My Indignance

My Email to Clark Durant

2011-10-02T15:26:00.000-07:00

At a luncheon recently during a Q&A I asked Clark Durant for his stance on Federal Drug Prohibition Policies. He did not answer the question at all, so I emailed him asking for a serious statement of what he supports even if it was just "that's not my issue."

Just sharing it to encourage thought and action on the issue.

To the Honorable Clark Durant and Company,

While I tried to keep the first email short and sweet, your subsequent request for information deserves more detail. That said if you need it presented differently, or even have time for a 5 minute call, just let me know.

I deeply appreciate your asking for more information.

This is an important conversation and your honest opinion matters deeply to me.

As Senator, you would have more power to influence this issue then almost anyone in America. To support you it is vital that people understand where you stand on this issue.

Current Policy:

The U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs.

Source: Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock: "The Budgetary Impact of Drug Prohibition," 2010.

This includes all or part of the following budgets:

DEA – $2.02 billion dollars staff of 9,906.

ONDCP – $401 million dollars

Bureau of Prisions - $6.8 billion dollars (reflecting a 527 million dollar increase from Obama in 2011).

Of the more than 217,000 inmates in Federal Prison. BOP itself estimates that more than 50% of Federal Population is in for Drug Offenses http://www.bop.gov/news/quick.jsp

Beyond this, while figures are not readily available, you can believe a substantial portion of money spent on US Federal courts is spent on Probation or Parole services for individuals released.

As you know such budget figures only scratch the surface of net spending caused by their programs, because agencies like the ONDCP and DEA are leviathans which wrap their way through an assemblage of other federal state and local agencies. Take the DEA, which has a major portion of its budget going to the training of Local Enforcement Authorities in:

“Drug Identification; Surveillance Techniques; Interview and Interrogation; Raid Planning and Execution; Asset Forfeiture; Undercover Techniques; Informant Management, Conspiracy Law and Investigations; Financial Investigations; Telephone Exploitation; Diversion Investigations; Clandestine Laboratory Safety and Investigation; Pharmacology; and Intelligence.”

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/detroit_training.html

They set the standards, then educate and enforce people in them.

You know how government spending warps State and Local priorities. And if you don’t just ask yourself:

Would Detroit City spend tens of millions locking up marijuana users if it didn’t have a national agency standardizing and subsidizing it?

Drug Market Economics

You asked me for the Freedom Alternative, but as you know this starts by understanding the market the Federal Government is trying to inhibit.

Now consider the commerce done in the illegal drug market.

Let’s start on a local level.

It 2006, it is estimated there was around 1.9 Billion dollars in drugs trafficked through Detroit City Proper alone! These are local sales, not even what DHS is catching at the border. Ironic isn't it- this is one thing we export a heck of a lot of to Michigan.

Meanwhile at that time the City’s Total Police Budget was around 400 million. For everything!

Let’s just imagine drug dealing as an ad in the paper:

Deal Drugs!

1. All cash business!

2. Tax-free income!

3. Flexible hours!

4. No education or work history required!

5. Criminal background acceptable!

Mr. Durant, you get economics. Drug Trafficking is not something the government can stop. We all have near-instant access to illegal drugs should we choose despite all laws to the contrary. From Capitol Hill to Max-Security Prisons drugs can be had. The DEA estimated in 1998 that US Residents spent more than $67 billion on narcotics. http://www.justice.gov/dea/demand/speakout/05so.htm

Meanwhile, where does all that cash go?

Now let’s look at the Ultra National perspective. The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime estimates that 70% of financial resources available to “organized crime” derives from the narcotics industry.

Think that’s any less the case in Detroit’s neighborhoods?

Think the Detroit Police estimate that 50-75% of murders have a drug nexus isn’t related to that? Murder is economical in Detroit, which is the only explanation as to why there have been more than 21,000 people murdered in this city since 1969. Shootings are economical in Detroit, because Drugs is among- if not the most profitable and accessible businesses to be in.

How to quantify those numbers to add them to the Billions we know is spent just buying the drugs in Detroit every year? I don’t know.

How also do we account for the billions of man-hours lost every year in the productivity of non-violent drug offenders lost as they sit warehoused in prison or on probation, often in their prime years, handicapped from employment and participation in our economy?

How to account for the knock-on effect of illicit drug money swirling through our economy?

The math is difficult suffice to say we know the market is absolutely massive, dynamic and incapable of being suppressed.

Freedom Alternative

The Freedom Alternative begins when YOU ask yourself the question:

WHY do Citizens need to earn the right NOT to be arrested by the Federal Government?

Does the Constitution anywhere direct the Federal Government to do this?

Has the Federal Government proven itself effective in Drug Policy Enforcement in the last 50-years?

No. It is a top-heavy bureaucracy that identifies a problem- drug addiction- creates an enemy - traffickers- so that it can get funding to fight it. It’s prisons and prisoners; probation officers, parole commissions and federally appointed judges.

Do they all provide such a service as to warrant $15 billion dollars spent annually? It doesn’t. And, as I have tried to demonstrate, these stated expenditures are miniscule when compared to the drug industries strength as a whole.

Certainly, addiction is a terrible disease. Drug abuse shortens lifespans and kills more people than any other disease out there. Considering that it is easy to make an argument for policies that prevent it. But what such arguments miss is that they aren’t making a dent. Prices on street drugs have only fallen on an inflation adjusted basis and the age of first use amongst children has only decreased falling from 16-12.5 from when the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse started keeping track in the 70s to present.

From Capitol Hill to Maximum Security Penitentiaries, Illegal Drugs are available and they always will be. It’s just supply and demand.

What is the Freedom Alternative?

It is the defunding and de/relegislating of the laws. It is not legalization, it is defederalization. And for that I have a sterling example for you in Alcohol Prohibition.

And how that happened was the government pronounced that, “the Federal Government is getting out of this business.” They worked with States to prepare them for the change, but they quickly amended laws to de-restrict the sale of some quantities of alcohol, and municipalities and States started making their own decisions.

They declared in legislation that “beverages with less than 3.5% alcohol no longer fall under our jurisdiction.” If you need legislative example, imagine the federal government amending Controlled Substances acts to say “the possession of up to 1 oz. of Marijuana on private property is no longer an enforceable/chargeable issue in Federal institutions.”

Benefits:

Let’s look at all the money that flows to State and Local coffers because they are the nexus for distribution of alcohol? Tens of millions of dollars in Michigan alone.

Not to mention the Liberty that this Freed Market has brought to its vendors and users. This was once money that flowed through the pockets of organized criminal networks throughout the nation. Where we had Capone before now we have Coors.

Remove this “extra-community” organization that cannot possibly interdict the mass disbursement of drugs and let the community make its own decisions- that is the Freedom Alternative. It is trusting our local governments to act responsibly.

Allow Freedom for States and Localities to act, and watch the benefits liberty will have for all.

Mr. Durant, I could provide you a mountain of statistics on this, blue ribbon commission findings, and Law Enforcement official upon Law Enforcement official. You are free to ask of me any support you desire. But the question remains:

What are your frank views on continuing or increasing the Federal Drug Prohibition vs. defunding and re-legislating the matter?

You can ask more evidence, but you see the experience this Nation has had so far. In light of that and your principles what do you believe needs to be done here?

You have demonstrated your ability to take clear, unambiguous and passionate stands in other areas. If you hold mum, or play your hand close to the chest on this, I will be hugely disappointed by the equivocation.

The less clearly you stand, the more I will have to conclude that you are comfortable with the present order. I will have to presume that the cancerous illegal activity that the illegal market supports just is not your issue.

I am one Hillsdale grad among many, raised in the tradition of Free-Market economics and Christian virtues that feels a deep obligation to all fellow citizens of this Nation. So when I tell you that so much of what you say resonates deeply with me, I hope you will understand my sincerity.

I realize you have major supporters that desire different solutions then what I have offered. I am not a reporter, set to broadcast this email conversation for maximum benefit. I am an active and concerned Citizen and I need to know.

Please get back to me at your next convenience.

Thank you all for the time to read and consider this.

-Andrew Rodney

p. 248.672.1739

American Spring

2011-04-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

It is so heartening to see oppressive governments shaken by the power of their people.

By largely non-violent methods and motivations, tens of millions of people have risen up. With many voices they have delivered a single message to their leaders- your rule is unjust.

Using tools never before available, they agreed on a message, a demand, on coming together and demonstrating for change.

How appropriate would it be for we Detroiters and we Americans to call our government to account for its foreign meddling in that region? Or the similar oppression that it enforces upon its own people?

As the United States of America verges on practical bankruptcy- which is to say on the near certain default on its recognized obligations- it is time to ask: What do we want from our government?

Wars?

Do we want our Cities, Counties and States building large infrastructure for warehousing criminals- many non-violent?

Do we want to see Detroit City spend 50 million dollars on another jail downtown?

Do we want the Federal Government spending money on Drug Prohibition?

NO!

I know many friends may read this and agree change is needed. But HOW is the question. And this is where the courageous people of Africa and the Middle East have shown and are showing us the way.

Revolutions of violence never work, but demonstrations of unity and civility always destroy the illusions.

And this is why I implore you believers to RISE UP.

Personally, knowing that the Drug War has taken more than 300,000 American lives devastates my sense of justice. Detroit has seen over 10,000 of these deaths and a roughly 4-fold rise in its jail population since Nixon announced the drug war 40 years ago.

Drugs are dangerous, but wars are far more deadly. Especially in a country that respects its citizens right to bear arms, but not their rights to private property when in the possession of a drug.

It is time we take a cue from our Arab brethren who are also fighting 40 years of corrupted rule.

You CAN End Drug Prohibition.

Come to the May 7 Cures not Wars peace rally at Grand Circus Park- just outside Tigers stadium. It starts at 12. March is at 4pm.

Stand with the People of Detroit. If we want the justice system to work WE have to work for it.

Rides can be arranged. Please feel free to contact me.

The only question that matters

2011-03-20T23:09:00.001-07:00

I would like to spend as little of my life as possible as an economic philosopher.

Not that agreeing on tenants of our political-economy are of little importance- they are vital. Instead I seek to avoid this chore so I will not live my life as a type-face intellectual in an era when a real, physical revolution is needed.

Our financial system is politicized in a way that has crippled our country. Never before, has the government so extensively used its powers to print money and control credit to support an entrenched group of citizens. Of course this problem didn’t crop up in the Financial Crisis- that was just one act of a long-running play.

It is a play with many stages, because wherever there has been a regulated coin or bill of commerce, there have been individuals that have sought to expand the supply of it, while forcing the citizenry to exchange their goods for it.

You readers know this and that is why it tires me to write about it.

In this specialized day and age, we are trained that some people are expert writers, some people are expert policy makers and some people are expert builders. That division of labor. We should all just specialize in our own trade, pay our bills and taxes and let the expert’s sort out the rest.

But revolution should spring from no specialty. Just that recognition that the rights of your fellow citizens are being trampled- physically, politically, economically.

The truth we can all see is that we live in economically tyrannical times. Few will move to Detroit to be an honest banker when there are double digit returns to be made flipping government subsidized products- from mortgages to F-22’s.

We could discuss supply and demand until we are blue in the face, and heck we might just educate some people, but the time for idle talk must be over.

I for one cannot be the servant of a system that imprisons so many millions. That makes federal policy into a river of treasures for those that stand along its banks. A system that lies about its ability to ever repay its obligations, and maintain its fiduciary promises.

The hard decisions have been put off too long.

Friends, while it may seem like “the game” is the same as it always has been the fact is that our system has never been spread so thin. If we can get organized to change it right now, we can do it.

The question Are you in? If you are: Prove it. Get in touch to plan.

For more than words it is action that is needed!

Support a Righteous Vote

2010-05-11T06:15:00.000-07:00

Everyone,

Below you will find letters I have composed to Detroit's City Council, to the Mayor, to the Chief of Police, to my State Representative and Senator, to the Attorney General and Governor and our Congressman.

I request that the City officials support Detroit's right to vote on legalizing under 1 oz. of Marijuana for people over the age of 21.

I request the State not to overturn this law. I request that our Congressman do the same.

I ask that you do the same.

I list the Addresses for all people that I have written to, but realize that your State Representatives will probably be different as may your Congressman and Local Officials.

Thank you for your time and support.

All Councilmembers have the following Mailing Address:

Coleman A. Young Municipal Center
2 Woodward Ave., Suite 1340
Detroit, MI 48226

There names and titles (where applicable) and email addresses are:

Council President- Charles Pugh mailto:CouncilPresidentPugh@detroitmi.gov%20
Council President Pro Tem- Gary A. Brown mailto:councilmemberbrown@detroitmi.gov?subject=Inquiry%20from%20City%20Website
Council Member Saunteel Jenkins mailto:Jenkinscouncilmemberjenkins@detroitmi.gov
Council Member Ken Cockrel CockrelK@kcockrel.ci.detroit.mi.us
Council Member Brenda Jones bjones_mb@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us
Council Member André L. Spivey CouncilmanSpivey@detroitmi.gov
Council Member James Tate councilmembertate@detroitmi.gov
Council MemberKwame Kenyatta K-Kenyatta_MB@detroitmi.gov
Council MemberJoAnn Watson WatsonJ@cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us

Dear Councilman and Council Aides,

I do not take your time lightly.

We all know that we are at a crossroads in our City and in our country. Accounts have to balance- that’s capitalism- and, as you see better than anyone, ours are running desperately short.

Ultimately finances come down to credit- trust- and whether or not you have it in the community that surrounds you.

I write with appreciation for the many good works you and your staffers do, but with respect for all of your time I will cut to the chase.

What your credit now depends on is your support of Drug Prohibition.

As longtime members of this community you are aware that we have witnessed more than 21,000 people murdered since 1969 and almost every year more than 1,000 people are shot.

These statistics are only the crudest reminder of the hypocrisy of a nation that trusts its citizens to trade in Guns, but not in Marijuana.

