Where’s the Outrage?

Basically, I’m a happy guy. I love to laugh. I’m married to beautiful, thoughtful, supportive wife. I’m living my childhood dream. I’m a doctor. A friend of mine sent me an e-mail that touched a nerve. It was about happiness. The first paragraph reported that polls show that vast majority of Americans are unhappy with the direction of our country and our President’s leadership. The e-mail went on to berate Americans for being unhappy. We have a great economy, it said. We have jobs and a roof over our heads. It went on and on then ended with the question - what is there to be unhappy about? I thought about this e-mail for a little while then I wrote the following -

Our unhappiness is clear. We should be unhappy. When we are lied to by you’re your parents you’re unhappy. When people you trusted, people you poured your heart, soul and dreams into turn out to be con-men, you’re unhappy. Vice President Cheney stated, “There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us. And there is no doubt that his aggressive regional ambitions will lead him into future confrontations with his neighbors — confrontations that will involve both the weapons he has today, and the ones he will continue to develop with his oil wealth.” None of this was true.

When a Black man who is running for president of the United States in the 2007 is called a “Halfican” by several leading right wing commentators and there is no action taken against them, I’m unhappy. When those same commentators play a song called, “Puff the Magic Negro” sung in Al Sharpton’s voice and it’s about Barack Obama and these commentators are still on the air, I’m unhappy.

When politicians stand up and say that we need to end this war like John Warner (Republican Senator from Virginia) and then vote against timetables, troop withdrawal and giving troops some time away from the front, yep, I’m unhappy.

When the average family has 2 incomes and still can’t make ends meet, I’m unhappy. The average income for the top 20 Hedge Fund managers was $654 million last year. Average! WE have a system in place where if you are born rich you can’t lose. If you are born poor, good luck! [Read more →]

Tags: Iraq, Newsletter, Race by ecthompson
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I wrote this last August. I hope you still find it relevant.

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For the last 25 years, we, the American people, have been sold a bill of goods. The pitch, on one level, appeals to our natural sense of right and wrong. We’ve been told that we pay too much in taxes. We get taxed in the morning. We get taxed as we drive to work. We clearly get taxed on the money that we make it work. We come home and we kiss our spouse. We get hit with the marriage tax. As we make our way to the kitchen we trip over toys that we bought for our kids and of course, those toys were taxed. We get taxed morning, noon and night. Finally, when we leave this earth, we get taxed again with the death tax.

We’ve also been told that our government is not to be trusted. If you give money to the government it is almost equivalent to flushing the money down the drain. Some of our elected leaders have gone so far as to say flushing the money down the drain is actually a better use of the money. The take home lesson is our government is wasteful and we get taxed to death. Cool story. Unfortunately, reality is different than this fantasy world. This week, in my opinion, we saw clearly the result of 27 years of cutting government programs and government spending. The evidence has been all around us but we’ve refuse to see it. Our infrastructure is crumbling around us. We’ve invested almost nothing in our schools, roads, government buildings, levees and, of course, bridges.

As I’ve pointed out in my book, A Letter to America, taxes are like membership fees to an exclusive club. The United States of America is the club that we belong to. Our club used to treat us like exclusive members. If you work hard in school you were almost guaranteed a job for which you can be well-paid. You could be secure in the knowledge that you would have this job until you retire. Once we retired we had a generous pension that made all those years of work, pain and suffering, worth it. Well, like any club, when you reduce the membership fees too far, the perks that made that club special are now not affordable. [Read more →]

Tags: Budget, Domestic Issues, Newsletter, Tax by ecthompson
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I found this article on my computer. I wrote this article back in May of 2007. Hope that you enjoy it.

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Just because something is complex does not mean it’s not understandable. The US Attorney scandal is confusing. The question is, what’s going on? Well, in order to figure out everything that’s going on there must be investigations. Some folks on Capitol Hill are calling the current investigations a witch hunt and “political theater.”

