William and Ian, I want to leave you a better world than the one that was left for me, but I fear that is impossible and beyond my ability to control. I hope and pray that I am a Father that you can look up too and admire. I will try to be the kind of man that I want you to be, and I will tell you of my struggles and failings so that you will not have as hard of a time as I have.
I would like for you to say what you mean and more importantly mean what you say. That you treat people with respect, especially those that society doesn’t think deserves respect. Respect doesn’t mean being “nice” but treating someone with dignity.
All living things deserve to be treated with dignity no matter if they are a human, dog or plant. We should always remember that the breath of life that God breathed into us, he also blew into them. If we harvest a plant or animal for food we should honor it and give it the best life and least traumatic death that we possibly can. If we have to take a life because of necessity (whether weeding our garden or defending the life of another) we should mourn that life.
We should try to live our life without exploiting others, even if that causes us difficulty. We should be ashamed if our standard of living is only possible because we are abusing and using others. While we cannot change the world we can change the way we impact it and hope that our example convinces others to do the same.
You should never feel that you are better than someone because you have more knowledge, money, clothes etc…. One person’s life is not worth more than another; I say this even though I would gladly choose my Loved ones over anyone else and not feel guilty. Treat all people with respect, especially those who do not show you respect.
Try to think before you act, this will save you much grief and hardship. Remember that once something is done, it may be impossible to undo. So use as much forethought as time will allow. I will warn you that I have found that action is almost always better than inaction. I will endeavor to give you the tools you need to act wisely to the situations that life gives you and the experiences necessary to develop that wisdom. I hope this will enable you to think while you are acting and prevent you from the paralysis of indecision.
Violence never solves problems but only creates new ones. But you might encounter a time when violence is the only viable option that you have. When that is the case use as much as you can summon as quickly as possible, while this may seem counter intuitive it will save pain and suffering to all parties involved.
Try to leave every place you go better than when you found it. Help others when you can, but remember that often the best way to help others is to teach them to help themselves. Making someone dependent on your aid is not good for either your or their dignity. There will be those who try to take advantage of your kindness and willingness to help. This is a price you have to pay and you will become better at identifying those who would abuse your generosity as time goes on. Just remember that if you are in doubt about a person’s motivation it is better to ere on the side of giving until proven otherwise.
Success in life can only be measured by happiness and your sense of self worth. What is simple is not always easy, and the right thing to do often is hard and painful. Do not decide on an action just because it is easy or painless but try to do what is right and just. Try not to leave problems for others to solve if you can fix them now. When you are looking for a solution to a problem try to find a simple one, because simple usually works out better than complex.
I will always try to be the father that you deserve to have and give you the tools that you need to have a happy and successful life. I will fail at times, but I will never stop trying and I will never stop loving you. The two of you are the greatest blessings that God has ever bestowed upon me and I will try to always treat you as such.
I Love You Ian and William, and even though I wish that you could stay small forever, I also look forward into meeting the Men that you will become.
With all of my Love,
Daddy
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Earth day?
It is earth day and the college campus where I work is having a celebration, were they are giving out free bottled water and hot dogs and hamburgers on Styrofoam plates, with napkins, plastic forks etc….. Why do people not understand that it is our over consumptive lifestyle that is causing not just our environmental problems but our financial problems as well.
We have lived in an era of abundance for so long that now that we have out grown our ability to extract resources from the earth at a pace that equals our consumption, we are experiencing price increases as a result of raw material scarcity. Not only is our demand out stripping our ability to extract resources but the resources themselves, whether it is fish in the ocean or oil in the ground. But most everyone seems to be in denial about what our problems are and the impact that we as individuals (in first world countries) have upon our environment.
We seem to believe that we can keep buying HD big screen TV’s, iPhones, discarding our last years (still functioning) electronics for new ones, trading our movies on VHS for the same movie on DVD. We do not even think about the conditions in which the people who made these items worked and lived. We tell ourselves lies like “you can live like a king on $5.00 a day in Indonesia” without us ever having been there or even knowing anyone who has lived there. We deny and lie to ourselves about these things because if we ever took the time to look and really think about our impacts we would feel guilty (if we have any empathy left), and we do not like feeling guilty. We do not want to admit that our standard of living is only possible by the exploitation of our fellow human beings, and the only reason that we tolerate this system is that we do not have to see the people we are exploiting.
