Goodbye Ruth Marx - May 26, 1913 - September 1, 2015

We met Ruth Marx two and a half years ago when she was walking down the street with her walker and we had the baby stroller and there wasn't enough room to pass.  So I went ahead to negotiate and so I met one remarkable woman.  We talked and when she told me she was going to be 100 years old in a few months, I couldn't believe it.  Here's the video I made then.

Watch it, it will make you smile.



My granddaughter had just been born in 2013 and Mrs. Marx had been born 100 years earlier in 1913. So when we were here to visit Z we would try to get in a visit Ruth Marx too. Every visit was delightful because of her sunny and enthusiastic disposition. So a week ago after dinner, Z and I walked down to the nursing home where Mrs. Marx lived.


There was a piano player and a group of folks singing along in the lobby. I found someone from the nursing home and said we'd like to visit Mrs. Marx. She looked at me solemnly,
"Did the family tell you?"
"Tell me?"
"Mrs. Marx passed away September 1."

What sad news. But she was 102, and fitter than my mom was at 93. And what great luck we had to get to know her during her last two years of life. Knowing her only during her second century of life, I can only imagine what a wonderful and bubbly woman she must have been in her first century.

Z was disappointed and I wasn't quite sure how much she understood. Although she's only two and a half, she is talking away. I reminded her that she had been in Los Angeles when her great grandmother passed away in July, and now Ruth Marx had passed away too. When we got back home, she ran to her mother to tell her, "Mrs. Marx passed away."

I emailed Mrs. Marx's son before posting anything.  He had sent me some biographical information on Mrs. Marx when we had first met and I wanted his permission before posting it.  He just sent me some additional information and I'll add some of that as well.

Here's from the most recent email:

The Bluebird on Her and Our Shoulder: 
Ruth Ungar Marx 1913-2015 

Better pass boldly into that other world,
in the full glory of some passion,
than fade and wither dismally with age.

    James Joyce’s words perfectly capture the vibrant essence of Ruth Henrietta (Ungar) Marx who passed away Tuesday, Sept. 1, at age 102 on Bainbridge Island. A week before she died, sitting outside by the flowers she loved she said, “I want to start doing my book reviews. I so love them.” Several days later she sat up from lying in bed and said “what a beautiful day, let’s go for a walk.” Then as we prepared to go, she laid back down and said, “I am tired, let’s go later”. The night she died we sat with her and read
some poems. She was barely conscious when we kissed her goodbye and squeezed her hand, but she squeezed it back. She wanted to burn out, not rust out (well into her nineties she bought two new bathing suits). [Update 1045pm:  I forgot to mention, this photo was taken when she was 99.]

Here's from the bio written just prior to her moving to Bainbridge Island in 2013:

Ruth Ungar Marx was born in Cleveland in 1913.  Her family moved to Los Angeles in 1914 where her father was the distributor for Carlson speedometers and Majestic radios. Her father founded Ungar Electric Tools in the 1930s, a manufacturer of wood burning pencils and soldering irons. Ruth attended USC and UCLA. She enjoyed debate and tennis. In 1936 she married Donald Marx and they moved to Lemore, California where they ran a general goods store and had a farm. Missing her family and friends, they returned to Los Angeles in 1940. In Los Angeles they founded Hollywood Shell and Toy Co., manufacturers of hobbycraft shell
jewelry and copper, aluminum and leather embossing kits. She also worked as a sales representative for Ungar Electric Tools. Tired of the big city and smog, they moved to Palm Springs in 1957 and ran the retail Desert Garden Date Shop. Several years later they sold the store and became date and grapefruit farmers and moved farther east toward Palm Desert, California.
In Palm Springs Ruth founded the Desert Mental Health Association and Community Concerts and was active in UNICEF and other civic groups. In 1981 they retired and moved to Coronado, California where she has lived ever since. Don died in 1992 and her dear friend for a decade Mac, died in 2003.  In Coronado Ruth was very active founding opera, film, book and swimming exercise groups and volunteering for decades at the library. She continues to enjoy scrabble, bridge and reading. Her daughter Nicki --an artist and jewelry maker lives in Taos, New Mexico. Her grandson Ben lives in Phoenix with his wife Cori and their children  Julien and Simon. Her son Gary lives on the island, as do children and grandchildren Josh, Stacey, Sallie and Nate Marx. Ruth is an outgoing, upbeat person with a lively interest in the affairs of the world and other people.