Drug addiction is indeed the most serious health problem this country faces. But it is a crisis we face in education, a crisis we face medically and it is a crisis we face spirituality. Our dollars can no longer so over committed to the military solution.

Clearly you can see that we are running out of money.

Now consider that in 2006, Detroit Police seized drugs with a street value of $257,515,000- more than half their total budget. Just imagine how many billions of dollars of pure profit is that working its way through our streets?

You have seen the consequences of our making drug dealers some of the richest and most powerful members of our community.

While legalization of small amounts of Marijuana will place a burden of change on this City’s residents, only emotion can lead us to overlook the facts:

· With Police officers no longer charged to incarcerate non-violent individuals carrying small amounts of Marijuana, they will be freed to take on more serious crimes. Without spending a dime you will multiply the effectiveness of our Police force.
· This will also increase trust between Police officers and citizens- most that consider use of Marijuana no worse than use of Alcohol.
· It will encourage regional and statewide solutions to these serious health and law enforcement issues as other communities realize they can no longer ask Detroit to shoulder the incalculable costs of America’s statist Drug policies.

As one person I am not claiming to have the answer to the problem of addiction and I am not asking that you lead an effort to legalize Marijuana.

I am asking that you support our right to vote on this matter.

To insist that this City hold the line set so long ago in the Drug Prohibition effort is an economic tyranny. It is taxation and it is incarceration without representation.

I write asking you to support Detroit’s right to vote on legalization of possession of 1 oz. of Marijuana for people above 21 years of age. Once again, I am not asking you to support it. I ask that you do support the people of this City’s right to vote on it.

And I write this sincerely to you Council Aides- speak your beliefs. Now is the time.

As this City, State, and country’s economic problems grow this law will be discarded, the same as with Alcohol Prohibition. Detroit has the right to be the first City outside the West to democratically declare our beliefs. If the State challenges our right to change the law so be it, but at least support our right to vote on this issue.

Before being liberals, conservatives, democrats, republicans, communists, libertarians, independents or otherwise we are first and foremost Detroiters. Stand up for our fellow citizens’ right to define their personal liberties or you will not represent me.

If you need my help on this issue in any way I am available to you. Know that I will be actively organizing and lobbying Local, State and Federal level as far as I am able.

With deepest respect in these difficult times,

-Andrew Rodney

Mayor Dave Bing
Executive Office
Coleman A. Young Municipal Center2 Woodward Ave., Ste. 1126
Detroit, MI 48226

Dear Mayor Bing and Mayoral Aides,

I do not take your time lightly.

We all know that we are at a crossroads in this City and in this country. Accounts have to balance- that’s capitalism- and, as you know best, our accounts are running desperately short.

Ultimately finances come down to credit- trust- and whether or not you have it with your people. Not just in the marketplace, but in the community that surrounds you.

I write this letter with great appreciation for the many good works you and your staffers do, but with respect for all of your time I will cut to the chase.

What your credit now depends on is your support of Drug Prohibition.

As longtime members of this community you are aware that we have witnessed more than 21,000 people murdered since 1969 and almost every year more than 1,000 people are shot.

These statistics are only the crudest reminder of the hypocrisy of a nation that trusts its citizens to trade in Guns, but not in Marijuana.

Drug addiction is indeed the most serious health problem this country faces. But it is a crisis we face in education, a crisis we face medically and it is a crisis we face spirituality. Our dollars can no longer so over committed to the military solution.

Clearly you can see that we are running out of money.

Now consider that in 2006, Detroit Police seized drugs with a street value of $257,515,000- more than half their total budget. Just imagine how many billions of dollars of pure profit is that working its way through our streets?

You have seen the consequences of our making drug dealers some of the richest and most powerful members of our community.

While Marijuana legalization will place a burden of change on this City’s residents, only emotion can lead us to overlook the facts:

· With Police officers no longer charged to incarcerate non-violent individuals carrying small amounts of Marijuana, they will be freed to take on more serious crimes. Without spending a dime you will multiply the effectiveness of our Police force.
· This will also increase trust between Police officers and citizens- most that consider use of Marijuana no worse than use of Alcohol.
· It will encourage regional and statewide solutions to these serious health and law enforcement issues as other communities realize they can no longer ask Detroit to shoulder the incalculable costs of America’s statist Drug policies.

As one person I am not claiming to have the answer to the problem of addiction and I am not asking that you lead an effort to legalize Marijuana.

I am asking that you support our right to vote on this matter.

To insist that this City hold the line set so long ago in the Drug Prohibition effort is an economic tyranny. It is taxation and it is incarceration without representation.

I write asking you to support Detroit’s right to vote on legalization of possession of 1 oz. of Marijuana for people above 21 years of age. Once again, you do not have to support it, but I ask that you do support the people of this City’s right to vote on it.

And I write this sincerely to you Mayoral aides- speak your beliefs. Now is the time.

As this City, State, and country’s economic problems grow this law will be discarded, the same as with Alcohol Prohibition. Detroit has the right to be the first City outside the West to democratically declare our beliefs. If the State challenges our right to change the law so be it, but at least support our right to vote on this issue.

Before being liberals, conservatives, democrats, republicans, communists, libertarians, independents or otherwise we are first and foremost Detroiters. Stand up for our fellow citizens’ right to define their personal liberties or you will not represent me.

If you need my help on this issue in any way I am available to you. Know that I will be actively organizing and lobbying Local, State and Federal level as far as I am able.

With deepest respect in these difficult times,

-Andrew Rodney

Attorney General Mike Cox

G. Mennen Williams Building 7th Floor
525 W. Ottawa St.
P.O. Box 30212
Lansing, MI 48909

Cadillac Place, 10th Floor
3030 W. Grand Blvd.
Suite 10-200Detroit, MI 48202

miag@michigan.gov

Attorney General Cox and AG Aides,

I do not take your time lightly.

We all know that we are at a crossroads in our State and in our country. Accounts have to balance- that’s capitalism- and ours are running desperately short.

Ultimately finances come down to credit- trust- and whether or not you have it in the community that surrounds you.

I write with appreciation for the many good works you and your staffers do, but with respect for all of your time I will cut to the chase.

What your credit now depends on is your support of Drug Prohibition.

As I am sure you are aware Detroit has witnessed more than 21,000 people murdered since 1969 and almost every year more than 1,000 people are shot. This IS a war and so many of this City’s residents are struggling for their very existence.

You have stated that your office will not stand for Detroit to enforce its own policy regarding marijuana arrests; this while your office is unable to enforce basic safety and security for this City’s residents; this State’s citizens.

To insist that Detroit hold the line set so long ago in this facet of our nation’s Drug Prohibition effort is nothing short of economic tyranny.

It is a policy of taxation, and incarceration and you have stated that it will be done without representation.

You cannot ask this City to hold the line, where your own office is incapable of having any impact. Continue to do so and, as a member of numerous conservative organizations, I will exercise every wit of my influence to oppose your bid for Governor.

Ignore this warning at your electoral and professional peril.

And I ask you, aides that have to toil through these letters- speak your mind. Now is the time. I apologize if this letter seems just another shrill demand- that is not me. But I have seen too many good people imprisoned, too much trust in the community destroyed, by this unequal law and I must speak up.

You all should be able to see the writing on the wall of this economic crisis. Just as Alcohol Prohibition was proven infeasible during the Great Depression so Marijuana Prohibition will be overturned as we are seeing in the West right now. Let Detroit be first in the East. The indescribable pain our citizenry has suffered these many decades proves that we must be allowed to make these decisions on a community level- on the level we are being asked to enforce these laws.

In 2006, Detroit Police seized drugs with a street value of $257,515,000- more than half their total budget. Just imagine how many billions of dollars of pure profit is that working its way through this City’s streets while making drug dealers some of the most powerful members of our community!

To ask us to continue to bear the burden of enforcement is intolerable.

I have written a similar letter to every Councilmember to our Mayor, our Governor, every State and Federal representative I have and every enforcement official with a voice.

You are either with Detroit or you are against us. Please make the right decision.

With deepest respect in these difficult times,

-Andrew Rodney

Governor Jennifer M. Granholm
P.O. Box 30013
Lansing, Michigan 48909

Governor Granholm and Aides to the Governor,

I do not take your time lightly.

We all know that we are at a crossroads in our State and in our country. Accounts have to balance- that’s capitalism- and ours are running desperately short.

Ultimately finances come down to credit- trust- and whether or not you have it in the community that surrounds you.

I write with appreciation for the many good works you and your staffers do, but with respect for all of your time I will cut to the chase.

What your credit now depends on is your support of Drug Prohibition.

As I am sure you are aware Detroit has witnessed more than 21,000 people murdered since 1969 and almost every year more than 1,000 people are shot. This IS a war and so many of this City’s residents are struggling for their very existence.

The Attorney General’s office has stated that Michigan will not stand for Detroit to enforce its own policy regarding Marijuana arrests; this while the State of Michigan is unable to enforce basic safety and security for this City’s residents; this State’s citizens.

To insist that Detroit hold the line set so long ago in this facet of our nation’s Drug Prohibition effort is nothing short of economic tyranny.

It is a policy of taxation, and incarceration and you have stated that it will be done without representation.

You cannot ask this City to hold the line, where your own office is incapable of having any impact.

And I ask you, Aides that have to toil through these letters- speak your mind. Now is the time. I apologize if this letter seems just another shrill demand- that is not me. But I have seen too many good people imprisoned by this unequal law, too much trust in the community destroyed, and I must speak up.

You all should be able to see the writing on the wall of this economic crisis. Just as Alcohol Prohibition was proven infeasible during the Great Depression so Marijuana Prohibition will be overturned as we are seeing in the West right now. Let Detroit be first in the East. The indescribable pain our citizenry has suffered these many decades proves that we must be allowed to make these decisions on a community level- on the level we are being asked to enforce these laws.

In 2006, Detroit Police seized drugs with a street value of $257,515,000- more than half their total budget. Just imagine how many billions of dollars of pure profit is that working its way through this City’s streets?

To ask us to continue to bear the burden of enforcement is intolerable.

I have written a similar letter to every Councilmember to our Mayor, our Governor, every State and Federal representative I have and every enforcement official with a voice.

You are either with this City or you are against us. Please make the right decision.

With deepest respect in these difficult times,

-Andrew Rodney

State Representative and Senator

Fred Durhal (6th District Representative)
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909-7514

freddurhal@house.mi.gov

Hansen Clarke (1st District Senator)

P.O. Box 30036
Lansing, MI 48909-7536

SenHansenClarke@senate.michigan.gov

Dear State Representative/Senator and Representative/Senatorial Aides,

I do not take your time lightly.

We all know that we are at a crossroads in our City, State and in our country. Accounts have to balance- that’s capitalism- and, as you see better than anyone, ours are running desperately short.

Ultimately finances come down to credit- trust- and whether or not you have it in the community that surrounds you.

I write with appreciation for the many good works you and your staffers do, but with respect for all of your time I will cut to the chase.

What your credit now depends on is your support of Drug Prohibition.

As longtime members of this community you are aware that we have witnessed more than 21,000 people murdered since 1969 and almost every year more than 1,000 people are shot.
These statistics are only the crudest reminder of the hypocrisy of a nation that trusts its citizens to trade in Guns, but not in Marijuana.

Drug addiction is indeed the most serious health problem this country faces. But it is a crisis we face in education, a crisis we face medically and it is a crisis we face spirituality. Our dollars can no longer so over committed to the military solution.

Clearly you can see that we are running out of money.

Now consider that in 2006, Detroit Police seized drugs with a street value of $257,515,000- more than half their total budget. Just imagine how many billions of dollars of pure profit is that working its way through our streets?

You have seen the consequences of our making drug dealers some of the richest and most powerful members of our community.

While legalization of small amounts of Marijuana will place a burden of change on this City’s residents, only emotion can lead us to overlook the facts:

· With Police officers no longer charged to incarcerate non-violent individuals carrying small amounts of Marijuana, they will be freed to take on more serious crimes. Without spending a dime you will multiply the effectiveness of our Police force.
· This will also increase trust between Police officers and citizens- most that consider use of Marijuana no worse than use of Alcohol.
· It will encourage regional and statewide solutions to these serious health and law enforcement issues as other communities realize they can no longer ask Detroit to shoulder the incalculable costs of America’s statist Drug policies.

As one person I am not claiming to have the answer to the problem of addiction and I am not asking that you lead an effort to legalize Marijuana.

I am asking that you support our right to vote on this matter.

To insist that this City hold the line set so long ago in the Drug Prohibition effort is an economic tyranny. It is taxation and it is incarceration without representation.

I write asking you to support Detroit’s right to vote on legalization of possession of 1 oz. of Marijuana for people above 21 years of age. Once again, I am not asking you to support it. I ask that you do support the people of this City’s right to vote on it.

And I write this sincerely to you Aides to the Representative- speak your beliefs. Now is the time.

As this City, State, and country’s economic problems grow this law will be discarded, the same as with Alcohol Prohibition. Detroit has the right to be the first City outside the West to democratically declare our beliefs. And we cannot allow a State that is incapable of enforcing security in our City to make this decision for us.

Before being liberals, conservatives, democrats, republicans, communists, libertarians, independents or otherwise we are first and foremost Detroiters. Stand up for our fellow citizens’ right to define their personal liberties or you will not represent me.

If you need my help on this issue in any way I am available to you. Know that I will be fighting this fight on the Local, State and Federal level as far as I am able.

With deepest respect in these difficult times,

-Andrew Rodney

Detroit Police Chief Warren C. Evans
DETROIT POLICE DEPARTMENT
1300 Beaubien
Detroit, MI 48226

Chiefofpolice@dpdhq.ci.detroit.mi.us

Dear Chief Evans and Chief-Aides,

I do not take your time lightly.

