The column was actually written three weeks earlier–closer to the latest Wright controversy–but as Obama appears the likely Democratic candidate, the issue will continue through the Fall. Popular perception has Tucson’s Raza Studies program as  “racist,” and Rev. Wright is considered a black separatist and unAmerican–though very few have actually read their materials. Two books that opponents of Raza Studies criticized at a House hearing in April, I looked at and could find nothing reflecting their critical comments, though one can see that they were written from either an indigenous or Latino standpoint–but not in the strong advocacy/hateful/separatist tone they were criticized for.

Likewise, anyone who has actually looked at the larger segments from sermons or read/viewed the Bill Moyers interview and the National Press Club appearance would hardly recognize the man being portrayed as some kind of unAmerican radical, Rev. Wright. Yes, he’s wrong on points of fact in a couple cases–government bringing drugs to cities and bringing HIV/AIDS. Yes, his language in sermons may at times seem over the top, but he’s made it his life’s work to try and improve the inner-city African-American community in Chicago and the social services work of his church on that speaks volumes.

That’s why I think this column remains important.

————-

“Columbus traveled with five Americans,” read the first line of a section of my fifth grade daughter’s Christopher Columbus report.  I was puzzled.  Where did she get such a notion?

After reviewing her sources, we discovered an internet page printed for her at school, “He brought back Native Americans (mistakenly calling them ‘Indians’).”

That mistake continues as we still call the descendants of these indigenous peoples “Indians.” 

In fact, Columbus kidnapped a dozen or more of them, and most died on the voyage back to Spain. 

From her sources, we learn about Columbus’ life, the names of Columbus’ ships, and details of their voyage, in part because Columbus kept a journal.  We had to look through several sources to discover what these native peoples called themselves, Taíno, and found little emphasis on Columbus’ desire to conquer these peaceful people.

School curriculum is often filled with subtle subjective biases.  For some, this is nitpicking, but for others it illustrates a challenge to create a more even-handed view of the American experience

This debate has played out recently in the Presidential campaign and at the state capitol over SB1108 that sponsor Rep. Russell Pearce (R-Mesa) says would censor Tucson Unified’s ethnic studies courses.  In both cases the dominant white European-American view has questioned the authenticity and anti-American perspectives of those who speak from a different experience.

We’ve heard Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s sound bites.  The media has gleefully teased out his most offensive remarks, but there’s been little concern to hear him as portraying a sense of the black experience in America. 

Consider this sermon segment:

“Where governments lie, God does not lie. Where governments change, God does not change. And … Governments fail. The government in this text comprised of Caesar, Cornelius, Pontius Pilate - the Roman government failed. … The Russian government failed. The Japanese government failed. The German government failed. And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. … When it came to treating citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains. The government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton fields, put them in inferior schools, … The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law, and then wants us to sing God bless America? … God damn America for treating her citizen as less than human.”

This voice has witnessed drugs devastate his community, the government’s war on drugs break apart families, and his government’s apparent indifference to a health crisis wrought from HIV/AIDS.

We’re struck by the anger and rebelliousness, but we often don’t hear the message of historical exclusion from which it comes.   

America has come a long way, and is remarkable for its religious and ethnic diversity.  Yet ironically on April 25, the day Rev. Wright’s interview aired on PBS, a New York judge ruled that three police officers had not been guilty of a criminal offense when they unloaded a barrage of 50 bullets that fatally shot an unarmed black man, Sean Bell, with his two friends on the morning of his wedding day.

For White America that’s not the America we know.  It’s not an America we want to accept.  We might blame the victim for being taken to a strip club for a bachelor’s party.   We’ll emphasize how police officers, in fear of their lives, made an honest mistake.  We’re reluctant to admit that the tragic actions which unfolded in that case occurred because Mr. Bell was black.

America’s ability to learn and change helps make our diverse country great, but it’s up to all of us: white, black, brown, old, young, men, women, Democrat and Republican to do that.

Dave Wells of Tempe holds a doctorate in political economy and public policy and teaches at Arizona State University.  Reach him at Dave@MakeDemocracyWork.org.

