Initially, changes abounded. The people at my government job were actually running scared and looking scared. Multiple meetings took place in the building, hushed management whispers in the Hall. And my heart thought that finally corruption would be addressed in New Jersey.

I’m not originally from New Jersey. I am from a city with its own corruption issues.  Sadly, I have never seen the type of “we steal because we can” attitude that is evident across government as I have in New Jersey. As a Christian, I have come to believe that this is a deep spiritual problem. There seems to be something about the state that breeds a weird “look the other way” on corruption.

I’ve shared with blog readers some of the details of what happened at my job. But I’ve held back on blogging about it thinking that an ongoing investigation might be compromised if I shared too much information. After all, I had personally talked to the Lt. Governor by chance meeting. I had delivered documents to her office via PDF. I had been told an investigation was happening in Summer of 2010.

And I heard nothing for a year. Nothing until I sent emails asking about the status of the investigation. More than once.

Then I eventually heard I should have taken my concerns to Civil Service. So I proved that I’d done that in December of 2008 to no avail. Faxes and time stamped emails are a wonderful thing. Let me tell you how the conversation started that day. It started with someone from the Lt. Governor’s office telling me that I should have gone to Civil Service about my wage theft complaint and that nothing was on file there.  “Then that’s consistent”, I explained. “We were told by an agent of civil service ‘Let’s just do nothing’ and it seems that is what they’ve done.”

The response was short of a gasp, but I could feel the surprise. By allowing the woman on the other end of the line to talk, I’d allowed her to back herself into the corner of the truth. Like everyone else we’ve encountered, she never said to me that I was incorrect in asking where the money went. NO ONE has ever said to the two of us who pointed out the missing funds that the funds were not missing. NO ONE has ever said that the fact we were never paid for a paid position didn’t matter. All anyone has ever said is We don’t handle that”.

Our Senator Robert Menendez couldn’t handle it.

The EEOC in Northern New Jersey never responded to my complaint.

The U.S. Attorney at the time never responded to our concern.

The Public employment Relations Commission refused to respond to the lack of a union contractual process and told us to go to Civil Service.

A Civil Service Rep. told us he couldn’t handle it.

So when the changing of the guard came in New Jersey, we hoped that the Lord had put people into office who actually cared about honestly, truth, etc. And on a vacation day, while in the Statehouse to see my child off to a school event, I thought I’d come across one.

I was wrong.

The last correspondence I received from the New Jersey Lt. Governor’s was no different than any I’d ever received along the way.  Not only did it not indicate the results of any supposed investigation starting in 2010, but it states that Civil Service has no method for dealing with the wage theft. And then it does the unbeleivable.

The email tells us that the people who stole from us are the ones we have to go to for resolution… for them stealing from us. For  harassing us when we pointed it out. Thus, the official position of the Lt. Governor’s office, the New Jersey Department of State (which oversees my job and its state regulatory agency) is that the only ones who have any control over the New Jersey taxpayer’s monies are the local municipalities who might just be misusing them.

Not the State Comptroller’s office.

Not the State Attorney General’s office.

And certainly not anyone from the Governor’s office.

I’m trying not to speak motivation, just to facts. But part of me feels like little old me and my co-worker, two people alone, African-American, Christian, not politically motivated, not motivated my limelight…well, we weren’t going to land that news grab for an Administration running for the Presidency of the United States. Our little local story isn’t sexy enough, I guess. Two people standing up and screaming WHERE IS THE MONEY OUR GOVERNMENT JOB WAS PAID? Who cares, right?

We have to sign a sheet every other week showing receipt of our paystubs… and just yesterday there were two sheets. And one paystub. And we were told in no uncertain terms that if we didn’t sign both sheets in order to receive a “memo”… we would not get our paystubs. Period.

Welcome to New Jersey.

You should care, America. Our Governor should care. Because there are always more than two people screaming about government weirdness in America. I always say by the time a system is blatant with disdain for the people it’s supposed to protect as New Jersey seems to be, well, it’s been going on a LOOOOOOOONG time.  No one ever reached out to talk to us. But our documents yielded change ideas in policy that I’m sure benefited the political ambitions of those who had them. No one ever said “you are wrong”. But we were surely treated as though our concerns were in error.