We all know that we are at a crossroads in our City and in our country. Accounts have to balance- that’s capitalism- and ours are running desperately short.

Ultimately finances, like civil security itself, come down to credit- trust- and whether or not you have it in the community that surrounds you.

I write with appreciation for the many good works you and the Detroit Police Department perform, but with respect for all of your time I will cut to the chase.

What your credit now depends on is your support of Drug Prohibition.

As longtime members of this community you are aware that we have witnessed more than 21,000 people murdered since 1969 and almost every year more than 1,000 people are shot.
These statistics are only the crudest reminder of the hypocrisy of a nation that trusts its citizens to trade in Guns, but not in Marijuana.

Drug addiction is indeed the most serious health problem this country faces. But it is a crisis we face in education, a crisis we face medically and it is a crisis we face spirituality. Our dollars can no longer so over committed to the military solution.

Clearly you can see that we are running out of money.

In 2006, your Police Department seized drugs with a street value of $257,515,000- more than half the total budget at that time. Just imagine how many billions of dollars of pure profit is that working its way through our streets?

You have seen the consequences of our making drug dealers some of the richest and most powerful members of our community.

While Marijuana legalization will place a burden of change on this City’s residents, only emotion can lead us to overlook the facts:

· With Police officers no longer charged to incarcerate non-violent individuals carrying small amounts of Marijuana, they will be freed to take on more serious crimes. Without spending a dime you will multiply the effectiveness of our Police force.
· This will also increase trust between Officers and Citizens- most who consider the use of Marijuana no worse than use of Alcohol.
· It will encourage regional and statewide solutions to these serious health and law enforcement issues as other communities realize they can no longer ask Detroit to shoulder the incalculable costs of America’s statist Drug policies.

As one person I am not claiming to have the answer to the problem of addiction and I am not asking that you lead an effort to legalize Marijuana.

I am asking that you support our right to vote on this matter.

To insist that this City hold the line set so long ago in the Drug Prohibition effort is an economic tyranny. It is taxation and it is incarceration without representation.

I write asking you to support Detroit’s right to vote on legalization of possession of 1 oz. of Marijuana for people above 21 years of age. Once again, I am not asking you to support it. I ask that you do support the people of this City’s right to vote on it.

And I write this sincerely to you Aides to the chief- speak your beliefs. Now is the time.

As this City, state, and country’s economic problems grow this law will be discarded, the same as with Alcohol Prohibition. Detroit has the right to be the first City outside the West to democratically declare our beliefs. If the State challenges our right to change the law so be it, but at least support our right to vote on this issue.

Before being liberals, conservatives, democrats, republicans, communists, libertarians, independents or otherwise we are first and foremost Detroiters. Please stand up for your fellow citizens’ right to define their personal liberties.

I understand that you do not pass these laws and please know that I have taken this plea to many Local, State, and Federal representatives and officials, but the opinion of your office is critical. The fight to be made is in how to enforce the people’s will- not in whether they should be allowed to express that will in the public forum.

With deepest respect and support in these difficult times,

-Andrew Rodney

Congressmen

Senator Carl Levin

269 Russell Office Building
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510-2202

Fill out the form on this page to Email: http://levin.senate.gov/contact/

Senator Debbie Stabenow

133 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

http://stabenow.senate.gov/email.htm

Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick

2264 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-2215

https://kilpatrickforms.house.gov/email_me.aspx

Dear Congressman and Congressional Aides,

I do not take your time lightly.

We all know that we are at a crossroads in this country. Accounts have to balance- that’s capitalism- and ours are running desperately short.

Ultimately it comes down to credit and whether or not you have it with your people- not just in Washington, DC or in the marketplace, but in the community that surrounds you.

I could write of my appreciation for the many good works you and your staffers do, but with respect for all of your time I will cut to the chase.

Where you lack credibility in this community is in your stance on Drug Prohibition.

More than 21,000 people have been murdered in Detroit since 1969. The majority have been drug-related, and this figure does not count wounded.

In the first 6-months of 2004, 800 people were shot in Detroit.
At the same time the US experienced 100 people wounded in Afghanistan.

In the first 7-months of 2009, 700 people were shot in Detroit.
At the same time the US experienced 517 wounded in the War in Iraq.

The fact is that by inaction your office is supporting a policy that is destroying this community.

Drug addiction is indeed the most serious health problem this country faces. But it is a crisis we face in education, a crisis we face medically and it is a crisis we face spirituality. Our dollars can no longer be so over committed to the military solution.

You can clearly see that we are running out of money.

In 2006, Detroit Police seized drugs with a street value of $257,515,000- more than half their total budget. How many billions of dollars of pure profit is that on our streets? And whose budget is more likely to get cut- Police or dealers?

And I will not even speak to the human consequences of what making drug dealers the richest people in urban communities has done to this country, save the body counts mentioned above; the CRUDEST reminder of the hypocrisy of a nation that trusts its citizens to trade in Weapons, but not in Marijuana.

I am not claiming as one person to have the answer to the problem of addiction.

I am asking that my community be allowed to decide for itself where to make our stand.

To insist that this city hold a line set so long ago in the wider Drug Prohibition effort in the face of such terrible costs is an economic tyranny. It is taxation and incarceration without representation!

Support Detroit’s right to legalize possession of 1 oz. of Marijuana for people above 21 years of age.

If you do not stand with this city now; if you will not be counted than we will know that we cannot count on you.

I am not a tea partier. I am not a democrat. I am not a republican. I am not a conservative and I am not a liberal. I am a Detroiter. Stand up for our fellow citizens’ right to define their personal liberties or you will not represent me.

If you need my help on this issue in any way I am available to you. Know that I will be actively organizing and lobbying Local, State and Federal level as far as I am able.

With respect

-Andrew Rodney

If you've gotten this far, thank you readers.

The Financial Crisis Simplified

2010-01-21T15:04:00.000-08:00

The other day, the driver’s side brake on my car began to squeak so I took it into a local Mechanic. After 15-minutes of looking around, the Mechanic explained that the sound was being caused by a broken caliper, which he recommended that I have replaced at a cost of $75.

Knowing nothing about car brakes, and feeling $75 was a relatively minor expense, I chose to take the man at his word.

If you are old enough to read this, you have surely had a similar experience, whether it was in school at the doctors or even at home.

When things seem to work, we don’t ask questions. Why should we? We feel the answers would be too complex to be worth our time, so we accept the replacement brakes, the surgeries, the heating and cooling work, just so long as we can afford it.

Similarly, when the nation’s Financial System begins to squeak, we pay as little attention as we have to and we trust that the Government Financial-Mechanics are dealing with the problem. Sure a more than $1,000,000,000,000 repair bill sounds like a lot, but at somewhere $4,000 per person and payable in 5-20 years at 0% financing, we can afford it, right?

Curious individuals may even try and dig a little further, asking the Government/Financial-Mechanics for a little more detail into what’s causing the squeaking. However, when they begin to explain using complex sounding terms like “Sub-Prime”, “Alt-A” and “Over the Counter Derivatives”, just as with the Auto-Mechanic, our instinct is to quickly skip the questions and go with the experts opinion.

Nonetheless, while we all share the natural instinct to focus on the problems we have more knowledge of, it is important to remember that the worst possible result of being misled by an Auto-Mechanic is a bad personal accident. But as the recent Financial Crisis is evidence, being misled by the Government/Financial-Mechanic will lead to nothing less than the collapse of our Economy.

On the bright side, the problems of our Financial System are far easier to understand than those of our cars, our bodies or even our homes. This is because while the Financial System might have 100,000 different names for its products and 1,000 different terms for each, when there is a wide scale breakdown in the Financial System there is only one cause: the overextension of credit, or to put it another way, too much trust is given to the wrong people.

So all we have to do to find the source of the recent Financial Crisis is determine: Which group of individuals in the Financial System proved to be untrustworthy?

What makes answering this question so intimidating is the sheer scale of the current problem. With millions of properties foreclosed on and hundreds of failed banks, clearly trust has been wrongfully overextended to a million different individuals, not just a few, right?

However, this interpretation is deadly wrong.

What this widespread breakdown reveals is a failure at the very heart of the system. The misplaced trust is that of the American public in the individuals they trusted to regulate their financial system, namely the Federal Reserve banking system and its Overseers/Patrons in the Federal Government.

To simplify this complex problem please consider the following analogy:

Imagine that you have worked at a Bank in Detroit city for the last 20 years- let’s call it the Detroit City Bank.

Like all Banks, your bank has two major functions:

1. Taking Deposits
2. Making Loans

You work on the Deposit side of the Bank as you have since you started with the Detroit City Bank 40-years ago.

Your Depositors are primarily the Residents that live in the City of Detroit. This is because it is the City’s official policy that it will only guarantee the Deposits of Residents that keep their money with this Bank.

20 years ago, when you first started at this Bank you noticed the Loan Manager was very tight with Loans. He insisted that Loan Applicants verify their:

1. Identification, by coming to the bank in person.
2. Wages, and likelihood of continued employment and/or promotion, by providing the Loan Manager their Employers Phone # and Pay Stubs.
3. History of paying back debts, by providing statements of previous loans and credit they had been given.

With this information, the Loan Manager would select only the top 10% of Loan Applicants he considered the most likely to pay off the loan.

He adhered to these standards because this is what the City of Detroit required, and if he did not adhere to them he would have been terminated. He was not allowed to make any more loans than this amount. He could have made fewer, but the more loans he makes the more he is paid.

20 years later, you notice the Loan Manager has loosened up considerably.

Now to make a loan, he only requires Loan Applicants to verify their:

1. Wages, and Likelihood of Continued Employment, by answering two questions on a form. He no longer checks with the Loan Applicants Employer.
2. History of paying back debts, by providing statements of previous loans and credit they had been given.

In addition, the Loan Applicant no longer needs to show up in person. They can complete the Application by phone or do so online.

He now approves the top 90% of the Loan Applicants.

He adheres to these standards because this is what the City of Detroit requires, and if he did not adhere to them he would be terminated. The Loan Manager could choose to make fewer loans, but the more loans he makes the more he is paid.

One day, after you find out the Bank has made a loan to your deadbeat brother-in-law, whom you know must have lied about having a job, you get concerned about the kind of loans your Bank is making so you decide to investigate.

It is illegal for you to access the files of the Loan Manager, so instead you simply move your office closer to his and you begin to ask around town about his dealings.

What you find out is that:

1. The Loan Manager’s salary has grown by more than 40 times since when you started240 years ago, while yours has only doubled over that same period.
2. The Loan Manager is the single largest contributor to the Political Campaigns of every candidate for Mayor, and every candidate for City Council (the two groups who are supposed to oversee his activities)
3. The Loan Manager has made extensive loans to not only the current and former Mayor and every City Councilor, but he has also made loans to many of their business partners and friends. He has also regularly given them better terms than most Loan Applicants.

Realizing that the finances of the City residents may be in great peril, you take this evidence to the City Ombudsmen, then the Chief of Police and upon getting no response, asides from, “we’ll look into it”, eventually you go to Detroit’s newspapers. But still you get no response.

In time, you discover that each one of the people that you notified has received extensive loans from the Loan Manager.

With no help forthcoming, you feel your only option is to directly notify the Bank’s Depositors. Eventually, you happen to gain the attention and trust of one such Depositor that happens to own a prestigious Accounting firm who helps you to gather public support for a large scale investigation into the activities of the Bank.

While the Bank and the City Government refuse to hand over their records, this Depositor and his firm are able to collect enough information from you and other Depositors to compose a report that shows the Bank is almost completely out of money.

Together, you both publicize this information to all the Depositors that you can find. The Newspapers finally report the story, and the City Government finally acknowledges your report is accurate.

Their official response is:

“The previous administrations really screwed up. We have a huge problem on our hands resulting almost solely from the fact that we allowed too many loans to poorly qualified Loan Applicants. To fix it we are going to have to take 20% more in taxes from the paycheck of every City Resident in 10-years time. Please trust us when we say that we will fix this problem.”

At this point, they change their loan policies to require Loan Applicants to verify their:

And they now allow the Loan Manager to approve only 70% of Loan Applicants.

However, the City Government does not fire the Loan Manager. In fact, they do not fire anyone at the Bank. They do not put any former Mayor or City Council Member or any of their staff on trial for their insider dealings nor do they force any of these individuals to return the loans and/or donations previously made.

Instead, to counter the negative public sentiment of these recent revelations, the City Government and the Bank both spend millions of resident’s tax dollars on a Public Relations campaign featuring Rallies, Televised Speeches and a Trust the Bank parade.

People appreciate the gestures, and while they still have some lingering resentment about the future tax hike that has been announced, this feeling slowly fades to the back of their mind and they fall back into their comfortable routine.

As a reward for your hard work and honesty, the City Government gives you a Citizenship Award.

You keep your job at the Bank for a while, but when it becomes clear that the only change you can expect is the rising pay scale of the Loan Manager you leave to take the post of Loan Manager in a new city.

Now, just replace the Detroit City Government with the US Federal Government and the Loan Manager with the Federal Reserve Bank and the cause of the recent Financial Crisis should be easier to see.

Like the Detroit City Government in this example, the US Federal Government guarantees only the deposits of banks that fall under the authority of the Federal Reserve System. The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), the name you may be more familiar with from plaques at the bank, was created by FDR’s 1933 Banking act, largely to extend the Federal Reserve’s regulatory power to non-members.

Like the Loan Manager in this example, Members of the US Federal Reserve system (think Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and practically every major Bank in the US) are as a class the largest contributors to almost every major candidates for high Federal Office. Taken as a class, they were the largest backers of both John McCain and Barack Obama’s campaigns, just as they were to both George W. Bush and John Kerry four years prior. Think of Enron – a company whose rapid growth largely came from a change in financial regulations regarding energy pricing and accounting practices –George W.’s largest backer.