Sources:
Columbus web site:
http://users.rcn.com/farrands/explorers.htm#Columbus
Columbus and Taino:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#First_voyage
SB1108:
Published: 04.18.2008
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/82833.php
Bill would ban anti-democratic teaching
MARY BUSTAMANTE and RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON
Tucson Citizen
Rev. Wright quote from transcript of interview with Bill Moyers
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04252008/transcript1.html
April 25, 2008
HIV/AIDS:

A Silent EpidemicWhy is there such a high percentage of HIV and AIDS among black women?By Jon Cohen
Posted Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2004, at 6:43 AM ET
 http://www.slate.com/id/2108724
Sean Bell:
April 26, 2008

Judge Acquits Detectives in 50-Shot Killing of BellBy MICHAEL WILSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/nyregion/26bell.html
 

On April 10, all four candidates for Tempe City Council received a check from Cox Communications’ Political Action Committee for $390.  With a run-off election slated for May 20, they’ve needed funds to continue their campaigns.  In April alone, the four raised $44,902—with much coming from outside Tempe.  Mesa, unfortunately, doesn’t make campaign finance reports available at their city web site, so voters can’t check easily.

On March 11, when voters in Tempe and Mesa cast ballots, every race with  more than two candidates got thrown into a May 20 do-over.   Mesa will take two months to determine the second choice of voters who preferred Claudia Walters for mayor. 

Tempe’s at-large council race elected one and eliminated two, leaving four candidates for two slots.  Mesa’s District 5 dropped from three candidates to two.

If the process strikes you as remarkably inefficient, it is.

Recently Fair Vote Arizona joined the Arizona Institute for Peace Education and Research in hosting three of the Tempe council candidates for a program on Ranked Choice Voting.  Fair Vote Arizona is organizing an initiative drive in Glendale to eliminate their run-off elections.  The candidates were unanimous on their marathon campaigns.  New mom Julie Jakubek, who was a council candidate,  probably best captured their sentiments, “I enjoy getting to meet voters, but I’d like to spend time with my family.” 

Ranked Choice Voting was used in London’s recent election.  San Francisco uses it.  Minneapolis and Santa Fe are implementing it.  The Utah Republican Party elects party officers and nominates county, state, and federal candidates with it.  The Academy Awards even uses it to determine the five finalists for Oscar categories.

Ralph Nader’s appearance at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on May 9 reminds us, along with Evan Meacham, of our current system’s shortcomings.  When three or more candidates compete in races where only one candidate wins, voters worry about wasting their vote on a candidate they like, but fear won’t be elected.  Worse yet, they might cast such a ballot and actually help elect the candidate they disliked most.

With multiple seat races, like in Tempe, many strong backers for candidates fret about assisting other candidates and throw away two of their votes, making it even more likely we’ll have a run-off.

With Ranked Choice Voting, you simply rank candidates.  In Mesa’s mayoral race, when Claudia Walters came in third, her ballots would be recounted and her votes transferred to voters’ second choices—so those voters’ preferences aren’t disregarded but simply re-applied.  We’d know immediately whether Rex Griswold or Scott Smith would be the next mayor.

In Tempe, ranked choice would bring more diversity to the council. The hottest issue has been between those bound and determined to reduce property taxes and those bound and determined to make sure Tempe has top notch parks.  Currently, majority rule dominates as each voter gets one vote per seat; minority interests can get stifled.  Ranked choice instead gives each citizen one vote that can be transferred, if the voter’s top choice isn’t selected.   If three are elected, votes are counted and each candidate able to reach one-fourth of the total ballots cast plus one would be elected.

The simplest analogy is the Academy Awards nominations where members rank order nominations and ballots are then tabulated until a candidate reaches the finalist threshold at which point those ballots are set aside and further selections for that candidate (over-votes) are counted instead for their next preferred candidate, and so on until five Oscar finalists are determined.

Tempe would elect some candidates determined to reduce property taxes and some wishing to make sure Tempe has top notch parks—the same kind of diversity that one finds within Tempe’s electorate.

We can get it right the first time.  It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

Dave Wells of Tempe holds a doctorate in political economy and public policy and teaches at Arizona State University.  Reach him at Dave@MakeDemocracyWork.org.

Sources:
(Note: alternative names for Ranked Choice Voting are Instant Run-off Voting and Single Transferrable Vote)
Candidate Pre-General Campaign Finance Reports for Tempe Council available at http://www.tempe.gov/clerk/Election/candidate%20Campaign%20Finance%20reports.htm  (all finance reports, including Mesa’s are at the Maricopa County Recorders web site searchable by candidate and year-but not office or locality–few know this, however)

If you’re Arizona State University, how do you celebrate Earth Day?

