Emily D. 435/Susan Lamont Meets Sandy Weill/New Pope Praying/Get the Money Out!/

(P1) Poetical

Emily Dickinson Like Yeats Re. Politics?

435

Much madness is divinest Sense—
To a discerning Eye—
Much sense—the starkest Madness—
‘Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail—
Assent—and you are sane—
Demur—you’re straightaway dangerous—
And handled with a Chain—

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(P2) Political (a.)  

Can It Be Called Philanthropy?

By Susan Lamont

Two years ago, I posed the question, “Can it be philanthropy if it was made possible by ill-gotten gains?” I was talking about Sandy Weill, architect of Citigroup, destroyer of the Glass-Steagall economic protections, and creator of the mainstream toxic subprime mortgage market.

You’ll remember that Weill gave $12.5 million to Sonoma State University for the Green Music Center. I called him on it, pointing out that he’d stolen our money and had decided, on his own, how it should be spent. If we’d been asked if we wanted our money spent on a music center, we might have said “yes.” Who knows? But we weren’t asked and there’s the little matter of the extra he kept for himself.

Well, this March the North Bay Business Journal held its annual conference on the state of the economy in Sonoma County. The theme was “Game-Changers: Innovations and Leaders Transforming the North Bay Economy.” The keynote speaker was Sandy Weill (investor in the Press Democrat, Argus-Courier, Sonoma Index-Times and the North Bay Business Journal). That’s enough to make one’s head spin! Sandy Weill knows a little something about game-changing all right, but not for the better. Subprime mortgages and the end of Glass-Steagall were fundamental to the economic crash.

I just had to hear this, so I got myself a ticket. That morning, traffic into Sonoma State was really backed up because of the conference and I was worried I’d be late. But as luck would have it, I wasn’t the only one. As I walked in, Sandy Weill walked in with me. So I turned to him, shook his hand, and introduced myself. He knew who I was.

And then I surprised even myself and told him I wanted to ask him a question. I asked him if they were being ironic when they chose him to speak on game-changers. He said that he didn’t know what I meant. I explained that given the negative influence he’d had on the economy…….He immediately told me that he’d done nothing wrong.

Just then SSU president Ruben Armiňana strode up to greet Weill. Upon seeing me, he hissed to Sandy, “She’s the one who wrote that article.” Sandy said he knew that. Armiňana then turned to me and said, “I have only two words for you: 'mean and nasty'.” I told him that I thought what had happened to people in the crash was “mean and nasty.” Again, Weill squawked that he’d done nothing wrong and they both turned away.

So, apparently both Weill and Armiňana believe there’s nothing wrong with crashing an economy, causing people to lose their homes, or gutting the funding for the very university of which Armiňana is president. It’s no problem for them that the crash has made it more difficult to pay for a college education, causing students to go into greater debt than ever before in the hopes that there will be a decent-paying job when they leave.

I’m going to guess that Weill really believes he’s done nothing wrong. After all, we’ve been encouraged to believe that there’s no right or wrong about money. But I have no problem saying that the world would be a better place if Sandy Weill had never set foot in the business world.

Most economic thinking is done inside a little box by people who couldn’t think their way out of it if it were set on fire. How do I know? Because it’s on fire now and we’re hearing the same old blather!

I want a world in which the wealth is spread more equitably – to the workers in the factories or the implementers of great ideas or the mothers and fathers who raised them or the people who harvested the food that helped them thrive. I want a world with no need for “philanthropy.”

- Susan Lamont is a landscape architect, a photographer, and a peace and social justice activist with the Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County. She is on the collective which puts together the P&J Center's Peace Press, as well as the editorial board of the Occupied Press North Bay/Prensa Ocupada Bahia Norte.

She is the Santa Rosa organizer of monthly readings for 100 Thousand Poets for Change.

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(P3) Philosophical
 
New Pope Praying (watercolor by Ed Coletti

For some reason, I did this watercolor of the new pope praying the day he was elected.


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(P2) Political (b.)

 I ran this back in September of last year.  Since then, my concern has grown to the extent that I can think of nothing else politically and economically that is more important.  Legalized bribery is the uber-evil that accounts for everything congress refuses to do  in support of a middle class in this country.

Get the Money Out of Politics
 
"No person, corporation or business entity of any type, domestic or foreign, shall be allowed to contribute money, directly or indirectly, to any candidate for Federal office or to contribute money on behalf of or opposed to any type of campaign for Federal office. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, campaign contributions to candidates for Federal office shall not constitute speech of any kind as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution or any amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Congress shall set forth a federal holiday for the purposes of voting for candidates for Federal office."

  
Unfortunately, the mechanisms for amending the Constitution may be too cumbersome and untenable to make this happen during this particular political time.  Additionally, everybody and his brother or sister, seems to be proposing constitutional amendments, and the result is distraction.

So, at this particular juncture, I ask that you watch the following two or so minute announcement of a new method through a law called the American Anti-Corruption Act.  You will then be guided toward steps to be taken.  Initially, however, just watch the short movie.