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To Kill an AmericanThanks Australia Written by an Australian Dentist....and too good to delete....
To Kill an American You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American. So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!) 'An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan . Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books , the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least. Supreme DecisionsTechnorati Tags: news and politics The following article was published in the “Inyokern News Review” as a letter to the editor in October 1990. The letter was written in response to the unnecessary death of a young girl. The question then was whose life is valued more an endangered species or human life?
The underlying importance of this issue highlights another question: Are we going to allow the loss of the rights guaranteed through the Constitution for all Americans as a remedy? Even though the article was written in 1990, the issues surrounding it still exist today and will continue until the people’s voice is loud and clear that they will not stand for remedies which result in the taking of properties. The Fifth Amendment of United States Constitution clearly prohibits the taking of properties for public use without just compensation.
The Fifth Amendment does not say that “We the People” [the property owner] must do the compensating. Nevertheless across America, property owners are told they must compensate in order to improve their property when their property is said to be in the habitat of an endangered species.
Supreme Decisions By Trudy A. Martinez
Tom Turner, author of “Courting Disaster in the Nation’s Capital”, (Mother Earth News, March-April ’88 p44 (2)) says, “The Supreme Court can go for long periods without rendering decisions in environmental disputes.” Some recent decisions have ruled in favor of property holders.” “ . . . The Firth Amendment prohibits: “. . . nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” The courts have ruled in favor of the property holder’s right to develop their lands and against environmentalist who wish to prohibit such undertakings.
The Mohave Ground Squirrel has posed some problems for our area residence. Property holders are being robbed of property, money, and peace of mind in regards to this issue. Inconsistency, extortion, blackmail, and plain highway robbery appear to be the tactics incorporated by the so called public agency. A recent death of a young girl in our area reveals that the Mohave Ground Squirrel’s life is considered of more value than human life. The most dangerous intersection in Ridgecrest goes without a traffic signal because of the prohibiting of development. Enough is enough! Agencies such as The Nature Conservancy should be forced to have their day in court against the people of California and other states in the Union, if applicable. Joint and/or single court action should be ensued. True, court action may take years; but with the press, public records, documentation, and foresight, the people can again be victorious. George Reiger author of “Unnatural Developments” says, “Although TNC uses millions of nonprofit dollars annually, it offers little accountability to the public underwriting its schemes.” The Nature Conservancy’s record is not lily white. They want a monopoly with no competition. If the people stand in their way, they move them, cheat them, and abridge the people’s rights. A “Supreme Decision” is not just for the courts but also for the individuals and/or groups of individuals who are affected by mismanaged corrupt governmental concerns. America is still a government of the people. It is the responsibility of Americans to remind the agencies that tend to hinder personal rights guaranteed through the Constitution and the “Bill of Rights” to seek restitution. Not always is the mere joining of special interest groups enough. The way to pursue action if you want results is to challenge them. “A squeaky wheel gets attention; a well oiled wheel is left alone.” The more media coverage there is the better. The more cases tried, the more examples set. To question, to challenge, and to fight for the justice and rights that seem to be forever fading is a responsibility of every American. The oppressive methods of “Special Interest Hip Pocket Agencies” who pursue personal gain by engaging the concerns of corporate, affluent Americans may only be stopped by the judiciary system. Ignoring the interest of the people is only smart if the people allow their freedom to be abridged. An agency like the TNC may shine on the outside, but they stink on the inside, polluting the future of America. The Nature Conservancy needs to be given a copy of the “Fifth Amendment”; better yet perhaps someone needs to read it to them: the blind are sometimes able to see with the aid of words. (A box of Q-tips may be needed to clear their ears so they can hear what is being said.) I interpret the Fifth Amendment to say that if we the people are kept from our land through the taking of the land that we the people are supposed to be compensated. No where in the Fifth Amendment does it say “we the people” must do the compensating! New ImmigrantsNewspapers simply won't publish letters to the editor which they either deem politically incorrect . . . or which do not agree with the philosophy they're pushing on the public. . . [However] . . . FOR THE WRONG THINGS TO PREVAIL THE RIGHTFUL MAJORITY NEEDS TO REMAIN COMPLACENT AND QUIET! . . . LET THIS NEVER HAPPEN! . . . [Hence, I am publishing the letter written by David LaBonte's wife here on my site for all to decide for themselve].
