Health Insurance Forum at St. Olaf
Mar 30, 2006 News
Kip Sullivan of the Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition, will be at St. Olaf on Thursday, April 6th to present the background history of our current health insurance system and explain why a universal single-payer insurance system is a better plan. This event is open to the public and co-sponsored by the Northfield League of Women Voters and the St. Olaf Nursing Dept.
April 6, 2006 at 7pm, St. Olaf Science Center, Room 274.
For more information go to the MUHCC website
Our Vanishing Middle Class Part 3
Mar 30, 2006 News
In the 80s and early 90s laws were passed concerning corporate governance that made corporate decision making more responsive to stockholder profits. Although designed to make CEOs accountable for poor choices, these changes in governance force CEOs and boards to pay more attention to the interests of investors than to the workers or manufacturers. Consequently, workers have less security and bear more risk, as decisions are more likely to be made for the short-term bottom line than the long term.
I am not suggesting that manufacturers should not be profitable or be able to make money but making money is not the only reason they should exist. They should exist to produce something people need and truly be good neighbors in their communities. We now have things produced for which no market existed; but through novelty and clever marketing a market is created. It is a set up for designing things without regard to waste or the environment or real need but only to make money. We then pass laws to protect the ideas that created these novelty products.
As with the corporate governance laws, sometimes laws that are intended to solve one problem create a myriad of other problems. 
In agriculture laws that protect the patenting of seeds means that seed companies ultimately own the crops and will reap the profits that farmers produce. The laws are stacked in favor of big corporate agriculture and it is killing the family farm, the individual farm owner.
I think there are folks in our economy who know how to make these systems work, but instead of getting capital to them and supporting their efforts, monetarists invest in practices that will bring a quick return on their investment. They tend to protect their interests against innovation and new ideas. So where do new ideas come from and how can we encourage thinking that will give us the answers to the life problems we desperately need. Like the problem of global warming, or providing health care to all citizens, or improving education so we really do prepare citizens for life in the future. At a recent campaign meeting one citizen asked me how to solve the problem of outsourcing and not satisfied with my answer gave me a better one. "Investing in education and creating opportunity is our only hope," he said.
Economists are clear that education is one of the best investments we can make. Art Rolnick, of the Federal Reserve, predicts a 12 to 16% return on the dollar when we, as a society, invest in early childhood education. These returns come primarily in money that does not have to be spent to cure social problems caused by poverty and lack of education. But because we are focused on letting the ‘market’ solve the problem through individual investment and gain rather than societal gains over the long haul, most cannot make the connection between investments that may involve some sacrifice now but will pay dividends later.
Unless we make adjustments and change our thinking we will continue to see hope for sustaining a middle class diminish. We will continue to strangle schools and miss the opportunity to invest in early childhood education for those who have fallen behind. Further, we will not invest the funds to improve higher education where the new industries we need are likely to be born.
CUTTING THE ADDICTION
President Bush describes the US as addicted to oil and promises to do something about it only to be undercut by white house officials who reassure the Saudis that the President didn’t really mean it.
On the other hand, the other day I read that Sweden plans to be world's first oil-free economy; why not set such a goal for Minnesota?
John Vidal, Environment Editor for Great Britain’s The Guardian, points to two parts of the Swedish plan:
· 15-year limit set for switch to renewable energy
· Bio-fuels favored over further nuclear power
Here’s part of the article that appeared in The Guardian:
The attempt by the country of 9 million people to become the world's first practically oil-free economy is being planned by a committee of industrialists, academics, farmers, carmakers, civil servants and others, who will report to parliament in several months.
The intention, the Swedish government said yesterday, is to replace all fossil fuels with renewables before climate change destroys economies and growing oil scarcity leads to huge new price rises.
"Our dependency on oil should be broken by 2020," said Mona Sahlin, minister of sustainable development. "There shall always be better alternatives to oil, which means no house should need oil for heating, and no driver should need to turn solely to gasoline."
Ms. Sahlin has described oil dependency as one of the greatest problems facing the world. "A Sweden free of fossil fuels would give us enormous advantages, not least by reducing the impact from fluctuations in oil prices," she said. "The price of oil has tripled since 1996."
A government official said: "We want to be both mentally and technically prepared for a world without oil. The plan is a response to global climate change, rising petroleum prices and warnings by some experts that the world may soon be running out of oil."