Question B if a policeman sees someone walking down the street with a large plasma TV should he be curious? So he asks the guy, “What are you doing with that TV?” He replies, “I’m fixing it for Ms. Smith.” “Ms. Smith? There’s no Ms. Smith that lives on this street.” “Did I say fixing it? I meant delivering it to Mr. Jones.” I think that everyone would assume that this situation deserves further investigation.

The same type of thing has happened with the Justice Department. Eight US attorneys were fired out of the blue. All of these attorneys were Republicans. The initial explanation was that they were fired for performance reasons. Several reporters were able to obtain performance evaluations on several of these attorneys and they were excellent. The next explanation was that some of the attorneys did not prosecute enough immigration cases. This explanation did not hold up to investigation either. Finally, Alberto Gonzales, the US Attorney General, stated that these US attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. Therefore, the president can fire them at any time for any reason. Well, this is sort of true. It is true that the president has the power to hire and fire US attorneys. But, and this is important, the President cannot fire at a US attorney to influence a particular case or to halt a particular investigation or for political reasons. [Read more →]

Tags: Newsletter, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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I wrote this for the Urban News over a year ago. I thought that you might enjoy it.

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Okay, just stop it. I’m so tired of talking points. Both sides have ‘em. On one side, we have, “we can’t have politicians telling the generals in the field what to do.” Well, our Constitution has been set up in such a way that politicians tell generals what to do. On the other side, “the American people have spoken and have put us in charge to end the war.” Well, that is sort of true. If the American people unanimously wanted the war to end, then the Democrats would govern with 70 or 80% of the seats in both chambers.

There are a few things that are clear. First, the opinion of the American people has been slowly changing over the last two to three years. We’ve lost faith in the purpose and the execution of the Iraq war. In December 2003 (Quinnipiac University Poll), 46% of Americans thought that President Bush was handling the war in Iraq well. Over the years the percentage of Americans who supported the war and supported President Bush’s handling of the war has declined. In an April 25, 2007 poll from the same researchers, President Bush had an approval rating of only 31% on his handling of the war in Iraq. A new CNN poll (May 4-6, 2007, http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/05/08/rel6d.pdf) reveals that 57 % of Americans believe that Congress should send the president another bill with funding and timetables. [Read more →]

Tags: Bush Administration, Iraq, Newsletter by ecthompson
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My good friend, Timothy Johnson, Ph.D., was recently honored by the Buncombe County Republican party. Timothy Johnson has been elected party chair. It did not go unnoticed that he is the first black elected party chair in Buncombe County – Republican or Democratic. In an interview with the Weaverville newspaper, Tim commented on how many blacks are “ignorant” of the bedrock beliefs of the Republican Party. Dr. Johnson believes that the ideals of the Republican Party line up very well with the ideals of the Black community.

Before I go on any further, I would like to say that no one and no party has cornered the market on ethics or morality. There are bad and evil people that are motivated by greed and power in both parties. But, with that being said, I think we can look over the past 40 years and honestly begin to evaluate which party truly benefited Blacks and continues to benefit minorities and the underprivileged. Let’s look at a few issues.

Civil rights. This one is easy. There is no contest. In the 60s the Democrats stood with Blacks. Southern Democrats there were opposed to integration did not like the direction of the party and slowly but surely left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party. Were there individual Republicans who believed that integration was inevitable? Were there individual Republicans who believed that segregation was an abomination? I think the answer is yes on both counts. Did the Republican party change their platform in 1964 and 1968 to appease Southern Whites? Yes.

[Read more →]

Tags: Newsletter, Party Politics, Race by ecthompson
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I wrote this for the Urban News (April 2008):

I just finished watching the History Channel’s two-hour documentary on Martin Luther King narrated by Tom Brokaw. It was extremely well done but… something was missing. There were interviews from civil rights activists like Representative John Lewis, Ambassador Andrew Young, and Martin Luther King, III, along with thoughtful commentary from contemporary activists including President Bill Clinton, Bono, Forest Whitaker, Jr., and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who grew up in Birmingham.

The program was like a wonderful BBQ sauce that tastes great but is missing some key ingredient or ingredients that give the sauce a pizzazz. That’s what was missing! Pizzazz! In spite of that, I highly recommend it.

