Pushing the River (part 3)

     Last week we were alone in a canoe and clinging to the trunk of a fallen tree while the flooding Okmulgee River threatened to  capsize our boat and drag us under the churning black water.

                The canoe was parallel to the trunk of a fallen tree, pinned there by the force of a river out of its banks. I was in a prone position, sprawled across the top of my gear with a bear hug around the tree trunk, trying to steady the boat with my legs and getting tired quickly. Terror had gripped the tree when the canoe slammed into it broadside. Fear replaced terror as fatigue weakened my arms and legs. If I let go of the tree I would lose my leverage and the boat would flip over and quickly fill with water. If I let go of the boat, I would be stranded miles from civilization, clinging to the trunk of a tree in a flooding river churning with frigid water.

                With no apparent options, I had a moment to consider my situation as my arms and legs began to tremble with cold, fatigue and fear, and it made me angry. Anger is directly connected to our survival mechanism. The fight or flight reaction produces adrenaline, an emergency fuel that the body can use to ensure its survival. The problem with modern civilization is that the stress, the frustration and the fear of our daily lives produce this fuel, often on a daily basis, but it does not burn cleanly – and this is deadly. Fear and anger, with no outlet, kills us quickly in the consequences of a rash decision or it kills us slowly with heart disease, cancer or other “stress related” disease.

                Clinging to my tree trunk I discovered that my anger had given me a burst of energy, but I knew that this would not last long. I thought for a moment about the angry group of young men somewhere upstream and all the talk we directed at them as counselors about how to deal with their anger – and about how difficult it is in practice to think clearly when you are angry or afraid.

                Every athlete, every performer and every martial artist knows that the key to controlling emotion lies in breathing. Deep breathing exercises were something we regularly practiced with our groups of adjudicated youth, and finally, almost too late for my desperate situation, I remembered to breathe.

                The trunk of my tree was even with the top of the canoe, but the tree was not quite parallel with the water and the upper branches hanging further out over the main channel would provide more space and less resistance – if I could position myself and my boat there. Loosening my grip on the tree I rolled over onto my back, hooking my feet under the stern thwart, and proceeded to “climb” the tree, dragging the boat toward the upper branches. As the bow of the boat reached the upper branches the force of the water turned the canoe 90 degrees and parallel with the flow of the river once again.

                As the branches of the tree began to break I knew I had seconds to plan my next move and then seconds to execute it. The main course of the river took a sharp turn to the right, but the current was pushing out of the submerged banks and into the forest, now a moving lake full of hidden hazards. When the boat left the relative safety of my unintended mooring, I would have to swivel from my back, lying on top of my gear facing the stern of the boat, around and into my seat facing the bow. I had to do this without capsizing the boat, get a paddle in my hands and then paddle with all my remaining strength to reach the main channel.

                I made it to the main channel just as exhaustion robbed me of my remaining strength.  Fortunately the course of the river straightened out over the remaining miles into Hawkinsville, Georgia, and I was able to rest and steer the boat while the river did most of the work. Years later now, the memory of my encounter with the river still produces some of the adrenaline that saved my life on a cloudy day in February.

                Today the picture of a slain teenager wearing a hood that is currently fanning the flames of media frenzy could have been any one of the kids who graduated our wilderness course and returned home that year, or any one of hundreds that followed.  The anger which propelled those kids in and out of detention centers is still with us today;  thousands of kids whose hope for the future is constantly suppressed by the knowledge that they will continue to be judged, based solely on appearance. Anger stalks the thousands of families in their fortified neighborhoods, fearful of “the other;” fearful of the culture of violence perpetuated and glorified by “artists,” rappers, musicians and celebrities who profit from the agony of misguided youth.  I am personally angry with the Sharptons , the Jacksons, the parasites of their own communities whose careers depend on a continuation of hostility between the races. I am angry with the talking heads who sell us soap by attempting to try a court case in the media, and I am angry with those of us who listen, who judge, who attach our own fears to a lot of interpretation with very little fact as we slow down to gawk at the scene of the accident.