And those in our state that continue to make the big bucks sit back and smile. They feel secure in the knowledge that their impenetrable field of corruption continues. It doesn’t matter who is driving the Death Star. It’s still the same weapon in the end.

Ahhhhhhhhh……. but any nerd like me knows that the Death Star ends up destroyed. Spoiler alert to those who look the other way…. evil and apathy result in a lot of pleasure now. A surge of powerful feelings, of indestructible strength. And just like in my beloved Star Wars movies… there’s a Force in the Universe that is greater than any one individual. I believe in that Force as the Son of the Living God.  I’m not that important in the scheme of things. But doing the right thing in the Universe is always important.

Should a Christie Administration take over America, what happens when Wall Street is corrupt and stealing? What happens when someone calls upon the Justice Department to enforce regulation? What happens with missing monies in various government agencies? Mr. Christie’s Administration came in on an anti-Big Government platform. We pointed out government misuse of funds. Inexplicably, no one cared.

I end this post with some words for those that harbor hope that we in New Jersey are currently living in the era of anti-corruption and citizen rights renewal. I stand to tell you that hasn’t been my experience. I may be limited in that journey. Perhaps there are others who have blown the whistle to better response. And guess what? People change. Things could be in the mix right now that I’m unaware of.

But being unaware isn’t helping ease the feeling that New Jersey is still not responding to constituents. You know. Unless someone can get a cable news interview or a photo op out of it. Am I frightened sharing my experience? Well, either God is King or he isn’t. So I stand in faith with Isaiah 54:17: 

New King James Version (NKJV)

My most recent email from the current New Jersey Administration includes the phrase “While I realize that this is note (sic) the response you most likely desired, I hope that it will help clarify the appropriate avenue to further your concerns.”

I hope the same for you, dear reader.  May God bless New Jersey.

Bloggers, as I looks across the fake amazed faces of pundits and radio hosts and news-folks staring at the abyss that is the current field of Republican Presidential hopefuls, I am continually mystified by the stupidity.   How can they allow that many mean folks to be the face of their party? Well, it’s simple.

The Republicans don’t want anyone in that field to win in 2012. And the folks in the running are too egotistical and dumb to know it.

Look across the country and take notice. The Republicans are cleaning house by letting the craziest elements of their party go wild in public. Republican legislators and governors the country over are attacking things that poll high with their constituents. Medicare and Medicaid. Social Security. Healthcare. Union bargaining.

Except one nationally known Republican. Chris Christie. While he is advocating changes, he is careful in the way that he talks about them. You don’t get to go on Oprah with Corey Booker of Newark if you act like a birther banshee. You go because you ingratiate yourself to the Queen who crowned the last guy to win.

Gov. Christie may have his own problems with the unions and he may be labeled a “bully” by some groups. But his national reputation  isn’t  “crazy person”. And more often I’m seeing him being asked to respond to the actions of other Republicans who are. His answers are usually measured, and not gung ho.

So here’s my theory. The GOP knows they don’t  have anyone to put up against President Obama, especially now that he’s taken out the word’s number one terrorist. They also know that they’re seen now as the party of a radical racist unpatriotic fringe.

So much like the forest fireman making contained brush-fires to burn dangerous wood, the GOP is letting all of it’s crazies flame out in the media. And once that scorched earth cools down, in will step the man they’re grooming to be the face of the GOP in 2016. He will be a different kind of Republican than what we’ve seen on the news in the years prior. The antithesis to the Palins and Huckabees and Romneys.

So when you see some weirdo running for the GOP nomination, don’t ask yourself why they allow the wackiness. Take time instead to see if there’s any statement from Gov. Christie in opposition to the wackiness…. one that makes him marketable. Because I believe that 2012 is a wash for them… and that he is their plan for the future.

The people being used just don’t know it yet.

Last year at this time… this is where I was on this matter.

Well, I don’t know what is happening, but I know God is moving, cleaning out the people who refuse to help the people. People like me. I don’t know what they did with anyone else. But it’s my belief that by the time you’re bold about doing harm, you’ve grown accustomed to getting away with it.