Here's a bit more that her son sent, but if you watched the video, you'd figured much of this out already:

Ruth had a radiant, billion dollar smile. She was an outgoing, upbeat person and a masterful, extemporaneous, communicator with a lively interest in, and curiosity about, the affairs of the world and other people.  She was a uniquely vibrant force and her own person. She loved the spirit of the poem, “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple.”
 She was strong, resilient, direct and honest, but kindly in the form and content of what she expressed, supported by her quick sense of humor. She was very powerful, yet in a very soft and unpretentious, yet persevering way. She spoke gently, but with self-assurance.
For whatever the turn of fates she experienced or choices she made, she was a fundamentally cheerful person. Through word and deed, in a marvelous feedback loop, the happiness inside her effortlessly spread to others and their positive response to her further increased her happiness.  Ruth had the gift of joy, an optimistic lightness of being, a gentleness of spirit and a fathomless reservoir of kindness. She offered unconditional love and support to her family and friends. With her blithe spirit, unselfishness and absence of rancor, she was goodness personified. Her enthusiasm for life was infectious.

Fall

The birch leaves follow the rhythm of the seasons and the laws of gravity.

And termination dust on the Chugach are another sign that summer is ending.

"It's easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism." [UPDATED]

Busy rainy day.

Biked over to UAA for the Citizens Climate Lobby meeting.  More on that later.  Really good talk by Jerry Taylor of the Libertarian Niskanen Center.  Also the Anchorage chapter got mentioned for commissioning the study of the impact on rural Alaska of a carbon fee with rebate done by ISER economist Steve Colt.  But I can only write so much in one post, so that will wait. 

Right after the meeting I got a ride to Arctic Valley for the Earth Care Jamboree.  Lots of thoughts and ideas, few of which will get into this post.

Libby Roderick kicked things off musically upstairs against the dramatic view of the fall colors on the slope behind her. 

She also led a workshop on Money.  She focused on the disconnect between what people say they believe - particularly on climate change - and how they spend and invest their money.  She frequently broke for the participants to talk in pairs about the themes.

The title quote comes from this workshop.  We

didn't spend any time on it, but for this post I looked it up and found the author to be Frederic Jameson and it pops up in reviews of post-apocalypse movies and books. lamenting the lack of imagination to develop post-capitalist worlds.  For example, in a Snowpiercer review:

"This film is great as a film. I am however tired of these premises in which humanity is deprived of some antagonistically outer threat, humans or world cause, that kills off everybody except a small population and let them return to a state of basic barbarian living. Another quote from Slavoj Zizek mirrors this appending doom: 

'this is what I fear; this is the true dilemma. When the big Other in the form of the state collapses, what we will have is a regression …to some kind of far more totalitarian … pre-state … form of the big Other. Or even to New Age consciousness. There they try to make the big Other exist, perhaps in the form of natural balance'”

There were lots of doors we peeked at in the workshop, but didn't go through as Libby raised money related questions:  people's emotional reactions to money;  the effects of their upbringing on how they think about money;  how people support or fight global warming by how they spend and invest their money;  why money, particularly one's own monetary situation, is rarely talked about with others.

[UPDATE March 21, 2019:  I notice that people get to this post frequently, but I had forgotten the details so I checked today and see that while I reference Frederic Jameson as the author, I don't really have the quote in here.  It's from an article, "Future City",  in New Left Review, 2003:  Here's the paragraph that includes this post's title:

"For it is the end of the world that is in question here; and that could be exhilarating if apocalypse were the only way of imagining that world’s disappearance (whether we have to do here with the bang or the whimper is not the interesting question). It is the old world that deserves the bile and the satire, this new one is merely its own self-effacement, and its slippage into what Dick called kipple or gubble, what LeGuin once described as the buildings ‘melting. They were getting soggy and shaky, like jello left out in the sun. The corners had already run down the sides, leaving great creamy smears.’ Someone once said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. We can now revise that and witness the attempt to imagine capitalism by way of imagining the end of the world." (emphasis added)]

There was an interfaith panel that included:

