Op Ed

My name is Chris Bliss and I am the Executive Director of MyBillofRights.org, the Bill of Rights Monument Project.

For the last 20 years I’ve been a stand-up comedian, though I’m probably best known for my “Amazing Juggling Finale” video,  which went viral with over 60,000,000 hits a few years back. 60,000,000 is an impressive number, or was until that vixen Susan Boyle came along. The experience was an incredible high. And yet it pales in comparison to the excitement I feel about the truly historic opportunity that has brought me to Austin: The Bill of Rights Plaza.

Since August of 2005, I have been working night and day to promote the freedoms and principles embodied in the Bill of Rights, through the installation of Bill of Rights displays in civic spaces across America. Why the Bill of Rights? Because, simply put, it is the single most powerful and successful legal assertion of individual rights and liberties ever written, forming the very core of our common ground and shared purpose as a people. Ideas matter, and great ideas make a great nation. Giving the Bill of Rights a tangible presence in our most prominent public spaces will help reinvigorate its many great ideas, as well as the nation they inspired.

I know: this project sounds like a stretch for a comedian/juggler. Funnily enough, it began as a comedy routine about the debate over Ten Commandments displays. My take was that instead of arguing whether to take those down, we should put the Bill of Rights up next to them, and let people comparison shop. Because the Bill of Rights gives you such an amazing deal. It tells you to speak freely, carry a gun, pursue happiness, and then presumes you are innocent, and I can’t find a religion that will match that offer!

The routine always got a good laugh. But in the aftermath of 9/11, with its rapid expansion of the national security apparatus and revelations about secret policies that broke faith with so many fundamental American principles, I didn’t find my little joke funny anymore. Beyond the obvious fear factor, I couldn’t understand how so many Americans could be so seemingly indifferent to the fate of the very foundation of our way of life. I kept asking myself: what can be done to inspire Americans to think more about their liberties?

As I always do with questions I can’t answer, I turned to Google. Repeated searches failed to find a single permanent display of the Bill of Rights. Many sleepless nights and loud conversations with friends and family culminated in my starting MyBillofRights.org (though we’re actually incorporated as the Foundation Foundation. The joke was on me with that one. Go ahead, google Foundation Foundation. It’s the internet equivalent of standing between two mirrors and staring down the wormhole into infinity).

On July 5, 2008 we dedicated our first Town Square display, and the nation’s first of any kind, in front of the Poweshiek County Courthouse in Montezuma, Iowa. We also passed our first State Capitol resolution in Arizona in 2006, and our second in Texas the following June. All three efforts were bipartisan efforts. At long last, here was something Americans across the spectrum could agree on!

Which brings me to Austin. I am thrilled to report that the State of Texas has approved the first national destination display of the Bill of Rights ever conceived: The Bill of Rights Plaza. This achievement is the result of three years working with the legislature, state agencies, and other stakeholders, and over $125,000 in project development.

Austin designer Holly Kincannon’s imaginative and elegant redesign of the existing plaza in front of the Texas Supreme Court, directly adjacent to the Capitol, takes the visitor through the genius of the Bill of Rights, with each amendment individually displayed. The construction estimate is $4.1 million, to be raised by MyBillofRights.org through private contributions.

$4.1 million sounds like a lot of money (okay, is a lot of money). But to put it in perspective, a single skybox at the new Cowboys Stadium runs $500,000. That’s 1.25 amendments per skybox, and you only get the skybox for one season. The Bill of Rights Plaza will be here for generations.

How can you, your families, your classrooms, your offices, your neighborhoods and organizations become involved in this lasting legacy for Texas and America? How can you join in the essential part the people of Texas must play to make this project a reality? Call me. Write me. Email me. And imagine a time in the near future when you can place your palm on an undeniable acknowledgment of our rights as Americans, written in stone.

With awareness of this birthright seemingly growing dimmer by the day, I can think of no better gift for future generations than a major permanent display spotlighting these founding principles. For as Thomas Jefferson so prophetically wrote:  “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

Perhaps no state needs health care reform more urgently than Texas. One in four Texans—about six million people—lacks health insurance, by far the highest percentage in the country. People without insurance lead less healthy lives, are less productive employees and frequently show up in emergency rooms. In 2008, uninsured patients cost Texas hospitals at least $2 billion worth of uncompensated care, according to the Texas Hospital Association. People without insurance not only harm the economy, they cost us all money.

Yet Texas’ elected officials have ignored this problem for years. It seemed an act of God would be required for Texas to do something about the uninsured. Instead, the issue was addressed by that other higher power—the federal government.

The historic health care reform passed by Congress and signed by the president in late March will cover more than 30 million Americans who are currently uninsured, including several million Texans.

Gov. Rick Perry and other state officials aren’t exactly thrilled by the idea. In a recent newspaper op-ed, Perry termed the health care bill a “disaster.” In another statement, the governor lamented that Texas would be forced to add “two million people to our Medicaid rolls”—as if that were a bad thing.

It’s no secret that Texas has never been keen on paying for poor people’s health care. Our government assistance programs are among the most miserly in the country. But health care reform will require Texas, beginning in 2014, to expand its Medicaid program to cover all adults earning $18,000 a year or less. The federal government will foot the entire bill for Texas’ Medicaid expansion for the first three years, and will cover many of the costs, on a sliding scale, beyond that. Yes, there will be some upfront costs for Texas taxpayers too—though not quite the $27 billion over 10 years projected by state health officials. That estimate has been disputed by the feds and independent think tanks.