                Anger is not wrong.  It is part of being human. What is right or wrong is what we choose to do with our anger. It remains to be seen what our culture will do with the anger that threatens to further polarize our people. What will you do with yours?

                

Pushing the River (part 2)

                We left you last week on the banks of the Okmulgee River during an expedition down the flooded waterway with a group of teenage boys trying to put their lives back together. We were all learning lessons about anger, and before the trip was over the river would have more to teach us. Let’s continue the journey.

                The eleven adjudicated teenage boys under our care had all suffered the consequences of anger. Some were in fact adjudicated because they had acted out in anger:  getting into fights, destroying property or being convicted of the catch-all charge of “terroristic threats.” Anger is a normal part of the growing pains of youth. It can be a challenge for the best of families even with the support of the community and the school. The majority of our boys did not; indeed the majority of adjudicated youth do not have the luxury of a healthy and functioning support system. Most of them were from broken or dysfunctional families, a condition which remains a reliable indicator of future crime.

                The capsizing of a canoe and the rescue of two boys from the frigid water had sent a shock wave throughout the group.  Jon and Mike, my two fellow instructors, both veterans of wilderness expeditions, had been able to pull the two shivering lads out of the water and into their own boat and they came around the bend in the river with the boys and their now empty canoe in tow to join the rest of the crew gunwaled-up in an eddy.  Time was of the essence as we passed the two waterlogged boys across our makeshift raft like cordwood, stripping off their wet clothes and putting on dry polypropylene and wool. Mike boiled some water on his small primus stove to make a hot beverage while I dug into my river bag for peanut butter and cheese for some fast fuel to warm the boys.

                The sun was sinking westward as we pushed our raft of canoes back out into the river. We stayed gunwaled-up for a while as we talked to the boys, making sure that they were confident enough to continue the expedition, at least as far as a campsite for the night. Time was not our ally as we searched for a spot to camp in the lengthening shadows. Our river notes were useless now that all the known campsites and sandbars were under several feet of water.  At dusk we finally found a small embankment, now an island just a few feet above the water, barely large enough for a few tents. As we unloaded our gear Jon quietly told me that, though the boys were docile now, when the shock subsided and they settled in for the night, we would have some “behaviors.”

                Strong emotions, especially fear, can resolve into anger when we lack the tools or the understanding to process them. One of the longest nights of my life began as my two fellow guides and I made plans to keep watch, not only on the boys, but on the river should it continue to rise. The first fight broke out as we were preparing the evening meal. By morning we were forced to intervene more than a dozen times to prevent continued violence.  During a few quiet moments just before dawn as the exhausted group finally succumbed to sleep, we decided that at daybrwould paddle downstream alone to Hawkinsville, Georgia to recon a campsite, call in our support team and arrange for resupply of our lost provisions.

                The sun broke through the clouds for a moment just as I pushed off and headed downriver, and then it disappeared again as the rain returned. The normally lazy black water of the Okmulgee was moving rapidly and just a few miles from our campsite, there was no land in site and it was getting harder to discern the main channel. A river out of its banks makes its own path and several times the current heading off into the trees was stronger than the main course. Alone in a canoe heavily loaded with provisions the adrenaline of my extreme situation banished all sleepiness from the long night as I fought to navigate the sharp turns away from hazards on both banks.

                At one sharp bend in the river I went wide to river-left to avoid a strainer – and headed directly into a downed tree.  Unable to make the turn I tried to hit the tree with the bow, but the rushing water soon turned my boat alongside the almost horizontal trunk of the tree and threatened to flip me over and under. Wedging my paddle under the seat I grabbed the trunk of the tree in a bear hug and tried to steady the boat with my legs.