Sweden, which was badly hit by the oil price rises in the 1970s, now gets almost all its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power, and relies on fossil fuels mainly for transport. Almost all its heating has been converted in the past decade to schemes which distribute steam or hot water generated by geothermal energy or waste heat. A 1980 referendum decided that nuclear power should be phased out, but this has still not been finalized.
The decision to abandon oil puts Sweden at the top of the world green league table. Iceland hopes by 2050 to power all its cars and boats with hydrogen made from electricity drawn from renewable resources, and Brazil intends to power 80% of its transport fleet with ethanol derived mainly from sugar cane within five years . . .
The Swedish government is working with carmakers Saab and Volvo to develop cars and lorries that burn ethanol and other bio-fuels. Last year the Swedish energy agency said it planned to get the public sector to move out of oil. Its health and library services are being given grants to convert from oil use and homeowners are being encouraged with green taxes. The paper and pulp industries use bark to produce energy, and sawmills burn wood chips and sawdust to generate power.
This goal may not be achievable in the time frame but with any effort like this it is bound to generate creative solutions and get people thinking about how to make our way of life less dependent on carbon consumption. All the news about global warming needs to be met with new ideas and investment in changing the course. Our future may well depend on it.
Our Vanishing Middle Class Part Two
Mar 28, 2006 News
When I say we need an economy that works for people I mean that we need to put Wall Street back in the service of industry and stop it from using industry to generate more money for the wealthy. We need an economy that uses investments to put people to work at living wage jobs, and a government that understands that it has a role to play in that planning, and in employing workers to build the world we will want to live in.
Now some people will say, “Industry is business, and the goal of business is to make money. What’s wrong with that?” It's always a difficult balance to achieve: If a business does well at making a good product or providing a good service, and if they keep their employees happy, there's a strong chance their customers will be happy, their employees will be well-trained and stick with the company instead of moving on and creating high turnover, which is expensive to deal with, etc.
There’s a fair amount of history here that I don’t want to get bogged down in. The progressive movement of the last 150 years, that brought us the income tax as a means to adjust for the rapid changes in the shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy so the burden of taxation was shared more equally by those who greatly benefited from the shift, exposed the dark side of predatory capitalism. A distinction (in its extreme) between industrialists and business owners who have a different purpose is that an industrialist produces something and has interest in the technology related to what he is producing. A businessman doesn't care anything about what is produced only in whether or not it can make money. You may recall Michael Moore’s test of CEOs who knew nothing about the products they made. It is rarity today that someone at the top knows how real things work. Henry Ford on the other hand built cars and from that he made the company that followed after.
Another sign of the shift in our country from a people who made things to a people who make money is in a little story about French President Francois Mitterrand, who after returning from a Grand Canyon summit with President Reagan, examined the tomahawk he purchased in the souvenir shop turning over to notice a ‘made in Taiwan’ sticker remarked to his aide, “what is it these Americans make anyway?”
During Jonathan Edward’s campaign for president he talked about our not having an economy that values work. This is another way of saying that we need an economy that works for people. But Edwards didn’t talk much about the reason this is so. Our economy as it exists now works against people because it values low wages. Why does it do this? Because predators are in charge who see short term profits in getting workers to work for less or to automate in order to increase “productivity.” It’s about how investors can get a faster return on their investment. A short-term gain for investors means a long-term loss for workers as we saw in the Enron case. It is possible to make something and make a profit without cheating someone; but it’s not easy with all the attention focused on high performance for shareholders who no longer seem interested in slow steady progress. An economy that works for people has to value the workers in the system and not just profits for shareholders and that may mean a slower return but in the long run it is what will secure us a stable middle class.
Rice County DFL Convention
Mar 25, 2006 News
Saturday, March 25th, Faribault Middle School, 704 SW 17th St.
Here is my speech from the Rice County DFL convention:
Thank you all for being here and for doing the hard work of the party. I am a candidate for the Minnesota House in district 25B. For those who may not know me, I am a teacher in the Northfield School District where I have taught at risk students for the last 20 years. This year I was honored to be recognized by my fellow teachers as Northfield teacher of the year.
I’m running because, after a decade of false promises and broken commitments to our schools, our children, our towns and communities, we need a change – and this is the year we will elect a Democrat to the house from our district.I’m running because I believe we must promote education and not merely force school districts to cut budgets – or force communities to raise their property taxes. As a teacher and parent, I believewe cannot wait to reduce the size of crowded classrooms.