Thanks to globalization we have moved the wage slavery jobs from our nation to developing countries, we even convince ourselves that building a T-shirt factory in Haiti is a development project and helps Haitians. We fail to simply look at Haiti and ask if they really need a T-shirt factory to increase the income of a few thousand Haitians or agricultural development so they can feed themselves. What we do is use cheap labor and no environmental regualtions or worker safety laws to make cheap t-shirts will flooding the Haitian market with cheap “Food Aid” grain which drives grain prices down causing more farmers to leave their farms and move to the city which lowers wages even more. To further increase the profit margin we “provide” the workers with company housing and a company commissary in which we deduct these costs from their paychecks. Even the cotton that is used in the t-shirts is grown here and exported to Haiti and priced under the local market value due to our very generous subsidies that we pay our farmers. All we have to do to realize this is ask ourselves why we can buy a 4 pack of t-shirts for $10 at Wal-Mart.
As our standard of living has become harder to maintain we have gone from single income families to dual income families, we have outsourced our production capacity to cheapen labor and production costs. We have been sold a bill of goods to consume even more, become more energy efficient by replacing your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. You never hear that a better way to become energy efficient is to use less light bulbs and less energy. That if you really want to help the environment then don’t buy a new TV or cell phone if your old one still works. Life and business functioned just fine before Blackberries and HD TV’s. If you ask the average Western consumer what they would want more off most will say time. We buy all of types of “time saving” devices but spend the time if any that we gain from using them working to pay for them. We have completely lost touch not only with the earth but also with ourselves.
If you want to really do something to help the Earth, then turn off the TV and read a book, or play outside with your children.
We have lived in an era of abundance for so long that now that we have out grown our ability to extract resources from the earth at a pace that equals our consumption, we are experiencing price increases as a result of raw material scarcity. Not only is our demand out stripping our ability to extract resources but the resources themselves, whether it is fish in the ocean or oil in the ground. But most everyone seems to be in denial about what our problems are and the impact that we as individuals (in first world countries) have upon our environment.
We seem to believe that we can keep buying HD big screen TV’s, iPhones, discarding our last years (still functioning) electronics for new ones, trading our movies on VHS for the same movie on DVD. We do not even think about the conditions in which the people who made these items worked and lived. We tell ourselves lies like “you can live like a king on $5.00 a day in Indonesia” without us ever having been there or even knowing anyone who has lived there. We deny and lie to ourselves about these things because if we ever took the time to look and really think about our impacts we would feel guilty (if we have any empathy left), and we do not like feeling guilty. We do not want to admit that our standard of living is only possible by the exploitation of our fellow human beings, and the only reason that we tolerate this system is that we do not have to see the people we are exploiting.
Thanks to globalization we have moved the wage slavery jobs from our nation to developing countries, we even convince ourselves that building a T-shirt factory in Haiti is a development project and helps Haitians. We fail to simply look at Haiti and ask if they really need a T-shirt factory to increase the income of a few thousand Haitians or agricultural development so they can feed themselves. What we do is use cheap labor and no environmental regualtions or worker safety laws to make cheap t-shirts will flooding the Haitian market with cheap “Food Aid” grain which drives grain prices down causing more farmers to leave their farms and move to the city which lowers wages even more. To further increase the profit margin we “provide” the workers with company housing and a company commissary in which we deduct these costs from their paychecks. Even the cotton that is used in the t-shirts is grown here and exported to Haiti and priced under the local market value due to our very generous subsidies that we pay our farmers. All we have to do to realize this is ask ourselves why we can buy a 4 pack of t-shirts for $10 at Wal-Mart.
As our standard of living has become harder to maintain we have gone from single income families to dual income families, we have outsourced our production capacity to cheapen labor and production costs. We have been sold a bill of goods to consume even more, become more energy efficient by replacing your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. You never hear that a better way to become energy efficient is to use less light bulbs and less energy. That if you really want to help the environment then don’t buy a new TV or cell phone if your old one still works. Life and business functioned just fine before Blackberries and HD TV’s. If you ask the average Western consumer what they would want more off most will say time. We buy all of types of “time saving” devices but spend the time if any that we gain from using them working to pay for them. We have completely lost touch not only with the earth but also with ourselves.
If you want to really do something to help the Earth, then turn off the TV and read a book, or play outside with your children.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Growing your own food
True security is being self sufficient in food, even though we are a long way from being able to produce enough food to feed our family; we have taken a big step to increasing our own food production.
