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.

Sometimes Less is More

As Congress was finishing up its legislative session for 2011, several watchdog agencies noticed that the term “do-nothing Congress” was actually supported by the numbers.  By the end of November, President Obama had signed only 62 new laws, making 2011 a record low year for new federal legislation.

                Have no fear. While Congress debated, delayed and dissembled, the 50 states stepped up to the plate with about 40,000 (yes, that’s forty thousand) new laws. Georgia will have safer golf carts in 2012. New Yorkers will no longer be allowed to sell or possess bear gall bladders.  There will be no happy hour in Utah and residents of Oregon will not be allowed to sell shark fins. In Nevada, fire performers and their apprentices will now have to register with the state fire marshal.

                The role that government plays in the lives of its people is a determining factor in the life span of any civilization. Too little involvement results in anarchy. The powerful act with impunity as the rule of law is replaced by the law of the jungle. The history of the warring states of China is a classic example. Too much government intervention and civilization dies a slow, lingering death as innovation and free enterprise is strangled. The Soviet Union comes to mind in this example.

                We do not know yet how the American experiment will turn out. As our republic has been gradually replaced by a form of oligarchy and the size of all forms of government has increased along  with the coercive power of government, we are beginning to see signs that the results will not all be to our liking.

                For those of us fond of free markets and the freedoms we still associate with our American heritage, less government is best. Government should provide for the common defense, but refrain from building financial and military empires. Government should level the playing field for business, but it should not protect favored enterprises from failure. In fact, after securing the basic needs of existence for those unable to provide their own, government should not protect anyone from failure.

                Failure is natural and it is healthy. Failure informs bad decisions and inspires better ones.  Failure improves society, but by adding 40-50 thousand new laws every year, many of which are designed to protect us from the consequences of our actions, a nanny state replaces a nation of pioneers and innovators.

                So overall I am quite pleased that Congress failed to act in 2011. Rather than creating new laws and regulations I would prefer that if Congress (and every form of government right down to the local level) were to act at all, it would be to un-do much of what has already been done. For example, If Congress had failed to act in interfering with the pensions of post office employees, the post office would now be in the black instead of facing insolvency.

                Government (including the executive branch) which does the least is often in the long run of unintended consequences the best for the people who must endure those consequences.  Every politician for the last 40 years has promised smaller government and less spending, but every year the size of government, the intrusiveness of government and the coercive powers of government have grown. Perhaps we should be grateful that Washington seems paralyzed by divisiveness. Until we are ready to make fundamental change, perhaps we should endeavor to change as little as possible.

Hiding in Plain Sight

                Sometimes the truth hides in plain sight. Sometimes it is as hard to find as a needle in a haystack.  For the last several days I have searched for the truth behind the signing into law of the NDAA – The National Defense Authorization Act - and the language it contains.

                Here is a quick review in case you missed out on the story during the holiday season.  The main purpose of the NDAA is to pay for the military for another year.  We could argue for the rest of the year about what that money actually buys, but the current controversy is about language in the bill which allows the state to detain American citizens and hold them without a trial. After threatening to veto the bill, Obama signed it into law on the last day of 2011.

                Opponents of the law point out the obvious threat to our civil liberties inherent in any legislation which validates the ability of the government to sidestep the Constitution.  Nine states have already begun recall procedures to punish those representatives who voted for the bill. Outrage is growing as more people begin to realize the implications of this latest move towards totalitarianism.

                The march towards totalitarianism is something that we have chronicled here for many years.  There appears to be an unbroken chain of intent from at least the Clinton years, when plans were discussed for using United Nations troops on American soil in the event of a national emergency, as declared by the president, through the Bush years and the “patriot” laws. The capitulation of Obama to the fascist trend is only the latest in a long series of movements by the state to increase its power.  Shortly after September 11^th, 2001, the Bush administration began detaining terrorism suspects without a trial at Guantanamo. When those detentions were challenged in the courts, the government argued that the Authorization for Use of Military Force passed by the Congress on Sep. 18, 2001, allowed those detentions, and in 2004, the Supreme Court agreed in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld. The NDAA of 2011-2012 is therefore nothing new.