Dear Editor: Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red , white and blue bowl.
I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags. And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet. The Rock
The Rock or The Rock with photos or check out the blog photos in the photo-album "There is a huge rock near a gravel pit on Hwy.25 in rural Iowa. For generations, kids have painted slogans, names, and obscenities on this rock, changing its character many times. A few months back, the rock received its latest paint job, and since then it has been left completely undisturbed. " Click on one of the links above to view the photos of the rock. It is quite a sight. "If I Die Before You Wake""If I Die Before You Wake" is the most heartwarming song I have ever heard; it is coupled with pictures that give you a glimpse of our troops in Iraq. I am posting a link here so you can go see for yourself just what I am talking about. Grab your tissue because you are going to need it! Then click on the title below: Enjoy! Send your friends a link too.
Technorati tags: News & Politics How does DeTocqueville help you to understand and deal with the media in relationship to ideals, values, and myths? by Trudy A. Martinezgramashouse0ne.spaces.live.com
How Does De Tocqueville Help You To Understand and Deal With The Media in Relationship To Ideals, Values, And Myths?
By Trudy A. Martinez
Influence and the ramification of world history has had a critical bearing upon the construction of the American order. Whereas, today the influence and the ramification of the media's interpretation of international and foreign affairs has critical bearing on America's future.
America had been an archetype for the world; it was conjectured, a design to emancipate the world into Capitalism, a new world denomination. With the Soviet Union joining the ranks of Capitalism, for a while it appeared the American elite and Soviet elite would become the governing agents of the world. De Tocqueville spoke as if he were living in the twentieth century when he said in his book, Democracy in America ,
"There are at the present time two great nations in the world which started from different points, but seem to tend towards the same end. I allude to Russians and Americans . . . They have suddenly placed themselves in the front rank among the nations . . . these alone are proceeding with ease and celerity along a path to which no limit can be perceived . . . each of them seems marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of . . . the globe"(142).
The media has had a field day with the Russians conversion into Capitalism. The propaganda of consumerism has swayed socialism into materialism. De Tocqueville appeared to have know back in the eighteenth hundreds that America would become a dominate nation because he implies,
"There is less difference at the present day between the Europeans and their descendants in the New World . . . this tendency to assimilation brings foreign nations closer and closer to each other . . . "(De Tocqueville 142).
When Russia began their industrial revolution, she mimicked the history of America; Russia put a similar numbing seize upon the common Russian people by confining the common people's freedom and striking unconstitutional authority over them through the execution of behaviorism.
"As social conditions become more equal, the number of persons increases who, although they are neither rich nor powerful enough to exercise any great influence over their fellows, have nevertheless acquired or retained sufficient education and fortune to satisfy their own wants. They own nothing to any man, they expect nothing from any man; they acquire the habit of always considering themselves as standing alone, and they are apt to imagine that their whole destiny is in their own hands" (De Tocqueville).
Christianity has openly appeared in Russia. Is this the Russian man's own urge to recapture paradise lost? Or is this merely the media's communique for justification for Russian people's persecution by sovereignty clique which is strongly colored by the media's propaganda towards economic gain? In Russia, the myth, "The Russian Dream" is an external component of "hope", whereas in America, "the American Dream" is internal "hope". The difference may be seen in the mannerisms of the people. Russian's have been on the brink of revolution while Americans accept their fate of oppression while remaining optimistic because the magic ingredient, "hope", was programed into the brain at a very early age. In this way America has prevented revolution. The question is did Russia wait too long to join the ranks of the Americans? Is it still possible for Russia to pull the blind fold over the eyes of the Russian people without a revolution? Only time will tell whether history will repeat itself in the fashion of Anatole France or America.
The Founding Fathers of America set-up three branches of government: the legislative, executive, and judicial branch. The objective was to connect, but yet segregate the distinguished segments of the government for the purpose of providing checks and balances within the system that would protect the government from despotism. "Yellow Journalism" facilitated the influencing of people in the efforts of sanctioning the Constitution through the publishing of The Federalist Papers, (an interpretation of the Constitution), adhered by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay. Federalist had envisioned a powerful central government with individual state governments all syndicated together in a "firm union" (No. 9) revolving around the main force, the federal government. With this theme, the greatest amount of "liberty" would be afforded the individual states while strengthening the union to protect the union from internal and external fractions.
