J. Michael Frasier, the Educator who gave me a voice.

In a recent facebook posting, I challenged the apathetic, the uncommitted and the disinterested in voting to de-friend me, because they just don’t seem to understand that what happens in government affects people I love.  And, I believe these people I love need my help, and I need my friends to help me to help them.  Pretty simple, in my mind.  And, if you are a friend, you help.  And, if you don’t help, you aren’t a friend. 

My former high school choir teacher with several choirs, J. Michael Frasier responded humorously by injecting that he was sorry, but he was still on my friend list. 

And, in his mirth, he reminded me of something I want to share with my friends.  It is about my choir teacher, Mr. Frasier. 

First, Mike, I never expected you would accept me as a friend on Facebook.  Yet, with your comment and smile, I admit I was hoping you would remain. 

In truth, I cannot imagine how many students discoverd how to sing under your direction.  You were Glee decades before Glee.  You made it cool for football high school students and farm boys to join the choir.  You had the cool and the geeks talking to each other rather than at each other.  You taught harmony, but the real scare was that each would have to perform and depend on the other.  Who can do that?   Well, you. 

One of the first introductions to you was in the late 70's and I was attending a May Music Week festival in La Grande, Oregon.  One of my babysitters from La Grande First Baptist Church was one of the May Music Week Courth and my sister (I am sure that picture is somewhere here) was attending as part of the Queen and Court, I believe. 

My grandmother, with a critical evaluation, during intermission described your conducting style as a maddening dancing little hen.  I laughed, stunned by her description, and found myself mesmerized by the way you kept a huge acapella choir focused.  She just recognized you infused your entire body with musical direction.  I'm also pretty sure she was simply distracted by your backside in black trousers, directing the sides of the choir from your discoteque dapper look and the gyrating to keep the tempo going.  It was the 70's, after all.

I cannot imagine whether the students appreciated your abilities, your intensity or your vast reserves of energy and imagination.  You taught me to cherish harmony, blending of voices, pitch, the value of varying the tone and volumes, and of course something I never felt comfortable doing, movement.  Your vision even had me on stage singing "Hand Jive" in Grease.  No one today could possibly think that would have been me.  (Secretly, I can still do the entire song word for word, for fear you might challenge me to do it on stage, with none of the other kids, just to make sure I could do it, just sayin.)

I first sat in a choir under your direction in 7^th grade, one year.   You never commanded respect, you simply held it in class.  You taught us to appreciate and expect something from chaos and with your help, we delivered entertainment, confidence and even stage presence.  You taught us focus and appreciation for languages we would never understand and we spoke powerful words of faith that today still give me goosebumps when I hear them. 

In music, you examined all sorts of emotions with us, you demonstrated emotions safely for us, you allowed to express emotions safely in that large choir room.  It became for some one of the rare rooms of peace, safety, and hope.

Your interest in our voices, something you craved for us to give you to mold, no matter how meek we were challenged us.  You demand that we get beyond ourselves emboldened us.  And, many of us found our voices for the first time and some of us have never let that value leave us.   In a conservative little town, a music teacher was teaching a Conservative Baptist teenager to find his voice, move his feet, and care about his world – through songs, languages, harmonies, varying styles, without supporting tunes, and sometimes with intermittent changes simply to throw life at us.  You were creating voices and filling the minds with the possibilities of other cultures, other languages, other people, and other ways.  And, what is funny, is that I didn’t know it at the time – and that is when I realized how great an educator you truly are.

Others have heard me sing in choirs for years, yet I rarely set aside time to share in those community events.  When someone in a church suggest I sing in their choir, I simply say thank you, and you and my Aunt Wendy are the two people I thank for the education and voice control. 

I may very well continue to sing until my last breath songs you taught us - some which gave me hope and a smile since 7th grade.  You taught the choir a song, "Come along with me, I'll show you where the grass is greener."  And, from that point in time, you gave me that song.  It could cheer me out of any cruel place and every situation that was uncomfortable.  Hopelessness has little ground with me when I have songs from Church and songs you shared and helped us to memorize.

You may have been the first teacher who let me know through song what many in the LGBT Youth today crave to hear desperatelly.  In La Grande, Oregon, you were teaching students that "It Gets Better".   I realized when reading a Rolling Stones article early last year that shared the awful devastation of LGBT Teen Suicide in Rep Bachman's district.  The combination of events over the last 15  years in that district could have been in La Grande when I attended.  I, too, would have been one of those horrible statistics.  Then, I remembered that in La Grande the school board at that time valued Orchestra, Choir, and Bands. They maintained a music program that enhanced my soul, my learning experience, and became a critical part of my education in the public schools when I was there. 