As I sit here in my house, in a nice suburban neighborhood, in Arden, North Carolina, I am dictating this column into my Dell computer using sophisticated (translation: expensive) speech-to-text software. I mention this because it takes some capital to do what I’m doing — capital that, in the 1960s, 99% of black Americans didn’t have. My world has been made possible by the sacrifice of Martin Luther King and tens of thousands of others. I’ve attended some of the best schools that our nation has to offer. I have worked at some of the best hospitals because of those who’ve come before me (like my father who was also a doctor). For this, I am forever indebted and grateful. [Read more →]

Tags: Newsletter by ecthompson
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Where’s the Outrage?
May 2005*

A huge showdown is brewing in the Senate over President Bush’s judicial appointments. Senatorial tensions over this process are especially pronounced since it is very likely that later in the summer at least one member of the Supreme Court will be stepping down. This type of thing happens almost weekly in the House, but the 100-person Senate has always been more collegial. Compromise has been the hallmark of the Senate for over two hundred years. Now, it is looking as though High Noon is approaching. [Read more →]

Tags: Domestic Issues, Legal, Newsletter by ecthompson
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Where’s the Outrage?*
April 2005

Pope John Paul II has died. I believe the passing of this extraordinary man of God is an opportune moment for all people, including a Methodist like me, to reflect on his life, his actions and his faith. John Paul made the papacy relevant once more on the world stage. He was truly a world leader. He helped to inspire changes in his native country that led to Polish independence. He spurred similar developments in Chile (1). Some historians have even given Pope John Paul credit for the fall of the Soviet Union. Besides having a hand in political events, the pontiff was a champion for the poorest and most oppressed souls on our planet, an inspiring friend to young people, and a serious environmentalist. But, paradoxically, he chose to turn his back on women, and he discouraged activist priests. Worst of all, he did not act quickly to rid the American Catholic church of child-molesting priests or their apologist-protectors such as Cardinal Law of Boston. Why didn’t he say, “If you molest a child, we will defrock you immediately and make sure you go to jail?” For these reasons, I am a bit bewildered by this great man. But I hope and pray that he rests in peace. [Read more →]

Tags: Civil Liberty, Domestic Issues, Newsletter, Pakistan by ecthompson
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I wrote this over a year ago.  It is kinda fun to look back at what I was thinking about.  What was on my mind?  Bush and his misguided policies were on my mind!
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I’ve already written a book about the recent Presidential election and the state of politics in America; but, like many people who think and read and worry and talk a lot, I have more to say. A lot more. This on-line quarterly newsletter, with the working title, “Where’s the Outrage?” will be my sounding board—and yours—at least for now. Why this title? Because today, perhaps more than any other time in global history, outrageous events are happening all around the world; these events have me hopping, book-throwing, foot-stomping mad. And my question for you is: “Where is the Outrage?” As rational citizens of America and the world, we need to talk more and start thinking about what we can do.

Let me start by saying that, surprising as it may seem, I am not upset over the election. The best organization, the best politician won. I am upset at how George W. Bush won. He won, as he has governed, not by being the straight-shooting, no-nonsense fellow he is reputed to be, but by bowing to the so-called political savvy of advisors who advocate showing the public only shades of the truth. They told us why we had to go to war in Iraq–for the security of our country so we wouldn’t have to fight terror on our own soil. Iraq, they told us, posed an immediate threat. That turns out to have been a shade of the truth.

They told Middle America how the Bush tax cuts have helped our economy. Shaded truth again: our median income is still below year 2000 levels, the American economy has lost more jobs during the Bush years than it has created, and few of these new jobs are long-term, well-paying jobs.

To be fair, it is not unusual for politicians to stretch or shade the truth, especially during a campaign; and I expected Bush to puff up his record like a sixteen-year-old stud bragging on his pimped out Yugo. But the fact that so many Americans bought his versions of the truth and didn’t look a little harder at what was happening in their own neighborhoods is disheartening. The fact that we were distracted by Swift Boat Veterans—who ever heard of this group before now?—or that Kerry’s wife is wealthy and independent-minded or that the Bush daughters seem to enjoy life in spite of living in a fishbowl seemed to interest Americans more than the real issues like the war and the economy and education. Outrageous.