                We are amazingly strong when we are afraid. Alone, with no land in sight and a rushing river trying to push me under a tree, I was able to keep the boat from capsizing, but fatigue began to set in. They say that faced with death, our life flashes before our eyes, but I think we rarely have time for that. I knew that eventually my legs would give out and I would lose the boat and be left clinging to a tree with nothing but a lifejacket and the contents of my pockets.  If anger and desperation are not the same things, they are at least first cousins.  As my legs began to fail, I got angry at my untenable situation and the last of my adrenaline was enough to pull myself and the boat along the length of the tree, breaking limbs and tearing cloth and skin, until the upper branches were weak enough to let the canoe break free. 

                We will pick up the journey next week.

Pushing the River

                Anger can be as deadly as a bullet to the head or it can be a slow poison that manifests in stress related disease. Anger is ubiquitous on this planet and it has plagued us from the time of the first humans to last night’s network shooting report from Atlanta. Even the Divine is not immune to anger; our religious writings are full of wrath and vengeance. There is no escape from anger.

                My greatest lesson in anger was taught to me by a group of young people for whom anger was a constant companion. My first expedition as a wilderness guide and counselor was with a group of 11 teenagers who had been released from detention centers in the hopes of completing our program as a pathway back home. From the beginning of the course, when we were not preventing physical violence from their pent up hostility, we were dealing with verbal violence released through sarcasm and profanity.

                As a rookie guide I was armed with a variety of “armchair” advice from book authors who had never tried to help a group of unruly teenage boys pitch their tents in the rain while being drained of blood by mosquitos and biting flies. I was convinced that I should never allow my frustration or my own anger to be seen, and keeping those emotions in check was difficult. The physical effort involved in a river expedition was enough to assuage a great deal of everyone’s anger, but the quiet times were volatile. My fellow instructors, veterans of outdoor experiential education, counseled me to take a firmer line. “You can’t be their friend,” they told me. “They will walk all over you and it will be that much harder to keep them safe.”  They were right, but it took a series of extraordinary events to teach me a valuable lesson about anger.

                We put eight canoes on the water just below Macon, Georgia in February of 1992. We were loaded with provisions for at least 7 days on the river before resupply, 11 angry teenage boys and three wilderness guides who had no idea that the heavy rainfalls of the previous weeks would soon raise the Okmulgee River to well above flood stage.  The boys had just been through a week of training in canoeing and water safety and we were as well-prepared as possible, but the lazy, black water rivers of South Georgia are always full of surprises, especially when heavy rain sends them out of their banks.

                We put in on a chilly, overcast day when the water temperature was cold enough to make hypothermia a very real danger for anyone exposed for too long. The boys were excited to be on the river and a little frightened. Most of our clients were from the inner city and anything beyond asphalt and electronics was foreign to them.  I was in the lead boat with one of the stronger paddlers from the group of kids. My co-instructors were paddling together bringing up the rear.  About 10 miles downriver and 20 miles above Hawkinsville, Georgia, we had a boat capsize.

                Life jackets are essential to all river trips and all of us were properly equipped. However, when a tree falls into the river or when the river rises to the level of tree branches, a new danger is created that is referred to as a “strainer.” When a canoe hits a strainer, it can turn sideways and fill with water, quickly flipping passengers and gear over and under. The force of the running water can pin and entangle a boater with a real danger of drowning, even with a life jacket. The cold water of February was an immediate threat to the two boys clinging to the branches of a downed tree.

                As my co-workers positioned themselves to rescue the capsized passengers it was left to me to manage the other nine kids now drifting aimlessly downstream. They were not listening to me, and we were in jeopardy of having another capsize.  It was essential that I collect all the remaining canoes in an eddy to “gunwale-up,” or to bring the boats side by side, each passenger hooking one leg into the adjoining boat to form a makeshift raft. At a loss as to what to do to get the kids to listen, the words of a veteran counselor came to me.  He had said, “It is OK to let them see that you’re angry. You will know when it’s the right time.” This was definitely the right time, and as my mild manner was replaced by the spirit of my old drill instructor, I let fly with all the bellowing anger that I could muster. It worked. The kids finally began to follow instructions and we were able to eddy out and wait for the rescue going on upstream.