Rev Dr. Curtis Karns
Yukon Presbyterians for Earth Care

David Bishop Mahaffey
Orthodox Church in America

Dr. Genmyo Zeekyk
Anchorage Zen Community

Prof. Doug Causey
Friends (Quakers)
University of Alaska Anchorage











I went to an afternoon workshop on activism.  It was called "Social Movements and Peaceful

 

Carson Chavana prepping for workshop

Resistance" hosted by Carson Chavana, who's been active fighting against the Chuitna coal mine, and The Rising Tide, Alaska chapter.  This was one of the groups that had people blockading Shell's   icebreaker MSV Fennica as it left Portland, Oregon on its way to drill in the Chukchi Sea.  I tend to be on the non-violent end of the continuum, but I found the workshop stimulating.  There were distinctions made between civil disobedience and activism. (I think the second term was activism, but due to my amazing magical powers I made their flier disappear was I walked from the couch to my desk. I'm still working on the part of this trick that makes it reappear.) Civil disobedience accepts the legitimacy of the government and challenges bad laws by breaking them and getting the judge or legislature to change the law.  Activists don't accept the legitimacy of the government, arguing they have been corrupted by the corporate paid lobbyists who have twisted the laws to favor their interests.  (I'm paraphrasing here.)

Kirby Spangler

Kirby Spangler, who's a member of
There was also a participatory exercise on defining violence and the morality of different actions.  Is breaking a window a form of violence and would you do it or not?  Is eating meat a form of violence and would you do it or not?  What about taking some parts from a bulldozer that is going to be used to destroy some structure?  These questions made us all reconsider distinctions in types of violence.  Is violence against property the same as violence against humans?  Is physical destruction different from disabling the bulldozer?  Are there times when violence is justified?  I think there was some agreement that one can't evaluate an action without some context.  Self-defense and defending human life were two examples that a lot of people used to justify violence.  While these are old debates, it was useful for me to revisit them and to see the variety of stances people had. 


Meanwhile, it kept raining most of the day, but the landscapes outside the building were spectacular as the clouds obscured the views here and then later there.  But always there were the fall colors of the tundra.

Getting Things Done Part 2: The Unexpected

We discovered that we had come home to a leaking water heater.   This fits yesterday's unexpected tasks.  Things that sneak up on you unexpectedly. 

The plumber came out and we're finally just going to toss the Amtrol (this is the 3rd or 4th one - after the first one exploded, they've given us new ones when we had problems) and go to a totally different company.  This water heater thing has been a multi-year failed attempt to get something done - get the shower water to not drop 10 degrees after two minutes in the shower.  One company cost us a ton of money as they tried this and that to fix it.  Whatever they did then led to the furnace shutting down on its own and not starting up again without help.  Eventually we got a new company and the guy fixed the furnace shutting down problem in 30 minutes.  But the hot water for the shower didn't get fixed.

The guy who came today, K, sounds like he knows what he's doing.  He's already diagnosed the shower problem and thinks he can fix it.  He pointed to a cold water pipe that starts adding water to the shower water.  He even tested it by having me turn on the bathtub water.  No hype.  Modest and straightforward.  Enough grey hairs to suggest he's got experience. 

But it will be an all day job and there wasn't enough time today to finish.  And we'd be out of hot water for the weekend.  So he's coming back Tuesday.  Meanwhile it's dripping - from the bolts on the bottom.  I'm hopeful. 

Meanwhile, another unexpected problem has been solved well.  Our internet speed was slow on tests so I called ACS and they tested it and agreed.  The solution was to get a new modem and a shorter telephone outlet cord.  So the new modem includes a router.  So we went from this:

to this:

This definitely simplifies our life by getting rid of all that stuff and replacing it with just this one small item and two cords.  And the speed is back up where it belongs.  This was very satisfying. 

These are two long term fixes - that is, you get them done right and you don't have to mess with them for a long time.  And I'm sure hoping our water heater blues are over. 

Getting Things Done

We got back early this morning.  Alaska Airline's 20 minute baggage guarantee meant that we were home less than 30 minutes after we left the plane.  I remember days past when it took over an hour for suitcases to show up on the luggage carousel. 

Our house sitter left a beautifully clean house, all the plants thriving, and a beautiful offering of fresh vegetables.

