SOLIDARITY & COOPERATION
Category Archives: Uncategorized
memorial day: what are we fighting for?
A very special episode of The Frequency of Hope is in store this week!
Our Memorial Day observance will include an interview with retired Marine Mike Broihier, Democratic primary candidate for U.S. Senate in Kentucky. The winner of that primary will challenge the incumbent, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
What are We Fighting for? Particularly on Memorial Day, let’s look at what we allow or promote in the name of our great country.
Mike is a self-described “outsider” running to represent an historically conservative constituency. We’ll discuss his experiences in the campaign, his evolution as a candidate and find out more about this former schoolteacher, journalist and farmer that has been bucking the system to stay in the race and what it’s like to face entrenched power, even in his own party.
In the second hour, we’ll be joined by former (and possibly future!) candidates from around Virginia and get personal insight into their own campaigns and experiences from the inside out! Tavorise Marks, Elizabeth Alcorn, Katie Sponsler, Al Durante and Montigue Magruder. #communityradio #live #radioactiveRVA
Hear us by live stream on Facebook and YouTube, audio live stream available 24/7 via TuneIn and our website: theworkfm.org and on your dial at 93.9 FM in RVA.
Taking the economy back to Main street
Covid-19 got the attention of everyone. It even put commerce on hold, only essential business could operate, only essential transportation, only the elements of our lives that would least increase our risk of catching Covid-19.
That put back in play an idea that had been dismissed in many quarters, that some things are more important than the wall street economy, some things are more important than profit. As a concept, profit itself has no intent but those who make the profits do – and all too often their intent prevails over the majority of folks who do The Work.
As the Covid-19 pandemic has irrefutably demonstrated, this profiteering intent has created vast concentrations of wealth via a failing economic system that is not sustainable. The question for all global citizens in this hour of crisis is “what is our intent, what should it be and how do we make it manifest? How do we make a Worthy Intention real?
Here at TheWorkFM we will be asking that question and discussing the possibilities in a civil and informed exchange. Please join us as we work to make this region a voice in a global conversation about making the world we all want to live in. May this post be followed by lively conversations between you and your neighbors about a future that works, not the one that got us here.
Need motivation? Take a sobering look at the present “enemy”, our challenge and the opportunity it represents see the covid 19 world map, courtesy of Johns-Hopkins University.
Please comment. We are all in this together.
Human Solidarity can save the day.
mean versus meaning: What are we about?
WRWK-fm: What are we trying to do?
The dilemma of the year is business versus the environment. The invented world versus life. Covid19 has exposed our civilization as lacking in the capacity to support, let alone protect, life. Can business and the environment be in balance? This is the question we have to answer.
For example the media is rewarded with ad revenue by keeping its followers upset but watching. Advertisers rake in money by creating insecurities which they sell to . The economy keeps us on edge with high potential returns and celebration of a stock market that few benefit from.
The common denominator at play is a culture that equates asset value with social worth, hides the social costs of high returns, and exploits rather than helps the vulnerable. All signs of a culture at war with itself.
In life we can chose to care for life and the world that makes it possible, or we can pretend to be little gods and consume our corner of it . I see little future in consuming the world within a few generations. I prefer to help find the fit between the created and the creation. That’s us and what we were born into.
I don’t pretend to be God or even know him/her well. Nor do I claim to have a special relationship with anything godlike. Even if I am merely an accident, an unlikely outcome from the big Bang, I am a happy accident and grateful to be here. At The Work FM we are all about finding how we fit into the world how to make it better.
This statement is my opinion and may not reflect the views of WRWK, the staff, volunteers, or the board of directors.
HUMAN LIFE takeS a back seat to Capital ? What?!!
As the pandemic spreads across the world sparing no nation, economics seems to trump human life (no pun intended).
Capitalism is on trial. The current leadership has held to stripping out, dismissing or ignoring human concerns in favor of a narrow and short term economic gain. We are only beginning to see how foolish and dangerous that is.
In the midst of the CoVid-19 viral pandemic the addiction to short term economic gain floats to the top like scum on a pond. Grabbing fast profits by exploiting a scarcity of supplies during a catastrophe may seem like the American way but it sure doesn’t fit with the values of the “City on a hill” which our leaders are constantly claiming we are. Read it, we’re not.
Back in 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Naomi Klein wrote an essay introducing the term “disaster capitalism” to our political discussions and awakening us to the cancerous impact of those who attempt to profit from disasters. It all sounds great if you have visions of dollars dancing in your head, but eventually you’ll be on the receiving end of such greed and it may cost you your life or the life of someone you love.