You send out a Parking and Transit newsletter with a top story entitled, “ASU U-Pass expands to include light rail; Students to continue receiving U-Pass free of charge.”

What’s not in the title turns out to be important. Effective July 1, ASU will be dropping the free bus passes it has provided to employees since 2005. For those using the Express bus, as many employees who participate do, the cost will now be nearly $400 a year.

Sue Hackbarth of Cave Creek found the new policy, “a big disappointment.”  Her prize winning essay for “Valley Metro to the Rescue” was reprinted in the newsletter, but she noticed a sentence had been cut; “The best part about it is you get to ride it for free!” 

Their bus rider of the month, Natalie Joshi, after learning about the change, told me, “I have to buy a parking decal anyway as I have to drive at least once a week. I can’t afford both a bus pass plus a decal, so I will have to give up riding the bus. So much for ASU promoting public transportation.”

Shereen Saurey from Parking and Transit revealed the real culprit is Valley Metro, which has raised what it charges ASU and presumably other employers by 50 percent.  Local and Light Rail trips will run ASU $1.25 instead of 80 cents; Express is higher.  This has made the cost of providing free student rides, which are more than 80 percent of all their boardings, considerably more expensive, so they’ve decided to make employees pay. 

Since employees pay off the top monthly $22 for local routes and light rail and $33 to include express routes before rides become free, only heavier transit users benefit,  Those employees such as myself who don’t ride a bus everyday (I work from home) will have no subsidy at all.  Or like Natalie Joshi find it not affordable.

ASU’s much touted “One Campus in Many Places” will now cost employees $260 to $400 a year to maintain a commitment to a healthy planet.    That’s unfortunate on a campus where the bus program was making real inroads into a car culture that centers around parking.

Perhaps most insulting though are that meetings require employees to travel between campuses, but the same newsletter reminded us, “The Downtown Phoenix intercampus shuttle will be discontinued, as light rail will provide a direct, 20-minute connection between the Tempe and Downtown Phoenix campuses.”  This change will save ASU more than $200,000 annually even if they paid every rider’s light rail fare except ASU wants employees to foot the bill.  For employees who buy parking passes, it may be as cost effective to drive and emit greenhouse gasses.

Public Transit isn’t free; nor are freeways, and neither is parking.  How do we best create structures that encourage people to engage in environmentally friendly choices?  

Freeways without user fees bring congestion. Free parking leads to acres of underused asphalt, bigger roads, more traffic, and higher prices in the stores themselves.    ASU has in the last few years started pricing parking in a manner that encourages employees and students to consider alternatives.

But ASU’s new pricing structure for Valley Metro represents a big step backward.

A far better model comes from the state of Arizona where employees pay half price on every ride.  They, too, are paying more, but at least their system encourages all employees to try public transit, whether it be a little or a lot. 

Instead it looks like I’ll be biking the 16 miles to work a lot more often. Unfortunately, ASU still doesn’t provide complementary showers downtown.

I know that stinks, too.

Dave Wells of Tempe holds a doctorate in political economy and public policy and teaches at Arizona State University.  Reach him at Dave@MakeDemocracyWork.org.

Sources:
ASU Parking newsletter received Wednesday, April 16
PTS News
The monthly e-newsletter from Parking and Transit Services
In This Issue
ASU U-Pass                                         PTS Campus Briefs         
Light Rail Safety Campaign                 Ask PTS                                  
Valley Bike Month                               Tell Us Your Story         
Commuter Options Contest Winners                                           
View the current issue of PTS News at
http://pts.asu.edu/files/PTS%20News%20April%202008%20REV.pdf
 ASU costs and saving for Light Rail based on data provided by Shereen Saurey of Parking and Transit services.  My estimated ridership for the downtown shuttle is 48,000 (and it may be up to 20% lower) at an annual cost of $300,000.  So paying $1.25 per rider will still provide more than $200,000 annual savings.
No Parking Anytime: Why parking your car is more environmentally destructive than driving it. By Steven E. Landsburg http://www.slate.com/id/2164257/
We paved paradise 
So why can’t we find any place to park? Because parking is one of the biggest boondoggles — and environmental disasters — in our country. By Katharine Mieszkowski http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/01/parking/
Capitol Rideshare program for state employees is found at http://www.capitolrideshare.com/files/Bus.htm  

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a popular man. A November KAET (Channel 8) poll found that nearly two-thirds of voters had a positive impression of him. People equate his numerous public appearances to real crime fighting. But photo-ops can be deceptive.

