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

Sun Apr 24 21:03:26 PDT 2016

Note (a continuation):
I was in such a hurry that I couldn't remember "the project as unit of 
analysis." (thanks Andy)  We do progress!  It's not just survival of the 
fittest, but also mutual aid is a factor.  And like we used to say in 
Medieval Lit,
"when Adam dug and Eve spun,
who was then a "gentleman"?
V

On 2016/04/25 12:13, Wilkinson wrote:
> 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
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>>
>> .
>>
>>
>>
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