Month: April 2023

There has been much less change than I naively hoped

I came of age in the 1960s in the Village of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, northwesterly adjacent to the City of Milwaukee. The northern suburbs of Milwaukee were then, and are now, very white. I don’t recall a single brown or black face in my public high school graduating class of over four hundred students. When the predominantly black areas of Milwaukee rioted in the “long hot summer of 1967” residents of the northern suburbs wondered out loud why black people were burning down their own neighborhoods. Marinated in our own reality, we were mostly oblivious to the housing discrimination and police brutality that sparked the rioting. 

In the mid and late 1960s I attended the Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) at the Methodist Church in Wauwatosa, a relatively well-to-do suburb on the western border of Milwaukee. For three consecutive spring breaks during high school about forty other MYF students and I traveled into the South by chartered bus, sleeping in sleeping bags on church basement floors and sometimes staying with host families. All of this was arranged by the youth pastor of the MYF. For a kid from a family of very modest means living in the very white suburbs these trips with the Methodist Youth Fellowship were eye-opening and transformative.

In June 1968 I gave the valedictorian speech in the gym at Menomonee Falls High School to classmates, parents, and relatives numbering perhaps a thousand people. I based the speech mostly on my experiences on these MYF bus trips into the southeastern United States the three prior springs. I must have hit a nerve. That same evening I received an anonymous telephoned death threat from one of my listeners—a threat that revealed to me that racial bigotry is not confined to the American South.

Last week Tennessee State legislators demonstrated blatant racism as Republicans voted to eject two young, black, duly-elected legislators (but not the white woman who joined them) for protesting the lack of legislative action on gun violence after the Nashville Covenant School shooting. Someone wrote that the events in the Tennessee legislature last week taught more about the reality of Critical Race Theory than reading all the books banned by Republicans. The events in Tennessee coincided with my happening upon and re-reading the text of my speech. 

If your historical interest is piqued by this introduction, click “Download” and read the original text in all its Smith-Corona typewritten glory. Be sure to consider the words used in their historical context and cut me some slack for the use of the term “colorblindness” (which has changed connotation in the last half century) and for the simplistic solutions offered. Thanks in no small part to the literature generated in the “Black Studies” programs that were launched in the 1960s, I believe my current understanding has much improved. Still, it is appalling to me to consider that we are still facing many of the same issues—and that, both in the northern suburbs of Milwaukee and here in the Inland Empire my speech might still be met more than a half century later with disbelief by some, and anger and threats from others. 

	The Die Is Cast— Valedictorian Speech Ju…1.71MB ∙ PDF File
Download

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

She cannot get there from where she is

Last Monday, April 3, Cathy McMorris Rodgers held a “Conversation” at CenterPlace in Spokane Valley. Starting at around 21:00 in the video, McMorris Rodgers confirmed what everyone already knew—no matter how fearful she might say she is about the safety of her own children, she will never, ever cast a vote in Congress or work toward any legislation that would limit the availability of assault weapons. She says she is “doing everything [she] can”—on background checks and mental health and school resource officers. Her “everything” emphatically does NOT include an assault weapons ban (or any other limitation on gun ownership or carriage) because “the 2nd Amendment is about individuals being able to protect themselves and their property.” Apart from her misunderstanding of the history (and plain words) of the 2nd Amendment, I find it ironically laughable to imagine McMorris Rodgers defending her home with an AR-15. 

I sense a sea change in the national mood in the wake of the Nashville school shooting—a sea change to which McMorris Rodgers and her ilk best take notice. Could it be that it requires three 9 year olds (and three adults) to die in a shooting at a private, mostly white, Christian school to spark broad empathy? The Nashville Covenant School shooting is an example of the failure of everything on which McMorris Rodgers wishes to rely. Covenant School had undergone “active shooter training” in 2022. It mattered, but only by limiting the number who died. When the shooter arrived on the scene, thanks to the killing power of modern assault weaponry, six people lay dying or dead within six minutes. Unlike at the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, police officers did not hesitate a moment. They were on the scene in Nashville and “neutralized” (a euphemism for “shot dead”) the shooter in just fourteen minutes. I have seen no evidence that the shooter had ever sought consultation with a mental health professional (so much for McMorris Rodgers’ current talking point) nor did the shooter have any trouble legally acquiring the weapons of war with which to rip apart innocent people. 

The response of Republicans in the Tennessee State House of Representatives? Classic. Vote to expel three Democrats, two black men and a white woman, from the House for bringing “disorder and dishonor to the House” after they protested the lack of legislative response to the shooting. As Heather Cox Richardson accurately detailed, these are loud echoes of southern states’ legislative actions at the end of Reconstruction.

