A More Prefect Union....

It happens pretty often that I plan to go in one direction and end up somewhere radically different. Perhaps, it is in the nature of what I do, commenting on the world around me that provides so many opportunities to derail my plans. However, in this case, I am happy to forgo my intended sarcastic caricature of the holy trinity (politics, pop culture and pro-football), and address something so critical to the fabric of our country, and its social contract that to ignore it would be grossly irresponsible.

A few days ago, I posted a piece on the tragedy in Newtown. I expected that it would be met with mixed reactions. A gun toting, God fearing, Liberal’s opinion was bound not to play nice with either side of the political spectrum. I almost did not publish the piece, but, when I received the email, I knew that writing it was what needed to happen. Before you read his words, I want to say how grateful I am to be part of this NECESSARY conversation. Our opinions differ -in some regards. However, the significance is in the fact that both of us understand how critical it is to have this conversation. Read his full email here. For sake of keeping this as concise as possible, I’ll address his points in order that he brought them up.

Honestly, I do believe that the shooter was a victim as well, but, why I believe him to be victimized is drastically different. The shooter, as I did, grew up in the generation of diagnose first and address the cause later, which is why I’m particularly adverse to labeling him mentally ill. As those who know my father can attest, the amount of disclosure my explanation is going to require is going to be troublesome to him –sorry dad- but again, I think it necessary.

When I was a teenager, I had no friends, I still have very few. I have a high IQ, somewhere around 148. I can memorize more information than a human requires (my friends call me a walking encyclopedia), but, in general lack many of the nuances required to form social relationships. I knew lots of people; I connected with remarkably few. I was bullied mercilessly. I saw a psychologist and spent hours proving I was smarter than she was. She asked if I had contemplated suicide. I told her about my bulimia. She wanted to medicate me, label me clinically depressed and bi-polar. I was not depressed, and I did not want to die. I had a rifle I could have shot myself. What I wanted was to be visible. I wanted to MATTER!

By definition, many of my behaviors could have been categorized as mentally unstable. Thank God my parents never allowed that to happen because I wasn't. I was a kid smarter than I was mature, who did not know how to navigate the world. Fortunately for me, I learned. It took years. I’m still learning. I had the enormous fortune of a family that was willing to meet me where I was and help me get to where I was going. My family refused to let me be invisible. To this day, my mother still tells me every time she speaks to me how gifted she sees me as, did I mention I LOVE that woman.

I do not pretend that my experience of the world is everyone else’s. There are people who are mentally ill, and they should have the full resources they need to lead healthy productive lives. Given that the shooter was a person suffering from Asperger’s, a disease that makes it virtually impossible to deviate from established notions of right and wrong, the sheer moral repugnance of his actions requires that we recognize that he was not “crazy”. To accept his actions and all others like his as mental incapacity or illness, we’d have to say that these clearly premeditated methodically executed acts lacked the understanding of consequence of the action. If that were the case, then they would have been less likely to end in suicide.

He was a person dealing with the overwhelming pain of a disconnected life who lacked the skills (socially and emotionally) to cope with it. The failure is in not creating a social structure where people still feel responsible for each other. There is more value in the village raising a child than one may think. When we involve the village, no child is invisible because every member of the community invests in the wellbeing of its other members. It is not a crazy notion. It is a large part of the reason why the remaining homogenous communities (Little Italy, Chinatown, etc) and the Base communities (religious) of the world are successful. There is a shared social responsibility that we no longer utilize as the foundation for our cultural organization.

He posed the following questions:

1. How do we ensure more responsible gun ownership?

2. How do we protect little children from monsters?

3. How do we analyze the risk posed by mentally unstable folk?

My answers may not be the quick fix everyone is looking for, but, I do believe it is the long view solution that may have a greater impact.

