01.12.12 Appealing to Values and Innovating Profit Perception

Wouldn’t you think if you had several hundred employees threaten mass suicide in protest of working conditions, you might pay attention to say… working conditions?

Well, that’s exactly what happened at the Foxconn electronics manufacturing plant inWuhan, China last week.

As reported by a variety of sources, including PC Magazine, workers claimed they did not receive promised compensation after they were transferred toWuhan from other facilities. The workers also complained about living conditions in the company town which amounts to a factory farm. Instead of selling eggs or pullets, however, the commodity at Foxconn is labor. Cheap  labor. Cheap, compliant labor sustained under dehumanizing and emotionally isolating conditions.

Because Foxconn efficiently serves up cheap electronic components to such customers as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sony and Microsoft, we must wonder, at what cost comes profitability? What is profit after all? And how do we contribute though our consumerism to globally failing systems?

Can profitability only be described within the narrow view of currency? Isn’t a civilized society capable of inventing the micro-chip beyond dehumanizing others’ crafts and skills in order to trade it competitively in service to shareholder earnings?

Does human life have a value beyond how many components a person can assemble?

Certainly it does.

But, even if we adopted a narrow view that monetary profits were the only profits worthy of pursuit, might they not be better maximized within a balanced environment inclusive of meeting essential human needs of community, recreation, environmental integrity, physical and emotional health and welfare, and personal security?

Of course… particularly given that studies have supported the common sense idea that a happy, relaxed worker is, at the end of the day, a more productive worker.

Back in the days of global textile competition, Asian workers successfully labored to out-compete British workers to the point of denying family duties and even personal hygiene. Women and children labored fourteen to sixteen hours a day behind sewing machines in order to more cheaply produce garments for a textile hungry and burgeoning world. Of course, Britain kept up quite a competitve pace relying on similar methods.

The idea of big-business pursuing regulatory, environmental and social conditions strictly in favor of its own growth isn’t new.  But, by now it seems we should realize such a pursuit is not only ethically abhorrent, but environmentally, socially, politically and economically unsustainable.

Yet, such an attitude prevails. In our modern era, America’s manufacturing and even service base has been bled nearly dry from outsourcing as corporations seek ever cheaper labor, more lax regulation and complimentary operational environments.

Unfortunately, this often comes at the expense of worker and environmental health. Foxconn helps illustrate that mindset. Of course, so does the energy sector, as Chinese and other foreign-owned companies foul our water resources in order to deplete America’s fossil fuel reources for transport to hungry Chinese and other foreign markets.

Another illustration: American’s political system, ruled by two predominant parties funded by the unchecked infusion of Corporate interest – and that’s “interest” with a double meaning folks, if you get my drift.

Is this the new model of production, consumption and even ethical representation? …A race to the bottom, depleting not only the Earth’s resources, but human resources in the pursuit of only a single value? The value of gold and greenbacks?

For example: Ron Paul, just took 23% of theNew Hampshire primary as a Republican. He wasn’t always a Republican. He once ran for the US Presidency as an Independent, but recognized the limitations of such a position given the rigidly fortified and incredibly exclusive framework of American politics and an ADD-afflicted media.

The guy couldn’t get a break let alone 20 seconds of media interest until he switched parties and joined the Republican horde. Now, at least he can win a bit of air time, albeit sometimes begrudgingly. How is it Newt is lavished with ten minutes to an hour of what amounts to tongue wagging over his absurdly controversial run for President… but Paul elicits only looks of sheer disbelief from reporters as he delivers a speech to a crowd of supporters? …As if the reporter can scarcely believe they have to utter his name, let alone discuss his achievements and political position without breaking into a guffaw.

It’s as if some of these reporters have bought into their own hype and assumption that this man shouldn’t be taken seriously. Perhaps, sometimes mainstream media does spend a bit too much time listening only to one another and not the story.

Can’t Americahave a third party that isn’t beholden to opposing party platforms which often contradict their own assumptions and seek only to shell out support to corporate donors? Can’t we handle diversity? Adaptation? Growth?

As illustrated by a glaringly dictatorial Foxconn, our own depleted manufacturing base and an imploding political system… is there no other value worth recognizing and nurturing besides money?

I mean, how worthy is the value of money if – as sole priority – it contributes to the destruction of everything around it? Wasn’t this lesson learned in the past? Don’t spiritual leaders remind us of this lesson all the time? I’m not, of course, referring to those who call themselves spiritual leaders while operating a hotline between your bank account and their television show.

Sadly, the assumption prevails that concern, honesty, liberty, respect, fairness, human dignity and environmental preservation are not values worth tending.  Even more disturbing is the idea that they are independent of one another and utterly extrinsic to the value of money.  As if money does and should exist in a vacuum.

Even though, culturally, we may be taught to believe that money rules all and is exclusive of any other value, nothing, in fact, could be further from the truth.

When we try to operate a system – a political system, an economic system, a social system independent of all other values besides money, we subject that system to a very potent corrosive, and quickly strain its capacity to serve.

System weakness is the greatest indicator of imbalance and the need to fortify. Shoving more money in the hole will not solve that problem when money is the corrosive.

Healthy systems find their strength and flexibility through the infusion of diverse values and mechanisms of adaptation.

The implementation of innovation, while often unfamiliar and therefore frightening, tends to support change. Needed change. Guided and productive change. Change that begets adaptation. That’s because, as often noted, need is frequently the mother of all inventions. That means system-or component-failure tends to give rise to the need for adaptive management.

Those with holistic vision can recognize this need in advance of system collapse or component obsolescence. This far-seeing implementation of adaptation can create smoother transitions to changing demands. It positions innovation as a solution, and therefore lends stability to its application.