In those songs, you shared words, rythmn and phrases that encouraged, drew me out, made me boisterous, and even able to move - a little.  What other teachers taught me were facts and possibly how to arrive at a conclusion from information, history and fact.  What you taught me was what I could do, who we could be, and what Truth could be for anyone.

In the last 25 years I have fought for equality for those in America who do not share all the benefits of being American.  I have worked in civil rights movements, attended parades and rallies being picketed by others.  I have advocated equality, peace, and diversity for those years.  And, while doing that volunteer work in communities, I have worked in the financial planning area.

Why do I mention this?  Because if it was not for the many rythmns and voices you managed into a cohesive presentation, my brain could not possibly and so effortlessly provide powerful plans that include complex economic issues with their competing personal interests.  Your class taught my brain how to see a multiple of competing voices, crafting them into areas of common strength, to create a symphony of answers to an audience who craved a music with a message of hope, solutions, and possibilities.  I may call it a financial plan, but more than one client has called it “music to her ears” when I told him to go retire from work.

Today, while I would enjoy being in a choir, I have no cause to blend more than I do, so that others might more easily listen, even if it might bend their ears a little.  And, frankly, sometimes, I do wonder whether I could direct.  My family may think that I have always been opinionated.  I will let you know that you gave me a tune that encouraged those opinions out to allow a scared kid to find his voice, find a path, and sing others onto it to a better place.  I’m just afraid that someone might get distracted, because I might put my entire body into the effort to direct that particular music, if given a chance.

I think it was time to again say Thank You. 

Your efforts at music in La Grande High School leaves impressions on people in many places, facing many issues, yet from songs you taught to teens growing up in Farm Country in Eastern Oregon, they  share those truths every day, they multiply your energy, the continue the truths you shared, the hope you dispensed, the comfort you had us explore, and the music that was planted with all of it.  Your value can never be measured.  Not even on Facebook.  But, it would be fun to know on one ay how many voices still would come under the direction of your hands.  And, what possibilities would flow from those voices!  It defies even my imagination.

Beware a Thank You, It could be Cathartic.

In my family, for three generations that I know of, thank you comments make us squirm.  We have been raised to do our job, even if it could kill you, and for some of us, it could.  We rarely expect our motivation to come from the praise of others, we do it because it is required, it is necessary, and it is important to who we are.

But, in this case, what she said caught me by surprise.  When someone says thank you, normally it is diminutive, does not examine the activity, the import, nor the impact of the decisions, nor what else was competing, and the behind the scenes circumstances.  I have found that the impact and acceptance of “thank you” becomes more powerful and impacts the person being acknowledged as the speaker prefaces the Thank You.

In my client’s case, as she was ending the conversation, she asked how Carleton’s health was.  I had limited my discussion with most clients about Carleton to Facebook postings, for basic information, and to keep my personal life issues out of my professional relationships.  She recognized that I have spent a significant time in the last three months attending to issues that arose related to Carleton’s health.  She appreciated the hours, extra efforts, weekend conversations.  She understood her demands along with the crazy changes at the office, but I had exceeded her expectation.

Then it happened.  She slipped one sentence into that cordial requisite Thank You and changed it and impacted me.  She simply said, “I know you have been facing some serious issues and I wanted to personally thank you for taking your time to make things serious things happen for me.  I had to tear you away from very important priorities, I may never understand the cost, but I want to thank you for what you did for me.   

Wow. 

I had to get off the phone (yes, mom, you would identify.) 

If I were poetic, I would say this of exceptional Thank You messages.  An important Thank You will:

Recognize Specific Effort

Catch the essence of the Cost

Explain the Impact of the Action

And

Deliver Emotional Clarity.

In less than a minute, this client touched her challenges, my efforts, my personal challenge, and the competing interest difficulties, and in that thank you, acknowledged the potential cost of serving her.

The reason I wept as I hung up the phone.  Simple, she gave me a gift.  Her thank you confirmed my decisions.  She confirmed that I could continue to exceed the expectations of others to help them achieve dreams we cannot achieve alone and continue to support those I love.

