OSU transgender bathroom sex desegregation and microaggressions

PHOTO: "Despite a decision by the Trump Administration to rescind federal protection for transgender students, Oregon State University has continued their commitment toward the inclusion and safety of all transgender students," says the student newspaper story by Jamie Chin, "OSU commits to continued inclusion of transgender students: Announcement follows U.S. Department of Education's recent change in guidance regarding access to restrooms and facilities for transgender students," Barometer, Mar. 13, 2017, p. 1, 4-5 and Jamie Chin, "OSU commits to continued inclusion of transgender students," Barometer, Mar. 13, 2017, p. 1, 4-5 issuu.com Reader version. (See previous posts OSU 'gender inclusive' bathrooms hit front page of student newspaper (2/3/16) and Transgender bathroom politics today is similar to anti-gay politics of 50 years ago (5/23/16))

The title of this post, "OSU transgender bathroom sex desegregation and microaggressions," was inspired by the recent shift of conservatives and Christian Republicans from mostly opposing gay marriages to instead mostly demanding that public bathrooms be segregated according to the sex listed on your birth certificate. I assume that this shift in Republican political talking points is because gay marriage has become so normalized, it no longer motivates people to vote Republican, whereas the transgender bathroom issue still resonates, even with many Democratic swing coters.

The title of this post was also inspired by a student newspaper post by Sydney McHale, "Students encounter microaggressions," Barometer, Mar. 6, 2917 that discussed the concept of microaggression, which appears to have become a popular concept on college campuses across America. (For an example of a mircoaggression, see previous post Affirmative action bake sale at OSU ignores business case for diversity (3/14/17))

To check up on how the word "microaggression" is being defined today, I did a Google search define:microagression accessed Mar. 18, 2017, which defined a microagression as, "indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group." One of the top Google search results linked to the article, "Microaggression," wikipedia.org accessed Mar. 18, 2017, which states, "A microaggression is the casual degradation of any marginalized group. The term was coined by psychiatrist and Harvard University professor Chester M. Pierce in 1970 to describe insults and dismissals he regularly witnessed non-black Americans inflict on African Americans."

Although the term microaggression was originally applied to black issues, it has clearly become a term more broadly applied, which led me to ask, "Is the segregation of bathrooms by the sex listed on your birth certificate an example of a microaggression by the cisgender people directed at the transgender?" For example, cisgender Christian Republicans have been exploiting the tansgender bathroom issue as a way to anger voters so that they will oppose granting equal rights to transgender people.

While thinking about the politics of transgender bathrooms, it occurred to me that rarely does anybody discuss the deeper question, "Why are public bathrooms segregated by sex, either by custom or even by law in many places?"

I recall asking my mother, when I was a child, why there was a separate men's lavatories and Lady's restrooms (often with couches), especially because she would insist on taking me with her into the women's restroom while telling me it was only for my own protection from bad men -- without answering my original question about why.

For example, I vividly recall one time when my mother took me into a women's bathroom while we were shopping in a large downtown department store, and an older lady took one look at me and screamed, "You are too old to be in here!" My mother instantly looked embarrassed, quickly ushered me outside and let me use the men's room from that day forward.

The practice of mother's taking their children into the women's room was common when I was growing up in the 1950's. The only places I see this today is where they have designated "family restrooms" used by either a mother or father with their child. These so-called family bathrooms are sometimes designated also for use by transgender people because they are supposedly unisex.

It wasn't until I became a teenager when I learned from reading the newspaper police reports that a few men had been arrested for "indecent behavior" in the downtown public library, where I had often visited with my mother and she would never explain to me what the "bad men" in there might do to me, nor would she tell me what they did to get arrested.

In fact, I didn't learn the details of these arrests until I read a book documenting the sociology of "Tearoom Trade" that described how many homosexual men would loiter in public restrooms looking to give or receive oral sex, or more rarely anal sex. Prior to the Stonewall riot in1969, many gay men thought tearooms were their only option to find sex because gay bars were often raided and there were few places where a gay man could hookup without being noticed. Today, out and proud gay men have much better places to hookup, but tearooms are still being used by those with a fetish for it and famously by a few closeted gay men who see it as a way to get sex anonymously.

In the early 1970's I bought a gay guidebook that included a list of tearooms, across America, and it said tearooms were often located in public libraries and Greyhound bus stations, including the Bus Station in Corvallis. In addition, the guide book listed two isolated bathrooms in the OSU Memorial Union as being hot tearooms. These rooms have not been changed by any remodeling, but I am not aware if they are still being used as tearooms.