                All’s well that ends well. Yet it bothered me somewhat that I had lost my temper. It was in debriefing the event a few days later with my Director of Operations that the lesson was made complete. My D.O. was a combat veteran of Vietnam who had been working with adjudicated youth for over 20 years. “You’re always going to get angry, Don,” he said.  “There is no way around it. And the kids you are working with are always going to be angry. Anger is not the problem. It is as natural as grief or happiness or any other emotion. The key issue is how you express that anger and what you do with it. You used yours to keep some kids from drowning on the river. You will be angry with them again, but if you can show them your anger – and the proper way to handle it, some of them will learn.” 

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

I was having dinner with some friends recently and made the comment that gasoline is cheaper now than it was half a century ago.  There was some polite laughter at our table. One’s friends are supposed to be kinder than strangers, but the strangers at the next table looked at me as if I were sipping gasoline instead of iced tea.   I will make the statement again now for the long suffering readers of this column:   Gas is cheaper now than it was in 1960, and no I have not been overcome by fumes. Of course I am speaking in terms of real wealth, not the monopoly money from Washington which now passes for legal tender. Allow me to explain.

 In 1960 dimes were made out of silver and three of them would buy a gallon of gasoline.  Those same three dimes today would be worth about $7.44, melted, and gasoline is averaging close to $4 per gallon for regular. Gas is cheap, priced in silver. Two hundred years ago an ounce of gold would buy a top quality rifle. The same is true for 100 years ago, and at $1700 per ounce you can still buy that rifle today and some ammunition to boot.  In the 1930’s, 30 ounces of gold would buy a top-of-the-line automobile. The same is true today. Since 1961 an ounce of gold on average would buy about 15 barrels of oil. As of the writing of this article on this blustery March morning, an ounce of gold will buy over 16 barrels of oil. Oil is cheap this morning, priced in gold. Precious metals like gold and silver are remarkably consistent indicators of real value.

One of the (few) interesting aspects of the ongoing republican “smack down” has been an opportunity to hear some of the contrarian views of Congressman Ron Paul, who has consistently advocated for a return to the gold standard and the dismantling of the Federal Reserve. This is not an endorsement of Congressman Paul or a suggestion that we unilaterally adopt the gold standard again. If you want to dismantle a house of cards without making a gigantic mess, you don’t start with the cards on the bottom of the stack. However, the contrarian view does make some excellent points. Since President Nixon took the nation off of the gold standard in 1972, the dollar has lost, on average, about 10% of its value in relation to gold every year.  The dollar buys less today than in its entire history. That’s bad enough, but the situation is about to get much worse.

Nixon released the hounds in 1972 when the dollar became a fiat currency tied to nothing more substantial than sentiment and sustained by American military might. Government unbound has created more debt almost every year since. Debt and the loss of purchasing power have remained as the naked truth behind the emperor’s new clothes. Debt and the loss of purchasing power have transcended every promise made by every democrat and every republican we have sent to Washington. That debt is unsustainable, and something has to give.

Government, for the vast majority of human history, has not been an institution of “giving.” Government takes. Government coerces. Government redistributes. We are the ones who give. The question today is how we are going to give and how much. I’m willing to venture a guess as to how our financial future might unfold. It involves our good friends, the Chinese government.

The Chinese government in some ways has been the kind of friend who buys you a drink while you are in rehab, but our addiction is spending. The United States currently has about $14.2 trillion of national debt and another $113 trillion in unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and prescription drug benefits. China has lent us, so far, about $3.2 trillion. About half of every dollar the government now spends is borrowed, and much of that is borrowed from China. China has a tremendous investment in this country, and they do not want to lose it.