We need to have good schools so we can compete in a global economy, and not be told yet again that tattered textbooks must wait to be replaced. We must not watch idly while tuition and fees at colleges and universities continue to climb.
I am running for my neighbor who tells me in desperation she must choose between buying groceries and her ailing husband’s prescription drugs; and for the businessman who explains how he decided to go without health insurance because he couldn’t afford it for his family – only to discover he now pays much more than the insurance company paid – for the same basic services.
I am running for the worker in Belle Plaine who chased me down after he looked at the flyer I had given to his son. “Will you help me?” He said, “I’ve lost my job twice because of outsourcing, and I can’t find a decent paying job.
I’m gonna lose my house and savings. Will you help?”I am running because I am angry at politicians who say they are for the environment, and then fail to deliver on a clean water initiative – and refuse to address the real source of mercury pollution in our lakes and streams.
I am running because I have had enough of politicians telling us they believe in working together, but instead shut government down over partisan bickering – over issues that will do nothing to improve our lives — but stir people up and divide us.
My campaign is about Hope, Fairness and Building Community.
Hope because I believe in a politics of our common future, a future we will all want to live in, which means good public schools, clean air and clean water – clean energy and sustainable agriculture – a belief in confident success, not fear and failure — securing a future of opportunity for all.
Hope because I believe in a politics that is about improving people’s lives. I believe in facing up to real problems we must confront, not those designed just to get votes.
Fairness because healthcare should be a right, and single-payer universal health care is the most cost effective way to do it. Some folks say it’s a Federal issue.
But if you study our history, you know that many initiatives come up from the states, and Minnesota is not alone in considering universal coverage.Fairness because I believe in a commitment to educational equity – it shouldn’t matter where you live. You should have access to the same quality education.
I believe in good jobs and creating an economy that supports living wages.Fairness because, when we tax our citizens, it should be based on the ability to pay, and we should expect all citizens to contribute. Tax incidence studies show that the wealthiest Minnesotans pay 8 or 9% and middle class pay 12 or 13 %.
This is an injustice that needs to be corrected.Building Community, because we must join together to create that future we will want to live in. Our world is changing, the clock is ticking on the world we once knew – oil supplies are dwindling, wages are falling, pension funds are failing.
Politicians keep telling us to be patient, to believe in the direction they are taking us, to just wait and things will get better. The problem is that they are the same folks who brought us a war without a plan and showed what they couldn’t do when the winds of tragedy hit in New Orleans. It’s time we opened our eyes and took account of how our leaders act – saying one thing and doing another.
We need a change to create a community where dreams can be realized, where children can grow and learn from the beginning of life until they are ready to enter the work force; where waters are clean and air is fresh. Where the energy we create does not rain down on us in Mercury and sulfur.
I will work hard to provide a better education for our kids – one that prepares them for the challenges ahead; I will work hard to protect and preserve our natural heritage and the environment; to encourage safe, clean renewable energy development; to provide funds to improve roads and increase transit options; and to provide healthcare to all citizens.
I will win because I will knock on every door, and I will carry my message to the people of the district from Nerstrand to Northfield to Lonsdale and Belle Plaine. I am the best candidate because I know the issues, I know the people, and I know what it takes to campaign from the Minnesota River to the Cannon River Watershed. I ask for your support at the April 11th endorsing convention and for the campaign beyond. Let’s pull together and win in November.
Our Vanishing Middle Class Part 1
Mar 12, 2006 News
” The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than it is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually slaves of some defunct economist.” – John Maynard Keynes
I read a while ago that, according to the comptroller general of the U. S. Government Accountability Office, 2004 ranks first as the most fiscally reckless year in U. S. history, perhaps only to be topped by 2005. Now that’s before Hurricane Katrina so we are talking about a war that the administration doesn’t want to budget for and tax cuts for the wealthy that slow the recovery and add to the debt. To say nothing of expensive prescription drug programs that funnel money to pharmaceutical companies. A fact made more frightening by the knowledge that folks like the taxpayer’s league want to bring this fiscal irresponsibility to Minnesota, a state that, prior to our current governor, seemed to know how to make government work. Minnesota used to have a more progressive tax system that asked those who could pay more to contribute.
My friend Jonathan Larson is often reminding me that economic theories, whether we understand them or not, go along way in shaping the world we live in. Industrialization brought us many things: improved standard of living, many conveniences, life saving innovations, and, combined with New Deal political economics and climbing wages, distributed prosperity to many more citizens.