The Lord, however, never does get acclimated to evil. So here’s what I’ve see done these past few years:

• As we already know, the Governor to whom I’d reached out for help (and whose alleged response according to the man who came to do it as an attempt to fire me….) lost to an upstart not too long after that termination was attempted.

• Every Member of the agency that attempted to not process our case has been replaced.
• The head attorney for said agency is gone, his position unfilled at this time.
• The head of another branch of that agency who got the harassment ball rolling is gone.
• The Director of Personnel for the agency left.
• The Director of Personnel for the County left.
• There are multiple meetings between some sort of auditors and the administrators at my job for over a month, sometimes daily.
• One of the politicians who refused to help us is being redistricted right out of existence thanks to the Census. Another one might be on that path as well.
• There’s a complete overhaul going on at the agency that was supposed to be quality control for these types of things.
• People are genuinely going NUTS who have been smug for years being nasty. While their terror is extraordinary, I maintain peace and kind professionalism.

Years ago people told me that this would never go in my favor, so they could steal. Steal from me and from the taxpayer. They literally put into writing that the rules as determined by the State of New Jersey did not apply to them, because, well, they were them. It seemed insurmountable and there were many deflated days.

But it was simply a test from God to myself and my co-worker/friend. We did what was right, even in the face of threats, anger and restraint of rights. We won each and every time, even when they thought we were losing.  I said it then and I say it now.

God always gets checkmate. He always wins. People told me to let it go and that I stood no chance. They are right. I didn’t. Because God doesn’t do chances. He does definite.

I pray for swift resolution to what has been a fight of many years chatters.I thank all committed to praying for peaceful and righteous resolution to this situation and await the final stage of His glory in the correcting the wrongs.

The Word greatly applies in 1 Peter 1:3-9 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

 

Many is the time that a client of mine will tell me, “Mrs. [Gots2chat] you are the only person in this building who has actually ever helped me.” I hear it often and it saddens me. Because as someone in a union shop, I realize that the public’s perception of my co-workers and I is shaped by how people receive services in the community.

This brings me to Wisconsin.

Thousands of public employees in the streets to protest what seems to be anti-union legislation and moves to cancel previously agreed upon contracts. Look, a contract is a contract… binding after being negotiated in good faith. (Which is why the pension not being paid into in New Jersey by anyone other than the public employees burns my britches…) If the workers kept their end of the contract, they should expect that the employer does the same.

The problem for public workers is that their employers are the people of the localities to which they belong. And like the people in my area, often the image they have of the public employees is shaped by the ones who don’t do the work. Couple that with hard economic times and you in effect have employees who work for employers with no jobs, no healthcare and no money. In that kind of climate, it is easy for someone to step in and scapegoat a class of workers.

So… this is an opportune time for the Unions of America. I have said it on my blog before, unions should  be at the forefront of exposing corruption and graft within their organization and within local governments. If people could separate the local corruption of politicians of all stripes from union activity, a lot would be said for community support of their causes.

Fighting for the honoring of contracts is a great strategy. Peaceful protests are wonderful as well.

But my limited experience in the great state of New Jersey as a whistle-blower tells me that unless the international unions support the community in highlighting and shunning corruption, they’ll never be seen as anything other than an entitled class of people. Which they aren’t. But no one knows it.

I can personally tell you that one of the major players in what is going on in Wisconsin gave me his behind to kiss when I reached out to him personally for help. And when rules and regulations weren’t followed, he and his international hired an entire law firm to come against me for pointing out the local’s collusion with the agency in question. When they couldn’t shut me and my co-worker up they pushed to just have our legal rights denied.. a push that they were sure they succeeded in obtaining. Then winds of change blew in the Federal Government and in New Jersey….. and…

Many of the same people have disappeared off of the rolls of jobs in Jersey where they wielded power and corruption.. in the midst of an ongoing audit and investigation by various parties of government. It WILL come out in the wash and probably in the press in the long run. And if I’m ever asked about it, I will be honest. I want my union to work for the community at large. I can’t say in my case they did.

So I’m hoping that a changing of the guard happens in the International as well. And that unions take this opportunity to fight. Fight and show where actual budget cuts could go down in the state. Show the public you’re opposed to the politician with the perks paid for by taxpayers while teachers struggle to pay rent. Show the public that you’re opposed to the theft of taxpayer monies by parties of any party while cops try to figure out how to put their kids through school.

