Walmart: End the Corruption and the Cover-Up (Change.org)

My name is Venanzi Luna. I’ve been working at Walmart for seven years. I’m currently a department manager at the store. I’m taking care of my dad who is very ill now. He always taught me to be a fighter. He is the reason I am writing this petition.

I’ve given a lot to this company and I’m very angry that top executives at Walmart are said to be involved in bribing public officials in Mexico and then trying to cover the whole thing up. I’m worried because while I am working hard, now I’m hearing that they’re risking our company by lying and cheating. For years my coworkers and I have been saying that this company has lost its way. I didn’t realize it had gotten this bad!

It is time for things to change. Walmart needs to take responsibility for its actions and change its leadership. I need you to help send Walmart a message: No one, no matter how rich and powerful they are, should get away with bribery. Please stand with me in calling for a change of leadership and a real investigation into what happened.

(From Change.org)

Sign here.

"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."

What If Elections Don't Matter? | THE PLAIN TRUTH by Judge Napolitano 1/...

Minus the obvious Ron Paul bent, this is very well said.




"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."

Obama's Progressive Credentials: The LGBT* Community

(I find it fitting that out of coincidence my fourth installment in this series should come out the same day as Obama has his first official campaign rally.)


     Do you ever find yourself debating about war, the economy, gas prices, trade policies, jobs bills and tax plans when all of a sudden you realize you, or someone you know, or someone you love is a part of the LGBT* community and you realize while your caught up in debates of politics, your politics are struggles in their, or your own everyday life. The LGBT* community sees a lot of the issues it faces politicized and in looking at the game of politics, how have they been treated lately? This is what I wanted to look at in my fourth installment in "Obama's Progressive Credentials."
Obama has always campaigned, and looked like an ally to the LGBT* community, but campaigning is all about what you say, putting one's words ahead of their actions and  using rhetoric to get the vote. Always and forever. That's not to say that you cannot or won't get things done, it just means that you can't take a politician on their word, especially their campaign word.
To start off with, the first thing I stumbled upon was this, "The Obama Administration has told government agencies that a court decision allowing health benefits for the same-sex spouse of a (single) federal employee applies to no one else." (Washington Post). And outside of the case of Karen Golinski and Amy Cunninghis, the office of Personnel Management has been directed by the department of Justice to continue applying the DOMA to all other situations. I am not trying to take anything away from Karen and Amy, please do not get me wrong for a second. I AM trying to call out Obama and his administration for there short comings, as I will reward them for what they've gotten and done right.
Obama has said that he will sign a Trans-Inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). I would love to see this reach his desk before election day in November, so I could know going into the voting booth if he did or did not sign it. (Also, in January of 2010, the Obama Administration explicitly added "Gender Identity" to the list of qualities protected by the Federal Equal Opportunity Employment policies). Unfortunately, both the House and the Senate versions of this bill are stuck in committee. Obama has signed The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act. This act, signed by the president in 2009 expands the 1969 federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Also, on June 17, 2009 the U.S. signed on to the first-ever UN Resolution addressing human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity.
The list of accomplishments continues. On June 9, 2010 the Obama Administration's State Department announced new guidelines for changing gender - makers on passports. The new guidelines removed the previous requirements that a person must have undergone sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) in order to have their gender marker changed on their passport. This new regulation requires a physician's certification. This of course raises the debate of why does an individual need someone else to tell them what gender they are or are not and also the factor of how expensive seeking help like that can be (when last I visited the therapist it cost me $75 a visit).
A lot of the advances the Affordable Care Act makes for the LGBT* community seem to be for those who can afford health care. It does a lot to create a more open and accepting environment and addresses the issues of HIV and AIDS but it neglects for Transgender people the fact that therapy is not only required, but extremely expensive. It doesn't address the issue of hormones or surgery for the Transgender community, either.
Lastly the Administration has ignored homelessness, in-home discrimination and bullying for the community at large and bathroom and changing room discrimination for the Transgender community. I don't know if Obama has made a single statement about all of the LGBT suicides, and because he is a human, because he is THE human who leads this country, he should address that epidemic and it's causes.

You can read my three previous installments in the 'Obama's Progressive Credentials' series here:

Obama's Progressive Credentials: The Middle and Working Class

Obama's Progressive Credentials: A Hawk In Dove's Feathers

Obama's Progressive Credentials: Appointments

J.A. Fisher
@JAFThrasher


"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."

ENDA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Non-Discrimination_Act

ENDA is a bill that would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by civilian, nonreligious employers with at least 15 employees.
Both versions of this bill, in the House and the Senate are stuck in committee, call your Congressperson and Senators and get this bill out of committee and onto the floor!

"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."

Who Built the Bomb (That Blew Oklahoma City Down)

"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."

Mike And Gerard (First Edition)

(This was my Philosophy project this semester. I’m going to take what my teacher wrote on it and try to improve upon it, or at least incorporate what he talked about in his comments. I wanted to post the original and then the second edition when I get it written:)

Gerard: You know, Mike, I understand you're smart, you've always had a knack for Lit and Philosophy and all the critical thinking stuff, but don't you think you come off as stuck - up to those of us just trying to live life?

Michael: Stuck - up? For being proud of my intellect? But you know, Gerard, you bring up an interesting ponderance, namely "Why are we here?"

Gerard: In my kitchen?

Michael: No, no, I mean, why are we as individuals here, what is the reason each individual exists, individually?

Gerard: Well, I never really thought of it too much, but I would reckon it'd be to live good Christian lives.