If the US government defaults on its debt, the whole house of cards comes tumbling down and everyone loses. Only significant action will prevent that catastrophe, and this is how I believe it will unfold (but only after the elections.) First of all, look for more taxes, and look for them in all the ways government has of coercing more money from its citizens. Look for rates to change, credits to expire and loopholes to close. Look for more “sin taxes” and VATs or Value Added Taxes. Look for more taxes at the state and local level as these governments are left to their own devices as federal funding disappears. The next sign of imminent change calls for a little background information.

There has been longstanding political theater between Washington and Beijing about the value of the Chinese Yuan. Washington has demanded that the Chinese government allow the value of the Yuan to rise in order to make American goods more competitive. In reality, with a workforce of 810 million people and the ability to produce goods for pennies that would cost multiple dollars to produce here, the Yuan could quadruple in value and our goods would still not be competitive. I believe that the real reason Washington wants the Yuan to gain value is so that the dollar will lose more value – significantly more value.

Washington wants to be able to pay their debts with cheaper dollars, but what about the Chinese? If the US defaults, they lose their current investment. On the other hand, if they help us devalue our currency, their US paper is worth less, but they will find it much easier to buy up our hard assets – things of real value like real estate, mines and mineral rights and American companies. Look for the Chinese government, sometime after the November elections, to “grudgingly” allow the Yuan to appreciate in value. If and when that happens, watch the dollar and the price of everything we buy with it, and hold on to your hats.

Talking Trash

                When the grass dies back during the winter months, the problem of roadside litter becomes much more noticeable. Often the problem in our area is so bad that no amount of greenery can conceal it. It may not come as a surprise to anyone that Georgia was ranked as the 7^th worst in the 2011 State Litter Scorecard. (Atlanta was the ninth dirtiest city in the US.) Our neighbors to the north fared much better. North Carolina was ranked in the top ten cleanest states.

                Litter says a lot about who we are as a people, but it speaks in many voices. I have seen no reliable studies on litter as an economic indicator. We can only speculate as to what the empty can says about the individual who chooses to litter. Litter is a bigger problem in some of the poorest areas of the nation, but this is not universally true. It is a bigger problem in some of the more densely populated areas, but this is also not universally true. Towns County is among the wealthiest counties in Georgia, ranked 27^th out of 159 in per capita income, and we have one of the lowest population densities.   Let’s assume for the sake of argument that litter is equally distributed across the nation, that no one particular demographic group litters more than another and that the percentage of litterbugs in each county of each state is the same. This is not entirely accurate either, but generally the lack of litter in an area usually has more to do with its removal than its creation.

                The 2011 study did indicate a positive correlation between the lack of litter and several factors. States with litter taxation, states with container deposit legislation, states with comprehensive recycling legislation, with high per person environmental expenditure and states with high integrity of thoroughfare maintenance disbursement costs were among the cleanest. Interestingly, states with a high percentage of public corruption convictions were among the dirtiest.

                Litter itself is certainly a form of “corruption.” The individual who chooses to throw a McDonald’s bag or Mountain Dew bottle out of the window is knowingly breaking the law. Beyond that, the individual is choosing to disrespect both the environment he lives in and the community he lives with. It would be interesting to know how many of the previous owners of the Budweiser cans, Hardee’s cups and water bottles that decorate the sides of our highways have ever spoken out against companies who do basically the same thing but on a larger scale.

                Towns County does what it can to address the litter problem within the limited budget of a shrinking economy. The Trustees do a good job when their labor is applied to the problem, but this is a small group with other responsibilities.  Some communities have taken the problem into their own hands, literally. Overall, however, we cannot expect government to solve this problem without additional funding during a time when all forms of government are cutting costs.

                Without government to save us from ourselves with regards to littering, we are left to our own devices, and it is to those devices that I make my own plea. While I am certain that no one who reads the Towns County Herald would ever be so thoughtless as to litter, there is a good chance that we know of someone who would. Perhaps to some, littering is a gesture. John Belushi once said, “A useless and stupid gesture is better than no gesture at all.” There is a growing sense of powerlessness in our culture and a growing contempt for government and “the establishment.” Who knows what frustrations might be compressed in that pivotal moment just before the Coke can goes out the window in a useless and stupid gesture in defiance of all that burdens us in these trying times.