And while we’re at it unions, how about this. In the midst of an impending government shutdown, how about calling on every member of Congress and local legislatures to take a cut by LAW in health benefits, salary and non-essential staff and perks? Why won’t the Internationals pressure Congress to make it the law that states qualify for certain federal funds based upon compliance with the Federal Benefits of their congressmen. I mean ALL of Congress, Democrats and Republicans.

I know it’s a wild theory. States rights and all that.. blah blah. Who cares.

Make the members of the Congressional and local Legislature Slash-and- Burn-brigades have to back up why they should receive perks above what they are claiming are making their constituents back home broke! Make them do it in the Congressional Record, on the talk show circuit.

And let the public know it was the unions that pushed for these fat cats not to have more than local folks.

You’ve taken demonstrative action against fascism in Wisconsin, but half of the people harping about it are riding the taxpayer cash all the way to their offshore banks.

Ask for a bill in Congress decreasing congressional pay for all members of Congress, their staff and denying all perks across the board. Ask for itemized public expenditures of the Congress on a public website.

You’re hanging working Americans out to dry if you don’t.  I want unions that are so against corruption that their very names are synonymous with good in the minds of the non-members. It starts with me at my job being kind and productive.

It should continue with the Internationals doing the same.

Today, I’m a pissed off American.

So I’m going to say what a lot of people won’t today.

Right Wing Hatemongers aren’t  feared because they’re  political dynamos.

No, the HaterNation Brigade is feared by the media for a reason no one wants to talk about. The cult-like hate they whip up in people who are already struggling, hurting and looking for an outlet for their anger. They don’t direct people to positive changes in their communities.

They direct them to themselves. To hate. To gun sights and targets.

They don’t  get media personalities to back down because of political reprisal. They back down due to fear of reprisal from the beloved followers.

Reprisal means something more today after the horrific shootings in Arizona.

In 2008, I noticed how unruffled Sarah Palin was at her rallies and town meetings when unbalanced folks would yell out hateful and violent suggestions concerning her opponent. Never Biden though. Always the African-American man running for an office which she wasn’t running for. And I watched her, waiting for the Christianity in her to rise up and remember that killing was wrong. That prejudice was wrong. I waited for her to correct those in her audiences . I waited in vain. And the more the rallies got violent and the signs got violent, it seemed mother’s milk for her.

Do I blame Mrs. Palin for the death of many in Arizona, a state always to be associated with her through John McCain and reportedly where she and some family members recently brought property? Without proper investigatation it is too early to say what the shooter’s motivation is.

But as a Christian, seeing so little of her in the media matching the love of Christ, the Gospel, or charity, I have to wonder at what point she will step up against any form of violent rhetoric against elected officials.

She isn’t alone. So much of punditry on the right sounds like they just got their talking points from satan. So many of them call themselves Christians. But the Bible says you will “know them by their fruit.” As such, I’m not expecting to have a lot of them as neighbors with Christ in the Heavens.

I believe in free speech. I also believe in accountability.  Hatred and anger are NOT the  Gospel, nor should they be the normal discourse for our country. I can disagree with you and vice versa. But calling for armed insurrection in a country that has already survived one Civil War is irresponsible.

Not to mention it is cowardly. None of these hateful pundits would be able to bring it one on one with anyone they malign in person. No, they go running behind their microphones, their television cameras.

You know who cannot run anymore? A 9 year old child whose parents have to bury her because she simply went to a political event with a neighbor.

So I propose a little solution: don’t limit speech. But don’t celebrate evil. Turn away from it, ignore it.

One of my favorite scenes ever applies now:

We forget you evil talkers. Go and be forgotten.

As he decrees their lack of experience to any who will listen, I’m not fooled in the least.

Mr. Rove is a strategist in a never-ending game. That game is domination. Even with candidates he cannot reign in or control on the R ticket, his corporate interests are still going to be served should they win.

But there’s a two-fold problem for Republicans. There’s still the stink of GWB’s missteps. (Although the chaos we are in is planned and one could say Bush was a success to a certain class. Read Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine.) There’s also the Tea Party’s disgust with establishment candidates in their own party.