Pres. Obama’s single largest contributors in 2008:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638

Compare this to John McCain’s contributors:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00006424

Like the Loan Manager and the City Government in this example, the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Government together set the lending standards for almost all US Banking Institutions. They establish the Reserve Requirements that determine how much liquid capital banks must maintain to meet obligations. They set the Discount rate at which money is borrowed (Currently 0%) for short term needs and are intimately involved in the policies and procedures of all major banks.

And perhaps most importantly of all, just as in this example, despite the largest and most widespread bank failures in the history of this nation, responsibility has been assigned to no one. The explanation has been that so many people failed that it would be wrong to blame anyone – that “the market” failed, not “the system”. But a tree that bares so much rotten fruit can only have a problem in its very roots.

The Federal Reserve describes itself has having “both public purposes and private aspects.” But what this crisis has laid before the public to see is that its public purpose is loss sharing amongst the entire dollar holding population, and the private aspect is profit of a small elite.

And this is no hidden secret. Look only to the Federal Reserve’s own description of the structure of their authority.

http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/fed101/structure/

Now understand that the top tiers of the pyramid that they show are 100% private bankers and political appointees and you begin to see who this Bailout really was for and hand-in-hand why there have been no prosecutions.

Current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was previously with Goldman Sachs, and so was his predecessor former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Even current New York Fed Chairman Stephen Friedman is drawing heat for his large holdings of Goldman Sach’s stock.
And how much did Goldman Sachs borrow from the American People via the Federal Reserve over the past 2-years in its own borrowings and guarantees? The American Public are officially not allowed to know the answer to that question- the Federal Reserve claims such information falls under the “private aspects”, of its mission. What else falls under theses “private aspects”? Consider the Fed’s hiring of a lobbyist to improve its image with Congress as described below:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZjQKyLci1AM

Not only are the Feds member-banks the largest political lobbyists- spending the American People’s money to lobby the American People’s representatives- but the Fed itself feels it’s appropriate to do the same. Just so happens this was also a lobbyist previously employed by Enron.

Ladies and Gentleman, this system is broken.

The fact is that if any person or persons has the ability to print money they will, and they will be generous with it. It is everywhere in our society. It is the dirt cheap, quick and simple mortgages, the bubbles in oil and energy prices the growth of the financial industry in so many ways and the MASSIVE deficit spending of the Federal Government (think multiple foreign wars and 60 trillion in unfunded liabilities).

All of these feed at the trough of the Fed- supported unknowingly by the American people in their sheer willingness to trust the $.

We have just witnessed the greatest bank heist in the history of the world and what makes it so spectacular is that so few people are aware that it has occurred.

What I have just informed you of is not a, “conspiracy theory.” Because the person that makes the rules doesn’t need a conspiracy.

It is not on the agenda of the Federal Governments to bring justice to the rogue and irresponsible Banking regulators, because they are in fact their political Cohorts. They are Patron #1.

Why prevent Goldman Sachs from giving out $9 Billion in bonuses when $20 million of that is headed to the political campaigns of your party eventually?

The problem is simple: if anyone has the ability to vote themselves more money they will do it. Who wouldn’t?

This is why there are checks and balances on every branch of government, and clearly this branch is off its moorings and has been for some time (though it would claim that it is an “independent” institution – a public corporation – not a branch of government).

Of course this is not a new problem. If you require more evidence than my word, just read this brief interview with William Black, called in on an exactly parallel though smaller scale fraud of this nature took place in the 1970-80’s.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123940701204709985.html

What is new is the scale of the fraud and the depth of the devaluation and dehumanization that is being experienced by the American public.

We are now engaged in two long-term conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, we have hundreds of thousands of troops stationed at hundreds of bases across the world, and intelligence agencies performing operations we don’t understand (and often don’t support), with budgets that we cannot understand. Our inner-cities are drug fueled warzones (and even amongst this clientele Private Banking is en vogue) and our State capitals are revenue/influence grabbing free-for-alls. Meanwhile steroidal housing subsidization has sprawled our communities in every direction with no end in sight making unity in our communities far more difficult to achieve.

You no longer turn to the banker in your town for a loan, you turn to Washington DC. You turn to a credit score, designed to expedite the cash rationing program that fuels this bubbling economy we live in.

Do not hide behind ignorance that you cannot see this which is occurring directly before your eyes.

It is time that you see the dollars in your pocket for what they are: the leaves of a rotting tree.

If you actually finished this lengthy article than you must be engaged. Your question would now be – what the heck do I do about?

First, spread the word. At root the heart of this crisis is that people blindly trust their dollars, and with them the organization that prints them. Your currency is not a car. You are not trusting the mechanic to re-do your breaks, you are giving them a stack of cash you haven’t counted and saying, “Give me back what you feel is right.”

The first step is the most important and it is the easiest- discuss it with the people you are around. No need to have a political discussion this is about facts, not red or blue colors.

Second, get active. Ultimately talk is idle if it does not lead you to action.

So what does it mean if your dollars are going to decrease in value? What do we do- is the frightened question. First, do not panic. We live in an era where living has ever been easier.
Realize that dollars are merely the commoditization of TRUST. What we need is trust in each other, not dollars, not gold. What makes you rich is the people in your life that you can count on, not the size of your bank account. I have never met anyone more miserable in my life than those who think that money buys the ticket to happiness.

The greatest weakness this federalization/centralization of American credit is that our communities are disunited. Our houses are no longer the sacred connections to the earth and to our communities that our ancestors once enjoyed, they are transitional and transactional- to be flipped at the first sign of lowering values. Imagine what life would be like if we depended on our reputation to obtain financing for our homes and our businesses, rather than the capricious score of a computer system with parameters set by people we will never meet, that cannot have our best interests at heart.

Get connected to your own community, your own family. This is not something you have to do, but if you choose not then get dressed for cold weather and a tough trail ahead.

Third, for those with the time and patience: get educated.

If you are going to educate people on the problems and the solutions it is your responsibility to get educated. Not enough to scream your mechanic is screwing you.

In the end the information is out there. If you have the hunger for knowledge (if only to protect your community) it is out there.

For example:
http://www.ffiec.gov/nicpubweb/nicweb/NicHome.aspx
This is information collected by the Federal Reserve itself. It contains a simple list of the largest banks. Here are the top 10:

1
BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION (1073757)
CHARLOTTE, NC
$2,252,813,550
2
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (1039502)
NEW YORK, NY
$2,041,009,000
3
CITIGROUP INC. (1951350)
NEW YORK, NY
$1,888,599,000
4
WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (1120754)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
$1,228,625,000
5
GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC., THE (2380443)
NEW YORK, NY
$882,586,000
6
MORGAN STANLEY (2162966)
NEW YORK, NY
$769,503,000
7
METLIFE, INC. (2945824)
NEW YORK, NY
$535,192,209
8
HSBC NORTH AMERICA HOLDINGS INC. (3232316)
METTAWA, IL
$390,657,817
9
BARCLAYS GROUP US INC. (2914521)
WILMINGTON, DE
$377,926,385
10
TAUNUS CORPORATION (2816906)
NEW YORK, NY
$368,225,000

Learn to listen to the news of these organizations at least, but the list they provide is of the top 50- maybe best just to pick the bank closest to your own community. For Detroit:
14
GMAC INC. (1562859)
DETROIT, MI
$178,257,000

You don’t need to be an expert, just ask yourself: How are these organizations creating money- and therein controlling trust? And whom are they giving it to?

Think it is just a coincidence that it costs 2x as much to live in New York as anywhere else in this country? The city is beautiful, but with 6 of the 10 largest banks it is ground zero for inflation, and it is sustained by siphoning off much of the strength of our own communities (of course I am not speaking to the majority of New Yorkers that are disenfranchised like us Detroiters, but those that live at the top of our pyramid shaped economy).

There are also websites like Open Secrets that record contributions paid to candidates.

Look at Pres. Obama’s single largest corporate contributors:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638

Compare this to John McCain’s contributors:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00006424

When you know how to break this down it is not a secret. You just need to have the will to follow your instincts even though the information may get dreary to read.

You can visit the End the Fed organization, whose solution is just that.

http://endthefedusa.ning.com/

I am not recommending this solution, but I think it is vital that we not be afraid of considering all options. Joining their local groups will at least put you in touch with people with alternative views, for good or bad.

I do recommend the resolutions authored by Congressman Ron Paul to allow the Congress to audit the Federal Reserve and I urge that you support them.

This list is incomplete for a reason.

Ultimately, while it is important that we be aware of the evils waged by those at the top of the pyramid, I think a great fault of our age is that we seem to think that power rests at the top.

Change doesn’t come from Washington DC or NYC, it comes from the small towns and the ordinary people that surround you. The federalization/centralization of power rests on the idolization we have become so accustomed to SO STOP IDOLIZING.

Turn off the TV and start taking care of those people around you; pick up a book and study your history- that is where you will find the strength to change this system.

Need further proof to believe that the top is misleading the bottom? The Chairman of the Federal Reserve has declared that the Recession is over, and that the Recovery has begun. Just observe what actually unfolds and you will come to know the truth. Your mechanic is lying to you.

Caution- Cell Phones

2010-01-21T14:59:00.000-08:00

This is the first I have ever posted a forward and it will be the last.

Below is a couple combined articles forwarded to me about Senate Hearings on the potential danger of cellular phones.

4-months ago, my perfectly healthy 24-year old brother was diagnosed with a rare type of cancerous tumor. The tumor was located in his right quadricep, exactly where his I-Phone rested in his pocket; where he has always kept his phone since he got one at age 16.

Whether the two are linked I cannot say. Whether the articles below or the attached study are meritous I cannot say. I am not sending this email to spread alarm only awareness of a potential danger.

My brother has received excellent care and he is recovering well. Thank you for your time.

Begin forward:

Senate is starting to think cell phones killed one of their own – Ted Kennedy. Don’t count on the headset getting you around issues!!!

http://emf.mercola.com/sites/emf/archive/2010/01/21/US-Senate-Committee-Confirms-Dangers-of-Cell-Phones.aspx http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npK5HSxukyA&feature=player_embedded# http://electromagnetichealth.org/ http://electromagnetichealth.org/electromagnetic-health-blog/columbia-university-law-school-wireless-hazards-panel/

Witnesses before a Senate Committee testified about research into cell phone use and its potential impact on human health, as well as the potential side effects such as brain and salivary gland tumors.In 2008, cell phones were identified as a contributor to salivary gland tumors. Dr. Siegal Sadetzki, who testified in September 2009 at the U.S. Senate Hearing, is the principle investigator of the study that made this finding.The report states that your risk of getting a parotid tumor on the same side of your head that you use for listening to the mobile phone increases by:34 percent if you are a regular cell phone user and have used a mobile phone for 5 years. 58 percent if you had more than about 5,500 calls in your lifetime. 49 percent if you have spoken on the phone for more than 266.3 hours during your lifetime. The second video above by Electromagnetichealth.org, filmed at Columbia University Law School at a presentation on Wireless Hazards, explains how wireless radiation creates cognitive problems, damages DNA, diminishes fertility, causes disorientation and navigation difficulties for birds, bees and other wildlife, and may contribute to Bee Colony Collapse, which, if not reversed, will jeopardize the future of life on earth. Dr. Mercola's Comments:

