The Ehrlich Report

For me, there are two truly difficult stages of writing. The first is getting started. It’s the lead paragraph that’s difficult. I started this one three times during which I brewed a cup of tea and made one phone call. The second is deciding what not to write about. I have a very large and very stuffed file jacket bulging with writing ideas. Choosing what to write about then means to me deciding what not to write about. So I decided that in this column I would write about many of the issues and events I have been mulling. So, in no special order, here are six story ideas that one of these days may make up a full report.
Water. Did you know that a study by the National Resources Defense Council estimated a few years ago that one-fifth of all bottled water contained carcinogenic substances and that one-third of 103 brands of water studied contained traces of E. Coli and arsenic? The quality of water aside, major global corporations are siphoning public water and selling it back to us. Nestle, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, and Danone already dominate the water industry, and privatizing water is on the agenda of the IMF/World Bank. The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom has made this one of their centra l issues, and they are a good place to start your own research (www.wilpf.org)
Impeachment. At the end of last year, Congressman John Conyers introduced a resolution into the House to form a committee “to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.” With the Shrub’s poll standing having shrunk to an extraordinary low, (39% approval, 56% disapproval), this is doubtless a good time to press impeachment. Impeachment hearings may neutralize any attempt of the administration to engage in further illegalities. We need to be careful though. When Nixon was forced to resign, the liberal pundits declared that his departure showed that the system really worked. We have to show that the criminal behavior of this regime occurred precisely because the system doesn’t work–at least not for most of us.
Voting. At a reformist level we need to shift to an instant run-off system, equalize the resources and expenditures of candidates, limit the terms of all officeholders, and add a “none of the above” line on the ballot. Of course none of these changes address the fact that 80% of all ballots are counted by two companies’ machines, Diebold and ES&S. Further, it has already been demonstrated that the voting software can undetectably be manipulated.
Free speech? One-third of a sample of 112 thousand high school students say that the press should be more restricted . An even more bizarre 36% say that the government should approve newspaper stories before they are published, while 13% have “no opinion” on the issue.
Ignorance. In a media saturated environment it has to be hard to be ignorant. Or maybe ignorance is itself a cultivated perspective into which people are socialized by the gatekeepers of mass education.. Certainly the fact that the US is ranked 49th in the world in literacy may have something do with it. And from the standpoint of political education, what is the best pedagogy for dealing with the 75% of Americans who believe in the Devil.
The rich get richer. Wealth in the US is becoming more concentrated. The rich are getting richer. There have been many proposals to move to greater equality. One short-term solution appeals to me. There are about 635,000 people in the US with a taxable income over half a million dollars. If we collect 5% of their incomes over $500,00, we will have an estimated 35 billion dollars. I do believe that will go a long way toward the elimination of poverty here and around the world. “Eat the Rich” may have been a fun anarchist proposal of a few years back, but this one will at least avoid indigestion.
As the Shrub and his sycophants steadily cut back on education, health and social services, they are robbing us, more and more, of the financial capital to rebuild both domestically and globally. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel prize laureate in economics and former chief economist at the World Bank, has calculated that the war in Iraq will costs us (by his “moderate” estimate) slightly more than two trillion dollars.
We are killing our youth. According to the Veterans Health Administration, more than one out of every four soldiers who served in Iraq or Afghanistan have sought treatment for war-related disorders. Thirty percent of them have experienced psychological disorders while a like amount have been diagnosed with “ill-defined conditions.” The count isn’t in on the impact of depleted uranium weapons.
The count is in on the percentage of American troops who believe that the US should leave Iraq within a year –72%. This is the first poll ever done on US troops fighting in Iraq,. It was conducted by Zogby International and a peace center at LeMoyne College.
One of my best received columns (for another publication) was a collection of political light bulb jokes. Some days I think we need more light bulbs changed and fewer dim bulbs in government. And so: How many Bush administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer. None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its status is improving at this moment. Any reports of its loss of incandescence come from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably and anything you say undermines our lighting men and women. Why do you hate freedom?
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