In news of things I’ve been up to. I organized the Virtual Town Hall GLI put on for the IN-4 candidates.
This was me trying to further extend my video and live streaming skills to produce something I thought looked professional for no additional dollars.
This was my first foray into using After Effects to create motion graphics, and I did like how those turned out. I used Zoom as the video call platform and captured the display to put into OBS. I routed the audio all internally using software, and had volunteers timekeeping and gathering questions from Facebook to put into a live Google Doc. I also had fun with my green screen, though I am patiently waiting for my new lights to come in so I can get better contrast between me and the background so I can get the chroma key to work better.
I think it went pretty smoothly! There is of course things I’d like to improve upon. One, the creating of everything was extremely time intensive. All the OBS layouts and motion graphics take a lot of time to render out and assemble. I’d like to automate some of this if possible so I’m looking into setting up with NodeCG. It is going to be a lot of work up front, but should allow for much greater flexibility and automation in the long run. Long term goals here.
WHY? Why would you write this? This seems incredibly stupid.
Politics on the internet, that’s guaranteed to cause an issue. But I feel like
I should use the few platforms I have to open some things up, and what a better
time than on the day of the Iowa caucuses.
This probably doesn’t surprise those of you who know me, but
I wanted to get my thoughts out there.
It’s true that I like Bernie as a person. Judging from his consistent message and ability to hold, in my view, correct opinions even in the face opposition from his own party at various times shows courage and conviction. I also think he has the best campaign strategy and support to win.
While all this remains true much of why I support Sanders
falls outside of him as a person and more of him as a candidate and the center
of a movement.
This country is incredibly unequal, and it doesn’t take a
whole lot of searching to see it. In fact, today I got into it with a person
who yelled at me in a parking lot for trying to help someone out with a little
money. Straight up yelled at me for helping a fellow human. There is something
deeply broken in a society that doesn’t value helping our fellow friends,
community members, citizens, and humans.
None of us chooses to be born. We should be helping each
other along the journey.
Let’s start with most central issue to me. It probably
matters a lot of you as well; it’s healthcare.
I’m not one of the over 30 million Americans who are
uninsured or underinsured. I’m lucky. I have a job with pretty good benefits, I
have no preexisting conditions or chronic illnesses, and I’m young and healthy.
I hit the metaphorical jackpot. This is of almost due in no part to anything I
did. You know what did; family genes and financial situation that opened doors
to allow for an education to get the job. I’m not saying I played no part, but
the external, systemic factors far outstrip my individual contributions. This
is not the case for so many in the country. To me this is an incredible moral
failing, but that is only one of the myriad facets that make this issue the
most important of the election for me.
A full 1/3 of all fundraisers on GoFundMe are healthcare
related. We have to divulge our most intimate moments when we are at our most
vulnerable to hope to convince enough people that we are indeed worthy of your
patronage so we can go to the doctor. That is a failure. That is dystopic.
On top of this, health insurance in this country causes us
to take jobs we don’t want, makes us scared to ask for what we deserve, and
keeps us stuck in a job that sometimes actually may be killing us. It makes us
beg for crumbs as benefits are slashed because of “rising costs.” We don’t seem
to slash CEO pay.
Healthcare is an inescapable need. If you’ve been fortunate,
like I have, you will have had to interact with doctors and hospitals a scant
few times. But make no mistake, no one escapes it. We all get old, we all get
sick, and we all need help.
None of this is a personal failing.
I want you to imagine what it would feel like to go into a
doctor’s office when you are sick and walk out without having to worry about
co-pays or surprise bills in the mail weeks later. Not having to wade through
systems, websites, and confusing billing departments to get the often
lifesaving or life-improving healthcare you need. Getting that sense of relief,
that sense of power knowing you don’t have to worry. It’s hard to put into
words.
This is not a pipedream; we are one of the only economically
developed countries without a universal healthcare system. This is on purpose,
too. While we struggle to get healthcare, the health insurance companies post
record profits.
The broader issue at play is runaway economic inequality.
We, as humans, are almost incapable of comprehending just how much things are
when they are sufficiently big. To most of us having $1 billion, and a $100
billion in terms of buying power won’t see a difference in quality of life.