I looked into the fridge to see what  I needed to put on the shopping list.  It was pretty empty.  A good time to go through and see what needed to be thrown out.   And as I did that I realized I needed to take everything out and do some cleaning. [No pictures, too embarrassing.]



 And I started sorting the mail.  

 And as I did that I was thinking of all the things we have to do while we're home - for here, with my mom's stuff, and just generally, to regroup after these two years of monthly trips to see my mom.  Getting back a rhythm for getting things done.  Not just the basics, but to move ahead.
 

I'd been thinking about a post on this idea already and this seemed like a good time to make a start.  It just seemed to me that there were things we do that have to be done over and over again.  And there are things we do that settle some issue and let us move on.  So here's a first stab at figuring that out.  Any suggestions warmly accepted.  


Things we must and should do

1.  Regular tasks  (you do them and they need to be done again)
1. Things that you  do regularly (daily to weekly)
1. brush teeth
2. make dinner 
3. take out trash
2.  Things that you do regularly (monthly)
1. pay bills
2. clean the refrigerator
3.  Things that you do regularly (annually)
1. go on vacation
2. clean the garage
3. service the car 
2.  Irregular Tasks  (you do them and they are taken care of for a long time)
1. Remodel the kitchen
2. Have a wedding or just a dinner party
3. Find a new job
3.  Unexpected Tasks (they happen and interrupt your routine)
1. Breakdowns that need repairs - cars, machines, houses, computers, etc.
2. Serious health emergency
3.  Relationship change - death, breakup/divorce, infidelity, birth
4.  Changes that move you to a better place
1. I think this overlaps with #2 and probably #3, I need to figure these out more.

 
It seems for the regular tasks, it's best to find routines so these get done quickly without having to spend much time thinking about them.  The other tasks are often difficult because they are new and we don't know how to get started.  But nowadays anything can be figured out with google.  You can just get a list of steps for how to do pretty much anything.

The other thing I did along these lines was try to make a list of all the different areas of my life that need my attention.  It reminded me that I probably have too many different areas and I'll need to pull back in some and then set priorities in the remaining ones.  What's most important?  After spending a week with my granddaughter (I'm not allowed to post pictures here and telling you how smart and funny she is would sound like typically biased grandfatherly opinion) I'm reminded how important the family category is.

I know that when the number of things I want to do starts to exceed greatly what I actually get done, my mental well being suffers.  Writing everything down and figuring out how much time things will take and how much time there actually is tends to have a calming effect.  Usually I find out things aren't as overwhelming as they seem.  And I can prioritize what things are most important and what things can be abandoned, and that helps avoid all the time temptresses that urge me to do something totally off my list that won't get me where I want to go. 




OK, now I have to go do the shopping.  And I also have on my list to begin the sourdough starter that's critical to all the recipes in the new bread making book I got last month.  I know, this is not something I need to do, but making bread is so satisfying and fresh bread makes a great gift when you visit. 
 

Cutting 40% Of Legislative Research Office

Today's Alaska Dispatch News had a headline story about how the Alaska Legislature had cut its own research office by 40%.  There are a lot of questions to ask here.  Like, "WHY?!"

The obvious scapegoat is the budget shortfall.  But some things, in theory anyway, ought to have a higher priority.  And the ability to research before you make legislation would seem like one.  Just one stupid mistake because the legislature didn't have good research on a new bill, could wipe out whatever savings this makes. [I have to note that, yes, the price of oil dropped, cutting a big chunk of state revenues.  But we also have $50 billion in the Permanent Fund and monies in other reserve funds.  And our legislative majority have no interest in raising new revenue.  Their only interest seems to be cutting.]

But there are also questions about the efficiency of the agency and of the efficiency of how it is used by the legislature.  How many legislators use the office?  Are a few taxing its limits while others never use it?  How much does the average report cost?  How have the reports been used to help the legislature make good decisions?

I couldn't find any good tables that listed any of that information.  The best I could find was a list of reports with short summaries for the 2015 Fiscal Year.  (July 1, 2014 - June 30, 2015.)  To find out who requested the report, you have to click on each report.  Didn't have time for that today.  I did have time to post a copy of the list of summaries at SCRBD and below.

