Hard Times
Dear Friends,
We are all reading about the economic crunch that is upon us; it will only get worse. It affects us locally in many ways. The price of gas impacts our coastal community, where we have to drive long distances to go shopping or visit friends. The real estate crisis is forcing landlords to raise their rents, and more people are becoming homeless.
As a psychiatrist who works mainly with Medical/Medicare recipients, I am overwhelmed with the number of crises in my practice, and other therapists I talk to say the same. The economic downturn impacts personal stability and interpersonal relationships, and so systemic problems are often experienced as individual problems, and addressed that way.
It's understandable that people either use these listserves to vent their spleen, or else want to withdraw into "safe" topics like cougars, stuff for sale, fun get togethers. But we need to be able to help each other when the hard times hit even harder, and to work together to improve the situation.
National politics, like the presidential races and congressional races, may seem abstract and irrelevant to many of us here at the other end of the continent from Washington DC. Yet policies made there affect us very directly. The endless bleeding of national wealth into the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan (and from there into the pockets of Bush and Cheney via their corporations Carlyle and Halliburton) is responsible for the economic crisis. The "privatization" of resources has undermined our ability to control our forests, fisheries, water, media, health care, etc. The fascist laws passed by Congress threaten our freedom and privacy.
We ignore national politics at our peril. I agree that the presidential race is a media circus, valuable mostly as entertainment, though I prefer football- and I'm not a football fan. The Congressional races, on the other hand, give us a little leverage to change things and have some control over our future.
Our Representative, Mike Thompson, is in total colluson with Bush and Cheney. He has joined Pelosi in keeping impeachment off the table, even though he has sworn to defend the Constitution against domestic as well as foreign enemies, and Bush and Cheney are shredding the Constitution.
Thompson has voted FOR predatory lending, AGAINST oversight of Halliburton and Carlyle, FOR big pharm against patients and health care providers, etc.
I believe the effort to regain control of Congress for We the People is worthwhile, and so I'm running as a Green against Mike Thompson. I'm hoping people in Mendocino County will realize that we are not entirely helpless, that the Constitution gives us, We the People, the ultimate authority in this country, and that some of you will help me to take our country back.
Peace, Carol Wolman, MD
Green Candidate for Congress, CA District 1
www.carolwolmanforcongress.com
Coordinator, New Broom Coalition
Cochair, Impeach Bush-Cheney
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