I believe a thought out, carefully considered thank you encourages the hopeless, gives confidence to the uncertain.  It gives courage to the embattled.  And a powerful thank you can touch the deepest reservoirs of power in the weakest of bodies, bringing joy, peace, and resolve.

Her thank you breached my walls of professional and personal defenses, inspired hope in a dark morning, releasing stored tears of imperfection executed, overwhelming crisis care and unending frustration to heal the hopelessness that weighs against grief.  The resulting tears carried anger, stress, and rage out of me, leaving only relief and peace.  Stress and anger slipped past my eyes and her Thank You crashed tears into the deeper lines of worry and concern to carry any bitterness far from my soul.

For me, it was Cathartic.  A thank you simply shows you, easily, that you do matter, it is important to someone, and yes, dammit, someone today, does care.  And, sometimes, those little things have a stronger impact or have a way of stopping you in your tracks.  And, sometimes, it helps significantly.

Perhaps that is why my family, for generations, has been wary of Thank You.  You never know when you will receive one and the emotional response will overwhelm you to continue to do what you do best.  And, would not the world be a better place if more unsuspecting Thank You messages were sent, person to person, considering their efforts, the impact on you, and the cost it had to them.  It would certainly make us more human, and perhaps a little bit more humane.

Success working with a client, A thank you, a cry, enlightenment, and the feeling that life is a little lighter today.   That is a result of one Thank You.  And, to my client who gave it, simply, gently and with deep appreciation, I say, you may never read this or understand the effect that it had, but it made me cry, it encouraged me to continue to stand, and it energized me to share a Thank you in return.  A deep heart felt, yes you impacted me today, thank you.

Romney, Ryan and the Republicans must be rejected.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=4404913562235&set=a.2515221761121.2145148.1270506240&type=3&theater

Thank you, Jon Borgeson, for sharing the visual above.  I am not surprised by the necessity of Romney to call on the great follower of Ann Rand (famed writer and philosopher that considers the employed to be parasites), Paul Ryan.  It certainly will create a fevered pitch for the next few months regarding how to address Federal actions on the economy.  This political union of Romney and Ryan creates the extreme visual of the wealth versus those of us who might someday need access to a federal safety net.

Unfortunately, for Americans, with Republicans refusing to create a balanced plan to support Americans to stimulate the struggling economy -  it is unlikely that Congress or the Federal Government can find the political will to create the appropriate policies any time soon to create the one thing that grows an economy - DEMAND.   The failure of creating a successful and repetitive strategy for Americans was to fulfill a Republican pledge in the first month of Obama's presidency to keep hime to a one term US President.  Sadly, in my mind, this whole hearted focus of destroying any hope for hope and change created extensive harm to the American people that will last decades, in lost productivity, lessened savings, and impacted retirement accounts.

Without policies that create some level of certainty at the federal level, along with leadership on the focused financial goals and supported features from the federal government, no significant change will occur.  Corporations will continue to sit on trillions of dollars of assets and working American will continue to deleverage their debt as they can.  This malaise will continue until DEMAND grows stronger in our economy.  Even the Federal Reserve has gone to Congress several times begging in Fed speak to start to create significant partnering with what the Federal Reserve has been doing for four years.

Obama's attempts to create DEMAND policies over the last four years have been numerous yet except for the initial stimulus pakage, no other large package of action could successfully pass the Party of No.  I hope everyone understands that Tax Cuts will not create DEMAND only SPENDING will.

Romney advocates tax cuts for everyone, but especially for the wealthy.  Yet, the wealthy will not increase their spending proportionately to grow the economy.   Those who get the greatest benefit do not significantly represent a large enough percentage of Americans to impact SPENDING.  Their impacts may be seen in investments, but again, that will not provide as much DEMAND.  The tax cuts advocated would merely improve the small minorities personal wealth even more substantially.  (Note: since 1986, the top wealth class has seen a reduction of 65% of their tax rate.  Great lobbyists and their professional services.)

Now, Paul Ryan continues to work for major revisions on Medicare and Social Security that will greatly (and negatively) impact those in our country least able to absorb the economic abandonment.  I can only hope non-profits are capable of addressing the major cuts that would be seen to the poor and the middle class safety nets.  I doubt that with a full implementation of the Ryan plan would be anything less than cataclysmic.