                I would speak to that gesture of defiance and point out that the energy is wasted in an action that harms our community and ultimately ourselves. The economy of this area still depends on tourism and our ability to attract and maintain residents who might wish to retire here or move a business here. A rarely broken chain of trash from county line to county line will not serve as an enticement. It will further degrade the all-important image of beauty and tranquility upon which our economy depends. It will become even harder to afford the items with which to create litter and the gasoline to transport them.

               

Purchasing Power Prevails

                Let's pick up where we left off last week and I will reiterate my position that when politics becomes a professional wrestling match presented by corporations that profit no matter who wins, then being a democrat or a republican makes very little difference. When our choice for president is a selection between the Goldman Sachs republican or the Goldman Sachs democrat, then electing one or the other will alter the course of history very little. Last week I suggested that one possible response to the political status quo would be to register as an independent voter. While this is only a symbolic gesture if  few people do it, if 10 million people withdraw their membership from a political party, there will undoubtedly be consequences. 

                In the three month period ending in January of this year, approximately 5.6 million people pulled their money out of big banks and transferred it into small banks and credit unions. The big banks noticed. Some dropped a few of their more outrageous fees. Bank stocks suffered. Several smaller banks regained a healthy footing. The point is, the cumulative effect of 5.6 million quiet, non-dramatic personal gestures was significant. In a nation where we often feel that our political and financial futures are beyond our control, we are not without resources.

                What else can we do to reclaim some of the power that we have given away? You hold a very effective tool in your hands right now. Your local community newspaper is not owned by a large corporation. It employs local people and contributes to the local economy. Through it, you can reconnect to your local community, become more aware of local businesses and participate in local events. The more we participate at the local level, the stronger our community becomes and the healthier our local economy.

                Washington is not offering any viable solutions to our problems. It will continue to act to ensure the survival of the status quo, and the status quo will continue to drain the productivity of our wage slavery in order to support the cost of maintaining a financial and military empire and the increasingly bloated bureaucracy necessary to sustain it.  When we unconsciously follow the well-worn routine of work all day; shop at Walmart; eat at McDonalds and then go home and watch Entertainment Tonite –we do our part to sustain the status quo. Vote for a democrat or a republican and we help sustain the status quo. Spend our hard earned money with corporations instead of local businesses, and we help sustain the status quo.  

                Think about how our area has changed in the last 15 years, for good or for ill. In some ways we have more choices in our local economy than we did, but a number of those choices now represent large corporations and a declining number represent locally or regionally owned companies. Surrounded by Home Depots and Lowes, how many of our local hardware stores will still be here 15 years from now? When I hear people say, “I wish we had a (name your chain) restaurant,”  I wonder how many of our local eateries will survive. When I save a few dollars at Walmart rather than buying locally, is it worth the unintended consequence of destroying local business by attrition?

                No, corporations are not evil. Like people, they simply make choices to maximize their returns and promote their own interests. The partnership between Washington and big business promotes the self-interest of both, but it excludes most of us from meaningful participation. The power of our vote is greatly diluted by the limited menu of choices we currently have. The power of our voice is diluted by the cacophony of opinions increasingly herded by the power of corporate spending unleashed on the political process. The power of our spending money, however, remains strong.  Let us vote with our wallets, and with our own self-interest in mind, let us cast that vote locally as often as possible.

Frogs and Other Creatures of the Political Circus

                A 19^th century anecdote held that if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will jump out, but if you put it in a pot of cold water and gradually increase the temperature, the frog will die.  The story is meant to illustrate the theory that people will not resist change that is detrimental to them if the change is gradual enough.