About 4 billion people are now using cell phones around the world, despite the fact that their safety is being increasingly called into question. In fact, there are no safety standards for testing cell phones before they are released to the market. Meanwhile, government agencies, similar to their stance on tobacco before the evidence became overwhelming, have essentially ignored all the danger warnings. Just like smoking tobacco, they fail to realize that it can take anywhere from 10 to 30 years for brain tumors to develop from cell phone exposure, so we are just now beginning to see some of the tragic effects of heavy cell phone use. The truth is, we are on the verge of a brain cancer epidemic. It could grow to 500,000 cases worldwide in 2010, and there may be over a million cases in the U.S. alone by 2015. Sadly, children and teens are at an even higher risk, as their thinner skull bones allow for greater penetration of cell phone radiation. The radiation can enter all the way into their midbrain, where tumors are more deadly. In addition, children's cells reproduce more quickly, so they're more susceptible to aggressive cell growth. Their immune systems are also not as well developed as adults. Lastly, children face a far greater lifetime exposure.Professor Lennart Hardell of Sweden has found that those who begin using cell phones heavily as teenagers have 4 to 5 times more brain cancer as young adults! Increasing evidence is pouring in that cell phones are not only a risk factor for brain tumors, but also salivary gland tumors, eye damage, Alzheimer’s disease and more.Your Safety is Now Riding on a Severely Flawed $30-Million Cell Phone Study You may be wondering why, if there is so much data showing the risks of cell phone use, no warnings are being made. First, the telecommunication industry is even BIGGER than drug industry, and they have far more influence in Washington. This is compounded by the fact that a large percentage of retirement funds from several powerful lobbying organizations are invested in telecommunications. Second, institutions like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Commission have cautioned that conclusions about possible cancer risks from cell phones cannot be drawn until the INTERPHONE study is published.The INTERPHONE Project -- a massive 13-country epidemiological study of tumors among users of mobile phones -- is already lagging years behind its scheduled completion date.Part of the delay in putting together the final report now appears to be internal strife, as scientists are reported to differ in their interpretation of the results. The GSM Association, a global trade organization of mobile operators, and the forum, which includes Nokia and about a dozen other manufacturers, contributed more than $3.5 million to the $30-plus million project. The European Commission also helped fund it with contributions passed through the International Union Against Cancer in an effort to create a barrier between the mobile phone industry and the scientists.Further, a team of international EMF activists -- the International EMF Collaborative -- has released a report detailing 11 serious design flaws of the INTERPHONE study. They say a ‘systemic-skew’ in the study is greatly underestimating brain tumor risk, and they pointed out the following flaws, among others: Categorizing subjects who used portable phones (which emit the same microwave radiation as cell phones) as ‘unexposed’ Excluding many types of brain tumors Excluding people who had died, or were too ill to be interviewed as a consequence of their brain tumor Excluding children and young adults, who are more vulnerable You can read the full report Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern, Science, Spin and the Truth Behind Interphone here. If the wrong conclusions are drawn from the Interphone studies, the resulting lack of public warnings could have disastrous consequences for the generations to come. And this is why I urge you to take action NOW. Do not wait for the results of more studies to come in or for the final conclusions of this meta-analysis, and please do not be swayed by cell phone safety spin. As Lloyd Morgan, lead author of the report and member of the Bioelectromagnetics Society says:“Exposure to cell phone radiation is the largest human health experiment ever undertaken, without informed consent, and has some 4 billion participants enrolled.Science has shown increased risk of brain tumors from use of cell phones, as well as increased risk of eye cancer, salivary gland tumors, testicular cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and leukemia.The public must be informed." Are There “Safe” Cell Phones on the Market?As the dangers of cell phones slowly trickle out to the mainstream media, there have been some reports of “safer” cell phones, and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) even released a new database for consumers ranking over 1,000 cell phones by the Specific Absorption Rate, known as the SAR value. The SAR value is a measure of the power of the cell phone and its potential for heating tissues.Within days of the EWG launching the new SAR value database, almost 500,000 people had accessed the database, indicating very encouraging new interest by consumers in cell phone safety.But simply choosing a phone with a lower SAR value does not at all mean the phone is safe. Camilla Rees, founder of www.Electromagnetichealth.org and co-author with Magda Havas, PhD of “Public Health SOS: The Shadow Side of the Wireless Revolution,” explains:“It is important consumers realize that the SAR value, while providing information for comparison purposes between phones, is very limited in its usefulness as a measure of ‘safety.’ We are greatly concerned that people may be turning to the EWG database in droves not understanding just how limited a measure the SAR value is.” Why is the SAR value not an accurate measure of safety?1. The SAR value is only comparing the isolated heating effect of different phones and does not give an indication that a cell phone is ‘safe.’ 2. The power, or heating effect, of the phone is only one of many possible factors impacting cell phone ‘safety.’ Exposures to the radiation from the cell phone at non-heating levels have been linked to many serious biological effects, and the SAR value is not capturing anything about these harmful non-thermal exposures. 3. SAR values are reported to the FCC by the manufacturer and have been known to vary from the reported number by a factor of two across models of the same phone. 4. The SAR value varies with the source of exposure and the person using the phone. For example, if you are in a rural area or in an elevator or a car, where the cell phone uses more power, your brain will get a greater exposure from the higher power required in these instances. Under certain conditions, the SAR value can be 10-100 times higher than reported. 5. Holding the phone in a slightly different way can actually render the worst SAR value phone better than the best SAR value phone. 6. SAR values have been created based on simulations of exposure in a plexiglass head filled with fluid, not a human head, and many scientists consider them to be inaccurate and irrelevant at determining actual biological effects. One of the worst deficiencies of the SAR value is that it only considers the thermal impact of cell phone usage, and it is very likely that the non-thermal effects of chronic cell phone exposure are more biologically damaging. As Rees points out, and I wholeheartedly agree:“Physical distance of the phone from your brain, and less usage of the cell phone overall, more so than simply choosing a phone with a lower SAR value, is probably a far better insurance policy.” I would also add to Rees’ statement -- do not use a cell phone within an enclosed area, such as a car, train or plane, or within three feet of small children.Remember, the damage from cell phone exposure can take many years to surface. There are rarely any initial symptoms, just like smoking and lung cancer. Are you really willing to risk the chance of developing brain cancer because you don’t want to sacrifice the minor inconvenience of using your cell’s speaker phone, or using a safe headset?This should be of particular concern if you have children, since, just like smoking, WI-FI does not discriminate between user and bystander.I have written more in-depth about how to reduce your cell phone risks before, and as a refresher, I strongly urge you to review some of that information now. As Cell Phone Use Increases, So do Cell Phone TowersThe good news is that you can take steps immediately to reduce your radiation exposure from your own cell phone use. Unfortunately, WI-FI is all around us, including in the form of cell phone towers that are now being placed on churches and even schools. Municipalities can receive upwards of $1 million a year for allowing these antennas to be placed on water towers or near schools, often at the expense of residents’ health. In Bayville, Long Island, for instance, it’s estimated that as many of 30 percent of teachers, staff and employees at a local school that is across the street from a water tower covered with cell phone antennas are suffering from illnesses such as cancer and leukemia. Overall, it’s been estimated that living near a cell phone tower may lead to cancer rates that are up to 10 times higher than the national average! These structures have also been found to interfere with bees’ ability to return to their hives, leading to a concerning disappearance of honeybees throughout the world, and causing the death of migratory birds. So if the research alone isn’t enough to motivate you to think twice before holding your cell phone up to your ear, then perhaps these “canaries in the coalmine” will be. The increasing rates of brain tumors and cell-phone-linked diseases, along with the not-so-subtle interferences with nature that these cell phone antennas are already causing, are signs that the very fragile ecosystem we all depend on to survive is not quite balanced. If you want to learn more about the major deceptions going on right now in regard to your cell phone’s real impact on your health, check out Cellular Telephone Russian Roulette, by Robert Kane. It’s a great resource for those of you who are interested in learning the truth.And, please stay tuned to the newsletter as we cover the latest developments in the cell phone saga. Later this spring, for instance, a report will be issued laying out scientists' understanding of biological disruption from cell phones in great detail for world governments to review. I hope the U.S. government will study this and the Bioinitiative Report carefully, appreciate the known links to many diseases, and modify the wireless components of the National Broadband Plan so Internet connections are hard-wired for our safety. Sources:
Dr. Magda Havas, PhD December 30, 2009 Related Links:
Scientists Believe Your Cell Phone Is a Death Trap
Warning! This Cell Phone Safety ‘Spin’ Could Make You Dizzy
Top 'Safe' Cell Phones That Aren't Safe Columbia University Law School - Wireless Hazards Panel Wireless Hazards PanelAn Emerging Public Health and Environmental Issue Tuesday,December 1st – 12:10-1:15 p.m. – JGH 104 (Jerome Greene Hall) Faculty and students are invited to attend a panel discussion on an important emerging public health issue related to wireless technologies at 12:10 p.m. on Tuesday, December 1st in Jerome Green Hall #104 at Columbia Law School. Panelists will include Whitney North Seymour, Jr., Esq. who is former NY State Senator and U.S. Attorney, Southern District of NY, and co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council; Health Advocate Camilla Rees, MBA (Barnard ’80), co-author of “Public Health SOS: The Shadow Side of the Wireless Revolution”, co-author of “Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern” and Founder of ElectromagneticHealth.org; and Martin Blank, PhD of the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University, who is past President of the Bioelectromagnetics Society. The panel will give an overview of 1) the new condition, “electrohypersensitivity”, where people become functionally impaired and sometimes disabled near wireless technologies, such as cell phones, cell towers, DECT portable phones, RFID tags and wireless routers; 2) known biological effects of microwave radiation; and 3) the legal battles being fought across the country and the globe related to this rapidly proliferating invisible environmental pollutant. Learn:How the Telecommunications Act of 1996 took away the ability of state and local governmentsto protect people from wireless hazards.Why the European Parliament has recommended greatly lowered exposure guidelines,including wireless-free schools, day care centers, retirement homes and health care facilities.Why countries around the globe are recommending limited cell phone use by children.What the impact of microwave radiation is on animals and wildlife.How the telecommunications industry is responding.How lawyers and law students can make a difference. Understand why this is a critical issue for our country to address now, including 1) links to many chronic and serious illnesses, which are expected to increase with chronic exposures; 2) plans to blanket metropolitan areas in Wi-Max, a high powered form of wi-fi, 3) federal commitment to a National Broadband Plan which is comprised heavily of wireless technologies; and 4) new radiationemitting utility technologies being deployed in SmartGrids, bringing an additional layer of radiation onto electrical wiring. Join us for this most interesting discussion with experts at the forefront of this field. Attendees willreceive of copy of the new book by Camilla Rees and Magda Havas, PhD, “Public Health SOS: The Shadow Side of the Wireless Revolution”.

A humble request

2009-09-01T19:51:00.001-07:00

To the President, Barack Obama and every other patriot with a mind,

As you well know, the Executive branch has routinely usurped the Authority of the Congress.

Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian there is no question the majority, silent and otherwise, agrees this to be established fact.

The Presidential privilege that exists today has expanded EXPONENTIALLY since the start of the 20th century- almost always accelerating the most in periods of conflict and strife.

WAR CANNOT BE DECLARED from the executive, it is just too big a decision for a small and non-representative group to make. If we won't allow a monopoly in cell phones, then how is it that we allow a monopoly in war.

Similarly as Congress was bestowed with the power of the purse, no cabal, regardless of their scientific pretense, should be allowed to dominate the system of international, national, state and even local exchange and flows of capital- not without a check from the American people that are its very source of strength and legitimacy.

George Bush was only the most violent and vicious outgrowth of a system that in losing it's Constitutional checks, has lost it's balance.

True Change requires the sacrifice of privilege.

If you bring Change, ask the Congress to Authorize the Wars you wage. Deliver accountability to the Federal Reserve, which has destroyed enormous sums of the public wealth, by recklessly "regulating" a system that has presided over the greatest UNDECLARED frauds of this last century.

Each year, every two or four years my political vote is cast, but every week you have rigged the fiscal vote in your favor.

Social Security was first pried open by the Executive, to hide payments made for the Vietnam War. Today we face not only War in foreign lands, but pervasive financial and political graft, a world almost destroyed several times over, that remains on the most precarious balance. The Federal Reserve, whose influence has had more influence over the economic state of this nation for the last 100 years has NEVER been audited by Congress.

While a United system always works best, when that system has become unmoored; when it has come to favor one part of the nation over another- one creed, class, religion, race or geography; when it has taxed the localities, to pay for activities of federal cabals and, then it is the Constitutional duty of every States citizen to Unite in revolt of such a system.

Mr. President or whomever reads this- I speak of revolution in no violent terms, but the spiritual revolution necessary to excercise the cancers of this nation. The lies about drugs, the wars in our streets, the wars in foreign nations, and the war in our history and public squares.

Mr. President, the people of this nation agree that the power of the Executive has come completely unmoored.

And the revolution has been made so easy for those with courage to wage it. This system requires the weekly financial support, of hundreds of millions of Americans. Each one of us has the right to decide whether or not to cast this weekly vote.

The system has the right to defend its privilege, but you cannot squeeze water from a stone.

It is time for our righteous and faithful action.

A time to fight

2009-05-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

The War on Drugs is a self imposed cancer in this country.

It has and will continue to ravage the poorest neighborhoods, because the only places that can “afford” to fight it are necessarily wealthy.

The money, materials, and people committed to this end have been a mobilization of resources only equaled in times of active war.

When it was attempted against alcohol it was a total failure, because alcohol was already in the community. Trying to tear it away was too costly and it led to too many pains in America’s communities.

The reason the War on Drugs has dodged a similar fate is because modern societies affluence has also geographically isolated its communities.

People are now couch potato generals trying to change the world at the ballot box as though it were a remote control.

As a result, we Americans have sat by while more blood has been shed on our soil than at any point since the Civil War. We have sat by while our home of the free has been turned into the largest police state in the modern world.

And for what?

Higher murder rates than at any point in history? Streets where drugs still flow without difficulty?

A long time ago legislatures, scared of drugs potentially radical impact on their communities built this system. Since then it has been a political tool of theirs. It is the Military-Industrial complex, brought to your neighborhood.

Drug abuse cannot be fought militarily, because it is a health problem.

The Drug War survives because we are too self-centered to stand up for the weak; too insecure to tell it like it is; too weak to see things differently.

REBUILD YOUR COMMUNITY.

END THIS WAR ON DRUGS!

Detroit

2009-01-02T16:06:00.000-08:00

A city viewed as a model for America in the late 1960’s has in just over 40 years experienced the largest fall in living standards and population of any American city comparable in size. Why? It is easy to look to the auto industry, bleeding thousands of jobs a year since the 70’s and 80’s, as the culprit, but it is only a lesser factor. Falling industry just means less opportunity, it does not explain why there are such disparate conditions in Oakland and Wayne counties. It does not explain injustice in the court room or at the hands of the police. It does not explain the rampant corruption in the halls of government. It does not explain why people are shot in the streets, in their homes or in their schools with a terrifying degree of regularity. Explaining the reasons behind these issues requires a deeper look than headlines. To understand Detroit’s fall is to understand the runs in the fabric that holds most American cities and society together.

The first issue is the historic injustice done to the black race in this country through well over a century of slavery followed by centuries of violated civil rights. While the last 40 years have seen dramatic improvement in the letter of the law in this country, the spirit still has not taken full hold. In Detroit, while the courts and school boards were desegregating schools and juror pools, its citizens were moving in droves. Moving to a new county where they could build their own courts, their own school districts, their own jails to enforce their own justice to which many minorities was injustice: housing segregation, high incarceration rates, racial profiling. This was motorized America, with higher average degrees of affluence, education and mobility than the rest of the world. The public policy of ghettoizing blacks in certain parts of the city became a general strategy to let the city proper serve as a holding ground, while suburban residents built their wall of highly paid police, prosecution and detention facilities. The motivation for this was less the virulent racism that proliferated and more the desire to feel safe at home, work and school. However, often unwittingly this unconscious design for peace and homogeneity were stoking the fires of injustice that were the true source of the lack of peace and security in Detroit proper.