When it comes to a healthier, more sustainable planet, we depend upon Earth’s systems to sustain our own survival. Increasing pollution coupled with our prevailing and incentivized patterns of consumption and waste only challenge Earth’s capacity to sustain itself, let alone sustain it’s living and interdependent populations.

These conditions call on us to implement truly green practices in order to help mitigate our impact to life-sustaining, bio-dependent systems such as air sheds and water sheds.

Many business owners, from the small mom-and-pop operation to multi-national corporations may recognize the need to innovate operations toward more sustainable practices, but believe it is economically prohibitive and could position them disadvantageously within their markets.

Today, Shel Horowitz, author of “Guerilla Marketing Goes Green” is visiting with us to discuss ways in which commercial operations of any size can take steps to help ensure going green becomes a positive, productive and profitable investment.

RELEVANT LINKS

Please note: In the spirit of respectful, sincere debate, In-Depth Perception embraces controversy and welcomes diverse opinion. As such, the comments of the host (Lisa Bracken) do not necessarily reflect the opinions of guests of the radio program, guests of this blog, nor WordPress, its affiliates or sponsors, and vice versa.

____________________________________________

Shel Horowitz, Author: “Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green”

Shel’s Website: www.greenandprofitable.com

12.29.11 Save One Life, Save The World

In the past two weeks, regime violence in Syria has increased, but so has reporting of abuses from internal observers, like the Arab League and human rights organizations – many of whom have posted videos to You Tube or other video sharing sites on the internet.

It is estimated by political activists that more than 6,000 protestors have died as a result of the political unrest in Syria. Increasingly, division seems to be occurring along sectarian lines as opposing sects compete for local control.

Meanwhile, in the vacuum left by vacating US forces in Iraq, Iran is pressing allegiance with Iraq, its former and long time adversary, at the same time it threatens the US with closure of the Straight of Hormuz, a key oil export shipping channel in the region. Purportedly, the threat has arisen in response to Iranian protests against the looming imposition of US sanctions. All this assures that unrest will continue in the region.

Even as US forces prepare to recalibrate their presence in Afghanistan, ten years of progress made by women in that country are under threat of loss due to a resurgence of extremely violent oppression there. As reported today by CNN, it is has been estimated by experts that over 80 percent of women in Afghanistan are routinely abused physically, sexually or psychologically, often by the families they are married into. Under the former and more visible Taliban regimen, women were essentially forced under house arrest, clocked behind blackened windows, ostracized from social, economic and political life – made slaves within their families and homes.

But it isn’t only women who have suffered under such oppression. As National Geographic has reported, small boys forced into military service are dressed as women and paraded in front of older men in evening encampments, then auctioned to the highest bidder and raped. US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has long labored to arrest such human rights abuses in the region, but they persist.

One must ask why? What causes these issues to persist despite distant outrage at such acts, even as similar cruel and perverse actions occur in our own country and elsewhere in the world?

Many point to political policy, and indeed one can trace instability to policy, particularly as it acts in a capacity to incentivize instability.

Policy can contribute to political, economic and educational inequities, all of which help increase division in society. In fact, under Taliban rule, women in Afghanistanwere prohibited from receiving an education or earning income. As members of society, they were valued at “less than zero” according to sources from CNN.

Historians have long recognized women as foundational components of a stable, prosperous society. As familiar cornerstones of peace and accord, they not only serve a utilitarian role in home-life logistics; but, under favorable political, educational and economic conditions, they can comfort, nurture, educate, support and lend a pervasive sense of stability beginning within a family unit, and extending to networks of communities and regions, particularly as they assume leadership roles in business, education, social services and politics.

Beyond policy, however, cultural affinity is a very strong force in shaping a just and sound society. And, sometimes, what is overtly promoted is contradictory to what is practiced. Where policy supports injustice, or where a lack of enforcement allows it, a vacuum will emerge inviting of those who would seek to take full advantage within it. Unfortunately when this occurs en-mass and persists, it can generate a sense of cultural acceptance which only furthers and deepens the problem.

Cultural affinity can be so great a contributor to recurring unrest, even as liberties and opportunities crumble around one, a sense of belonging and familiarity can confound efforts to change. Even as lives are lost… whether one life or a thousand lives, those struggling to survive within such a system often feel beholden to it despite grave risks to themselves and their families.

One life lost is immeasurable in its positive potential and the vacuum it leaves in society. What might that one life have achieved? What might that life have contributed, which might have productively changed the course of history?

What happens when we fail to value life, honor life and we begin to sacrifice life?

We allow destructive forces of self-interest to obliterate our capacity for benevolence and productivity and we descend to the bottom, where we are compelled to linger eras on.

In this episode, I am interviewing Sonia Pressman Fuentes, who fled Nazi Germany in 1934 with her family for the refuge of the United States. Spared the horror of the Holocaust, Sonia went on to college then law school, then federal service and on to co-found the National Organization for Women where she dedicated her professional and personal life to issues plaguing women and minorities.

Honored by so many for doing so much, her personal legacy of positive social change would take pages and pages to fill. Her story illustrates not only what it can mean to live under threat of oppression and death, but what it means to act in favor of hope and change – what it can mean to the world, when just one life is given the opportunity to live on.

Relevant Links

Lisa Bracken’s field guide: “You And What Army: How to Neutralize Conflict and Negotiate Justice for the Totally Outgunned, Inwardly Timid, Burnt Out or Socially Defunct” www.youandwhatarmybook.com

Sonia Pressman Fuentes: http://www.erraticimpact.com/fuentes

“Eat First—You Don’t Know What They’ll Give You: The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter” http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738806358/philosophyresour

Article about Sonia’s recent trip to Eurpoe will be published by Outlook: Canada’s Progressive Jewish Magazine in March/April 2012 http://www.vcn.bc.ca/outlook/

National Organization for Women (which Sonia co-founded)  http://www.now.org

Women for Women International https://give.womenforwomen.org/donate/index.htm?wfw=donatesrch

Sonia’s Interview on In-depth Perception

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indepthperception/2011/12/29/save-one-life-save-the-world

Other episodes of In-Depth perception by host, Lisa Bracken

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indepthperception

12-15-11 CLASSIFICATION TERRORIST: For the sake of convenient tyranny

Just when I said Congress was rendering itself irrelevant, they go and prove me wrong.

