Free trade agreements such as NAFTA and the Korean FTA are not only a detriment to our national economy overall, says the Economy In Crisis organization. They cause a lot of harm specifically to the Charleston region, too.
And EIC is coming to the Lowcountry to discuss solutions to this and similar economic problems.
The event is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 5th at the Charleston County Public Library on 68 Calhoun St.
While its headquarters are in Ohio, the hosting organization definitely has local ties. EIC staff writer Sam Williford, an organizer of the upcoming event, is a native of Cheraw, SC and alumnus of the College of Charleston. He also previously worked for state Sen. Robert Ford and former U.S. Rep. John Spratt.
The topic has much relativity to the Lowcountry, too, says Williford, which is why Charleston is first on a list of many cities across the country where EIC will make similar presentation.
The North American Free Trade Agreement, for example, allows duty-free imports between Canada, Mexico and the U.S., and is credited with costing over 3.6 million American manufacturing jobs since its institution in 1994, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
NAFTA greatly contributes to the very-high unemployment in South Carolina, too, Williford states, and due to drops in local manufacturing jobs and in port activity in Charleston and Georgetown.
To solve those problems that directly extend from NAFTA requires a complete re-evaluation of the agreement, EIC professes.
“NAFTA is the quintessential example of what is wrong with our trade policy,” Williford offers. “For example, before admitting countries to the (European Union), checks are done to ensure a nation's economy is compatible with the rest of the EU. When we implemented NAFTA, we tried to fit three diverse economies in a one-size-fits-all agreement that clearly isn't working.
“The continuation of NAFTA threatens the remaining manufacturing in this country,” he summarizes, “and sets a dangerous precedent for the Korean FTA and other arrangements the government is now working on.”
The effects of such trade programs strike middle-class America worst, he adds, and could be the dominant influence on the economy. “America is losing its middle class because of our trade policies, and that's something our organization feels can be corrected by providing the kind of quality jobs that only manufacturing can, as well as amending our trade agreements.”
Problems created by free trade agreements are abetted by both extreme-right and –left political spectrums, says Williford, and both of those opposite sides need to be addressed in order to find a center ground of common public good.
“Traditional Republicans who support big business tend to prefer the status quo, as it is making record profits for large, multi-national corporations, as well as neo-liberals who have a fervent belief in uniting the world, no matter the consequences to developed or developing countries,” Williford says.
“We feel that by educating the public on these issues, a groundswell of political support can form to put pressure on these individuals equal to or greater than the pressure lobbyists bring to bear.”
While addressing specific topics that some may find to be solely of progressive nature, EIC is notably bipartisan. Its regular contributors range from Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan (So. Dak.) to Pat Buchanan, once presidential candidate of the Republican Party. Even Tea Party Republicans and Libertarians share the beliefs of EIC on the topic of free trade, says Williford.
EIC was founded by an electronics businessman from Ohio who was dismayed by the trend of overseas manufacturing of products his company sold. EIC believes a revival in American manufacturing and improvement to the impacts of free trade can solve our country’s economic problems.
There is no charge to attend the February 5 forum.
At a press conference last week, Tea Party activists in Tennessee announced their latest priorities in the Volunteer State, one of which focused on changing the standards for textbooks used in its public schools.
This only proves that our country's educational system needs more funding to make sure our youth don't fall for such Tea Party garbage, though.
According to Memphis' The Commercial Appeal, printed documents distributed at the conference read "We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.”
And the actual truth, these Tea Party folks said, is “the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy.”
What these Tennessee Tea Party folks apparently don't know, however, is that "republic" is a very general term, simply meaning public representation in a non-monarchist nation. There are many different types of republics, too, including socialist, communist, mercantile, protestant and even (don't read the next word, you Tea Partiers!) Islamic.
The type of government the United States has, though, is a democratic republic. Meaning that persons of all minority status are to have equal vote and equal representation. Which those Tea Party folks apparently don't know. Which only further indicates their idiocy. Which indicates they should just keep their mouths shut.