The overview divides the reports into 15 categories.

• Commerce
• Criminal & Civil Justice
• Demographics
• Education
• Employment and Labor
• Energy Production and Consumption
• Environment
• Government
• Health Care
• Natural Resources<
• Property
• Public Finance
• Social Services
• Transportation
• Miscellaneous 

A lot of the reports are just one page, but good short reports take longer than longer reports.

Here are the research summaries themselves.

Alaska Legislative Research FY 2015

When I blogged the legislature in 2010, I spent a fair amount of time over at Legislative Affairs, getting reports. These folks are good and impartial. As much as some might think that in this fact-free political era, that legislators might not want a lot of facts interfering with their ideology. I doubt that's true of most legislators.

Earth Care Jamboree Includes Naked Mabel and Vinyl Floors

Someone asked if I'd post an announcement for the Earth Care Jamboree this Saturday.  I don't normally do requests, but I do post about events that might look interesting to my readers, events that I might attend myself.  And this seems like one.  And the Citizens Climate Lobby, a group I'm a member of, will have a table at the event. 

From what I can tell, there will be music, speakers, workshops, and lots of connections to make.

The main sponsor is the

"The Interfaith Earth Care Action Network (IECAN) [which] is a collaborative group of individuals representing faith communities across Southcentral Alaska, who saw a need to create a space where faith communities can come together to support and empower one another to speak out and take action on climate change."

[So how do you pronounce IECAN?  I.E. Can?]  [I'm trying to get this post up while my granddaughter is tugging on me to take her to the playground.  You know who's going to win this one.]

Here's a link to their blog which has all the details for Saturday.  But I'll give you a sneak preview of just a couple of the people who will be speaking:

Craig Fleener

Craig Fleener is Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich'in from Fort Yukon Alaska.  He serves as Arctic Policy Advisor to the Governor of Alaska.  Mr. Fleener served as a permanent participant on the Arctic Council and has participated in the work of several of the working groups of the Arctic Council. Mr. Fleener is a wildlife biologist with a specialty in moose management and human dimensions of wildlife and fisheries. 

Xavier Mason

Xavier Mason is a recent UAA graduate and commencement speaker. He is deeply involved in campus and community organizations: co-founder of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, CBPP Leadership Fellow, and candidate for Oxford's Rhode Scholarship and is currently awaiting designation from the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper. Xavier will be speaking as the president of the NAACP Youth Council.

 

Doug Causey

Doug Causey is Professor of Biological Sciences, Director of the Applied Environmental Research Center, and Senior Advisor to the Chancellor on Arctic Policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He arrived to UAA in June 2005 from Harvard University where he was Senior Biologist at the Museum of Comparative Zoology and Senior Fellow of the JF Kennedy School of Government.  Previous to that, he served as Program Director at the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs.  An ecologist and evolutionary biologist by training, he has authored over one hundred fifty publications on topics as diverse as the biology of Arctic marine birds, Arctic Climate Change, and the ecology of Alaskan bats.  His research focuses on the dynamics of Arctic ecosystems and climate change, and he has published extensively on policy issues related to the Arctic environment, environmental security, and the resilience of High Arctic communities.

 Climate change seems like an impossible cause to make a difference on, but I've found with Citizens Climate Lobby that individuals can make a difference on climate change.  I'm sure that at this jamboree you'll be able to find lots of ways you can make small contributions to making the planet a better place.  And even though your contribution is small, combined with lots of other small contributions, it will make a big difference.

OK, you get the point.  Arctic Valley, starting at 11am on Saturday, September 12.  I've got a date at the playground waiting right now. 

"Our Representatives Are Still Helping Other Customers, Please Continue To Hold"

After waiting two hours to talk to someone who said she couldn't help me and then transferred me to another line where I've been waiting for over an hour, I started thinking that maybe the IRS needs to contract with an Indian call center.

Among the anti-tax, anti-government crowd are those business people who know that if they starve government, then there will be less enforcement of the rules and they can get away with more sketchy business and safety practices.  They'll hire lawyers who will concoct complicated legal responses that exhaust the thinning staff of the IRS and other agencies.

Meanwhile, law-abiding citizens have to wait for hours (literally) to talk to someone who might possibly be able to figure out how to get their organization to put the pieces together so that they'll stop sending me letters incorrectly saying I owe them money.