I dedicate this post and its companion radio broadcast to my father, now five years deceased. His birthday is today, and I still celebrate and honor him, his life and all the lessons he taught me. Later tonight, I will make his favorites – a German Chocolate cake and a good old fashioned meatloaf. Later, I will light a candle, send him a wish and toast his everlasting journey onward and upward.

Dad enlisted in the Marine Corp during theViet Nam conflict as a forward observer. He was always proud of his country, proud to serve in its defense against enemies foreign and domestic. I too, enlisted in the US Air Force during the cold war era, and served overseas as a part of a newly formed joint command intelligence unit.

To this day, and as if it were yesterday, I remember standing in a room of new enlistees taking the oath to defend my country. To me, that wasn’t an abstract notion. Having learned from my father to stand up for myself and others unable to stand up for themselves… for me, having been bullied as a child when defending weaker kids and even principals of right over wring, I knew who I would be defending, what I would be defending and why.

My father also served as an officer of the court with the Justice Department and saw, from the inside, how corruption could corrode the newest, shiniest system of governance, just like oxidation will decay the finest implement left out in the rain.

Despite all the ugly he witnessed in his life, he believed in principals of fairness and honor and courage. And he taught those same values to me, which I still adhere to – even amidst a storm of civil unrest in my beloved country, where political partnering with commercial interests is acting to degrade the very democratic foundation of our nation.

Dad always stood up for the underdog, defended the innocent, advocated peace, even during war and said many times “The system works, but you have to make it work.”

He was referring to participatory government – that is, the same notion that democracy must be defended from any who would threaten its pristine promise and potential with their own destructive and unfair manipulation.

Under the Constitution we, as citizens have been granted, among other things, the freedom of speech and assembly in order to share ideas, and debate controversy with others — all with the potential of refining and evolving our country and broader civilization through our participation in these activities and the encouragement of it in others.

Benjamin Franklin, an instrumental player in the drafting and signing of the US Constitution, recognized the scope of this challenge. When a woman asked what the newly convened congress had Created upon its ratification, he said: “A republic… if you can keep it”

So what did he mean by republic? A republic is governance by elected representatives. A democracy is governance by majority. The United States is a blend of both. Which one could suppose might reflect the platforms of the Republican and Democratic parties. Even though, those lines have become blurred and homogenized as both parties seek, secure and share greater political influence through funding driven by commerical partnerships.

We cannot depend solely upon our elected representatives to preserve the promise and potential of our country. We must safeguard it ourselves, by embracing all conflicts and educating ourselves about their implications. We must incorporate our knowledge within the basis of Constitutional law and defend that code in alignment with a sense of moral fairness and civic duty.

Unfortunately, in a country now deeply influenced by corrupting corporate forces leveraging federal and state policy to ensure broader markets and more stable consumption cycles, defending these noble tenets can – it seems, these days, make one an enemy of the state. But what state?

Mainly, the state of denial and disregard.

In 2004, EnCana Oil andGas,USA determined they would trespass onto a private road for the purposes of installing a pipeline beneath it for which no permission from private landowners had been secured. My father and our neighbor prepared to challenge EnCana’s assumption of imminent domain and intent to install an explosive, poorly maintained pipeline mere feet beneath our heavily traveled dirt road.

The two of them – each war veterans, disabled, and in their mid-sixties readied their lawn chairs and thermoses of coffee for a sit-in, barring EnCana’s access to doze up the only access road afforded residents.

My father notified the sheriff and I notified the media. Everyone notified attorneys. EnCana relented and installed the pipeline, as we had originally proposed, adjacent to the road and via access agreements negotiated with other relevant private landowners.

For this act of self defense, he and our neighbor were labeled ‘militants’ by EnCana – a foreign corporation exploiting privately held mineral resources and surface ownership. Unfortunately, EnCana’s assessment was generally supported by county law enforcement authorities, some of the sararies of which were later funded by direct corporate donation.

These two noble men acting within the law to defend the law were suddenly considered subversive to the intents of America’s energy independence… and all the systemic associations therein implied. Which means, roughly translated, they were seen as a direct threat the status-quo money and power structure undulating beneath the thinning fabric of American freedom.

It doesn’t take a lot to be labeled as a subversive inAmerica. Perhaps it was my grandfather, an ivy-league educated physician, who may have inspired our family legacy. He was, after all, labeled a subversive and outed from his New Jersey gardening club in the 1970’s for suggesting they explore the use of organic gardening methods over chemical treatments for pest control. I guess subversion is, in the words of Hank William’s Junior, a family tradition.

I’m no exception. I imagine after eight years of exposing the catastrophic risks of hydraulic fracturing and systemic regulatory failure and the county, state and federal level, I have a dossier a foot thick on someone’s desk – however undeserved.

It just goes to show such discrimination is… well nondiscriminatory. Well-educated, law-abiding, community oriented Americans and even veterans dedicated to the defense of their own country and willing to sacrifice their own lives and freedoms in its defense can be considered subversive.

What happens when regular everyday folks deluded as to the preservation of democratic institutions and the protection of their civil liberties realize they aren’t so protected. What happens when America appears maybe a little less democratic and a whole lot more representative – and not necessarily of their interests or even Constitutional rights of its citizens? What happens when these folks share their concerns with neighbors, pursue literature, opinion or additional information on a subject, attend town hall meetings and try to organize an education or legislative effort, or orchestrate a peaceful protest? Well, guess what? They may get labeled subversive too. Who gets selected as subversive, seems to have everything to do with hidden agendas and motives to quell.