Responsible gun ownership…

I understand the public’s perception of high powered rifles. I also understand that most members of the public are not married to former soldiers and have a somewhat skewed view of the world of weaponry. Therefore, let me first address some popular misperceptions. Without specific licensure, there are no fully automatic weapons available to the public (legally). Even the military has banned the use of fully automatics as they are woefully ill equipped and costly in a combat situation. As such, we then get into the debate about the modified civilian versions of long rifles. The fact is that an AR-15has less “power” (potential to inflict damage) than a .30-06. Bolt action rifles and revolvers are still the most consistent, accurate purveyors of damage available on the market. Obtaining the kind of hardware (fully automatics) that most of this debate stems from requires a Federal Class 3 firearms license (mostly held by dealers)that takes a considerable amount to obtain. Bolt actions and revolvers do not and you can purchase a .50 revolver easier than AR-15. I have several friends who own “high powered” rifles. They are ex-military or law enforcement, men (and women) who are fully aware of their capability and have invested a considerable amount of time understanding the responsibility of owning them.

Therefore, I believe the first step in a solution should be enforcing the laws we have. As we discuss responsible ownership, we have to take into account the user. I believe there should be mandatory classes over weeks or months, not just online or a one day course. I believe that psychological aptitude should be part of the requirements. I believe that you should have to put a few hundred rounds down barrel. I believe that you should have to visit a morgue and hospital to see up close and personal what GSWs look like, what they actually do to the human body. There should be a ban on private owner resale. All guns, from my perspective, should have to travel through licensed, bonded, dealers who must maintain access to a federal database to ensure that an owner who cannot pass a background check cannot purchase a gun. I believe that anyone who sells a gun illegally should lose their sellers license and face possible jail time, and if that gun is used in the commission of a crime the dealer should be equally liable for the crime. 80% of guns used in crimes are purchased on the private market: end the private market and eliminate a considerable number of lose weaponry.

Protecting our children….

We have to create a society that VALUES children! We talk about children being our future, but we defund schools, we cut teachers’ salaries, we defund programs designed to provide safe alternatives for poor families. We provide little to no parenting support for at risk families. We make mental health services selective and not fully covered. We return children to harmful adults by the case load. We saturate our society with images that success and significance are financial and not the children we leave to this world. Banning guns is like banning French fries because people are obese. The issue is not access to guns; it is in the relationship we have with guns. It is the belief that violence is power. That fame (however it is derived) and celebrity are the panacea for our emotional ills. The fix is in redefining our society and what we value. I’ve attached a link to a simulated child abduction describing in vivid detail the gross incongruence between our words and actions. We have to address once and for all that we have allowed too many children to fall through the cracks. If Korea understands that those that influence our children are nation builders, then why exactly is it so hard for Americans to get it?


Metal instability…

As a nation, we spend frighteningly little on mental health. When compared to other industrialized nations, it is appalling how little we invest in our wellbeing. Between the stigma and the ostrich approach we have toward it, how dare we posture ourselves to be offended by the outcome. The human mind is not only incredibly fragile, but incredibly complex. A study done by one of the leading neuroscientists on the brains of serial killers drew the drastic and unnerving conclusion that there are predictable brain patterns of killers. What was even more disturbing was that they were identical to the scans of the scientist himself, to which he pointed to the nurture he received during his maturation that channeled those energies toward a productive life versus that which he scientifically knew he was capable. My point, end the invisible children, change our society.

Again, I’m not pretending that the solutions I have offered can change things over night. But, while we are searching for real answers, we have to address the issue from all angles. I fear that addressing it as the single issue of gun control will only lead to greater damage and less room to change. I agree that the message they are sending is clear. I simply believe that it is not hard to identify. We have hit bottom. It is time for an intervention. We can only change when the danger of remaining the same is greater than the fear of changing. I believe we are way past that point. Change has come; the question is what we will change into. Are we America the afraid or America the free? We the People of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect Union… must decide what that America is going to be…

RE: Whose Name Will You Remember

The following is an email I recieved regarding my post on the Newtown tragedy. I don't typically publish full emails, however, as I've responded to his comments, I wanted everyone to be able to read it. Please feel free add your voice to the conversation.