And if those Tea Party goons don't like that definition, then let them move to the People's Republic of China or even to the Republic of North Korea. Or maybe they could try to rebuild the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
We citizens of our representational democratic republic won't miss them much when they're gone.
On November 2, South Carolina voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that challenges federal law, according to the National Labor Review Board.
And if the State Assembly attempts to enact Amendment 2 in its new 2011 session, NLRB is ready to sue, says its acting general counsel.
In a letter to Alan Wilson, newly-elected state attorney general, NLRB’s Lafe E. Solomon wrote “(the Amendment) conflicts with the rights afforded individuals covered by the National Labor Relations Act.”
And if the state tries to use the new law, “I have been authorized to bring a civil action in federal court to seek to invalidate the Amendment.”
Solomon gave Wilson two weeks to respond to the January 13 letter before filing suit.
The ballot description of the amendment in November 2’s elections read: “A ‘Yes’ vote will give employees the constitutional right to vote by secret ballot when they are voting on whether to be represented by a labor union.”
Amendment 2, which results in changes to Article II of the state constitution, received support from 86 percent of voters in the recent General Election.
Workers already have that secret-ballot option, and despite its description that insinuates protection of rights, the amendment actually removes another right.
The National Labor Relations Act allows two methods of union formation: workers can form a union by secret ballot in an election overseen by NLRB; or an employer can be asked to recognize a union after a majority of workers sign authorization cards.
The recent amendment, however, would actually take away the latter option.
Because Amendment 2 would conflict with this federal law, it violates the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, says the NLRB, which cited many legal precedents in its letter to Wilson.
The Amendment could also conflict with the Employee Free Choice Act, a legislative bill still under review by both houses of U.S. Congress, and which is anticipated to pass following revisions.
The Employee Free Choice Act would “amend the National Labor Relations Act to establish an efficient system to enable employees to form, join or assist labor organizations to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during organizing efforts, and for other purposes.”
Currently, after being approached by workers who recently voted to unionize, a company can delay union formation by insisting on a later secret-ballot vote. Before that additional voting procedure, those companies can apply pressure on employees not to form a labor union, and even fire workers who helped organize the union vote.
Under the Employee Free Choice Act, however, employers would no longer have that tactic. Companies that engaged in such procedures could be substantially fined, as well.
The proposal to add Amendment 2 to the ballots was introduced to the State Assembly by state Rep. Eric Bedingfield, and was co-sponsored by 73 other Republican state representatives.
Bedingfield openly stated his intentions behind the bill were to challenge “legislation being proposed in Washington.”
NLRB sent similar warnings to Arizona, which also passed a similar amendment in the last election, and to Utah and South Dakota, where such laws are already in effect.
It’s apparent that Sarah Palin wants no association of any kind with the recent mass-shooting in Arizona, and certainly not the blame. And she doesn’t want that tragic occurrence to have any type of general reflection on national politics, either.
She even said so herself. “Our children will not have peace if politicos just capitalize on this to succeed in portraying anyone as inciting terror and violence,” she offered in a written statement. The incident was “inexcusable” and “incomprehensible,” she said on video.
Palin’s videotaped commentary also expanded to the subject of division in government. Political opponents are supposed to “shake hands and get back to work,” especially since “both sides find common ground” when in true Democratic operation of government.
But her supporters, most recently one at a “Conservatives 4 Palin” website, are defeating the former governor’s goals, it seems. Instead, they’re using the memorial service from Tucson to build a dividing fence on that common ground Palin urges all to share.
The 'Conservatives4Palin' site: oh! Oh! Oh, what a joke!
“He stumbled like a community organizer would at an ACORN meeting,” Lazaran opines. “The type of speech that Obama gave is one of the easiest ones to deliver and he still missed the lay-up. I guess he’s ‘aging.’”
Lazaran’s criticism isn’t limited to the president alone; even the event’s attendees were “a complete embarrassment,” he offers.