In 2010, the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security entered into a contract with a security firm to track and report on individuals and groups engaging in a variety of activities, such as attending town hall-type meetings or conducting lawful and non-violent protests. Some of these folks were members of the Tea Party. Others were gay rights activists. Some were supporters of education reform, and some were interested in learning more about the risks of hydraulic fracturing.

Those folks looking into fracing were reported not only to the department of homeland security. Lists of names were also distributed to the oil and gas companies who happen to have their own association-backed protocol on the justified use of lethal force against those who would oppose their operations.

Word got back to some of the folks interested in what fracking was really all about – you know, beyond the corporate-sponsored feel-good ads. Then the media learned about it and… well, in general, it created a bit of a public relations mess, which ended with an apology fromPennsylvania’s incoming Governor Rendell and the termination of the department’s head.

Here we are around a year later, and perhaps in an effort to make the process of tracking and reporting these types of citizen activities less messy and more private… and even more robust… the US Congress attached legislation to its upcoming defense bill.

House Bill HR1540 and the Senate’s version: S1867 aim to allow the USmilitary (or presumably other international authorizes under cooperative agreements) to indefinitely intern ‘suspected terrorists’ without charge or trial. (See also section 1031 of the US Defense Authorization bill, headed for presidential approval.)

Now, beyond the obvious questions this situation raises about the total violation of due process afforded every American citizen under the US Constitution, it begs the obvious question raised in this post: What is a “terrorist”?

According to what criteria and by whom are such things to be determined? That’s hard to say, given that the compromise language between the two houses is now being negotiated in a super secret committee. Kind of like the committee then Vice President Cheney and his oil and gas buddies worked out when they were exempting oil and gas operations, like hydraulic fracturing, from federal laws like the Safe Drinking Water Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Comprehensive Response and Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (which is the federal Superfund law).

This reminds me, today the US announced it was officially ending the war in Iraq. Another instance which suffered from a widely acknowledged questionable basis, lack of exit planning or accountability – and which also happened to benefit Cheney to a large degree given his professional ties with contractor Halliburton – a pioneer of hydraulic fracturing technology.

Let me be clear, I do not in any way endorse, nor do I tolerate terrorism or those who engage in it. It is an insidious act of cowardice against the innocent. Yet, in the hands of Congress and our military, I am wondering how terrorism might be defined. It begs a very clear definition, given the risks posed to law-abiding Americans and the risks to Constitutional freedoms. Such definition seems vague within the new defense bill. Maybe the super secret committee will come up with something suitable.

For now, though, in searching for a comparable definition, I did find some very useful information on bullying sponsored by a joint effort of the US Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Justice, Agriculture and Interior.

On the website: stopbullying.gov, these agencies helpfully dispel certain myths associated with bullying and note that “Some people who are at risk for bullying others are well-connected to their peers, have social power, and at least one of the following:

• Are overly concerned about their popularity
• Like to dominate or be in charge of others

Others at risk for bullying others are more isolated from their peers and may have any of the following:

• Are depressed or anxious
• Have low self esteem
• Are less involved in school
• Are easily pressured by peers
• Do not identify with the emotions or feelings of others

Other risk factors for bullying others include the following:

• Being aggressive
• Have less parent involvement
• Think badly of others
• Are impulsive
• Are hot-headed and easily frustrated
• Have difficulty following rules
• View violence in a positive way

I wonder how many world political and corporate leaders fall into these categories? I wonder how many laws have been passed to facilitate the advance of this type of pathology? Is it possible that lawmakers and corporate leaders could be guilty of bullying, themselves? Could exemption from laws intended to protect people, and the aggressive engagement in activities that leave citizens as collateral damage be considered bullying?

Wait a minute… I began this post talking about defining US Citizens… that is, average folks, as terrorists here… not leadership or domestic and foreign policy. Right? But, there does seem to be a nagging similarity that I find a little unsettling.

Is it possible some folks don’t even realize they are bullies because they and their behavior is protected by policy and sanctioned, even nurtured and rewarded?

Few people realize that the US Government considers oil and gas revenues from leasing activities and associated royalties the second greatest source of US governmental revenue, after income taxation. Could this complicate the scenario and kind of make it like, I don’t know… the teacher protecting the bully and even engaging in a little bullying themselves? Does that ever happen – even on a playground? Yes it does.

The agencies on stopbullying.gov go on to explain the definition of bullying noting that:

Most agree that bullying involves:

• Imbalance of Power: people who bully use their power to control or harm and the people being bullied may have a hard time defending themselves
• Intent to Cause Harm: actions done by accident are not bullying; the person bullying has a goal to cause harm
• Repetition: incidents of bullying happen to the same the person over and over by the same person or group

They go on to explain types of Bullying, noting:

Bullying can take many forms. Examples include:

• Verbal: name-calling, teasing
• Social:spreading rumors, leaving people out on purpose, breaking up friendships 
• Physical: hitting, punching, shoving
• Cyberbullying: using the Internet, mobile phones or other digital technologies to harm others

Five important myths are also busted on the website, which I feel are important enough to mention here:

MYTH: People who bully are insecure and have low self-esteem. 

Many people who bully are popular and have average or better-than-average self-esteem. They often take pride in their aggressive behavior and control over the people they bully. People who bully may be part of a group that thinks bullying is okay. Some people who bully may also have poor social skills and experience anxiety or depression. For them, bullying can be a way to gain social status.

MYTH: Bullying usually occurs when there are no other students around. 

