This Week: Nygaard Notes in the Community: How You Can Help

Quote of the Week

Off the Front Page: The Poor Pay More (Structural Inequality in the U.S.)

A Different Way to Support Nygaard Notes: Hire Me!

 

Greetings,

I know many of you would like to support Nygaard Notes, but are short of cash and thus cannot make a financial contribution. So, instead of a Pledge Drive (we're about due for one), this week I decided to describe another way to support the Nygaard Notes project. You don't have to have any money to do this one.

You may have noticed that Nygaard Notes has been back to a more-or-less weekly format during the summer. That's because I have more time (that is, less paying work!) during the summer months. The longer-than-usual gap between #339 and this issue is because I went camping for a few days on an island in Lake Superior. And I didn't even see a newspaper for almost a week! (I highly recommend this sort of thing, by the way.) So, it's been two weeks since the last issue, but there is so much to catch up on that I wouldn't be surprised if the next one is out in record time. We'll see.

See you soon,

Nygaard

"Quote" of the Week

Two "Quotes" this week this week, both on the same topic: The war in Lebanon and what it's about.

The first one is from a commentary in the Toronto Star on August 1st. In the piece, entitled "Change of Course Is Overdue in Middle East," National Affairs columnist James Travers said:

"Wise support for Israel includes the persistent reminder that occupation is a cause, not a cure, for terrorism."

On a related, but more scholarly, note, here is Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, who is the author of "Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism." This is from an opinion piece he published in the New York Times (All The News That's Fit To Print!) on August 3rd. After pointing out that Hezbollah is "a broad movement that evolved in reaction to Israel's invasion of Lebanon in June 1982," Pape said:

"In terms of structure and hierarchy, [Hezbollah] is less comparable to, say, a religious cult like the Taliban than to the multidimensional American civil-rights movement of the 1960's...

"Evidence of the broad nature of Hezbollah's resistance to Israeli occupation can be seen in the identity of its suicide attackers. Hezbollah conducted a broad campaign of suicide bombings against American, French and Israeli targets from 1982 to 1986. Altogether, these attacks ... involved 41 suicide terrorists.

"... I had researchers scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and the biographies of the Hezbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places, and other personal data for 38. Shockingly, only eight were Islamic fundamentalists. Twenty-seven were from leftist political groups like the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union. Three were Christians, including a female high-school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.

"What these suicide attackers—and their heirs today—shared was not a religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign occupation. Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out Hezbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon and elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force."

Off the Front Page: The Poor Pay More (Structural Inequality in the U.S.)

National coverage was scant upon the July 18th release of a very important study from the Brookings Institution. The study, entitled "From Poverty, Opportunity: Putting the Market to Work for Lower Income Families," got on the front page in San Francisco and Buffalo, NY. But nowhere else, to my knowledge. The New York Times put it on the bottom of page 14, for example. It wasn't mentioned at all in my local papers.

Why was it so important? Because it documents—for the middle- and upper-class people who for the most part make the rules in this culture—what poor people know all too well: Lower income families tend to pay more for the exact same consumer products than families with higher incomes.

The study documents that millions of poor people pay more for their mortgages, pay more for their auto loans, and pay more for their furniture, appliances, and electronics. And, millions more (the study says "countless more") pay high prices for other necessities, such as basic financial services, groceries, and insurance. "Together," the study says, "these extra costs add up to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars unnecessarily spent by lower income families every year."

It doesn't make sense that poor people pay more than well-off people for the same things, does it? Well, it makes "business sense," which the study explains quite clearly. They use polite language, of course, like "market realities." And they politely refrain from mentioning words like "moral." Or "ethical." Or "justice." None of those words ever appear in the text of the study.

The few media stories that covered the release of this study were even more polite. They not only avoided using the words I just mentioned, they also chose to refrain from using the word "race," despite the fact that the study makes a number of comments about it. For example, the study says that race has a "much larger effect" on car prices than income. That is, a car buyer unfortunate enough to be born with skin that is not Caucasian-appearing will find that this "accounts for over $300 more, on average, in additional costs, not charged to a white car buyer."

The study is brimming with little comments that it would behoove more of us to know, although one has to read between the lines to get the meaning from some of the data in the study. For example, "Today, over 23 percent of lower income households do not have a checking account, and another 64 percent do not have a savings account." The study explains exactly why that's a costly injustice, but does not explain the nature of the "market realities" that are behind these facts.

Finally, the study tells us that we could do something about it, pointing out that "Reducing the costs of living for lower income families by just one percent would add up to over $6.5 billion in new spending power for these families."

That's a lot of money, and the Brookings study offers a set of solutions for this outrageous "poor tax." (Which some newspaper accounts—without mentioning "race"—refer to as a "ghetto tax.") I don't think their prescriptions are very good ones since, as the title says, they're based on "Putting the Market to Work," when it is the "market" that is the problem in the first place, doncha see.

Still, even though it is limited, I think this Brookings study merits front-page coverage, since this unjust and immoral situation would be "news" to so many people who are in a position to do something about it.

For those who would like to look at the full, 80-page study for themselves, it can be found on the web at http://www.brook.edu/metro/pubs/20060718_PovOp.htm

A Different Way to Support Nygaard Notes: Hire Me!

