Come in! Come in!

"If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a Hope-er, a Pray-er, a Magic Bean buyer; if you're a pretender, come sit by my fire. For we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!" -- Shel Silverstein

Friday, September 23, 2011

Think on these things

I feel most blessed to be able to spend a weekend retreat with some clergy from the Diocese of Delaware, led by Margaret Gunther, author of "Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction". 

I'm leaving you with this very short clip of Elizabeth Warren, an American attorney who provided oversight to the development of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In the wake of the 2008-2011 financial crisis, she became the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the U.S. banking bailout.

She's currently running for US Senator from my home state of Massachusetts.

Here's part of what she says,
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.”
Paul Krugman also has a top rate editorial in today's NY Times entitled, "The Social Contract". Do read it, if you haven't already.

More importantly, please listen to this two minute clip from Elizabeth Warren. This is the narrative that needs to get out there. This is the understanding of the interdependence in which we participate as citizens of this country which needs to be underscored.

One of the things Margaret Gunther teaches is to listen for "the holy" in the common, everyday language of our lives and in the words someone says to you.

I'll be doing that this weekend. I hope you'll take a few moments to listen to Elizabeth Warren.

11 comments:

Lerewayah said...

Oh yes. Love it when she says, "One thing you do, is you don't do those things," referring to the trillion dollar tax cuts, wars and Medicare drug pads. Logic in politics, imagine that.

Gretchen

Matthew said...

God, I SOOOOOOOOO wish more democrats would speak like this. I would not be so disillisioned.

Turtle Woman said...

Elizabeth Warren is my heroine! And this little clip is so powerful we need to get this message out to everyone.

And a special message to all the men who believe they were bootstraps guys made a million on their own... you got free labor from your wives, the wives risked their lives to have kids, and the public education system was build by the underpaid labor of women teachers for generations... and a whole hunk of those low paid women were lesbians educating hetero children who grew up to hate and diss women.
Remember who pays for what... when we eliminate the free labor, the underpaid labor, the dividends on all that slave labor of the past to fill white coffers... look at the color of the 400 richest Americans... only then, when this accounting is made real, will we have a real nation, where real people get paid real wages, and male robber barrens stop stealing from half the human race.

Turtle Woman said...

Oh, and all the women doing charitable work for patriarchy i.e. churches... PAY UP men!! PAY UP!

Elizabeth Kaeton said...

Lerewayah - There are so many gems in this. I hope, in four years, she's our next Democratic candidate.

Elizabeth Kaeton said...

Matthew - I know, right?

Elizabeth Kaeton said...

Turtle Woman - You make a good point. Thank you.

Bex said...

Warren also can handle the self-important pundits with their "gotcha" questions. She took a couple of them apart on "Morning Joe" last week.

Turtle Woman said...

Warren is so damn smart she scares the pants off the Wall Street boys, and the pundits. I love the brilliant minds of women, who are so powerful that they will change the country by sheer force of will.

But what's more, Elizabeth Warren seems so powerfully compassionate when she talks. She is so amazing to listen to. Such a relief from the incredibly stupid people running now and in debates that I can't even listen to them.

Let's see Warren take on O'Reilly, and Guitner (which she already did), and I can't wait to see her destroy Scott Brown in a debate! Be sure to let us know when you've got a video on that!!

Elizabeth Kaeton said...

Bex - I missed that. I'll have to check YouTube for the video.

Turtle Woman - If that happens, we'll be sure to let each other know. Keep your eye on this one. I think Hillary just paved the way for her.

Turtle Woman said...

I was so depressed about this election... but that was BEFORE Elizabeth Warren jumped in! Now I am so hopeful. Thanks Elizabeth for posting this, and also I do believe Hilary paved the way... even Hilary is one of the most admired women in America now!
On another note, our offices went through a SEC audit, and came out looking very very good. And guess what, all the internal compliance jobs in those offices were women! The front line jobs are done by 95% men, but the women watch over the place. No accident there!