[Xmca-l] Re: Fwd: Verizon's greed

Sun Apr 24 20:13:21 PDT 2016

Life in the present mode of existence, being.
Hello, dear Xmca-er colleagues.

I'm checking in as a woman scholar voice doing research in General 
Systems Theory.  Once I was just at the beginning and now nearly the end 
of my institutional career.  In Japan.  A National University.
I live in an educational world where the children have been taught that 
the nail that sticks out gets beaten down.

As a systems theorist, at the level of self, group, community - living 
systems naturally seek equilibrium.  So why would I vote or not vote for 
Sanders?  Why would I vote or not vote for Hilary?

40 years of teaching languages, Latin, Greek, English, has been to make 
my living.  What I love and want to talk about is how to create a great 
team, produce a film, coordinate a satisfactory project, with the young 
ones who are enacting the managerial roles having the full support of 
the community of adults, both in and out of the academy.  Moreover, 
peer-learning, which appears essential, and has so appeared to me since 
I was seven, "teaching" my one year younger brother how to read my first 
English primer.

Time and again Andy, Larry, and Mike have responded lucidly and kindly 
to my flashing dives into the stream.  I feel that Andy's "project" as 
mode/method/focus for the self, the team, and the community is coherent, 
articulate, manageable.  So if I fear and dread recursions of 30s 
horrors, world depression, anti-union, the ghastly shape of Nazism 
appearing, the shape of Joseph McCarthy's witch-hunts, it's not going to 
help much with my projects of today, this week, etc.

But coming back again and again to the present, the projects I am doing 
now, this week, this month, working out how to stay in contact with the 
players, get announcements out to the community, well, that is quite 
enough for me to do.  Since the kids are grown up and don't need me so 
much, I have to encourage young students to join clubs, have meetings, 
plan events.  Just have to stay busy ...

But always coming back to General Systems Theory, and moving with the 
present, as a woman/mother/lover/teacher/faculty 
member/participant-observer, I value the exquisite mind of Ross Ashby 
and "requisite variety," which is what a viable system needs to survive, 
an environment which draws out the creative, which satisfies the hunger. 
  Permeable membranes and interface is how I see the interaction of 
nations and communities and teams and people and families and the cells 
in the body maintaining health.

It is hard for me to check in or dive in with a word, but XMCA continues 
to be the best forum for my serendipities and synchronicities and 
reading of the news.  I'm still a GST person and keep my eye on Ervin 
Laszlow and the Budapest Club for international cooperative ventures in 
sustainable business, a benign transition to an age of ultra-technology, 
in which human communities can create harmonious dwellings, 
environmentally friendly renewable energy and so on.  I live in Japan 
and my brother's family members live in Germany.  Living in the present 
does not mean just today.  I see that it means progressing toward better 
education, better health, better food supply.  I still want to pay 
attention to Japan and Germany - and where ever people have learned that 
wholesome, calm work places, educational opportunities and intrinsic 
development, taking it easy and taking it slow, are altogether so much 
better than war, war, bombs, and military/industrial complex money blah, 
messing up the academy, truncating creativity, killing joyful work 
places. (But now I see that I am standing on a box in a park instead of 
getting on with my projects for today).
Vandy

