A Secret We Should Know: Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds

This blog is a departure from disability issues, but heat and power to our homes is important to EVERYONE on a fixed income, and should matter to those who can afford to pay their utility bills also. As a Raging Granny song says:

GOT GAS? Tune: "Marine Corps Hymn"

From the pristine Arctic wilderness, To the blue Arabian Seas,
We will trash the earth to pump the oil, Just to fuel our SUV's.
We can get ten miles per gallon When we keep our engines clean.
Since we addicts always need more oil, We’ll just call out the Marines.

We will pave the way for Texaco, For BP and Chevron, too
And for Exxon, Shell and Conoco But the cost is paid by you.
Now, some foreigners will lose their land
And their lives when we invade.
But we’ll get our gas to run our cars
And it's blood for oil we'll trade.

Most of the evils we commit as a modern nation are interlaced…

I was amused to see a conservative wanna be pundit on Utube yakking on about the evils of Obama’s spending while driving his monster SUV.

I have commented before on energy issues, and I think that alternative renewable sources of energy are just plain critical to our health and well-being. Like decent affordable health care, alternative energy is a must have for our survival, and the most obvious way to revive our economy. Maybe even our technological leadership, where I perceive we are lagging. Whatever happened to good old American ingenuity??? I’m convinced we still have it but have just been supporting all the old greedy pathways, like war and big pharma, instead of reallocating our resources to wiser uses. It’s high time to move on!

I first heard about this tiny couple of articles in the Recovery Act when I attended an Energy Town Hall at CNM last spring: After some conferencing and located the entire text of the bill, I was able to locate the relevant legislation, page 208 of the Recovery Act: The summary appears below:

PART II—INCREASED ALLOCATIONS OF NEW CLEAN RENEWABLE ENERGY BONDS AND QUALIFIED ENERGY CONSERVATION BONDS
Sec. 1111. Increased limitation on issuance of new clean renewable energy bonds.
Sec. 1112. Increased limitation on issuance of qualified energy conservation bonds.

PART III—ENERGY CONSERVATION INCENTIVES
Sec. 1121. Extension and modification of credit for nonbusiness energy property.
Sec. 1122. Modification of credit for residential energy efficient property.
Sec. 1123. Temporary increase in credit for alternative fuel vehicle refueling property.

The impact of this legislation on New Mexico was to allocate $23 million to float bonds for New Mexico businesses and residential property owners to install alternative energy components on their buildings or homes. Of this 5.8 Million has been allocated to Albuquerque. The legislation is designed to fund loans that can be repaid over twenty years through property taxes. I intend to be in the line to get one of the loans created by this legislation, just as soon as Albuquerque gets off its duff and passes Ordinance Bill #00-09-087 . The state legislature already passed enabling legislation to form “Renewable Energy Refinancing Districts” (S.B. 647 in July of 2009). The City Council deferred discussion of the ordinance at their October meeting, so now is the time to ask your Council member to ACT at their November meeting!

For some time now on the pages of this blog I have been harping about the need to provide loans to allow people such as myself, who live on a fixed income and therefore can’t benefit from tax credits, but nonetheless are “trying” to pay off their homes, so that we can install solar devices that can give us some protection against the rising cost of utilities. (See my March 14, 2009 Blog: HEAT ).

By all insights, New Mexico should lead the nation in solar utilization. Perhaps the huge sway of PNM (New Mexico's largest public utility) has stood in the way of getting us moving along the path to clean energy? Richardson certainly has not pursued green legislation with much fervor, just as he hasn’t supported the Health Security Act. We realize that there are few “deep pocket” political contributors in New Mexico, but it’s INSANE not to pursue more solar and wind power in New Mexico.

As I look out my windows I see sunny skies nearly every day! Join me in putting pressure on our Council to make solar loans more affordable for people on limited incomes! Dialing 311 will put you right through to the offices of your Council person. Express yourself!!! Or, better yet, attend the meeting of the City Council on November 2, when they are due to reopen the ordinance. It’s kinda fun to attend a City Council Meeting once in a while – sometimes we Grannies even use the Public Comments to sing at our Council people.

My contribution today to combat global warming is to urge you to act in whatever way you can to reduce our dependence on non-renewable energy and our use of fuels that pollute. Take a second look at that SUV if you own one. Find out about the many ways you can use solar or wind power instead of polluting energy sources! Discover the incentives to use alternative energy in your own state. Attend Energy and Climate Town Halls. Look into heat collectors if you can't afford solar panels or worry about the cost of the current panel technology. Do something besides give in to gloom and doom! Do something today, and the day after. For our grandchildren's sake!

This blog is written as part of a combined worldwide blogging effort. Blog Action Day! So , look around and see what others have to say, there are over 8937 bloggers from 148 countries who are writing today on topics related to global warming/alternative energy on this day!

Crawling Towards Independence

The Annual event called the SW Conference on Disability ended Friday here in Albuquerque. It sent me home “loaded for bear!” It’s always invigorating to meet together with others who share similar concerns and struggles.

How many of you have seen this picture? It was taken in 1990, when disabled activists took to the streets to protest the slow progress of the ADA.