Solution? Be the lightning rod of the establishment and the Bush legacy. Complain about how horrible the candidates are. For if Karl Rove, who gave us Bush dislikes them, they must be the opposite of what he stands for! Why, they can’t be anything like what we just went through!

Right.

If Karl Rove is standing against Palin in the news, she’s his candidate. Even if she doesn’t know it yet.

This is the man who won’t hesitate to bring up any and every foible of the past and throw it in the media’s faces concerning his opponents. Any quick review of many Alaska blogs and newspaper stories brings a wealth of questions about Mrs. Palin. Yet Mr. Dirty Tricks hasn’t seen fit to mention any of that info yet?

He had no problem naming the things in Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s past that are sketchy. People can say Bill Maher ruined her, but it was Rove who put her business on national front street.

But on Palin? *crickets*

I’ll wait.

I realize Mr. Rove and his ilk have let a monster of hate and anti-Americanism out of the dungeon these last two years. I’m sure intellectual Republicans like Lincoln are rolling in their graves. But I’m not convinced the same voices who claim to be so disgusted by it won’t cash in on the chaos in the long run.

So I’m not fooled into thinking the candidates he “opposes” won’t benefit him should they grab the keys to government.

Don’t you be fooled either.

So I decided to come to my blog and share with you something personal and previously painful.

I’m a heterosexual female. I’m married with two kids. Growing up my big crushes were Harrison Ford, Christopher Reeve and New Edition. But……

From the time I was in 6th through 7th grades  I was bullied for being perceived as gay.

I’m not. Here’s where it started:

I was raised with the idea that your body is sacred, and a lady acts a certain way. So imagine my shock when right in the middle of my awkward pre-teen phase, some jerk in the middle school I attended decided to feel up my behind as I walked to class. And laugh.

I felt violated. So I told the teachers. He got into trouble with the school administration.

I thought it was over.

But it wasn’t. Apparently, my not being in acceptance of his unwanted touch was interpreted as my not liking boys.. at all. Mind you, I was a child who wasn’t thinking about getting touched by anyone. (Okay, maybe a hug from Han Solo.) I had to be all of ten, maybe 11. But the rumor spread like wildfire through the school. It then became a daily torment.

Don’t sit too close to her.. you know she doesn’t like boys.

Don’t let her look at you.. you’ll be gay too.

I couldn’t go to the bathroom without stares, comments and threats. Friends I’d had in the neighborhood disowned me, not wanting to be tainted with the “gay” stigma. The worst part of the bullying, the name calling, the physical attacks, the solitary walks through the neighborhood was not being able to put into words to my mother what was happening to me. How could I explain to my single working mom the stress that school put upon me? It only came out as though I was being teased. There were no words to contain the psychological and physical hazing I went through just trying to get an education on a daily basis. As a kid, there was a time when I just wanted to stay in the house.

My mother didn’t understand why I wanted the shades drawn and didn’t want to “hang out”. She grew frustrated with my introversion. I couldn’t explain the dangers the world held for me at school.  And having already shared something horrible with the teachers that led to my being put into the bullying position in the first place, I was in no mood to tell them anything else.

So I went through, just me and Jesus.

My personal hell didn’t end until 8th grade, when we returned to the city of my origin. But even then I decided to hide parts of myself that didn’t match the girl stereotypes. So at my new school, I dressed fancier. I wore more makeup. No one knew how much I loved Knight Rider and Star Wars and Sci-fi. And I kept those parts of me that were not in the “norm” hidden from all but those in my family. Because average sistas didn’t care about Return of the Jedi.

Then one day I realized I was far from average. I liked boys, but also sci-fi. And action movies. And cars. And that was okay.

I grew. I rode out being bullied because I knew who I was, who I wasn’t and eventually, didn’t give a d*** if anyone else thought they defined me. I grew a tough skin, so tough in fact, that my no-crap attitude is still hard to penetrate. (I’m working on it)  I realized that my knowledge of basic Coruscant politics doesn’t take away from my feminine wiles.  But I also had an end in sight to the bullying and reached it.

Imagine being Tyler Clementi. I don’t know if he faced any hazing in high school,  or middle school, or grade school….but college is a place where you are supposed to be free to discover who you are. There’s a bit of me that wonders if the hazing he ran into was familiar at all. If he thought he had to end it because being gay meant getting mistreated no matter where you start over.