Wait a sec … what was that? The folks there last night were “a complete embarrassment”?
Psst! Say! Lazaran! Yo! Those thousands of people went to pay honor and respect to their family members and neighbors who were brutally shot! Six of whom were killed! Are you so stupid and insensitive that you’ll call them an “embarrassment”? How thoughtless, not to mention un-American, can you be? And not only did you fire a few more rounds at the victims, but you just shot Sarah in the foot, too.
Not only is Lazaran continuing the exact type of discourse that Palin said she wanted to stop, but he’s doing it with false information. He titled this article “Liberals blame crowd for Obama’s terrible speech,” but, aside from repeating it once, offers no evidence or mention of source for that made-up claim.
He lists the Wall Street Journal as source for his “terrible speech” offering, but that article actually defeats Lazaran’s intended premise.
In fact, the article credits the president’s speech for overcoming the ever-widening divide to which this tragedy continues to contribute, noting that Obama urged an end to the finger-pointing.
“(H)e urged the nation to rise above ugly political debates,” the article notes, and directly quotes Obama’s assertion that “the truth is that none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack.”
So, let’s recap: Palin went on television asking not be given any blame for the shooting, and pled for public unity to meet common goals.
The president then asked a large crowd at a televised memorial not to blame politics in general or Palin in particular for the shooting, pleading for public unity to meet common goals.
Palin-supporter Lazaran then went online and did the exact opposite of what Palin and Obama requested. He continued to associate Palin with the tragedy; he continued to use this tragedy as grounds for piss-poor political punditry; he continued to wade in the blood of victims for personal diatribe; he put up a separating fence in the common grounds Palin asked all to share; he continued to expand the wide divide.
If Palin truly wants to set grounds for peaceful discourse amongst everyone of all political persuasions, then she needs to put socks in the mouths of fools like Lazaran. Her own supporters are defeating her stated goals and needs.
Lazaran’s foolish and insensitive comments may have been issued as fodder to feed some flock of Palin fans, but they only give the public even more reason to knock her further down the totem pole after the Tucson shooting.
Such rumors received new weight today, and directly from the GOP in that same area.
According to The Arizona Republic, four local district officials resigned due to threats from Tea Party members of their same Republican Party.
Legislative District 20 Chairman Anthony Miller stated fear for his and his wife’s safety as the basis of his resignation.
Miller was recently elected district chairman after a heated contest with another candidate, a member of that region’s Ahwatukee Tea Party. On one occasion during the campaign, a Tea Party member made handgun-like gestures towards him, Miller recalls. He was also the subject of verbal and blog-issued assaults following the election, too, he states.
First vice chair Roger Dickinson, secretary Sophia Johnson and former spokesman Jeff Kolb also announced their resignations from the District 20 Republican Party, citing the same circumstances as basis.
With active participation and promotion from noted Republicans, such as former Gov. Sarah Palin (a national promoter) and former Rep. Dick Armey (who helped create and promote the movement at its inception), this Tea Party-created unrest in the Republican Party could be self-defeating to the GOP, as this Arizona incident indicates.
Approximately 79 percent of Tea Party supporters are Republican, according to a Gallup poll.
Over the last two years and shortly after its creation, Tea Party demonstrations were reported to include veiled threats and violent themes. Some activists promoted vandalism, and one Tea Party sect could be responsible for attempted against an elected official.
For example, signage displayed at a Tea Party demonstration against the healthcare act included the message “Warning: If Brown [a congressman] can’t stop it, a Browning [handgun brand] can.”
A Tea Party enthusiast in Alabama posted blog messages asking others to vandalize local Democrat Party facilities. This same site also posted residential addresses of congressional representatives who voted for the national healthcare act, advising readers to “drop by” their homes. A gas line at one of those addresses was severed after the posting.
If the Tea Party was created and supported by the Republican Party as a method to gain votes, these recent incidents only indicate that the efforts have backfired on the GOP.
