Top One Percenters – and the “WTF” Generation

By Danny Quinney

I don’t know who is in charge of making up the generation titles, “Baby Boomers”, “Gen X”, and “Gen Y”, but if the powers that be came to me, your humble narrator, to name the current generation, this Gen-Xer I would have to go with the “WTF generation”.  It’s all the kids talk about, “WTF, WTF, WTF”.  It is like the world didn’t exist before Wikipedia, Twitter, and Facebook, the kids these days they just… (what, what was that?  Oh… WTF is already an acronym?).  Well, let’s move on, shall we?

When the whole OWS (Occupy Wall Street) thingy started it meant exactly jackus squatus to me.  I have no problem with people protesting, I believe people should have the right to assemble.  And, to be honest, I understand their beef.  There is corruption on Wall Street, and those people should be held accountable.

Then they started in on the whole “we are the 99 percent” thing, I started to question their motives.  It seemed to me the “hope and change” crowd turned into the “divide and conquer” crowd.  The battle lines were clearly drawn to hate the rich.  I wanted to know who the 1 percent I was supposed to hate was before being lumped into having these guys represent me.  Especially since it seems the few legitimate protesters have been taken over by the drug addicted, rape legitimizing, anarchic, “when it’s okay to shoot “Fascist” Police Officers”  left-wing choo-choos.

According to Kay Bell of bankrate.com  Top 1 Percent: How Much Do They Earn?  in order to be considered a member of the ultra elite/hated 1 percent  you need to have a household income of $343,927.  Now for the record, I’m DEFINITELY NOT a one percenter.  And I don’t hate them, I’m not jealous of them, I’m envious of them.  If I could come up with a good idea, work hard, and sell my goods or service and become a one percenter, I would be all over it.  In fact if someone is willing to teach me, I’m all ears.

Three-hundred-thousand as a household income, although it is enough zeros to impress my accountant, doesn’t sound like that much money.  Pretty much any celebrity, sports figure, anyone mildly famous, and…oh…roughly 44% of New York City residents in 2007 were in the top one percent of earners.

According to Kay Bell, “The 1.4 million Americans in the IRS’ top taxpayer category in 2009 reported nearly 17 percent of all the country’s taxable income. From those filers, the IRS collected $318 billion or almost 37 percent of all the individual taxes paid in 2009”.  Obviously the top 1 percent aren’t all Wall Street tycoons.  Now, I’m not excusing Wall Street at all, but after listening to some of the complaints it seems to me there is plenty of blame to go around: Congress, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, and even the Universities, for those who are complaining about the cost of tuition.

For those complaining there aren’t any jobs, go make one.  America is still the land of opportunity.  Some five years ago Mark Zuckerberg was a poor college kid, today he is one of the riches men in the world.  I’m not saying it’s easy.  But if you have time to occupy a little piece of sidewalk for a month, you have time to lay the foundations for something meaningful.

Just for fun, let’s say we take the top 1 percent and we took ALL their money.  Taxed every penny.  Two things would happen.  1) it wouldn’t change the “parade candy” spending policies of Washington, it would just embolden them to spend more, 2) All you would have done is create a brand new top 1 percent.  That is why whipping up the masses to grab their torches and pitchforks toward one group is less then clever.  Besides, a mob doesn’t know when to stop.  That was the difference between the French Revolution and the American Revolution.

So, what should do we do? WTF just get involved.  Let your kids, friends, co-workers, spouses, or life-partner-of-the-month know where you stand.  WTF you don’t have to “be out there”, to get involved.   Oh, and remember WTF is for Wikipedia, Twitter, and Facebook.  Be educated on the facts and then be involved.

Say “No” to Apathy

By Carol Soelberg, President of UFI

United Families received many gratifying comments from our readers recently when we spelled out ways citizens can be involved in making a difference in the sex education curriculum in their schools.  This affirmed my belief that people are not really apathetic in regards to their community responsibilities rather they need to be informed about how to be involved!

I agreed whole heartedly with Dave Meslin’s 7 minute video presentation called “The Antidote to Apathy.”  He says people aren’t stupid, selfish or lazy.  We simply live in a world that discourages involvement by putting obstacles and barriers in our way.