As an accommodation to transgender students, OSU has designated many unisex bathrooms for students of all genders. Although this action has been well received, a few transgender people see it as being a microaggression by the cisgender because in their mind, all bathrooms should be accessible, instead of just designating certain ones.

This brings me back to the original question I asked as a child, "Why are bathroom segregated by the sex listed on your birth certificate?

Illogically, one reason might be that many people are disgusted by the idea of a transgender person using the same public bathroom, which is the reason a relative of mine gave me.

Even though this relative of mine usually rejected any logical argument concerning emotional or religious topics related to sex, I went ahead and asked her if she would want a transgendered man, who looked like a man, forced by law to use the same bathroom as her, just because female was listed on his birth certificate?

As expected, my relative's reaction was to look perplexed and physically agitated by my question. She reluctantly agreed that somebody who looked like a man in the lady's restroom would upset her even though they had been born a female.

This is why, at a minimum, transgender people should be allowed to use the hathroom they feel the safest in -- one that is congruent with their gender expression.

Of course, another reason some people oppose allowing a transgender person in their bathroom is because they worry perverts will pretend to be trans and sexually leer at the opposite sex.

My response to this reason is to acknowledge that sexually leering at another person is bad behavior, and this bad behavior is what should be forbidden, instead of barring all transgender people from the restroom of their gender.

For example, I asked the relative of mine, "How do sex-segregated bathrooms prevent gay women from coming in and starting at you sexually?" She went silent and gave no reply.

Gay men learn at a young age that sexually leering at straight men in a locker room will often result in physical violence toward them.

When I grew up and became an adult, I recall reminiscing with my mother about our experience taking me with her to the women's restroom as a child. She was able to laugh about how she was embarrassed by the women who yelled at me that I was too old be in the women's room with my mother. I then asked my mother again why she thought that so many people wanted bathrooms to be segregated by the sex listed on your birth certificate. The first reason she gave was her fear of a man sexually leering at her while she was undressed.

Other people have shared with me their more practical reason for wanting all bathrooms segregated by sex. For example, men want to have more urinals than toilets, whereas women want more stalls and they hate having to put the toilet seat down after a man has used the toilet standing up.

One man, who told me he had worked his way through college by cleaning restrooms, said that women were much messier than men, in his vast experience in many restrooms. I've heard women say the exact opposite reason to have sex-segregated bathrooms.

Although the practical reasons for sex-segregated bathrooms have some truth to them, I believe that the Freudian sexual hang-ups most people possess are the primary reasons for wanting bathrooms segregated by sex. This is clearly based on emotional logic instead of mathematical logic.

According to my Swedish Grandmother, all of the Swedes she grew up with in the 1800's considered the prudishness of Americans to be silly and puritanical because Swedish culture saw nudity as being natural -- it was culturally expected that you would go to a Swedish Sauna and bath naked with your whole family -- children and their parents would routinely see each other naked. My Grandmother told me about this custom of Swedes after she had discovered how modest I was about being seen naked as a boy when I refused to get undressed in front of her to take a shower. I was also embarrassed to watch her laid down naked on her deck sunbathing, despite the fact she could be seen from a major road running near her home. Unlike most other Americans, my Grandmother truly saw nothing wrong with nudity.

The present day transgender bathroom issue at OSU is described in the student newspaper article by Jamie Chin, "OSU commits to continued inclusion of transgender students," Barometer, Mar. 13, 2017, p. 1, 4-5. I've selected a few quotes below:

Despite the decision by the Trump Administration to rescind federal protection for transgender students, Oregon State University has continued their commitment toward the inclusion and safety of all transgender students.

An email was sent out to all students on Feb. 24 by Susie Brubaker-Cole, vice provost for Student Affairs, and Scott Vignos, director of Strategic Initiatives, to ensure protection and continuing support of all gender non-conforming students. The email mentioned several things, including the expansion of gender inclusive bathrooms and the availability of cultural resources throughout campus. . . . .

The Pride Center, one of the OSU cultural centers which provides programs and support services to the LGBTQ community, started leading the ongoing #illgowithyou campaign about a year ago, an important OSU initiative that ensures security for transgender students who feel threatened, especially in bathrooms or locker rooms. (Photo of "I'll Go With You Button") . . . .

A significant thing that the university itself has done to help with the inclusion of trans students is build transgender bathrooms, which are now located throughout campus. There are single-user restrooms in the dining hall and on every floor of the residence hall. OSU has provided students with a campus map of all 125 gender-inclusive bathrooms and facilities, and are still continuing the expansion of these bathrooms. . . .