Today, ADAPT is doing it again. Trying to get the Congress to take action on The Community Choice Act (CCA) (S. 683, HB1670). http://www.adapt.org/freeourpeople/cca09/report04.html This information is all news to me, though I have been an activist for most of my life.

While getting a lift in a “club car” from the Convention Hall to the parking lot I learned about this amazing New Mexican woman, Linda Pedro, who is an artist and quadriplegic and disability activist. She won a 1978 federal lawsuit, based on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which required her state to put a program in place that would support her decision to stay in the community and raise her son. She also invented the “Obamanos” slogan that was so helpful in turning this state for our President, or so I heard.

I also got a chance to make the acquaintance of Ellen Perry, a delightful young woman from Carrboro, NC, who has been working as a self-advocate for many years. She led a session on “How to Build a Self-Advocate Grassroots Organization: A Self Advocates Perspective.”

Her own organizing efforts in Carrboro have centered around efforts to assist on of their members in getting out of a nursing facility, and the group effort seems to have been strengthening and family building for everyone involved. Her presentation voiced concerns about true self-advocacy, and the need to speak for yourself if one wants to have an authentic voice.

Some of the discussion in this breakout panel was provocative, circling around an issue I find myself wondering about frequently as I engage in my life and my politics. “What is a self-advocate?” read one of her Powerpoint slides. Good question. “How to find other self-advocates?” is another I pose to myself daily.

A core issue for activism in a democracy is being willing to self-identify and to form empathetic (not charitable) alliances with others who have similar issues. To seek out allies and form effective self-advocacy organizations one must first feel an affinity for one’s self, embrace self-challenges rather than deny them.

Seniors in our society have had problems with this for eons, especially since aging has been viewed so prejudicially, generations put away and out of sight in nursing homes, relegated to the sidelines in the so-called “golden years.” We have the AIDS population to thank for bringing death and dying out of the closet. And the Gray Panthers and Raging Grannies, and even to some extent the AARP, for showing us that elders have passion, intelligence and commitment to spare. Many folks still live in denial and shame, listening to Fox news roll over them.

Many folks live in fear of change, afraid that what marginal security they perceive they possess will be taken from them if they raise a fuss. Many live invisibly, locked up in “secure” facilities, some of their own choosing because they have been taught to fear the “other” –the poor, the disabled, the young, the homeless, the Vet in a wheelchair or who suffers the reoccurring nightmare of PTSD.

If you are invisible and frightened, trust me, the only people who give a damn about your interests are those who want to exploit your fear. It’s time to come out of your homes and form friendly alliances with others who share your concerns, because history tells us that this is how change happens.

My step Dad went blind, very suddenly, in his later years. When he was living in San Jose, CA, my sister tried to persuade him to carry a white cane. His response was, “Hell, when it comes to that I’d rather carry a brick or two! (to throw at any car that might threaten him)” Mind you, he always was a bit of a renegade, and in this case be was likely taking his own spirit of self-determination a bit over the limit! But, I always chuckle at the spirit of his rejoinder.

It’s taken me 4 years to embrace my own disability to the point where I am willing to commit time and energy to working on disability issues. But, I am here now! Me, my blog, my tongue and my willingness to reach out, forge alliances and create new possibilities for employment accommodations here in New Mexico. Brick by brick!

My firm conviction is that this will be accomplished from the Grassroots. So…come find me, because I know you too are out there but I don’t know where you live and Social Security won’t tell me. Send me your email, give me a call, send up a smoke signal!

My personal goal is to form a grassroots organization to find more employment possibilities for the disabled in New Mexico – DAWN (Disability Accommodations Wanted Now), and to collect together enough individuals to go to the Roundhouse and the Governor’s office and some of the other bigger employment outfits in the State (like LANL and Presbyterian, UNM and Intel) and negotiate for more part-time or on-line employment slots. I’d also like to hear more about what you’d like to do! Change is a moving target.

GannyNel's Facefook

For Videos and Granny Songs

Dealing from the Bottom Up

For many years now I’ve taken the Low Road in my political endeavors. Since moving here to New Mexico, this philosophy has become more deliberate.

Some might say moving to New Mexico was a courageous venture on my part. I moved here alone, without friends or kin, while recovering from a quadruple bypass. If you’ve ever been “taken off-line” by the docs, you might relate to my impression that recovering from this surgery was like coming back from being soul dead. It was a slow and difficult time, a time when I felt strangely void of preference and will. My solar plexus sent very few messages, I floated and napped much of the time, and that was the best of my experience.

I had already started my move when I had my heart attack. Most of my belongings were already sitting here in Albuquerque. My old home in Maryland was so empty of possessions that I had to rent a hospital bed just to have somewhere to rest my bones. By the time I came “home” from the hospital I found it hard to remember why or how I had “fallen in love” with the idea of relocating to New Mexico. Nonetheless I continued to put one foot after another, doggedly hoping that I was not going to fall off the edge of the universe with the next step. Among other resolutions I used to move forward was the notion that, since I could recall that my decision to relocate was in some profound way a “spiritual” choice—a “calling” if you will, a feeling of having found “home” after a long walkabout on other, less comforting ground—that I would try not to prejudge what I would undertake once I arrived. I resolved to make myself aware and open.