My full response: A More Perfect Union...


"The Crap Chute is right on target. This is an extremely lucid and well thought out opinion regarding the incident of Friday, Dec 14^th.  I want to commend you for this in-depth analysis.  While I find agreement on most of your arguments, especially the right to own guns, I have to disagree with the way you characterize the shooter.  I was somewhat perturbed by the following 2 statements in your blog:

“I have no interest in turning the shooter into a twisted cult icon or giving him any more press than he has already gotten, so I will NEVER use his name. He will be referred to simply as that, the shooter. I will discuss why I feel his actions are neither random or a product of mental illness, and why calling him mentally ill is an insult to everyone.”

“The words mentally ill keep getting bantered about as if they somehow justify or explain his actions. He was not mentally ill. It is comforting to us to believe he was.”

Those are powerful words … fighting words, if you may.  You say “calling him mentally ill is an insult to everyone” Really?  Adam Lanza was described by many, including his psychiatrist and his mother, as being MENTALLY UNSTABLE.  He had NO FRIENDS … he spent hours alone in his basement playing violent video games.  As a first grader at Sandy Hook he scared the other kids with crazy antics.  As he became increasingly anti-social, his concerned mother took him to a psychiatrist for evaluation.

I realize none of the above is a ‘diagnosis’ of mental illness.  But I wonder at what point do we say “there is something wrong with this kid”.  I know it’s a slippery slope, but that should not deter us from digging a little deeper, and continuing to look for links to violent behavior.  Let’s not be too dismissive of this kid and assume that he is simply looking for more press.  And if he is looking for press in that manner, it might be symptomatic of a deeper psychiatric condition. 

In my view, this incident of Dec 14^th begs the following questions:

1. How do we ensure more responsible gun ownership?

2. How do we protect little children from monsters?

3. How do we analyze the risk posed by mentally unstable folk?

Let’s take each in the order presented.  (1) Responsible Gun Ownership. The recounting of your Dad schooling his 12-yr old on the rudiments of responsible gun ownership is truly admirable.  That’s what a genuine hunter does.  (I am aware, incidentally, that your Dad will not let anyone, even his own child, kill animals other than for food). Because you had a caring and responsible father, you developed a healthy respect for guns.  I will defend your right to own a gun, and to protect yourself and your family.  Every American citizen has that right. However, when certain types of high-powered, army-style weapons are repeatedly used to massacre people, every level headed American should be asking, “how do we get those weapons out of the hands of murderers?” The question is not how do we curtail “responsible gun ownership” but how do we engender it. This conversation MUST take place.

(2) Protecting Little Children. The survival of our species depends on our ability to protect the young and vulnerable among us.  No task can be greater or more pressing.  How can we witness this massacre and not entertain this discussion.  Where do the kids assemble?  Class rooms? Cinemas? Malls?  Who are the monsters? Bullies? The mentally ill? The deranged? So, how do we keep the deranged out of cinemas, or the bullies out of schools? We need answers. This conversation MUST also take place.

(3) Mentally Unstable Folk.  This brings us back to Adam Lanza.  To my mind, he is as much a victim as the other 20 kids … in a drastically different way, and for drastically different reasons.  But, he is a victim of the endemic ills of our society. To accept that fact is not a glorification of Adam, but a call to action.  A monster was created, and this monster has to be part of the conversation.

Adam Lanza was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, and I realize that there is no history or association of violence with Asperger’s syndrome, but that is more reason for further review and analysis.  I consulted WebMd for a better understanding of Asperger’s Syndrome, and based on what I now know, I am convinced that this kid was mentally and emotionally unstable.  WebMd describes Asperger’s syndrome, also called Asperger's disorder, as “a type of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD)”  It goes on to say that “PDDs are a group of conditions that involve delays in the development of many basic skills, most notably the ability to socialize with others, to communicate, and to use imagination.” To me, THAT’S THE BEGINNING OF ILLNESS.