For those who are exploring their identity or identify as queer or transgender, Counseling & Psychological Services offers group therapy for transgender students called TransForm, which is led by Beth Zimmermann. . . .

(Quoted from Jamie Chin, "OSU commits to continued inclusion of transgender students," Barometer, Mar. 13, 2017, p. 1, 4-5)

(See previous posts OSU 'gender inclusive' bathrooms hit front page of student newspaper (2/3/16) and Transgender bathroom politics today is similar to anti-gay politics of 50 years ago (5/23/16))

Trump Depression predicted by rise in debt and Schiller C.A.P.E. history

PHOTO: Graph of the Federal Debt as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product real and projected from 1790-2046 shows how it ran up before World I, which preceded the Great Depression, and then the Federal debt rose again due to World War II spending. After World War II the U.S. continuously worked down its debt until the U.S. President Ronald Regan sold Congress on the popular Republican theory that growth would solve the debt problem created by his agenda of cutting the tax rate paid by corporations and individuals. When this theory was tried out and disproven by actual experience, the U.S. President Bill Clinton compromised with the Republican Congress to actually raise taxes, which lowered the Federal Debt before Republicans gained control of the White House and Congress once again made the false promise they would balance the budget and also reduce the debt. The debt increase slowed during President Obama's term, mostly because Republicans forced budget cuts to the favorite projects of the Democratic Party. However, today the debt is projected to climb again due to the promises made by the Republican President Donald Trump to cut taxes like Reagan did, and to similarly solve the consequential deficits with growth according by using the plans of the Republican Congress to use "dynamic scoring" for future effects of legislation on the debt, contrary to their balanced budget rules they imposed on President Obama. I added annotations to the original graph above published in a business magazine's opening remarks that said, "President Trump Promised to Eliminate National Debt in Eight Years. Good Luck with that his administration plans to balance the budget with what he says will be huge gains in economic growth. Trump likes to point out that Obama presided over a huge increase in the federal debt. But it made sense for the government to run deficits during and immediately after the 2007-09 recession. With its deep pockets and solid credit, the U.S. used that deficit spending to offset retrenchment by households and businesses, thus preventing an even deeper downturn. Now that the unemployment rate is below 5 percent, there's less scope for stimulus. At least that's the Federal Reserve's position: Even before Trump has revealed his budget, the Federal Open Market Committee has indicated it's on track to raise interest rates three times this year to prevent inflationary overheating of the economy." (Quoted from Peter Coy, "The Trump Deficits in Trump's Future," Businessweek, Mar. 13-19. 2017, p. 9)

President Trump is egotistically taking credit for the good stock market performance during his first days in office, even though he has done nothing except to make big promises about cutting taxes and eliminating government regulations. Given Trump's pretentious promises combined with some market valuation data discussed below, I am concerned that the U.S. economy is headed for a Great Trump Depression.

Some of the measures of stock market valuation are gloomily mentioned in the same issue by Suzanne Wooley, "You can't retire on the Trump bump: US stocks keep booming but may not deliver the long-term returns hope for," Bloomberg Businessweek, Mar. 13-19, 2017, p. 38-39, to make the case that Baby Boom Generation retirees, whose retirement checks depend on the performance of the stock market, need to heed the data linked to from the Home page of Robert J. Shiller Sterling Professor of Economics Yale University yale.edu accessed Mar. 12, 2017 -- "ONLINE DATA ROBERT SHILLER," www.econ.yale.edu/~shiller/data.htm accessed Mar. 12, 2017. Specifically, Shiller's Webpage says this data documents "The data collection effort about investor attitudes that I have been conducting since 1989 has now resulted in a group of Stock Market Confidence Indexes produced by the Yale School of Management." Schiller's Webpage includes a spreadsheet containing the data used for C.A.P.E. analysis of start market valuations: Robert Shiller, "U.S. Stock Markets 1871-Present and CAPE Ratio," yale.edu accessed Mar. 12, 2017 (.xls format spreadsheet).

Commenting on the history of stock market performance, which many retiress have become dependent on for income, Business week said:

"One effect of that long rally is that stocks look relatively expensive. The average price-earnings ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is 18.3, based on consensus estimates of 2017 earnings. That’s near the high end of the historical track record, says Fran Kinniry, a principal in the investment strategy group at Vanguard Group, which manages more than $4 trillion in assets. And when he looks at other valuation measures—such as those based on companies’ revenue or free cash flow—they’re all in the top 25 percent of historical readings. . . .