"The inference to which we are brought, is, that the causes of faction cannot be removed; and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects" (Madison #10). There are two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinion, the same passions, and the same interest" (Madison #10).
In other words, if we are to remove the causes of faction, we would destroy the liberty that "is essential to political life" (Madison #10). "Liberty" was to remain to preserve political life. Therefore, the effects of faction required controls through "sameness" (the concept of a partnership, in love, in marriage, in all endeavors). Thereby, stifling individuality of the masses and effectively changing the value of man from a sharing nature to a selfish nature, making us all "as good citizens those who have no sympathy for any but themselves (De Tocqueville 194)" in order to form an equality basis.
In religious terms equality means "oneness"; i. e. , we are all equally individual in the eyes of God. Whereas in a capitalistic industrial society, equality has come to mean "sameness". Thus, (in most cases) the individual is stifled; he is kept from realizing full knowledge or a true (creative) individuality. This is due to the controlling of the effects of faction within the society.
To effectively control a notion of sameness "the law increased the strength of . . . authorities (De Tocqueville 112)" while at the same time "it enfeebled more and more those which were naturally weak . . . the body is . . . free . . . the soul. . . is enslaved" (De Tocqueville 112). When a man's soul is enslaved, reality escapes hm; he is no longer free--liberty becomes a fantasy. "Liberty of opinion" becomes taboo. This taboo of opinion may be seen through the lack of literary genius in America (when an intellectual emanates to show his/her genius in the literary field, he/she is quailed through tyranny of the majority)(De Tocqueville 114 - 119). "Sameness" was achieved through the ideology of Locke with "a passive affect, man is driven, the object of motivations of which he himself is not aware(Fromm 18). It is a concept whereby a few govern the masses, a system by which a sovereignty clique discontinues man's conception of revolt through a myth, a fantasy with the help of the media, the Fourth Undeclared Branch of Government.
The arrangement of the American nation was contrived by a combination of perceptions: Locke's ideology braced with a notion of "sameness" and a strict moral code with the execution of purism. The concept stressed religious freedom and the separation of the church and the state. But instead of separating the church from the state, the church was incorporated into the state delivering and individual through optimism into contention with an infinite quantity of objective forces (impersonal forces) joined together in harmony and charted to confuse, bewilder, and overwhelm common man and deliver him into submission of the greedy ambitions of the affluent.
"Men who live in democratic communities . . . seldom indulge in meditation . . . they . . . naturally entertain very little esteem for it . . . he risks less in making use of some false principles, then in spending his time in establishing all his principles, on the basis of truth" (De Tocqueville 165).
When you consider the happenings in Russia and read about the transition of socialism (communism) to capitalism, you find yourself wondering if there isn't a conspiracy of the rich to control not only America but also the world.
". . . the rich in democraies always stand in need of the poor; and that in democratic times, you attach a poor man to you more by your manner than by benefits conferred. The magnitude of such benefits, which set off the difference of condition, causes a secret irritation to those who reap advantages of them; but the charm of simplicity of manners is almost irresistible; affability carries men away, and even want of polish is not always displeasing. This truth does not take root at once in the minds of the rich. . . that population does not ask them for sacrifice of their money, but of their pride" (De Tocqueville 197).
If America was not aware of America's devious past, how could the governing few duplicate America's history in a country on the other side of the world with such precision? How would they know the duplication must be precise to be efficient and to be effective? Why else is religious freedom now suddenly allowed in Russia?
"To minds thus predisposed, every new method which leads by a shorter road to wealth, every machine which spares labor, every instrument which diminishes the cost of production, every discovery which facilitates pleasure . . . seems to be the grandest effort of human intellect. It is chiefly from these motives that democratic people addicts itself to scientific pursuits . . . " (De Tocqueville 167).
As a result of man's agony perplexed by the overwhelming impersonal forces, common man was and still is forced to conform or seek escape from his reality through the escape mechanisms. Common man ceased to be an individual with a free choice; the freedom guaranteed by the constitution eludes his grasp.