The challenge we all have with mental illnesses and disorders is that it is difficult to quantify the symptoms.  If your blood pressure is consistently at 160/100, you will probably walk around looking healthy for many years, but eventually the 2 million nephrons in your kidney will explode and your kidney will cease to function. A diseased and untreated kidney will kill you in less than one year.  If the fluids that moisten your eyes don’t drain properly, it causes a build-up of pressure in your eye. Pressure that is consistently over 21mg HH will injure the optic nerve and eventually cause blindness (glaucoma).  These two illnesses, kidney disease and glaucoma, have measurable targets that are indicative of their condition.  Unfortunately, you can not assign a number to Autism, or to Asperger’s syndrome, or to other developmental disorders… but they silently damage your mental capacity.  To my way of thinking, that makes you UNWELL.  These disorders are insidious and should not be taken lightly.

I believe you should keep your guns to defend your family.  I believe you should remain engaged in the advocacy for RESPONSIBLE gun ownership.  I also believe you should include Adam Lanza in your list of victims of Dec 14^th.  Please … use his name.  We need to know as much as we can about him.

The last four mass murders in schools were perpetrated by disturbed kids who later committed suicide … Columbine (1999), Virginia Tech (2007), Northern Illinois Univ (2008), and now Sandy Hook (2012). Somewhere in there is a message, but we are not getting it."

Whose Name Will You Remember: the Right to Bear Arms

I have debated writing this since the tragedy happened. I have no interest in turning the shooter into a twisted cult icon or giving him any more press than he has already gotten, so I will NEVER use his name. He will be referred to simply as that, the shooter. I will discuss why I feel his actions are neither random or a product of mental illness, and why calling him mentally ill is an insult to everyone. For me to explain why in the face of what happened last Friday, I still and will always support the right to bear arms I have to go back further than last Friday; I have to go back 20 years.

On my 12th birthday my father, an avid hunter, handed me a .22 rifle and a membership to the NRA, which I kept until it became the lobbyist for the gun manufacturers and not the representatives of gun owners. He sat me down on the edge of my bed, wrapped his massive hand around my shoulder, squeezed and pulled me closer. “Kiddo,” he said. “This isn’t a toy. I’m going to teach you how to use and take care of a gun, but, guns don’t make you bigger, badder, or tougher...” The conversation lasted for well over an hour. He took me to gun safety classes and the shooting range which we did almost every Saturday for a very long time.

My dad hunts, not for sport, but because it is part of how he sees himself as a man. He keeps a garden that produces pounds of fresh vegetables. Brilliant engineer that he is, it is still vital to him to be able to live off of the land and literally bring home the bacon. His deep freezer filled to capacity with venison and fish. In the tradition of his ancestry, the death of an animal must provide for survival, not a trophy.

As a teenager, I understood the allure of owning a gun, but, during that first conversation and the many after with my dad, he made very clear that it was never up for public discussion. I still feel a strong sense of hesitancy discussing it. However, I feel it probative to make clear the deep held respect and appreciation I have for gun ownership. As an adult, I left my rifle at my parent’s home. I never decided, I simply left the question of my own ownership unanswered. That was until one night years ago when a ladder was placed up against my open second floor window and the man holding it began to climb.

I was fortunate. My then roommate just happened to be looking out of her window at the beautiful lake behind our home. Her screams scared him, alerted me and, he took off into the woods. I know that you are probably thinking “she bought a gun to feel empowered”. You happen to be wrong. Though yes, I decided I would own a gun, it was not to feel powerful, it was to balance power.

