Getting Rid Of The Weeds

As most gardeners who live in temperate climates know, every year about this time, after flowers and vegetables have begun to take root, small weeds often begin to appear. Sure, we can always till the soil, turn over the garden, add fertilizer, and even weed killer - but somehow, every year, no matter what, when everything else grows, so too do the weeds.

It's not entirely surprising then, that when our society also tries to grow and become more of what we already claim to be, that the weeds of our society also pop up.

That was definitely the case in Lincoln, Nebraska on Monday, as the City Council there openly debated enacting an expansion of their current ordinance that would broaden the protections to LGBT individuals - that is, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered people.

As Leslie Reed of the Omaha World Herald - who reported the hearing live on her Twitter feed - noted last night, 94 people signed up to testify at the public hearing, and the overwhelming majority of them were in favor of the ordinance. Omaha has had experience with this same expansion of protections, recently adding similar anti-discrimiation language for LGBT individuals, in housing, employment, and public accommodation laws.

As Ms. Reed's reporting made clear, and as similar responses to a comment made by Vice President Biden over the weekend made clear elsewhere in America, while some Americans still want to keep bias and bigotry in the law, most Americans don't really seem to. In our experience, most Americans seem to think people are people, no matter who they're attracted to. As long as people work hard, pay their taxes, don't break the law, and generally act respectful to others, most Americans don't seem to care about a person's sexual preference. Most businesses certainly don't. As one former business owner we know used to say, "As long as their money is green, who cares?"

Those who seem to be against the fairness ordinance Lincoln is trying to pass seem to be those individuals who want to continue to have the right to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation. Sadly, many of those people are members of the clergy, who continually attempt to justify their bigotry by hiding behind theology.

As we noted nearly a year ago, when civil marriage passed in New York state, there is a vast difference between "civil marriage" and "religious marriage." There is also a vast difference between private bigotry and public interaction. When a city or a state makes a law denying bigots, racists, and other intolerant people the right to express their hatred through hiring practices, housing discrimination, or other business dealings, that doesn't mean the hatred itself goes away.

Like spraying for weeds in the spring, the underlying hatred, bigotry, and intolerance still remains in those people who are opposed to similar laws.

As we noted last week, this is America - those people have a right to hate whomever they want. If they want to hate, within the walls of their own organizations, on their private property, among their own members, they have the right to do so.

What they don't have a right to do is discriminate when they interact with the people of our cities, states, and nation. They use our public power and water resources, our streets, our telecommunications. They benefit from our system of taxation and property valuation, and our police, fire, and EMT personnel. Even their churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious facilities - all very much private sanctuaries - gain significant benefit from the society we provide for everyone's use.

If we are to claim that "All Men Are Created Equal", or like Nebraska, claim our motto as "Equality Before The Law", then we either have to grow and fully live up to that claim - or admit that we're hypocrites, with no real moral core, whatever religious label we claim to hold.

To us, voting in favor of a fairness amendment, as Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray testified Monday night, is a "no brainer."

Say Au Revoir To Austerity

There have been some big deaths over the past year, with some big announcements to go with them. But no death announcement was quite as big as the one that came out of the European Union this past weekend.

The economic theory of austerity - the same theory currently being championed by the Republican Party in the U.S. - can basically be declared dead after two years of proven failure in the E.U., and by the results of elections in both France and Greece.

In France, voters dumped President Nicholas Sarkozy, a man sometimes called the French 'Bush lite,' in favor of Francois Hollande, a progressive, left-leaning politician. Hollande made it clear in his victory speech that he knew why French voters, in a strong turnout, choose him in a close but decisive way. "Europe is watching us," said Hollande. "Austerity can no longer be the only option."

Hollande is pushing for an agenda that is highly likely to get passed, for several reasons. One large reason is the upcoming parliamentary elections, where it's almost a given that the new parliament will make it easier for Hollande to put his plans into action.

Hollande's agenda includes raising taxes on big corporations, adding penalties for those corporations that attempt to leave the country before paying their taxes, and increasing taxes on the wealthiest French citizens. With all the extra revenue, Hollande is planning to raise the minimum wage, hire (and rehire) more than 60,000 teachers and other public workers, and even lower the retirement age for workers whose jobs involve heavy physical labor.