Call it an itchy trigger finger, maybe. But no matter how you look at it, a weapons manufacturer in Columbia, SC just got caught in poorly-timed gaffe.
Following the recent shooting of a Democratic U.S. representative from Arizona, and with national media drawing connotations between that tragedy and conservative Republicans and Tea Partiers, Palmetto State Armory started a new promotional campaign honoring a Republican who is well known for public tirades issued against Democrats.
An AR-15 (image from www.surplusbunker.com)
“Palmetto State Armory would like to honor our esteemed congressman Joe Wilson with the release of our new ‘You Lie’ AR-15 lower receiver,” read the company's website, according to The Columbia Free Times.
The rifle, an assault model class, is engraved with Wilson's now infamous "you lie" interjection, shouted during Pres. Obama's 2009 congressional address on health care.
“Only 999 of these will be produced, get yours before they are gone!” read the promotional text.
Wilson is U.S. representative for South Carolina's 2nd Congressional District, which stretches south from Columbia to Hilton Head Island.
In an emailed response to Free Times on January 11, PSA president Jamin McCallum stated, “The only reaction I have to the Arizona shooting is sorrow for the victims and their families and a disbelief that a human being could carry out an act like this.
“Our hearts go out to the victims and their families. The loss of life is a tragic event and we should do our best to support those who are grieving.”
The page describing this promotion is no longer available on PSA's website.
(A link to the company's radio ad read by Glen Beck is still available on the home page, though.)
The Voting Rights Act is no longer needed, at least not in Charleston, says Larry Kobrovsky. And he intends to file suit in federal court to prove that point.
However, the actual goal in repealing the Act might only be to strengthen the GOP in the state.
As a notably progressive Democrat, South Carolina’s Jim Clyburn may not have agreed with Blue Dog Democrat Gabrielle Giffords on every issue. But he still had quite a lot of respect for the congresswoman who recently suffered a life-threatening shooting.
“It didn’t matter to me that she didn’t vote with me as often as I would have liked her to,” Rep. Clyburn of the state’s 6th Congressional District said in interview from his Columbia office on January 9, just one day after the Tucson shooting.
“What really matters to me was that she was the sort of person we should have in public life.”
Clyburn first met Giffords in 2006, when she invited him to speak in Arizona during her first Congressional campaign. It was that initial time of personal interaction with Giffords, who first took the House office in that year’s election, that afforded Clyburn the opportunity to know her and to set the stage to work with her in Congress.
While Giffords, a former Republican, did uphold and vote for particular conservative issues, she also supported progressive developments, including the national healthcare bill.
That wide spectrum of representation displayed by Giffords’ votes for both conservative and progressive causes is what causes the most shock to the recent attempt of her assassination, Clyburn noted.
“It seems as if all the things she has been fighting to defend,” Clyburn said, “are the things that this particular deranged individual seemed to be proponent of. And it just doesn’t make sense.”
Giffords was the main target in Jared Lee Loughner’s January 8 shooting, which struck 18 people and killed six. Loughner’s impetus in the attempted assassination has been hypothesized to be an anti-immigrant stance.
Giffords has record of voting for tougher immigration laws, however, while still supporting general rights of children of illegal immigrants.
The particular timing of this tragic incident brought Clyburn to encourage Americans to no longer remain silent about this incident or others which it mirrors.
“We're getting ready to celebrate this weekend the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., who admonished us that we are going to regret in this generation not just the vitriolic words and deeds of bad people, but the appalling silence of good people.”
If they remain silent, warned Clyburn, “the people of ill will will have won the debate."
Yesterday’s attack on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz – D) rings the same anarchist toll as many other recent circumstances of violent demonstration.
It's bad enough that many of these attacks on human life only stem from protest against health care. What's worse, though, is that they seem promoted by politicians, political groups and politically-influenced media - all of which are related to current mantras of the Republican Party, if not the GOP all by itself.