                Fear has long been a tool used by the state to maintain and to increase power.  The decision by the Congress to declare the United States as part of the battleground in the war on terror is a good indicator of the level of fear which must now prevail in Washington.  One has to wonder; just what is in those security briefings that members of Congress receive which destroys the high minded rhetoric of the campaign?

                There are several possibilities. One possibility is that some members of the government live in fear of another devastating attack on American soil. We certainly have enemies who would stage such an attack if they could, but the trend towards totalitarianism predates the destruction of the Twin Towers. I think it is more likely that the state fears for its own survival in the face of several trends that combine to indicate volatility and unrest in the future.  The world economy is a house of paper. The climate is changing. Overpopulation is beginning to strain infrastructure and resources.  This is not the first time these factors have converged, and every time they have, unrest has occurred.  Change has occurred.  Whenever civilization has faced fundamental change, the mechanisms of the state have acted to ensure their own survival, at all costs.

                Nevertheless, I remain optimistic for the United States of America. We still possess the tools to endure the coming changes with our ideals intact – if we do not succumb to fear – and if we stay informed and involved as citizens and as voters.  I have often wondered at what point along the road from private citizen to elected official, idealism dies.  The disparity between speech and action implies that something changes between Main Street and Capitol Hill, unless you choose to believe that the motives of anyone seeking office are corrupt from the beginning.  I think it is more likely that there are those who seek to serve and those who seek power. The difficulty for us as voters is that both use the same language.

The End of the World, Again

                It is an odd and arbitrary quirk of history that most of the world celebrates the beginning of a new year on the first day of January. The name “January” derives from the Roman god, Janus, depicted with two faces, one looking forward into the future and one facing behind, into the past. It was Julius Caesar who, in 46 AD while reorganizing the calendar, decreed that the year would begin on the first day of January. By the 18^th century most of the Christian western world had also adopted this date.

                Reflecting on the year just gone by is customary for many of us in January, and media rides this wave of cogitation and sentiment with presentations and opinions on the events of the past year which were “significant,” though a quick read of opinions from years gone by reveals a difficulty in assigning significance to the historical perspective from such close proximity, like declaring how a cake will taste right after closing the oven door. Yet the challenge of understanding even the events which have  come to pass does not seem to deter many from peering into the future and passing judgment there as well.

                The Year 2012 has been a target of speculation for decades and it joins a host of other dates given the dubious honor of hosting the end of the world. This year the apocalypse is tied to a controversial interpretation of  a few stone fragments from the Mayan civilization inscribed with a calendar which apparently ends on the 21^st of December.  Adding fuel to the speculation is the astronomical  myth, debunked by NASA, that the earth will somehow align with the center of the galaxy on that date and the resulting gravitational tides will create destruction through earthquakes, volcanic activity, the violent shift of the earth’s poles or a host of other disasters. The fact is, the earth and the sun align with the approximate center of the Galaxy every December.

                The desire for apocalypse may be an archetype of the human condition. Almost every religion and culture on earth has spawned, at one time or another, a belief in some kind of doomsday scenario. Often in the religious scenarios a just and vengeful god destroys the earth while preserving a chosen few to carry on. Most Americans are familiar with the Christian view of Armageddon. Many in the Muslim world hold similar beliefs and the Quran describes the splitting of the moon, falling stars and the heavens being rolled up. Many Hindus believe that we are living in the fourth and final period of the earth’s current age and that sweeping change will occur with the advent of a new age. Many Buddhists believe in a future war that will end as a golden age begins. Some Native Americans, notably the Hopi, believe that it is they who are the chosen ones who will survive the coming apocalypse.

                Apocalypse is a fascinating topic, and a profitable one. Thousands of books have been written and movies made dealing with the subject, but it is the age of Information which has created the latest confluence of belief focusing on 2012. Before we start digging our underground bunkers and duct taping our windows this year, it might behoove us to take a look at some of the other dates in history when the world was surely to end.