These obstacles include:

1. Intentional exclusion exists because many public servants would rather make decisions for us than encourage our understanding and input.
2. We have intentionally put a price tag on freedom of expression. Our public space, i.e. billboards and such, are bought for a high price while many of the messages that need to be shared are not profitable.
3. The media focuses far more on entertainment and sports than political events and involvement.  Even when political stories are covered, rarely is information included that would direct input and involvement.
4. Many of today’s heroes are seen as “chosen” or exceptionally gifted. This leads the rest of us who are all fairly “ordinary” to assume that we haven’t much to contribute.  Meslin accurately states that, “A heroic effort is a collective effort”.  The real good that is accomplished in life involves the “collective, imperfect, voluntary” efforts and talents of many individuals.
5. Political Parties have sadly become a restatement of what marketers and pollsters  think you want to hear rather than coming up with bold creative ideas and policies that reflect and serve the good of the people.
6. And finally, the fact that charitable organizations are not allowed to advocate, means that many of the most “passionate and informed voices are kept silent especially during election time.”

Thank you Meslin for helping us all clarify some of the obstacles that hinder our involvement in the important issues of the day.  United Families International is dedicated to climbing over these obstacles and identifying ways for all who wish to be involved in making the world a better place to live by securing a future for families.

Every Vote Counts

By now you know that Scott Brown, a Republican, won the Senate seat vacated by the late Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts last week. In one of the most Democratic states in the Union (less then 10% of voters are registered as Republican) the people made their voices heard.

Brown was elected by the little grassroots campaign that could. Despite Obama flying to Massachusetts to support Attorney General Martha Coakley just two days before the election, Brown won. Why?

Brown is a guy you want to be friends with. He’s an attractive older guy (Cosmopolitan Magazine: America’s Sexiest Man 1982) who drives a pick up (area GMC dealers are reporting a spike in sales of trucks) and like any dad, embarrasses his daughters in public (His daughter is single, if you were wondering). Brown is a lot easier to relate to then Coakley and he made sure the people of Massachusetts knew he was willing to represent them with their best interests at heart.

Moderate and Independent voters made this election. With such a small Republican contingent in Massachusetts, Moderates, Independents and unhappy Democrat voters were vital to the success of Brown’s campaign. These voters educated themselves and were able to vote not blindly by political party but by candidate and policies. The rest of the country needs to look to the voters of Massachusetts as an example of what you should do. Educate yourself. On the politician, their policies and their history to make an educated decision for who will best represent you and your family.

Most importantly, every vote counts. No matter where you live and how set in its ways a state may appear, you have to get out and vote. Brown would have never won the election if the people of Massachusetts hadn’t actually gone to the polls to vote. Passion is what drives people to the polls to vote, not political affiliation. Be passionate about making sure the correct people are elected to stand for your beliefs.  There is no point in complaining about elected officials  if you haven’t even made the effort to vote.

There are elections later this year. Be pro-active and be smart. And vote!

March for Life…From Your Own Home

The 2010 March for Life will be held Friday January 22^nd in Washington D.C. The theme is “Stand Up Now! Unite for the Life Principles–No Exception! No Compromise!”

Americans United for Life is hosting the first free Virtual March for Life. There’s a new feature now that will allow you to create a personal “avatar” and show your support for the pro-life movement, even if you can’t make it to D.C. Thousands have already joined to show their support.

The first March for Life was held January 22, 1974 organized by grassroots pro-life leaders to memorialize the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision and to peacefully petition Congress to make amends. The first March in 1974 boasted 20,000 participants while the 2009 March had over 200,000 marchers.

Visit their website for further details.

If you are in the Western United States, Walk for Life West Coast is hosting their Sixth Annual event on Saturday January 23, 2009 in San Francisco. Over 30,000 walkers attended the peaceful rally in 2009.

Check out their website for more details.

Be sure to check with your local pro-life groups for events coming up in the next week. Many groups are hosting marches or rallies in cities throughout the United States.

Learning to Teach, Not Just Rally

I read a lot of articles and blog comments surrounding family issues everyday, and I’ve noticed a trend.