After I settled in and began to feel stronger I ventured out. Hearing of an Anniversary Rally to End the War in Iraq, I encountered the Grannies for the first time and enlisted. My gut reaction, beyond admiring their pluck and their songs, was that I would learn from these women and be in good company.

When I mentioned that I had a chador from Afghanistan as we were preparing for another anti-war rally at the gate to Kirtland Air Force Base, one of the Grannies encouraged me to wear it to the demonstration. So, being open to suggestions and just having researched the number of dead and injured women and children in Iraq, I decided to attend the demonstration as their representative. I wasn’t there for more than 3 minutes when the police descended upon me, asking me to remove my garment. And the rest is history (see my Facebook for a video of my poetic response at the Albuquerque City Council). Having nothing to hide under my chador, this encounter actually served me and my Grannies well. I got a letter of apology from the Chief of Police. The resolution we went to the City Council to support, a resolution urging the US to leave Iraq, passed the City Council! From my personal perspective, while I was shocked and frightened by the police response that day, this was just one more episode of making the personal political, working from the BOTTOM UP.

As I wonder through life, I just tend to bump into walls! When I do, because of my education and upbringing and history, I have this odd, some might say devious, tendency to regard the issue as more than just a personal challenge. When I respond, I respond on behalf of those who cannot or will not or do not know how to stand up for themselves. I make waves! I encourage my readers to follow suit: nothing was ever accomplished by lying down and letting yourself be run over by those who would deny your rights or the rights of others.

RECENT JOUSTS!

My grandmother used to be amused by pushing younger relatives into the swimming pool with her cane. Now that I use a cane to get around myself, I consider it my sword as I sally forth on behalf of disabled individuals. My grandmother, who was the first so-called white woman to settle in Bemidji, Minnesota (she actually bore the blood of two indigenous Americans women in her veins), would heartily approve.

During this last year I was approved for Medicaid (for the working disabled) as well as the Medicare I receive as a disabled person. Once again, this private journey has led me to learn things I never knew and, in the course of reaching out to solve my own problems, find some of the challenges that impact a much larger group of people like myself.

Make no mistake; I am grateful for the benefits Medicaid offers me! Because the Republicans were on a mission for Big Pharma when they supported Part D, my numerous medications were deeply unaffordable before I went on Medicaid. Medicare refuses to acknowledge that senior have teeth. Years of expensive dental work has gone south because no one told me that the dry mouth caused by the medications I take daily to keep my heart ticking would ruin my teeth. When they discharged me from the hospital they should have given me the tablets I take now that protect my teeth and gums from dry mouth and the bacterial infections that ensue! There is also a documented relationship between gum infections and coronary plaque, just one more compelling reason for Medicare to provide dental care! I find myself with only one chewing surface because our medical system doesn’t treat people holistically. My back is also much worse since my cardiac surgery because the medical system we have only seems capable of looking at patients from a narrow and specialized perspective. So I am grateful for the help Medcaid offers, and it’s the best I’ve been able to find as a citizen in our big ole wealthy nation, this government run single payer system!

But, I am also struck by the incompetence I have encountered trying to gain access to my benefits as a disabled person. Initially, my application for Medicaid was denied. The Social Worker who read my application failed to note my boldly marked information that I was applying for MEDICAID FOR THE WORKING DISABLED, and put me in the wrong program for which I was denied. When I reached her by phone to correct this, she let it be known that the Social Welfare office didn’t truly understand this program. This is part of the problem of being a “client” in our welfare system—one must go prepared to become fully informed and be prepared to bring those who are gatekeepers up to snuff! The social services system is not for the feeble!

We need more people sitting in the desks that service the system and we need them to understand what it’s like to be or have been a client! We need more people who help from the BOTTOM UP.

I finally DID get my Medicaid Card! Then I went on a journey to get my teeth fixed. I found a good dental provider, though this took several calls to state offices. I made an appointment and sure enough, my dentist felt I needed partials. I also needed PRE-AUTHORIZATION. The woman who handles the pre-auth desk at my provider was less than encouraging. She said that it might take months and I might not qualify because I needed to have two front teeth missing to get partials. “Maybe I should go out and get in a bar fight!” was my response. Sheesh!

While I waited for pre-auth I tried to find the regulatory information on the Web. I also searched for a Grassroots organization for the Working Disabled. The paucity of information was alarming! I also explored what was happening in New Mexico.

Just last week, after much poking and prodding and calls to Santa Fe, I managed to get myself invited to participate on the New Mexico Focusing on Abilities Leadership Board. Well, they said they wanted disabled folks to participate (smile). And I registered for the Southwest Conference on Disabilities later this month. Never underestimate the power of one semi-employed Raging Granny and her cane! You will hear more about this pilgrim’s progress in this blog in months to come.

MEANWHILE, ABOUT THOSE PARTIALS… Now here’s a funny story. Following up with the clinic, I discovered that while I was under the state’s standard Medicaid coverage, my partials were approved. This only took 30 days. But, meanwhile the state of it’s own accord decided I need to be part of an insurance system to supervise my care and had reassigned my case to Evercare. Goddess only knows why, as I don’t. So my preauth needed to be resubmitted.

A month later, when I called United Healthcare (yet another layer of Insurance that monitors dental care under my “Long Term Care” (COLTS NM) Provider), to check on the progress of my preauth, I was told they had never received it! I went back to my dental provider.

