Protect Our Parks PSA

Tom Interviewed on WBEZ - "Connecting the Dots"

I was interviewed by Richard Steel on WBEZ Chicago's morning news magazine, 848. He was interested in my first post for the Huffington Post''s new Chicago edition. My beat is themed "Connecting the Dots in Chicago." My first post introduced the topic, which looks at the relationship between the state of the federal budget, the incompetence of Illinois' state government and the corruption in Chicago's city government. The result of this chain reaction of misguided federal spending and clowns and crooks running local government is the Screwed Citizen. Read the piece and leave a comment!

Catch Tom @ The Huffington Post

I've joined the writing crew at the Huffington Post for a new Chicago edition. Check out my first post, "Connecting the Dots in Chicago," which chronicles the connection between local city finance in Chicago with issues of privatization of the commons and poor services.

Back to School in S.C. - Attend Campaign School

The Southeastern Institute for Women in Politics invites you to participate in a unique, hands-on workshop to prepare women to win elected and appointed positions at the federal, state and local levels...and to train campaign managers and volunteers who can help them. When: Wednesday, September 10, 1 - 5 PM. Where: University of South Carolina, Columbia - School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Fee = $75.00

To our friends in the area, here's a chance to get some political knowledge at a bargain basement price!

State of Human Development in America

The folks who have been measuring and reporting on global human development for the United Nations have turned their lens to the USA. The American Human Development Project has published its first report, "The Measure of America," and the news is not good.

HEALTH:

• The U.S. will spend $230 million on health care in the next hour.
• One in six Americans goes without health insurance (around 47 million people).
• According to the National Academy of Sciences, lack of health insurance results in lost economic value equal to $178 million to $356 million every day, due to the poorer health and earlier deaths of the uninsured.
• The U.S. ranks #24 among the 30 most affluent countries in life expectancy – yet spends more on health care than any other nation.
• The U.S. infant mortality rate is on par with that of Croatia, Cuba, Estonia, and Poland; if the U.S. infant mortality rate were the same as that of top-ranked Sweden, 21,000 more American babies would live to celebrate their first birthdays every year.
• A baby born in Washington, D.C. is almost two-and-a-half times more likely to die before age one than a baby born in Vermont. African American babies are more than twice as likely to die before age one than either white or Latino babies.

ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE:

• College graduates can expect, on average, double the lifetime earnings of high school graduates.
• Fourteen percent of the population – some 30 million Americans – lacks the literacy skills to perform simple, everyday tasks like understanding newspaper articles and instruction manuals.
• Twelve percent of Americans lack the literacy skills to fill in a job application or payroll form, read a map or bus schedule, or understand labels on food and drugs.
• More than one in five Americans – 22 percent of the population – have “below basic” quantitative skills, making it impossible to balance a checkbook, calculate a tip, or figure out from an advertisement the amount of interest on a loan.
• In 2006, 4.5 million young people ages eighteen to twenty-four were not in school, not working, and had not graduated high school.

STANDARD OF LIVING

• The richest 20 percent of all U.S. households earned more than half of the nation’s total income
• in 2006.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households possesses a full third of America’s wealth.
• Households in the top 10 percent of the income distribution hold more than 71 percent of the country’s wealth, while those in the lowest 60 percent possess just 4 percent.
• Nearly one in five American children lives in poverty, with more than one in thirteen living in extreme poverty.
• The poverty line for a family of four (two adults and two children) is an income of $21,027 before taxes; in 2006, more than 36 million Americans were classified poor by this definition.
• In every racial/ethnic group, men earn more than their female counterparts.
• In 1980, the average executive earned forty-two times as much as the average factory worker; today, executives earn some four hundred times what factory workers in their industries earn.
• In 2004, median net worth was $140,800 for whites, and $24,900 for nonwhites.
• The real value of the minimum wage has decreased by 40 percent in the past forty years.

What Can Nuns Tell Us About Creativity?

Have you heard about the School Sisters of Notre Dame? This order of Catholic nuns is dedicated to education and firmly believe that the idle mind is the devil’s workshop. So they have vowed to keep their minds active. When not doing their educational work and worship, many of the good sisters play games, do puzzles, follow current events and such.

A number of years ago, this group came to the attention of the medical science world as they were outliving the general population and showing fewer signs of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. A study was begun to monitor their living habits and where upon their deaths many have been donating their brains to science.

The main question being explored in the study is “What factors in early, mid, and late life increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other brain diseases such as stroke?” Other research questions relate to the determinants of longevity and the quality of life in the elderly. Some very interesting discoveries have been made, particularly fascinating for people interested in improving their creative thinking. Read the full article at "Before & After."

"Furious Improvisation" Looks at History of Federal Theater Project

"Furious Improvisation" by Susan Quinn recounts the history of the Federal Theater Project from the 1930's. "It is a vivid and engrossing portrait of the turbulent 1930s, rich in humor and anecdotes which combine to tell not only the story of the theatre project but also of the Great Depression and government intervention in a time of national peril, a time when the still-pressing issues of discrimination, injustice and the meaning of liberty commanded center stage. "

NPR book reviewer Maureen Corrigan reviewed the book and said the book was full of "goose bump raising anecdotes," such as the dramatic moment when President Franklin's political strategist Harry Hopkins, and WPA director, addressed a hostile crowd in Iowa City in 1935 after a performance. "Who," they demanded, "is going to pay for this?" Hopkins answered, "You are. And who better? This is America, the richest country in the world. We can afford to pay for anything we want. And we want a decent life for all the people in this country. And we are going to pay for it."

Wow. Imagine a top aid to the current president passionately defending the public funding for a controversial cultural event and claiming that the arts and culture are part of the basics of "a decent life."And then further claiming that we have the funds and should fund the arts as a national public good.

Listen to an interview with Susan from WILL-AM.

Where Women Rule

How creative can America be if women continue to face barriers in economic participation and political representation?

According to a 2004 issue of Ode Magazine, America ranks 25 out of 50 countries surveyed in terms of percentages of elected representatives who are women. Saudi Arabia is in last place with 0 out of 120 seats. America, with 14.3% (62 seats out of 435 in the House) is behind Canada (21%), South Africa (34%) , Denmark (38%) and Number One - Rwanda where women fill 49% of the seats. A more recent study placed the U.S. 69th in the world in terms of women's representation in national legislatures or parliaments out of 188 countries with direct elections.

The good news is that in the 110th Congress, women hold 16 of the 100 Senate seats and 71 House seats - both up from the prior Congress. Nine women are governors, 24% are state legislators and 21% are state senators. 17% of the mayors of cities with more than 30,000 residents are women.

International Conference on Creative Tourism Comes to Santa Fe

The Santa Fe International Conference on Creative Tourism is the first global gathering of its kind. Taking place in santa Fe, September 28 to October 2, 2008; the conference will provide the skills and knowledge necessary for developing creative tourism programs by experiencing practical applications and through sessions with some of the world’s foremost leaders in the field. Key to the learning process will be the participation of UNESCO Creative Cities Network representatives; a group of international experts who will share background information, advice, and lessons from their own creative tourism programs. This concept of cities helping cities is fundamental to the Creative Cities Network charter.

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