We went from one raised bed to a couple of larger dug beds. Since we live in a historical district some of our beans are ornamental as well as food, we have concentrated on growing mainly beans because that is the hardest thing for us to find locally. We love dried beans and eat a lot of them, and have been searching for a source of local beans for a couple of years now and have had no luck.
So this year we planted Nance and Purple Queen bush beans, Scarlet Runner, Rattlesnake, and Lazy Housewife pole beans. We have also planted several herbs, mango melons, Cherokee Long Ear pop corn (we will see how out little patch does) and turnip greens and some more stuff that I am forgetting. Of course we have the Pecan tree, muskadine vine, blueberry, black berry and raspberry bushes as our perennials.
Next year we want to expand our garden a little more and if some of the beans and food producing plants are decorative too they will go in the front yard and a beehive (either top bar or traditional) and eventually maybe some bantam hens and a dog. I hope to disguise a lot of our food garden as a decorative garden and intersperse a lot of decorative plants in our food garden so we are foodscaping our yard for the next few years.
Bean patch
Pole for Rattlesnake and Lazy Housewife and the little corn pacth in the background
little herb garden
Scarlet Runner beans, mango melons, turnip greens and some more herbs and flowers
We went from one raised bed to a couple of larger dug beds. Since we live in a historical district some of our beans are ornamental as well as food, we have concentrated on growing mainly beans because that is the hardest thing for us to find locally. We love dried beans and eat a lot of them, and have been searching for a source of local beans for a couple of years now and have had no luck.
So this year we planted Nance and Purple Queen bush beans, Scarlet Runner, Rattlesnake, and Lazy Housewife pole beans. We have also planted several herbs, mango melons, Cherokee Long Ear pop corn (we will see how out little patch does) and turnip greens and some more stuff that I am forgetting. Of course we have the Pecan tree, muskadine vine, blueberry, black berry and raspberry bushes as our perennials.
Next year we want to expand our garden a little more and if some of the beans and food producing plants are decorative too they will go in the front yard and a beehive (either top bar or traditional) and eventually maybe some bantam hens and a dog. I hope to disguise a lot of our food garden as a decorative garden and intersperse a lot of decorative plants in our food garden so we are foodscaping our yard for the next few years.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Extremists and Other Wacko’s
I have mentioned to Kristina many times in the past that one of the things that I fear living here in the south is how the general population will act when and if gas becomes unaffordable and the economy completely collapses.
The general population of Alabama has been sold on the fact that it is their birthright to have multiple HD flat screen TVs, cheap steaks, and be able to drive 40 miles to work each day. They do not realize and refuse to believe that this version of the American Dream has only existed since the late 1960’s and it has only existed for the whole population for the last 20-30 years. As they sit and mindlessly absorb what the marketing guru’s sell them on TV every night they believe that if they cannot afford a tricked out Cadillac Escalade and the gas that goes in it, that their country has failed them. The majority of them go to churches on most Sundays that encourages their lack of empathy and their xenophobia about all things that are different. They seem to skip over the parts of Christ’s teachings (they are “Christians”) were he loves the poor, disenfranchised, and protects and comforts sinners. Does not lend me hope for their ability to except others and help those who are different.
The fact that their race is losing its majority and dominant status is a simple fact that many of them cannot grasp. Their naked hatred for a President of a different race is expressed by their denying his religion and citizenship, despite all of the facts to the contrary. The most startling fact is that 24% of them believe that the President might be the antichrist (according to a Harris Poll Survey). The number of armed militia groups that are forming up to prevent a Federal declaration of Marshall Law (even though that the last administration restricted Constitutional freedoms much more than the current one) is very scary indeed. These armed groups like the “Oath Keepers” are being courted by not just fringe groups but also Fox News, and the Republican Party. How can we work together to solve or deal with the very real problems that we face, when almost a third of the country is preparing for a civil war?
The push by Fox news and a large part of the Republican Party to the far right has created a powder keg of hostility here in the south. I fear that if things do get really hard in the future that we will see violence and lynching’s like there was in the 1930’s.The general population of the South will seek out to blame others for their way of life collapsing, even though that their way of life was unsustainable and a very recent development. The fact that for most of Southern history the average person was very poor and lived at the whim of rich land owners and industrialists has been forgotten and written out of the history books by groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans. When things return to how they traditionally were in the South the southern population will lash out and I fear that and want to get my sons as far away from it as I can. They insist that America is a Christian country yet fail to remember that our founders included the First Amendment to the Constitution (Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.)to prevent arguing over which branch of Christianity is the right one. The founding fathers still had fresh memories of the religious intolerance and hatred that prevailed in Europe during the 1500-1600’s and wanted to prevent that from happening again. Yet the Tea Party types seem hell bent on inciting that same violence.