Our family commemorated the 40^th anniversary of the murder of Martin Luther King by walking the streets of Guadalupe to monitor the Sheriff’s deputies. Guadalupe had been identified for a “crime suppression” operation, a.k.a. unauthorized immigrant sweep. By federal law, the sheriff’s patrols can’t stop people and ask about their legal status unless they spot a violation. At its peak, Sheriff cars and motorcycles were everywhere you looked in this small tucked away community.

The first case I witnessed at 6:40 p.m. involved a Hispanic motorist with nothing easily visibly wrong with his vehicle, yet there were two patrol cars. As I walked away, a Hispanic woman in a car on a side street told me, “We have too many drug dealers, I’m glad the Sheriff’s here.” When I informed her that stopping cars for broken license plate lights or small cracks in the windshield didn’t do anything about drug dealing, she quickly changed her mind.

An hour later we crossed paths at exactly the moment two Sheriff deputies put on their flashing lights to stop a man on a bicycle riding on the sidewalk. We stood 30 feet away and watched for 10-15 minutes as the officers processed this man before ultimately letting him on his way without a ticket. We scampered to catch the cyclist. He wore no helmet. His brown skin was wrinkled from years in the sun. He’d been stopped because his bicycle had no headlight.

Having seen such an amazing misappropriation of resources, it seemed ironic that the Sheriff had waved a bill for $300,000 in unpaid services in front of Guadalupe’s mayor the prior night.

Sheriff Joe may be a public relations genius, but he runs an incredibly ineffective operation.

While old men on bicycles were being stopped, 70,000 court ordered warrants for arrests have not been served by the Sheriff’s office, including 45,000 for felonies. The data base is on line, and some go back years. It’s three-times higher than the per capita rate of unserved felony warrants in Pima County. (see note below) 

The New Times reported in December that from 2004 to 2007 Arpaio’s jails had faced 2,150 prison condition lawsuits filed in federal courts, 50 times higher than New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston, combined, which together faced 43 prison-condition lawsuits, even though Arpaio oversees 9,200 inmates per day while they oversee 61,000. Since 1995, liability insurance premiums have totaled $11 million. Arpaio’s attorney bills and lawsuit settlements and awards not covered by insurance add another $30 million. For the 20 percent of Arpaio’s prisoners actually convicted of a crime (most have only been arrested), you might love the pink underwear, tent city and green bologna, but we have no proof it works. A 1998 ASU study the Sheriff commissioned found the recidivism rate no better than elsewhere—and the Sheriff has refused to do another.Meanwhile, retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson reports police records indicate that since 2002 the booking fees charged by county jails to city police for those with misdemeanors have risen 88 percent and daily holding charges are up 71 percent, but due to budgetary constraints the Sheriff’s office has closed its East Valley facilities forcing our local police to transport those arrested to downtown Phoenix, making it even more expensive.

April 9, 2003 turned out to be the climax of the war—the day U.S. troops entered Baghdad and the Saddam Hussein regime fell. However, challenges quickly mounted and a simplistic happy ending eludes us.

Five years later President Bush prepares to hand the reins to his successor. Finding a path out remains as murky as ever—but for the sake of our country, our troops and the Iraqis, we need to navigate that treacherous course.

We have three factors to manage: local stability within Iraqi neighborhoods and provinces, finding a means for Iraq to come together as a whole, and relieving the tremendous burden war has placed on our armed forces collectively as well as individual soldiers and their families.

As General David Petraeus testifies again before the Senate and House Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, we should commend his impressive job transforming the manner in which our troops are engaged in Iraq. Petraeus drafted a new counterinsurgency manual in 2006. Building off lessons learned in Vietnam along with what troop commanders were discovering in Afghanistan and Iraq, he realized destroying an enemy through superior firepower fails. Instead Petraeus has emphasized building strategic alliances, including converting former enemies into partners. He’s given military field commanders far more latitude to strike up deals; there’s funding to help place these partners on the payroll and build community locally, and when it’s most effective we see reconciliation.

