A country for everyone

I was very pleased to see on Wednesday that President Obama had instructed the Justice Department to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act. This 1996 act bans federal recognition of same sex marriages.

While the issue of same sex marriage is not near and dear to my heart, it is a non-starter. That is to say that it is a complete embarrassment that in the year 2011 we're still "debating" basic human rights.

We shouldn't be talking about same-sex marriage because it shouldn't be an issue, because if two people love each other it shouldn't matter if they are man and woman, man and man or woman and woman. They're people and they have the same rights as everyone else.

We look back at our nation's tainted history and track records on civil rights for African-Americans and grimace to think that we ever treated people that way. Just as we look back on the Civil Rights movement as a triumph, we also view the disgraces of that era as a stain on our nation's history. We will one day feel the same way about gay marriage. Most sensible people already do. As I said, I don't think we should even be talking about this. Gay marriage should be legal. Period. End of story.

I hope that Wednesday's action by the president was a step in the right direction. I certainly believe it was, and I laud him for it. At the same time, America is a country for everyone, and everyone deserves equal treatment under the law. It's time we recognized that and put this silly "debate" behind us by guaranteeing those rights for everyone.

No Jasmine in the UN

I've found a lot of reasons to praise President Obama for making our country better, but today I've got some pretty sharp criticism.

On Friday, the US vetoed a UN Resolution that would have condemned the illegal settlements Israel builds inside Palestine. President Obama, in his less than infinite wisdom on this issue, has refused to do what is in the best interest of Israel, Palestine, and most importantly, America.

It's hard to understand why America would sit by idly as Israel, rather than embracing the Jasmine revolution that is sweeping through neighboring countries, continues to build settlements on territory that the entire world agrees rightfully belongs to the Palestinians. Even the American counter-proposal labeled the settlements "illegitimate." But over an issue of semantics we refused to send Israel a forceful message that the time for peace is now. As a result, we've placed Israelis, Palestinians and Americans in a predicament.

For the first time in its history, Israel finds itself faced with a Palestinian leader who truly desires peace, and who has done much to stabilize the West Bank and make peace a real possibility. The onus is now on Israel to take the minor steps of withdrawing settlers from occupied territory in order to finalize a peace deal that was tantalizingly close to completion in 2007. But instead of taking the steps necessary to make peace a reality, Israel has expanded settlements. The timing has been terrible as the intoxicating scent of Jasmine has drifted out of Tunisia and led hundreds of thousands of Arabs in half a dozen countries to demand their rights. Rather than capitalizing on this momentum and making Palestine a reality, Israel has taken steps to ensure the youth of the West Bank have reasons to dislike Israel. In Egypt, young people are taking to the streets demanding freedom, opportunity and control of their country. Israel has nothing to do with the protests in Egypt. But what are young Palestinians who want the same thing as young Egyptians to think when they see an ever-growing population of settlers in their lands?

Instead of urging Israel to take advantage of the opportunity and work towards a deal that would lay the groundwork for a lasting regional peace, the United States has refused to further the interest of any of the parties involved, including us. What is a young, disenchanted, disenfranchised Muslim in the West Bank, Gaza, Iran, Lebanon or anywhere in the Middle East to think the next time he hears Osama bin Laden or Anwar al-Awlaki preach about the evils of America and our war against Islam? Would such a young man think to himself that all of that is a bunch of crap (which it is), or would he think that by refusing to advocate for an independent Palestine, America may very well just be the enemy that terrorists make us out to be.

Meanwhile, the world's only Jewish democracy continues on the demographic path towards having to disavow one of those descriptors. Maybe Israel will continue to be Jewish and turn into an apartheid state with a large population of Arabs and Palestinians who have no homeland and no rights. Maybe Israel will continue to be a democracy with a majority of elected officials being Arab. Without the creation of a Palestinian state, Israelis are ultimately going to have to decide on one or the other.