Michael: What is entailed in a 'Good Christian Life' my friend?

Gerard: Well you know, doing right by your family, your neighbors, and even to strangers if you can. Doing good, productive work; making, growing or building something, ya know? Never being too mean, or judgmental or hateful towards other people.

Michael: That all seems simple enough, be as good and as productive a person as you can be, you're saying?

Gerard: That would be right.

Michael: Well, let me put this to you, my friend. Imagine for me, if you will, a woman about the age of thirty. She has three kids, two jobs, one bathroom and countless bills, so much so that she turns to the government and the community for extra assistance. Now, her jobs are both service industry, catering to other people and not making anything, are you saying she isn't fulfilling her purpose in life?

Gerard: Well, I don't know if she should've went off and had all them kids anyway, Mike, it's just doesn't make any sense, especially if there ain't going to be no daddys to stick around. But, she is doing right by her family, I'd have to say, even if she isn't being productive.

Michael: But those children will more then likely grow up in poverty, and in the process of them growing up in poverty, she's not just being a nuisance to the community and the government in the short term, but rather in the long term.

Gerard: Well, I never thought of it that way, Mike.

Michael: So did she divert from her purpose in life? From living the 'Good Christian Life'?

Gerard: Well I wouldn't chastise her, but I ain't gonna ask her to be my preacher anytime soon.

Michael: What if I told you that these children were triplets conceived by rape that she decided to carry to term.

Gerard: Well, I'm not so sure. I'd reckon you could say that'd make her a good person, self-sacrificing like that.

Michael: Has she fulfilled her purpose in life?

Gerard: I'd have to say yes, she did something selfless and good.

Michael: But it was reckless. She brought three children into an already over populated planet. We don't have enough room to produce enough food to feed the seven billion people we have now.

Gerard: Are you saying she should have aborted them?

Michael: Well, if we are here to be productive, as you have said, I think so. It seems destructive, or counterintuitive, to do otherwise, especially since she's condemning them to a life of poverty. And I emphasize she, because we're looking at her, and not them or the chance that they may, as it is said, 'Pull themselves up by their bootstraps."

Gerard: I guess it makes sense Mike, maybe we aren't here to live good Christian lives. Why do you think we're here?

Michael: To live.

Gerard: To live? Well Mike, I'm simple, but come on, that's over simplifying it.

Michael: I meant like to live, hedonistically.

Gerard: You mean to over - indulge, how can that be why we're here?

Michael: We create and destroy by nature, so neither can be why we are here, can they? One does not seem to out weigh the other, a woman gives birth to a child and a man murders a stranger at a convenient store.

Gerard: What about farmers?

Michael: For every farmer there is an agribusiness that pollutes and poisons our foods with hormones, preservatives and pesticides, which leads us faster and faster toward death.

Gerard: What about manufacturing plants?

Michael: Like the ones in the orient where men, women and children are over worked and underpaid in sweatshops? While the rest of the world can't get decent paying jobs because the multi-national corporations want to increase their profit margin?

Gerard: So, as a race, we create as much as we destroy?

Micheal: And as individuals! We drive cars, smoke cigarettes, forget to recycle, litter! All signs of our hedonism. Why are we here? To indulge in hedonism at whatever extreme we desire until we kill ourselves or someone else.

"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."

American Middle Class Women As Portrayed In American 20th Century Drama

(Something I wrote in-class for my English final)

     The plays Trifles, Fences and The Death of a Salesman are all completely different plays, written by different people with different experiences. All three plays focus on the American middle class, spanning over the course of a decade, from the setting of Trifles to the setting of The Death of a Salesman. In two of the Tree plays, women are treated as supporting characters, but all women in all three plays are treated merely as playing supporting roles to the men in their lives.

     In Trifles, the play where women play a lead role and men play a supporting role, the characters the women portray are not treated with any kind of fairness. The men, while fumbling around trying to solve a murder, often mock the women who seem to be coming up with what could be evidence to convict the lady they have in custody. "Here a lady's been drug off to jail for killing her husband and their worried about her fruit." One of the male characters said.

     "Have you figured out how she stitched it?" Another teased.
   
     The women of this play, while intelligent and insightful, were not taken seriously.
     In Fences we see Rose, who is written as a strong, take-no-nonsense kind of woman, still, she is the border between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale in Trifles and Linda in The Death of a Salesman. She seems to demand a certain level of respect, but she still listens when Troy tells her to go and make something to eat. She also takes no courage in standing up for Cory against Troy on the issue of playing football. Troy treats her subpar, and even when he has a baby with another woman, she still stands by him, to his death and beyond.
     Lastly there is Linda, the timid peace keeper in The Death of A Saleman. She is so afraid to question her husband that she doesn't even address the fact that he's trying to kill himself, let alone address the fact that he's never been the salesperson he's built himself up to be. She just serves him, cares for him, tries to make and keep him happy and well. Both in writing and in the way she is treated by her husband and other men, she is the most subservient of all the women.
     All three women in all three plays exemplify what the patriarchal American society wanted women to be like, but they were not all the same. Linda, written by a whit man in the 1950's, is the most submissive and timid, but not the most taken advantage of, not on a conscious level, anyway. Rose, written by an African American man in the early to mid 1900's, is submissive, dedicated, timid AND is taken advantage of with her complete consent. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale written by a white woman in the 1900's, are often talked down to, like one talking to a child, but are portrayed as intelligent and independent minded, though also timid.

"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."