Americans have been recommended for full membership, but the outcome is unclear at this time. Women married to club members have had access to the benefits of their husbands' memberships, and unmarried women have had access to cheaper "lady" memberships. Neither, though, allowed women to hold office or vote.

Is Augusta National Golf Club, that exists for only a very small top-of-the-hierarchy part of our national population, next?


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-02/country-club-admits-woman/54694024/1

Invisible Lower Groups

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in a speech yesterday in Chantilly, Virginia that his vision for America includes “putting aside ethnicity, race, gender.” 

As a person who consistently talks as though he supports our going back to more dominance of hierarchies, we can predict that his comment translates into ignoring the effect of hierarchies on lower groups, and pretending that everyone has the same "freedom and opportunity" to succeed as he himself did as a white, tall, able-bodied, Christian, heterosexual, born-into-wealth male.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-virginia-romney-says-hell-do-the-opposite-of-obama-to-help-recovering-economy/2012/05/02/gIQAF2lewT_story.html

Free at Last

There's signs every day that the cruel human-animal hierarchy is weakening. The Wichita, Kansas Fire Department received significant praise and publicity for a rescue of Taz, the dog. This week, the cage-free trend gained momentum when Burger King became the first major U.S. fast-food chain to pledge to that all of its eggs and pork will come from cage-free chickens and pigs by 2017. And now we have a new TV channel, DogTV, to entertain dogs who are home alone during the day. There are constantly pictures of animals in the newspaper, and often mentioned by name as part of families.

From the article below on cage-free practices: " 'This is an issue that just four to five months ago was not on the food industry's radar,' said Paul Shapiro, vice president for farm animal protection at HSUS. 'Now it's firmly cemented into the mainstream in a way that I think few people would have imagined.' Studies have shown that shoppers are willing to pay more for products they believe are produced with higher animal protection standards."

"Wal-Mart and Costco have since transitioned their private-label eggs to 100% cage-free. Unilever, which uses 350 million eggs a year in its Hellmann's mayonnaise brand, is switching to 100% cage-free, and others such as Sonic, Subway, Ruby Tuesday, Kraft Food and ConAgra Foods are incorporating some percentage of cage-free eggs in their products."

Of course we have a long way to go until all animals are treated well and loved, but it's good to see we're making progress.


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/kansas-firefighters-rescue-trapped-dog-from-rising-river-waters/

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-04-25/burger-king-pigs-eggs-cage-free/54534572/1

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46409257/ns/today-today_pets_and_animals/t/tails-wag-over-new-cable-network-dogs/

The "Monkey Trial" is Back

The Tennessee legislature, over the objections of the scientific community, Monday passed the "Monkey Bill," reminiscent of the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. The "Monkey Bill" protects the rights of public school teachers who want to put ''creation science'' and challenges to climate change in the classroom as subjects for debate.

We offer assistance in keeping sound science education in Tennessee and other locations, using our expertise on hierarchies.

Our research has shown that when science teachers and scientists suggest that non-Christian creation stories be added to the science curriculum, creationists back away from their demands to include their creation story. This strategy works because people who place themselves or their beliefs on top of a hierarchy cannot tolerate others as equals.

Here's some examples of creation stories from Tennessee's residents :

American Indians – Chickasaw, Quapaw, Shawnee, Koasati, Yuchi, and Cherokee tribes – have inhabited Tennessee for thousands of years, and their creation stories have been told on what is now Tennessee soil long before the first white settlers brought the Christian story less than three hundred years ago.

The Muslim creation story from the Quran has many of the same components as the Christian version. A class discussion that encourages students to compare and contrast the two interpretations could be a stimulating exercise in critical thinking.

If Creationists support the inclusion of all creation stories equally, then their claims of providing "critical thinking," and "discussions of strengths and weaknesses" are true. If Creationists push for the Christian creation story as the only alternative to evolution, they expose to a wide audience their real motives of building a hierarchy with only themselves on top.

US Clueless to Mexico?

In the April 20, 2012 issue of The Week, an article entitled "How They See Us: Exporting Death to Mexico," discusses a different view of the United States than many of us have here. It's a fact that those on top of hierarchies are clueless about their effects on people below, and we do view ourselves as on top of our world economic and social hierarchy. Are we clueless at the top about the NRA?

"It's time to redefine the NRA as not a lobbying group but a cartel," said Andres Oppenheimer in La Reformia. "Mexico has the Sinaloa cartel and the Zetas cartel, which engage in drug trafficking; the U.S. has the NRA, whose members dominate weapons trafficking. In much the same way that the drug gangs have managed to get Mexican local and state officials on their payrolls, so too has the NRA infiltrated the U.S. government, counting senators and congressmen on its payroll. That's how it managed ot get the ban on military-style assault rifles lifted in 2004. No coincidentally, gun crime in Mexico began to sour the very next year. The NRA cartel bears 'an enormous responsibility for the violence that is taking place in Mexico."