But since Israel has no intention of doing what is in its own best interest, the United States should at least have the will and urge to help them. After all, an independent Palestine is in our best interest too. It would undermine the myth of America's war on Islam and it would go a long way towards stabilizing a region that could be described as chaotic on a calm day. But apparently President Obama and our government have no intention of doing things differently than we've done them in the past. We'll continue to make short-sighted decisions that undermine American, Israeli and Palestinian interests. We'll continue to put the lives of Americans, Israelis and Palestinians at risk by supporting illegal settlements in occupied territory. Maybe one day the Israelis and Palestinians will get their act together enough to do this without our help. Maybe that's what needs to happen since apparently our help means maintaing a status quo that has led to decades of violence in Israel, the entire Middle East and in America as well.

It's time for President Obama to take a stand on this and make peace happen. The two sides are close, but one needs a little push. If America really wants to stand by our ally, then we'll help them make the choice that makes Israel safer. That choice does not involve expanding settlements in Palestine.

Real Ideas

Cut the budget! Raise taxes! Cut this! No don't! Cutting will spur growth! Cutting will cost jobs!

AHHHHH!

There's a lot of that kind of talk going on right now, and it's coming from both sides. Both sides are partially right, which of course means both sides are partially wrong. We need to trim spending efficiently so as to spur investments, but cutting it wholesale will hurt the economy and actually cost jobs. Remember, what we need is consumer purchasing power and government employees are spending money on consumer goods too.

So let's talk about REAL ideas. I have some:

1) Raise the retirement age. This is kind of a must. Social Security came about in 1935; it's 2011, people live longer, they can retire later. It's not crass, it's pragmatic and practical. Many people are working past 65 anyhow. Disability is different than retirement, so if you're hurt, you still qualify. But raise the retirement age.

2) Take steps to fix the rising cost of healthcare. Oh wait, we already did this. So stop trying to undo it. If you want, try to perfect it, because the bill isn't perfect. It is good and it will put a dent in the budget, so enough with all the lies surrounding it. If Republicans have ideas to improve it, then by all means, let's do it. I get the feeling they don't. Either way, it's a good bill and lowering healthcare costs is really the most important step to take, so kudos to President Obama for taking a huge step in the right direction.

3) Raise taxes. Listen, I don't want to pay higher taxes; neither do you. I get it. But there's no way to fix the deficit by cutting spending alone. And besides, the truth is that this is all rhetorical. No one wants higher taxes, but people don't want cuts in government programs that benefit them either. So saying "cut spending" sounds better than saying "raise taxes," but both things are bad in a sense. Taxes don't have to go up for everyone. Raise the floor for the highest income bracket from $250,000 to at least one million. We need to make sure that small business owners can still invest, but let's be real, the government needs money more than Bill Gates does, and giving him extra back on his taxes does absolutely nothing to help the economy. He doesn't reinvest it in his publicly owned multinational corporation, and he has more money than he can spend anyhow. Raise the floor on the highest tax bracket, then raise taxes. It has to be done. By the way, have I mentioned a gas tax...

4) Cut military spending. Along with Social Security and Medicare, military spending completes the trifecta of sinkholes for dollar dollar bills. It's important for America to invest in our military, but we must do so efficiently. The poster boy for military waste has become an amphibious landing vehicle for the Marines. Really? We were spending money on that? WWII ended 70 years ago, are we planning on storming the beaches of Iwo Jima again for the hell of it? This makes no sense. WWIII won't happen and if it does, the world will end, so I feel confident that America can cut down on conventional weapons while continuing to invest in the military of the future.

5) Invest in infrastructure, education and the future. This is America, there shouldn't be headlines about crumbling bridges killing motorists. If we want a 21st century economy, we need a 21st century infrastructure that can accommodate it. This doesn't just mean fixing potholes, it means improving the speed at which we travel (bullet trains?) as well as the speed at which we communicate. America needs 4Gs in every corner. We need a digital infrastructure, and most importantly we need an educated populace so that high-skill, high-paying jobs in America don't go the way that low-skill, low-paying jobs have gone...that is to Vietnam and China. Only if we educate will we remain the world's leader in innovation. American education means American ideas, American businesses and American jobs, and of course all those things mean revenue.

