Remembering veterans

I think of Veterans Day largely as a remembrance for World War I vets, like my Grampa Clinton Foster in the photo at left taken at Camp Custer, Battle Creek, Michigan, 1917. Standing behind him, far left in the white dress is my Gramma Edith Deits. She was 21. He was 25. They would be married six years later. (Also in the photo is Grampa's sister Agnes and Gramma's younger sister, Mary.) 

Grampa was the oldest sibling left at home to work the farm when the war broke out. His father spent a lot of time away from the family as a timber assessor. When Grampa reported for duty in 1918, it was September, and several of his letters home show he was worried about the corn crop:

You did not say if the corn got ripe, and I have not seen any signs of frost here yet & it stays damp nearly all the time. 

Did you folks find the pumpkins I carved my name on in the cornfield? It is on the north side in about the 4th row. Is the corn ripe yet?

I saw an airplane land, and it was sure fine! It was the first seen since I have been here. 

Veteran's Day: Reality in America

 STATISTA: The U.S. Military Suicide Crises

Nearly half of those serving in the U.S. military have contemplated suicide since joining the forces, according to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) Members 2022 report. This is a huge jump up from the nine percent that said they had thought about taking their own life before signing up.

According to a 2021 report by Thomas Howard Suitt at Boston University, suicide rates among the active military personnel and veterans of the post 9/11 wars have been climbing in recent years. While the same trend can be said of the general public, in the military and veterans spheres it’s happening at an even faster rate.

To put this into context, estimates currently put the figure of suicides among active duty personnel and veterans of the post 9/11 wars at 30,177 - a high number, especially when considering that 7,057 U.S. service members were killed in war operations in that time.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Holy poverty

This is my homily for today, the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B.  The readings for today are here.

Existential crises of The Unaware (not politics!)

I'm always interested in un-religious lives in which God seems to be busily at work, or maybe I am just interested in insisting that God is at work in the lives of the un-religious as well as those who are every-Sunday-churchgoers. People like my parents and grandparents. People like me. Serendipitously, I happened to get two books from the library that explored God's presence in the folks I'll call The Unaware in different ways:

In the novel "Stone Yard Devotional" by Australian author Charlotte Wood, a failed environmental activist joins a community of tired nuns in a dreary part of the Australian outback.  In the midst of a plague of mice, the remains of a former sister of the convent, murdered many years ago while working with abused women in Southeast Asia, are being returned to the community. Accompanying the remains is a celebrity nun with a reputation as a firebrand for human rights. Between the mice, the red tape involving the reception and interment of the remains, and the disruptive presence of the famous Sister Helen Parry, the nuns experience a turmoil that rattles the routine of work and prayer. 

Have Wages Kept Up With Inflation?

 

One of the reasons why people are so concerned with inflation is the fact that high inflation hits consumers right where it hurts: the wallet. In times of high inflation, when prices increase faster than nominal wages, real wages go down, meaning that workers see (and feel) the purchasing power of their income decline. 

 

During the current inflation crisis, this has been the case from April 2021 to April 2023, when average real hourly earnings declined for 25 consecutive months on a year-over-year basis. In May 2023, real wages began to rise again as nominal wage growth outpaced inflation once again as it normally should. 

 

By looking at cumulative wage growth and price increases since January 2020, we can answer the question whether or not wages have kept up with inflation over the past four and half years. The answer is: yes, but just barely. While nominal wages have increased 22.7 percent since the beginning of 2020, consumer prices have also surged by 21.0 percent on aggregate. This leaves real wage growth at a meager 1.5 percent for the entirety of the past four and half years, which is equivalent to an annual (real) pay increase of 0.3 percent.  

It's the Economy Stupid

 
STATISTA: It's the Economy, Stupid

by Felix Richter,

 Nov 7, 2024

„It’s the economy, stupid!“

This phrase, famously coined by political strategist James Carville during Bill Clinton’s successful presidential campaign in 1992, still holds a lot of truth more than 30 years later. In fact, it sums up pretty well what may have cost Kamala Harris the election. According to exit polls, frustration with the state of the economy, even more so than immigration, was the main driver behind Donald Trump’s sweeping return to power.

According to NEP exit polls published by NBC News, 32 percent of the interviewed voters across 10 key states picked the economy as the one issue that mattered most to them in deciding who to vote for. Of these people, 80 percent voted for Donald Trump, giving him an even higher lead on the issue than Harris achieved among voters focused on abortion, of which 74 percent voted for the Democratic candidate.

During her brief campaign, Harris apparently failed to distance herself from the economic record of the Biden administration, which had left many people feeling worse off than they did four years ago. And while one could argue that Biden steered the economy through the inflation crisis with as little damage as possible given that it was driven in part by factors outside of his control, e.g. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or global supply chain disruptions, that’s not how many people felt and the Harris campaign failed to address those largely negative feelings.

46 percent of voters said their family was worse off now compared to four years ago, which is an even higher share than in 2008, in the midst of the financial crisis. 81 percent of these people voted for Trump, suggesting that Harris was perceived as the “more of the same” candidate while Trump promised change. Despite the economy doing reasonably well on paper – steady GDP growth, unemployment low, stock prices high – Americans are very downbeat after three years of high inflation. 68 percent of voters described the state of the economy as not so good or poor, while only 31 percent said it was good or excellent.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Post election conversations

People's nerves are frayed, so I haven't gone around talking about the election. But if they say something, I listen.

Some examples: One of our sons indicated he was going to take a break from the news cycle, for mental health sake. Other son said, "Trump should not have been allowed to run after his convictions" (I agree!). But he didn't like Harris either, and "it is what it is". My sisters and I were never Trump, Harris voters. We were bummed, kind of analyzing where things went off the track. I said it was social issues that did the Dems in. One sister said no, it was inflation and the economy. We all said if you remember 1980s inflation, they have no idea what they're talking about. Actually I think it was everything added up. Then we got to talking about the past, like 10 million years ago. Because that's the age of the meter-wide petrified sea turtle that UNL paleontologists recently dug out of the lake bed near our hometown. Some parish friends said "Trump was the biggest jerk to ever run for president, but you don't get to be a king in this country. The government is way bigger than one person, and maybe the state governments actually affect people more than the federal."  I haven't talked to my brothers yet. Think I will avoid the election topic with them. So far I haven't heard any gloating from the winning side, or people wanting to jump off a bridge from the losing one.

How have the conversations been going in your areas?