“This happens,” said the woman at the desk. “Sometimes we have to resubmit requests for months.”

I was in pain as I stood there, with a huge wad of bloody cotton in my mouth having just had a tooth extracted. I removed it so I could speak. “Can I get a copy of the preauth request? If the place where it needs to go is in New Mexico I will drive it there myself!”

“Because of HIPAA regulations I can’t give you your paperwork,” she replied. Removing the bloody wad from my mouth one more time, I responded, “That is totally crazy.” Then I left the clinic, but not because I was about to back down.

The next day I called and asked to speak with her supervisor. This woman, who in her job capacity would be required to take HIPAA training, was obviously misinformed if not covering her own lack of due diligence.

When she returned to the phone she informed me I would be able to pick up the paperwork the next day. I did so and promptly sent it off to United Healthcare with a certified Return postcard. My approval was granted a week and a half later! I know it will take time…but I am glad to report this Granny will have teeth in the future. Somehow it strikes me as appropriate!

Bottoms Up!

THIS GRANNY GRUMBLES

More and more as I write this blog I am arriving at the conclusion that I need an organization.

A grassroots organ, not one geared to sell insurance or sell out its constituency to commercial interests. An organization that will truly represent the interest of people who are physically unable to work a full work week, or are old enough to retire, but must fight ageism and financial insecurity when seeking to market their skills in the workplace. I envision a group of committed individuals willing to go “sit on the desk” of their legislators and corporate directors and governmental administrators and demand a hearing. A “union,” if you will, of this under-served and under-employed but still vital population segment.

Our numbers are large, but we are NOT UNITED. Our struggle is lonely, obstructed by bureaucratic sprawl and the deliberately obfuscated language of the “benefits” packages we are tossed by our government. Being disabled, or for that matter a senior who is still aware and alive and struggling to keep a home and life together on a fixed and limited income is a full time occupation. We need to help each other and work together for an easier, more productive, more hopeful path. We need an organization to tell our stories, distribute information, and keep the pressure on the governmental organizations that supposedly represent our interests.

So I dabble with acronyms as I wander through the maze of daily living:

HANDS – Helpful Adults and Newly Disabled Seniors
SERVE – Senior Extended Ready Vital Energy
BELT – Big Energetic Life Time
STRIDE – Senior Teachers Retired Individuals Disabled Energy
SDWW - Retired and Disabled Want Work
DAMN – Disabled and Able Mentally-competent Nation
DAWN – Disabled and Aging Working Nation

I am astounded to find that there are only a handful of grassroots organizations serving the interest of the mentally competent disabled in this country. I am shocked that the aging boomer population is so shell-shocked and insular in their response to their shrinking opportunity to have a creative and fruitful senior experience that we have not kicked up our heels and DEMANDED appropriate service opportunities at this time when our country could really benefit from our skills.

Then again, I am discouraged that when I went to sing out with the Grannies at a local gathering to shout out on behalf of National Health Care, only a couple hundred folks turned out to Salsa to Save Lives at a local park on a lovely spring evening. The Current Population Survey Revised CPS ASEC Health Insurance Data published April 10, 2007 indicated that 21% of the total population of New Mexico is without health insurance, meaning that this population is just one health incident away from financial disaster, not to mention that they are unlikely to be getting the ongoing care they might need. And that was 2007 – not today when these numbers are undoubtedly far larger.

Where were these folks on April 9 when we gathered in the park??? Do we believe, just because we made the bold step of electing Obama that he must now solve all our grave social and economic riddles without ongoing support???

Grrrrrr.

Once again, I challenge my readers! I am looking for allies and partners in this process.

Tutoring Pleasures and Pitfalls

One of the parcel of activities I do to keep afloat is tutoring in the public school system.

While there is much to debate about the value of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) as a policy, and it’s impact on education, it is this policy that funds what I do, and I am convinced that my part of the puzzle has value. And the system that delivers this supplementary educational product is fraught with pitfalls. Like most of our national policy, it is couched in complexity, legislated in language that seems designed to be obscure, and the relevant data to address a particular concern is a challenge to procure.

I’d love to be able to point to studies that verify my “foot on the ground” findings. I’d love to be able to address my concerns to the proper persons. I’d love to find the right pressure points to push for a more effective results from this system I’m caught up in, but I don’t have the resources in time and energy to do so. Besides, I’d rather teach. And I can easily share the bottom line of my research, there’s just not enough opportunity for teaching in our public schools. We need to do everything we can to support the human element in the educational transaction.

Personally, there is no greater sense of achievement than witnessing student progress and interest. I am an odd duck: I have always loved learning. If I can instill just a teaspoon of my enthusiasm for this discovery process in my students, I give myself a virtual gold star!

A 4^th grade boy says, after finally getting focused attention on some simple math strategies, like, for instance keeping the numerical columns straight so that he doesn’t make mistakes when adding up the results of multi-column math, “Wow! I feel like I just got new batteries!” I don’t fault his classroom teacher for not being able to get this notion working for him, because Iknow how challenging it was, working one-on-one, to achieve this success. Progress is incremental, and often requires individualized attention.

