Money Talks: Thoughts on a 21st Century Economy*

Take a look at this. Really LOOK for a minute:Yes, that's right. Its a "kitty wig." For $50, you can purrrrchase a wig for your very own kitty. Just imagine! Your kitty in a lovely pink wig. The ad at kittywigs.com says

Pink is the color of fantasy. Our model, Chicken, looks like her mind is elsewhere when she wears this wig -- somewhere in a land of cotton candy and pinwheels where the air smells like sugar kisses.

Wow.

Time for a reality check. Our fellow human beings on this very same planet are starving and enduring pain and tragedy - and we could actually help. We would simply need to sign our name to a check, but instead we sign over $50 for a kitty wig. Why? To torture and irritate our pets? For our own warped amusement?

Ok, it may seem like I'm singling out kittywigs - and I am. But really I'm trying to highlight the frivolity of Western greed. There are many, many more subtle examples of this greed. Kittywigs.com is merely an extreme example that demonstrates some of the many things that our money "says" in modern times: greed, excess, frivolity. To that, I say, "Really?!?" Is that who we've become? A nation of artificial-pink cat-torturing faux hair? God, I hope not. I prefer more grounded values of honesty, loyalty, character, truth, and real beauty.

We've hit a wall in our economy. The endless growth of the past half-century has come to a stop - at least for now. We are at a crossroads. This stage in our journey will no doubt be filled with pain, but it can also be filled with hope and enormous opportunity. Let me explain how.

Earlier this evening I heard many critics on the news stations blaming unions for the impending doom of the Big Three U.S. automakers. Again I say..."really?!?" So, employees of those companies shouldn't have demanded decent wages and benefits? Who exactly are these Big Three supposed to benefit? Wouldn't the employees be about first on the list?!?? Yes, ok, we've turned into a stockholder economy, but really whose personal stake is more intimately intertwined with the success of Ford, GM, or Chrysler than those companies' OWN EMPLOYEES? No one! Just whose economy is this? Let's be honest, while stockholders may have the "ownership" interest in the companies - who actually DOES the work? The employees! The stockholders sit on their butts! They DO nothing! (Ok, well, maybe not nothing, actually, but they are probably doing something for someone else...their OWN employer perhaps).

It's time for a revolution. Its time to apply the "think before we speak" rule to our spending too, because money talks. What do we want it to say? We have so many choices! So many beautiful choices! Before we continue down the same well-worn path of the past 50 years of consumption and greed, let's consider some alternatives:

Alternative #1: We could buy yet another pair of shoes (dress/shirt/tv/gadget/phone) that will end up buried in the closet. A few cents of that purchase *might* end up in the pocket of the grossly-underpaid developing-world worker who made the shoes. The rest will end up split between some resourceful middlemen and some fat-pocketed corporate employees somewhere. In the end, will those new shoes (dress/shirt/tv/gadget/phone) really bring us happiness? Not likely. If they are really high quality shoes, we might have warm and protected feet for a few years. In that case, good. In any other case? How 'bout skip the shoes/dress/shirt/tv/gadget/phone? I mean - how many of those things do we really need? Is one more going to be "the one" to bring happiness? I seriously doubt it.

Alternative #2: We could take that same money and spend it at a local farmers' market on fresh local fruits and vegetables. Yes, the prices might seem high compared to the supermarket, but consider the benefits of fresh, local produce. Nourishment, good health, a thriving local agricultural market, and farmers who can actually make a living in their trade. Good stuff.

Alternative #3: Save your money and buy one of the fuel-efficient Fords that the company will inevitably have to get on the market ASAP if they are to make it even into the next decade. Also a nice choice. You'd be supporting employees of the "new" American automotive market, which I truly hope comes to pass, not to mention saving fuel and reducing your carbon footprint.

Alternative #4: How about dance, music, or art lessons from a local teacher? Bringing music or art into your life is its own reward. Do need to tell you how many happy hours I've spent singing or dancing or playing the ukulele? Bliss. You'd be supporting a small, local business and the livelihood of a local artist and bringing your economy close to home. No CEOs to skim off the top. Woohoo! While you're at it, go to the concert of a local band or orchestra, buy a painting from a local artist, or go crazy and try the local opera company!

Alternative #5: Buy a good book or CD - even better if you can buy directly from the artist or author. Again - you're supporting an economy that values the beautiful things in life: the written word and music.

Alternative #6: ANY local business - non-chain restaurants, cleaners, local independent hardware stores, non-chain bookstores, florists, etc. Skip WalMart. The Waltons are rich enough. And the money that the Walton family doesn't keep, they send largely to China on the stuff they purchase. And they don't pay their employees very well or give them decent benefits.

*-------*-------*

The real word here is that however you spend your money, IT TALKS. Don't let tough times be an opportunity to spend more of our money at WalMart. After all, very little of that money gets to the real workers anyway and dependence on the kind of jobs that WalMart provides in the developing world do very little to improve the lives of those workers. In fact, they may actually stifle development of more sustainable local economies.

The current economic depression gives us lots of challenges. But we can also take the unique opportunities it offers us, too. Let's push the industries that want to survive this crisis to come out of it on our terms. Let's make our money say what we want it to say. The time has come.

*NOTE: Thanks to my Cultural Geography Professor, Huia Hutton, for introducing me and his other students to kittywigs.com. The thoughts expressed here regarding kittywigs are mainly a repetition of Professor Hutton's, with which I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree and feel are worth sharing!

Family Time!