2016/04/25 9:29, mike cole wrote:
> This is how Sanders represents himself in a way that appeals to a good many
> Americans. They do not
> know what to call it and neither does he. I offer it as evidence about an
> unusual phenomenon in American political life that feels to this dated
> person a LOT like what I understand of the 1930's in this country. I come
> from a line of premature anti-fascists and anti-racists (terrible sexists)
> who were firm believers in the first ammendment to the constitution of the
> US. What I see in this election is very disturbingly like what those years
> around my birth were all about.
>
> The result in that case was a massive world war and the beginning of the
> atomic age.
>
> The result in this case?
>
> Who was  it you were asking me to vote for?
>
> mike
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: BernieSanders.com <info@berniesanders.com>
> Date: Sat, Apr 23, 2016 at 4:14 PM
> Subject: Verizon's greed
> To: Michael Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>
>
>
> [image: Bernie Sanders for President]
>
> When the CEO of a company makes almost $20 million a year but then tries to
> outsource jobs, reduce wages, and cut health benefits -- that's the kind of
> corporate greed we need to get rid of in America. *And that's exactly what
> Verizon is doing right now.*
>
> Verizon's employees are fighting back. They're out on strike for a
> contract. *Stand with them against their CEO and add your name to Bernie's
> to say you support Verizon employees.
> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>*
>
> Bernie's email to you about this very important issue about this is below.
> Thank you for standing in solidarity.
> ------------------------------
>
> Sisters and Brothers,
>
> The CEO of Verizon makes almost $20 million a year in compensation. He
> leads one of the most profitable companies in the country.
>
> *Yet Verizon wants to take away employees' health benefits. Verizon wants
> to outsource decent-paying jobs. Verizon wants to avoid paying federal
> income tax. And right now, Verizon is refusing to sit down and negotiate a
> fair contract with its employees.*
>
> In other words, Verizon is just another major American corporation trying
> to destroy the lives of working Americans. *But this time, Verizon's
> employees are fighting back.*
>
> Thousands of very brave employees of Verizon and Verizon Wireless are on
> strike until they can get a fair contract. They made a *very* difficult
> decision that puts their families at risk -- but it's a choice they made to
> stand up for justice against corporate greed.
>
> *I'm asking you today to stand up and tell the CEO of Verizon that you
> think Verizon employees deserve a fair contract that protects health
> benefits, guarantees fair pay, and stops outsourcing. Click here to add
> your name in support of Verizon employees.
> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>*
>
> *Add Your Name »
> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>*
>
> Twice last week in New York City I stood with Verizon workers in the
> streets. I did so because they're doing something very brave: they're
> standing up not just for themselves, but for the millions of Americans who
> don't have a union.
>
> The working class of this country deserves to earn decent wages, decent
> benefits, and not see their jobs go to low-wage countries.
>
> Verizon's CEO doesn't think that. He called me "contemptible" for saying
> that his employees need a fair contract, and that Verizon should pay its
> fair share in federal income taxes.
>
> What I think is contemptible is CEOs with multi-million dollar compensation
> packages, presiding over extremely profitable companies, and still refusing
> to give their employees fair contracts.
>
> Corporate greed is a scourge on this country, and it will take all of us
> standing up for justice in order to rein it in. *One significant way you
> can stand up to corporate greed is by standing with Verizon employees who
> are out on strike.*
>
> *Add your name and say you support Verizon employees who are standing up to
> the CEO in order to get a fair contract with health benefits, fair pay, and
> job protections.
> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/stand-with-verizon-employees?source=em160423-full>*
>
> Corporate America is slowly beginning to realize that they cannot have it
> all. Thanks for helping them know it.
>
> In solidarity,
>
> Bernie Sanders
>
> *Contribute
> <https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/lets_go_bernie?refcode=em160423-verizon>*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Paid for by Bernie 2016
>
> [image: (not the billionaires)]
>
> PO Box 905 - Burlington VT 05402 United States - (855) 4-BERNIE
>
> This email was sent to lchcmike@gmail.com. If you need to update or change
> your information or email address, click here to update your info
> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/change-your-information?source=email_footer>.
> Email is one of the most important tools we have to reach supporters like
> you, but you can let us know if you'd like to receive fewer emails
> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/fewer-emails?source=email_footer&email=lchcmike@gmail.com&zip=92075>.
> We'd hate to see you go, but if you need to do so, click here to unsubscribe
> <https://go.berniesanders.com/page/unsubscribe/>. Stand against the
> powerful special interests who are systematically buying our Congress and
> have their sights set on the presidency by contributing to Bernie here
> <https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/lets-go-bernie?refcode=email_footer>
> .
>
>
>