Turning Point

A Session for the Ages  www.charlotteobserver.com

Good article.  But that’s only the headlines.  The real story is the on-going takeover of our country and its people by a few who possess great wealth.  One of the things those people need is to get rid of our government or better yet to render it useless, even make it seem foolish and inept.  The rest of us need to realize we ARE the government.  Our Founding Fathers knew that and they wrote, speaking of those “self-evident and unalienable rights” supposedly given to us by our Creator, that the Creator can GIVE, but even that Creator has not been able to “secure those rights” in the long story of history.  The Founding Fathers were aware of this and specifically wrote:   “To secure these rights, governments are instituted among (people) deriving their just powers FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED".  

Now, what to do?  First of all, “The Wealth”  has divided us against ourselves.  I’m not saying we need to band together, Republicans and Democrats and TeaParty people and Christian Righters, but we DO need to quit screaming at each other and shouting and calling ourselves foolish names.  We need to begin a discussion among us, among the people of our state, our nation and even – where we can – with people from other nations.  We need to find the main issues and to discuss them in a civil, constructive and meaningful manner.  It is not just us in North Carolina, not just us in the United States who are being assaulted right now.  

We all are reaching a Turning Point in the affairs of humanity and we need to be players in turning us in a direction that WE want to travel.  We will NOT ever reach agreement on everything, but we can find and examine the real issues and select a majority approach to many of the problems we face if we collectively approach our differences openly and honestly.

How?  Well the hour is already late, but we need a searchlight shining on these people of great wealth.  Most of them are still hiding behind the curtain.  They don’t run for office, they could never be elected to any office, but they don’t need to get elected, they know they can get good looking straw men to run for office, get them elected and they will follow orders, even if they don’t completely understand them – as McCrory made SO evident is his rambling, lost press conference yesterday.

If the writers, poets, artists and photographers of our area, our state and our nation would each tell a few of the stories they see happening we could turn that searchlight on, and bring it to focus on some of the things that are now being done to turn us against each other and to highlight the destructive things now happening to our less fortunate people, those who need healthcare, those who need education, those teachers who need classrooms, those who need unemployment benefits, those who will will want to vote, those who are concerned about the increasing pollution we all now live under, gun proliferation,  tax reform, and many other issues.  Think about the stories that are lying out there in front of us now.  Bring some of them into your artistic folders, think about them, find the real story that lies behind some of these issues and bring them out in ways you feel fitting.   We can submit, publish, Blog, use Facebook, Twitter, Text, but get the real stories out.  And let your viewers know who the  enemy really is.  They can't hide from us.  

Zimmerman and Travon and all the rest of us.

2013.0713Sa0030.  The jury is out tonight.  What will they say?  The real verdict though, is already in. Travon Martin was sentenced to death and has already been executed.  What about Zimmerman, the collective policeman, judge and one-man jury?  Will he have to suffer needlessly?  Well, who really cares?  The point here is who is REALLY guilty of this crime?  Can we forget that Zimmerman called in to 911 that he was tracking a “suspect”?  Can we really forget that the 911 dispatcher told Zimmerman that he didn’t need to follow that guy?  Because if he had followed the instructions from the 911 guy rather than Travon, then almost certainly nothing would have happened that night and this problem would have been postponed to a later date.  

But what was the crime that was really committed?  What should REALLY be on trial?  Perhaps the real problem, the CAUSE of the real problem goes back to the “Stand Your Ground Laws” passed by the Florida legislature, which seemingly gives ANYbody the right to shoot someone if they FEEL threatened by them.  And the real point here is that it now seems that the Republican Party is marching in lock-step, as a fully functioning fascist political organization, following the orders of its great leader.  And who is this great leader?  No, it’s not Boehner, its not Paul or Romney or Rand.  It’s somebody under the covers.  It’s somebody with money.  Somebody with a LOT of money.  Somebody who can buy political seats in the legislatures of the states.  I’m talking about people like the Koch brothers.  And they are not alone.  There are others.  But the power of America has flooded from the people who vote to those who have the money to buy votes. I am talking about the hundreds of large and profitable corporations who NEED more people to buy more guns, and NEED more people to buy more ammunition.  These powerful corporations use their profits to buy lobbyists, many of whom are former congressmen and former senators who with their staffs can write bills ready to submit and can and do present those documents to currently serving senators and representatives, along with money or perhaps a trip or a nice watch or something – AND with the understood commitment not to support anyone else in the next election.

So this is what Travon was really up against.  This is also what Zimmerman was up against.  Really, they both are victims, just like the rest of us are.  Victims of power and money.  Guns are only a few of the minor obstacles that tug our attention away from our main problem.  

John Womack

America – Reflection

America was a great experiment.  All other nations, whether by religion or monarchy had been controlled by a few powerful leaders at the top of their society.  Here was a new nation which claimed it derived its just powers from the consent of those it governed.   Now, some 237 or so years later, one might imagine a visitor from outer space coming here to see how well all this has worked out.  If he were an auditor, say from Krypton or beyond, what might he find to write about on a quick review?  Well – he might note some of the following:

Economy - Half of the entire national value of America belongs to 1% of Americans.  Bottom 50% of Americans own only 1/2 of 1% of America’s total wealth

Health Care - The worst in any developed nation and getting worse and more expensive.  The health of the American work force is apparently less important than the need for great corporations to continue increasing their profits. 

Education - increasingly designed only for children of well-off parents. Even then it’s just training for corporation use, “education” so those students can “get a good job” but not a real education.  No music, art, physical education, philosophy - only facts and answers.

Military - Pathetic.  It once beat the two most powerful nations in the world in 5 years, now it drags out “incursions” with small countries for decades, making great money for hundreds of great corporations, while destroying the lives of soldiers from poor families.

Justice system - Criminal - increasingly becoming privatized so great corporations can make more profits.  All they need is more prisoners.  And to keep them longer. And America has more people in prison than any other nation in the world.   Ka-ching!

Infrastructure - the nation is obsessed with automobiles and gasoline.  No real rail, subway, light rail, bus. Bridges and roads are crumbling and actually unsafe. People who can repair roads and bridges not employed because there is “no money”.

Suicide.  Increasing in America.  Only way out?  Better than hanging on?  

Global Warming caused by pollution of our planet’s water and air by great corporations who increase their profits by poisoning the planet.

Retirement?  Social Security seems on the chopping block.  Only way to get retirement  now is to give part of your current earnings to corporations for their stock.  You can still do your own retirement plan?  First question is “how long do you want to live?”, second question is “how much money do you want each month?”  Third question is “when is the next recession coming for your retirement money?”  

American Government - like a cancer, destroying itself, eating the nation internally. Refusing to invest in the future of the nation by building its infrastructure, health-care system, education for its people. Reaching deeply into the private and personal affairs of its citizens, especially those of its women.

Well, if this mythical auditor were to actually write up a report and evaluate his findings  comparing them with the country’s constitution, I wonder what he would actually write.   How about you, How do you find the progress of our country today?  Really.   John Womack.