6) Reform the tax code to make it lucrative for companies to hire and research in America. American factory jobs have moved overseas and we've adapted and maintained a strong economy. We don't want research jobs following factory jobs. Those jobs should stay here, and the government must make it financially appetizing for companies to keep those jobs here.

These are just some first steps. There are other things that we could do, but Medicare, Social Security and the military are the big money holes, and so the Republican plan to cut $100 billion in discretionary spending sounds good but does bad. The economy isn't ready for that, and it does little to fix the long term problem.

And yet, we do need to cut spending as Republicans say. So it's time to make SMART decisions about where to cut and where to invest, because only by doing both things appropriately are we going to right the fiscal ship.

It's come to this...

The budget issue is getting ugly, very ugly. Senate Democrats and House Republicans are already blaming each other for a government shutdown that hasn't happened yet (and doesn't have to if people would get their act together), and in Wisconsin, Democratic State Senators have apparently left the state to boycott a vote on union/budget bill.

Instead of casting blame, let's talk sense. Republicans want massive cuts, Democrats want fewer cuts. Is there no way to find middle ground? Doesn't the responsibility of governing fall on both parties? Is it really impossible for the House to pass a budget that the Senate will approve? I only mention the Republican controlled House first because it seems the house passes EVERY bill first then sends it to the Senate. But the Senate could do something too. Republicans have vowed to cut $100 billion from the budget, but that's a bad idea and everyone knows it. John Boehner's callous remark "so be it," when told that such cuts would cost thousands of jobs shows his disdain and also the hypocrisy of preaching job creation with cuts that would cost jobs. Nevertheless, Republicans are right that we need to trim some spending and there are smart ways to do that. There are programs that can and should be shown the door, and Democrats need to be more receptive to budget cuts.

Most importantly, the two sides need to come together now because whether they cut $100 billion or $0 from this budget, neither is going to matter if they can't find a way to fix the real budget busters: Social Security, Medicare and the Military. So finding common ground on some small cuts now would go a long way towards establishing the trust needed to do the real work later.

The situation in Wisconsin is even worse. The bill before the state legislature wants to significantly raise the amount that teachers contribute to both their health insurance and their retirement plans. On the one hand it's silly to pretend like that is going to fix the whole budget issue in Wisconsin. On the other hand, it will do some good. The bill calls for a raise from 0.2% to 5.8% for teacher contributions to pensions, and a raise from 4%-6% to 12.6% for contributions to teacher health insurance. Maybe those numbers are a little high, maybe they're not, but is neither side willing to negotiate? Has the situation gotten so bad that Democrats really need to flee the state? The bill also includes a provision that would ban collective bargaining for the unions, which is clearly nothing but an attempt to curb union power. If Republicans are serious about this being a budget bill and not a union bill, why not scrap that clause? Teachers can and should pay more for their benefits, but they shouldn't lose the right to collectively bargain. There's room for a compromise here. Republicans should scrap the union-busting plan and Democrats should accept the rising contributions. It's really that simple.

But something has gotten in the way. Maybe it's politics, maybe it's overheated rhetoric, or maybe it's just simply that we've all forgotten about actually making America better and instead have entrenched ourselves in our own bubbles.

Whatever the reason, we need to snap out of it. We can't trim $100 billion from the federal budget without wreaking havoc on the economy. We can't afford not to trim anything. There's a middle ground between $0 and $100 billion. We can't afford to pay incredible pensions to public employees, but we also can't blame our fiscal crisis entirely on those pensions, and we certainly shouldn't trick ourselves into thinking that banning the right to collectively bargain is going to close any budget gaps.

It's time to get our act together, otherwise we're going to have no teachers, no money and no government. That's a grim picture.

