Twenty-year-old Poem

While purging the Diaries, I found my book of poetry. Okay, this one won't go into the flames. Besides, it has in it a poem I wrote 20 years ago that still means something to me. Here it is--

22 Sept 93

She ruffled through the trunk seeking the heaviest wool blanket she owned

Dragging it down to the river, she plunged it into the chilly water
soaking the wool until every last fiber was drenched
and the blanket threatened to sink to the bottom

Mustering all her strength, she pulled, dragged, coerced
this weighty, dripping beast up onto the bank

She wrapped it carefully around her desire
tucking in all the edges making sure no inch was left uncovered
and she sat there, waiting under the rising moon
waiting for the cool heaviness to smother her longing,
to quell the aching cry in her chest,
to soothe the burning that sped through her veins
and caused her loins to swell, her breasts to rise,
her neck to arch in sweet anticipation

But not even the dank, musty smell of wet sheep's hair
could overpower the musky scent of her desire

Steam rose from the damp form on the river's edge,
a fresh wind lifted the blanket up and away,
light as a feather

She was last seen singing gaily and dancing naked in the moonlight
before she disappeared across the bridge over which a sudden fog had settled

Let the purge begin

Scarlet has revived. She's focused internally this time. An argument about recycling oatmeal cans has started a purge storm in me, and I've just built a fire-- it's still cold out despite being weeks into spring. To my left is a box marked "Jillaine Journals". Haven't opened it yet, so don't know which years are in there. My plan is to skim them, capture what, if anything, I want from these collections of self-absorbed bullshit from my youth, then throw them into the fire. Even the family historian in me can't get upset about this (although I recall how appalled I was when I was still keeping journals to learn of anyone who would burn theirs). I have no descendants, and I seriously doubt that my nieces and nephews give a damn about what I wrote as a young (and then not-so-young) person. Would I want to have access to the journals of some distant ancestor? Probably. Most likely. But I can't stomach keeping all this crap around me. It weighs me down. I want to be free...

Focus on the Issues!

I haven't been at Whole Foods for awhile. I was laid off last spring, and WF's prices put them into the "discretionary" expense category. But I happened to visit one today. Doing so made me think about the broo-hah over WF CEO John Mackey's editorial in the WSJ -- read the unedited version. (Thanks, TW, for the link.)

There are 86 long screenfuls of comments; I only got through one. But my first impression was "What's all the fuss about?"

And then I realized it. His 7 (actually 8) points aren't at all unreasonable; people got pissed off at him because he said healthcare isn't a right. His unfortunate inclusion of that section derailed everyone away from the key points he made. And while I have not read all 1017 pages of the current draft of the healthcare reform bill, the summaries I've read (it's difficult to find one that isn't biased-- can anyone recommend some good sites?), make it seem like the following items are not addressed at all.

And frankly, while I am an Obama-loving liberal who would walk my kids five miles through the snow to have Obama speak to them (if I had any kids), I'm not sure I can disagree with the recommendations Mackey makes below. Some I don't know enough about. I invite comments, BUT, please keep your comments focused on the issues and the items below. I will delete any comments that get into personal attacks of anyone, or that veer off onto the topic healthcare as a right (or not). Go somewhere else for that. Please discuss the following points made by Mackey:

1. Remove the legal obstacles which slow the creation of high deductible health insurance plans and Health Savings Accounts.
   
   
2. Change the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have exactly the same tax benefits.
   
   
3. Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines.
   
   
4. Repeal all government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover.
   
   
5. Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors into paying insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
   
   
6. Enact Medicare reform.
   
   
7. Permit individuals to make voluntary tax deductible donations on their IRS tax forms to help the millions of people who have no insurance...
   
   
8. (even though Mackey didn't number it): Address the root causes of disease and poor health.

Please share your thoughts. And remember: no flaming. no personality-bashing. and focus on the above. Thanks!

-- Scarlet

14 Reasons to Chill Out about Illegal Immigration

Before I read What Makes Americans Vote Republican, I made the mistake of responding to a conservative in-law's rant about the 14 negative impacts of illegal immigration with the following. I did so because this in-law was spouting "facts" that were absolute B.S. So I went looking for "real" facts. The article above explains what's wrong with this approach when fighting the Right, but I hadn't read it yet.

Even so, I feel called to list here an alternative view of facts concerning the impact of illegal immigration on the U.S. economy, cuz damn it! I can't help myself!

14 Reasons To Chill-Out about Illegal Immigration

Source of data: Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, at the University of Arizona [PDF]

1. "non-citizen households" in Arizona had consumer spending, in 2004, of $4.41 billion.