On January 8, Giffords was critically wounded by a gunshot to the head while at a public forum in Tucson. Six persons including a 9-year-old girl, one of Giffords’ staff and a federal judge were killed. Twelve others were also injured, including two other Giffords’ staff members.
Jared Lee Loughner, a Tuscon resident who was arrested for the incident right at the scene, is believed to have affiliation with American Renaissance, a white supremacist, anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic organization.
Giffords is Jewish, and also publicly criticized the immigration laws introduced in Arizona’s state government. Her congressional district includes the Mexican border.
Anti-immigration sentiments may also be behind the slaying of John M. Roll, the federal judge shot at the incident. Roll received many violent threats against him and his family in February 2009 after allowing a lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants to move forward in court.
This violence mirrors incidents from early last year. In just the first three months of 2010, 42 security threats to U.S. Congressional representatives were reported, ranging from harassment to vandalism and even death threats. The incidents were exclusively against Democratic Party representatives, and most sprung from conservative groups, including the Tea Party. Most stemmed from the debate on and subsequent passage of health care reform bills at that time, as well.
Giffords was included in this group, as the door to her Tuscon office was damaged after the Affordable Care Act passed with her vote.
“You're dead,” “we know where you live,” and “we'll get you” read the telephone and fax messages received by Rep. Bart Stupak after he voted for the act after conditional compromise.
Rep. Louise Slaughter received recorded message at her campaign office that threatened assassination and murder of “the children of lawmakers who voted yes” for the health care bill.
In Virginia, the gas line at the home of Rep. Tom Perriello’s brother was severed, seemingly to create fire or explosion. A Tea Party activist posted the specific residential address, mistaking it to be that of the representative, along with addresses of others who voted for the bill, on a blog advising readers to “drop by” their homes to express discontent.
The same blog site acknowledges it made encouragement to “break the windows of local democrat party headquarters(.)”
Marchers carried signs depicting images of a Browning firearm that read “Warning: If Brown can’t stop it, a Browning can,” referring to Sen. Scott Brown, who in 2006 voted for the public insurance program now used in Massachusetts while a state senator. Brown, a Republican, voted against the national healthcare plan the day after this demonstration.
Even new House Majority Leader John Boehner predicted that Democrats voting for the health care bill would be at risk, stating Rep. Steve Driehaus, a Democrat from his same state of Ohio, "may be a dead man" for supporting the Affordable Care Act.
And Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn) issued statements that included violent terms as far back as early 2009, albeit on a different issue. “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax," she said on radio interview.
One Republican official even praised violent actions of terrorist inclination. After a small-craft airplane was purposefully flown into an IRS building in Texas in February 2010, killing two, Rep. Steven King (Iowa) acknowledged anti-tax sentiments promoted by the far-right may have encouraged the incident, but attributed that act of terrorism to be a positive keystone: “when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the IRS, it’s going to be a happy day for America.”
Violence, assassination and armed rebellion were common themes in the 2010 campaigns of Republican organizations and congressional candidates, as well.
Such themes were at times only alluded to, such as in a combination gun rally and campaign promotion for Rep. Giffords’ most recent election opponent. "Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly," read the Republican candidate’s website.
Violent, if not anarchist, statements were directly made at other times, though. Stephen Broden, a Republican candidate for congress from the Dallas area, promoted government overthrow in his campaign, adding that “the option (of violence) is on the table.”
Broden also stated that "our nation was founded on violence," and referred to incumbent officials as “our enemies, and we must resist them.”
A target-shooting event hosted by a Republican group in Florida was attended by its party's congressional candidate, Robert Lowry, who joked about firing at a silhouette marked “DWS.” Lowry’s opponent in the race was the incumbent Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Tea Party/Republican candidate Sharron Angle twice referred to “Second Amendment remedies,” implying use of gun violence, to contest congress in general and her opponent, incumbent Sen. Harry Reid (Nevada), in particular. In the latter incident, Angle implied she was carrying a concealed weapon at that moment.