I feel sad that the things that made America great have been replaced by greed and laziness. That we are too busy chasing luxuries that we cannot see the crises that are coming and refuse to deal with them. We have allowed for corporations and special interest groups to take over our government. We have dumb down our schools and education requirements to such an extent that our children no longer can think for themselves and can only memorize facts that are given to them.
America can recover and become great once again if we can escape from our creature comforts and realize that the freedoms that our ancestors sacrificed so much for have nothing to do with owning TV’s or cars, that cheap hamburgers and gas are not birthrights. I fear that we are going to have to lose these things before we face up to our complicity in the collapse of our empire and the fact that we should have never had an empire to begin with.
The general population of Alabama has been sold on the fact that it is their birthright to have multiple HD flat screen TVs, cheap steaks, and be able to drive 40 miles to work each day. They do not realize and refuse to believe that this version of the American Dream has only existed since the late 1960’s and it has only existed for the whole population for the last 20-30 years. As they sit and mindlessly absorb what the marketing guru’s sell them on TV every night they believe that if they cannot afford a tricked out Cadillac Escalade and the gas that goes in it, that their country has failed them. The majority of them go to churches on most Sundays that encourages their lack of empathy and their xenophobia about all things that are different. They seem to skip over the parts of Christ’s teachings (they are “Christians”) were he loves the poor, disenfranchised, and protects and comforts sinners. Does not lend me hope for their ability to except others and help those who are different.
The fact that their race is losing its majority and dominant status is a simple fact that many of them cannot grasp. Their naked hatred for a President of a different race is expressed by their denying his religion and citizenship, despite all of the facts to the contrary. The most startling fact is that 24% of them believe that the President might be the antichrist (according to a Harris Poll Survey). The number of armed militia groups that are forming up to prevent a Federal declaration of Marshall Law (even though that the last administration restricted Constitutional freedoms much more than the current one) is very scary indeed. These armed groups like the “Oath Keepers” are being courted by not just fringe groups but also Fox News, and the Republican Party. How can we work together to solve or deal with the very real problems that we face, when almost a third of the country is preparing for a civil war?
The push by Fox news and a large part of the Republican Party to the far right has created a powder keg of hostility here in the south. I fear that if things do get really hard in the future that we will see violence and lynching’s like there was in the 1930’s.The general population of the South will seek out to blame others for their way of life collapsing, even though that their way of life was unsustainable and a very recent development. The fact that for most of Southern history the average person was very poor and lived at the whim of rich land owners and industrialists has been forgotten and written out of the history books by groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans. When things return to how they traditionally were in the South the southern population will lash out and I fear that and want to get my sons as far away from it as I can. They insist that America is a Christian country yet fail to remember that our founders included the First Amendment to the Constitution (Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.)to prevent arguing over which branch of Christianity is the right one. The founding fathers still had fresh memories of the religious intolerance and hatred that prevailed in Europe during the 1500-1600’s and wanted to prevent that from happening again. Yet the Tea Party types seem hell bent on inciting that same violence.
I feel sad that the things that made America great have been replaced by greed and laziness. That we are too busy chasing luxuries that we cannot see the crises that are coming and refuse to deal with them. We have allowed for corporations and special interest groups to take over our government. We have dumb down our schools and education requirements to such an extent that our children no longer can think for themselves and can only memorize facts that are given to them.
America can recover and become great once again if we can escape from our creature comforts and realize that the freedoms that our ancestors sacrificed so much for have nothing to do with owning TV’s or cars, that cheap hamburgers and gas are not birthrights. I fear that we are going to have to lose these things before we face up to our complicity in the collapse of our empire and the fact that we should have never had an empire to begin with.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Planting Season and a Prepared Lifestyle
This weekend we planted Lazy Housewife, Nance, Purple Queen, Rattlesnake and Scarlet Runner beans, Cherokee Long Ear Corn, Strawberry Spinach, Prescott Fond Blac cantaloupe, Vine Peach/Mango Melon and numerous herbs. We are trying to increase the amount of food we can grow and also support heirloom vegetables. The farther we can get from the industrial food system the better I will feel. We have half of a hog that should be coming our way sometime soon, and our local CSA starts up again in April. Now if I can find some local chickens again we would be set. Our Friends Chris and Tripp are planting their farm and are planning to put in hoop houses next year. Hopefully we can start taking the boys out there soon to run around and play. We might even be able to help out a little while we are there.