Edu-mucation

This weekend I attended Teach For America's 20th Anniversary Summit in Washington, DC. It was a rah-rah, feel good affair, but there was also much talk of the work still to be done, a volume of work that far overshadows the progress already made.

As much as movements like Teach For America have grown and shed light on the failure of public education in many parts of the country, the efforts to fix the problems - while impressive - are underwhelming given the scope of the issue. Teach For American and organizations like it recognize this, and while they are justifiably proud of their achievements, this pride is tempered by the realization that the fight for educational equity is only beginning.

So, as I celebrate 20 years worth of the fight to achieve educational equity, I also reissue the call that I heard this weekend and that I myself have issued before: a call to reinvest in education and to provide the best possible education for all the students in our great nation.

America can and does provide world class educations, we just don't provide a world class education to everyone. This is obviously bad for the children who don't receive great educations, but it's bad for everyone else too. It means fewer educated workers and it means more people who receive support from the safety net. Educating everyone is not just a moral imperative, it is also an economic imperative.

America was founded on the idea that everyone is created equal. We may not all end up equal, but we should have the same opportunities...we don't. Unfortunately, far too many people in our country never really have the chance to succeed. Denying these people a shot at the American dream goes against everything our country stands for morally; it also hurts the national checkbook.

Fixing public education in America will not be an easy task. We must begin to treat and compensate teachers as the important members of society that they are; we must demand results from them, but not while belittling the profession as second class and treating teachers as second-tier professionals. At a time when we here about the dire prospects of a runaway budget to our future, we'd do well to think about the prospects of a future with an uneducated and thus unemployed workforce. It's a far scarier proposition.

Teach For America is only one of hundreds of networks and organizations fighting to reform public education so that we can provide all of our students with the education necessary to build themselves better lives and build a better America for us all. But the burden cannot fall on these groups alone. It falls on our entire nation to make education a national priority. Only we we decide to completely invest in our future will the generations that follow us live up to their potential. To make America better tomorrow, we must invest in students today.

Being Egyptian Today

Goodbye Mubarak, hello...

Democracy!? Egypt has a lot of work to do, and there is certainly no guarantee that the new Egypt will be more amiable or tolerant of American aims than the old Egypt. But the new Egypt will be a democracy, and America should always stand by free people and against tyranny.

Egypt's future may be uncertain, but it is undoubtedly exciting. Decades of oppression by their own governments has led to ugly and violent manifestations of Arab frustration. It is liberating for me to see the Egyptian people stand up for their rights. With Mubarak's resignation today, I can't even imagine how liberating it is to them.

I hope that Egypt's transition to a real democracy is smooth and painless, and though that probably won't be the case, I have high hopes for Egypt's future and I stand by the Egyptians. Today is a great day for their country and we should all celebrate it with them. We should all be Egyptian if just for today.

Another foray overseas

Since it's just impossible to ignore Egypt so I'll stop neglecting the topic.

Whoa! Egypt! Who'd've thunk it? A whiff of Jasmine in Tunisia and autocracies across Africa and into western Asia start to teeter. What a beautiful thing. Right?

Maybe. What does Democracy in the Middle East look like? Does it look like Hezbollah in Lebanon or Hamas in Gaza? The United States has an obligation to support democracy, and should firmly support the nascent movements in the most effective manner (which may mean leaving them to their own devices and not interfering at all), but what does a more democratic Egypt, Yemen or Jordan mean for us?

I don't have an answer to that question. Certainly the idea is that democracy is good period, and so we should support it regardless. Certainly some believe that a democratic government in Egypt will support America and American goals. I'm not ready to bet the farm on that just yet. After all, Hezbollah is the democratically elected government of Lebanon.

The Middle East is a region in which our political ties are weak but our economic ties are strong. In light of the upheaval in Egypt, our political ties are even weaker. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Propping up dictators who marginally support us while repressing their own people isn't good foreign policy, but our history of negotiating successfully with Arab democracies is as limited as...well, Arab democracies themselves. In fact, we can't even get our one true ally and the only real democracy in the region, Israel, to act in their own best interest let alone ours. How difficult will it be to simultaneously support the Egyptian people and press the American agenda?