At 5’3 and 120 pounds (give or take) I’m painfully aware of my REAL ability to fend off an assailant if needed. When I became the mother of 2 small children, that painfully became critically, and those aren’t odds I’m willing to take. The firearms my family owns do not cause me to believe I’m super human, an expert marksmen, though I am damn good, or a vigilante. They are for the meaningful purpose of giving us a greater chance of survival in the event of a life threatening emergency. They do not empower me, my husband or children. They are not for the purpose of ensuring our visibility, they are a dimension of our ability to secure and protect our family.

What better time than to discuss the shooter. The words mentally ill keep getting bantered about as if they somehow justify or explain his actions. He was not mentally ill. It is comforting to us to believe he was. He had Aspergers, a form of Autism that isn’t indicative of mental instability. The two are not synonymous. Our Autistic community equally was appalled and wounded by his actions. They are not somehow more understanding, more aware of some genetic misfortune that allowed him to become a mass murderer. They, like us, believe that taking the lives of children is never justifiable.

As the viral meme (falsely attributed to Morgan Freeman) so adeptly put it, he murdered 20 children so that he would be permanently etched into the fabric of our conscious. Forever altering our relationship to the world. He murdered 20 children and their teachers and principal to augment the human psyche, to invade our dreams, shift our reality and end our peace of mind. Every time we say his name, print the horrific details of that day or utter Sandy Hook, we are inextricably bound to him. He did not just murder people; he murdered the world that existed before he pulled the trigger and gave birth to an America we will know as after Sandy Hook, like the Common Era.

It is because of this profound reality that within months, the wounds will begin to heal, and most Americans will only remember his name or where it happened. Like the annals of history are filled with evil the world had not known the day before, we will remember little more than the few details that can be rattled off within the confines of a single sentence. Sadly, as the conversation currently exists, we will also remember the relinquishing of our rights. A move that I have no certainty will ultimately cure the ills of gun violence or help ease the hurt the nation and specifically Newtown is feeling. The underlying cause of the violence is a want to be iconic, to no longer be invisible. It was not guns that killed 168, 19 of which were children under 6, and injured 680 more. It was a home grown terrorist and a fertilizer bomb, all the components of which are still legal.

Celebrity has become the addiction of the modern world, and as we saturate ourselves with graphic depictions of inhumanity, how do we expect that we can preserve the value of life? It is a question we should be demanding an answer to right along with real productive gun regulations and reform. How do we prevent a generation from an addiction to fame or infamy (interchangeably) and raise happy healthy kids? Legislation like medicine should be preventative, not triaged after the emergency.

So, here is my diagnosis. Do not allow this tragedy to be used to further any agenda other than the safety of our children. Discuss equally the causes of issues as quickly and ardently as we discuss possible solutions. Forget the shooter ever existed and tattoo our memory with the names of the children lost whose lives we should honor with everything we do. Stop pretending that surrendering our guns will ensure the civility of our society and be willing to admit that the brokenness required to commit mass murder cannot be blamed on a gun, AR-15 or not. Do not insult the memory of those who died by trivializing it. Instead remember...

Charlotte Bacon, 2/22/06
Daniel Barden, 9/25/05
Rachel Davino, 7/17/83
Olivia Engel, 7/18/06
Josephine Gay, 12/11/05
Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 04/04/06
Dylan Hockley, 3/8/06
Dawn Hochsprung, 06/28/65
Madeleine F. Hsu, 7/10/06
Catherine V. Hubbard, 6/08/06
Chase Kowalski, 10/31/05
Jesse Lewis, 6/30/06
James Mattioli , 3/22/06
Grace McDonnell, 12/04/05
Anne Marie Murphy, 07/25/60
Emilie Parker, 5/12/06
Jack Pinto, 5/06/06
Noah Pozner, 11/20/06
Caroline Previdi, 9/07/06
Jessica Rekos, 5/10/06
Avielle Richman, 10/17/06
Lauren Rousseau, 6/1982, (full date of birth not specified)
Mary Sherlach, 2/11/56
Victoria Soto, 11/04/85
Benjamin Wheeler, 9/12/06
Allison N. Wyatt, 7/03/06