Very few, if any, of the articles and comments written about these subjects are written to teach people about the issues. Most seem to be written as a rallying cry for those already on the writers’ side.

I can immediately identify these when they include: a condescending tone, name-calling or (get ready) cite scripture.

This trend became clear to me after I read an article called Why I’m Becoming Pro-Life and Why Your Obnoxious Activism Wasn’t What Changed My Mind, written by a homosexual atheist named Alex Knepper. In the article Knepper told his “conversion” to pro-life thinking through a long journey of logic and exploration. Being atheist, religious arguments meant absolutely nothing to him. Only logical arguments eventually led to his change in opinion (please read his article).

If this is true, than pro-family advocates are doing a poor job of explaining issues in ways that will ring true with more than just pro-family or religious people. Although rallying does have its place, but teaching is also crucial.

There are valid, logical arguments that should be heard. Social science professionals have produced statistics that should be injected into the conversation, in large doses.

To help you find these valid, science based arguments concerning these issues; United Families International has organized free issues guides for anyone and everyone.

If you want to contribute to the conversation on these issues, or just be able to defend your position, these guides will be a great start. Find them here.

Thank you for caring. I hope these guides will help you solidify your understanding of the issues and make you a stronger advocate for the cause.

Spain group gathers a million signatures for life

A pro-life group in Spain has gathered nearly a million signatures on a petition opposing reforms to the nation’s abortion laws. The group, Derecho a Vivio (Right to Live) will send the petition to the Moncloa Palace, the official residence and office of Spain’s President, at the end of the month.

The petition voices strident opposition to a new abortion bill that would legalize non-medical abortions for the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy and allow girls as young as 16 to obtain abortions without parental consent.

Currently women are able to obtain abortions only with consent from a medical doctor, in cases of threat to the mother’s physical or mental health. Unfortunately, the mental health caveat of current legislation is loose enough to allow for more than 100,000 abortions every year in Spain. Proponents of the bill claim the new legislation would simply cover most of these abortion.

The new petition is only the most recent in a series of attempts by religious and pro-family organizations to stop the bill from passing and reassert the nation’s support for life. In October, millions gathered in Madrid in a pro-life rally to oppose the new legislation. Then last week, thousands of Catholics gathered outside Real Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium to protest the abortion legislation and oppose the various anti-family and anti-family initiatives of the current socialist government.

The bill expanding legal abortions, which was introduced last year, passed the nation’s Congress of Deputies with a 184-158 vote on December 17. The Senate is now expected to vote on the bill earlier this year.

Corporate Equality Index Let’s Your Money Do the Talking

When we have posted on corporate support or opposition to important family and life issues in the past, there has always been an impressive response from our readership, the most frequent response being, “What can I do?” This has been most readily the case with corporations supporting the LGBT agenda.

Well, for those of you interested in supporting those companies that support the family and opposing those companies that advance the anti-family LGBT agenda, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has offered you an opportunity to let your money speak for you.

HRC recently released its annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI). The index rates companies according to adherence to and support of LGBT ‘rights’ policies. Corporations fill out a voluntary survey that HRC then scores and publishes. Although the survey is voluntary, it covers a wide variety of companies with a wide variety of scores.

The CEI is used by HRC and other organizations to pressure corporations into supporting the LGBT agenda through public shaming and the incentives or disincentives through consumer action.  If you would like to counter such efforts, you can do so by taking a look at the index and supporting those companies with a low rating.

The CEI actually provides a very clear sense of where a company stands on LGBT issues and how it uses its public position and money to advance such issues, if in fact it does. The scores are calculated according to a 6 point scoring criteria:

1. Equal employment opportunity policy and diversity training for sexual orientation
2. Equal employment opportunity policy and diversity training for gender identity or expression, including insurance coverage, counseling and guidelines for gender transition.
3. Domestic partner benefits including health insurance, vision and dental.
4. LGBT employee resource group or diversity counseling
5. Advertising, marketing and sponsorship of LGBT events or organizations
6. Behavior toward LGBT community, including actions “that would undermine LGBT equality.”