Here's the problem.

We hired a caregiver to take care of my mom when she could no longer walk and take care of herself.

We hired a national payroll firm to take care of calculating the taxes and paying them to the state and the federal governments.

So the company sent in the withheld federal taxes.

My mom's accountant sent in her income tax return, which included those withheld taxes as the payroll company said should be done. 

The IRS has not been able to connect the money they got from the payroll company to the tax return they got from the accountant. [As I learned from the guy I eventually talked to, the personal side of the IRS is separate and doesn't communicate well with the business side.]

My mother is getting letters saying that her personal returns owe X thousand dollars.
She's also getting letters saying that they have received X thousand dollars but there is no tax return.

The two parts of the IRS aren't talking to each other.

Despite the fact that

1.  The accountant has sent them letters documenting the connection between my mother's social security number and the Employer ID number and that the payments were made and the returns filed.
2.  I talked at length to an agent back in March or April and he clearly understood the issue and took extensive notes for the file.  He talked to my mom to get me power of attorney for the 2014 returns and told me what form to fill out for the 2015 return, which I did.

I sent the two new letters that were awaiting me at my mom's in LA last week to the accountant so he could respond to them.  But he also suggested I try to call them as well.  I had tried to call already, before talking to the accountant, but the recording I got then said they were too busy and to call again the next day.  It's more than the next day and the first number I called said to call later.  The next number (there's one number on the letter saying my mom owes X dollars and another number on the letter that says they have the money, but my mom needs to file a return) put me on hold for two hours before someone answered.  How many people can sit by the phone for two hours?  I at least could put it on speaker phone and do other work and my wife was around to take care of our grand daughter whom we're taking care of this week.

This agent was less than helpful or understanding.  She never even took my mom's name or social security number.  She just decided I needed to talk to the business side and said, "I'll transfer you."  Then I got told by a recording that the wait would be over 60 minutes.

[I've been writing this as this was unfolding, so I typed the next part 90 minutes later.]

But the man who eventually answered, about 90 minutes later, quickly grasped what I was saying and outlined how to fix it.  The tax deductions for the caregiver, despite what the payroll company said and despite what the accountant did, should not have been reported on my mom's personal tax return, but should have been file on a 941.  I wrote down what I understood and he said that was basically it.  He agreed it was unfortunate that it took so long for the IRS to answer the phone.  And it was too bad I couldn't have the accountant on the line too so he could answer the technical questions I didn't know and could ask things I didn't know to ask.  But he won't tie up his phone for two hours on hold.  He also agreed that the two sides of the IRS - business and personal - don't seem to talk to each other better.

So I have a tentative solution now which includes amending my mom's 2014 tax return - ugh.  
If we funded the IRS properly, it wouldn't take so long to answer the phone.  If they answered the phone, people wouldn't get so frustrated and could solve their problems before lots of penalties and interest fees pile up.  But this also make people angry at the IRS so they are amenable to the anti-government folks arguments, vote for simplistic anti-tax politicians, and make things even worse.  And the big polluters and tax dodgers get away with their shenanigans because the government doesn't have enough staff to handle their cases.  We see that with schools too - the campaigns to trash the public schools, cut their budgets.  This makes schools more crowded and parents more pissed off about schools.

On the positive side is that the man I talked to actually stayed in the office until 6pm his time on the Friday of a three day weekend to be sure he understood what I was explaining, to look up the returns and find that indeed the money was where I said, and to listen to me reread my notes.

Now I have to send my notes to the accountant who is going to say, I'm sure, we did some of the things already and that what he did was perfectly legit.   Grrrrrr.  We'll see.

[Reposted because of Feedburner issues.]

Two Saturday Pictures

For Some, Religious Discrimination Means Not Being Able to Impose Their Religious Beliefs On Others

Kim Davis, a Democratic Kentucky County Clerk, was imprisoned for refusing to issue marriage licenses (to any couples) because she believes God's law forbids marriage of same sex couples.

From a public administrative perspective, this would seem to be pretty cut and dried - she's required to carry out the duties of her job and not let her religious beliefs interfere with those duties.  So I've been poking around the internet to find out more about her and her beliefs to figure out why she isn't doing the obvious.