So, for those who are tired or feel threatened by the "Hopes and Change" of the last four years because you saw that many of those promises have not been fulfilled, I have a comment.  Grow up.  It is not surprising that when great change is required, great opposition will arise to impede any progress.  In a time of instant gratification, the US Congress was not created to inspire those wishing immediacy.

I urge those who voted for Obama four years ago to consider the many changes that have occured.  Consider the elimination of Don't Ask Don't Tell.  Consider health care, which while not resolved, has taken an immense architectural leap forward, and many additional improvements will be necessary.  These are significant changes in the political and social environments. 

For those who didn't vote for Obama, which I am one, I am forced to consider the choices.  You, too, may want to consider the alternatives.  Two parties will not get enough signficant support to be the US President.  (For those of you who are curious, I voted for the leader of a third party rather than condone the maddening behavior and choices of McCain/Palin or the political behavior of the Obama team during their race to the White House.)  And, the Republican party clearly would like to actively implement actions that would return to years of discrimination against Gays and Lesbians.  The Republican Party is clearly supportive of reducing the health care options for women from the full access they enjoy at this moment.  And, they are clearly focused on repealing the PPACA or Obamacare, the single most important piece of health care architecture to be passed in over 30 years, allowing a strategic process with benefits for everyone to have access to insurance, care, and which allows for future cost cutting strategies to be considered.

The Republican Party is clear in their focus on taxation and fiscal strategy.  It is a strategy of reducing taxes on those who earn over $250,000 annually while balancing that deficit created by reducing the safety net costs to the federal budget, thus leaving those who are least able to organize, fight, or have access to financial reserves fighting for what is left.

An America based on scarcity is not an American Dream I care to dream.  My dream of America is one where everyone has a chance and those who are most successful continue to contribute significantly so that more Americans can reach their most potential.   I work hard every day.  I care for people every day.   I want an American Dream where college education does not greatly impact the financial future of families, yet that education positively impacts the future of the nation.  I can tell you that over the last four years, I am tired of the debate that ultimately has ended up with those with the most resources gaining more resources while those with the least resources, find less.  I would like a different conversation.  One where everyone worried about those with less.  And, those with the most, considered fair ways to participate in the process of lifting those less fortunate rather than significant ways to limit their participation or financial liability.

Obama has done his level best as President to help America recover, no thanks to the almost economically lethargic actions of Republicans in Congress.  Obama continues to work to create a more inclusive America.  He, and Hillary Clinton, have done an admirable job for four years on the foreign relations front.  And, considering the shambles Bush left it in, it is nearly a miracle.

There have been mistakes.  There will always be mistakes.  But, after viewing the values of a political party that chose at the beginning of the last four years to pursue political values of complete opposition, to the point of shutting down the entire economic viability of the government, to assure the ruination of a sitting President.  Well, I cannot condone that type of behavior. 

In addition to that behavior, the very behavior to vote 33 times to repeal PPACA after the majority of the same leaders participated in the initial stonewalling and debate of that legislation and its passage, is repulsive.  The values of these legislative leaders of the Republican Party have shocked me to the core.  Rather than value all Americans and create a path of compromise that would create benefits for all, the values of this last two-year Congress has been a path of power to the majority, at the cost to all Americans.

And, that, to me, is simply unacceptable.

We are all Americans.  Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, right now, the U.S. has a sitting president.  And, his last name is Obama.  Did I elect him.  No.  Do I recognize him as my president, yes. 

The last two years was a fiasco of values and failed leadership clearly focused at frustrating the American people, to deny them benefits and priviledges that they should have expected to receive.  This policy of "no" along with continued stonewalling on addressing real economic stimulus to the economy, is the transparent, but clearly secret strategy of the minority political party to move Americans to support the party of No.

Obama, with all American political leaders, should have set party politics aside the last two years.  Clearly, both sides were hightly political and biased.  Obama, many times, reached across the aisle.  Republicans soundly rejected his offers, his solutions, his leadership. 

Yet, I am here, writing this blog, to encourage a complete rejection of all US Congressional Republicans in office due to their irresponsible behavior during the debt limit crisis, their myopic focus on the next presidential race, and their complete lack of concern for the American people and doing the most important part of that work.  If I was not so careful, I would suggest that charges of treason be drawn against every one of those who agreed to this consistent and focused policy of No to oppose so completely the work of Government because of the sitting President.