The health care bill isn’t perfect. Its mandate that all Americans purchase insurance is the first time in our history that the government will require citizens to buy a product from private industry. And the reform is unlikely to lower premiums, though it may slow their increase. Still, in a state like Texas where millions have suffered or even died from lack of insurance, the benefits of the bill outweigh its flaws.

This state will be far better off—economically, physically, morally—for providing health care to its poorest citizens.

The White House needs a good alchemist. Not a magician who can turn lead into gold, but a practitioner who can formulate a Viagra-type pill to stiffen backbones.

Obama and team seem incapable of taking firm stands. They see a problem, address it in the boldest of terms, suggest stout action—then droop into limp compromises before shriveling into pathetic appeasements.

Take America’s worsening job crisis. Nearly 15 million people are unemployed, with 40 percent of them mired in long-term joblessness. Obama has eloquently addressed their plight and rightly proposed a $266 billion emergency response to put these folks to work. But he quickly caved in to do-nothing Republican ideologues, compromising his bill to mush to win a few GOP votes. To appease them, he slashed his jobs investment from $266 billion to $15 billion—a puny response that, at best, will create 250,000 jobs.

Responding to the public’s fury toward Wall Street bankers who are paying themselves billions of dollars in bonuses after wrecking our economy, Obama went after the greedheads, demanding restrictions to rein in “obscene” executive pay. Republicans refused to back real reform, so Obama has now shrunk from any boldness, meekly abandoning his moral outrage to beg for the wimpiest of wrist-slaps on miscreant bankers. “I, like most of the American people,” Obama said, “don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.”

Hello … Wall Street’s bailout and luxurious bonuses didn’t come from the “free market”—they came from us taxpayers. Come on, Obama, grow a spine. Don’t just talk about change, dare to stand up for it.

Find more information on Jim Hightower’s work—and subscribe to his award-winning monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown—at www.jimhightower.com

America’s sportswriters had all but ceded the coveted “Corporate Greedhead Trophy” to the Wall Street Barons this year, but here come the Health Care Insurance Giants.

To paraphrase my high school coach, “When the going gets ugly, the ugly get going.” The five largest health–insurance corporations are making a run for the trophy. They recently announced record profits for 2009 totaling $12.2 billion. That’s a 56-percent hike over the previous year for United Health, Wellpoint, Aetna, Humana and Cigna.

The Giants also booted 2.7 million Americans out of health plans last year, leaving older and sicker customers in the corporate dust. In a slick, hidden-ball play, three of the five shifted more customer premiums out of medical care, siphoning money into corporate profits, executive salaries and administrative overhead. These guys can play!

Check out the spectacular “Hail Mary” pass heaved by Anthem Blue Cross, a California subsidiary of Wellpoint. Though Wellpoint is rolling in a 91-percent increase in profits, its Anthem unit streaked toward the goal line with a demand for a 39-percent increase in premiums. That’s 10 times the rise in the cost of health care.

It won’t be easy for the upstart Giants to out-ugly the more sophisticated Wall Street Barons. The great thing about the corporate league is that competition to be the No. 1 greedhead is always fierce. Insurance is definitely in the running.

Find more information on Jim Hightower’s work—and subscribe to his award-winning monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown—at www.jimhightower.com.

TDCJ Photo

Henry

(UPDATE: The Supreme Court blocked Skinner’s execution only hours before it was to be carried out. This will allow for the DNA evidence in Skinner’s case to be tested.)

Henry “Hank” Skinner had enough alcohol and codeine in his system the night of Dec. 31, 1993 to put most people in a coma. Despite his likely inability to stand, Skinner was charged and convicted of the murder of his girlfriend and her two sons that night. While Skinner was convicted on incriminating evidence such as being at the crime scene and leaving bloody palm prints behind, crucial DNA evidence that would certainly be tested in a current investigation, went untested during his trial.

Now it is up to Gov. Rick Perry to decide whether to delay the execution long enough to be sure that this man is guilty before the state of Texas puts him to death. Perry’s silence is stunning, especially after an Arizona lab offered to do the testing for free. The people of Texas deserve to know the truth of the matter before executing a possibly innocent man. The DNA evidence that Skinner claims will exonerate him include a vaginal swab from the victim and her fingernail clippings, and the two kitchen knives used to stab her sons to death. The idea that someone can be sentenced to death row without having key genetic evidence tested is a profound injustice with the availability of DNA technology and shows a blatant disregard for the court’s obligation to seek out the truth.

The only possible harm to extending a man’s life long enough to be absolutely sure that he is guilty is to Perry’s self-image as tough on crime. He can’t even argue that it will cost taxpayers too much to do the test. Phoenix based Chromosomal Laboratories told Perry that they would do the testing for free and would have results within 30 days, if Perry would be willing to delay Skinner’s execution.

Perhaps Perry is using his silence as a political tactic, or maybe he genuinely doesn’t care, but either way, putting a man to death who could be innocent of his conviction is just morally wrong. Even the starkest death penalty supporters should agree that capital punishment should be used against people who commit capital offenses. Wasn’t one of the main points of forming the United States, to make sure a tyrant couldn’t just kill off whomever he saw fit for political gain?

All of this comes after the highly controversial execution of Cameron Todd Willingham. In 2004 Perry denied a request to delay Willingham’s execution despite the fact that arson experts had determined that the investigation convicting Willingham was flawed.

Maybe Perry will have a change of heart and give Skinner the chance to prove himself innocent. But while Perry twiddles his thumbs, Skinner’s execution date looms with hours left.

Check out The Innocence Project for more information on Skinner’s case.