12 Questions for Candidates

Our political candidates and their parties are not talking about what drives their agendas in ways that I can easily understand. Even candidates for whom I will probably vote are not articulating clearly the convictions that underlie their plans for our nation and what values will guide them as they try to turn their plans into political reality.

Maybe it’s me.

So, for my sake, here are 12 mostly “domestic issue” questions for candidates to which I’d like straight answers. I have tried to state them as fairly as I can–they are not intended to be “gotcha” questions. Candidates’ answers will no doubt raise many follow-up questions. But all of these questions should be answerable in no more than a few words.

1. As an elected representative, do you represent all the people living in the area that has elected you, or only those who voted for you?

2. Do you believe our planet’s climate is changing? If so, do you believe human activity is contributing to that change?

3. Is the availability of health care properly determined by market/economic forces alone? If not, do you think government has a role in assuring health care’s availability to our citizens?

4. When your religious/spiritual convictions are not the same as the constitutional and legal rights of all Americans, do you submit your personal convictions to the general public interest?

5. Should GLBT Americans be accorded the same rights as other Americans?

6. Should considerations of environmental impact help determine the kinds of jobs we create?

7. Is there ever a good reason to raise taxes?

8. Would you consider compromising any of your convictions about deficit spending and the national debt in order to fashion a bi-partisan plan to deal with those issues?

9. Are you concerned about the widely-reported “gap” between the richest and the poorest Americans, and the “shrinking middle class” between them?

10. Is there a role for public and/or private sector unions in America today?

11. Do corporate power and money in elections threaten our democracy?

12. If your opponents and/or their party win this election, will the American republic survive the next 2-4 years?

Could these be more clearly stated? Do you have questions of your own? How could we put them before candidates and get them to respond?

For artists and other creators and would-be creators

The June 2012 issue of The Sun magazine contains a fascinating interview with artist Ran Ortner. He is best known (I guess) for his enormous paintings of the sea. The interview is called, "Water, Water Everywhere: Ran Ortner's Love Affair with the Sea," and the interviewer is Ariane Conrad. In it Ortner offers fascinating insight not only into what makes him tick as a person, but also into how he understands art and creativity. What he says touched many places in my life, and I invite you to find it and read it and comment on it here.
You can see part of the interview at www.thesunmagazine.org. You have to get a print copy for the whole interview. I know Mac's Paperbacks in Coventry carries it in the Cleveland area, but it may well be available in other bookstores. It's a periodical I always look forward to getting and reading.

Wandering and Maybe Lost in a CO2 Haze

How many times will I receive the “second and final important call” regarding my credit card account before they stop calling me?

My lawn is browning out and it’s only June 1. What’s up? A mild winter here followed by a dry, warm, even hot, spring...and northeast Ohio’s experience is consistent with worldwide data.

“Emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide reached an all-time high last year, further reducing the chances that the world can avoid a dangerous rise in global average temperature by 2020...Global emissions of carbon dioxide, or CO2, from fossil fuel combustion hit a record high of 31.6 gigatonnes in 2011...an increase of 2 Gt, or 3.2 percent, from 2010...” (Plain Dealer, May 26, 2012)

Lee Vierding, who “studies environmental change and teaches at the University of Idaho,” writes that very high levels of atmospheric CO2 some 40 or 50 million years ago were cut in half by the rise of Mt. Everest. Took 25 million years to get the job done. If you want to know how that works, read his article in the May 30, 2012 Christian Century.

Will we know when we’ve received that last and final important call about climate change? What if we’ve received it already, and have decided not to respond? Will our salvation have to come from a mountain (again)?