"Similarly, Shiller points to a measure he helped popularize, called the cyclically adjusted p-e ratio, or CAPE, which compares prices with the average of earnings over the past 10 years to smooth out the ups and downs of the business cycle. When the CAPE is high, Shiller has found annual returns will tend to be lower over a long period. A low CAPE augurs above-average returns. . .

"The average CAPE ratio for U.S. stocks over the past 100 years was about 17. It stands at 29.6 now—the only times it was higher were in 1929 and around the dot-com bubble, Shiller says. Those are worrisome precedents, but he’s quick to point out that during the dot-com episode the valuation multiple climbed to above 44 in 1999."

(Quoted from Suzanne Wooley, "You can't retire on the Trump bump: US stocks keep booming but may not deliver the long-term returns hope for," Bloomberg Businessweek, Mar. 13-19, 2017, p. 38-39 )

Coincidentally, in addition to the Businessweek coverage of stock valuations, a major retail stock broker's magazine, which they regularly mail to its customers, also cited the CAPE prediction of future stock market gains. (See "Is the stock market overvalued? The CAPE ratio may help you evaluate this on a long-term basis," Scwhab On Investing, Winter 2016, p. 8.)

(Also see "Cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio," From Wikipedia accessed Mar. 12, 2017 that says, "The cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio, commonly known as CAPE,[1] Shiller P/E, or P/E 10 ratio, is a valuation measure usually applied to the US S&P 500 equity market. It is defined as price divided by the average of ten years of earnings (moving average), adjusted for inflation.")

All I know, is that the future of the stock market is unpredictable, and retirees like me, who may not live a long enough time to ride out a big market drop, need to invest our retirement savings in a conservative manner, where we make sure we have enough stable income to survive in the event of a market drop, but also have enough invested to profit from any upside to the market and protect ourselves from inflation eating away any fixed income as it did circa 1980. In my case, I have a portion of my retirement account invested in a bond ladder of ten, 10-year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities staggered at one year intervals so that the bonds don't all come due at once. These TIPS are like other U.S. Government treasury bonds, but they are adjusted annually by the CPI-U Consumer Price Index of inflation, and in the event of deflation, you are still guaranteed by the full fail and credit of the U.S. Government to get back your original amount plus the interest.

Finally, some loosely related notes written to myself. Also in the same issue, "Wealth where the living is easy," Businessweek, Mar. 13-19, p. 41, shows a map of the U.S. State where passive income earners took in an average of $20,000 per year. (Passive income is from interest, dividends, rents, etc., and not earned income obtained by working for a living. Of course, a place like Palm Beach, where many rich people live or retire to, the passive income is $176,000. Silicon Valley, where there is much wealth, raises the average for California, for example, Lost Altos Hills has average passive earnings of $124,000. The chart doesn't say if it is really average or median income, but in either case it is interesting, because it shows how few American families have enough passive income to retire on today. I expect this to change over time as family wealth accumulates and is passed on unequally to heirs, who will be like the rich families that existed in America before the Great Depression and were hated by everyone else because they were out of touch with the people who had to work for a living.

I am also guilty of being out of touch because years ago I paid off my home loan and therefore I am unaware of what people are paying for mortgages. (My mortgage from the 1980's had an interest rate of nearly 14% and this forced me to buy a condo instead of a house because I couldn't afford a house loan even with a good salary. Recently, I became envious of younger folks after looking up the "Monthly Interest Rate Survey (MIRS)" Federal Housing Finance Agency fhfa.gov accessed Mar. 2, 2017 and "Mortgage Rates Break Holding Pattern, Move Lower," freddiemac.com March 2, 2017 that said, "30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.10 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending March 2, 2017, down from last week when it averaged 4.16 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.64 percent." I now understand why young people are complaining about mortgage rates going up, but I still think four percent is a good bargain.