I had hoped that the Republicans would turn from their divisive ways and I would be able to consider an alternative to Obama.  I had hoped that Republicans would allow for diversity in our communities.  I had hoped that America would be the America Reagan spoke of, rather than an America that McCarthy created.  Romney can't even be transparent and share his extensive tax returns, either because we are not smart enough to understand them, or he simply wants to keep secrets.  And, when a candidate is already this secretive, well, I can see another Watergate happening on his watch, with his need for secrets and control.

Obama is the only credible choice in the coming election for diversity, community, education, social safety nets, and to be honest, even defense. 

Voter Fraud and Voting Restrictions policies are destroying Democracy.

Restricting voters from voting is unAmerican.  When will Americans get a clue and stand up to any politician that doesn't make it easier, not harder, for Americans to vote?  We already allow lies on radio, distortions of the truth in the media, why do Americans allow their politicians to hinder the process of voting?  Or, by using our military, and our patriotic feelings of connection, to allow them to hinder any American.  Republicans regularly denounce when Democrats work to protect the military, but regularly use the military to bolster their political strategies. 

Case in point, Romney this week.  http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/romney-says-obama-lawsuit-blocks-ohio-military-voters-002013009--abc-news-politics.html

The military, and their families, should not be used to shape voting laws in any state.  If the military receives a benefit, I am sure they would want every American to have access to that same benefit.  Especially one so critical to the democratic process and ideals they defend with their lives.

This voter fraud strategy that has swept Republican strong holds is a thinly veiled attempt for Republicans to maintain stronger holds on areas that are seeing more and more diverse communities that will ultimately reduce their political power.  This voting limitation strategy of Republicans will win, in the short term, because Americans simply do not understand how seriously terrible this strategy is to our independence.  Ultimately, this type of strategy worked for decades and led to civil rights wars across our country, which included police actions, terrorism, national marches and assasinations in the 1960s. 

Romney should be ashamed of using this poorly veiled attempt at limiting new voters from participating in elections.  Yet, as cocky as many Republicans are at dictating laws on religion, women's health, and how people should access health care, they must not read very much history about this nation's horrible treatment of minorities and the terrible consequences of that treatment.  The mistreated in this country have a way of uniting a majority of Americans to recognize the error of its ways and lead the majority back to Fairness, Mercy, and Community.
  
The news media should be ashamed for promoting the biased headline suggesting Romney is protecting th military.  Romney is using the military benefit in the Voter Elimination Act in Ohio to accompany the implementation of a law that would provide special benefits to the military, while eliminating that precious right for everyone else. 

When are Americans going to recognize the terrible impact of this national Republican strategy to eliminate a complete community from participation in one of our most dear traditions.  Until the last decade, I thought diverse voices in the political process we all held so dear.  Hence the reason we cherish political prisoners suffering abroad.  Yet, in the last decade, we have defended torture, elimination of due process, and now voting is in jeopardy. 

It is Nasty Politics, and it is going to effect you, personally.  No matter which party, this is simply bad, bad, terribly bad policy - and every American should vote out a politician who thinks this is acceptable policy.  Eliminate the black vote, the latino vote, the LGBT vote, the young vote, even seniors, but certainly you won't be affected.   Without an entire community's participation in the electoral process, we are left with out a fair process where democracy has a chance to thrive.  Eliminating or restricting the vote leads a democracy to an Oligarchy or a quasi-dictatorship with internal terrorism issues.  Restricting the voting process creates opportunities for internal injustice and actions outside the law by those who become disenfranchised. 

Voting Restrictive States minimize the importance of voting.  It suggests that voting doesn't matter to Americans.  Yet, these policies create an America that is less than.  When you create hurdles to the voting process, you cheapen the process.  You communicate a special worth to some, while creating inconvenience and confusion for others.  It creates an America that is less that is truly could be.

These policies cheapen my voice, hurt my belief in democracy, and raise concerns that we are no better than the system in Iran where politicians control the voting process.

Be prepared when you are signled out because if you endorse this strategy, you are worse than a terrorist.  Terrorists attack and create havoc, hurting those who are uninvolved or seen as victims.  When you endorse this type of policy, you are actively engaged in destroying democracy.  And, ultimately, this policy will affect you.  Political power swings from right to left.  Worry when you aren't on the current popular side of this particular policy. 

If this is your politician peddling restrictions in voting for your community, understand that devil would sell your soul for power, any day.  Vote them out, no matter the party.