It's been a whirlwind of a month with the election and the craziness at school, but back at the beginning of October, George and I had a really pleasant and relaxing visit with family: George's mom, step-dad and brother Marc. We introduced our family to some of our favorite places on the island. In addition to old haunts, we discovered a few new places thanks to a little curiosity, adventurousness, and a persuasive guidebook. I've posted all the pictures here. We hope our latest guests can come again before we depart this beautiful place we call home.

Dear Mr. Obama, Yes We Did.

[I've been neglecting my blog for a while. Life gets in the way of self-expression sometimes. As do elections. And playing the ukulele. And I promise I will post pictures of our family visit SOON! We had a great time and I will write about it soon. But this is the inspiration of the moment so here goes...]


Dear Mr. Obama,

Actually, may I call you Barack? We've never met, but you seem like a first-name kind of person. Ok, I'm going out on a limb here and I will address you as "Barack."

Dear Barack,

I am very excited that you are going to be our next president. Oddly (or not) the first-African-American-president achievement is somewhat of an after-thought for my own personal excitement. Of course, that is a remarkable thing. We talked about the magnitude of it in my social studies class today, in light the short 40 years that have passed since the civil rights movement and the short 140 years since the end of the Civil War. Its amazing (and wonderful) how much students take race for granted these days. At least out here in Hawaii, they don't seem to think of race as any sort of obstacle. Of course, you know as well as I the beautiful diversity of Hawaii.

Anyway, I heard your speech back in 2004 while I was visiting my parents in my hometown of St.Louis, Missouri. We were watching on our little kitchen TV and I watched in awe and announced to my family that I was absolutely certain that you would be the next president of the United States. I waited in anticipation for the next four years for my dream and prediction to come true. I really should have bought some of that "Obama" stock you can apparently buy. With my "earnings" I'd be able to pay off my 100K student loans...but I digress.

To the point. I am ecstatic that you will be president. Mainly because your life reminds me of my own. Even though I'm 14 years younger than you, our paths have criss-crossed and paralleled a few times. I see my life reflected in yours. Maybe you can see why.

I grew up in suburban St.Louis, Missouri where I was the minority in my neighborhood. Oddly enough, I look pretty much like your average thirty-someting, middle-class, young professional white woman. However, in my youth, I was one of a small number of white kids in my mostly black neighborhood. I remember riding the bus to school with my sister and she and I - and occasionally a few others - were the only white kids on the bus. When I arrived at school, however, the picture was different. I blended in easily with the majority-white student population. Even, there, however, I never felt like I blended in. Not because of my race, but because of my lack of wealth. My parents were not (and are not) poor, but compared to the money many of my classmates came from, I often felt unable to "keep up with the Joneses." So, I tried my hardest, often in ridiculous and unsuccessful ways, to fit in. In the meantime, my parents supported me in my academic life and I participated in school in just about every imaginable way: music, theater, sports. Graduation came and I went on to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In Ithaca, I studied lots of things, but I majored in music and spent every ounce of spare time singing. It was a time of major personal growth and self-discovery. After college and a very short-lived "career" in musical theater, I headed off to law school. Now here is where our paths diverge a bit. I went to Catholic University in Washington, D.C. - a wonderful school - but no Harvard. And while I was a member of our law review, I was not editor-in-chief material. (As an aside, I wish the non-legal world realized the enormous academic honor of being named editor-in-chief of a law review. Even at "little" CUA law school, the our Editor-in-Chief was an intellectual powerhouse and an absolute workhorse in our class. I can only imagine what that honor would be like at Harvard!)

Anyway, after a bit of wandering in the legal world - a clerkship in D.C. Superior Court, work for a small education law firm in D.C. helping states implement the newly-passed NCLB, I eventually concluded that traditional use of my law degree was not for me. Who knows - maybe I'll get back to that someday, but in 2004 - around the time of your first famous speech - I decided to become a teacher. I went back to school to get an M.Ed. in Multilingual/Multicultural Education. I got married to a great guy in the Army somewhere in there and got stationed your old home state. My first year out here in Hawaii, I taught ELL at Kahuku High and Intermediate School. I loved ELL, but my principal noticed my law background and now I'm teaching social studies: Hawaiian History (ha!), AP Government, and a class on Constitutional Law. Kahuku High School is worlds away from the University of Chicago, but the Equal Protection Clause of the XIVth Amendment reads the same in the Hawaiian Time Zone as it does in Central Standard. Besides, I like to think that I'm giving my students the foundation to go on to a University of Chicago someday, should they so choose.

I doubt I will go on to become President, but I am inspired to let my voice be heard in a way I never imagined before. After my husband leaves the military and we are settled somewhere a little more permanently, I can imagine myself running for public office. If not that, I will proudly continue as a public school teacher doing my part to serve America, by ensuring that the students I encounter understand the importance of their vigorous and educated participation in our democracy. Without our young people, who will pass on the democracy to future generations of Americans?

I've never met you, but maybe you can see why I can relate so well to your life. I like to think I'm the ordinary "Jane" version of your life. I really feel like you are my president. You so beautifully and eloquently put into words the feelings I have about our country and the direction we need. I'm so happy, for the first time in my life, to somehow see my face to wonderfully reflected in the face of our new president. I hear my dreams for our country in your voice. I see my own optimism for America and the world in the sincerety of the expression of your face each time you speak.

For all of this, know that you will have my complete support as proud American who has never been prouder to be part of this great nation than I've been since you became "President-Elect, Barack Hussein Obama."

Many mahalos and alohas,

Lisa Rodvien