The second issue is that with the pull-out of capital from the downtown community by both businesses and citizens, for the first time in this city government took on the role of the biggest employer. This is not itself a reason for failure, but the unbalanced political scene that was racially charged Detroit politics allowed unchallenged party dominance of government ranks. This is best exemplified by the 20 year reign of Coleman Young, and the resulting network of patronage that came with it. Corruption and stagnation of the economy are the necessary results of such monopolization. Just like GM managers and the UAW in the 1980’s, white collar and blue collar workers in Detroit public ranks instinctively sought maximum benefits for minimum time served. However, instead of shareholders that made the conscious choice to buy-in getting the short shrift, in Detroit’s it has been the residents that have suffered. This is the reason Detroit’s revitalization has been so slow in coming. It has the highest property tax combined with an income tax, for which you will receive broken services. While criminals steal copper from churches and schools, police shake down prostitutes and drug dealers, and mayors shake down the taxpayers themselves. City commissioners and councilors use their positions to ask for bribes and to promote their personal interests just as wanton as the crooks in Congress. Kwame is the very obnoxious tip of a very large iceberg that has penetrated all levels of government, from the cop in the station to the social services agent. One of Detroit’s successes is that an oppressed minority were able to marshal their talents and overturn bad laws. People like Ken Cockrel won cases that desegregated jury selection practices, and restored civil rights to prisoners. They kicked out STRESS death squads and a segregated school system more effectively than most any other city. However, once empowered with the authority they also came to view the systems of government as a means to affluence not only justice. A problem in all of America and much of the wider world and the result of such imbalance is just as universal, civic breakdown.

The third issue, possibly the most responsible for the lower living standards of Detroiters, is a demon child of the first two: the war on drugs and subsequent criminalization of a culture. While drug abuse is a serious question and one that all of us must consider in our lives and culture, the absolute chaos resultant of government efforts to solve it has no adequate foundation in reason or justice. When prohibition of alcohol was attempted it was quickly overturned, because of the destruction it wrought. The prohibition of drugs has a far wider scope, has resulted in countless more costs and pains, but continues. Why? The fuel of this terrifying fire can be found in the previously covered issues. First, the War on Drugs is viewed by its proponents as the physical toll of protecting their culture. This allows traditional cultural prejudices to serve as a personal justification for the deadly violations of minority rights. While the impoverished have greater incentive to deal drugs the war on drugs gives more incentive to hurt than help these suffering people. Cops get involved in shoot-outs in neighborhoods they will never patrol. How much corruption will one million dollars by? In any community and any country around the world, the answer is a lot. The result: Detroit has had the highest murder rate for 40 years, and the level of violence and victimization in this culture is unimaginable. Some of our most capable and able-bodied citizens on both sides of the justice system are killing each other, because government has made a law that gold grows on trees. The reason these failed policies have so much staying power ties into the patronage network of government. Drug laws and drug legislation is a blank check for public officials. It provides a salaried paycheck, and when that is not enough the enforcers simply abuse their authority and join the ranks of the criminals they are charged to prosecute. Detroit has seen a Police Commissioner indicted for dealing drugs from which millions of dollars in proceeds were laundered through the Mayors campaign funds. A judicial monitor was installed, partially because drug dealer complaints that police continually abused them and took their money without further prosecution. And it’s not just the Devils in disguise. Michigan has one of the largest and most heavily funded prison systems and criminal justice systems largely paid for by the drug war. This makes drug legislation a tool of frightening political power. A gut reaction of everyone in discussing the War on Drugs is “well we have to do something.” This is undeniable. Drug addiction is the biggest health problem in the world, but equally undeniable is that the current conduct of this war is anti-American, unconstitutional and morally insupportable. To hell with taxation, this is incarceration without representation and it is KILLING our society. It is an abomination and it needs to be stopped.

More personal note…

How do we resolve these problems and return Detroit to health? The answers to these problems are the same as the answer to all problems. You strengthen yourself and those around you. You stand up for those people that are too weak to stand up for themselves, whether it’s a hungry child or an ex-convict. That is what built this country, not words on paper. Become an unwavering advocate for the equality of all people under the law. You must speak out. Rights enforced selectively are not rights. We get so worked up waving the flag and championing our form of government around the world, little time is spent coming to terms with our historic prejudice. Women and minorities were oppressed under the law, and only recently have been granted more equal rights, and even when the letter of the law changed the spirit lagged for generations, and sometimes centuries. We have to fight the tyranny of statist injustices no matter how deep their roots. The war we must wage is with our personal hesitation that a solution is out of reach. History and love have shown it isn’t.

Detroit: An American City

2008-12-28T14:50:00.000-08:00

The struggles of Detroit city are remarkable and tragic to behold. They present microcosm of America's situation in the wider world. Once strong industries losing foot to foreign competition, the evolving difficulties in overcoming a racist history, high rates of gun violence, high drop-out rates and a steadily crumbling infrastructure.

Below are 5 different historical elements helpful to understanding this city.

Dynamism. Detroit was one of the most dynamic Midwestern cities in to the 1960’s and 1970’s. Open and welcoming of immigrants, with the opening of the Erie Canal it had one of the most cosmopolitan mixes of citizenry. Like all large Mid-western cities, the mostly 1st to 3rd generation immigrants that came were motivated and hardworking. Well before the auto industry Detroit was a powerhouse in all manners of industry, whether it was machining, stove tops, department stores or even shipbuilding. No surprise it came to be the city that popularized the automobile and built it in numbers never before seen. Detroit created the concrete highway, the stop light. It gave birth to modern suburbia, with two car garages and endless rows of cookie cutter housing (Pulte). It fulfilled long unimaginable dreams of people to be able to work and live in vastly different environments and even made the upper class luxury of a personal cabin on a private beach widely attainable. When World War 2 came to the United States shores, the federal demand for the mass manufacture of trucks, tanks, airplanes and munitions, pushed this growth to steroidal limits. The GI Bill and subsequent subsidized push for everyone to be able to afford the suburban dream, pushed sprawl faster to never before seen heights. However, the hang-over of such excess also came back to roost faster in this city. The community breakdown that results when people try and live with a foot in different worlds (in this case, Urban and Rural) is present not only in the city proper, but every suburb where most neighbors do not know each other. Homes are seen more as a temporary investment, a rung of a social climb than a tie to land or community. The lack of a more effective public transportation system exemplifies the individual character of the city. People drive to work, to school, to church, on vacation, people drive everyday from 40min-3hr.’s. The psychological and sociological effects of such dedication to a fast and wandering lifestyle have yet to be fully diagnosed, but if you want to see the results you need look no farther than Detroit. The breakdown in the inner-city is best seen in the massive violent crime and incarceration rates as communities handle problems with guns instead of a trusted common law. In addition the overburdened auto-industry reached a critical mass with non-competitive labor agreements and lower productivity rates amongst both white and blue collar workers through the 70’s and 80’s, the result of which has been a steady bleed of jobs. In this city defined by the mobility and independence of it’s populace the result has been a rapid exodus. The first stage was from the city proper and Wayne County most rapidly in the late 50’s- late 70’s, and now the entire region of Southeast Michigan, late 80’s-present. In the wake of this exodus remain many good industries amongst the aged and atrophied statist titans, like the many good citizens amongst the statist corrupt powers that hold public offices and codified cultured prejudices.

Racial. Detroit was a city of immigrants from Europe different parts of America and increasingly in the 1910’s-1960’s southern Blacks. Blacks were ghettoized and prejudiced against. Given the worst jobs at large factories, poor housing, unequal representation in government and law enforcement, but still many found enough economic opportunity to make it worthwhile. Detroit was an active fighting ground for civil rights. Powerful unions officially sided with black revolutionaries like Martin Luther King and many local religious leaders. Black nationalists and middle-ground liberals of all races made more rapid strides in Detroit than most cities of its size in the late 60’s and early 70’s. They overturned racist laws and legal practice, and came to prominence in the police, courts and local government more quickly in Detroit than most cities. However, these victories that publicly overturned the “traditional” racism of school, housing and courtrooms, also threatened the deep rooted preferences and prejudices of the majority of the affluent holders of capital. Steadily the factories and businesses were opened farther and farther away from the city proper. With the resulting suburban exodus of the 60’s and 70’s, city based industries reached a critical mass the corporate ranks became increasingly dense and hard to break into. Inner-city Blacks were left trying to make more with less: Lower savings, less education, more poverty, more problems. What evolved in the metro Detroit area was government enabled and enforced segregation. Judges might be able to force bussing within school district lines, but if a group of people choose to found their own district, in say Oakland County, a judge could not require inter district bussing. Oakland and Macomb County police forces are notorious for their racial profiling, but raise a suit on it and you will be subject to their courts and their juries. Nowhere is this system of discrimination more codified than in the body that daily decides civil and criminal rights, the Justice System. Here you see the bias that poisons all governments and civil services, that proper justice costs money. People facing severe penalties get court appointed attorneys often incapable of making the proper defense. While the counties might choose not to get involved in the collective education of youth in the region, they have no problem paying to detain them for decades when they feel threatened.

In my eyes the abuses of the prison system mirror the military-industrial complex we see in Washington, with the attached lobbyists, carrier politicos and seeming stance above the justice system.

Security. Without justice you will have no peace. For decades blacks lived without public recognition of their greatest civil right: Equal protection under the law. In rebellion for this the political climate of Detroit became extreme like much of the United States and not only on courts and councils. The actions of the 67 riots and police response, particularly the STRESS death squads, further radicalized the city dwellers into opposing parties. The war on drugs became a war on the urban poor and widespread gun ownership escalated rapidly. The federal government increasingly encroached on the cities jurisdiction with its harsh mandatory minimum penalties and FBI Surveillance of criminals, politicians and civic leaders. Funding went up for increasingly paramilitary police, and the public was encouraged to be desensitized to the rampant death and destruction as seen on the local news: the weekly reports of police shootings and brutal murders. In a city already politically and economically repressive to black youth, taking up arms and selling drugs was a natural outlet to prestige and power. The destructive underground characteristics engendered by the drug war turned neighborhoods into gangland war zones. Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings recently stated “…to put things in perspective, between 60 and 75 percent of our homicides in 2007 and the year before had a narcotics nexus, either through drugs, drug locations or people involved in drugs.” When prohibition against alcohol was enforced it was quickly repealed, because of the criminalizing effect it was having on society, paying for the ammunition in killers guns and bombs and giving them cause to use them. Drug prohibition has produced the same results, but it’s effects have been more segregated. For much of this suburban country the victims are like trees falling in the woods, the gun shots echo only so far and the media often fail to find its true source. It’s Detroit’s schools whose students are regular victims of gun violence, it’s the economically disadvantaged and politically weak who have all the more incentive to deal. A distant antisocial system of injustice was imposed on “criminals” that only resulted in a revolving door that escalated crime and depression. Meanwhile opportunists friendly with governments used increasing crime statistics to justify funding the construction of massive prison complexes statewide. The objective of these facilities and their officers was for-profit detention, not rehabilitation. This is just another dead end for the sick, illiterate and disadvantaged; one that leaves a permanent record to follow a person all their life. In Detroit a youth is more likely to spend time in jail or prison than to make it through college.

Political. With an exodus of so much of the educated, experienced professional class and the absence of economic stimulus came the growth of a political class. The Coleman Young election, turned into a 20 year era. His monopolistic political machine racially integrated, but gradually stagnated the ranks of police and government employ with political favoritism best seen by the debacle with his friend police commissioner Hart, his ban on city workers speaking to reporters and his refusal to allow suburban residents to serve on the Detroit Police Department. One of the demonstrable successes of Detroit was that the oppressed minority was able to freely organize, elect and re-elect their choice of politician. However, where the electoral process may have failed was in providing a false security; that elections would make preserving their quality of life any easier. Unfortunately by economic metrics Detroit was worse off in 1993 than it had been in 1971. Elections helped to more firmly establish certain rights and opportunities, but they could not help the rank and file to find employment in the city limits. The “conservative” voters whose candidates lost the elections voted with their feet and pocket books to find communities they could feel like winners in. Consider that John F. Nichols the founder of STRESS, the man who would lose the mayoral race to Young, would later become Oakland County Sheriff.

Economics. No politician controls the economy. The economy is a concert of a mass of individuals. Detroit’s greatest economic success, the mass manufacture of the automobile, was also it’s largest employer with a ten thousand company web of suppliers. They had a competitive advantage, but it was not sustained. Critical to an economic turnaround is the ability to re-educate and Detroit Schools have fallen short. In 2006 the Detroit School district, 11th largest district in the country, had a graduation rate of 21.7%, ranked as the last in the country for its size. Meanwhile Oakland County high schools have some of the highest graduation rates. While Oakland County currently has a 7% unemployment rate Wayne’s is closer to 10% with a quarter to a third of residents below the “poverty line.” Life is distinctly different across the county borders of Detroit. In Detroit you will find few of the traditional chain grocery stores or big box retailers that proliferate even in small towns. In Oakland County they build industrial parks and strip malls, in Detroit they tear buildings down. On top of that to have to pay an income tax and 67 mill property tax to the authorities, only to receive in return poorly functioning courts, schools and cops; it is little wonder businesses don’t move back. Take DFI, a family business founded in Detroit, employing mostly Detroiters, but to take advantage of Southfield’s tax system we are on the north side of 8 mile. The only reason for such disparity across an artificial border can be found in the underpinnings of the public system that people rely on or in many cases, suffer under.

For too long people have accepted these injustices as the tragic but natural results of a society experiencing hard times; that the people in the police and justice system are doing their best with a bad situation. While this may be the case for certain individuals, the failures of the local system of justice are so oppressive that one is left to call into question the very principles on which it operates. If a police man is convicted on corruption he will lose his job and possibly worse. So why should derelict divisions and prejudiced practices of the justice system continue to stand? Why do we accept mandatory minimums? What about dishonest cops shaking down drug dealers, dishonest city commissioners shaking down businesses, and dishonest mayors shaking down the city itself? The answer is that the majority of people do not accept these things. Nobody wants crime and mayhem on their streets or oppression in the halls of justice, but hand in hand no-one is born knowing the path to prevent these misdeeds. What we do know, is that bold-faced evils daily occur in this city because corruption is and had been an accepted currency of city bosses, be they Drug Dealers, Unions, Justices, Commissioners or Mayors. The best way to protect from such crimes is to reveal them. Free Detroit.