One recent account in Newsweek portrayed Army captain Tim Wright’s work in the Baghdad neighborhood of Bayaa. Most strikingly in reaching out to develop an alliance with leaders loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, he personally apologized to a man he had arrested before releasing him. In turn the man became his critical intermediary with a figure higher up who could not risk meeting personally with Wright. Wright helped organize a February 4 meeting of about 20 tribal sheiks, councilmen, religious figures and other community leaders to begin talks toward creating preliminary steps for Sunnis to begin returning to this once blended neighborhood. Even Wright admits that path will be a long one.

But progress in a neighborhood still doesn’t create a nation. The war has been a humanitarian disaster. The International Organization for Migration finds one in five Iraqis have been displaced; 2.7 million have fled their homes, but remain in Iraq and another 2.4 million are refugees primarily in Syria and Jordan. Most face miserable health or economic situations. In addition, three carefully managed scientific household field surveys indicate that the actual level of deaths among Iraqis from the war is at least 600,000 and possibly as high as 1.2 million.

Al-Sadr’s forces are likely the most powerful in Iraq. We recognize this locally, but have no way of handling it nationally. American strategists fear al-Sadr’s more militant followers could sweep Iraq’s October elections. When Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s Iraqi army attacked al-Sadr’s army to undercut his Shiite rival, the U.S. provided air attack support. That undermined the work of men like Wright working with Al-Sadr’s supporters in neighborhood regions. We can’t hope to bring peace, unless we’re honest brokers, but this will require a level of diplomacy internally and with neighboring countries, including Iran, that the Bush Administration has failed to embrace. We need to find international partners who can best help lead a path toward internal stability.

This imperative is further reinforced because our troop commitment is unsustainable. We cannot allow the physical and mental toll on our armed forces to continue as the deaths and injuries mount, marriages shatter, and those returning with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder rise with each returning tour. We’re already failing to provide sufficient services to those harmed. Foreign Policy magazine’s recent survey of 3,400 retired and active officers found 88 percent agreeing that our military was stretched dangerously thin as we contemplate future threats.

We must strategically transition toward troop withdrawal.

Dave Wells hold a doctorate in Political Economy and Public Policy and is president of the Arizona Institute for Peace Education and Research. Reach him at President@aiper.org.Sources:Newsweek on Petraeus field manual and Wright:

My wife, Rochelle, has concerns (she’s on the board), but really needs parents and other residents to speak up on behalf of kids. The $2.2 million in cuts is to free up money for all employees to receive a 3.5% percent raise (that includes upper administrators as well as teachers and custodial staff-Dr. Tate, Tempe Superintendent, has indicated  that the raise doesn’t apply to him-his compensation is determined separately by the Board).  In general, I feel this raise needs to be both scaled back and restricted due to the tight budget times–because kids shouldn’t be impacted to give someone a raise-even if we’d like to pay them more.

The District’s web site also has link to information.   http://www.tempeschools.org/community/tempe.htm

Among the cuts that are recommended to pay for this raise:(for full list see page 2 of Tempe Elementary Revenue and Expense Summary with Enacted and Prioritized Proposed Cuts)

While no one is being fired, vacancies are not being filled and people are being repositioned.

Here is where $1.1 million of it comes from:

Eliminating 4th grade orchestra ( I feel given NCLB it will never come back–even though 4th grade orchestra has existed for 20 years or more in the district)-saves $116,000. –2 full-time position eliminated orchestra teaching will have to do some additional general music instead.

Eliminating 4 librarians–meaning 8 more schools in the district will move from a full-time to part-time librarian  (saves $232,000)

Eliminating 13 full-time teachers from the Middle Schools–This includes eliminating one elective from each of the Middle Schools (Shop/Industrial Arts will disappear from Fees and Connolly. Gilliland will lose Home Ec /Family and Consumer Sciences. McKemy we think is losing a PE teacher-so we’re less clear on how that will play out.) The other 9 positions are designed to increase class sizes at the Middle School (mind you–none of these Middle Schools were Excelling, Highly Performing or Performing Plus under AZ Learns–they all failed NCLB–but that’s not a very fair measure). District standards are 29 students per core teacher. Connolly at 24:1 will lose 5 teachers; Fees at 28:1 will lose 1 teacher; Gililland at 28:1 will lose 1 teacher, and McKemy at 27:1 will lose 2 teachers. (saves $754,000)

Please attend at least one of the following public meetings to be heard!

