{"id":71726,"date":"2013-11-09T07:36:20","date_gmt":"2013-11-09T12:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=71726"},"modified":"2013-11-09T09:05:03","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T14:05:03","slug":"how-to-eat-an-elephant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/how-to-eat-an-elephant\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Eat An Elephant"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

You’ve no doubt heard that old bit of wisdom disguised as a joke, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is obvious, pointing us back to what is elemental to the problem: since it’s too huge to swallow whole, you eat an elephant one bite at a time. Any project, no matter how overwhelming, begins with the first step, followed by the next and the next. Some projects are short-term, some long, but all of them require prioritizing and evaluating, and if we’re going to see them through to completion, we must keep moving forward, even on days when the elephantine proportions of our task dismay us.<\/p>\n

\"Political In describing the elephant, I’m discounting the current\u00a0TIME magazine<\/em>\u00a0cover<\/a>\u00a0featuring Chris Christie, conceived and executed by someone with the corroded self-image of the Mean Girl in your high school homeroom.<\/p>\n

And while not ignoring the non-partisan corporatization of our political system, which has all but snuffed out the notion of public service, of statesmanship designed to further the public good, I have no choice but to point to the radicalization of the right-wingers as the elephant-at-large, as defined by Tim Dickinson in Rolling Stone: “As it works to lock in as many retrograde policies as possible before it finally chooses to either modernize or die, the Republican Party is like a wounded beast: Rarely has it been more dangerous.”<\/p>\n

Those of us who read liberal press on the internet have a good picture of what’s going on in the larger world, the environmental movement, the alternative parties, yadda. Those who favor conservative press have a good idea of what’s going on in FAUX News, the fantasies of the paranoid right and the multiple outposts of regional resistance across the nation that would rather fly a confederate flag than the Stars and Bars. Finding a way to take a bite out of so thin a slice of bitter consciousness is going to require a good deal of mature willingness\u00a0on the part of the left.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s challenging to think kindly of those who, having already voted to cut food stamps for 47 million people, are considering another round of sequestration for women and children’s nutrition programs, and demanding another round of SNAP cuts in the 2014 budget. How do we warm up to those who would leave\u00a0the homeless<\/a>\u00a0in their dilemma, cut Medicare, eliminate Medicaid and privatize Social Security for Wall Street’s benefit? For all of Sarah Palin’s theatrics over liberal death panels, they seem easier to recognize as\u00a0the thousand cuts delivered at the hands of Republicans.<\/p>\n

How do we cozy up to a group of people who are so ideologically self-absorbed that they allowed government to die for two weeks at a cost of —\u00a0according to the Office of Management and Budget —\u00a0as much as 6 billion bucks? In their alternate reality, these same people are\u00a0holding the Dems fiscally responsible for not capitulating to their demands. How much food would $6 billion buy those who are trying to exist on .88 cents a day, I wonder? How much cold-weather heating assistance for the poor and elderly would that buy, now that those programs have been canceled? How much housing help?<\/p>\n

In too many ways to count, the elephant in the room — that thing which we ignore to our detriment — defines our current political problem (and quite mystifies other nations, looking on, trying to figure out what the hell ails the former superpower of the civilized world, allowing a handful of rubes from the sticks to bring government to a standstill). Aided and abetted by the fascistic triad of politics — an amalgam of government, corporation and religion —\u00a0the sum of this elephant’s parts is a solid patchwork of resistance, slowing the forward progress that showed us a heartening glimmer of its former self in the elections this week.<\/p>\n

As with taking the elephant in one bite at a time, we have to approach such ignoble and, from my point of view, dishonorable behavior one issue at a time. The good news is that we seem to be doing just that, backed by the growing desire of the American collective to embrace common sense. Tuesday’s vote gave us a few examples of little bites, well digested.<\/p>\n

New York’s new mayor-elect couldn’t be much more progressive, and it will be interesting to see how he handles the big-money critters who are staring him down as we speak. He’s set to meet a wall of money and influence, pushing against his liberal agenda. Let’s hope he calls on those who supported him, tapping the power of the people, because the country itself is farther left than the politics it embraces. Bill de Blasio has a clear mandate. I’d like to see him use it.<\/p>\n

The culture wars seem to have lost some of their zealots. Over 60% of voters are in favor of legalizing marijuana, and last week, citizens in Washington state and Colorado voted to open four more cities to recreational marijuana use. Although the fed still considers pot an illegal substance, the Department of Justice has announced that policy will focus entirely on state laws, licensing, and sales to children. We need to keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t overstep this new policy.<\/p>\n

Despite the distasteful backdrop of the Cuccinelli\/McAulliffe race, Mayors Against Illegal Guns are calling the Virginia wins an impressive victory against the NRA, passing around\u00a0this encouraging YouTube<\/a>. It does appear to enact a sea change in public opinion over gun safety issues in a state gone purple, but still very much an original Federalist colony.<\/p>\n

And despite Florida’s vote to reaffirm Stand Your Ground — the controversial law which was knee-jerk reaction to decades of\u00a0badly conceived self-defense law<\/a>\u00a0— Obama has announced that insurers will now be required to cover mental health and substance abuse treatment, much as they would any other illness. Consider this a clear indicator of Obama’s determination to deal with the gun violence issues so glaringly displayed in the Trayvon Martin case. The regulation itself was passed by the Bush Congress in 2008 as the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, but has not been enforced. With ACA rewriting health services, the timing is perfect.<\/p>\n