Band-Aids over Bullet Wounds

It was a win that people will talk about in years to come. It will likely be one of those “where were you when Forbath kicked the winning field goal” wins. A win where our rookie QB, who has preformed like anything but a rookie, was all heart and pure leadership. Teary eyed, I watched as he collapsed on the field. His body seemingly riddled with pain after a jarring hit to his knee made it impossible for him to continue. The humility it took to turn his team over to another rookie, who had barely taken 5 professional snaps, when he realized he was no longer able to help our team win. It was only in my quiet musings afterward that I realized our Division rivals were celebrating an equally crucial field goal. However, their victory was more bitter sweet than ours. Lately, the plague of tragedy has swept the NFL. Within 2 weeks, two players have died; another incarcerated, and a girlfriend tragically murdered. In the aftermath of these horrific events, I’m struck by how quickly we have turned one into a vehicle to push through gun control and the other to business as usual.

Stories and memes of the Perkins/Belcher murder suicide have filled the news and social media. There were immediate reports of how many NFL players own guns, some 70-80%, released. There was a quantum leap from "the disgusting deaths" to "why guns need to be eradicated from society" as if radical gun control alone will forever quell the problem of domestic violence. I do not mean at all to belittle the experiences of women involved in dangerous relationships. I have known and loved too many abused women. I know the fear of a 3am phone call. I know the bruises hidden, and the excuses made. I know what it feels like to be afraid to help. It is not without sensitivity that I am disturbed by the trend of exploiting a tragedy to gain traction on a utterly unrelated agenda.

Instead of addressing the unrelenting objectifying of women or hyper-sexualization of our culture, the pandemic of reality TV (though I admit I’m guilty of supporting it as well), we continue to address the outliers of violence not the causes of it. We impose morality based legislation, but, refuse to make cultural adjustments needed to foster valuing human life, not in the anti-abortion sense. A true value, that does not kill each other over insults, resources, or punitive punishments. We cannot continue to teach our children that violence is an acceptable form of resolution. We cannot reinforce that pandering to fear is how you promote your beliefs, or that subjugation and oppression are methods of expressing masculinity. We must isolate needed gun control versus the radical and reactionary absconding of our right to bear arms.

If we simply look at the numbers, we’d admit that drunk driving and alcohol related deaths account for more life ending situations than guns. We’d address the fact that every stadium, night club, restaurant and, air port in the nation serves alcohol and turns out patrons on to the roads expecting them to exercise “good judgment”. We’d take a good look at sentence regulation for drunk drivers, domestic abusers and other violators of our civil contract with each other and admit that we created a system based on punishment as prevention (though we know punishment is a poor motivator) where no real punishment exists. I can sooner rape a child and receive fewer years in jail than if I killed an animal. (Yes, that is a shameless reference to Michael Vick.)

The intoxication manslaughter charges that Brent is facing is a move toward intolerance for drunk driving. However, I have to wonder why there is not public outcry to ban nightclubs from serving alcohol. Why do we expect that good judgment and discretion are employed when using a substance that clearly impairs your judgment, but we are quick to railroad ALL legal gun owners for the horrific decisions of one man who needed help and the woman and family forced to suffer the tragic consequences.

Gun regulations, by themselves, do not mollify or prevent gun violence and by perverse extension, violence against women. In general, gun laws impact legal gun owners, who overwhelming use good judgment while exercising their rights to ownership. I know that there is a nuanced conversation, especially in light of the continued stand your ground homicides, but, I do not believe that ending access to firearms is the answer. If you look at areas where guns are legally available to their citizens, crime rates are almost always lower. If you look at the motivating factors behind these tragedies, even the stand your ground deaths, it is not the gun. It is fear of Black men. It is dominance of men over women. It is the illusion that violence equals power.

