Month: August 2006

Minimum Wage Facts

Posted on August 6, 2006 in Class Mailbox

Not only do they get crummy wages, they have little or no health insurance.

1 Minimum wage workers haven’t gotten a raise in nine years.

2 Yes, in America you CAN work full-time and still be poor.

3 Nine big, fat raises. That’s what [Republican] congressional leaders have given themselves while blocking attempts to raise the minimum wage.

4 Those [Republican] congressional pay raises add up to $31,600 per member per year—three times a minimum wage worker’s total annual salary.

5 In 2003, workers paid an average of $2,283 for employment-based family health insurance. That’s 20 percent of a minimum wage worker’s $10,712 full-time, full-year earnings.

6 At the current federal minimum wage rate of $5.15, a minimum wage worker has to work 11.2 hours to pay for one tank of gas.

7 The chair of the Arizona anti-increase group Jobs First actually said most minimum wage workers who are not high school students or first-jobbers are “people who are retired and say, ‘Hey, we want to do this more as a way of biding our time.’” Ask the grandma taking your order at a local fast-food place if she’s doing it for fun. And according to the Economic Policy Institute, seven of every 10 workers who would benefit from a $2.10 increase in the minimum wage are adults.

8 Even greedy Wal-Mart supports a minimum wage increase so its low-wage customers can afford to buy more stuff.

9 Many of the people we pay the least take care of the people we love the most. Home health aides caring for our elderly parents and child care workers would benefit from a minimum wage increase.

10 Most Americans—by a big margin—want the minimum wage increased. [Republican] Congressional leaders are NOT blocking the increase to please their constituents.

The Makings of a Civil War

Posted on August 5, 2006 in Gyms Immigration

square039 A fellow I met at the gym gave me an impromptu lecture. “I support the war,” he told me. “I voted for President Bush. But I don’t like his stand on immigration.” He believed that people came over the border just to get on welfare.

He complained about people in his union who did not speak English. “Do they pay taxes?” I asked. “The ones in the union do,” he said. “But not any of the rest.”

It’s getting tense without anyone realizing it. Latinos are talking about reclaiming the land they lost in 1847. Whites are not going to let them have it and will take steps to put down any rebellion before it starts. They are already calling the very presence of long-term residents an “invasion”. We have the makings of a civil war here and I don’t want to be on either side.

Clutter: An Inventory

Posted on August 4, 2006 in Poems

The magnifying glass useful for reading the fine print of insect wings.

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The Nature of Life

Posted on August 4, 2006 in Reading Writing

Natalie Goldberg says in Writing Down the Bones:

Writing is not psychology. We do not talk “about” feelings. Instead the writer feels and through her words awakens those feelings in the reader. The writer takes the reader’s hand and guides him through the valley of sorrow and joy without ever having to mention those words.

When you are present at the birth of a child you may find yourself weeping and singing. Describe what you see: the mother’s face, the rush of energy when the baby finally enters the world after many attempts, the husband breathing with his wife, applying a wet washcloth to her forehead. The reader will understand without your ever having to discuss the nature of life.

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