Another loosely related note concerns life expectancy, a key number in planning for retirement. Frepublicans are exploiting the rise in life expectancy as a reason to copy President Reagan, who increased the retirement age from 65 to 67 years old. Some in Congress are calling for raising the retirement age to 70 years old supposedly to keep "Social Security" and "Medicare" solvent, but I think it is really for the same reason Reagan did it, which is their hatred of these FDR and Johnson administration programs, which Republicans really want to eliminate entirely. One IRS life expectancy table ranges from 27.4 years at age 70 to 1.9 years at age 115 and over. (See Previous posts IRS IRA distribution substantially equal payments method (10/6/14) and Fixed amortization option for IRA distribution versus required minimum distributions (8/6/13))

Affirmative action bake sale at OSU ignores business case for diversity

PHOTO: Oregon State University student newspaper published my letter (Thomas Kraemer, "Diversity is necessary," OSU Barometer, Mar. 13, 2017, p. 14 or Thomas Kraemer, "Diversity is necessary," OSU Barometer, Mar. 13, 2017, p. 14 (issuu.com version)) in reaction to the OSU students who joined the national college protests against "affirmative action" by holding a bake sale that used reverse discrimination to determine what price they charged people. (See story by Joe Wolf, "Conservative students hold controversial bake sale," OSU Barometer, Feb. 27, 2017, p. 7 or Joe Wolf, "Conservative students hold controversial bake sale," OSU Barometer, issuu.com reader) Ironically, perhaps intentionally or not, the editor laid out the opinion page so that the headline for my letter "Diversity is necessary" was placed right above the headline for the next letter, "(Not) renaming buildings on campus," which was a letter in response to the story about erasing the names of slave owners from campus buildings described in the story by Erin Dose, "Certain campus building names cause controversy," Barometer, posted Mar. 6, 2017

A popular Republican talking point, which was started in the 1970's when racists Southern Democrats started to move to the Republican Party, is the Republican talking point asserting that Republicans are not racists and do not discriminate, but conservatives are now the victims of "reverse discrimination" caused by "Affirmative Action" programs, which, in fact, had been legislated by the U.S. Congress and a few companies had been ordered by a court of law to comply with by using a quota based hiring system designed to remedy discriminatory hiring practices.

It is a talking point that resonates positively with many people who are in the majority and feel resentment toward being passed over for hiring or promotion by a woman (who ironically are in the majority) or a member of a minority, such as a black person. I acknowledge that it is hard for anybody to be passed over for a job or promotion because the process is very subjective and it is rarely obvious why somebody is picked for a job as the better candidate by the employer. As a former employer, I know firsthand how often there are multiple candidates who are equally good, making it hard to decide between them.

The legal term "Affirmative Action" is often erroneously used when referring to voluntary "Diversity Programs" that employers often choose to implement for the business purpose of getting a more diverse workforce instead of for for compliance with a court order to remedy past discriminatory hiring.

For example, some conservative OSU students held an affirmative action bake sale that determined prices they charge by using "reverse discrimination" based on your skin color, which echoed the popular Republican talking point about being a "victim" of it. The student newspaper described the bake sale as follows:

"Two weeks ago, a bake sale was held in the SEC Plaza in which the prices of goods were determined by the buyer's race or ethnicity. This event was put on by Turning Point USA, a conservative activist group with chapters on college campuses across the country, to argue against the use of affirmative action to make distinctions between white and minority students in college admissions." (Quoted from oe Wolf, "Conservative students hold controversial bake sale," OSU Barometer, Feb. 27, 2017, p. 7 and Joe Wolf, "Consrvative students hold controversial bake sale," OSU Barometer, issuu.com reader)

Another student responded negatively to the bake sale in the student newspaper: Jim Gouveia, "Letters: Do your research first," Barometer, Feb. 13, 2017.

The original story of the bake sale prompted me to write the following letter in response:

The conservative students who held an affirmative action bake sale (The Baro, Feb. 27) appear not to understand the business reasons why a 1954 OSU EE graduate, John Young, and his boss Dave Packard wanted more diversity at both OSU and at Hewlett-Packard.

David Packard, cofounder of HP and a lifelong conservative Republican who also served in a Cabinet positon at the request of the Republican U.S. President Richard Nixon, was proud that HP had never discriminated and therefore was not constrained by any court-ordered affirmative action hiring quotas designed to remedy past acts of discrimination, as were some other American companies.

Instead of resting on his laurels, Packard set an objective for his managers to hire a diverse workforce that numerically reflected HP's customers who were of all races and nationalities from around the world, because it would help grow business globally by making it easier to meet the needs of all HP customers.

To accomplish Packard's objective and still hire only the best people without imposing artificial hiring quotas, HP managers expanded the number of colleges from where they typically recruited graduates, such as OSU and Stanford University where HP had hired many White-American male college graduates.

Over three decades, I witnessed the positive business results due to HP's more diverse workforce when I managed engineering research in America, Germany and China.

Diversity at OSU helps all students get a better and more global education, which is necessary today to get the best jobs after graduation.