Hell, I mean, even $100 million to $1 billion wouldn’t see that. The status quo
is not working. Even before Trump, income inequality was rising, and wages were
staying mostly flat.
Income inequality is so hard to actually fathom. CBS
recently did a small experiment with a pie to get people to guess how the pie
would look. It didn’t surprise me that most people underestimated it, and even
their pie visual is not completely accurate, the slices everyone but the 1% get
are even smaller.
Income inequality is not a linear function, it’s exponential
and getting worse by the day. On top of that, racial and ethnic wealth gaps are
increasing as well. I’m sure almost all of us, feel the pressures from work. We
are in charge of ever-increasing administrative tasks, longer hours, uneven
schedules, or having second jobs or side hustles, unless you are incredibly
wealthy (which, hey, message me, I have about a hundred places where your money
would do incredible work). We keep getting squeezed while quarter after quarter
companies post record profits and CEO pay is through the roof. The super-rich
need to start paying their fair share. After the GOP wealthy tax cut, they
aren’t even paying more than us. 018 was the first time in history, U.S.
billionaires paid a lower tax rate than the working class.
Addressing climate change, healthcare, livable wages, and a
host of other things are being put on backburner in service of profits and at
the expense of us.
So, what do we do? I hear the comments now, well, his plans
are ambitious, but they will never pass the senate or even the house. Yeah,
you’re right, if they were put on the floor today, they wouldn’t. Bernie knows
it, too. He’s not trying to trick us though, to get our hopes up only to be
dashed.
In my short time as an activist, the most intense pressure I
was able to take part in was when Trump and the GOP were close to repealing the
ACA wholesale. This issue animated people. In many cases it was life or death
for them or loved ones. People rose up though. They protested. The did sit ins.
They called, texted, got arrested, and in the end, it failed (for now). Those
of us who supported this had no levers of power. The GOP controlled everything,
and it failed. It was not one thing, but all of it, every single action that
made it happen.
“Politicians are like weathervanes. Our job is to make the
wind blow.”
That’s Bernie’s strategy. His campaign slogan, “Not me, us”
cuts to the heart of it. Bernie Sanders is one person, and even as president,
he is one person, but the grassroot movement he has cultivated is powerful. It
grows by the day, and it will continue outside him. That’s what he wants, and
he knows that it is the path forward, the *only* path forward if we hope to
correct any of the injustices we see. Shameless plug here, but in my small
presentation I talked about the great man theory and how we like to lionize
these larger than life figures that changed everything.
This is not an accurate portrayal of how things change, and
the sooner we all realize it, the better we will be, and the faster we will
realize our own inner and collective power. All the towering figures in the
civil right movement did not single handedly bring about civil rights, they had
countless volunteers, partners, and planners who helped. It comes down to good,
old-fashioned organizing and people power.
All of this, all of this and more, is possible if we all do
our small part. Sanders is helping to open the door, but we have to step
through it.
We need to start imagining a future outside the one we have
now. We need to start talking about and working towards a world where we seek solutions
to our problems where we all benefit, together.
I believe there are no perfect moments for change to happen.
No one is going to hold up a sign and say, “Oh yeah this is the change time. Go
do the change now.” However, I do believe there are windows of possibilities
that present themselves and I do absolutely think this is one of them. I see
the energy, I hear the hope, and the willingness to fight. I know it’s scary,
it is, but we have to take that step, together.
If you need some inspiration, watch this short video. It’s
incredible.
This post only covers a small amount of the things that need
addressing, and I left out so much, and if I keep going (and I want to) this
will be a small book.
I think this whole post, this whole feeling, this whole
movement can be summed up by the words uttered by Bernard himself:
“Are you willing to fight for that person who you don’t
even know as much as you’re willing to fight for yourself?”
Evidently, I just post about presentations, real and fictional, that I have given. Be that as it may, I wanted to post this one. I spend a lot of time on this, and while I plan on improving on this and fleshing it out, I want to share it. I’ve learned so much in the past few years and I want to share that, and activate y’all to get involved. OK, before I ramble on forever, here it is.