February 25 (Mon) 6:30-8 p.m. Connolly Middle School Cafeteria

February 26 (Tues) 6:30-8 p.m. McKemy Middle School Cafeteria

February 28 (Thurs) 6:30-8 p.m. Fees Middle School Cafeteria

February 29 (Fri.) 8-9:30 a.m. (morning) Governing Board Room Sanchez Administration Building

March 3 (Mon.) 6:30-8 p.m. Gililland Middle School Library

If you have questions, contact me via email and/or my wife via phone. My wife can be reached at (480) 730-7313, ext. 2005-leave message, she’ll call you back.

A quick school financing explanation: Tempe Elementary except for voter approved overrides that allow it to use secondary property taxes to exceed it’s revenue control limit set by the state, essentially is dependent on the state legislature for financing.  A two percent increase annually is guaranteed by voter approved Prop. 301 in 2000–and all they’ll get next year due to tight state revenues.  On the cut list on page 1, you can see how the district’s added expenses for retirement and health insurance essentially use up all of this increase-giving them a flat budget.  Hence, the motivation for budget cuts to increase salaries–as argued to retain and recruit teachers.

As we approach this year’s city council election we face seven candidates who want to protect neighborhoods, maintain safety, and want quality parks. There’s no bad blood from W-2’s given to the media and little substantive debate over policy—save one issue, property taxes. You won’t hear equally from all candidates because they don’t have equal financial resources—and their web sites and mailers to date have lacked substance. So let’s consider campaign finance and property taxes as one tool to evaluate candidates.

January 31 campaign finance reports reveal important considerations for voters. I primarily look for two things. Outside donors versus those who live in Tempe and developer interests. Why should someone who lives in Oklahoma or Virginia, or even Paradise Valley, if they aren’t a family relation, care enough about who is on the Tempe City Council to give hundreds of dollars to a candidate? Developers have the biggest vested interest, because the council approves their multimillion dollar projects, so more than anyone, a developer’s contribution could be viewed as an investment. If a candidate appears to be actively seeking out developer dollars there is an appearance of pay to play.

I looked at what percent of the first 100 individual donors to the candidates (if they had less than 100 individual donors, it’s in parenthesis) reported a Tempe address. Corey Woods and Mark Mitchell, by far, have the strongest Tempe-based donor support.

Today brings news that John Edwards is suspending his campaign, and with McCain’s victory in Florida, it’s increasingly hard seeing anyone other than Arizona’s own John McCain emerging as the Republican nominee.

As the Presidential field winnows, should Democrats choose Hillary Clinton or Barak Obama?

 In my opinion, in one to one match ups nationwide in 2000 and 2004, John McCain would have beaten George W. Bush (both years), Al Gore (2000) and John Kerry (2004).   He established himself as an independent political maverick that told people what he felt, not what he thought they wanted to hear.  Regardless of how accurate you consider that portrayal–it’s a dominent perception–and perception is often what matters in politics. 

 However, come 2008 he’s not quite as strong.  Bush’s war in Iraq has weakened him–and he doesn’t have a particularly strong background on economic issues in a slowing economy.  Likewise, McCain being on the record as having no problem with 100 years in Iraq isn’t going to go over too well–and many Republicans have become concerned by his partnerships with Democrats over immigration (McCain-Kennedy), global warming (McCain-Leiberman) and campaign finance reform (McCain-Feingold) among others–not too mention that he didn’t vote for the Bush tax cuts in 2001 (a position he’s now essentially recanted).  However, McCain will still be seen as a relatively honest and experienced candidate in the general election–and is the most formidable candidate the Republican party has to offer in a year that may be a challenge for that party.

Democrats  and the nation should want a candidate that most strongly counters McCain–and that’s Obama.  Why? 

Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is remarkable as being the first female who has a real chance at the White House (with apologies to the campaigns of Pat Schroeder and Shirley Chisholm).  But it’s a contradictory feminist campaign, because despite her own political skills, her ability to reach such heights has been made possible because of her husband, former President Bill Clinton (and yes, Bill better thank Hillary for everything she did for him to help him along the way!).

