What's on My Mind Today (CSU Budget Threats, The Harvard Professor Arrest, Health Care)

Today foremost, we are all waiting to hear the outcome of the budget deal that the California State Legislature may or may not have worked out with our Governor, The Terminator. I am a FERPER in the CSU which means I am officially retired but teach part-time. I am also concerned for my colleagues who are either starting their careers or are midway through them. If furloughs are not approved, there could be a 20% layoff reduction which is too many people, of course even one unfairly dismissed is too many.

My Union, California Faculty Assoc. has not yet counted the votes, for or against furloughs, which translates when applied to teaching faculty to mean pay cuts of about 14% from what I heard. In the UC it is less for many, as they are doing the cuts on a more needs friendly basis, cutting bigger amounts from the highly paid faculty and staff and less from the average and lower paid workers. The CSU administrators obviously could have cared less about doing it all more fairly. I thought it kind of strange that our Union, The CFA, has not come up wit the vote tallies yet. Something kind of fishy seems to be going on here as they did the vote a second time round and now nothing.

The Harvard Professor, Henry Louis Gates, who was arrested by the Cambridge policeman in his own home is starting a campaign to highlight the continuing problem of racial profiling. Kudos to him for doing so. I bet he is still steaming from that incident which I see clearly as an example of the continuing racism and racial profiling still going on in this country of ours. The fact that the officer who arrested Gates is trying to portray himself as not racist because he once gave mouth to mouth resuscitation to a star athlete who was Black, was it Basketball?, means nothing to me. By the way, that athlete died. Is that mean of me to say? The fact this guy who harassed Professor Gates mentioned this shows he knows Didley S--- about what racism or race issues mean. Why do so many police officers have to go to extremes in handling distraught individuals? They should be better trained. Also police should screen out racist types or types who tend toward racist thinking. In this case, who wouldn't be angry if a law enforcement person walked into my house and asked me to prove who I was. On top of that, most Black men have been through rough and stupid treatment before hand, and I am pretty certain that Gates just had had it, and justifiably so.

I also believe there was a class issue involved. Since Gates hobnobs with Presidents, teaches at Harvard, is lavished with praise for his work constantly, to be confronted by a blue collar guy in a uniform who doesn't know his A-- from a hole in the ground and then to be treated with such disdain, Black or White, it could make anyone furious. Add the factor of race to the mix and you can imagine the fury it must of caused in Henry Gates' mind and heart. As a white older woman, I have noticed police and fire types tend to be very respectful of me but I know the minute I might try to cross the line, speak our in someone's defense, police tend to react and to react strongly. I have witnessed this on various occasions. I also wonder who Professor Gates' neighbor could be? Is he or she sorry for what he or she caused? Why didn't she/he recognize Gates? It is a bit bewildering. Did this neighbor only see Black. Do we have a new term now "Black While Entering Your House"

As for Obama and what kind of Health Care plan we are likely to get, the climate around the health care debate has taken a turn for the worse. I have read that some experts feel things would be going more smoothly if Obama had started with the single payer system then dropped it and gone to what he wants now, a public insuranace option. This strategy sounds quite cynical to me but who knows what would work with the Republican wolves out there there howling in the winds. Best to just ignore them and move straight along or gayly forward as we say to the desired goal. But that strategy say that the stupid naysayers and fear mongers would have been more satisfied with Obama's plan as it is now. They mean the ones that see Communists lurking in every corner of the health care debate. Obama just seems too weak and a bit confused as to how to manage this tiger he has by the tail. I feel for him but this need of the country for universal health coverage is too important to mess up on now. I am afraid in the end, not everyone will be covered and those who have coverage will end up with something less than what we want especially us older persons who I think some would like to balance the cost of on our literal bodies. I hope we don't end up facing basic rationing of our health care. Yes, some procedures are unnecessary but there is a slippery slope here I don't trust. Still, we need every child insured, and every adult and old person too. All our families and individuals need good coverage and with a little courage on Obama's part it could happen. I say tax the oil companies, tax the richest corporations and individuals, tax tobacco, and the polluters, pay some taxes on luxury items i.e. big cars, SUVS etc. There has to be ways to do this all and NOT keep the poor and the disabled and others from having decent health care.

California is a good example of what is going wrong with our economy. Lack of reasonable taxes has made the State go
broke. And now who does the Terminator want to pay for the rupture in the economy, the poor, the disabled and those who can least afford and need the most in services rendered by the State. Perhaps, if we had universal coverage that would include long term care, hospice, special issues of the disabled that would solve some of the problems for the States that are now going broke .

So all of the above is what is on my Mind today.

Sharon Raphael, Long Beach

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What's on My Mind Today (CSU Budget Threats, The ...":

I find your depiction of the police officer very offensive. The police officer was doing his job. He was not engaged in "racial profiling", he was responding to a call saying that two black men appeared to be breaking into the front door of a house. And you are criticizing the neighbor for making the call??? If you were out of town and your neighbor saw someone breaking into your house, wouldn't you want the police to come check it out? (And just out of curiosity, if the police had NOT responded to the call, would that mean that they were racist bastards who were refusing to protect the property of a black man?)

When the cop arrived, he asked Gates for ID, and he was shown Harvard Faculty ID (no address), and was asked "Don't you know who I am?" Gates was abusive of the police officer, continued to be abusive even when they were outside in front of a crowd. The police officer made a judgment call in arresting him, but the policeman had a right to make the arrest.

I was a research fellow at Harvard/Harvard Medical School for a decade. The degree of NARCISSIM seen in various faculty members there is incredible. From the description of Gates' behavior, I would bet he fits right in.

In Maureen Dowd's column today, she quotes Gates as follows:

"Gates told his daughter Elizabeth in The Daily Beast: “He should have gotten out of there and said, ‘I’m sorry, sir, good luck. Loved your PBS series — check with you later!’ ”

Think about that. Gates expects not only to be recognized as a Harvard Superstar, but also wants recognition as a Television Superstar. What incredible vanity!

This isn't racial profiling. Gates would probably have been just as much of a narcissitic jerk to a black police officer (although he would not have been able to accuse him of racism). A black cop would have been just as likely to have arrested him for disorderly conduct.

And you're jumping on the bandwagon and slamming the cop, too. Shame on you.

- BJR