Students see about four out of every five bullying incidents at school. In fact, when they witness bullying, they give the student who is bullying positive attention or even join in about three-quarters of the time. Although 9 out of 10 students say there is bullying in their schools, adults rarely see bullying, even if they are looking for it. 

MYTH: Bullying often resolves itself when you ignore it. 

Bullying reflects an imbalance of power that happens again and again. Ignoring the bullying teaches students who bully that they can bully others without consequences. Adults and other students need to stand up for children who are bullied, and to ensure they are protected and safe. 

MYTH: All children will outgrow bullying. 

For some, bullying continues as they become older. Unless someone intervenes, the bullying will likely continue and, in some cases, grow into violence and other serious problems. Children who consistently bully others often continue their aggressive behavior through adolescence and into adulthood. 

MYTH: Teachers often intervene to stop bullying.

Adults often do not witness bullying despite their good intentions. Teachers intervene in only 14 percent of classroom bullying episodes and in 4 percent of bullying incidents that happen outside the classroom. 

On the website, these agencies recommend that  “Someone at immediate risk of harm because of bullying Contact the police – 911”. While I agree, this is good advice – all of this is good advice… I’m left to wonder… who do adults call and what number works when agencies become the bullies, sanctioning the bullying of corporations?

What happens when even the department of justice doesn’t pick up the line?

Could HR1540 and Senate version 1867 be misused as a convenient means of engaging tyranny? How many political representatives readily recognize themselves as bullies? As part of a system which nurtures bullying? Often the bully doesn’t recognize their own actions.

For all their best intentions, these proposals demonstrate exactly why Democracy inAmerica is at the very real risk of extinction, as is our sense of self as a country, our sense of selflessness and ethical directive.

Democracy works in America because we all agree to play by the same rules. But the rules have become voluminous and contradictory – even redundant. And to make matters worse, when corporations exempt themselves through political influence from laws intended to apply to all, you end up with favoritism, that can lead to unfair and disproportionate influence which begets more favoritism, until you left with a flag that is no more meaningful than the fabric it is displayed on. An emblem which is as hollow as its embossed lettering. A document representing freedom rendered as bereft and crumbling as its aged parchment.

We must help elected officials lead by being better and more fully informed. We have to safeguard the political process to help ensure the spirit and liberation of democracy is more than a footnote in history. We must actively ensure it is preserved for the application of future generations. We must do this by understanding the basis of our freedom, and investing the courage to defend it.

(Post continued below from 12-16-11 broadcast)

HR1460 and S1867 aim to invalidate due process and other liberties granted by the Bill of Rights — or, the first ten amendments of the US Constitution so valiantly fought for, over two hundred years ago by James Madison.

Given that wanton disregard for our country’s founding principals, I raise the question: How shall “suspected” or “terrorist” or “citizen” or “trial” be defined – and who would determine such parameters, if they are to be allowed at all?

Again, could such definitions be misused to wrongly target Americans lawfully engaging their Constitutional rights in order to, for instance, pursue, assemble and ditribute information about a topic of interest or one that poses a threat to their civil liberties? How about those who organize others for an educational or legislative effort? How about those who engage in peaceful protest? All of these are lawful within the framework of the Constitution, and, in fact, James Madison recognized all of these activities were engaged by our founding fathers, which led to the establishment of the United States, apart from English rule.

The rise of corporate domination over political process and policy in America has brought us to a crossroads of consideration – a point of catastrophic stress in a Constitutional system corroded and overburdened by meeting commercial objectives within a vehicle designed to serve the people by the consent of the people.

So, what are we to do? Preserve the intent and design of the Constitution? Or, abolish it in favor of a system of governance which serves the commercial interests of the few?

Through the insidious trifecta of ignorance, apathy and self-interest, our once strong democratic system has been undermined by the gradual displacement of freedoms by infringement.

Yet, we depend upon our freedoms in order to debate that which is controversial… innovate adaptable systems and means… and refine ourselves, while preserving our Constitution in response to evolve challenges.

In short, our Constitution allows and encourages our evolution as a governed society replete with new, rising challenges… challenges which are made surmountable by peaceful dissent and educated debate.

To deter free speech, peaceful dissent and reasoned debate, is to weaken the greatest potential of the Constitution. It can stand to scrutiny, and the very idea that it must be removed from an equation of political dissent is to disrespect its sterling principals as well as its founders and anyone who ever defended the individual and democratic freedom it represents.

Those Americans who are ignorant of the basis of their freedom are at grave risk of assigning those freedoms to others who would market them as objects of trade and negotiation.

If Congress would so readily consider invalidating the Bill of Rights, how quickly and easily might “subversive” become “anarchist” become “terrorist”?  Who is at risk, during what could develop into a political witch hunt against peaceful, law abiding US citizens?

For example, as officially  encouraged by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, I reported an instance of water contamination in West Divide Creek in 2008. The instance mirrored a similar event from 2004 in which hydraulic fracturing operations led directly to a blow out of a hundred and fifteen million cubic feet of natural gas into the creek and surrounding environment. The 2008 event was denied as having occurred by the state ofColorado, and is still denied. For three years, I waited for evidence to be collected quantifying the new gas seep. Finally it was, and in 2010, a suite of thermogenic gases were discovered indicating the seep was and still is related to natural gas development operations occurring in very near proximity. Yet, even as I reported this incident – as citizens are encouraged to do, and even as I pressed for an investigation into cause and scope of impact, the state of Colorado attempted to publicly discredit me on their website along with the documentary film Gasland. Essentially, the state called me a liar, and continues to do so despite evidence finally emerging as to the truth in my assertion.

