Posted on 08/05/2003 9:56:09 AM PDT by theoverseer
When I was in Scandinavia last spring promoting "Nickel and Dimed," interviewers kept asking me to tell them about the "debate" my book had provoked in the United States. I had to confess that it had provoked no debate at all, at least none that I had heard of. In fact, when my book was adopted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a reading for all incoming students in 2003, the administration expressed its conviction that it was a "relatively tame selection," at least compared to last year's choice – a collection of readings from the Koran. I was beginning to envy Michael Moore, whose publisher had cleverly boosted sales by attempting to suppress his book "Stupid White Men" in the wake of 9/11.
Then, early in July, I got a phone call from Matt Tepper, president of the student body at UNC-CH, inquiring as to what I thought would be a useful way to direct the incoming students' discussions of "Nickel and Dimed." I suggested that the students ought to apply the book's concerns to their own campus, where workers have been trying to organize against heavy administrative opposition. I sat back to wait for new students to arrive at the end of the summer so the controversy could begin.
Within about a week – while the incoming first-year students were still working on their tans – a controversy arrived all right. It just wasn't the one I was hoping for.
On July 10, a group of conservative UNC-CH students, calling themselves the Committee for a Better Carolina, held a press conference, along with a handful of rightwing state legislators, to denounce "Nickel and Dimed" as a "classic Marxist rant" and a work of "intellectual pornography with no redeeming characteristics." Fine, at least I could cling to the adjectives "classic" and "intellectual." But when I read the full page ad the Committee for a Better Carolina had taken out in the Raleigh News and Observer, I saw that this controversy was less about the book than it was about me.
The ad charged me with being a Marxist, a socialist, an atheist, and a dedicated enemy of the American family – this last confirmed by a citation from the Heritage Foundation on my longstanding conviction that families headed by single mothers are as deserving of support as those headed by married couples. I was greeted on North Carolina radio talk shows by hosts asking, "What does it feel like to be the Antichrist in North Carolina?" and similarly challenging inquiries.
I suppose I should be grateful for the chance to parse the finer points of Marxism v. feminism, and socialism v. democratic socialism, on the kind of radio stations that update the traffic and weather every 15 minutes. In one week, I appeared on a half dozen radio shows, twice with Michael McCartney, the founder of the Committee for a Better Carolina, who insisted that the last two books chosen as readings for incoming students showed a pattern of liberal bias on the university's part. We had some interesting exchanges on whether the Koran can be considered a "liberal" document or, even, as McCartney seemed to think, anti-Christian.
I was getting into my new role as North Carolina's premier amateur philosopher and religious studies scholar, and hoping for some in-depth discussion of my own "anti-Christian bigotry," as one of the state legislators put it, no doubt referring to my description, in "Nickel and Dimed" of Jesus as a "wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist." On the "vagrant" part, there can be no debate, and, although "guzzling" may be a bit overstated, Jesus was sufficiently associated with wine ("I am the true vine," etc.) to be confused with the Greek wine god Dionysius in the Hellenistic world – a subject I have yearned to expound on for years.
As for Jesus being a socialist, I take it back. He was actually a little to the left of that, judging from his instruction to the rich man to sell all that he had and give to the poor. If that's what it takes to be a true Christian, believe me, it's a hell of a lot easier to be a socialist: You have to dedicate yourself to working for the poor, just as a Christian should, but at least you get to keep your stuff. The topic of Christian altruism v. socialist pragmatism could, I thought, entertain the rightwing radio talk show audiences for weeks.
But I was being distracted and diverted. The real issue, I've decided, isn't just the campus and its workers, but the state. According to the North Carolina Justice and Economic Development Center, 60 percent of North Carolina families with children do not earn enough to meet basic, bare-bone needs. Nationwide, when last measured in 2000, 29 percent of families were in the same straits, giving North Carolina twice the level of economic misery as the country as a whole.
My former husband, who was a union organizer in the state for several years, said he'd never seen such poverty anywhere. At a union organizing meeting held in a motel meeting room, for example, he noticed the workers covertly pocketing packets of Saltines left from a previous event. It's not a pretty picture: Well-fed suits engaging in chest-thumping attacks on an exposé about poverty while at least some of their constituents are basing their meal plans around soda crackers. I don't know much about pornography – and am eager to hear from any reader who has detected it in "Nickel and Dimed" – but I do know obscenity when I see it.
I find that hard to believe.
If that were true, Tarheels would be dropping like flies right and left. If they don't earn enough to meet "basic, bare-bone needs", then I assume they would be starving to death in the streets, but they aren't. So, they either ARE earning enough to keep a roof over their heads and body and soul together, or else they're stealing money from somewhere. I believe the former is actually true, and that this "North Carolina Justice and Economic Development Center" (and just what the hell is that?) is defining "basic, bare-bone needs" very broadly, like 2 color televisions in every home, SUVs, computers, clothes from the GAP and $100 sneakers.
The students' comments about her book never identify the very worst excesses, but they are sufficient to blow her out of the water.
Bullshit. The unions in NC are eat up with thugs, communists and criminals. If NC is so bad, why is it growing so fast? She's a bigot, selling her prejudice against people of different regions.
LOL. She SO misunderstands the Gospels. Socialism is forcing OTHER people to help the poor while the Socialist gets to pretend he/she is a great philanthropist. The duty of Christians to help the poor is a personal (not a collective) duty. There is little salvation to be had in being forced to help the poor.
If that's what it takes to be a true Christian, believe me, it's a hell of a lot easier to be a socialist: You have to dedicate yourself to working for the poor, just as a Christian should, but at least you get to keep your stuff.
Well, the Socialist gets to keep his stuff. But the productive citizens have theirs taken at the point of a gun. But I guess that's the whole point of being a Socialist. You make it, I spend it, I get credit for being a good guy and I get to revile you. Pretty good deal if you can carry it off.
I find that hard to believe.
As you should. There is no NC Justice and Economic Development Center. I did a web search and found that this organization only existed in this article and copies of this article. But there is a NC Justice and Community Development Center and I am sure that this is the organization the author is talking about as it is your typical liberal antipoverty, living wage promoting organization.
I looked through the many reports and found the statistic the author alluded to and it states: Of North Carolina’s 1 million families with children, 59.4% have incomes under the Living Income Standard (LIC). You may ask what the LIC is. Well it is a minimum income standard set by this same organization. It goes like this:
One Adult, One Child $27,334 each year $13.14 per hour
Two Parents, Two Children $39,674 each year $9.54 per hour - each parent
Two Parents, Three Children $48,772 each year $11.71 per hour - each parent
Two Parents, Four Children $60,388 each year $14.51 per hour - each parent
As you can see these are unreal and bogus numbers. NC is not that expensive to live in. And you can see why the author chose to hide this fact by changing the name of this organization in the article.
As for the poster of this article theoverseer, you should ignore him in the future, as he is a liberal troll that usually posts divisive articles in a hit and run fashion.
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