I usually do a Nygaard Notes Pledge Drive right about now, but not this time. This time I want to suggest another way to support the Nygaard Notes project. Here it is:

HAVE ME MAKE A PRESENTATION IN YOUR UNIVERSITY OR HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOM, IN YOUR POLITICAL GROUP,AT YOUR HOUSE, OR ON YOUR COMMUNITY RADIO SHOW.

I do this sort of thing—making presentations, that is—quite often. I love doing them! I happen to know that many of you reading these words originally discovered the Notes by attending a panel, or a workshop, or a lecture, or some other Nygaard Notes appearance. So you know how much I enjoy getting out in the community, and what the project has to offer.

And what the project has to offer is not only information and some tips for more effective political engagement, important as those are. I also offer a model of a self-educated, grassroots-supported, politically-engaged, working class public intellectual. I get no public money, I am not tax-exempt, I have no college degree, I get no foundation money, I draw no salary from any institution, and I have almost no personal wealth to fall back on (personally or in my family). So, how can a person like me manage to function as an intellectual and organizing resource for the community year after year? All you need is hard work and grassroots support. In other words, if somebody like me can do this kind of work, then anybody can.

That's a powerful message.

If you know of a group that might benefit from this message, you can schedule a presentation by simply writing or emailing me and telling me what you have in mind. nygaard@nygaardnotes.org It's as simple as that. For those of you who have not experienced one of my presentations, let me explain a little bit about why you might want to do this.

When I do a "presentation," I don't usually just make a speech (although I certainly do that from time to time). A Nygaard Notes presentation is more often an exercise in what I might call "Participatory Co-Learning." What that means is that I attempt to apply the principles of popular education in my presentations, so I suggest a few ideas and a framework for discussion, then I try to create an environment in which the group thinks together about how these ideas mesh (or don't mesh!) with their own experiences of life. Everybody talks, everybody participates in some way, and everybody learns something. Maybe the most important result is that many people come to realize that they know more than they thought they knew. My presentations are aimed at helping people 1. Realize what they already know; 2. Connect it to what others know; and 3. Start to consider the potential power of that connection.

I often talk about media, but what we really end up talking about is ideas, where we get them, and what to do with them. That's why a Nygaard Notes presentation is useful in all sorts of different settings, and applies is relevant to all sorts of different disciplines.

Where I Have Appeared

I have made presentations for lots of COMMUNITY AND POLITICAL GROUPS, including Veterans for Peace, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, DFL groups (that's the Democratic Party, in Minnesota), the Unitarian Society, People for Peace and Goodwill, the Anti-War Committee, the Headwaters Fund, and sometimes at small gatherings organized by readers.

I have also presented on numerous occasions in HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE CLASSROOMS. I have presented in literature classes, philosophy classes, biology classes, and others. Just to give you an idea, some of the titles of my presentations in the academic realm have included: The Media and Public Policy; Media Analysis and Formulating an Argument; Making Sense of the Media; and Evaluating Information Sources.

I sometimes get invited to sit ON PANELS, where I typically introduce some ideas that would otherwise remain unspoken and, most likely, unthought-of. I have been on panels on subjects like "What Bush and Kerry Aren't Saying—Important Issues That Aren't Being Discussed During the 2004 Election Campaign," and "Finding Community After Graduation."

I appear on a semi-regular basis ON CABLE TV in Minnesota, on a show called "Changing the Lens: A Different Angle on the News." I occasionally can be heard ON THE RADIO, although I've stopped doing the regular Nygaard Notes weekly commentaries that I used to do on KUOM here in Minneapolis. (No time for radio right now, UNLESS I get more paying work doing presentations, or a large donation earmarked for that purpose...)

How This Supports the Notes

Here's how your scheduling a presentation would help the Project:

Learning: Every time I make a presentation—in the community, in the classroom, or on the air—I learn a lot. Writing is great, but talking with and listening to people adds a dimension that I can't get from the writing process. So, your invitation makes me a better public intellectual. (See my piece "Memory, Context, and Perspective: The Role of the Public Intellectual" in Nygaard Notes #299, June 23, 2005. http://www.nygaardnotes.org/issues/nn0299.html )

Project-building: I always bring along a sheet where people sign up for their free subscription to Nygaard Notes. It's gratifying to see how often the sign-up sheets fill up, and that such a large percentage of participants choose to receive the Notes. Once people sign up, they rarely cancel their subscriptions, and some of them end up offering significant moral, intellectual, political, and financial support. It's amazing, really.

Money: If your group is able to pay me something to make my presentation, that is a very concrete way that these opportunities can support this independent project in democracy-building. In the academic setting, I typically ask for $100 to $150. With community-based groups, I ask for a lot less ($25-50?), or whatever you can afford (maybe a passing of the hat?). I don't charge a fee to subscribe to the Notes and, in the same democratic spirit, I do not "require" a fee to make a presentation. In fact, I often do them for nothing. Still, if it is possible for your group to offer something as payment, I'll gladly accept.

If you're a teacher, a union leader, an activist, or simply an engaged citizen, you may well find it useful to draw on my skills and talents. We always have fun, and I bring a perspective that you know well from reading the Notes.

I haven't yet been able to give up my "day job" but, little by little, I'm building up my ability to support myself by doing the complex, multi-faceted, and life-affirming work that I call Nygaard Notes. And all without advertising—remarkable!

You can help spread the word and support the Notes by inviting me to work with YOUR group. Email me at nygaard@nygaardnotes.org

The very existence of the Nygaard Notes project (almost eight years old already!) is a testament to the political vitality of our community. You're a part of it. Congratulations!