2. That created an estimated 28,000 full-time jobs.

3. That spending generated tax revenues of approximately $318.6 million.

The typical "illegal immigrant" takes jobs that don't pay as well and which, for the most part, are shunned by the native born:

4. Almost 60 percent of agricultural workers were immigrants. [Take them away and what happens to the cost of food?]

6. About 22 percent of food preparers and servers were immigrants. [Take them away and what happens to the cost of food?]

7. About 35 to 41 percent of construction workers were immigrants.

8. About 46 percent of textile workers were immigrants

9. About 51 percent of landscaping workers were immigrants

10. About 8 percent of maintenance workers were immigrants.

11. Non-citizens, for their part, contributed $28.9 billion, or eight percent of Arizona's economic output, resulting in 278,000 full-time equivalent jobs. Their output included $10 billion in labor income, and $3.3 billion in other property income. The state tax revenues resulting from this economic activity were approximately $1.08 billion.

12. If the illegal workers were removed from the workforce:

Agriculture:
A fifteen percent workforce reduction in the agriculture sector would result in direct losses of 3,300 full-time-equivalent jobs, and losses of $600.9 million in output including lost labor income of $198.6 million, and lost other income of $116.1 million. The lost direct state tax revenue would be approximately $24.8 million.

Construction:
A fifteen percent workforce reduction in the construction sector would result in direct losses of 55,700 full-time-equivalent jobs, and $6.56
billion in output including lost labor income of $2.59 billion and
$450.5 million in other lost income. The direct lost state tax revenue
would be approximately $269.2 million.

Manufacturing:
A ten percent reduction in the manufacturing workforce would result in
direct losses of 12,300 full-time-equivalent jobs, and $3.77 billion in
output including lost labor income of $740.8 million, and lost other
income of $286.1 million. The lost direct state tax revenue would be
approximately $104.4 million.

Service industries:
In the service sectors analyzed, a sixteen percent
reduction in the labor force would translate to direct losses of 54,000
full-time equivalent-jobs, and lost output of $2.48 billion including
reduced labor income of $901.3 million, and reductions in other income
of $273.0 million. The lost direct state tax revenue would be
approximately $156.9 million.

13. The state of Arizona took in tax revenue of $1.64 billion from
immigrant workers while the amount the state spent on immigrants was
approximately $1.41 billion leaving a net benefit of $222.6 million to
the state coffers.

14. Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst at the Reason Foundation noted: "A stunning two-thirds of illegal immigrants pay Medicare, Social Security and personal income taxes." And while they pay in, under US law they are forbidden to receive the
benefits for which they pay. "The only services that illegals can still
get are emergency medical care and K-12 education."

Aliens who are not self-employed have Social Security and Medicare taxes automatically withheld from their paychecks. Since undocumented workers have only fake numbers, they'll never be able to collect the benefits these taxes are meant to pay for.

Last year, the revenues from these fake [social security] numbers — that the Social
Security administration stashes in the "earnings suspense file" — added
up to 10 percent of the Social Security surplus. The file is growing,
on average, by more than $50 billion a year.

This is in Arizona ALONE!

Chill out, folks! Illegal immigration is NOT the problem that reactionaries claim it to be. It is a net CONTRIBUTION to the U.S., not a drain. Want to know what is DRAINING the U.S.?? The war in Iraq.

Scarlet Has Risen

Scarlet's been sleeping the last couple of years. Too busy in her other life, too self-absorbed as is her nature.

But the increasing volume of the 2008 election season has reached her.

She's awake.

And she's mad as hell.

Frankly, I can't imagine Scarlett O'Hara giving a damn about U.S. politics and which candidate makes it to the White House. But that was the 1860s. And I'm not really Scarlett; I'm Scarlet, and scarlet with anger and frustration at the Bu%%sh*& going on between liberals and conservatives as this fight for the White House gets uglier and uglier and stupider and stupider.

So I'm re-invigorating the "Scarlet Alert" blog (and emailing a few of you to let you know I'm doing so) and reframing it away from "peak oil" to "peak insanity" (mine? or the politicians? I'll let you be the judge).

Not sure how often I'll post, but I need this space to rant. Please join me if you feel so inclined. In the meantime, I encourage you to read an EXCELLENT article, What Makes Americans Vote Republican that calls for Democrats to radically rethink their approach to campaigning.

Its warnings resonated with the original message from my niece that started The Scarlet Alert in the first place: namely, we need to learn what motivates people if we want to make ourselves heard such that they (in this case) support the Democratic agenda.

It's humbling, yet well written (especially for an academic author) and it makes its case.

Til my next rant,
Yours truly,
Scarlet