On the preparedness front, we are ordering a Katadyn Pocket Water Microfilter capable of filtering 13,000 gallons of water at 1 quart a minute before the filter needs to be changed as well as some 5 gallon collapsible water storage bags. This will be great for camping and will also help during hurricane season (We were a week without water after Hurricane Ivan). We are looking at purchasing some rain water collection barrels to help with watering our garden during the summer, a new steel door and two decorative steel screen doors for our house. This will increase both security and energy efficiency. A wood burning stove our fireplace insert is also high on our priority list, we discovered this winter that if we turned off our power for a week (we didn’t do this, we only had to ask “what if?”) we would be miserable and have no way to heat our house. We can cook on my little backpack stove (and have before during power outages) but heating is impossible without gas and power and I do not want to have to put my boys through that.
I discovered today that a fence is needed to keep Ian (our youngest son) contained in the yard, plus we would like to have a dog soon too. But trying to watch both Ian and William was very hard today and I think that Kristina must have some secret superpowers to both play with William and keep Ian from disappearing off somewhere so the fence has moved up in priority.
There are so many things that we feel that we need to have and so many more that we think we should have. Plus there a more skills and crafts that we want to learn that we can keep ourselves entertained for a lifetime or two just trying to learn them all.
I did hear a sad statistic today, that at least 60% of American house holds have 1 or more HD flat screen TV’s but that less than 50% of the US population reads one book or more a year for pleasure. What does that say about our society? What is becoming of our culture? Are we dumbing down as our empire fades? Please read to your kids and encourage creativity and free thinking in all of the children in your life.
On the preparedness front, we are ordering a Katadyn Pocket Water Microfilter capable of filtering 13,000 gallons of water at 1 quart a minute before the filter needs to be changed as well as some 5 gallon collapsible water storage bags. This will be great for camping and will also help during hurricane season (We were a week without water after Hurricane Ivan). We are looking at purchasing some rain water collection barrels to help with watering our garden during the summer, a new steel door and two decorative steel screen doors for our house. This will increase both security and energy efficiency. A wood burning stove our fireplace insert is also high on our priority list, we discovered this winter that if we turned off our power for a week (we didn’t do this, we only had to ask “what if?”) we would be miserable and have no way to heat our house. We can cook on my little backpack stove (and have before during power outages) but heating is impossible without gas and power and I do not want to have to put my boys through that.
I discovered today that a fence is needed to keep Ian (our youngest son) contained in the yard, plus we would like to have a dog soon too. But trying to watch both Ian and William was very hard today and I think that Kristina must have some secret superpowers to both play with William and keep Ian from disappearing off somewhere so the fence has moved up in priority.
There are so many things that we feel that we need to have and so many more that we think we should have. Plus there a more skills and crafts that we want to learn that we can keep ourselves entertained for a lifetime or two just trying to learn them all.
I did hear a sad statistic today, that at least 60% of American house holds have 1 or more HD flat screen TV’s but that less than 50% of the US population reads one book or more a year for pleasure. What does that say about our society? What is becoming of our culture? Are we dumbing down as our empire fades? Please read to your kids and encourage creativity and free thinking in all of the children in your life.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Building Community
We have been thinking about moving to someplace that has more/better resources and infrastructure than our current location. We live in a small (less than 5,000) southern town with no public transportation, little shopping resources, high poverty rate and almost no infrastructure support. It does have a hydroelectric dam, good schools and relatively low crime.
We have been looking for jobs in areas that we have identified as having the things we would like to have and they have been places like Montpelier Vermont (well almost anywhere in Vermont) Charlottesville, Virginia, and Hendersonville Virginia. Jobs in these areas are scarce and do not have the same pay/benefits that my current state job has. Plus our house is paid for and the only debt that we have is my student loan (Kristina was smart enough to go through school without acquiring debt) so moving is not really the best option for us. Even though our lot is small we can raise a good amount of food on it and we do have friends that have a farm with in 12 miles of our house.