We should start by doing two things. As I've already mentioned, we should support the fledgling democratic movements. This may be best accomplished simply be staying out of the way; Arab peoples are skeptical of a country they view as being interested more in oil and Israel than in Arab well-being. However, if it's necessary to be more proactive then we must. President Obama is working with President Hosni Mubarak to get him to step down. Whether through aggressive action or aggressive inaction or something in between, America must let Egyptians know we stand with them.

The second thing we need to do is prove both to the Arab world and to ourselves that we can live without their oil. Many Arabs believe that we support autocratic governments for a guaranteed supply of oil (Saudi Arabia anyone?). Many Arabs believe this because it is true. America can extradite itself from some of the tricky situations in the Middle East by supporting democracy in Egypt and alternative energy in America. By reducing our reliance on Middle Eastern oil, we'll not only become more self-sufficient, but we'll put ourselves in a position to work with Arab democracies without the stigma that currently exists.

Finally, the time is well past due for the United States to pressure Israel into doing what is in it's own best interest and help form a Palestinian state. The Israel/Palestine issue is too lengthy and complex to be discussed in detail here, but never before in its history has Israel found willing partners for peace among the Palestinian leadership. Until now. The Palestinian authority under Mahmoud Abbas has proven that they are serious about peace and security. Israel needs a Palestinian state almost as much as Palestinians do. Helping make this a reality will not only create stability in the region and help foster peace for both Israel and it's neighbor. It will also make America safer by undermining the rhetoric of Osama bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the like.

Democracy is coming to the Middle East. This is going to be a good thing, but there is still work to be done. The United States must take steps to support the Arab world and reaffirm our commitment to human rights and democracy, but we must do this by taking concrete steps to make the region safer and more stable and ending our addiction to foreign oil.

Here's a bad idea...

Some way, somehow, Republicans have convinced Americans that they are the party of the economy, the guys that get it when it comes to jobs. I'm not sure how that's happened because lately, all Republican proposals seem to be aimed at undermining the recovery from the Great Recession - a recession, by the way, that began under a Republican president with Republican policies in place.

Here is the most recent awful idea the GOP is throwing at us - banning the EPA's ability to limit the emissions of greenhouse gases.

This is done in the name of economic growth and job creation, and perhaps in the short term, some factory that is allowed to pollute at will may add a few more workers. Of course, over the long term, the theory is fundamentally flawed and threatens undermine the future of the economy. For one thing, all of our pollution is eventually going to catch up to us, so just for the sake of our species and the planet we should stop polluting and screwing with the Earth's natural regulatory processes. But even if you don't believe the world is going to end tomorrow, and I don't, it's time to stop using that as an excuse to undercut the American economy.

The world IS NOT going to end in 2012, but the world's population IS going to grow and more and more people ARE going to live at higher standards using MORE resources. As this happens, they will want technology that provides clean and renewable energy. This isn't speculation, this is fact. We have the foresight to know this, but apparently, we do not have the foresight to act on it, so while we continue to debate science, make the Earth progressively dirtier, and lose ground to international competitors (read: China) in the field of alternative energy, we could be investing in American jobs and sustainable energy.

But instead of pushing towards the future, Republicans are doing what they do best and clinging to the past. A past in which we didn't know how much harm we were doing the Earth, a past in which coal and oil reigned supreme and would forever, and a past in which America didn't face global competition, so even if we screwed up, we didn't worry about it as much.

The problem is, that's all in the past. The future is green. The rest of the world knows it; and we're long overdue for getting on board. Not only should the EPA be regulating the emission of greenhouse gases, but we should start taxing gasoline, raising that tax incrementally to spur investment in the field of clean cars.

The technology exists and can only be improved upon, the science supports the facts, the rest of the world is already moving towards the goal. America needs to find the willpower to do the same...or we could just stop electing people who live in the 1950s.