As I shift to devoting more time and energy to my fitness, my finances, and my church, I anticipate that, at least temporarily, Wade’s Weekly will take a new shape, with fewer long essays, more brief comments, and more references to various resources.
I’ve recently joined a gym three blocks from my home and go there in the morning Monday through Friday. My priority goal is to continue to lower my blood-sugar level.
I also plan to drive taxi a bit more, 30 hours a week, Wednesday through Saturday, in order to build my cushion for when I can no longer drive taxi. Having voluntarily lived on the edge of poverty most of my life, I don’t have much of a retirement plan.
Sundays are a day of rest, including church activities, socializing, movies, hiking, etc.,
This schedule leaves 20 hours a week for Fellowship Church projects, correspondence, Net activism, and reading.
This work plan involves placing the Tax Fairness Campaign on hold. I still feel there is an extremely pressing need for a national effort to increase tax rates on the top 1%. For one thing, local and state efforts to raise taxes will be sorely limited in how much they can achieve because of “the race to the bottom”—the pressure to lure business by having low tax rates relative to neighboring regions. The American people clearly support higher taxes on the top 1%. And a reasonably progressive tax structure could generate $2-500 billion nationally. But no one has accepted my invitation to work together on this project and I’m reluctant to do more by myself.
So I’m pulling back, smelling more roses, and taking better care of myself, while remaining open to new possibilities. If I become familiar with a project that clearly affirms a holistic approach to political activism, I would likely become deeply engaged with it.
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A correspondent recently sent me an interesting report about a “leadership development” project that decided to expand its goals to more open-ended self-development and mutual support after it became clear during an evaluation session with participants that what most motivated them to stay engaged during the almost year-long training was the personal aspects of what they experienced, such as the development of personal friendships, exploring and learning about feelings and how best to express them, and building a sense of community.
When the evaluators passed on this feedback, the staff of the training agency were surprised and decided to update their brochure to reflect those values. One staff person commented that they didn’t think about communicating those values because they are so common sense, but concluded that it is very important to explicitly state their importance.
When the evaluators passed on this feedback, the staff of the training agency were surprised and decided to update their brochure to reflect those values. One staff person commented that they didn’t think about communicating those values because they are so common sense, but concluded that it is very important to explicitly state their importance.
Yes, indeed. Putting thoughts and feelings into words can be very constructive.
Wade, I have thoroughly loved your communications. Here in L.A., I am hoping we will be passing Measure H, designed to take money out of our local elections. Then, I hope California will pass Single Payer, now that there is a possibility of our own state health care as of 2013.
ReplyDeleteDear Wade, I want to say thank you for your work to increase tax rates on the top 1%. The recent article in Mother Jones was a painful reminder to me about the inequity between the richest and the poorest. This is a core fact of American society that many people (including me) often have a sense of powerlessness about. I talked to my County Supervisor last night after a speech he made talking about the "down economy." I asked him to start framing it as a down economy for some people, and a great economy for the richest. He seemed to agree that was the case. However there is much more work to be done on this front. I am grateful that you are making efforts on this important issue. Thank you.
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