Why Your Life Will Be Harder Than Your Parents

2008-05-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

Is America on the verge of a financial collapse? Are we entering the next Great Depression? Is the dollar going to fall even further? Oil $200 a barrel? Is China going to take over the world?

Broad doom-saying headlines and statements like these have been sprinkled throughout the news for so long now that we have naturally grown desensitized to them. An unfortunate by-product of a news cycle that’s primary interest is the comforting pleasure of entertainment and not the dedicated focus of education.

While the broad consensus among Americans is that we are in for harder times, we weren’t born with an understanding of the history of the financial system, exchange rates, government debt, and other nuanced economic issues our lives are shaped by. Without tangible dates, facts and figures that can answer the all important questions of how does this effect me and why is it worth my time to understand, people find little reason to alter their habits.

However, what keeps us reading the articles and watching the programs is this unscratchable itch in our mind that things just aren’t right. Why are all the goods I by made in a foreign country? How can a government run on a perpetual deficit? Why doesn’t the rest of the world live in better conditions? How is it that America is so clearly falling behind?

My attempt with the rest of this piece will be to provide a more comprehensible common sense explanation of the changes we can expect in our personal financial/economic situations sprinkled with simple statistics and enough historical context to explain why these things are certain to occur. Things that you should be prepared for:

First. The government won’t help you, you are more likely to be helping it the rest of your life.

The deficit this year grew to over 9.5 trillion dollars. With annual interest payments of over 320 billion this is no small sum, but if the government were to use GAAP accounting as they mandate business to do, which recognizes accrued obligations on such things as health care and social security they would have to show a deficit of over $60 trillion dollars, growing exponentially larger as the population gets larger and entitlements only expand. The Federal government is effectively bankrupt, plain and simple. You will never see that social security being deducted from your check and further you will pay even more in taxes throughout your life and receive less medical assistance, less housing assistance, education spending, less unemployment, welfare, farming subsidies, across the board less of just about everything. The baby boom generation just turned 62 and has begun drawing their social security payments. Over the next generation the entitled elderly population will double to 72 million. You’ve probably heard throughout your life that the government has been putting spending off on future generations? Well guess what, that’s us.

Second. Your interest rates and all prices will rise except for the cost of your labor.

Whether it is the 3% on your student loans, 5% on your mortgage or 20% on your credit cards, they will all go up and faster than the wage increases you can expect. Just imagine if your credit card was at 35% interest, or more likely that you didn’t have access to one, because companies knowing people won’t be able to pay the high interest rates demanded, just won’t issue them to as many people. Same goes for business loans. That 10% profit you planned on earning won’t cut it, it will need to be more along the lines of 20%, that is again if you’re lucky enough to find it. Right in line with these prices will rise. The $1 dollar paper towel roll will be $3, the $15 dollar salmon filet will be $35, and energy costs will triple to quadruple, perhaps worse. This credit crisis and run up in energy prices, food and raw materials prices are just a warm up. To keep the wheels of the economy turning the Federal Reserve pumps money into the system at an ever-increasing rate. During the “run” on Bear Sterns and the subsequent liquidity grabbing, the Fed increased the money supply as measured by M3 by over 11%. That was enough to calm people’s initial fears about whether they’d be able to get their hands on dollars, and in most opinions the right move, but it totally avoids the question of whether these banks are legitimately solvent, just as the government has avoided being asked this fundamental question by coaxing the Fed into providing endless cash on hand. So why won’t the US continue to get away with this trickery if we have in our living memory you ask? Because our memories are short. Following WW2 America was in a preeminent position as the only fully functioning modernized economy run by a hungry experienced generation who had experienced economic depression and war. Such a good position that the elite nations agreed to make the dollar the world currency, on which all other currencies would be based (backed by gold at 35 dollars per ounce until 1971). Britain, Germany, France, Canada, even the USSR and most every major nation learned to trust the dollar and base their currency off it in some part. If you were in Germany and wanted to convert your Italian Lira to Deutsche Marks, you converted them to dollars and then into Marks. Everyone trusted the dollar, but after we took it off the gold standard to help us pay for the Vietnam War and rising deficits without having to worry about our gold disappearing, people naturally began to lose faith. When an OPEC boycott and other factors caused inflation to skyrocket in the mid-late 70’s, the Fed actually decided to try and protect the integrity of the dollar from inflation by raising interest rates higher than 15%, (an idea of what might be to come) which caused many other problems and a political regime quickly succeeded by a New World Order, whose priority was not the fundamental integrity of the dollar, but the appearance of the integrity of the economy as demonstrated in the unprecedented massive deficit spending they initiated and exploited for maximum personal gain. In response to this monetary instability governments around the world have slowly but surely been breaking away from dependence on the dollar. The creation of the Euro was a direct response to what these more monetarily experienced nations recognized as the loss of the former stable world currency. While nations with less experience and development across the world continue to use the dollar directly and indirectly as a peg (China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and on and on) to our direct benefit (think $1 paper towels and $15 dollar salmon filets) it is becoming a more widely held view in all nations that the dollar is less and less suitable for this purpose resulting in actions like China’s who has taken to increase it’s reserves of Euros decrease it’s reserves of dollars and began to adjust its peg to the dollar. And this is happening around the world, as anyone who travels abroad will tell you just how the purchasing power of their dollar has disintegrated at an increasing rate. The reason it is a guarantee that our interest rates and prices will rise is because while we have long been beneficiaries of the credit people place in our currency, the self-evident truth these days is that we do not deserve this credit. Our government, our economy and our consumers are completely overextended as most recently demonstrated by the growing deficit, the credit crunch and the fact that last quarter the personal savings rate fell to the lowest level since they began recording it in 1947. We have transitioned from a manufacturing society to one that provides less tangible, more subjectively valued services and afforded our luxurious lifestyles and low rates by an international workforce hungry enough not to ask questions in their efforts at economic success. While the exact time line of these effects is as difficult to predict as peoples emotions, for the same reasons, the inevitability of this decline is not.

Third. Your investment potential will be limited.

People aren’t completely irrational for not saving. Why put your hard earned money into a money market fund at 2% that has no chance of keeping pace with inflation at the rate dollars are printed? So people try and get more action for their dollar by putting it into stocks and bonds, and of course the banks and brokerages aren’t going to turn them down. Instead they find ways to promise more and more return by taking on increasing risk and try and justify the dangers away with talk of the complexity of their mathematical models and the “science” that modern investments has become. However there is nothing modern about it asides from the shiny new devices they’re using, the Blackberries and Bloombergs that make the same old Ponzi schemes look like magic. If you haven’t had the chance to study the trickery in the modern financial system here’s a quick lesson. You have $1 million dollars to invest, you want a 10% return with as little risk as possible so your friendly financial advisor suggests that you put it into something historically safe like a mortgage or corporate bonds, but you can’t get 10% when mortgages and bonds are only selling to return 5% that is unless your financial advisor goes out and borrows another $9 million at an interest rate below 5% (likely indirectly from Chinese or Arab lenders) and uses all $10 million to make loans at 5%. Now your $1 million is earning 10% and because it’s in mortgages or some other historically safe sector your advisor will tell you you’re not taking much risk, but all it takes is a change in one of the faulty assumptions made, whether it is the interest rates, falling housing prices or one of the lenders just feeling unsettled for this house of cards to collapse. That’s what’s happened to Bear Sterns, and is what’s occurring to all these big financial services companies that so many people put their trust in, which allowed them to leverage their equity between 15-30 times. Truth is they’ve been awash in money for decades and they just need to find places to put it to justify keeping their jobs. You can only buy so much GE, Coca-Cola and Google stock, because 90% of listed companies are overpriced. Warren Buffett just announced to shareholders in his company that they should expect returns on their investments to shrink in the near future. That people should be happy if they make 10%. This from a man whose company has returned an average of 24% for over 30 years and it’s not just him. Leading investors and industrialists around the world are sounding the alarm on the American economy. Even in Europe countries like Britain and Germany that have taken more fiscally and monetarily balanced approaches have been watching their middle classes shrink under the burden of rising prices and increased foreign competition. The American dream of the middle-income worker who puts away 10% of his paycheck to watch it grow into a healthy nest egg allowing them to put their kids through college and retire at 65 is increasingly an illusion.

Now I have no crystal ball. Admittedly my estimates, particularly in terms of the amounts of inflation, interest and investment rates are all speculations. I do not discuss the intricacies of competitive advantage, the revolutions of technology or that American manufacturers have for years been handicapped by a currency that other countries manipulate to the advantage of their productive capabilities, which our currencies devaluation is likely to have some positive affects on. I also have no delusions that Europeans have the answer. With some of the most heavily unionized workforces, and excessive government systems of regulations and benefits they too will experience great tribulations. To varying degrees rising powers also have their issues with corruption, a lack of transparency, excessive bureaucracies, authoritarianism, demographic problems, monetary and fiscal reforms and on and on. However, no comfort can be taken in the faults of others, because their failings will not change the fact that the problems enumerated will increasingly become a part of your life.

The dilemma we face is not new. These are problems of the excess of affluence and coming off the apex of empire that are as old as civilization, all that is new is that it is our generation that will have to deal with them. At the root of these problems is the very real fact that America is no longer competitive. We see the decadence every day in our peers more concerned with titles and impressions than actually making an impact. We are a nation of lawyers, financial advisors, consultants, actors, artists and politicians, aspiring to titles and accreditations, better houses and cars on borrowed money, to status and impressions more than to actually being productive and affecting positive change. In children that tune in and drop out.

We live on the shoulders of those that came before us, in the buildings they constructed, in the institutions they created with the technology they invented and the work they put into it. Over the past 50 years we have increasingly farmed this work out to foreign countries in return for IOU’s. Japan, the largest holder of American debt rose from the ashes of World War 2 to become a leading power in the world in 30 years on savings rates right around 20% of income. For over a decade now China, with 10 times the population of Japan, has been saving at over 25%, with this years estimate at 40-50%. In an age when capital flows freely across borders, anyone who claims belief in capitalism should understand that it is the people that save who own the world. The future is theirs.

People look to Barack Obama with hope that he will change things. A representative of the new age, more culturally aware and open-minded then the apathetic poster boy for entitlement he replaces. They see in him the hope of our generation, that by our intellect we will rise above our problems and I sincerely hope this is the case, but counting on a politician is like wishing on a star. I don’t mean to give the impression that issues like the Iraq War and government reform aren’t important, they are crucial, but sedating your life with CNN and political talk that’s so much the fashion these days changes very little. The failure of America is that of waiting for others to do what needs to be done and more than ever what we need is revolution, and not a revolution of arms or words, but one of actions, because it will be only by our collective hunger, our sweat, our pain and sacrifice that things will really change. The only question is are you ready for this reality?

Why is it so hard to make the right decisions if the truth is self-evident?

2008-03-23T02:44:00.000-07:00

The short answer to this question is that there are simply so many decisions to make. After all, every day we are confronted with millions of decisions if not more, and most of them we are not even consciously processing. You do not think of what look to give every passerby, what words you will choose in any given conversation, as you don’t think of every breath you take. While some decisions get the chance to spend more time under the magnifying glass that is your consciousness like these words you are reading, in the end still the majority of the processing falls to an endless network of subconscious responses, neural pathways formed during your previous encounters, in this case with words, language, and lofty self-help endeavors. While there are objective truths in life, as any priest or mathematician will tell you, we each see the world through a complex prism formed by an interplay of our experiences in the world outside our skin and one within, each more complex than we can ever hope to contiguously understand. However, life necessitates that we go forward so in hopes of helping us on this journey I submit to you my simple thoughts on this ever so complex of questions.

First, is that the root of our dissatisfaction with our decisions that this question implies rests squarely between our ears. While we may feel guilty or upset that we have been misdirected somewhere along the way, the simple fact is that we are not born knowing, but if we don’t take responsibility for ourselves, work to understand that maze of associations, conceptualizations, and emotions our life’s energy is running through and accept that we have the power to change, we haven’t a chance to get on the right path no matter who is there to help. Meditate/pray, talk to friends and family a psychologist, priest or anyone that you can trust and above all do not fear openness and honesty with your self as these are the only paths to something better.

Second, is that we must eliminate our addictions. Whether it is to alcohol, drugs, a sense of satisfaction from exhibiting we are better than another or emotional dependency, the greatest obstacle each of us faces in coming to know ourselves and truly living well is false comfort. On some level we will always know that the sense of control we derive from these pleasures is false, and likely the greatest source of our unhappiness, and while I know this is not an easy step not taking it risks weakening the foundation upon which we build all other things in our life. You might feel you can hide these secrets from others, but it is for you that you should have concern as you are living a lie. To beat this we must first defeat our feelings of shame that fuel these cycles of dependency. Absolutely any human being can get caught up as you have. The reason AA and similar support groups are effective is because they affirm that we are not alone in our struggles, and that there are always people who will help us deal with these problems and there always, always are.

Third, is that we must let go of those things that we covet the most, namely, the material aspects of religion, politics, family and all other personal possessions that distract from the truths that underlie them. This is not to say that we must let go of religious beliefs, political views, or members of our family as those support and guide us more than anything, but that there is a tendency towards excessive veneration of the structures, the titles, and objects that we grow familiar with while coming to our understandings. When our associations to terms like Communist, King, Islam, Conservative, Black, Democrat, cause us to compartmentalize and lose sight of the people that we speak of, we have also lost sight of the truth and ourselves just as when we overly revere our fathers and mothers to the point that we can stop seeing their weaknesses, needs and their basic humanity. It is not wrong to have attachment to your house or car, but to care more for inanimate objects that you see and feel more than for people that die, because they are not near is a failure of our understandings and so much a reason as to why we find ourselves in this divided world today. This would seem a harder challenge to overcome, because while addiction occurs primarily in the mind, how can one fight what they do not see, what they have never known and often prejudices affirmed by those closest to us and most honored by us. To this, I think the only solution is to live with a fearless openness, to seek out and communicate with these individuals we judge harshly or revere excessively and let our shared humanity shape our judgment with compassion and not the great poisons of indifference and excessive want, for when we choose to turn a blind eye to any of our brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers it is only ourselves that we are truly cutting off.