Can truth, and our efforts to expose it – particularly in the interest of preserving human health and safety make us subversive? Enemies of the state and nation?  Anarchists?  Terrorists? On what list might we be placed? Who might obtain that list, and how might they act on it? Could we be interned indefinitely by military authorities without knowledge of charges against us or a trail by which we may be heard and defend ourselves? This new defense provision certainly seems to assert that possibility. So, ironically, I think it demands at least one round of public scrutiny and debate.

Jeff and Jodi Andrysick were labeled subversive for their work in producing a film entitled, “All Fracked Up”.

In a bulletin issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security, the film was deemed a threat and noted as such in this way, as made public when citizens received word they had been made the subject of tracking by the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security:

I have excerpted aspects of the “Pennsylvania Intelligence Bulletin No. 112” the report below – editing (by removing) superfluous paragraphs as well as various detailed components corresponding to named entities and specific locations. I believe the editorial adjustments have not materially affected the gist of the bulletin. The report was made public after this outrageous incident was exposed by the region’s public media.

>>>BEGIN EDITED REPORT<<<
16 July 2010
 
Sectors: Energy, Government Facilities
 
2. Increasing and Expanding Focus on Marcellus
 
Analysts have identified a new anti-gas documentary that follows in the tradition of the anti-gas-industry Gasland.  The new film, All Fracked Up.
 
As the film’s directors, Jeff and Jodi Andrysick from NY, explain:
 
“We were jolted into harsh reality this January when a predatory gas corporation picked our beautiful bucolic town to inject approx. 3/4 billion gallons of toxic brine into an abandoned gas well.  The toxic brine was a result of the earth regurgitating back high pressure toxic fluids used in hydro-fracking operations in PA.  …A massive grass roots movement occurred on Super Bowl Sunday at our fire hall with almost 500 people showing up on a cold frigid winter day.  They said ‘no, we won’t accept your toxic brine disposal well.’  The gas company rescinded their application. THE MORAL OF THE STORY: The people always win when they show up in numbers and demand their rights as citizens of this great American experiment – DEMOCRACY.”
 
The directors are marketing the film as a more hard-hitting version of Gasland, using militant rhetoric such as calling for “resistance” against the “shale army.”
 
Thus far, All Fracked Up screenings are slated for the NY area.  Showings are expected in PA after the end of July 2010.
  
The film Gasland contributed to the recent intensification of protests and rising anger among community and activist groups against Marcellus Shale drilling. Analysts believe that All Fracked Up will add to this adversarial sentiment.
 
Radical environmental groups may be particularly inspired by the film’s confrontational approach. 

It [is] likely that anarchists will be formally and informally sharing information regarding companies involved in oil and gas drilling in PA.

 
Eco-terror lone wolves or organized environmental militant cells may be inspired in the coming months to carry out significant “direct actions” targeting Marcellus Shale drilling concerns.

Threat / Indicator / Warning (T/I/W) Rating:

Low (level 4) = Available intelligence and recent events indicate that hostile elements currently have little capability or intent to take action against the target.  It is assessed that, although it cannot be ruled out, an attack or action is unlikely to be mounted based on current available intelligence.
 
Moderate (level 3) = Available intelligence and recent events indicate that hostile elements have the intent and capability to take action against the target.  It is assessed that an attack or action is likely to be a priority and might well be mounted.

>>>END REPORT<<<

The Department of Homeland Security uses the word “target” in the above bullitin. Geeze Louise. I think there needs to be some discretion here. It appears that not only is there no clear and evident distinction  given to genuine threats, but the entire cause of dissent and its perhaps unconstitutional irrationality is absent in this post… that is, exempting oil and gas operators from human health and environmental accountability. Don’t they think average law abiding citizens are going to notice how wrong that is, especially when people and animals start getting sick and begin to die? Don’t they think folks are going to react in a proportionate way? Good grief, it seems like that should have been predictable back when these exemptions were put in place.

Further, the bullitin references Jeff and Jodi’s use of “Militant” language. After nine long years of war in the mid-east, downplayed and defended as essential to our nation’s security, regardless of basis, we have become a culture forcibly inoculated against the accountable consequences of conflict. Military references have become common, even around the office water cooler.

The bulletin also specifies risks associated with “eco-terrorists”. What the heck is an eco-terrorist? Common sense tells me it’s someone who terrorizes the environment, but in this era of spin, I’m probably wrong.

I certainly felt terrorized when EnCana invaded our community. It was apocalyptic. Literally, we were shell-shocked by the unregulated activity… explosions that knocked a house askew of its foundation, huge black cumulous clouds descending on the valley for hours at a time, dead animals lying around, a creek we could light on fire. It was as if all the exemptions the industry had been given, amounted to a free pass to total annihilation of human health and the environment. But, I guess that the whole point of those kinds of exemptions. An absence of Clean Water, implies endorsement of toxic water… and when you begin to consume water laced with hydrocarbons and radioactivity, the risks are hard to accept, let alone ignore. An absence of compliance with “Clean Air” implies the endorsement of toxic air… and when you filter nearly 25,000 liters a day through your lungs… well, you get the picture.

In response to the bulletin, Jeff and Jodi included this disclaimer in their film:

“We are not the boogie man, not the devil, and not Bin Laden.  We’re just simple farmers who want to protect our water wells, aquifers, streams, rivers, and lakes from the extremely dangerous new technology called hydrofracking.  It is our hope that an immense, massively unstoppable army of educated citizens form.  Together they tell their friends, neighbors, communities, and elected officials of the dangers of hydrofracking and that they do not want hydrofracking in their state and use only peaceful non-violent resistance.”

The controversial subject of hydraulic fracturing involves a process by which millions of gallons of fresh water and a cocktail of toxic chemical compounds are injected into the subsurface in order to crack part rock and recover natural gas. There is no legal requirement for operators to disclose these chemicals – even patented nano-particles which can infiltrate the blood-brain barrier.