Did the two people who filmed him push him over the edge? Or was it the sick icing on a very thick cake of physical and emotional terror that starts in childhood… and that he may have thought was NEVER going to end? What then, is a person’s way out if he imagines a life that never ceases torment?

What matters is our shared humanity. What would Jesus do? Can someone please show me where Jesus, my Savior, held anyone up for ridicule in the Word of God?

I want our country to stop being so doggone mean to one another. The nastiness in this country is a spiritual disorder that is leading to deaths. Not just suicidal young people. But shootings in workplaces, schools and at law enforcement. We aren’t looking at reality in this country, right now, meaner is the new black.

Right now across America, there are gay kids being bullied. There are straight kids being bullied. There are kids being tormented due to their ethnicity. Or maybe their religions.  We’ve got an entire political movement out there now  happily bullying people. And the media rewards their every move.

Bullies have become our superstars. In politics. In entertainment.  At the workplace. Heck, I was bullied for two years by grown folks who were angry I whistleblew and I’m STILL waiting for that resolution in its entirety. (That’s for another day).

There’s an avalanche of mean in America.

And mean/evil and Christ cannot abide in the same place. If we want the Prince of Peace to bless our nation, we need to stop being so focused on the discord and anger of the enemy.

As much as I HATED Ghostbusters II, I kind of feel like many of us have become like the citizens in that movie. So infected with vitriol, hate and anger that the entire nation is filled with the pink ooze of death, destruction and spiritual lack.  Unfortunately, I don’t think I can get the Statue of Liberty to walk through the streets lifting everyone’s spirits.

But maybe I can say something nice to a stranger in the grocery store. Open a door at the department store … and hold it for the person behind me. Speak up when people I know want to bully or downgrade another human being.

And breathe.

We’re Americans. So let me be your personal Rafiki and hit you on the head with this truth… “REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE. REMEMBER.”

We’re Americans. We produced Sojourner Truth. Dr. King. J.F.K. Malcolm X. Robert Kennedy. Abraham Lincoln. F.D.R. Founding Fathers. Countless other heroes.

Tyler Clementi.

You.

We’ve got to do better before there’s no country left in which to do anything at all.

And……………………. roll tape.

So in all the back and forth that’s going on right with New Jersey’s funding, my main concern is still being missed. And what’s that little concern? Okay, here goes.

Um, why does any state have to apply for “extra funding” for education, period? I mean, I understand pilot programs. But we seem to find the money to supply the war machine (hello geeks….) with all the goods we can push towards it. (Except for those our soldiers need to you know, live and be healthy and all.)

So why do we have so tolerance for  funding for education in America?

When are we as a country, going to see the economic value of  making smart students who are competitive with the markets in other parts of the world?

For goodness sake America, if we keep down this path, we are going to see the extinction of our most valuable species.

That’s right.

A dumb country can only mean one thing.

The end of nerdkind.

Yeah, laugh it up. But what happens when we hit a point where new technologies are needed and used all over the world and we’ve got a bunch of dummies who can’t even use a holophone? What happens when scores of geeks the world over are outsourcing comic book conventions? Do you really think the descendants of teapartiers can take down a Skynet? Have you seen their signs?

Do we want a country without the next-gen Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Mae Jamison? For the love of the Lord, George Lucas? (and I don’t want YOU to respond you prequel haters.. we get it!)

We cannot stay a superpower if we continue to devalue education in this country.

And that doesn’t mean giving teachers everything they want. Or administrators. Or elected officials. Or students.It means giving them what they need to be competitive. It means that we elect officials of every party who are more frightened of an ignorant populace and workforce than an educated and challenging one.

It means we put the PUBLIC back in public education.

So while the media is playing “whodidit” with the New Jersey Race for the Top funding, why isn’t anyone simply asking where the money for making all kids competitive is?

As a child, my favorite babysitter was a stout German lady in our multi-cultural building. At her home while my mother was in college, I would faithfully listen to Peter and the Wolf narrated and played by some random orchestra on the record (yikes) player. And smile.