Entering the library, where she waits for me for a half hour to begin our sessions, I discover a 7th grade girl of Pueblo heritage bent over the stacks, reading! She doesn’t want to stop for our regular instruction; she motions me to “Come look.” On her own she has found a book about Pueblo Culture in New Mexico, and she wants to show me some pictures from her ancestral Pueblo, her grandfather’s house.

What a breakthrough for this young girl who is struggling to maintain interest in school in the midst of myriad distractions, including younger siblings at home, puberty, and a history of not getting what she needs to be successful in the classroom. No blame here, just how things are.

Many of the students I encounter tutoring just need a tailored approach to revive their interest in learning. They also need success. Most frequently I find that the students I see suffer from compound failures – to the point where they have already learned that they are “stupid” by the time they are in 4th grade. Perhaps the most essential task for a tutor is to convince these students that success in school is possible – they need to experience this feeling before they can hope to become willingly engaged in the challenges of learning new skills.

With my Pueblo tutee, I hit on success by a fortunate “accident.” I had been visiting the Bandelier National Monument and rushed back to Albuquerque to tutor. I had collected a brochure from the Park, and out it popped when I was searching my bookbag to figure out what reading material to work on with my student. Thinking, well, it has graphics and lots of new vocabulary about culture, nature, and archeology, I spread it out on the library table. Bingo! My student was fascinated with this material and we read both sides of the brochure. She had heard of this ancient pueblo site, but had never been there. That’s when she began talking about her Pueblo, and I knew that we had unlocked a new pathway for her to find pleasure and value in reading.

My point here is that tutors have time and opportunity to be creative and experimental in working with students, and, as a tutor I can concentrate on what works for the individual in front of me rather than what might work for a whole class.

The pitfall is that tutors don’t have ENOUGH time. Each child is allotted a mere 23 hours. It takes 5 or 10 hours just to earn respect and trust from a child who has not had a positive experience in school. Sometimes it takes 5 hours just to get a child to sit still and begin to focus their attention. It’s important to establish a dialogue with each student, and this frequently means “time off” from a strictly educational focus. I haven’t found a way to do this “instantly,” observing a child’s learning style and the deficits I need to address takes time. It also takes time to discover what material sparks their interest. Each year, I get a bit more perceptive, develop better strategies.

Each year I am also disappointed when I find, just as I am finally getting some success, I only have five hours left with a student. It seems very wasteful that there is not enough time to cover more ground and reinforce the learning process once it’s begun.

I encourage my readers to forward this story to their public officials and to people who administer schools. Another 10-20 hours per year per student involved in tutoring could make a massive difference in school performance. It would make this tutor happier also.

Now about those "incentives' for graduates:)

A Granny Visits GAZA

On March 20th, I received this Granny Email…
Grannies,
I just got back from a 2 week stay in Gaza!
We were an international presence who, after protesting overnight, succeeded in having the border opened. Some of the people we were with to get the Rafah Crossing open are organizing an ongoing international presence to open and keep open the Egyptian/Gaza border.
Please consider getting involved in a "Grannie presence" at the Rafah border.
More to follow.
Grannie hugs from Paki,
Western Massachusetts Gaggle
Gaza, the prison without a roof! Photo, Paki Wieland
Dear Paki,
I have a blog site and would be delighted to publish something about your recent visit to Gaza.
It has occurred to me that if we could put a Granny on every block in Gaza maybe these traumatic incursions would be less likely.

GrannyNel From Albuquerque Gaggle




Dear GrannyNel,

I love the idea of so many grannies stopping violence, in Gaza, or wherever we are! We have seen suffering, resilience and resistance! I am pursuaded that there will not be resolution to violence, injustice in the Palestinian lands, but we each do her part.
What I have come away with is a deep appreciation for the people of Palestine.
The Israelis want security and the Palestinians want justice. I do not believe they are mutually exclusive! The leaders on all sides need to be led by the people, they do not seem capable to think beyond the old programs of "us/them."
As grannies, we have a deeper wisdom; we know that all children are our children, our grandchildren. As members of the global community, we the people of the world may have to put ourselves in the way. I have a modest proposal, please circulate is, edit or do what you will if it resonates with you.

Thanks! Paki

A proposal—Drop “Terrorism”!

I have just returned from a very troubling visit to Gaza. Mental health reports suggest that 98% of the people are suffering greatly from the trauma of the recent war on them. There are many practical actions we can take on behalf of the suffering people of Gaza. However, I have another suggestion for peacemaking.

Lets drop the word “terrorist” from our discourse. It undermines the meaning of language, which is to communicate. “Terrorist” not only short cuts conversation but, unless we deconstruct the word, it is a block to understanding. And isn’t the purpose of conversation, to understand the other person and to make oneself understood?

"Terrorist” has become such a buzzword, with the underlying assumption that we know what each other means by the word. It seems to me that the label “terrorist” is applied by those in power, those who name, to those who are subjugated, the powerless.

As I scan the history of the U.S. in light of those who are currently called “enemy combatants,” I wonder about the people we today call Patriots. Many of them would meet the criteria for "enemy combatants:" insurgents. Many soldiers in the colonists war for independence from England did not wear uniforms, and were not regular army!

