Health Care for All

Unless you've been on the space station or otherwise planetary traveling you know the health care debate is heating up. One cannot turn on the tv, radio, or log on without being bombarded with information and/or propaganda on the subject of "reforming" the nation's health care system. From the point of view of this author, universal health care is now a vital part of the defense of the Commons.

But it's not my intention now to inundate you with yet more and more information EXCEPT that I saw a story the other day that everyone should see. The story cites a new poll indicating overwhelming support amongst all Americans (Democrats, Republicans, and Independents) for a publicly funded insurance OPTION as a part of the overall health reform package. In fact 72% of all respondents, including 87% of Democrats, favor a public insurance option!

Yet despite these overwhelming numbers IN FAVOR of a public insurance OPTION that does not deny anyone the right to choose a private insurer, we will hear from Republicans AND from at least some Democrats that providing this public option is simply the whimsical fantasy of a small number of radical "socialists" on the left and thus not to be taken seriously. A recent piece by Paul Krugman in the NYT's makes this point nicely.

Now is the time for us to act. The word on the street in our communities seems to go something like this: Mass Democrats and our congressional delegation especially, strongly favor a progressive health reform plan which includes a public insurance OPTION. What usually follows then is: So what are we supposed to DO? Meaning, hey, we're the good guys, we're all for this. This attitude, in my humble opinion, is a prescription for a big disappointment come the fall. First, in my fair City, Peabody, I know there are lots of folks who would be very surprised to learn that nearly three-quarters of Americans FAVOR a public insurance OPTION. The most surprised might even be some of our elected representatives. This is TOO IMPORTANT to leave to chance or to the mistaken belief that at least in our Commons the battle is already won.

We should call upon ALL of our ELECTED OFFICIALS WHETHER LOCAL, STATE, OR FEDERAL TO COME OUT OPENLY AND FORCEFULLY IN FAVOR OF REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM, or they should explain themselves to the great MAJORITY of Americans who now favor real reform. In addition, all of us need to take the time to continue to inform ourselves and ACT together over the next few months as the onslaught of health insurance company lobbyists work feverishly to convince us that only THEY have the best interest of the American people at heart.

If you want to help us work locally on this critical issue please join our network and let us know what you would be willing to do to stand up for real health care reform in this country. If not now, WHEN? And if not us, then WHO?

A Steward of the Commons

A bit tardy on this one, but last Wednesday, May 20th, Agnes Ricko was presented with the Chase-Hacker Award for outstanding community service by the Lynn Museum and Historical Society. This is an annual award honoring individuals who have made a significant contribution to civic life in Lynn. This was a wonderful ceremony beginning with a reception in the Museum gardens and ending with the Award ceremony featuring a number of local leaders speaking to the value of community service while enumerating the many specific contributions Agnes has made to her community.

Agnes might be best know to other Democrats on the north shore as the long-time and hard working Chair of the Lynn Democratic City Committee. But the testimony last week suggests her contributions to the life of the City extend well beyond party affiliation.

So well deserved recognition indeed. Congratulations Agnes and I know I speak for a lot of folks on the north shore.

I also call out this event to make a somewhat larger point about the Commons. The Commons do not exist outside the lives of those who inhabit it. The Commons needs stewards, those who understand the importance of those places and spaces that together make up our communities while offering us the opportunity to have meaningful social lives in a place we feel we belong. This is what the speakers celebrated as they directed their glowing remarks towards Agnes, and a life lived in part in service to the Commons.

This space will continue to recognize the Stewards of our Commons. If you have someone you would like to recognize please send along a message via the North Shore Democratic Network and we will follow up.

In Defense of the Commons Part 1

Hardly a New Englander exists who has not visited the Boston Common at least once. Fifty acres of rolling grass and walkways, a small pond frozen in winter for skaters, ball fields, tennis courts, two subways stops, a cemetery, and park benches for reading, people watching and sleeping. Across Charles Street it's more lofty cousin, the Public Gardens, is the site of the Swan Boats soon to come to life as if choreographed from below the stirring flower beds and stately trees.