I would go to pre-school with my hippie teacher, long flowing blond hair with an actual loft with high ceilings and a swing in the middle of the living room for free spirits. All of us kids and parents invited to her home for a get-together as a community. And I’d smile.

I would go to Rittenhouse Square with my parents and German Shepherd and bask in the different people all around me in that area. Tall, short, men, women. They swirl around in my memories, right on the edge of consciousness, but real nonetheless.

I smile.

I remember my Mom cleaning to Chuck Mangione’s ”Land of Make Believe.” And Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno on electric company. I didn’t care about their race or politics. “HEY YOU GUYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYSSSSSSS!”

Diversity rules.  We were all just people.

It seemed for a brief period in my life there was a time where I didn’t think about “different” and “same”. But now I wonder if my life will ever see that kind of peace again this side of Jesus. I’m starting to doubt it. In the scheme of things, it didn’t matter that I was a little girl with afro-puffs and my babysitter was German. I didn’t care about Morgan and Rita and my pre-school teacher’s differences. I didn’t even notice them. Mostly I was taught to respect people for who they are and what they do, not what package it came in. I so long for those times now.

As I turn to newspapers and news shows, I am beyond saddened at what passes for discourse in this country.  Screaming, name-calling, fear-mongering words all focused on “the other” and what is hated or to be terrified about with  ”them”.  And while all of this screaming is going on, we’re fighting wars, rebuilding cities, trying to reclaim our budgets and losing out on education and technology to other nations.

But we have all of this time to hate?

I’m unabashedly a Christian. I don’t get it. We can get along a lot better than we are right now. And it isn’t incumbent upon one side to do all the heavy lifting towards a middle ground (so put the anvil DOWN Democrats…).  Now.. bear in mind. Some stuff is just evil and mean; there’s no middle ground with wicked people who only want to hurt others. But there is room for listening.

I’m in an inter-racial marriage and it has blessed me with the opportunity to see and be heard by different folks. So let me share a story about one of them I care about a great deal. My husband’s uncle, living in a red state. He hunts alligators on airboats. He is an actual card-carrying member of the NRA.  (I’m not kidding. I answered the phone at the house and they were live on the line! Progressives, get your act together with that robo-call crap. The NRA calls you with a person!)

He’s a HUGE Fox News and Sarah Palin fan. Not my cup of tea. (har har)

There’s a ton of stuff I just don’t agree with him on. And that’s okay, because he respects me and I him.

Every year, he opens his home to our rag-tag road trip, two kids (when we started it was one), me and the hubby. He plans my oldest child’s birthday party. He cracks up my youngest. He’s gentle to his mother-in-law, whom he cares for daily. He’s great to my Father-in-law and sweet to his Grandkids.  And if I need him to hop under my car, he does it without hesitation.

I get to see a Fox News constituent for 10 days every year and live in his house. We break bread. He’s not a monster who hates Americans who are different. In fact, for all of his super-countryfried ways, he’s introspective and kind. And the most important conversation we ever had happened not too long ago. It’s the one in which he told me how all of his life in his small Southern all-white town he’d been taught to hate and fear black folks.  How he carried that into his adulthood as a right of passage until he married my husband’s aunt. And how she came to shatter his irrational fears, how he credits her with changing his mindset. 

How wrong he says he was, because it was all he knew to be.

So I’m thinking that there are tons of hateful people out there whose opinions are different from mine. They too are wrong, I think, because it is all they know how to be. But there have got to be tons of kind ones too. Where are you guys? Why aren’t we talking it out and focusing on what’s best for all of us in this country? Jobs.  Civil Liberties.  Enforcement of ethics with all politicians. Proper laws on the books. Education that makes us competitive into the 21st Century?

And can I, as a Christian, maintain my peace and my witness in a time where hatred is being rewarded as a virtue? Of course I can. With Him, “all things are possible.”

A teacher of mine used to say in high school that America was great not because it was a melting pot. But because it was a stew. Potatoes were still potatoes. Beef cubes beef. Carrots were still orange. It was everything together that was delicious. Our diversity makes us delicious, and that includes diversity of thought. So long as the ingredients aren’t attacking each other.

Let’s be kinder people. You may be celery, and I bullion cube. But we’re all in this stew together. We can stay hot, stay great or rot together. But we will do it together, whichever way we stir.