More recently, in Ireland, the Irish Republican Army was considered a “terrorist” organization. Today, Gerry Adams, a member of the political branch of the IRA, Sinn Fein, holds a government position. The Jewish freedom fighters in the 40’s were considered “terrorists.” They later became government leaders of the State of Israel. And so it goes, but this is more than an issue of semantics.

Today, knowing the history of the indigenous people of North and South America, of Africa, Australia, and Asia, I pray that we will learn from those crimes against humanity. In the ancient land of Palestine, the U.S, Israeli, and Palestinian governments have the opportunity to do what is right.

For the sake of our children and our children’s children, it is time to say goodbye to the discourse of modernity reflected in notions of hierarchy, the either/or, and to embrace the possibilities for us in our ever expanding universe.

What is our calling as humans if not to see all women and men as our sisters and brothers? And is not every child your child?

A small step for the human race is to clean up our language by not using the word, “terrorist!” Please give it a try.

Thanks, Paki Wieland

HEAT

January 2009

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The LIHEAP program helps low income families pay heating or cooling costs with a once-a-year benefit. The benefit can be used to help pay gas; electric; or bulk fuels, such as propane, firewood or wood pellet bills. This year’s average benefit per family is $309. A family of three earning up to $26,400 can qualify for this program. There are 65,960 families participating in this program. (From a New Mexico Human Services publication entitled "Human Services Department is Prepared to Help New Mexicans During Difficult Economic Times."

For about $2000 a homeowner can dramatically reduce their heating bills by installing a solar-powered heat collector on their roof or the south side of their dwelling. The annual savings would likely be more than a LIHEAP allocation (50-75% of fuel costs, more in sunny locations). This would be a great starting place to use solar power in your home if you live in a state where there are sunny days in winter. Obama’s Recovery program SHOULD get behind this.

My HOT PROPOSAL is that homeowners on fixed limited incomes, perhaps not quite a low as LIHEAP demands, should be allocated very low interest loans to install these charming recirculating air collectors on their homes. I have it on good authority that with these air collectors on your roof or a south-facing wall you won’t need other heat from 9 am til perhaps 7pm in a home that is properly insulated, and that the technology is simple and low to no maintenance. These collectors don’t even need power to help circulate the air, a small solar panel is all that is needed to run a fan. They even provide heat when there is a power outage as long as there is partial sun on the panel.

In New Mexico, where the percentage of "poor" folks who own their own homes is higher than many states (48% of "poor children" live in owner occupied housing in New Mexico, as opposed to 34% in Maryland) , this proposal is particularly relevant, especially since earned income figures are much lower in this state than the national average.

A contractor I interviewed recently to get quotes on a number of minor renovations for my home testified that his home, where the previous homeowner had spent substantial money on solar devices, has these “air-to-air” heat collectors. The other systems, water heating solar devices, have been abandoned because of leakage. But the air-to-air devices work like a charm. He says he pays $140 per year to heat a 2000+ square foot home. This really prompted my interest!

People on fixed incomes, as huge proportion of our population will be with the “retirement” of the baby boomers, need to utilize every option to reduce fixed expenses. If we were given encouragement, and tax rebates won’t do it because we have so little taxable income in the first place, we would be the pioneers in adopting solar power in our homes. A fundamental truth about technological innovation is that the MORE folks who get on board, the more bang for the buck. We have all watched the declining price of personal computers.

The benefits of moving away from everyday use of our scarce non-replenishable natural resources, and particularly petroleum and coal combustion with its nefarious impact on our environment (natural, social and political), are so vast as to be incalculable. This piece of the puzzle is virtually “shovel ready.” Let’s provide the means to implement it now!!!

Let’s also enact legislative changes to all federal, city and state subsidies towards the construction of new housing to ensure that effective and economical solar heat collectors are part of the development package. This proposal we might want to enforce a few years out from the loans I mention above. We need to allow time for the manufacturing segment to catch up, because to date there are only a handful of companies manufacturing these devices and the larger population doesn’t even have a clue that this alternative exists.

If you are among them, I urge you to visit this website. After much research it’s the most informative site I’ve found. http://home.att.net/~cleardomesolar/BISFAheatingpanels.html

I encourage my readers to forward this blog to their local and federal legislators. Let’s stop throwing good money after bad by our expenditures on LIHEAP. Let’s move on to a more rational use of our resources. And, let’s STAY WARM!

Synergy

Forward Thinking for Boomers and the Disabled:
Job Share for the Public Sector

Synergy means creating energy by bringing together a new paradigm by combining action or functioning of energy. In brief, it’s a useful way to look for tools for change.

We know that this country needs change. And our minds return to the same old ruts when searching for the mechanisms to accomplish that change, particularly the minds of the folks who enact most of our legislation. If you don’t believe me, just try reading the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/arra_public_review/. Most of the proposals are couched in terms that reference previous legislation; governmental shorthand that demands such expertise that one has to wonder how the legislators knew what they were voting for.

We, as ordinary citizens, have to figure that our elected officials were just trying to give our President some tools to craft change in our country, as quickly as they could because of the urgency of the need.