Even direct incidents of violence occurred at campaign events. Lauren Valle, a MoveOn member demonstrating at an appearance by now-elected Rand Paul, was knocked down and stomped on by Paul's campaign supporters.
Website operator Tony Hopfinger attempted to interview Joe Miller, candidate for U.S. Senate from Alaska, but was held and handcuffed by Miller's campaign staff, who took away Hopfinger's video recorder. Part of the video was later found to be erased, Hopfinger stated.
Both Miller and Paul ran as Republicans with Tea Party support; Paul won the race in Kentucky, while Miller's campaign was unsuccessful.
Culiminating awareness of the potential impact of these terrorist-like actions is none other than former Alaska Governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who issued statements and even images that are now connotated with yesterday's mass-shooting and murders.
On March 23, just two days after the healthcare act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, Palin issued a rallying statement to her supporters. "Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!" she tweeted.
That twitter message directed recipients to Palin's facebook page, which displayed a map (now removed) decorated with rifle cross-hairs to indicate the regions of particular Democratic congresspersons who voted for the Affordable Care Act, including Giffords' district. The representatives were also listed by name below the map.
Conservative media appear to have influence on these incidents, as well, and not just through websites, such as the previously-noted blog that acknowledges encouraging vandalism against the Democratic Party, and which is also credited with encouraging an attempted assasination.
National media - namely FOX News, already known to blatantly provide slanted and false information to its viewers - is recorded to have encouraged public disorder, violence and terrorist-like acts, too. FOX commentators, in particular Glenn Beck, are often directly attributed to be impetus to baseless public demonstration, and even murder.
For example, an August 2009 forum on healthcare in Tampa, Fla. was interrupted by hundreds of angry protestors, many of whom stated they were inspired to demonstrate by a recent Glenn Beck broadcast. The loud and interrupting protests led to a fist-fight in the crowd.
Williams credits Glenn Beck as inspiration for his attempted terrorist action against the organization, a progressive non-profit firm that Beck claimed was destroying capitalism. "It was the things that (Beck) did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind," said Williams in a later interview.
Beck had mentioned Tide Foundation 29 times on his FOX television broadcast over an 18-month period prior to the incident, and twice in the week immediately prior. Researchers found no other media to have reported any type of information on Tides in that same time period, and that the organization had only been mentioned two other times and only by one other FOX News host.
FOX commentator Bernard Goldberg was listed as inspiration of the 2008 shooting at a Tennessee church, and directly by the shooter. In a letter intended to serve as a suicide note, shooter Jim David Adkisson wrote "Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate and House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book" (100 People Who Are Screwing Up America). Adkisson, who had also recently read books by FOX's Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, said he settled on that Unitarian church, which he said was too liberal, because it was too difficult to get to the elected officials.
Richard Poplawski said that frustration with the possibility that Pres. Obama would take away his guns - a false story repeatedly run by FOX News, which Poplawski frequently watched - was the inspiration in his murder of three police officers at his Pittsburgh apartment in April 2009.
Gregory Giusti was arrested in April 2010 for threatening the life of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, an idea his mother said Giusti received directly from FOX News. Glenn Beck had once suggested poisoning Pelosi in a 2009 broadcast.
The common factor in each of these circumstances is its antagonist: far-right wing sectors threatening violence, encouraging violence, approving of violence, and engaging in violent actions.
The goal is the same, too: to protect personal political interests through restraint of public freedom, amounting to anti-equality, anti-immigrant, anti-public good, anti-progress ... and anti-American, to boot. And all under the guise of a political sector that is revealing itself to be more and more anti-American every day.
Just over the last couple of years, last year especially and reaching a crest only yesterday, the far-right side of so-called conservatism has displayed itself as fascist. Corporatist. And terrorist. Making demands that take away personal freedom, and threatening - even taking - personal lives when those demands aren't met. And taking away everything this country was supposed to be founded upon at its initial creation.
