On abortion, Sanders stays true

Bernie Sanders at Liberty University(Starting at 7:39 on the video):

“Senator Sanders, you have talked in your campaign about how it is immoral to protect the billionaire class at the expense of our most vulnerable in society, obviously children…. A majority of Christians would agree with you … but would also go further and say that children in the womb need our protection even more…. How do you reconcile the two?”

Bernie Sanders answers:

“…on this very sensitive issue on which this nation is divided… my view is I respect absolutely a family that says, ‘No, we are not going to have an abortion,’ I understand that, I respect that. But I would hope that other people will respect the very painful and difficult choice that many women feel they have to make and don’t want the government telling them what they have to do.”

Listen to women cheering at his answer. When medical science discovers a way to transplant a fetus to a man’s body, we’ll ask the question again.

Sanders also says in his response:

“I want to tell you what was in the Republican budget that passed a number of months ago… When you talk about issues of children, understand the Republican budget threw 27 million people off of health care, including many children, at a time when many families cannot afford to send their kids to college.”

The entire speech is worth watching –  he talks justice! morality!

My own view on abortion:

Let’s support girls and women with education and good jobs so that no woman has to defer to a man over control of her body. Let’s bring up boys to respect women and women’s bodies so that there are no unwanted pregnancies. Let’s give pregnant women the financial support they need to take care of their babies so that abortion is not a consequence of poverty.

Ever gonna happen?

World’s Most Charitable

Bill Gates pledged to give away half his fortune and persuaded Warren Buffet to do the same. In 2010,  the duo started The Giving Pledge  to sign up other billionaires to their cause.

In 2010 Gates’s net worth was $54 billion, and Buffet’s $45 billion. In 2015, today, Gates’s net worth is $79.2 billion, and Buffet’s $71.3 billion. Way to go, Bill and Warren. You prove that great generosity garners great rewards.

Original poster sighted in La Bodeguita, Havana, Cuba, 1979

Original poster sighted in La Bodeguita, Havana, Cuba, 1979

Living Wages

Reuters headline yesterday: “Minimum wage fight hits the streets of nearly 200 U.S. cities”

Aug. 17, 1998

I went to work for a day and they paid me $70 an hour for six hours. At $7 an hour that’s 60 hours, or 42 hours at $10 an hour, more than a week’s work, standing on your feet all day, lifting heavy bolts of fabric, opening drawers of dress patterns, bending and heaving, cutting and turning, until you hurt your back, your wrists, your legs. Arthritis, rheumatism, varicose veins, carpal tunnel, you’ve got it all. $10 an hour – that’s a lot of money. That’s a good job. They made you manager of the store.

“What about you? What do you do?”

“Oh, I – I teach. I work on my own. Not all the time. Just when they call me.” I mumble and avoid their eyes.

They look at me, not sure whether to feel sorry or envious. “It’s good to work for yourself. Set your own hours. No one to be your boss.”

“Ahh… well, I have to work when they call. It’s hard not to know when I have to work. A steady job is good.”

They feel sorry for me now. “Yes, a steady job is good. Bring in some money. Pay the bills. It’s not easy, getting a good job.”