No study of fate or transport has ever been conducted on many of these chemicals – nor are they likely to… becuse they are all exempt from law.  Of those voluntarily disclosed to Congress as a component of a committee investigation ahead of EPA’s study on the subject, dozens of the known compounds were found to be carcinogenic.

The process of hydraulic fracturing has been linked directly to groundwater and surface water contamination in and around West Divide Creek in Colorado, and is suspected by the EPA of causing groundwater contamination in other areas of the US, including Pavilion, Wyoming.

Obviously, the process deserves the benefit of sound and thorough science as well as informed and robust debate.  In the film, Jeff and Jodi made it clear they were not in any way advocating anything beyond increased awareness and peaceful resistance to this extremely risky practice. Yet, Jeff and Jodi have been labeled subversives. Who is next… and, more importantly, why?

It has never been more important to safeguard and apply our freedoms of speech and assembly. Both are vital to the preservation of democratic integrity.

As I’ve said in my book, “As we defend our freedom, we must be ever alert to the ease of lifting our own saber, as its lightness may well indicate that we ourselves have become the oppressors.”

Relevant Links

My book: “You And What Army? How to Neutralize Conflict and Negotiate Justice for the Totally outgunned, Inwardly Timid, Burnt Out or Socially Defunct” www.youandwhatarmybook.com download now to your PC for .99 cents!

In Depth Perception – on the air:

“CLASSIFICATION TERRORIST: For the sake of convenient tyranny” Part One of Two

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indepthperception/2011/12/15/category-terrorist-for-the-sake-of-convenient-tyranny

CLASSIFICATION TERRORIST: For the sake of convenient tyranny” Part Two of Two – including an interview with Jeff Andrysick, co-producer of “All Fracked Up” (www.allfrackedup.com). 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indepthperception/2011/12/16/classification-terrorist-part-two-of-two

12.01.11 I can. You can. We Can

Generally speaking, as a species and as a country, we seem to be in a time of deeply rooted denial, slowly giving way to stark reality relative to conditions we have long taken for granted – conditions like global environmental stability, predictable weather patterns, relatively predictable crop conditions, populations and systems in place to provide for our needs of transportation, income, housing, administrative governance, and the like.

But these conditions are degrading, and we are just beginning to recognize how widely and completely.

Leading this decline is a man-made phenomenon of economic contraction, made more unstable and persistent solely by our resistance to innovation… innovation in the way of adapting our reactions, our approaches and our systems ahead of collapse, which is otherwise imminent.

For instance, relative to food production and consumption, during times of such contraction, we should decentralize ourselves and our systems; that is, redistribute our population into the countryside and, in doing so, reclaim agriculture from monopolizing corporate interests, thereby revitalizing and diversifying food growth, distribution and access to consumption, particularly in times of weather-born, economic and political uncertainty.

Don’t know how to do that?

A centralized educational system assures you don’t. Decentralizing education also into rural areas and redesigning core curricula would help assure those who wish to pursue such a lifestyle could do so reliably, by imparting specific skills useful in meeting such goals.

At our base, many of us have forgotten how to value independent thinking and action because many of us no longer even recognize what it is, let alone how to engage it.

We’ve forgotten how to think and act independently while aligning our efforts with others toward a common goal and assisting one another in achievement. Yet, this is our one and only path to recovery in times of crises… regardless of scale.

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics officially reports unemployment at around 9% – a relatively steady decline from a peak of around 10 % this same time last year.

However, as of November 4^th, John Williams’ of shadowstats.com reveals an unemployment number closer to 23% – a relatively steady climb from a low of around 21% this time last year.

Why the difference? There are all sorts of measures useful in skewing statistics. If you wanted to shrink a number and make it look at if unemployment were not so bad, you might suggest that those whose unemployment benefits have completely run out are no longer considered. They are of course, still unemployed… but not factored. These folks may have switched from unemployment roles to welfare roles.

You might also fail to count folks who have been out looking for a job so long, they have become habitually depressed and discouraged and are now not only without a job or welfare, but have finally become homeless.

No one seems to count those who have fallen so low as to or commit pretty crimes to win jail time in order to secure housing and a meal, or those turned away from jails due to overcrowding and lack of resources and who have simply removed themselves from the equation through suicide.

This improbable adherence to status quo and broad scale, systematic resistance to adaptation and innovation seems to endorse anarchy as a way of life or death as a way out. I’m not okay with that. Denial isn’t a terribly productive state from which to attempt to exist.

Unfortunately, denial is about the only state the US Congress seems capable of these days. Unable to come to a joint-decision on common sense budget cuts, the so-called “Super Committee’s” late-November failure at reasonable consensus will trigger deep, unexamined, across the board spending beginning in 2013. Having long been ineffective, it is sad to see Congress now becoming utterly irrelevant. But they are. It is what it is, so, enough about those in power incapable of critical analysis or productive action. Let’s look closer at the consequences of this state of affairs and what we as individual Americans can do to help realign our path forward.

Regardless of how statistics may be factored and flawed, on occasion, they match up and stand up to common sense. Those are the statistics I pay attention to, and here is one of those examples.

It was recently reported that 1 in 4 Americans don’t get enough to eat on a daily basis, and suffer hunger. One in four. That’s 25% of the population.

Now, most people don’t choose hunger as a lifestyle, so what would prevent them from obtaining food? A shortage certainly, but there is no food shortage inAmerica. So why else might children and adults not be getting enough to eat?

Food prices could play a part. Indeed, despite a strong supply of food and 25% less demand by those not eating any, food prices have continued to climb, as much as 20% in recent years according to a variety of reports. Gas prices and extreme weather are often blamed, as is excess profiteering in the game of commodity trading and speculation.

If American jobs paid income relative to the rate of inflation, food prices would still be relatively manageable, and food would still find its way to the kitchen table – in those cases where people still have a home for themselves and a table to put in it.