But it also brought us one huge problem. Industrialization, if we can’t change it, will destroy the earth we live on. Free market economics of the Reagan era did not alter this: it has made things worse by not only undermining manufacturing but also through deregulation encouraged more environmental destruction. On top of that it reversed the idea of income equality and encouraged a wholesale rip off of workers across the globe, destroying industry and manufacturing jobs in any country it touches.
Free market advocates argue that an ‘invisible hand’ can create the world we need when in fact all it seems capable of is transferring more wealth to the wealthy. Free market monetarists who manage money in the stock market can do little more than run industry into the ground by moving jobs overseas, and lowering wages. This is progress? But they have sold us on it hook line and sinker. They seem content to let us drown ourselves in the deep at the same time telling us the world is flat, when it is anything but an even playing field.
What we need again, reminds Jonathan, is planning. The ability to look at the world we want to live in and plan to make it through careful and ‘elegant’ design. Jonathan has written a book about it, Elegant Technology that outlines what we need to do to create the industries that will make the processes of industry more compatible with the processes of the biosphere.
Jonathan also has produced a couple of short films explaining some the basics of his thinking. Both of them have been featured among the short films on The Huffington post. The first “Creating Prosperity†explains how the economic thinking is taking us in the wrong direction. The second “Understanding Class†helps us understand what makes talk about class so important but complicated. You can watch the videos by clicking on the titles.
It doesn’t take much searching to discover that there is much that needs to be done. Little in current political thinking seems to grasp that we could encourage industry, not business, to design systems that create jobs and are more compatible with the world we might want to live in.
Instead we encourage business leaders to design systems that make them richer paying the rest of us as little as we will work for and claiming we are the better for it because the goods we buy are cheaper.
Meanwhile the Bush administration spends us in to the biggest debt in our history. What does this have to do with Minnesota Government you might ask, well I hope to explain that in the next few days as I explore some of our economic conundrums and try to talk about what has been a 150 year debate about what kind of tax system we should have and who should pay for what government does. In Minnesota, recently one side has been winning that debate but the tide is beginning to turn.
Women of Distinction
Mar 4, 2006 News
Earlier this month I attended the Cannon Valley Girl Scout Council’s 11th Annual “Women of Distinction Gala” where a number of women were recognized for their contributions. I was fortunate to be seated with four girlscouts who gave brief speeches introducing some of the recipients of the awards. They were bright and proud of their Girl Scout participation. Cindy and Yesinia Nieves and Kimberly and Stephanie Pozuelos, pictured here: 
I serve on the nominations committee for this region and have enjoyed learning about all the good things the organization is doing for young women in the area. 
Coleen Rowley gave the keynote address pictured here with Shermayne Cross and Gary Gottfried.
Award recipients Marilyn Neuville, Maria Aguilar, Jessica Peterson, Paula Patton, Diane Hagen, Melissa Peterson, and Sara DuChene-Boyd treated us to speeches explaining their work and motivation. 
The sentiments of all were well expressed by Maria who said she was humbled and honored to receive the award. From work with non-English speakers to struggling readers and reaching out to girls whose moms are in prison, all the women were excellent examples of the important work done by people moved by passion and their values to be of service to others and the common good. We all need this kind of inspiration and hats off to the Girl Scouts for drawing attention and passing the torch to young girls.
A woman of distinction for me is my aunt Marjorie I. Bly who recently received a visit from the President of Taiwan to recognize her 50 years of service to the people of Taiwan. He used the visit to Penghu to announce the building of a park and commissioning of a statue dedicated to my aunt. Here she is pictured with one of her inspiring patients in Penghu: 
The Taiwan Central News Agency released the following story (the original story had a few errors and I have attempted correct them)
Penghu nurse to be honoredSunday, February 26, 2006/ CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY / President Chen Shui-bian traveled to the outlying island of Penghu yesterday to pay tribute to and express appreciation for an ailing American nurse who has dedicated her life to serving Taiwan's people, particularly leprosy patients, for several decades. Chen visited the government-run Penghu Hospital to extend his regards and concern for Marjorie Ingeleiv Bly, an 87-year-old public health nurse from the state of Minnesota, who has been hospitalized and is in poor health. Praising Bly as a spark of light in the darkness, Chen said Bly's loving heart and longstanding services for Taiwan's people are moving and memorable. Chen directed the Penghu County government to prepare to build a statue to commemorate her legacy. Bly came to Taiwan in late 1952. She first worked at a sanctuary on the outskirts of Taipei, caring for leprosy patients. As many of her most serious cases came from Penghu, she decided in 1953 to move to the outlying island county so that she could help diagnose patients as early as possible and raise public awareness of the disease. In Penghu, she is a household name. Even after her retirement a decade ago, she continued to concern herself with the county's medical service quality.