                Modern science disputes the notion of boiling amphibians. If you put a frog in boiling water it will surely die. If you put a frog anywhere else it will certainly not sit still. As for human beings, however, we have to wonder. As the Project For The New American Century stated in their report, Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century, “The process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.” This report was published in September 2000, approximately one year before the attacks on the World Trade Center.

                In 2001 we experienced changes of the boiling water variety and much of what remained of our Republic died.  Shocked, angry, fearful, we allowed government to expand its powers of coercion to historic levels. Homeland Security, domestic spying, Patriot Acts and a host of Orwellian measures thinly disguised by Orwellian language have given government almost absolute control over our destinies. The legislative branch of government has competed with the executive to come up with new ways to tighten control while the Supreme Court, by promoting the supremacy of corporate “personhood” did its part to ensure that the process of governing remains very much an insider’s game.

                Many of us did not sit still. We did what Americans do when we are dissatisfied. We used what remains of our right to freedom of speech and we complained. Many have chronicled the decline of the Republic. Thousands of articles have been written and the Internet is still rich with a variety of opinions of what to do about the problem. We voted, not a majority of us but still a formidable number. We elected Republicans and when nothing changed for the better we elected Democrats and now we may once again elect Republicans.

                One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I don’t know that we are insane as much as we are severely limited by the false dilemma presented by the “two party” system. A growing number of us are of the opinion that the platforms, the speeches, the policy statements and the campaign promises are simply part of the effort to manipulate our votes and that the choices with which we are presented are an illusion of choice. The real agenda is one of corporate profit and personal gain and as our dissatisfaction with the status quo increases, the measures that the status quo will take to ensure its own survival will also escalate.

                It’s not that all of our candidates campaign for office with nothing but mercenary intentions, but how long can an ideals and good intentions survive in an entrenched environment of influence peddling? If Goldman Sachs, for example, contributes heavily to both the Obama and Romney campaigns (should Romney win the nomination) how likely is it that Goldman Sachs will have no influence at all in the executive branch of government? Substitute the corporation of your choice and apply it to a hundred Senate and 435 Congressional seats.  

                Neither is it the case that corporations are all evil or that lobbyists are all scoundrels. Corporations and individuals both attempt to maximize conditions to their own advantage. The problem is that the deck is stacked against the average citizen. The problem is that the choice offered to us by democrats and republicans alone is an illusion. The two party system, in spite of the ideals and the dedication that exists in both camps, functions more and more as the medium through which influence is peddled and less as tool of democracy. The two party system, rather than being an agent of change for the voting public, is an agent for empowering the status quo to make the changes necessary to ensure its survival. Bo Peabody writes in Village Ventures, “By cozying up to big business and passing laws that effectively close the political process to outsiders, the Democrats and Republicans dampen the influence of individual voters while ensuring the collective power of their two-party system, no ma1tter which one of the parties is ruling.”

                We disagree on many topics, but most of us would agree that corruption in government is a serious problem. Most of us are not entirely comfortable with the increasing size and coercive power of all forms of government. What can we do? Most of us cannot afford to leave our jobs and “occupy” someplace in protest. We can certainly vote, but the vast majority of our choices claim to be either democrats or republicans. Is there anything we can do at all? Perhaps, as my grandfather used to say, “it’s time to quit preachin’ and go to meddling.”

                Consider what might happen if millions of voters simply opted out of the two party system. Most of us, over 70%, are registered either as a democrat or a republican. What if the majority of us were registered as independent?  How would the business of influence peddling function without the medium to which it is now attached? Would the vast party organizations that now funnel millions of dollars become more of what a democracy needs, generators of new ideas to join a variety of viewpoints in a true discussion of real choices?

Personally, I would be willing to find out.  Georgia, unfortunately, does not offer an option for registering as an “Independent” per se, but we do have an equivalent. You can begin by going to the website, http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Voting/Register.shtml . Click on the “Register to Vote by Mail” link and you can download the National Mail Voter Registration Form.  Leave Box 7 where it says “Choice of Party” blank for Georgia.