How People Become Co-opted

Sometimes it's fear. Sometimes it's promises. Sometimes it's a false sense of equality. Sometimes it's an actual transfer of goods, services or money. Sometimes it may be as simple as seeking friendship. I've been wondering recently why and how people become co-opted. I'd guess it's happened to all of us. I know it's happened to me and I also know I've never felt good about it when it has happened. But I'm certainly not sure about why it happens.

Here's a recent example that has been on my mind. Governor Andrew Cuomo recently developed, promoted and got passed legislation dealing with neglect and abuse of people with disabilities. He hammered the importance of this legislation home after a series of articles in the New York Times publicized what it saw as a failure of New York State's system of care for the developmentally disabled in particular. The Governor went to the press, to advocates, to parents, family members and whoever he could find to build support for his legislation. The Governor, within the first year of his administration,  had also appointed a new Commissioner to head the NYS Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. My point being, that both he and she, were pretty new to dealing with issues related to people with developmental disabilities.

So when the legislation was proposed, without much involvement of the field or advocates in general, its language referred to people with "special needs".  Now that may not seem like a really big deal and maybe its not - but this is. The field of people working with people with developmental disabilities, self advocates, individuals promoting change for many years, had just spent a decade or more trying to get government to recognize the importance of person first language and the dignity of how we talk about each other. Worse yet, some of the largest organizations who purport to be advocates fell silent. Instead, they praised the Governor for his leadership, etc. Why didn't they speak up about this use of language? Fear? Promises? What happened to advocacy? What happened to thoughtful education of elected officials? Perhaps the Governor would have appreciated someone pointing out that he was using old school language that could be insulting a large segment of the community.

So that's what's got me wondering about co-opting and how it happens. The Governor is I'm sure a good man, trying to do what's right. The Commissioner is a good woman, trying to change a system. The organizations and people who were co-opted are good, but they seem to have lost their way for some reason. I really hope they get back on the right track soon. They're needed. Their leadership is needed.

Assault on Voter Registration

It really is amazing how our country seems to be going backwards relative to making sure that people have the right to vote. So many people and organizations fought for many years to make sure that the burden was lessened in this regard. The civil rights movement was motivated in good part by the restrictions and barriers put up against citizens who wanted to exercise their right to vote. In the 1960’s many black citizens were required to do things like recite the US Constitution as part of a test for literacy and to be allowed to vote. White citizens did not have to meet this same  or other discriminatory requirements. This obviously was racially motivated and was designed to control who would or could vote. When stories like this are told, most people think it’s unbelievable that this occurred in the United States - but it did.

Knowing this makes it frustrating to see the attempts that are now being made in various states for voter identification and verification. Although voter fraud is most often used as the reasoning for these legislative requirements, no one can produce real or meaningful facts relative to voter fraud. As a matter of fact, It just doesn’t exist as presented. The trade off is that many senior citizens, people with disabilities, students and minorities who don’t drive, will have some difficulty producing approved photo ID’s. Do we really want to do this - discourage and reduce the number of people voting in elections? It seems to fly in the face of everything people say about democracy. It seems to contradict the values that this country espouses when discussing things taking place in other countries that discourage democracy. It seems to contradict the pride that Congress expressed as Iraqi citizens held up their purple stained fingers after voting in their elections. Statistically, many of the groups who may be disenfranchised would normally vote Democratic and this seems to be known by the promoters of these pieces of legislation.

These legislative initiatives seem to be directed at particular groups of people during an election cycle that certainly should encourage more voting. The worst aspect of all of this is that in some cases, these new rules are directed specifically at the Hispanic population. The immigration debate and the questioning of legal and illegal status has sparked a lot shameful rhetoric. Voting should not be used as a means to discriminate. These initiatives will and should be challenged in the courts.

Double Dipping and Contradictions

Isn't it fascinating how government works? Do what I say, not what I do seems to be the watchword too often.

I was struck this weekend by an article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that reported on the increase in 'double dipping' at state agencies and by people employed by the state over the past year (who knew it's been going on for years?). That is, people collecting a state pension and also working for the state in some capacity. You can read the article by clicking here.  You can also go to the statewide data base by clicking here. Be warned, this may get you disturbed or frustrated. It did me.

Now there is an argument to be made that those are the rules and people are just doing what's very legal and available to them. Ok, so we won't personally begrudge them I guess. But we can certainly question the practice and also point out the hypocrisy of state leaders who preach austerity and hold others to a different standard in a self righteous manner.

Recently Gov. Cuomo signed an executive order limiting the salaries of non-profit executives. He and the legislature expressed outrage at the reckless actions of non-profits and non-profit boards in paying salaries that seemed to him to be out of line. Really? There were certainly a few cases highlighted by the press that were pretty outrageous but the number was really a few and there were methods and responsibilities for state agencies to regulate these situations. But instead, let's revisit grammar school and punish the class or the whole school for the actions of a few. Well done. My faith in government has been restored. Played well in the press and to the public and now we move on to the next government intervention.

So in the past week articles have appeared noting the governor's and state agencies' frustrations with the fact that some agency heads and commissioners are making less then the people they supervise and that the salary levels of these folks make it hard to recruit good people. These are the same arguments made by the non-profits who just had their salaries capped by the way. Interesting isn't it?

Now the latest news - a long list of state employees legally double dipping, some to the tune of $200,000-$300,000. Legal. Following the rules. Following a culture in government. It also needs to be pointed out that most people in the private sector don't have pensions at all. People may have had 403B or 401K plans but none of these were very lucrative.

Contradictions like this are all over the place when we take a close look at elected officials and their rhetoric. Or is it possible the Governor didn't know he was in charge of and responsible for thousands of former and current state employees and pensions and policies. Hard to believe he was or is unaware. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just count on some real honesty in government instead of scapegoating and finger pointing at people and groups who usually don't have sophisticated lobbying or media support? I'll wait along with everyone else but let's not just accept inconsistencies.

Renovations, Visits and Gardening

All of the above have kept me away from my blogging activities recently but the world and news goes on. Hard to keep up with it all. Here's a rundown of sorts.

In terms of renovations, my house has needed new windows for quite some time - air leaks, hard to open and close, broken screens - all of the things people with homes know about. In addition, some of the windows were very small and needed resizing just to let more natural light in the house. As with many home projects, this one was identified a number of years ago as needing to be done but finding and selecting contractors isn't an easy task. It did get done though and the work started a week ago with all of the normal, not so normal disruptions that come with renovations. So that's taking place as we speak. Dust, furniture, wall hangings, everything all over the place and moving and re-moving as the project moves forward. So far, so good, just some inconvenience .

My oldest son also came for a planned visit to help me with some plumbing and gutter cleaning last week. Great to see him and have his help to get those things done. Spent a little time together on the lake. The time was too short but we'll get together again soon.

And then there's the garden. Lettuce, spinach and swiss chard all needing to be harvested and peas coming in this week. I've also got some chinese cabbage and bok choy not far behind. I took my chances with the early spring and now reaping the rewards but lot's of work to keep up.

So that's what I've been up to. Also trying to keep up with the news, current events and reading. Feeling a little stretched here and there but keeping up as best I can and enjoying it.

A fellow asked me the other day how I was doing with retirement - getting use to it? I replied that I was doing fine and enjoying it. He glumly reported that he wasn't use to it yet. I asked how long he'd been retired and he said eight years. I didn't go much further with the conversation but it made me wonder about his life before and after retirement, interests, etc. I'd guess it's what you make it, interests and connections with other people and activities. More to think about but in the meantime the garden calls.