Even Garrison Keillor, usually a writer of warm, self-deprecating humor, couldn’t help himself. He weighed in with commentary and a link to YouTube police body camera video—video that is enough to make you weep that people like McMorris Rodgers cannot even consider legislation that would significantly curtail such incidents. She cannot get there from where she is.

Doug Muder, writer of “The Weekly Sift”, wrote an impassioned column last Monday that ought to be a must read for every American. Please click and read “I am radicalizing against guns.” 

We’ve been through this so many times that the truth has become very clear: Some people will never see. They don’t want to see.

So last Monday, I didn’t feel any hopefulness in myself or see it in others. Instead, what I felt and saw was anger.

Muder’s piece is breathtakingly accurate and richly referenced. It should be homework for every American. 

McMorris Rodgers will never “get” it. She is incapable of understanding the vacuity of her stance. It is time for her to move on.

Keep to the high ground, 

Jerry

The Republican Myopic View of Housing Affordability

Last Thursday, March 30, Sue Lani Madsen wrote in the Spokesman, “Housing affordability faces mathematical obstacles”. Indeed it does, but the biggest obstacles are the ones she completely ignores. Here are the premises on which she poses her math problem:

No politician intends to make housing less affordable, but math doesn’t care about good intentions.

Higher prices are the cumulative effect of land scarcity plus rising taxes, fees and regulations at every level of government. Every house demolished by WSDOT to build the North Spokane Corridor and every buildable lot bought up by the city as open space pushes the numbers in the wrong direction if the goal is affordability.

So, according to Ms. Madsen, home and land prices are determined in our local free market system entirely by government taxes, fees, and regulations and scarcity caused by government buying up land for parks and freeways and tearing down houses (demolition that, it might be noted, occurred a decade or more ago). By Ms. Madsen’s reasoning home and land prices are determined by supply only. Hmmm. Hold that thought.

Quoting a flurry of numbers based on surveys and definitions from Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Ms. Madsen goes on to establish what a median income, two person family in Spokane County can afford to pay for housing (either renting or purchasing) and still have the cost considered “affordable” for that pair according to HUD. That “affordable” number for a household of two people making the median income in Spokane County is just $841 per month. 

In another flurry of numbers, Ms. Madsen demonstrates that with that $841 per month, our hypothetical pair could afford to purchase a dwelling costing $102,500 (considering all the monthly costs of home buying on a mortgage). Of course, there are few if any dwellings in Spokane County priced that low. 

Consider that calculation. It suggests that well more than half of all two person households in Spokane County can NOT afford (at current home prices) to mount even the very first rung of the ladder of “American dream” of home ownership. The “area median income” (AMI) of a two person household in Spokane County is $67,300. Let’s assume that both persons in this two person household are gainfully employed in full time jobs, each making $33,650 per year. What hourly wage yields $33,650 in annual income? It’s $16.17 per hour. 

Ms. Madsen in her opinion piece has demonstrated that for more than half of the population of the Spokane County being affordably housed is out of reach. She falls miserably short of addressing the question of why—beyond blaming taxes, regulations, and (incredibly) temporally remote government purchases of and tear-downs of affordable housing for freeways—taxes and regulations are, of course, favorite Republican targets. 

The price of housing, as any free market economist will tell you, is a function of supply and demand. Recently the Inland Northwest has seen a “hot” housing market that has driven up prices. (All the handwringing over rising appraised values and property taxes is clear evidence.) The trouble is that houses and apartments are not like cookie-cutter widgets—housing is not one uniform thing. For someone who has just sold their home in a high-priced urban area elsewhere, Spokane, up until recently at least, looks like an opportunity to buy a bigger, fancier place than their former digs. Indeed, capital gains rules encourage such a buyer to invest in an equally or greater priced home in order to shield gain from taxes. Investment firms, flush with cash, see buying rental property in Spokane and jacking up the rent as a cash cow investment opportunity. Potential buyers, some of whom are newly freed up to relocate by pandemic stimulated opportunities to work in lucrative jobs electronically from their new digs add to the demand. Home prices and rental costs are suctioned upward by incoming wealth. 

Developers and builders see this increasing demand for relatively fancy housing and see profit in satisfying it. Of course, they wish to maximize this profit by minimizing their costs to build new housing—hence, the emphasis on taxes and regulations. 

The prevailing demand is not for affordable housing. There is little money to be made in building such housing. Locals making median wages (by definition of median, that is at least half the population of the county) are not the ones who can, on their own, demand anything, since demand is expressed in available money. In fact, half the population can’t even afford(by HUD definition) to pay the inflated rents. (See RANGE Media’s “Becoming homeless tomorrow in Spokane.”)

Sue Lani Madsen completely ignores this differential demand reality, choosing instead to blame government for the dearth of affordable housing. This is willful Republican myopia. 