                In 1000 AD, Catholic Church authorities believed that Jesus would return. When this did not happen, the birth of Jesus was recalibrated and a new date set for 1033. In 1843 William Miller convinced his followers that the world would end between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. The date was moved to October 22^nd and when the world still failed to end, some members split from the group to form the Seventh Day Adventists. In 1876 Charles Russell, founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, predicted that Christ would return in 1914. The group has predicted at least seven other dates for Armageddon since then.  For a more modern, “scientific” prediction, astrophysicists Stephen Plagemann and John Gribbin claimed in 1974 that an alignment of Jupiter on March 10, 1982 would cause devastating earthquakes. Let’s not forget Y2K and the run on canned goods and dried beans at Sam’s Club. Finally we have the prediction by evangelist Harold Camping that the Rapture would occur on May 21^st and, again, on October 21^st of last year.

                The world will undoubtedly end at some point; civilization even sooner. Barring manmade disaster, a direct hit by an asteroid, the eruption of a super-volcano or a coronal mass ejection from the sun, in a few billion years the sun will grow into a red giant and completely engulf earth’s orbit.  If we are still here, perhaps we will have found a new home by then, but in the meantime, no one can say for certain when Jesus will return or when the next mass extinction event will occur. No one can say for certain whether any of the predicted events for 2012 will occur or whether any of us will be among the chosen few to survive them. Personally, I am not about to make a prediction for the world’s end, but I do predict that I will need a new truck sometime in 2012. If you are among those convinced that the world will end this year – and if you have a serviceable truck that you aren’t planning to use after the apocalypse, please remember to sign the title and drop it off at the newspaper sometime next December. 

Christmas Memories

     Who remembers what they got for Christmas last year? I spent a few minutes this morning trying to remember, but my recollection of whatever was wrapped under the Christmas tree in December of 2010 has faded into the ghosts of Christmas past like a pinch of sugar in a cup of coffee, improving the general flavor but no longer distinguishable as a separate entity.

     What I do remember about last Christmas is the reflection of Christmas lights on new fallen snow. I remember being stranded at my dad’s house with all the dogs sequestered in his basement, the failing washing machine jury-rigged with a garden hose draining under the garage door, my dad just home from the hospital and his healthcare worker trapped by the ice with all the rest of us in our tightly packed, snowed in, close encounter Christmas refuge. I remember how full of life and warmth the house was while the snow fell outside. It was one of the best Christmas seasons ever, but for the life of me I can’t remember what was under the tree.

     There are a few Christmas gifts that I do remember. I remember my first shotgun when I was about 12 or 13 years old, but that gift is more of an accessory to other holiday memories from that year. I remember that my father got out of bed about 5 AM on Christmas morning and tossed a handful of pebbles onto the tin roof of my grandparents’ house – just about the same time that we heard the reindeer taking off. I remember the voices of my grandparents, singing in the kitchen while they made breakfast and the heat from the pot-bellied stove penetrating thick layers of quilts on that snowy morning. The shotgun gathers dust now in a gun safe, but the memories are as bright as a Christmas ornament.

      I do remember a gift given one year. It was the first Christmas after my grandfather died and my mother was struggling to come to terms with the loss. I remember how she cried when she opened one of her gifts, a family photo album with pictures of her father and her life growing up in rural Georgia.  I remember how her tears turned to laughter and back again as we looked at the old pictures. I remember the empty seat at the table that year.

     Christmas has changed in some ways since I was a child. Our culture has changed with our economy. We borrow. We spend. We consume like no other people in the history of humanity. The forces that tie us together are less our common goals and beliefs and more a popular culture driven by marketing and manipulation. Witness the high speed traffic and the crowds of consumers intent on capturing those great deals to fill the boxes under the tree. Christmas begins now in September and we accept the mandate, the duty, the obligation to shop, almost without question, and if we are unable to spend for the holidays we feel the burden of guilt implied in the flood of images of happy people pushing overflowing shopping carts.

     Yet for all the hype, the stress, the intensively researched methods of attaching our wallets to our primal impulses in our quest to fulfill our holiday “obligations,” the memories of what we buy and what we receive will be torn away and cast aside like the brightly colored wrapping paper that covers the sum of all our efforts. In the end, it is the time we spend with those we love that we will remember and cherish. In that spirit, let me wish all of you a very merry Christmas and a joyful holiday season. May the time you spend with your loved ones this year be a brightly lit ornament that you will cherish for many long years.