Now we are mired in Iraq—in part because we didn’t question the “truths” we were told about Saddam’s regime. Maybe Bush’s team didn’t know the whole truth at the time of the invasion. The idea of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the madman Saddam—that does sound serious. But now we know circumstances weren’t as dire as our “intelligence” told us. The situation in Iraq has become a huge vortex that is sapping our resources, sucking about $1 billion a day and who can see the end? The January elections have not stopped the violence. Now we talk about “containing” rather than ending the violence. Apparently, there is no exit strategy. Perhaps there never was. Outrageous!

[Read more →]

Tags: Domestic Issues, Newsletter by ecthompson
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I wrote this article and submitted it as an op-ed piece.  It was published in the Asheville Citizen Times on February 14, 2006.

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For several weeks now, Americans have been aware that our government is eavesdropping upon our private communications, calling these activities a “terrorist surveillance program.” These invasions of our privacy, we are told, have all been in the name of homeland security and have been characterized as part of President Bush’s war on terrorism. I’m only a physician, not a spy, but I cannot believe we have come to this.

Since the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, the specially appointed Sept. 11 Commission as well as a House and Senate Joint Intelligence Committee on Sept. 11, 2001, have investigated this act of terrorism as well as our intelligence-gathering system. Both groups have had much to say. Our intelligence community has been inefficient, poorly organized and ill-equipped in general. Looking back specifically at what led to Sept. 11, these study groups have identified a number of signs we missed or misread, bits of evidence we did not take seriously enough, instances of poor communication between government agencies and failures to properly interpret the intelligence that was being gathered prior to the attack on Sept. 11.

One of their most worrisome findings is the fact that the powerful government agencies charged with protecting Americans from terrorism — the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and State Department — were not working cooperatively. In all the pages of recommendations made by the Sept. 11 Commission and the House and Senate Joint Intelligence Committee, however, there was not one suggestion that our government should secretly violate the privacy of its citizens by eavesdropping upon their telephone calls and e-mail.

In order to prevent the government from misconstruing or abusing its powers, our Founding Fathers adopted the Bill of Rights in 1789.

It would seem, however, that in the year 2006, in the name of homeland security and with frightening language about the possibility of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, our government is coming very close to violating several of the rights that are basic to American democracy.

The First Amendment addresses the right to free speech, the Fourth Amendment assures citizens that their privacy will not be violated without due cause, and even the Sixth Amendment, which addresses criminal trials, requires that the accused be confronted with the witnesses against them.

Does secretly eavesdropping on American citizens’ conversations square with these constitutional provisions?

I would imagine that most Americans are like me — we don’t want any more Sept. 11s, and we are satisfied that the official criticisms of the agencies in our government charged with protecting our security and the recommendations for improving our intelligence community, listed below, make a lot of sense:

• Both the Sept. 11 Commission and the House and Senate Joint Intelligence Committee found that neither the U.S. government nor the intelligence community had developed a comprehensive strategy for dealing with Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida.

• Both groups noted that the intelligence community was not well organized or well-equipped to combat global terrorists with targets inside the United States.

• They recognized that our intelligence community is not prepared to handle the volume of foreign-language data that comes in relating to terrorism.

• They recommended that we combine strategic intelligence and operational planning against international terrorists by creating a National Counterterrorism Center.

• They recommended that we unify the intelligence community under a new national intelligence director and develop mechanisms to share information among all the arms of government that participate in counterterrorism.

Let me repeat, however, that nowhere in their analysis or recommendations did either study group mention, much less suggest, warrantless eavesdropping on American citizens.

Even if a good case for governmental eavesdropping could be made, does the evidence we now have about the events leading up to Sept. 11 suggest that a measure such as this could have prevented the murder and destruction that took place that day?

I don’t think so.

Writing assistance by Catherine Ross, PhD.

Tags: Domestic Spying, National Intelligence, Newsletter, Terrorism by ecthompson
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