If you have the time or inclination, take a look at the index and find those companies that you would most like to support in defending the family.  The U.S. News & World Report article on the index even identifies the contrasting scores of companies within the same industry, providing you an easy choice when making your next purchase:

General Mills (100% CEI score) vs. Kellogg’s (65% CEI score)

Visa, MasterCard, American Express (100% CEI scores) vs. Discover Card (58% CEI score)

Orbitz (100% CEI score) vs. Expedia (65% CEI score)

Dell (100% CEI score) vs.Acer/Gateway Computers (50% CEI score)

Best Buy (100% CEI score) vs. Radio Shack (40% CEI score)

Staples (93% CEI score) & OfficeMax (90%) vs. Office Depot (45% CEI score)

Mattel (95% CEI score) vs. Hasbro (50% CEI score)

UFI Meets Facebook Goal!

Just last week we posted a plea for your help in building our Facebook network. Our initial goal was to have a simple but respectable 1,000 fans by the first of next year. Well thanks to you, we managed to blow past that goal in a single week!! We now have an outstanding 1,085 fans.

Thank you so much for your amazing support!!!

But we aren’t ready to give up yet. We have set a new goal to have 2,000 fans by January 1.

Please continue to encourage your friends and family to join our Facebook network by clicking on the “Suggest to Friends” link underneath the profile picture and adding a UFI fan badge to your own website or blog.

With your help, UFI will be able to educate and assist more and more individuals invested in protecting the family. Together we can make a difference for the future of families everywhere.

Thank you again for you all do! Please keep it up.

Voice of the Nation Rejoices Over Big Success In Maine!

This week on “Voice of the Nation” they be talking about the great success in Maine and the election results for both conservative governors in Virginia and New Jersey.  Join us as we talk with Scott Loveless about protecting marriage and family as we move forward from the big win in Maine.

Guest: Scott Loveless – Scott Loveless served eight years as the Executive Director of the World Family Policy Center at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University.  He initially practiced law for 20 years with the U.S. Department of the Interior, focusing on issues affecting environmental concerns:  water law, environmental law, public land law, and mining and mineral leasing law.  However, he pursued a Ph.D. in Family Studies (BYU 2000) after having observed the adverse consequences of divorce within his circle of acquaintances while living in the Washington, D.C. area. His dissertation sought to understand the human-relational effects of personal philosophies of happiness on the marriage relationship.  He has continued to write and publish on related themes, most recently in the 3-volume set, The Family in the New Millenium  (Praeger), on which he served as lead editor.  His current primary professional interests (and reason for joining UFI) are in the moral/philosophical origins of human rights law, current moral tensions in human rights law at the UN and elsewhere, and the consequences for societies and families of the different possible resolutions of those tensions.  Scott and Cheri, his wife of 35 years, are the grateful parents of 3 sons and 5 daughters and have 8 grandchildren.

TUNE IN HERE

UFI Responds to Google Support of Referendum 71

Last week we reported on Google executives coming out in public support of Referendum 71. Like us, many of you were disturbed by one of the nation’s largest internet search engines taking a public position on a such a sensitive and political issue. It is fair reason to question the reliability and neutrality of an organization that filters the information most people receive. We wanted to make sure Google was made aware of these concerns, so we drafted and sent the following letter:

To Eric Schmidt:

We, United Families International, are writing in response to a recent letter sent by Google executives Brian Bershad and Scott Silver to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on the issue of Referendum 71. Given the position of your organization as one of the most prominent and powerful search engines on the internet, we feel it is a gross abuse of your visibility and power to take a public position on an issue unrelated to your business or its practices.

Now that you have publicly made evident your organization’s biases and ideology, those of us who disagree with your position must question the accuracy and reliability of Google search results. We would hope that as the filter standing between the public and the information available on the internet Google would maintain a position of neutrality on all public, political or cultural issues in order to assure the public that your search engine provides results that are free of bias and/or manipulation. Due to this most recent letter to the editor, the public can no longer trust that this is the case and must question what sort of bias is filtering the news and information we receive.

We recognize that what you have written cannot be rescinded. However, we encourage you in the future to avoid weakening your integrity further by becoming involved in the political sphere. Such involvement diminishes the reliability and trustworthiness of your entire organization.

Sincerely,

United Families International