The long term solution to this problem of lack of housing that most Spokanites can actually afford is to reduce the wealth gap. (See Wealth Inequality in America.) Other tactics are stopgap measures. Wealth inequality must be chipped away both from the top and the bottom. At the top, increasing marginal income tax rates for adjusted gross incomes over $400,000, as the Biden administration has proposed (and Republicans misrepresent), is a start. At the lower end, increasing the minimum wage, encouraging unions, and even considering a minimum basic income are all worthy—and all of them would increase what those who need housing can actually afford to monetarily demand. 

Madsen Math is convenient Republican myopia—convenient for builders and developers, not for people who need housing.

Keep to the high ground,
Jerry

Perhaps you can get an update “McMorris Math” (See Below)

U.S. Representative McMorris Rodgers (CD5, Eastern Washington) recently celebrated in a Facebook video the passage of H.R. 1, the “Lower Energy Costs Act” by the U.S. House of Representatives. If H.R. 1 were passed by the Senate and signed by the President (roughly the same probability as winning the lottery), it would be a huge additional gift to the coal, oil, and gas industry. McMorris Rodgers, as chairperson of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, declares, triumphantly, that H.R. 1 passed as a “strong bipartisan” bill. While it is technically true that the bill passed on a bipartisan vote of 225 Ayes and the 204 Nays, only four of the Ayes were Democrats—hardly a triumph of “strong” bipartisanship. 

The truly striking line in McMorris Rodgers celebratory speech was a perfect flight of Republican fancy:

Unfortunately we’ve seen from the Biden administration a shutting down of American energy.  And, you know, energy is foundational to everything. It is what lifted people out of poverty, raised the standard of living more than any other country in the history of the world. And that’s why American is so important because it is the driver of American leadership. And we, as others have said, we do it better, we do it cleaner, we do it more efficient [sic] than anywhere else in the world. So when we are increasing domestic production in the United States, it means we’re also lowering carbon emissions. America’s leading on all fronts. And it’s so important to addressing what’s driving the cost to fill your car up with gas or heat your home.

Wow. Try to get your head around that turn of phrase aimed at the irretrievably gullible. We’re “lowering carbon emissions” by producing more coal, oil, and gas in the United States??? We’re “lowering carbon emissions” by producing so much more coal, gas, and oil domestically that carbon-based fuels can be sold for less??? —only under the twisted distortions of McMorris Math.

From here on this email is the same as the one distributed yesterday, so if you’re already planning on attending there is no need to read further.

“Conversation With Cathy” Town Hall

WHEN: Apr 03, 2023 / 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM

WHERE: Centerplace Regional Event Center, 2426 North Discovery Place, Spokane Valley, Washington 99216

I will be hosting an in-person town hall event in Spokane Valley to hear directly from people in the community about the issues important to them and their families.

**Space is limited. This event is first come, first served.**

The last one of these that I attended at this location, there was no shortage of seating. The “Conversation” I attended at Centerplace was held in a small amphitheater.

Below I’ve copied some possible questions for McMorris Rodgers provided by a reader.

1. It’s great that we have funds coming for infrastructure, and that you met with the Spokane Valley mayor and others to talk about and take credit for that, but why didn’t you vote for it?

2. You recently sent out a newsletter telling everyone you were working hard at lowering health care costs by pushing a new Transparency concept. (See P.S. below) But if you really want to reduce costs, why didn’t you vote for the ACA? OBAMA CARE? 

3. Back in 1996, Republicans scuttled a health care bill that the Clintons were working on. Since then, we’ve all been waiting for the Republican health care bill. For 27 years, no one has even seen an outline. Why should anyone who is concerned about Healthcare ever vote for a Republican? 

4. Did you support the insurrectionists?

5. Do you support Trump now? 

6. It’s a time for choosing. Did Joe Biden win the 2020 election? 

7. Who pays for the Washington Policy Center? Isn’t that oil profits, from the Koch family? 

8. Why doesn’t the Republican party have a platform since 2016? Nothing at all in 2020. Just blindly following the cult of Trump. 

9. Do you support Idaho’s law that might jail people from Washington that might help incest, rape and involuntarily pregnant teens acquire Constitutionally guaranteed abortion information, medication and procedures?

10. Do you believe that a girl must be made to bear any pregnancy? 
How is that not slavery? 

11. What about the men that impregnate women? Do you think we should get DNA from all men, perhaps at birth, so we know who all the “fathers” are? 

12. How is swabbing someone’s cheek more onerous than forcing a girl to have a child? 

13. Do you use birth control? If not, that’s your choice. Others want their choice as well. What are you doing to stop Republicans like yourself from going after birth control? 

14. What is the Republican plan for inflation? 

15. Do you know that in states where gun control is strong, the murder by guns per capita is lower than in Republican controlled states? That we are safer living in a blue state than a red state? Why do you refuse to work with facts? 