In Greece, the people annihilated the two major ruling parties at the poll, both of whom had supported continued extreme austerity measures for Greek citizens. The leader of the Left Coalition, Alexis Tsipras, also made it clear that the European Union's austerity policies - lead by German Chancellor Angela Merkel - would no longer be accepted by the Greek people.

Anyone who even has a cursory understanding of macroeconomics, microeconomics, and Keynesian theory, could have seen this coming a long time ago.

In fact, Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman did.

Over the weekend, Krugman reiterated the fact that the policies Germany used to move its economy forward over the last dozen years couldn't have been directly implemented by the other E.U. nations. In fact, those policies were mostly possible for Germany only because the economies in other E.U. nations contracted, due to austerity.

Krugman's not the only one who has pointed out that government austerity - cutting government jobs, cutting tax collection, and cutting government spending - is a completely predictable failure when faced with a recession. Christina Romer, Robert Reich, and even to a limited degree, conservative-leaning economists, like Charles Kadlec of Forbes, have all echoed Krugman's warning. The lessons of Keynesian economics that all of these experts continue to point out - and that modern American Republican politicians think of as the scary monster from the deep - keep proving that austerity doesn't work.

In short, the only economic policy that the modern Republican Party in America has to offer, has now been proven an utter and complete failure over two years of use in Europe.

We can't say we also didn't pass on these warnings to Americans. We did - more than once. Even though we're not economists, the concept has always been pretty simple to us.

If anyone tells you they're looking to cut government spending deeply, and lower your taxes, but then they claim to be dedicated to funding education more, ask them where they're going to get the money. If they can't answer you with specifics - and they have no credible plans for raising revenue - then they're lying to you.

As the French might say, "Ce n'est pas la science de fusée."

Friday Funday: A Gift For Grads

This time of year seems to sneak up on us every time - like a holiday of sorts - and every year, we seem to have a similar set of mixed emotions about it.

As a staff filled with people who like learning, and enjoyed school, the month of May always means graduation for us. Paul was a teacher and college professor for many years, and as president of the Peru State College National Alumni Association, he's still involved with the school - so graduation is more on our minds than ever.

We even know a few people who are graduating this month from different schools - and if that's you, congratulations.

There has been a great deal of talk recently about keeping the student loan rates low - including a commentary by us. Contrary to what the fools on the Wall Street Journal editorial board believe, college grads need both lower student loan rates AND new jobs.

We're not going to say it's not a tough job market to be graduating into. The statistics don't lie - things are tougher for recent grads than they have been in America for a long time, as Paul Krugman pointed out recently.

Those who are graduating college should NOT follow the example offered by Mitt Romney, to attempt to borrow money from their parents to start a business if they can't find a job. Maybe that works for those who are born with silver feet in their mouths (as Texas governor Ann Richards once said), but for most Americans who actually work for a living, recent graduates will still likely have more in student loan debt than they'd like.

Still, even with all the doom and gloom surrounding college grads these days, we think it's important to note all the things that are going right.

The overall jobs numbers continue to trend upward, while the jobless claims continue to drop. Job creation is near a four year high, and two sets of manufacturing numbers - apparel sales and factory activity - are both also trending upward. Furthermore, the important thing to remember - with all the economic numbers coming out over the past 48 hours - is that the overall trend is what matters in economic news.

And in those trend lines? The news is good. Economic indicators are continuing to improve - and look to continue improving for the foreseeable future.

For those who are graduating college this month? That may mean those graduates have the best luck of all, the good fortune to graduate at just the moment when the economic recovery really begins to gain strength.

For those people you may know who are graduating from college - or from high school - this month, the best gift we think those grads can receive is the gift of hope. It's the gift of the idea that maybe, just maybe, anything is possible, now that the responsibilities of formal education are done.

As individuals who've capitalized on the education that we each received in college - even in some tough times - we have to say to those graduating: Go for it, whatever "it" is. At this point, why not?

Come to think of it, that's some good advice for everyone, graduating student or not.

Take a chance. Grab whatever opportunity you can. Make it worthwhile. And enjoy it.