Views in brief
A health care law that causes pain
MANY THANKS to Alan Maass for the progressive critique of the health care deform bill in "A cause for celebration?"
Students in my introduction to political science class were so interested in the House's so-called historic vote on March 21, the last Sunday of spring break, that we spent the entire class the next day discussing it.
One detail from Maas's commentary underscored for me the insidious politics of the legislation. Some low-income people will receive public subsidies to pay for mandated health insurance policies even though the law provides no guarantees "the coverage will be affordable or adequate."
How will the subsidies by financed? By "cuts in spending and benefits in the Medicare program for the elderly--and a new tax on employer-based health insurance plans that provide decent benefits."
In other words, the law pits the poor, the retired, and workers with insurance (particularly unionized ones) against each other in a classic case of the divide-and-conquer politics that has served the U.S. ruling class long and well.
For me, that's one more reason why socialists have to reject the argument that the legislation is a progressive, albeit incremental, approach to a single-payer system that makes sense.
The new law will cause real pain in real people's lives. If we do not explain the Democrats' real agenda of serving the greed of the health insurance companies and Big Pharma, the only criticism will be coming from the tea baggers.
As Maass rightly observes, the racial and homophobic slurs they shouted at Democratic members of the House "exposed the ugly reason that the right wing opposed the health care legislation: racism and bigotry."
If we remain silent, we cede political ground to the right in an era of political volatility.
Mark Clinton, Holyoke, Mass.
Uphill battle for history teachers
IN RESPONSE to "The Texas school of falsification": Thank you for the excellent and welcome article about this outlandish process.
As a high school history teacher, I knew from the start that my job was to teach against the texts--more labor history, more movements, less heroes--and it took awhile to pinpoint the actual lies. The scariest part of the Texas decision is that, as my friends in textbook publishing tell me, the publishers censor their content to screen out for the whole country what will not play in Austin.
I recommend Paul D'Amato's excellent review of Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen, for a refreshing alternative, along with Howard Zinn's books.
Loewen was fired from his job in Mississippi for writing the civil rights movement into an official state history for schools. He points out that history is the subject college teachers have to "un-teach" when students get there, because chances are, what they learned wasn't nothing--it was worse. He also explains just how boring history becomes after you flatten it and squeeze out of it all the struggle, conflict and controversy.
One of my class wits got the patter down. He would always answer, on any particular war, "What was the war about? Land. What happened? People died."
Many activist teachers might say we've got a lot on our plate just defending public education, without worrying about the content of what gets taught. I found that teaching students how to find the truth--and judge the lies--was good for their learning and my morale.
It wasn't an either/or question. When you read about writing Thomas Jefferson (and Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero) out of history, first, be outraged. Then, especially if you're a teacher, look around for the tools to teach what actually happened.
Tina Beacock, Chicago
Protesting gives Nazis legitimacy
IN RESPONSE to "Shutting down the Nazis in L.A.":Wasn't it the Supreme Court that ruled that so long as the Nazis aren't directly inciting violence, they're allowed to have their day of marching, too?
I take exception to the tone of your article. Is there anything good about Nazis? Of course not. Are they entitled to have their hateful bogus opinions? Yes, they are.
Let 30 of them march down the street; who cares? Let them go ahead and look ridiculous. Mounting some huge shouting mob against them only legitimizes their activities.
I believe that present-day Christians and Republicans are way more oppressive, violent, and colonizing than any present-day Nazis, but just because I think so doesn't give me or anyone else the right to prevent them from walking down the street (unless they're holding burning effigies of gay people or something).
Americans and their fucked-up foreign policy are killing more people daily than any terrorist or neo-Nazi organization; let's focus our energy there instead.
Julia, West Hollywood, Calif.
Oppose the Nazis at every step
IN RESPONSE to "Shutting down the Nazis in L.A.": I'm glad to see a report about this important action in SocialistWorker.org.
I was happy to have been there among the other 1,500 people who came out to shut down the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement.
On the Nazi side, it was about 30 people playing dress up in black helmets and boots, yelling absurd things. On our side, it was all different kinds of people united against their racist hatred.
On their side, it was comical and pathetic. On our side, it was a beautiful thing.
Some say that it's best to ignore the antics of groups like the NSM but Robert Skeels is correct to say that we need to show up and oppose them wherever they decide to show their faces and preach their depraved horse shit. And that's exactly what 1,500 of us did.
Tim Hawks-Malczynski, Duarte, Calif.
The struggle for a place to call home
IN RESPONSE to "LGBT youth need more support": Thank you so much for covering the very important but often ignored epidemic of LGBTQ youth homelessness.
As a formerly homeless queer youth, and now as an advocate for homeless LGBTQ youth and the editor of an anthology about LGBTQ youth homelessness (Kicked Out Anthology) I commend you for giving this issue the attention it deserves.
Sassafras Lowrey, Kicked Out Anthology Editor, from the Internet