A good friend of ours (that’s you Carey) suggested that we try to improve our community instead of leaving it and seeking greener pastures (I’m paraphrasing). This is a wonderful idea and I am actually a little ashamed that this wasn’t my first thought. I should have started by trying to improve our community instead of seeking a new one. There are lots of things we can do to help our small town, like getting the city to allow us to use some of the vacant downtown area as a local farmers market., or petitioning for an old rail bed to be turned into a rail for trails (or ideally a light rail line) type walk way.
We have decided on taking steps to improve the energy efficiency of our house and want to put in a wood burning stove, drapes and numerous other relatively low cost things. We still want to have a house with at least 5 acres but that is a ways off. There are several things that we can and need to do to prepare ourselves for the coming energy crisis and the changes to our society that it will bring. We can start to live more simply so that any adjustment that we have to make will not be as difficult, produce more of our own food and find local sources for most of our food. We have a long list of skills and things that we think that we need for any coming emergency. We do not want to be unprepared for a crisis and have to rely on the swift response of the government to save us. These are things that we can and should be doing and we are just now really serious about doing them.
I am still worried about racial tension, tea party type militias and all the Bubba’s being mad that stuff at Wal-Mart starts costing so much more or that all of their stores in our small town went out of business when a Super Wal-Mart opened 30 miles away. I don’t think that the unthinking masses that populate our town will be able to process how and why our society is changing, but will just become angry and very susceptible to a charismatic leader who can tap into their resentment. But these problems can happen anywhere in our country.
Basically we have decided that we need to be prepared in the spot that we are at now, than looking for the perfect spot and preparing when we get there.
We have been looking for jobs in areas that we have identified as having the things we would like to have and they have been places like Montpelier Vermont (well almost anywhere in Vermont) Charlottesville, Virginia, and Hendersonville Virginia. Jobs in these areas are scarce and do not have the same pay/benefits that my current state job has. Plus our house is paid for and the only debt that we have is my student loan (Kristina was smart enough to go through school without acquiring debt) so moving is not really the best option for us. Even though our lot is small we can raise a good amount of food on it and we do have friends that have a farm with in 12 miles of our house.
A good friend of ours (that’s you Carey) suggested that we try to improve our community instead of leaving it and seeking greener pastures (I’m paraphrasing). This is a wonderful idea and I am actually a little ashamed that this wasn’t my first thought. I should have started by trying to improve our community instead of seeking a new one. There are lots of things we can do to help our small town, like getting the city to allow us to use some of the vacant downtown area as a local farmers market., or petitioning for an old rail bed to be turned into a rail for trails (or ideally a light rail line) type walk way.
We have decided on taking steps to improve the energy efficiency of our house and want to put in a wood burning stove, drapes and numerous other relatively low cost things. We still want to have a house with at least 5 acres but that is a ways off. There are several things that we can and need to do to prepare ourselves for the coming energy crisis and the changes to our society that it will bring. We can start to live more simply so that any adjustment that we have to make will not be as difficult, produce more of our own food and find local sources for most of our food. We have a long list of skills and things that we think that we need for any coming emergency. We do not want to be unprepared for a crisis and have to rely on the swift response of the government to save us. These are things that we can and should be doing and we are just now really serious about doing them.
I am still worried about racial tension, tea party type militias and all the Bubba’s being mad that stuff at Wal-Mart starts costing so much more or that all of their stores in our small town went out of business when a Super Wal-Mart opened 30 miles away. I don’t think that the unthinking masses that populate our town will be able to process how and why our society is changing, but will just become angry and very susceptible to a charismatic leader who can tap into their resentment. But these problems can happen anywhere in our country.
Basically we have decided that we need to be prepared in the spot that we are at now, than looking for the perfect spot and preparing when we get there.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Freedom
What does Freedom mean to you? For too many of us freedom just means freedom of choice or the freedom to buy more stuff. We have the freedom of choosing from 13 different makers of plasma screen TV’s, the freedom to buy a car whenever we want to, the freedom to watch 167 channels of televisions, or the freedom to shop at Wal-Mart 24hrs a day. I contend that these are not the freedoms that our founding fathers risked their lives to preserve.
If you read the Bill of Rights keep in mind that all of these injustices were ones that they just suffered from a tyrant that they just rebelled against.
The Bill of Rights: A Transcription
The Preamble to The Bill of Rights
Congress of the United States
begun and held at the City of New-York, on
Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.
THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.
ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.
Note: The following text is a transcription of the first ten amendments to the Constitution in their original form. These amendments were ratified December 15, 1791, and form what is known as the "Bill of Rights."