 So in what could be a Democratic sweep in Nov. 2008 (House, Senate and White House), if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, voters will have to pause and consider whether they want four more consecutive years (from 20 to 24) of having either a President Bush or President Clinton in the White House.  Furthermore, a divided Republican party will become far more motivated to defeat a Clinton candidacy than any other Democrat–given the Clinton loathing that developed from 1992-2000, just as Democrats have developed a Bush loathing from 2000-2008. 

And I think that effect is much stronger than the prospect of a co-Presidency-of electing Hillary and getting Bill as a bonus.

 Hillary Clinton only can take on McCain’s experience by again emphasizing her husband–which as noted above cuts both ways.

Obama also has a weakness-perceived experience.  He’s younger and hasn’t been in the Senate long.  But to me it’s telling how many of his Senate colleagues are standing up for him.  He’s also shown a depth of insight in decision-making that counters experience.

It took political courage to speak out against the Iraq War in late 2002 through March 2003.  That the claims the Bush administration were making appeared to be outlandish should have been obvious to anyone who understood how sanctions and war had crippled Iraq-even with a nasty dictator.  Yet, Obama, even though he had no need to have to speak out against the impending war as he wasn’t in the U.S. Senate, did so. 

 Obama has excited young people and drawn independents and some conservatives in a manner that Clinton can’t compare–and when independents in places like New Hampshire have had a choice to vote in the Republican primary for McCain or the Democratic primary for Obama–they picked Obama. 

Obama has the judgment to make up for the lack of experience–and he has a political message that unlike President Bush–really might unify the country sufficiently (especially with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate) to actually move forward constructively on key policy issues, including immigration, health care reform, tax policy, and, of course, U.S. foreign policy (where Congress has less influence).

Obama offers a real contrast to McCain–while sharing many of McCain’s positive attributes that many voters admire.  This works to make Obama the clear choice in my mind for Democrats, if they wish to re-take the White House.

It’s winter in desert, which means we’re not wilting anymore come mid-afternoon. So when’s the last time you rode a bike?

The annual Tour de Tempe was Sunday, October 28. Hundreds of cyclists, young and old, showed up. For one day, bikes were everywhere. This year the youth from our church took advantage of the crowd to Trick or Treat for UNICEF. Unfortunately, we discovered lots of participants weren’t carrying their wallets.

Not me! I come equipped with wallet, keys, patch kit, spare tube, pump, tools, rear view mirror, cell phone, and even my garage door opener.

So what’s the difference? They drove to the event, while my kids and I biked there. For 19 years I’ve biked anywhere I can, logging in excess of 2,000 miles annually. For over a year I’ve worked 16 miles from my home at the ASU downtown Phoenix campus, and I haven’t driven yet. I use some combination of commuter bus, bicycle, and intercampus shuttle to get around. I even packed my folding bike and cycled 200 miles round trip when I flew to upstate New York for my 25th high school reunion in August. It’s great exercise, doesn’t pollute, and reduces stress.

Depending on your perspective I’m either odd or amazing, but clearly my behavior isn’t normal. We walk to Trunk or Treat at our local elementary school and cars are lined up everywhere. We bicycle eight miles to my daughter’s softball games on Saturday—and we haven’t found anyone doing the same, even though we bike farther than most drive (and we enjoy chickens, billy goats and horses along the way, too!).

In the Netherlands, among people my age (40-64) one in five urban trips is by bicycle. In the United States it’s one in 300! From mid-October through mid-April, Arizona has wonderful weather for biking, so why aren’t more of us doing it?

It boils down to three issues: safety, route knowledge, and habit. Although cities in the East Valley do a pretty good job developing cycling routes, we need greater inter-city cooperation to take it to the next level.

Our bicycle fatality rates per mile traveled are three times higher than the Netherlands. We need to make bicycling safer by slowing traffic and better enforcing laws against motorists and cyclists.

I started biking in Los Angeles, so nothing much fazes me, but most people aren’t ready to hop on Baseline or any busy road. We need good clear routes off these streets. They exist, but you need bike maps and an elaborate firsthand knowledge to get around—that’s a lot to ask.

Signage would help, whether placed on poles or through creative markings on the pavement. And they need names, not just “bike route”—every major bike route deserves a name so people can better identify and use it.