After the Civil War in America, major steps were taken to prevent a repeat of such a catastrophe. A mandatory school system was put in place to educate the masses. But doesn't it make you wonder if educating the masses was the real reason? Or was the school system set-up to play games such as 'blind man's bluff" with the youth of America? Was history white washed? Were the masses controlled to prevent revolution? "Hope" appears to have been the magic ingredient which guided the youth through behaviorism into a new way life with new values.
Is there "freedom of the press" in America? Or was and is "freedom of the press" the means of suppressing the masses? Does the press induce the public through the media (newspapers, magazines, television, and the movies) to satisfy the desires of the the stronger faction? In the 1890's as in the 1950's, "yellow journalism" was a dominate force at work, feeding off the majority, oppressing the weak, with ideologies of Palmer and McCarthy. In 1948 the press was embarrassed. The press got caught wearing the Republican Hat when their papers hit the street announcing Truman's defeat based on their opinion polls which were to sway the public to their way of thinking. When in actuality, the Democrats went to the polls (the only poll that counts) resulting in a triumph for Truman over Dewey.
". . . The stronger faction could readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in the state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger"(Madison #51).
The words of De Tocqueville and our forefathers are still true today: the stronger factions control the minds of the masses through the incorporation of TVism into the daily life of millions of Americans. A couch potato became reality when America began growing its vegetation in the living room of the American family. Nearly every American couch has at least one fat potato planted on it an average of 7.5 hours per day; their job is to watch the "booby-tube". What to buy? Who to buy it from? Get the dope; get duped; violence, violence, and more violence. It makes one wonder: is there a conspiracy to shorten the lives of as many Americans as possible to make way for the fresh cheap labor that's coming to America in the Jungle of new factories, industries, and McDonald's?
In Mojave, McDonald's has a new crew, all foreign workers (fresh, cheap, labor); these workers may be working for less than minimum wage. I overheard a conversation between two managers discussing a labor wage contract below the rates of minimum wage laws. How can this be? America makes it possible with laws on the books that allow hiring below minimum wage when the employee is in a training status. Who is to say that a training status doesnt mean an alien--aliens have to start somewhere learning to be good consumer--iced Americans. McDonald's are justified aren't they? After all the American youth are not capable of working: the American youth is not interested in french fries--fried brains are more along their lines; they have taken up other occupations--materialistic in nature, the materialism of others. Bottle sucking is out; sniffing and intravenous feedings are in.
Meanwhile, the masses of new soon-to-be Americans are converted through the consumerism of advertisement and subliminal messages into materialism to be damned in a hell on earth as the "American Dream" requires props (status symbols) that announce your status with a flare.
The lawyers and judges provide the checks and balances that may keep us safe from tyranny: hence, they control democracy. The trouble is they may be duped too. Legislation has seen controls put upon the media in regards to commercials seen on TV; this action should result in alleviation of some of the control over the minds of the youth (a tendency to convert the youth to the idealism of consumerism by way of deceit seen on the screen). If we require to seek assistance in protecting the privileges guaranteed through the Constitution and the Amendments, the Supreme Court becomes the interpreter and protector of the rights of the people as it is implied in the federalist papers. But not many people ever bother to read the Constitution or the Amendments; the belief alone satisfies. The myth; the American Dream; the red, white, and blue; and the hope for a better tomorrow keep us at bay: separated, divided, and controlled. A Disneyland of fantasies without revolt, without revolution; the American public is "the object of motivations of which he is not aware"(Fromm 18).
One could say with Democracy in America Tyranny of the majority was born. A foreigner, a French man said it all when he looked through the looking glass into the "fairy-tale" land of America and said,
"The error arose from seeing the interest of the nobles perpetually contending with those of the people, without considering the issue of the contest, which was really the important point. When a community . . . is equally divided between adverse principles,--it must either experience a revolution, or fall into anarchy . . . social superior to all others must always be placed somewhere . . . liberty is endangered when this power finds an obstacle which can retard its course, and give it time to moderate its own vehemence . . . Unlimited is in itself a bad and dangerous thing. Human beings are not competent to exercise it with discretion. God alone can be omnipotent" (De Tocqueville 115). |
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