Whether it is the cynical promotion of opioids to profit from addiction or bonus checks paid to CEOs from public bailout money or bank scams or gouging people on the price of toilet paper, hand sanitizer or surgical masks, it all adds up to our most dangerous cancer: GREED.
And if we’re not careful, it will be the death of us all.
Ron S. & Stryder Lee
scarewords, misdirection & Manipulation
Now that Bernie Sanders has shown that he has wide support, the corporate media is in full panic mode and they are getting a bit hysterical about his self-imposed label “democratic socialist.” If you listen carefully, you will hear a litany of predictable slogans and scarewords like “socialist,” “far left,” “radical left” and more. Unfortunately for them, sloganeering is not a replacement for thoughtful, factually supported argument. These words are used because they work – they successfully cloud the minds and the judgement of those who come under their spell. They also frighten people into voting against their own self-interest.
The good news is that many young people are more immune to the scarewords and therefore not as terrified of socialism as their elders. It may be that they have a more informed and sophisticated understanding of what socialism is and how if functions. Older generations and the less informed largely base their “arguments” on a few failed examples, some of which aren’t even socialist: Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea. The sloganeering used is predictable because anti-socialist propaganda is repeated everywhere, not just on Fox. Most demonstrate their misunderstanding by using “socialist,” “communist,” and “fascist” interchangeably. More importantly, anti-socialist scaredy cats usually overlook the many “socialist” aspects of America that they appreciate: the military, public roads, public schools, public libraries, public hospitals, bridges, and much more.
Perhaps the biggest blindspot for the anti-socialist scaredy cat is the fact that America already is socialist. Corporate socialism is so much a part of our environment it has become nearly invisible to us. We don’t balk over the subsidies that are given to corporations every year. We try to ignore the fact that many hugely profitable corporations do not pay any taxes. We attempt to convince ourselves that we should subsidize corporations because they are “job creators” even though we know that these jobs offer minimal wages, decreasing benefits and no security.
What the scaredy cats really need to fear is plutocracy – rule by a wealthy few. The 1% are the folks most terrified of socialism because they don’t want to give up any of their own subsidies. They smugly lecture us about work and responsibility while constantly lobbying for more public funding and shirking all accountability for cleaning up their own messes. They dodge their taxes and park their money overseas to avoid paying their fair share. To put it simply: GREED is the reason they don’t want “we the people” to receive what most other developed countries offer: healthcare, education, childcare and other social programs. Such socially positive public spending is not “radical” nor is it “extreme,” it’s just good common sense. What is radical however is the growing wealth gap in America – a natural result of corporate socialism, the mechanism of plutocracy.
Perhaps it is time we reverse this mechanism and re-direct our tax dollars to programs that benefit ordinary working folks rather than filling the pockets of the already immensely wealthy. This is not radical, this is neither Democratic nor Republican, neither liberal nor conservative, it’s simply something to think about next time you vote.
MISTAKEN MATH OF DENIAL
Beware the mistaken math of denial.
Whether we’re talking about climate change, Bernie’s electability or the overwhelming evidence demonstrating abuse of power by a leader, inevitably there is a deliberate flaw in the reasoning used to arrive at such conclusions that “TWO AND TWO MAKE FIVE.” In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, this mistaken math is the dogma of unaccountable power, “true” because it says so.
This form of doublethink requires “a sort of athleticism of mind, an ability at one moment to make the most delicate use of logic and at the next to be unconscious of the crudest logical errors. Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain.”
A hidden danger lurks.
As we seek to find the truth in our chaotic world with its whirlwind of information, disinformation and misinformation, let us avoid the misleading “all perspectives are valid,” mindset that challenges us to consider all topics with an open mind. Naturally we wish to be “open minded” and thus we are tempted to entertain a questionable skepticism about things like the origins of life, the shape of the earth, climate change or the reality of the lunar landing.
In confusing times like these, teeming with propaganda and corporate bias mixed with objective truths, it can be hard to know where to turn. Avoid the kinds of bias that come from wealthy owners and profit pressure – tune in to local, independent media like WRWK 93.9FM TheWorkFM. Listen to programming unhindered by corporate bias that won’t require you to believe that two and two make five.
What a Week and the TRIAL OF DENIAL IS STILL ON!
History is being made these days. Years hence we will look back on these days as times when civilization itself was under threat by uncivilized elements. I am not partisan.
Do leaders get a pass on arm twisting other nations to get help with domestic political campaigns? Either
Everyone does it, get used to it. OR , No one should be doing it.