The Republican Party is a dying entity in the United States, dropping to only 22 percent of Americans who identify themselves as GOP and leaving it in third place behind Democrats and independents. What its far-right sector has been attempting to do over the last two years is keep a tight rein on government despite that minority presence.
And it has done so by instilling fear and breeding anger in the same middle-class sector of the population the Republicans have abused. The media attention these fascist actions receive certainly helps its goals, especially when one news corporation in particular directly promotes and supports such fascism through purveyance of false information.
The GOP now has its public dirty work done by the Tea Party side. (When asked after the shooting if his daughter, Rep. Giffords, had any enemies, Spencer Gifford sobbed "Yeah. The whole Tea Party.")
It uses national media to reach unstable individuals and encourage them to conduct the violence that the Tea Party is too well-known to do itself directly.
And this equates terrorist activity by the same group that claims need to restrict American freedoms to protect us from terrorism.
But this recent terrorist-style mass murder must definitely set a limit. Turn off FOX News. Turn away the uneducated psychopaths who watch and believe FOX News. And vote out the Republicans who are responsible for all this garbage.
The holiday season may be over, but I still found myself fishing a Christmas card out of my mailbox yesterday. But it came from a law firm, not family or friends. And it carried a rather sarcastic, if not gothic, message – not against me, thankfully, but against the Army Corps of Engineers.
Sent to my wife and me from Bruno & Bruno, a New Orleans law firm heavily involved in litigation concerning Hurricane Katrina, the card depicts elves standing in front of “gingerbread floodwalls.”
“We’re going to need more icing,” says one. “And more gumdrops. YUM,” says another. The three elves wear hats (one a construction helmet) that read “CORPS.”
And the message from Bruno & Bruno on the reverse side of the card says, “After five years no matter how you sugarcoat it, it’s still gross negligence.”
The “happy holidays from your friends” closing on the card didn’t quite bestow me with any happiness, though. (How can anyone get pleasant feelings from a card that’s wordage goes from “gross negligence” straight to “happy holidays”?) Being reminded of disaster and personal loss caused by the Army Corps of Engineers’ blatant disregard, a memory we’ve tried to get far from, significantly lacks in spirit, I find.
Over the last five years, my wife and I have continued to receive countless holiday cards from all across the country. They come from our relatives, good friends and former neighbors who were displaced from their homes due to Hurricane Katrina. When we receive those cards, they remind us of that disaster, sure – at least somewhat – but give us opportunity to relive fond memories from before the hurricane. No bitterness or sadness. We greatly appreciate them.
We’ve had to update our address books with regularity, too. For Christmas 2005, we mailed our cards to addresses used as temporary shelters, mostly in the area surrounding Greater New Orleans. In the immediately following years, they went to other locations farther away from the city that our friends and family used as last-stands while waiting to make a final decision for their futures, not having full opportunity and/or desire to return but still not wanting to give up on the idea.
And in the last couple of years, our holiday cards were mailed to permanent, established addresses in distant locations our relations had finally settled as their homes. The farther our holiday cards traveled, the more removed we were from the losses incurred due to Hurricane Katrina, I guess.
The progress in the messages those cards bore over the years demonstrate that distance, too. They switched to “had a great crop of vegetables this year!” instead of “sure miss my old garden.” “Found a great new restaurant right near the house” replaced “remember the Po-Boy Bakery? So sad it came down.”
This impersonal card from Bruno & Bruno, though, only returned the loss of our home and personal belongings, and the loss of my very dear in-law, too, right to our mailbox. It took away the progress and distance, and dropped all the negativities on our toes.
The best I can say about it is that the card came after the holiday season was officially over; it would have been quite a spoiler had I received it during the season. Hopefully, Bruno & Bruno purposefully timed it that way.
And I have to give them some credit, I guess, for keeping the fight going in this legal matter. When they and other law firms finally succeed in making the Corps pay for its mistakes, maybe I’ll forgive Bruno & Bruno.
I won’t be sending them any holiday cards, though.
(Click here to see a larger image of the postcard.)
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