Agree to Disagree

[luvy mac]

Recently on Face Book I left a group after my opinions were constantly made fun of because I did not see things their way.  Why can't we agree to disagree and let everyone express their opinions on a subject. It gets boring to me to preach to the choir all the time. Politics? Religion?  Anything. Post a agree to disagree picture or story here.

[luvy mac]

I have to say I could never understand my husband born, bred and lived in the Bronx just like myself yet he is an Atlanta Braves fan since childhood.  Say what?  He rejects the mighty Yankees!  LOL, he just shrugs his shoulders and said he always liked the Braves.  Meanwhile the rest of us argue over the Yanks and the Mets.

[Snagg]

Yeah, well...The hell with them.

[luvy mac]

Agree or Disagree...  Mount Rushmore, is it a finished work?  There are many people who want to add some new faces to Mount Rushmore. Writer Ronald Fraser, who advocated adding FDR counter that the monument is a "running chronicle of the American experience."   But the son of sculptor Gutzon Borglum , who completed the project concluded that the elder Borglum's design exhausted the carveable rock. Moreover geoengineers are unsure how new excavations would affect the existing sculpture.   In your opinion, who else belongs on Mount Rushmore and why?

[PartTimeBrewer]

My knee-jerk reaction to Mt. Rushmore has always been "What's Teddy doing up there?"  But I don't suppose it's reasonable to erase him now in any way.  Besides, I am hard pressed to think of anyone else I would want to see, unless we went back to the "Founding Fathers".  I have always been partial to Ben Franklin and I don't think James Madison's role has ever been adequately honored.

My second thought is about financing such a project.  It seems to me that if anybody put together enough funds to carry out such an addition, that he would be better advised to use the money on some other project like feeding the hungry or curing mental illness, etc.  I'm not opposed to art, but this is marginal.

[officerripley]

I agree, PTB.  I try not to be so pessimistic (honestly!) but sometimes looking at Mt. Rushmore reminds me of that poem, I think called "Ozymandias" or something, about "Look on my works, you mighty and despair."  (Get the same feeling looking at most of the bldgs. in the capitol--federal & state both.)

[luvy mac]

I have heard that some people want Martin Luther King up there. In a poll taken 29./. of Americans would add John F. Kennedy,  20./. would add Ronald Reagan and 18./. would add Franklin D. Roosevelt.   I brought this up because of an article I read while waiting for my husband to finish a doctor's apt.  As to why it was sculptured , Gutzon Borglum said, " Mount Rushmore bears witness , carries the likeness, the dates, a word or two of the great things we accomplished as a nation."

As you all said, it was just a memorial, monument and landmark conceived in 1924 by South Dakota's state historian.

[PartTimeBrewer]

As it turns out, Eleanor Roosevelt proposed Susan B. Anthony be added to Mt. Rushmore in 1935.  Bills to do so were in Congress but died when funding was cut.

[luvy mac]

There is a Democrat calling for a $500 savings account to be opened for every baby born in the U.S...  Agree or Disagree?

[Snagg]

There are plenty of Wall Street creeps and bankers who would agree with that - Considering how they see that as billions of dollars sitting there, just waiting for themselves to steal somewhere down the line.

[PartTimeBrewer]

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said universal savings accounts would "really put a dent in the poverty rate," 

I'm trying to figure out how this is supposed to work, at best, naively giving the plan the benefit of the doubt. First of all $500 in a savings account, even compounded for 21 years is "chicken-feed" in the face of poverty, especially since it is being assumed here that the money will be earmarked for very expensive purposes, such as education, housing, retirement etc. Of course the idea here is to provide a "seed" account so that family members are encouraged to continue to contribute, tax-free.  It seems to me that this might work for families who can afford to work a savings contributions into their budget, but will it inspire anybody in the target population, those in poverty.  If I am on assistance of some sort and I can't (or worse won't) work a job able to pay my bills, will I add significantly to a savings account, or will try to find a way to raid that account for short term goals.

That leads me to wonder what controls would be in place to protect the account from misuse.  I assume it would be some sort of trust fund at least, but are there to be any strings attached at dispersal time?

Too many questions now.  I need more details to decide.  But I am very skeptical that this could achieve much in the battle against poverty.

[luvy mac]

I agree with you all.  We need more details .

[PartTimeBrewer]

Good Point!