(Quoted from Thomas Kraemer, "Diversity is necessary," OSU Barometer, Mar. 13, 2017, p. 14 or Thomas Kraemer, "Diversity is necessary," OSU Barometer, Mar. 13, 2017, p. 14 (issuu.com version))

On a related note, OSU students are also participating in the popular campus activism that objects to university buildings being named after racists and then the activists demand the buildings be renamed. This type of liberal social justice activism resonates with many minorities. Unfortunately, what gets ignored in the process is the history of how the buildings were named and used over time, for example, if they were named after University Presidents, and also missing is any discusion of the history of how the social construction of racism has changed over the years. In my opinion, it would be better to leave the names alone and use them as a history lesson for students.

A more embarrassing part of the history of building names lies in the fact that at many universities the way a building gets named is by how much money you contributed or by the equivalent political contribution made by a politician or university president to get the money required ot build the building. At OSU, only a few buildings, such as Reser Stadium, have been named after a big donor, perhaps because most OSU alumni are too poor to donate the tens of millions of dollars to OSU required to name a building. See the following links:

• Erin Dose, "Certain campus building names cause controversy," Barometer, posted Mar. 6, 2017
• A letter by By Jacob Flicker, an electrical engineering student in the student newspaper: OSU Barometer, "Letters to the Editor: Week of Mar. 6," The Baro, Mar. 6, 2017 that says, "My anger largely lies with the people who are best described as "moderate democrats". These are the people who think that changing the names of a few buildings on campus would be acceptable, but only if everyone obeys the rules while attempting to make these changes."

Another popular talking point of Republicans, related to building names discussions, is to denounce university people for being much too "politically correct" and as a result enforcing things silly social customs on campus. As somebody who has spent much time in both academia and industry, I can see how many people can get irritated by the social customs in either place, which in my mind is a general problem with any social group you are alien to or don't agree with their customs. Academics can be pedantic and obstructionists when it comes to getting anything done for real, but industry people can likewise be obstreperous and destructive to other people when they are unwilling to slow down and see the implications of their actions. This type of behavior doesn't make the customs of either group right or wrong, because these different approaches by multiple groups of people are usually required for a breakthrough in understanding can occur.

Some dismiss being open to others as being "political correctness," but other people see it as just being polite, for example in a typical university social group. As a result, it is easy to be offended when somebody is not polite or you perceive it that way, even if you don't intend it that way. This has led to the newly popular idea of a "microaggression" on campus. For example of this, see the student newspaper article by Sydney McHale, "Students encounter microaggressions," Barometer, Mar. 6, 2017, which says, "According to Jason Dorsette, the OSU associate director of Diversity and Cultural Engagement, 'Microaggressions are discriminatory incidents that come from well-intended people that do not have the historical background that what they're saying or doing is wrong. They are unintentional racist or discriminating instances.'"

It is ironic that that I have used the politeness argument for years as a way to describe "political correctness" as just an attempt to avoid microaggressions, but after having done this, my favorite comic strip characters showed how the goal of "politeness" can also be misused. (For example, the recent comic strip series by Scott Adams of "Dilbert," which shows how Dilbert's company politeness policy, which forbids employees from turning and walking away before somebody has finished talking, leads to humorous and illogical consequences.

Oregon bottle deposits law is anachronism of the 20th century

PHOTO: Six-liquid-ounce glass Coke bottles say "return for deposit" on their 6-pack cardboard tote holder. Each thick glass Coke bottle weighs nearly a pound empty so that it is durable enough to be washable and refillable many times. Today's glass bottles are much thinner and lighter, partially due to better glass making technology and also because non-returnable bottles are used only once and do not need to be as durable to last until they are put in with other recyclable glass.

The article "Oregon Bottle Bill" From Wikipedia says, "The Oregon Bottle Bill is a container-deposit legislation passed in the U.S. state of Oregon in 1971 and amended in 2007. It requires cans, bottles, and other containers of carbonated soft drink, beer, and (since 2009) water sold in Oregon to be returnable with a minimum refund value."