As a simple-minded member of this citizenry, I worry. And while there are many things one could worry about, I choose to be simple minded and worry about my own interests, because I feel they are representative of a segment of concerns that are not being met. My concerns and the synergist approach I have developed to create a personal and a segmental solution for economic survival and benefit to the nation may constitute just a small piece of the jigsaw puzzle of how to reassemble this country and I want them heard and addressed.

I believe that my ideas are important keys to solving some of the problems we as a nation seem to grapple with only in the privacy of our homes, with dread, in our sleepless nights. I am searching for others who see these problems and are interested in the solutions I am proposing because THIS IS THE TIME to get these issues on the table, before the opportunity presented by the ARRA is lost.

So I welcome all response to this blog, whether private (live.wire2@comcast.net) or public.

I read with great interest an article in the Washington Post published this day, March 3, 2009, “Many Hires Needed for Budget Goals.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/02/AR2009030202935.html?wpisrc=newsletter

My thoughts as I read this article were simple:“What about me?”

More and more today the aging and disabled population needs to work, and would relish viable part-time employment. The nation needs us too. Many thought they had enough salted away, or enough forthcoming in pensions to retire comfortably and find that these funds have vanished. Others are still working full time into their seventies.

For many of us, a part time job would make a huge difference. Our society regards us as a “burden,” when many of us would leap at the opportunity to be useful, and have years of expertise to contribute in just those areas where workers are overwhelmed by low pay and staggering workloads, like teaching and social services. If only someone would agitate to make a portion of those jobs part-time! Then they could be filled by people who find it physically overwhelming to work a full day, but who would come to their jobs with a sense of gratitude and the desire to serve.

It would not be too hard to find a mechanism to reserve a portion of the new need for governmental workers this segment of the population. Our numbers are known: relative to the larger population and by income levels. We count. We have skills. We even have medical insurance. Nonetheless, we find it a tremendous challenge to find the part-time employment that would fulfill the yearning we have to be useful and create the small piece of income we need to survive with greater choices.

There is such a crying need skilled service workers of every stripe–particularly in today’s economy. But there is no one negotiating on behalf of a solution.

Personally, I have been searching for year-round stable part time employment for 3 years. The best solution I have been able to patch together is seasonal and fragmented and doesn’t allow me to use my skills in a consistent fashion. I am always worrying about the next job. During the last year I have worked as a tutor in the public schools, a great job for my tutees, and me but only funded for 23 hours per student per year. I have also scored “No Child Left Behind” tests –even though this work is also seasonal and the only option for part of the season is to work full-time, which depletes my small fund of “ticket to work” months. I have no comment about the nature of this work other than to say I would not do it if I had other options. Next, I registered 500 voters for Acorn at minimum wage. I could only do this because most of the time I could sit, and I could stop when my pain made me cross. I only did this because in order to work for the most dynamic Presidential campaign of my lifetime I needed to have financial support, minimal though it was. Next, I worked for the Board of Elections for a month and a half, until the full-time plus workload shot me down. Then, in November, I resumed work as a tutor. Put plainly, while I performed valuable service and learned a lot, this scatter-brained approach to obtaining some semblance of economic survival really sucks! Do you hear me???

Please join me or help me find allies in bringing this idea to the attention of the pertinent state and federal legislators and agency administrators. The need of the boomers and the disabled (who are not infrequently the same population) for part-time employment has, in my view great potential as an untapped source of public sector skills.

Counting to Three

Yes, I know it’s been a while since I had anything to say in this space. I offer no excuses. I haven’t been ill, far from it: just listening, and digesting, thinking about what I see and what I want to see on the new political landscape. Now I find I do have something to say.

I am a boomer and disabled. These two facts are very pertinent to my perspective. I know I am not alone in facing our current economic challenges and I know that “I COUNT!”

I also like to think of myself as a person who, as my dear sister wrote in her revision of my current resume, has “a broad perspective, with knowledge of community resources.”

I have skills and life experience that marks me as a survivor and a peaceful warrior. I know “more than the average bear” about such things as health care, disability, welfare, bankruptcy, divorce, single parenthood, the struggles of people with AIDS and veterans with PTSD, the impact of war on young and old and civilian populations, and what it is like to live in a country that is radically different from ours and deeply impoverished. I have engaged the “system” head on most of my 61 years with my eyes wide open, on my own behalf and for others I have encountered along the way. My mind, as yet, refuses to blink.

My deepest desire is participate meaningfully in the rest of my journey.

Every morning at five my bedside radio wakes me up with NPR news. My typical week at present finds me tutoring public school children, trying to joggle my next month’s budget, and providing a free taxi service to a friend who otherwise wouldn’t be able to keep to a minimum wage job at a fast food venue. I have searched and searched for a permanent part time job that will supplement my disability income. The best I have come up with is a series of short-term jobs that somehow manage to pull the ends together – just by the hair of my chinny chin chin. I realize I am one of the “lucky ones!”

I also realize that there is a looming shortfall of “experienced” workers, as boomers retire, and that increasing numbers of my age mates are finding themselves underutilized and unable to keep up with the cost of living. Some of us, like my sister and her husband, are still working full time into their seventies. This is just a little silly for most of us, not to mention frightening, debilitating, and just plain unsustainable. Our senior population should be valued for what they are able to contribute, and should be able to live with a modicum of security, not abused and misused and abandoned to cope with ever increasing costs, some of which have been “fostered” by our own government.