The political “genius” of current leadership is to own it and thereby recast our political process as totally transactional;
I.E for sale to the highest bidder. This then is where Capitalism reaches into democracy and takes a big bite out of you and me and our desire to have a civil discussion about how we create a way forward. If how we use and share and manage our Planet is reduced to dollars and cents we may not pass on anything worth having to our kids. That’s like pimping the country and it’s taxpayer’s interests.
I want to be around when the transactional senator’s kids are picking out their nursing home. The senators are pointing out all the money they left , what they hadn’t spent already, as the kids consider the compromises made to get it and what a mess it left them. Lots of luck. You may need more than diapers.
radio, disinformation and danger
It’s been a few years since I’ve read O’Connor’s 2008 book Shock Jocks but its relevance could hardly be greater in today’s divided and misinformed America. Contrary to constant claims by some media outlets that “liberal media” control the conversation, O’Connor reveals that “democratic dialogue is being hindered by a huge ideological imbalance in the medium. Conservative viewpoints have long dominated talk radio.” The result of this has not only been widespread misinformation on crucial issues like gun control but more subtly a deep hatred of “liberals” whether they be so named or claim the name Democrat, progressive, socialist or leftist. This is a dangerous and largely unexplored phenomenon that has yet to play out in America. There are some liberals who have earned this hate with their smug self-righteousness, PC policing and angry attempts at censorship but these could not explain the constant and venomous vilification of the left that is broadcast by shock jocks to large audiences every day.
I got to thinking about the open-carry gun rights march coming to Richmond, Virginia on MLK Day and how so many people fall for the paranoid claim that the 2nd Amendment is under threat and the government is coming to take away our guns. Unless you equate any gun control legislation as a violation and a threat (a bit of a stretch) this is not even close to true. Shock jocks often promote 2nd amendment fears and plentiful evidence demonstrates that for decades the NRA has deployed disinformation and stoked hysteria about threatened gun rights – and now we know what they’ve done with all the money they took from their members. I enjoy shooting sports and I appreciate the 2nd Amendment but I have no need to carry a gun nor do I have a problem with sensible gun legislation. I have no fear that our guns are going to be taken away. To the contrary, it could be argued that the militia movement is by far the greater threat to America – especially with our current president.
In this digital-bluetooth-communications revolution we might be tempted to dismiss radio as an outdated and ineffective medium of communication but this would be a mistake. Podcasts, a radio-friendly medium, are hugely popular now and as I’ve noted, the impact of shock jock talk radio is having widespread and ugly reverberations in America. Most students of history know that the Nazis were the first to use radio for propaganda purposes to stoke irrational fear and hatred of Jews and other “undesirables.” Fewer folks know about the role of radio in the Rawandan genocide of the early 1990s.
The inconvenient and horrific fact is that over 800,000 people were hacked to death by machete wielding fanatics, stoked and specifically guided by the ultimate in hate radio. We might first notice that gun laws would not have prevented this mass murder but more chilling is how easily a country can be duped into a civil war and genocide by targeting and demonizing a scapegoated group through the old-fashioned but economical medium of radio.
Here at WRWK TheWorkFM.org we reject hate radio and the scapegoating of minority groups as strenuously as we reject the corporate bias of commercial radio. You can support our mission to bring intelligent, non-commercial and relevant talk radio to the airwaves by making a donation or volunteering today.
Equal rights amendment Versus second amendment
In the shadow of the passage of the ERA and on MLK day when the Governor promised to sign it the Gun Lobby wants to take front stage at the State Capital. The governor has declared a State of Emergency from 5 PM Friday till 5 PM Tuesday (1/17 to 1/21).
Long term vision versus short term vision. Baby carry versus Open Carry. Which world is it? Is everyone armed and dangerous or are we social? Do we need to flaunt our guns or put them down and signify – ” I have no weapon” by shaking hands?
Is the NRA right? Do we need to renew our “man card” by buying guns and ammo? Will that resolve the Deficit we are leaving our kids? Will that build more schools, roads, hospitals, increase social stability? I may not be watching the right movies or reading the right ads but i think this needs more discussion, without intimidation.
Come down to the Virginia State Capital on MLK day to celebrate with Women of Virginia and show the Second amendment crowd that they are full humans without guns. Pay equity yes, violence equity, no thanks, been there, done that.
Maybe someone can whip out a book for the gun crowd that parallels women’s “Why do I think I’m nothing without a man?” titled something like “Why do I think I’m nothing without a Gun?” If you hang out with people who need to scare everyone just to get by you may be missing out on something.