The following newspaper story about plans to expand the Oregon Bottle Bill, and the local newspaper editorial are what prompted my letter to the editor seen after the list below:

• Saul Hubbard, "Bill would make deposits a dime: ncreas would apply to all cans bottles in April," Gazette-Times, Feb. 24, 2017, p. A6
• Saul Hubbard, "Bill would make deposits a dime: ncreas would apply to all cans bottles om April," Gazette-Times, Feb. 24, 2017, p. A6
• Staff, "Editorial: A missed Bottle bill opportunity," Gazette-Times, Mar. 2, 2017, p. A6

Below is my letter to the editor in response:

Oregon's 5 cents' bottle deposit originally provided a huge incentive to return it, but it would need to be 29 cents, adjusted for inflation, to provide the same incentive today. (From 1972-2017 the CPI-U went from 42 to 241)

It was much easier to return bottles in 1972 when every Corvallis supermarket cashier would credit the deposit after a bag boy counted your returned bottles, before he bagged your groceries and took them out to your car.

Today, can deposit return machines are dirty, hard to use, and you must often wait for somebody returning a bag full of cans.

Oregon's bottle bill was originally passed to reduce litter in reaction to the business decision by bottlers to use disposable containers because it reduced costs, throughout the entire supply chain, due to lighter weight glass and aluminum cans.

For example, Coke was packaged in 6 liquid-ounce returnable glass bottles, weighing almost a pound empty, compared to today's 12 liquid-ounce aluminum cans weighing less than an ounce empty, and bottlers of Coke would take back the Coke bottle, refund the deposit, wash and refill it many times.

Increasing the deposit only from 5 to 10 cents will mostly lower the income of the homeless I see collecting cans from the curbside recycling containers in my neighborhood, because my neighbors will probably redeem more cans themselves.

Oregon's bottle deposits are an anachronism of the 20th century and should be eliminated in the 21st century, instead of increased.

(Quoted from Thomas Kraemer, "Letter: Eliminate deposits on bottle returns," Gazette-Times, Mar. 16, 2017, p. A6 gazettetimes.com posted Mar. 7, 2017)

OSU Queer Film Festival press release printed in local newspaper

PHOTO: The professional newspaper in Corvallis printed "Queer Film Festival scheduled," Gazette-Times, Feb. 16, 2017, p. C6 right above another story about an event at the Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center on the Oregon State University Campus. The article says in part: "The 2017 Corvallis Queer Film Festival will be Feb. 22-25 at the Darkside Cinema, 215 SW Fourth St., Corvallis. The international festival offers three feature-length documentaries and 60 short films by queer-and-trans-identified directors selected from more than 750 entries. It is a community project sponsored by the School of Language Culture and Society in the College of Liberal Arts at Oregon State University." The newspaper story printed the original OSU press release "Corvallis Queer Film Festival to run Feb. 22-25 at Darkside Cinema," oregonstate.edu posted Feb. 3, 2017, which includes a link to the full program, including descriptions of the films at https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1199626383 -- NOTE: this link is inaccessible to non-users of Apple iTunes or those of us who are low vision blind. (See previous post OSU School of Language, Culture and Society is perfect for OSU Foundation Magnus Hirschfeld Fund (2/19/12) and article by James Day, "Building a new curriculum: Queer studies," gazettetimes.com posted Jun. 4, 2013 about OSU Associate Professor Qwo-Li Driskill.)

Religious liberty vs. working on Sunday to deliver Amazon packages

The letter by the Corvallis mailman, David Schaefer, "Amazon deal increases load on carriers," Jan. 16, 2017, p. A6, and a reply criticizing his letter by Padric Fisher, "Carrier does not speak for all," posted online as "Letter: Carrier's comment not representative," Gazette-Times, Jan. 27, 2017, p. A6 prompted my following letter to the editor:

I appreciated the Jan. 16 letter from a brave Corvallis mailman, which was criticized in a Jan. 25 reply by the "officer in charge at the Corvallis Post Office," because he explained why my Amazon orders were arriving on Sundays, despite not asking for this service.

However, I was surprised that a U.S. Post Officer did not confirm what Amazon told its shareholders, which is that Amazon's delivery contract will save the jobs of postal workers from being eliminated due to the decline in mail deliveries caused by email and paperless billing.

As a satisfied customer, I believe the Officer correctly praised "the majority of postal employees, who dedicate themselves to provide outstanding customer service at all times," but I hope he has also acknowledged the legitimate concerns of his mailmen.

For example, when I was a child, religious liberty laws forbid working on Sundays, except for newspaper men and emergency workers, but these "Sunday closing laws" were repealed after businesses lobbied State legislators because labor unions had won a 40-hour, 5-day work week in the private sector.