For those in a hurry, here's my preliminary hypothesis:

1.  She's worked in a very closed system - her mom has been her boss for years.
2.  She found Jesus after a life with less than "Christian values' marriage record.  Her actions may be part what her new faith tells her and part a convert's attempt to prove her faith.
3.  She's represented by a radical Christian law non-profit that is probably pushing her to be a martyr and get the law group more attention. 

For an example of #3, here's what Kim Davis' attorney said: 

“Today, for the first time in history, an American citizen has been incarcerated for having the belief of conscience that marriage is the union of one man and one woman,” Mr. Gannam said after a hearing that stretched deep into Thursday afternoon. “And she’s been ordered to stay there until she’s willing to change her mind, until she’s willing to change her conscience about what belief is."

I guess I'd rephrase this.  She's not being incarcerated because of her religious beliefs.  There are lots of people who share the same religious beliefs and they haven't been incarcerated for them.  She's being incarcerated because as the county clerk, she's not performing her legal duties to issue marriage licenses and that non-performance is interfering with the legal rights of people her office is supposed to serve.


What's religious discrimination at work?
Let's be clear about religious discrimination at work.  The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission tells us that people may not be discriminated against because of their religious beliefs.  If there is a conflict with an employee's religious beliefs and their job duties, the organization should try to make reasonable accommodations.  From the EEOC website:

"Religious Discrimination & Reasonable Accommodation. The law requires an employer or other covered entity to reasonably accommodate an employee's religious beliefs or practices, unless doing so would cause more than a minimal burden on the operations of the employer's business. This means an employer may be required to make reasonable adjustments to the work environment that will allow an employee to practice his or her religion.
Examples of some common religious accommodations include flexible scheduling, voluntary shift substitutions or swaps, job reassignments, and modifications to workplace policies or practices."

So an employer (and this is aimed at all employers, not specifically at governments as employers where the obligation to serve the public is even greater) should attempt to find an accommodation.  In this case, she could, as the court suggested, delegate the task she finds objectionable, to someone else.  There are deputies in the office who are willing to do this.

But since Davis is the head of the office, I can see her thinking that if she lets a deputy issue a license to a same-sex couple, it would be the same as if she were condoning it.  This gets us to the next level of consideration.  Is making an accommodation an undue hardship to the office and the people it serves?  Back to the EEOC website:

"Religious Discrimination & Reasonable Accommodation & Undue Hardship. An employer does not have to accommodate an employee's religious beliefs or practices if doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer. An accommodation may cause undue hardship if it is costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on the rights of other employees, or requires other employees to do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work."

In the Davis case, it compromises one of the duties of the clerk's office - to issue marriage licenses - and it causes major harm to some members of the public.  Apparently, Davis' way of accommodating her religious beliefs was to stop issuing marriage licenses to anyone.  She's not, in her mind, discriminating because heterosexual couple also are denied marriage licenses.  The court rejected that. 

To turn this around and say that Kim Davis is being discriminated against based on her religious beliefs is understandable only if you believe that Kim Davis has the right to impose her religious beliefs on the people of her county who  have the legal right to wed.

Here's some interesting background I found while trying to understand Davis' reasoning.

1.  Davis has been a deputy county clerk for over 24 years, working under the chief clerk, her mother.
2.  Working for a relative is legal in Kentucky.  
3.  There were some challenges to her salary which was significantly greater than the deputy sheriff and chief judge deputy.  (I didn't see how long these two had been in office compared to Davis.)
4.  She's an Apostolic Christian.
5.  When her mother stepped down, Davis ran and won.  I'd note she beat her Democratic primary opponent by 23 votes, or by less than 1/2 percent.

From The Morehead News:

"The highest staff wage in 2011 – $63,113 – was paid to Bailey’s chief deputy clerk, Kim Davis, who also happens to be her daughter.     Davis is listed at $24.91 hourly for a 40-hour work week and an annual wage of $51,812. She received an additional $11,301 in overtime and other compensation during 2011.     Her rate of pay apparently triggered most of the complaints, The Morehead News has learned from various sources.     Kentucky law permits elected county officials to employ family members and to set their levels of pay. It is a common practice throughout the state."