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. McMorris Rodgers fairly accurately states the problem with healthcare costs, but her “Transparency” solution is nothing more an anemic tinkering around the edges. Her proposal is to require (and enforce) that the prices of specific elements of healthcare be made freely available to the healthcare consumer. McMorris Rodgers apparently imagines an overall lowering of health costs due to fully informed consumers wisely shopping around for the lowest price on each recommended test, procedure, or drug. It is not hard to imagine some patients might trim a few dollars off their costs for some well-established routine healthcare (in places where multiple options are available). It is something else entirely to imagine that a patient with any sort of acute problem will have the time and expertise to “shop around” knowledgeably for the lowest price.

In her newsletter, McMorris Rodgers wishes for her constituents to believe that she is pursing a winning strategy to deal with the cost problem of healthcare:

We need to drive down the cost of health care in America, and it starts with price transparency. Patients shouldn’t be in the dark when it comes to their health care bills. That’s why I led a hearing this week to explorehow bringing transparency to health care pricing is key to driving down costs.

She is delusional. She is doggedly devoted to a system of healthcare as a free market—a free market that does not exist and will not exist even it prices are “transparent”. Shopping for healthcare is not like shopping for a new coat.

Time for Some Questions

“Conversation With Cathy” Town Hall

WHEN: Apr 03, 2023 / 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM

WHERE: Centerplace Regional Event Center, 2426 North Discovery Place, Spokane Valley, Washington 99216

I will be hosting an in-person town hall event in Spokane Valley to hear directly from people in the community about the issues important to them and their families.

**Space is limited. This event is first come, first served.**

The last one of these that I attended at this location, there was no shortage of seating. The “Conversation” I attended at Centerplace was held in a small amphitheater. 

Below I’ve copied some possible questions for McMorris Rodgers provided by a reader. 

1. It’s great that we have funds coming for infrastructure, and that you met with the Spokane Valley mayor and others to talk about and take credit for that, but why didn’t you vote for it?

2. You recently sent out a newsletter telling everyone you were working hard at lowering health care costs by pushing a new Transparency concept. (See P.S. below) But if you really want to reduce costs, why didn’t you vote for the ACA? OBAMA CARE? 

3. Back in 1996, Republicans scuttled a health care bill that the Clintons were working on. Since then, we’ve all been waiting for the Republican health care bill. For 27 years, no one has even seen an outline. Why should anyone who is concerned about Healthcare ever vote for a Republican? 

4. Did you support the insurrectionists?

5. Do you support Trump now? 

6. It’s a time for choosing. Did Joe Biden win the 2020 election? 

7. Who pays for the Washington Policy Center? Isn’t that oil profits, from the Koch family? 

8. Why doesn’t the Republican party have a platform since 2016? Nothing at all in 2020. Just blindly following the cult of Trump. 

9. Do you support Idaho’s law that might jail people from Washington that might help incest, rape and involuntarily pregnant teens acquire Constitutionally guaranteed abortion information, medication and procedures?

10. Do you believe that a girl must be made to bear any pregnancy? 
How is that not slavery? 

11. What about the men that impregnate women? Do you think we should get DNA from all men, perhaps at birth, so we know who all the “fathers” are? 

12. How is swabbing someone’s cheek more onerous than forcing a girl to have a child? 

13. Do you use birth control? If not, that’s your choice. Others want their choice as well. What are you doing to stop Republicans like yourself from going after birth control? 

14. What is the Republican plan for inflation? 

15. Do you know that in states where gun control is strong, the murder by guns per capita is lower than in Republican controlled states? That we are safer living in a blue state than a red state? Why do you refuse to work with facts? 

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. McMorris Rodgers fairly accurately states the problem with healthcare costs, but her “Transparency” solution is nothing more an anemic tinkering around the edges. Her proposal is to require (and enforce) that the prices of specific elements of healthcare be made freely available to the healthcare consumer. McMorris Rodgers apparently imagines an overall lowering of health costs due to fully informed consumers wisely shopping around for the lowest price on each recommended test, procedure, or drug. It is not hard to imagine some patients might trim a few dollars off their costs for some well-established routine healthcare (in places where multiple options are available). It is something else entirely to imagine that a patient with any sort of acute problem will have the time and expertise to “shop around” knowledgeably for the lowest price. 

In her newsletter, McMorris Rodgers wishes for her constituents to believe that she is pursing a winning strategy to deal with the cost problem of healthcare:

We need to drive down the cost of health care in America, and it starts with price transparency. Patients shouldn’t be in the dark when it comes to their health care bills. That’s why I led a hearing this week to explorehow bringing transparency to health care pricing is key to driving down costs.

She is delusional. She is doggedly devoted to a system of healthcare as a free market—a free market that does not exist and will not exist even it prices are “transparent”. Shopping for healthcare is not like shopping for a new coat.