(Quoted from Thomas Kremer, "Sunday delivery and carriers," Gazette-Times, Feb. 16, 2017, p.A6 gazettetimes.com posted Feb. 10, 2017)

The business reason Amazon told shareholders was to explain how their business contract with the U.S. Post Office is beneficial to both sides -- good contracts works best when both sides have an interest in it. Amazon's contract lowers warehousing and supply chain costs by delivering it faster, plus fast delivery will lead to happier customers and more sales in the long run. The Post Office benefits by it helping to finance their decision to buy new delivery trucks, which are similar to what Fed Ex uses, so that they can shift away from delivering mostly first-class letters to delivering mostly packages due to the to rapidly growing internet commerce.

When I was a child, I recall the postman, who delivered mail to my childhood home, worked six days per week, and in high school I was taught how the Federal labor laws were based on a six-day work week, Monday thru Saturday, because a 6-day work week was standard before labor unions won the five-day work-week. I don't know how accurate my memory is and I have not researched the history of the labor movement, but I experienced firsthand Sunday Closing laws when I had to work around them, for example, making sure that I had filled up my car with gas on Saturday because no gas station would be open on Sunday, even at major freeway truck stops, when I was travelling long distances.

The term "religious liberty" is the new slogan for the anti-gay Christian Republicans and religious right in America, who are using it in their campaign for the right to discriminate against gay people based on their Christian religious beliefs. I bet few people realize how similar political campaigns were used decades ago to get the "Sunday closing laws" passed that I mentioned in my letter. Likewise, the Religious Right is still upset today over losing the mandatory Christian school prayer, which they like to blame the atheist activism of Madalyn Murry O'Hair as being the cause behind it. (See the article School prayer wikipedia.org accessed Feb. 15, 2017)

I now understand how societal norms shift over a century due to the fact that people take for granted their hard won freedoms and gains in equality, but then forget how it was in the past after a couple of generations. After people forget, a businessman or theocratic politician can easily take away these hard won rights by creating resentment in people and pitting one group against the other by pointing out the "special rights" certain groups are getting.

As a result, the conventional wisdom of most social justice activists is that these gains in equality and rights must never be forgotten by future generations and in order to ensure this they will set up institutions and processes to continuously teach children about it, which is why the Religious Right wants to weaken public schools by draining taxpayer dollars from them to fund their "school choice" programs for religious schools where they can teach how it is a sin to treat women and gays equally.

OSU women's Center STEMinist group support science, technology, engineering and math majors

PHOTO: The inspiring concept of a STEMinist (science, technlogy, engineering and math feminist) and the Oregon State University Women's Center is shown in student newspaper article by Sydney McHale, Keep S.A.F.E. Blog Manger, "Keep Social Awareness For Everyone (SAFE) Women's Center Spotlight: Cultural center offers open space to promote social justice, feminism," OSU Barometer, Feb. 6, 2017, p. 13. The Women's Center was where the first OSU gay student group was formed in the 1970's shortly after the Stonewall riot in New York City. (See Thomas Kraemer, "Corvallis, Oregon State University gay activism 1969-2004," printed to PDF from OutHistory.org in 2010 permanently stored by the OSU Scholars Archives @ OSU)

The big, plump colorful sofas, surrounded by the sounds of laughter and conversation is the climate created at the Oregon State University Women's Center.

The Women's Center is one of seven cultural centers on campus. This center's main focus is creating an open space to promote feminism in social justice, according to Natalie Cronan, a peer success facilitator at the Women's Center.

"The goal of the Women's Center is to create a space for students and anyone who feels comfortable to come and talk about social justice, and continue the fight towards equity and liberation for all," Cronan said.

The Women's Center was established in 1973, and since has been a sanctuary for women, and all identities, to come and enjoy a non-discriminatory space. . .

"Men at OSU dominate the science and engineering fields, but STEMinist works to provide an inviting and inclusive community for those who are feminine identifying within STEM," Cronan said. . .

(Quoted from Sydney McHale, Keep S.A.F.E. Blog Manger, "Keep Social Awareness For Everyone (SAFE) Women's Center Spotlight: Cultural center offers ofpen space to promote social justice, feminism," OSU Barometer, Feb. 6, 2017, p. 13)

While working in industry for three decades starting in the 1970's, I witnessed how often women were discouraged from working in the science, engineering, technology or math or STEM fields due to their often different ways of approaching a problem than most men do. I also witnessed how female customers of these men were often left out due to a lack of understanding of their needs. At the time, admitting this concept was controversial because many people assumed that women and men would be equal in all respects after discrimination had been eliminated, but instead many people realized that there were different ways of thinking that are not exclusively female or male, even though these often were associated with a person's male or female biological sex at birth.

I will be interested to see what insights are discovered by STEMinists in the future.