Some years ago my aunt was given recognition here in the states:
Marjorie Bly, a former Bethlehem sponsored missionary for many years, was awarded the sixth Christus Lux Mundi Award on May 21. The award is the highest honor bestowed by Luther Seminary recognizing the witness and service of persons who have manifested the light of Christ during a distinguished career. Known in Taiwan as "White Pearl" and "Auntie White" and described as the "lady with the sweet smile and kind face walking along with her simple medicine kit entering the smelly huts of fisherfolk," Marjorie has run leprosy clinics for 45 years. Although she retired as a missionary of the ELCA in 1989 at the age of 70, she continues to travel about the islands working with leprosy patients and their families.
I found the news story by doing an internet search which also produced the following version of the story from Jon Benda, a Taiwan blogger: Sunday, February 26, 2006 Marjorie Bly of Penghu
Earlier this evening I caught a story on the TV news about Pres. Chen's visit to Marjorie Bly, a retired American nurse who is in a Penghu hospital. The reason that I mention this is that I only first heard of her very recently when I was going through some archival documents for my dissertation and she was mentioned in a letter from the late 1950s. It was quite an interesting coincidence. Bly, whose Chinese name is Bai Baozhu, which means "White Precious Pearl", has lived in Taiwan since 1952 (most of those years in Penghu), helping people with leprosy. She is 87 years old and is in failing health, and the president's visit was to express the country's appreciation for her love and care for people with leprosy. There's an English-language story from 2002 that reports on a fund raised to help her in her retirement and to continue to help people with leprosy. Marjorie Bly honored for leprosy workPublished: May 7, 2002: Liberty Times The China Leprosy Service is establishing a fund to assist and honor Marjorie Bly, a U.S.-born woman who has spent nearly half a century caring for lepers in Penghu. The "Ms. Marjorie Bly Fund" aims to help Bly, 82, enjoy a peaceful life in her golden years and to set up a special fund for the lepers of Penghu. To this end, the China Leprosy Service held a fund-raising party Monday. Bly, who has always shunned the limelight, did not appear at the party, but many people who have responded to her benevolent efforts or have received her help in the past were in attendance. The items for sale Monday were almost entirely the donations of housewives, office workers and ordinary people. The fund-raising party's original revenue goal was NT$1 million (US$29,000), but the response was surprisingly enthusiastic, reaping a total of NT$1.2 million. China Leprosy Service Chairman Chang Ping-i said: "Marjorie Bly loves Taiwan so much. The Taiwanese people should show some love to her too." Successfully establishing this fund on the eve of Mother's Day is giving Bly the best possible Mother's Day present, because just like all other mothers in the world, she has given all the love of her life to her "children" — the leprosy victims of Taiwan, Chang said. Bly, an expert in public health, comes from the U.S. state of Minnesota. Because of the need of prevention, she moved on to Penghu, and led a public health crusade on this remote group of islands. Little did she know that she would spend 47 years there. The lepers of Penghu are in more difficult circumstances than their counterparts on the main island of Taiwan. If any home has a family member come down with leprosy, neighbors on all sides will inevitably move away from them. But Bly is not only not afraid of catching the disease, she also personally delivers her patients the medicine. In order to protect the privacy of patients, Bly stays far away from any notoriety. In the past she has been named an honorary citizen of Penghu County, has been selected as a candidate for the "Good People with Good Deeds" award, and has received many awards for her medical contributions. Yet every time a reporter asks her for an interview, she always replies in a low-key manner, "It's okay if you come to me for a medical exam, but an interview isn't convenient." Last year Bly fell ill and was hospitalized, and now must move around with the aid of a wheelchair. But she still has not given up her calling. One leprosy patient that has received her help now serves as her assistant, pushing her wheelchair and taking her all over for house calls.
All my life my aunt has been an inspiration and a constant reminder of the joy of service and dedication to a people and a place.