We need to remove obstacles. A number of promising bike routes dead-end. Country Club Way runs from Broadway (via River) and a connected bike path to Elliot, but at Elliot you either cross a busy street without a traffic signal or go half a mile out of your way to find one. We’ve discovered an unmarked route that takes us from a marked route on Carver, between Elliot and Warner down 71^st Street and along bike paths to near Chandler Blvd. It’s fantastic except when we get to Warner, there’s no light. Try to take Lakeshore, which runs all the way from Rural down to Carver and via Terrace to Stanley, but again reach Warner and you’ll find no safe passage to the routes on the other side.

With thoughtful planning, we can create an alternative route system that enables lots more people to follow the message emblazoned on the back of my favorite cycling shirt, “one less car.”  

Dave Wells of Tempe holds a doctorate in political economy and public policy and teaches at Arizona State University. Reach him at Dave@MakeDemocracyWork.org.

Source:Bicycle Trip and Fatality information for United States and Netherlands: “Promoting Safe Walking and Cycling toImprove Public Health: Lessons from The Netherlands and Germany,” FINAL Revised Version, April 20, 2003 by John Pucher, PhD, and Lewis Dijkstra, PhD, Accepted for publication in the American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 93, No. 9, September 2003. Accessible at http://www.vtpi.org/AJPHpucher.pdf. 

It’s fitting that recently my path crossed with Jesus.

Christmas is a time of charity, of giving to others with special attention to those less fortunate regardless of ethnicity, religion or nationality.

Jesus wants to make hearts whole again. When Jesus told his story, he broke down a number of times and tears welled up in my eyes. Jesus was overwhelmed by how many people had gathered to raise funds to help him and others like him.

In our community a number of people, many of whom say they’re Christians, want no part of Jesus. If they knew Jesus’ secret, they’d call Sheriff Joe’s hotline and get him deported.

You see, Jesus is an illegal alien.

He’s been one since his mother brought him to this country when he was two years old.

When he was five, he recalls that his mom earned so little cleaning houses that they had to sleep by dumpsters and do whatever they could to find food.

He remembers starting school and having no idea what was going on as everyone spoke a language he didn’t understand. He got poor grades, but never gave up. His mom, who didn’t speak English either, worked with him—and soon things began to turn around.

Today he’s 16 years old. Last year he held two jobs, working nearly 40 hours a week. He’d do his homework after getting done with work, staying up to 3 a.m.—and then waking at 7 a.m. to go to school. And he excelled with a 3.8 GPA.

This year, he’s realized he can’t keep that up and is working half as much and still getting good grades.

A few years ago his younger brother was diagnosed with a hole in his heart, a condition Jesus feared would be fatal as his brother slipped out of consciousness, but thanks to the diligent work of a cardiologist his brother recovered.

Inspired to help people like his brother, Jesus dreams of becoming a cardiologist. He hopes to attend Harvard University, but he’s not afraid of rejection. Jesus told me “failure is a step to success. I learn from the times I’ve fallen, and it’s made me stronger.”

I can’t tell you Jesus’ last name or even where he goes to school, because we live in a community that’s becoming a police state if your skin is brown.

A student in my political science course, born in Mexico, had her purse stolen a few weeks ago and with it went her green card—proof of legal residency. A replacement costs nearly $400. Right now she doesn’t have the money. She asked me if she were pulled over whether she might get deported.

That’s fear.

It’s creeping throughout Hispanic communities, while herds of White folks who I believe consider themselves Christians cheer it on.

During the coming year, it will continue. Congress isn’t going to address immigration reform until 2009. Republicans want to use it as a wedge issue to rally voters, while Democrats can’t get the 60 votes needed to pass legislation they desire in the Senate, so they’ll wait hoping 2009 brings a stronger political environment.

You can contemplate what you’re called to do. But one thing you should consider as the tax year winds down is donating to a scholarship fund that helps undocumented students go to college, since Prop. 300 has forced them to pay out of state tuition and they are ineligible for any state or federal aid.

Donate to the Arizona Association of Chicanos in Higher Education Rosie Lopez Scholarship Fund, c/o Dr. Cleopatria Martinez, Phoenix College, 1202 W. Thomas Road, Phoenix, AZ 85013

OR

To the Maricopa Community Colleges Foundation (2411 W. 14th St., Tempe, AZ 85281) and mark it for GateWay Early College High School, which has a number of undocumented students.

Dave Wells of Tempe holds a doctorate in political economy and public policy and teaches at Arizona State University. Reach him at Dave@MakeDemocracyWork.org.