We are hearing a lot these days about “smart” policy. We need to take another look at what “smart retirement” might be. This need is urgent and creative thinking on the part of the Obama administration will serve them well and benefit the entire society. There is much more to “smart retirement” than financial planning, as multitudes are witnessing their plans go up in smoke.

Three Smart Policies

ONE: On an EMERGENCY level, we need to negotiate drug prices for Medicare. We have the clout, now we need the will. We even have a system in place to borrow from, the Veteran’s administration.

A study for seven Chicago-area Members of Congress, New Medicare Drug Plans Fail to Provide Meaningful Drug Price Discounts in Chicago (Feb. 2006) found that the cost paid for the ten drugs most commonly prescribed to Medicare beneficiaries under Part D was 79% higher than that paid under government negotiated prices. This is patently absurd.

The big scare that the pharmaceutical companies raise, that negotiated prices would lessen the monies they spend on research and development, is mostly a lot of bullpucky. Most scientific research is funded by government grants (e.g., from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, etc.), companies doing research and development, and non-profit foundations (e.g., the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, etc.). And the self-funding by the pharmaceutical companies tends towards bias, as we have seen repeatedly in recent years. We do not research the cheapest solutions.

This granny is a fond advocate of vinegar, garlic and fish oil. Not to mention subsidized exercise and time paid for “meditation” at work sites. But hey, negotiated drug prices are a mandatory first step.

TWO: A mandatory policy for job sharing. This is the wave of the future. Why not start now? Why not mandate that a percentage of any jobs created under the stimulus package be shared jobs, so that greater numbers and folks who find it impossible or extremely challenging to take a full-time job be allowed the security of a part-time stable employment?

I can think of a dozen or more jobs I could perform on a half-time basis. Under present policies they would be cheaper for my employer as well, since I am covered by a single payer health plan—Medicare. Personally, I have no doubt I would be more efficient and get more done than I did as a full-time employee, because I would have more time outside of employment to care for myself. And, if I were absent, my job would have a fallback person to cover essential services.

Since it seems we need less and less people to produce the same amount of goods, and more and more people to perform physically demanding (fast food/sales) and emotionally burdening (social services/medical delivery) service-related jobs, why not share the load? If we start with the folks who already have some income and medical care – like the people who receive social security or disability and Medicare, we are creating a viable pathway to future solutions for a younger, more able employment force.

“Shovels in the ground” doesn’t sound like it offers much future planning. Nor does it address my issues. Remember – I COUNT!

Almost anyone who, like myself, has a lifetime of experience in working in business, can rapidly fill an administrative/outreach position in education, medical care, or social services. We have had years of keeping our bosses and co-workers abreast of the functional aspects of our work. We are mature: we appreciate viable work.

So, it is with a certain measure of astonishment that I hear that the State of New Mexico is planning to hire twenty full-time emergency workers to try to cope with the fresh needs of an overburdened unemployment insurance system. Why not forty half timers?

I imagine it would be remarkably easy to determine what percentage of the population that is disabled could effectively perform shared jobs. Likewise, it should be relatively easy to determine what percentage of folks who are on social security and have no other means of income are able and willing to job-share. My proposal for Obama is that an appropriate percentage of government jobs created to service the stimulus package should be created as job shares.

Likewise, I was dismayed to hear that the Federal Aviation Agency hasn’t applied a solution such as this to the problem of the aging population of traffic controllers.

What are we waiting for?

THREE: Get out of the oil business. Manage natural resources so that we don’t commit global suicide (whether piecemeal or catastrophically). This is a more long-term goal, in fact a mission that will probably never cease. While my first two suggestions are not that difficult to accomplish, if we don’t work on this one, we might as well give up.

Petroleum is our present most pressing issue. The lowered gas prices of the past few months are a mirage and we know it. I am pleased to see many more pundits and members of the mainstream media talking “green.” And we need to put our money where our mouth is.

Endless war over increasingly scarce resources is NOT an acceptable solution even if we as Americans can manage to stay on top of the food chain.

Bearing in mind that we COUNT, and that numbers sway market forces and drive technology and invention, and that we will bear the brunt of being unable to keep up with rising utility costs, it would be SMART to help those who own homes and have limited incomes to re-organize their energy budget.

If I could afford it I would gladly pay for solar power or hot water on my home through a government subsidized low-interest rate loan and connection to the grid. Today, it seems like this idea may have shortcomings in itself. But I have no doubt that we have the technologically innovative ability to pull it off, if we put our best brains to work. Maybe we should recycle all those computer chips filling up landfills to make solar panels? Clearly, we DO need to think synergistically, because my experience with my own culture is that substitution will be much easier to achieve than using less power, having less mobility, or lowering our communication expectations. Not to mention the fact that we really do need to PRODUCE something.

Likewise, I don’t understand why there is a huge apartment complex going up a few blocks from my home in sunny New Mexico, with partial government subsidy, that has NO solar amenities.

We also need to resist development that does NOT plan for smart resource allocation. We need to evaluate future needs for fresh water, viable transportation and power systems to service planned population growth.Growth for growth’s sake, without proper constraints and safeguards is just not smart policy.

Let change honor all my relations!

Mitakuye Oyasin! Ho!