What we need is not stronger gun control. What we need is a culture that does not operate based on the irrational fears of its citizens. Whether that fear is a world where people are as equal in reality as we’d like to say the law defines them to be, or, where women and children are no longer the property of men. What we need is a cultural shift. This nation tried prohibition. It increased all of the ails it sought to end. We do not need gun prohibition. We need cultural progress. If we continue to pacify issues with laws that do not attack the underlying causes, we will continue to bury the innocent. If we continue to turn tragedy into political opportunism, we will usurp our rights, and marry ourselves proverbially and literally to band-aids over bullet wounds.

Please keep all of the families touched by these tragedies in your thoughts and prayers.

The last time I jumped off a cliff...

How many people can say that not only have they written a screenplay starring Oscar winning actress, Renee Zellweger, but, also have a successful career in the financial markets and retirement planning? This guy can. His name is Ken Rance, and he knows a little something about big dollars and common sense.

I love getting to read and post these guest blogs, for which I am profoundly grateful. Understandably, my guest bloggers should be deep in bed with the GOP since they are the ones who are going to feel it in the wallet. Call them defectors if you will, but, in a line stolen from the McCain ’08 ticket, these Americans are putting “Country First” and getting behind this Administration in support of the President’s economic plan. They are not supporting it because it is personally profitable. They are supporting it because it is the right measure to take to avert a crisis that does not have to be one.

As long as the Fiscal Cliff exists, I will continue to post these until a solution is reached.

Read it, share it, and, call your Congressmen.

The last time I jumped off a cliff hitting the water felt like a punch below the belt

So I asked my client, "Have you ever jumped off a cliff?" Well I have. Actually it was the day before my wedding. I was at Rick's Cafe in Negril, Jamaica. Now I'm no expert but the one thing I can tell you about jumping off a cliff is that you can't guarantee how you're going to land. Feet first, head first, belly flop, become paralyzed, die...you just don't know and that's a scary feeling.
As a licensed retirement consultant for a fortune 100 financial services organization, I talk with America everyday about their retirement assets and the impact the federal government has on them. What I enjoy the most about my job is discussing these issues in ways my clients can understand them.
So this is the deal. Right now our government spends more than it makes and borrows money to pay its bills. Economists call it deficit spending while others call it robbing Peter to pay Paul. Either way, the US can't afford to continue doing this much longer. So in a nutshell, the fiscal cliff is a bunch of tax hikes and budget cuts that become law in January 2013. Its purpose is to decrease deficit spending. But here lies the problem. According to the Congressional Budget Office (the non-partisan agency that provides economic data to Congress), if the fiscal cliff takes effect, the U.S. deficit would improve but the tax increases and spending cuts (Medicaid, unemployment insurance, school lunch programs, etc.) would push the country into recession and raise unemployment to 9%. Been there. Done that. Let's move forward.
Now it's up to President Obama to clean up this mess he inherited from President Bush. Three plans are on the table: the Obama (Democratic) plan, the Congressman Ryan (Republican) plan, and the Simpson-Bowles (bi-partisan) plan. The Obama and Simpson- Bowles plans are very similar. So here's the long and short of it. The Obama plan proposes a tax increase on people making $250,000 a year or more and $2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years. The Ryan plan only proposes $5.8 trillion is spending cuts over 10 years. And here lies the real problem. The Republicans absolutely refuse to generate revenue by increasing taxes on the rich and that's not right. Even in the Bible - Luke 12:48 it says, "...From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." So why shouldn't the most wealthy Americans pay just a little bit more in taxes? Haven't they benefited the most from the Bush Tax Cuts? As for the middle class, they don't have the money to be taxed on because most of them are scraping by, living paycheck to paycheck as it is.
So here's the solution. Spread the word throughout your jobs, communities, and congregations on how important it is to contact your elected officials and encourage them to support the President's "go big" balanced approach to solving the fiscal cliff. Tell them to stop all this partisan nonsense because the last time I jumped off a cliff, I landed feet first but with my legs apart. Hitting the water felt like a punch below the belt and trust me...that's not what America needs right now.

-Ken Rance