What I meant to express with these words are not moral judgments, but steps I believe will help all of us to make better decisions and achieve better things in our lives. I know because I have spent so much of my life blaming others, not taking responsibility for my actions, allowing addictions and dependencies to rule my life, and taking for granted those closest to me, but with hard work and help from others I have begun to see the light and the error of my ways. For anyone who wants to discuss any of this feel free to contact me any time, day or night.

Cell: (248) 672-1739

Human Nature: The Inner Psychopath

2008-01-21T01:21:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it seems that our human capacity for cruelty is as great as that for kindness. News headlines echo and emphasize the crimes committed daily by our brothers and sisters. Movies and TV shows popularize, and explore the fascination of bringing pain to others. Not a weekend passes without release of another horror movie, promising more blood and gore and greater cruelty than the last and while expletives are censored on television, at any hour you can find fictional police drama's with stories of heinous crimes, whole series set around serial killers and this darker part of our nature. While the pages of history are filled and often shaped by this darkness and in our hearts, it is a lack of proper fear and respect for this weakness, a lack of awareness that is making the problem worse. While each of us has the potential for greatness and this is where most focus their attention, if we neglect an understanding of our weakness we will be doomed by it.

"You don't understand these things because your not underthe influence of factor x." (Dennis Rader, BTK Killer in taunting 1978 letter to police, errors included)

Surely when Rader penned those words he was fulfilling his self satisfying desire for dominating social control, and not actually attempting to answer the question of what makes him what he is. However, it approximates the internal justification so many make in trying to explain such unforgivable behavior. We call them demons, because we cannot understand them as humans, but murderers come from across the human spectrum, from every age, class and culture and have since the beginning of human history. In this age of individual empowerment, they too have found how to use the tools to devastating effect. While they may have had the support of millions there is no doubt today that the actions of Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and countless others were, like serial murders, self promoting for purposes of social control. While the lives and actions of Mao and Rader were as different in other ways as any two can be, both share the characteristic of living almost entirely for themselves. There is no empathy for their victims, there is nothing greater than themselves.

Each one of us feels this pull in one way or another. Whether it is the desire to pick on a weaker individual, or the more silent oppression of vicious angry frustrated thoughts that go unspoken to those that pass us by, the capacity for cruelty is alive in each of us. We watch these horror movies, and crime dramas, because they excite us, because the titillation of evil thoughts and self glorification is a more effective emotional control than others. While our intuitive desire for control is nothing new, and cruelty older than humanity, technology has made the act of ending life so simple that we risk the ending of life as we know it and not only from the ever present threat of nuclear annihilation, but from the increasing frequency of life shattering acts including school shootings, suicide bombings, genocides and other violent crimes.

Changing these things doesn't require us to roll back technological progress, but it means we must take the time to move forward in our collective understanding of the human mind. Otherwise, this sacrifice of self awareness for gratification will be our end.

Fundamentally Without Meaning

2007-11-16T17:36:00.000-08:00

This is from Wikipedia's entry on Karen Armstrong.

Theory of religious fundamentalism:

Karen Armstrong has advanced a counter-intuitive theory of religious fundamentalism, key to understanding the movements as they emerged in the late fifteenth and twentieth centuries:

Central to her reading of history is the notion that premodern cultures possessed two complementary and indispensable ways of thinking, speaking and knowing: mythos and logos. Mythos was concerned with meaning; it "provided people with a context that made sense of their day-to-day lives; it directed their attention to the eternal and the universal" [1]. Logos, on the other hand, dealt with practical matters. It forged ahead, elaborating on old insights, mastering the environment, and creating fresh and new things. Armstrong argues that modern Western society has lost the sense of mythos and enshrined logos as its foundation. Mythical narratives and the rituals and meanings attached to them have ceded authority to that which is rational, pragmatic and scientific - but which does not assuage human pain or sorrow, and cannot answer questions about the ultimate value of human life. However, far from embarking on a wholesale rejection of the modern emphasis in favour of the old balance, the author contends, religious fundamentalists unwittingly turn the mythos of their faith into logos. Fundamentalism is a child of modernity, and fundamentalists are fundamentally modern.

My thoughts:

While I have never used the words mythos and logos, this excerpt strikes at the heart of evident social ailments particularly present in the US, and seemingly going hand in hand with the tidal wave of changes that bring about what we call modernity. For what is modernity, but the unbridled evolution of scientific/technological, economic, legal, and political systems that massively change our environment and culture. Mostly logical, rational developments, but ones that humans need to adapt to on a level of personal meaning to avoid such chaotic reactions that have shaped recent history in the world with devastating effect.

Terrorists are not a recent phenomena. In fact the name Terrorist shows just how hard it is to find a name for what they are. Islamic Extremist is perhaps more accurate, but it is not for Islam that the majority of fighters perpetrate their crimes despite the superficial claim. Just as it was not for Communism that so many humans perished in the last century from the errs of the most deeply indifferent power addicts. Terrorism is in fact a more accurate name, as it would have been for Communists, Anarchists, Fascists, who employ modern technology in mass murder as a technique for achieving power, and in the end it is only the non righteous, areligous rule by the gun that they truly seek.

However, Terrorism is a dangerous word in that those who use it so frequently do so to promote their own indifferent, power hungry objectives. Musharraf, Putin, Bush, and leaders across the world use this term in every speech that justifies their own evils and immoralities in seeking broader power. They use the word Terrorism in an attempt to absolve themselves of guilt, when anyone with open eyes can see the daily atrocities and immoralities they perpetrate. These global power players and their predecessors helped give rise to Islamic Extremism, and any legitimacy it has in misguided minds, springs from their failings.

Never before have our technological advances been in such ascendancy and capable of changing the lives of so many for the better. If we could only balance what Karen Armstrong calls our logos, with a deeper sense of meaning and stop the senseless, selfish power struggles, oh the things that we may do.

Because it is not in poverty that these power mongering ideologies are born. Bin Laden, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Hussein, these men were not born in constant want. Some call them demons, and surely their actions would lead one to believe this to be true, but we shouldn't try to see these individuals as something other than human, because in the end it is the same failure of humanity that create the wickedness that poisons us all. For it is a logic and rationality not balanced by a sense of meaning and morality, that will be then end of us.

Our public school system is an excellent example of this rush to rationalize, and systemize without a corresponding regard for the emotional, social effects. Founded using the widely shared rational belief that all children deserve a chance, the well intentioned rush to create and standardize institutions to educate. Some say that secularism is to blame for the fact that in most schools children are taught information, before they learn relations, and instead of learning the emotional/moral lessons that balance a life and provide deeper meaning, it seems that more and more in our ever increasing rush for independent "successes" these lessons go untaught and unlearnt. So people look to materialism, physical power and the illusion of control among other paths to fill the void of meaning.

I don't blame secularism or modernity for these short comings, it is not a result of either. After all on the wide and evolutionary scale, humans have most always suffered these imbalances. The pyramids found the world over are monuments to how long and deep humans have prioritized success in material, and physical power above the deeper values of happiness, love, peace and harmony that create and fulfill. I understand that these values of which I speak may also be considered modern, for before the development of language, community and all those other innovations we take for granted today that have helped bring us greater awareness, our stomach was not filled by philosophy alone. Apathy is an unavoidable part of life, modernity did not create it. However, in the modern rush to insulate ourselves from hardship, many have lost the lessons that make real hardship bearable. The love between parent and child, the love of life and living that have provided meaning throughout all struggle and sacrifice, the principles that must be taught and learnt, to live a full life.

Communism, Authoritarianism, Terrorism, Racism, Materialism all spring from our fundamental search for meaning. It is a search that has never been easy, and for which we need to sacrifice more than ever if we are to survive and sustain life.

Be the example.

Thank you for reading and may peace be with you.

The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind - not the fiend or the sadist. -Erich Fromm

1. Armstrong, Karen. The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. New York: Ballantine, 2000. p. xv

Karen Armstrong advocates a reading of historical texts from the perspective of it's writers. Her works do an excellent job of precisely capturing ideas that proliferate in great works particularly those of the three faiths of Abraham and Buddhism. I recommend all her works including her most recent, The Bible: A Biography.

Who Would Jesus Vote For?

2007-11-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

Any heart that has truly sought to understand the sacrifice of love exhibited by Christ, might ask themselves why electing officials is seen as such a high calling, deserving of so much of our energy. The lines of state are the imperfect invention of men, but the heart of man comes from a higher power and to this Christ spoke.

Would Jesus vote? Would he preach to his family and co-workers, put a bumper sticker on his car, a sign in his yard and give his money and time to their campaign? Would he belong to a party? Would he be a one issue voter? Would he choose between the lesser of evils so his vote would "count"?

Government authority is not beyond morality and the more we treat it as though it is, the more we compromise our beliefs for our intentions the faster we fall into decay. While we claim to be a nation of Believers our actions reveal a feeble character and no politician holds the answer and neither do I. Only the sacrifice that is your love can set us free.

I Love Newt Gingrich?

2007-08-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

I don't love Newt Gingrich. However, I listened to a speech he gave at the National Press Club, broadcast by C-Span, that enamored me. In it he spoke quite frankly about the completely deficient system of review that we use to elect the President, and offered a common sense solution that could revolutionize our political system. My summary of these points and some additional comments follow.

The media/political/consultant/lobbyist industry that currently elects high officials is self sustaining, like a perpetual energy machine running on fear, graft and generally bad ethics.

How can there be so much money spent on a campaign, and yet there still be such poor diligence on the process of communicating substantive information to the public. Why did "Howard Dean disintegrate?"(Newt) Why is it more important to report on slights from front runners than analysis of records and serious questions?

The excuse is that this is what people pay attention to, but it's a justification because the problem is that this is what they are given. 1 minute answers in phony debates, short partisan press spots, attack ads. This is a system filled with venom that serves only to bring a candidate down, which is no better shown than in the two recent elections of president Bush. How can we be surprised by the resulting leadership or should I say the utter lack of it?

To win an election you need to be both rich and famous. Namely Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, Michael Bloomberg, Mitt Romney, Jon McCain, Rudy Giuliani, George W. Bush. "Jimmy Carter would have a very hard time rising in that system" Gingrich said. You need the best consultants, the best graphic media, the best theme songs, and polls on top of polls.

So who is the best candidate? We're certainly going to need it to face the overwhelming burden of problems left unsolved for so very, very, very long. How do we find this capable leader?

Surprisingly the answer may be this simple: We test them.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates were held to win a seat in the Senate in 1858. Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas held 7, 3 hour timed debates to reach the people of Illinois. Newt raised this example a few times. These are classic historical texts that provide more substantive information than I dare say will be covered in this entire election cycle by the major networks.

Now, this is where Newt's message really presents something new. The winners of the Democratic and Republican primaries should agree to host a series of timed debates once a week for a few hours for several weeks before the election. Primarily of a format where they might ask questions directly of each other and be allowed undisturbed periods to respond, questions from the audience a moderator, etc. Perhaps even traveling around the country to encourage greater participation.

To paraphrase Newt, for the primaries instead of these 2 hour debates with 10's of candidates why not a 2 hour debate with two of them? Why not a structured series of debates, round robin, or however. Last week I watched the McLaughlin Group supposedly a show of political insiders and they spent 15 minutes analyzing a few brief remarks between Hilary and Barak during the recent debates. After all it's what people want to see. Sit two opponents down, force them to face each other, answer and ask hard questions, think and for god sakes be challenged. Newt also added that you could pair up Democrats and Republicans during the primaries as well. Not only would it give us a real sense of the candidate and where they stand, it would also raise the dialogue in the whole country.

Certainly this has it's own weaknesses and challenges after all the best leader might not be the best speaker, but it's probably even less likely that it's the person who picked the best consultant groups, who looks and sells the best.

For those who think that people aren't going to pay attention to that much discussion, I'm surprised you made it this far in this post. With the Internet, pod casts, newspapers, C-Span, 24-hour news, there is no doubt the information will disseminate, it's what good information does.

A reporter raised the question that perhaps Newt was so contemplative because he believed this to be a year for the Democrats. A good explanation for his support of possibly the most incapable speaker, debater and statesman in our nations history, but it's not the messenger it's the message that's important.

I generally don't care to listen to Newt, but I believe he recognizes as most adult Americans that give a damn that we are at a moment of decision. It's the same reason that both fields are flooded with candidates. Bush's second election has clearly shown that he was not a mistake or a lucky crook, but the product of a broken system. The door is open to all, the presidency is up for sale and it's a steal.

Our government is collapsing around us. Fiat money is being used poorly to patch the holes of health care, social security, and chronic infrastructure deterioration, all the while further devaluing our currency world wide. The blood of countless Iraqi's, and so many other of our human brothers and sisters is on all of our hands, many good people, equally deserving of love as all of us.

These Presidential candidates are asking for our futures. Doing the same things and expecting a different result is madness. If we let the system stand as it is, we already know what we are going to get.

Please help us and demand what should be our right. Write your Congressman , or any presidential candidate a quick email (you can find most of their contact info at the website listed below) and encourage them to step up and begin a process of open substanative non-partisan discussion. It might be the smallest step you can take to effect the greatest change in our government.

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

You can see more of Newts speech at:

http://www.cspan.org/VideoArchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,&ArchiveDays=100&Page=2

Thank you for your time.

Citations:

Gingrich, Newt. (8-7-07). National Press Club Luncheon
[Television broadcast]. 400 N Capitol St NW # 650 Washington, DC 20001: Comcast.