Founded in 1630, the Boston Common has been used for public grazing as well as for public executions. It has been the site of political protests, and the encampment of the British soldiers who marched on Lexington and Concord in April of 1776. Millions of visitors have enjoyed this lovely public space as they set off along the Freedom Trail.

Across New England, and here on the north shore, we have elegant if somewhat worn examples of a Common, including of course the Salem Common - a public space enveloped in October by autumnal revelers.

But why would I choose to take a moment here to reflect on one of my favorite public spaces - The Boston Common? Much as I love the urban grasslands bordered by Tremont, Boylston, Park, Beacon, and Charles streets, what I really admire is the very idea of the Common.

The idea and ideal that created and for nearly four centuries protected the Common has been under assault for thirty years. And the last eight years of political life in America was nothing but a relentless attack on everything the Common and the common good represents.

America is the product of two powerful narratives which compete for cultural and political supremacy. English colonists brought with them the idea of the Commons (they even dubbed their new colony a "commonwealth," a moniker it retains today). Apart from abstract notions of government for the common welfare, the Commons for most of these folks was about land. Tradition allowed the landless to utilize arable pasture land - even that which might be privately owned. Such traditions reinforced the still under-developed notion of the common good.

Juxtaposed against this idea of the common good is the narrative of private property rights and the claim of rights of ownership unfettered by public regulation. Each man holds dominion over his own castle and no other may attempt to abridge an effort to expand that castle's size and reach.

In the 17th and 18th centuries a movement emerged in England called the "Enclosure" movement. This active enterprise of the wealthy landed class resulted in the acquisition of common lands, sometimes by force, by those who subsequently fenced in the land not for public use but for private gain.

It is certainly possible to read our history as a struggle between these two powerful ideas and urgings of common good and private gain. Since the era of Ronald Reagan in the early 1980's, the idea and ideal of the sovereignty and supremacy of private property has grown and expanded to an unprecedented degree. The idea of the Common good has been regarded by many to be a quaint notion, celebrated (perhaps a bit cynically) during times of national celebration or national crisis. But for the most part it is an idea that has been shrinking in the face of the contemporary Enclosure Movement. Led by the Right - mostly Republicans, but also some Democrats - this movement has sought to privatize everything from our national parklands to our military. Privatization: the updated term for Enclosure. Destroy or diminish the places and spaces we know as the Commons, allowing for the expansion of private property rights and unregulated free markets.

And where has this new Enclosure Movement gotten us? A new Gilded Age where wealth is concentrated in fewer hands than at any time in our nation's history. A war that has cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. And, of course, a financial system that turns out to be largely a ponzi scheme by and for the wealthiest among us. And now, in defense of the Common, the citizen and taxpayer is being asked to pay for the financial carnage.

President Obama is now attempting to restore some balance to our political economy and political culture by arguing again for the restoration of the Commons. To many his rhetoric sounds, well, radical, and yet all the President is saying to us as Americans is that we have this other narrative about our nation that for too long has been suppressed and sacrificed in the name of private gain. Supply side economics, the economic gospel of the Right, is not merely a model for running our economy. It is also an ideological platform from which to attack any attempt to assert the rights of the Commons. For this ideological fervor we have paid a tremendous price.

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This blog is dedicated to the defense of the Commons, and as they say, the best defense is a good offense. This weblog, we hope, will be a place where you can learn more about events and activities in communities across the north shore. This may also be a place where you find a community sharing ideas and information with others who care about your interest in and concern for the common good. Over time our goal is to grow this community by expanding the team of contributors. We of course welcome your comments.

But the idea of the Commons also includes, as President Obama reminds us, a commitment to shared responsibility and accountability. While this is a public space, it will be regulated by high standards of content and tone. In subsequent posts we will define these guidelines.

But in this our inaugural post I simply want to celebrate the ideal and the reality of the Commons. As this long cold winter gradually gives way to the warmth of spring, I look forward to cris-crossing the Common, reveling in its open and egalitarian spirit.