________________________________________
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
________________________________________
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
________________________________________
Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
________________________________________
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
________________________________________
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
________________________________________
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
________________________________________
Amendment VII
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
________________________________________
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
________________________________________
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
________________________________________
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
We have been free so long that we think nothing about being able to display the Presidents picture with a Swastika behind him, or call for a revolution against our government. Both of these actions against King George III’s government would find you prison (well I don’t think that the swastika would have offended anyone in the 1780’s). Now we live in a time when our rights are being eroded from both government and corporate pressure but also at our own request.
In our quest to protect us from the “Bad People” we have given up some of our rights to keep us safe. We have given the ok for cruel and unusual punishment, illegal search and seizure, and trial by jury. That is pretty much the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th amendments that do not apply to the “bad people”, my question to you is who are the “bad people”? Who have we given the power to designate which people are “bad” too?
We have ceded rights to corporations and large Wall Street banks which enable their influence to squash the rights of real people. We now have a justice system that gives you as much “justice” as you can afford. When you are trying to fight a large corporation and they can spend over a $1000000 in pre trail motions what chance does that give you or me? Our forefathers tried their best to give us a level playing field when We The People , have to deal with entrenched wealth and power. We have let those same powers slowly chip away at those protections. Now well meaning people who are angry at how things currently are in our country are calling for the end of these protections. They have bought into the illusions that large multi-national corporations will regulate themselves and protect the consumers. I ask you to point to anytime in the past when this has worked, when profits were over-ruled by empathy. A corporation only serves itself that is its sole reason to exist, to increase its wealth and power. If corporations were people they would be called sociopaths.
I am not calling for the banning of corporations but I am saying that they need to be regulated and that we need to control and closely watch what powers we give to our government. Our Founding Fathers sought to create a state in which a man no matter their wealth our social standing had equal footing against the most powerful powers in the country. That the rights of an individual triumphed over the rights of profit, we have lost this and we must now fight to regain what so many sacrificed so much to give us.
If you read the Bill of Rights keep in mind that all of these injustices were ones that they just suffered from a tyrant that they just rebelled against.
The Bill of Rights: A Transcription
The Preamble to The Bill of Rights
Congress of the United States
begun and held at the City of New-York, on
Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.
THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.
ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.
Note: The following text is a transcription of the first ten amendments to the Constitution in their original form. These amendments were ratified December 15, 1791, and form what is known as the "Bill of Rights."
________________________________________
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
________________________________________
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
________________________________________
Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
________________________________________
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
________________________________________
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
________________________________________
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
________________________________________
Amendment VII
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
________________________________________
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
________________________________________
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
________________________________________
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
We have been free so long that we think nothing about being able to display the Presidents picture with a Swastika behind him, or call for a revolution against our government. Both of these actions against King George III’s government would find you prison (well I don’t think that the swastika would have offended anyone in the 1780’s). Now we live in a time when our rights are being eroded from both government and corporate pressure but also at our own request.
In our quest to protect us from the “Bad People” we have given up some of our rights to keep us safe. We have given the ok for cruel and unusual punishment, illegal search and seizure, and trial by jury. That is pretty much the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th amendments that do not apply to the “bad people”, my question to you is who are the “bad people”? Who have we given the power to designate which people are “bad” too?
We have ceded rights to corporations and large Wall Street banks which enable their influence to squash the rights of real people. We now have a justice system that gives you as much “justice” as you can afford. When you are trying to fight a large corporation and they can spend over a $1000000 in pre trail motions what chance does that give you or me? Our forefathers tried their best to give us a level playing field when We The People , have to deal with entrenched wealth and power. We have let those same powers slowly chip away at those protections. Now well meaning people who are angry at how things currently are in our country are calling for the end of these protections. They have bought into the illusions that large multi-national corporations will regulate themselves and protect the consumers. I ask you to point to anytime in the past when this has worked, when profits were over-ruled by empathy. A corporation only serves itself that is its sole reason to exist, to increase its wealth and power. If corporations were people they would be called sociopaths.
I am not calling for the banning of corporations but I am saying that they need to be regulated and that we need to control and closely watch what powers we give to our government. Our Founding Fathers sought to create a state in which a man no matter their wealth our social standing had equal footing against the most powerful powers in the country. That the rights of an individual triumphed over the rights of profit, we have lost this and we must now fight to regain what so many sacrificed so much to give us.
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