 She has been married four times to three different men, according to US News and World Report. Wikipedia (which has put most of these references together) describes her marriages this way:

Davis has been married four times to three different husbands. Her second and fourth husbands are the same. The first three marriages ended in divorces in 1994, 2006, and 2008. She is the mother of twins, who were born five months after her divorce from her first husband in 1994. Her third husband is the biological father of her twins, who were adopted by her fourth husband, Joe.

Look, I'm not judging her here.  Love and marriage is hard to figure out, especially when you get married at 18.  We don't know what her circumstances were.  But I suspect this past, which is not the ideal of her new faith, puts some pressure on her to show that she is now truly committed, like standing firm for her idea of God's will in this case. 


She became an Apostolic Christian in 2011.  Their website may help people understand the stand she is taking. 

Apostolic Christian beliefs are rooted in a literal interpretation of the Bible. We believe that the Bible’s teachings are applicable to all times and all cultures.

I'm not sure this is how they mean it, but the words suggest that they believe that everyone should obey the doctrine they believe.  

Their doctrine might also help us understand why a woman who has had a somewhat turbulent married life might now be standing firm with her new beliefs:

We believe salvation is obtained by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. True faith is evidenced by obedience to God's Word, which instructs a soul to do as the Lord Jesus emphatically taught, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."¹ The biblical pattern of repentance is observed, which includes godly sorrow² for a past sinful life, confession of sins, restitution for past wrongs, and becoming dead to sin. The wonderful and matchless grace of God is given to those who are humble in heart, along with peace and forgiveness from God.
Following conversion, which is manifested by a new walk of life in Christ, the convert gives a testimony of his or her faith and conversion experience to the congregation. This is followed by water baptism by immersion.³ Baptism symbolizes the burial of the old sinful nature into the death of Christ, and the subsequent rising of a soul out of the baptismal waters as a new creature in Christ Jesus. This is followed by the laying on of hands, whereby a church elder prays over the new member. This prayer acknowledges and entreats the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer's heart, and consecrates the new child of God into a life of service for him. The new member is thus formally united with the church, which is Christ's body.
Self-denial, separation from sin and unfruitful works, and nonconformity to worldliness are integral parts of the Christian walk of life and they lead to a life of peace and joy." [emphasis added]

 So as a convert to a religion that frowns on her former lifestyle, she could feel strongly compelled to stand firmly by the new teachings of the church.  We'll see whether this ultimately leads to peace and joy. 

The proper action for a government official whose religious beliefs are in conflict with his official duties is to either find an accommodation or resign from the position.  An accommodation was offered - allow others in the office to issue the licenses - and rejected by Davis.  Her key option now is to resign and find a job that is consistent with her religious values.

Another contributing factor may be the legal non-profit - Liberty Counsel - supporting her.  Other clerks in her situation apparently have found resolutions without resorting to lawsuits.    Raw Story reports that another right wing Christian legal non-profit that fights against same-sex marriage, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), has found solutions for their clients.

"Jim Campbell, an ADF lawyer, said his group has not consulted with Liberty Counsel on the Kentucky case and is not representing any county clerk in related litigation. Campbell said he worked with a few employees of county clerk offices outside Kentucky seeking to avoid issuing licenses to same-sex couples based on religion and said those situations were resolved within those offices and had not escalated to a lawsuits."

The RawStory article includes a comparison between the ADF and the Liberty Counsel:

Among those who support gay marriage, Liberty Counsel has a reputation for being more extreme than ADF.
“Liberty Counsel is among the most irresponsible of ‘Religious Right’ organizations,” said Greg Lipper, an attorney at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “ADF at least tries to fit its legal arguments within existing law; Liberty Counsel openly flouts it.”

 It's hard for anyone to know what is in the heads of people like Liberty Counsel executive director Matthew Staver, a former law professor at the Jerry Falwell founded Liberty University.  To a certain extent, he probably believes his cause is right and just.  But possibly there's also a need to get attention.  Is Kim Davis a perfect client to make this losing case with?  Or is she an imperfect client who finds herself in way over her head?  Her life has been difficult already.  This may not be the best option for her future well being.  Right now she's in jail and Staver isn't.

And so called liberal organizations have also looked for good situations to make their legal and political points.  But this seems such a totally lost cause, so out of step with the law.