Chris Christie is returning to govern New Jersey, and the Pubs are thrilled with this win, suggesting that it signals a return to Republican values and perhaps even the presidency, even though they have consistently refused moderate Christie a place at the Bagger table. Larger than life (no pun), Christie has the kind of energy hard to overshadow, and the Dem candidate running against him couldn’t clear that hurdle. On the other hand, not all things Christie made the mark: the governor’s recent veto of a bill to raise the minimum wage was overturned by voters, who ushered in a new minimum of $8.25.<\/p>\n

Living wage is an issue this year, with little Seattle suburb Sea Tac voting $15 an hour for most workers at Seattle\u2019s main airport. Already boasting the country’s highest minimum ($9.19) Washington voters were attempting to bring the issue into awareness nationally, and Obama must have noticed, because he gave an address today indicating that he will back the Harkin\/Miller legislation to raise the minimum to $10.10. That’s over a dollar more than he suggested in last year’s State of the Union address. We need to thank brave fast food and restaurant workers for bringing this topic front and center.<\/p>\n

How do we eat an elephant? Right where we stand, as did the citizens of\u00a0Boulder, Colorado<\/a>, who “… didn\u2019t just win a lopsided vote\u00a0on Tuesday; they struck a blow at the core of the fossil-fuel-powered, shareholder-controlled utility model.” A city-owned electric utility start-up, outspent 10 to 1 by its corporate competition, won its bid to continue exploring local power. Said its spokesman, “With this behind us, we are able to continue working to create a model for how communities around the country can take control of their energy future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team players, working for the common good of all? What a concept! And even though the profit-inspired activity of those who victimize others for their own\u00a0and their shareholders’ good makes us growl like pit bulls, circling with fangs bared, we dare not snap because it serves no one, in the end. It just makes us like them, willing to punish rather than educate. What we DO need to do in order to consume this great unworkable beasty is find WORKABLE answers better than those it offers us. We need efficient, potent\u00a0propositions to replace the lies and innuendo the beast\u00a0trumpets, selling us horse-feathers and snake oil.<\/p>\n

The answer to all this is self-evident. It\u00a0lies in the heart of the people, working to help one another. There are amazing stories of\u00a0grassroots success<\/a>\u00a0in California, Illinois and Texas. There are populist innovators in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Washington DC. People who hadn’t thought of themselves as movers and shakers surprise themselves with their success. The truth is that even when we do not choose to become involved, we are involved. It’s our world to make. Better that we take responsibility for its creation than simply exist in\u00a0a system\u00a0provided by others.<\/p>\n

There’s no sense blaming bad guys. There’s plenty of bad guys to go around, lots of corporations sucking up the welfare that should be going to the unfortunate, all manner of shape-shifters, orcs and balrogs, tempting us to go to the dark side, take care of ourselves to the detriment of our fellows, take umbrage rather than seek common cause. That’s the ancient pitfall of humankind’s lower nature, dependent upon dark illusions of ambition, power and fear, and we dare stay in its grip no longer.<\/p>\n

Our higher nature asks for something different from our as-usual experience. The same mind that has created all this cannot solve the problem, and so we need to open to a new way of seeing our situation, a new perception based on a higher, more compassionate and loving ideal. We need to face the elephants that confound us with a renewed willingness to forgive and transcend differences, to find the win\/win that is buried beneath our insistence that there is only one way forward. There is always more than one answer — even more than one that serves the whole — and a choice to add our energy to a cease fire between us and those who do not see the world as we do would be a good start, even if one-sided (ours.) It would be the first bite, the hardest to chew — and the most important.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0current astrology is full of opportunity for self-revelation and enlightenment. The political situations presenting themselves are as cleanly drawn as cartoons, asking us to draw informative conclusions. There are social and political\u00a0movements<\/a>\u00a0all around us, asking for our participation, not just those that fight against injustice but those that work for inclusiveness and kindness, that support public assistance and empowerment, that create opportunity as well as education. We are not helpless, but first we must awaken to our need to participate if we are to give and receive help.<\/p>\n

And the first step is to pare down the size of that huge thing in the corner,\u00a0getting past\u00a0our avoidance and watching it\u00a0shrink in stature even as we face it fully. The moment we no longer see the other guy as the enemy, everything can change. Such alchemy\u00a0quickly invades the heart. Change can come as we take\u00a0one bite at a time, one baby step, one courageous act building on another, but first we must\u00a0decide to proceed differently than we have in the past. Let’s affirm our ability to open hearts with kindness and inclusion\u00a0and forget about changing hardened minds.\u00a0As\u00a0ACIM <\/em>gently affirms, “I can have peace instead of this.”\u00a0Let’s see what we can accomplish one bite — one prayerful decision, one ethical choice — at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves You’ve no doubt heard that old bit of wisdom disguised as a joke, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is obvious, pointing us back to what is elemental to the problem: since it’s too huge to swallow whole, you eat an elephant one bite at a time. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}