So, this leaves jobs. Without adequate paying jobs, or any job at all with which to earn a “living” and thereby live through the purchase and consumption of food, people go hungry. A lot of people. Twenty five percent of people – nearly the same statistical number of those who also happen to be unemployed.

Is Congress to blame – well yes, as they have allowed the corporitization ofAmericaand every system we’ve come to rely on. And we are to blame because we’ve elected ineffective leaders. Really, it’s just a massive cluckercluck of interrelated, corruption, denial and collapse.

Our complacence, our deference, our assignment of responsibly to others has now made us dependent on fragile systems monopolized by commercial entities influencing governmental policy to keep it that way. After all, what better market to squeeze and leverage than a country full of co-dependent consumers with no knowledge of how to do anything differently?

But that doesn’t mean we have to be doomed, unless we just want to be. And some admittedly do. But not me. And probably not you. Life is simply too full of endless promise to let that happen.

Somehow… contrary to pre-programmed consumerism mentality advanced by conglomerate entities interested in profit over people… real, everyday, average Americans are beginning to do things differently. A simple sense of self will, community and faith are causing them to step outside of their own need and help those who are even more disadvantaged than themselves.

They are relying on common sense rather than just PhDs. They are reaching out to their neighbor, with real hands, not just the internet. They are rejecting contradictory rhetoric in favor of reality as they and others are experiencing it. They are working locally for one another, not in some centralized operation stationed in some centralized urban location serving a cental bank account removed from shared costs, invesments and rewards.

And they are acting in the interest of someone besides themselves to help another stand.

This Thanksgiving, two women stood out in my mind as examples of dogged self determination, and persistent devotion to humanity in the face of overwhelming odds.

Five days a week, public school chef, Cheryl Barbara prepares and serves along with her co-workers, lunch to kids in a severely disadvantaged district inConnecticut. She knows many of the students she serves ‘go without’ on daily basis, and she knows the food she personally provides for them may be the only food they see throughout the week, which is why she goes beyond planning means like ‘Pasta Mondays’ to make up for a deficit in weekly nutritional needs, and tries to provide a little extra sustenance to those kids who may not get a meal over the weekend at all.

Elderly, Miss Georgiana volunteers five days a week at St. James’s Christian Café inNewark,New Jerseyto cook up warm meals for an average of 150 people who are typically in additional need of shelter and fellowship. Every day she rises and serves the need beyond her own… like Cheryl, she serves beyond her fatigue and frustration. Even with a broken arm and a dilapidated, burnt-out shell of a kitchen, Miss Georgiana serves – that was, until Chef Irvine of Food Network’s Kitchen Impossible stepped to the plate and revitalized her cooking space.

In a disintegrating system of food production, distribution and consumption, there is no doubt in my mind that these two ladies provide a critical and direct physical link to the survival of hundreds of people on a daily basis. That is a tremendous load to bear and tremendous calling to serve. Yet they do it… without padded salaries, accolades, recognition or even any certainly of tomorrow. They just answer a higher calling, find the strength, the creativity, the means… and they simply do it.

So, let’s help these ladies, and everyone else out there who may not have the opportunity to share their story, but who do the heavy lifting nonetheless.

Let’s expand our capacity to care and assist. Let’s elevate our expectations, beginning with ourselves and reach out to elevate others.

Let’s act independently in the spirit of cooperation and togetherness to get ourselves back on the track we know is waiting for our decision and participation. I can. You can. We can. That’s the real promise of today and tomorrow. So, in the spirit of Cheryl and Miss Georgiana, let’s just do it.

11.17.11 The power of reality. The power of one.

Over the past two weeks it was reported that Russian cosmonauts emerged from an isolation module the size of a bus, in which they spent a year and a half together sequestered from the rest of the world on a simulated return voyage from Mars. While the men noted their ability to cope well with imposed adversarial conditions, the researchers monitoring the exercise also noted the psychological stress associated with the mock mission, made more bearable through the demands of – like real space missions, a busy daily schedule.

Researchers noted that stress associated with a simulation mission is generally worse than that of a real mission, given the absence of euphoric moments of discovery and achievement. I have to wonder though… how much stress might have been associated from moments realizing that – 14 months in and everything you’re engaged in is essentially pointless? The sacrifice, the attention to detail, the genuine effort toward success… all to serve… well… nothing.

Of course the mission served in an abstract way, the study of certain conditional aspects of what ‘might’ be reality, but for real… every ounce of energy the men put into their daily affairs served only one very real purpose – to survive forced capsule incarceration and emerge alive in 520 days. I bet that felt pretty real when one guy decided he wanted the only window seat the whole time.

Simulations offer an extraordinary opportunity to test responses to anticipated conditions. But what happens when conditions occur outside the scope of anticipation?

Also in the past two weeks, a jet aircraft had to make an emergency landing when the co-pilot radioed to authorities that the pilot had “disappeared into the back” of the plane and the co-pilot was now recieivng directives from someone with a thick foreign accent attempting to access the cockpit. Can you image what that co-pilot must have been thinking? He had no idea of course that the pilot had simply gotten stuck in the bathroom and the person with the accent was merely trying to inform the co-pilot of the situation. Every scrap of simulated training told that co-pilot to be on his toes, and I bet he was seriously considering plan B, which might have included a quick trip to the bathroom himself. Although the plane made an emergency landing in LaGuardia, everything settled down before the fighter jets scrambled.

If you stop and think about it, we simulate a lot things, and not just for training purposes… we engage in facsimile environments relative to everything from social interactions to competitive sports on television-based gaming stations. TV, itself, provides a portal into what looks real, but can be easily manipulated by production means and PR people.

Good grief, even the stock market is simulated wealth and security. Traded speculation kept it hovering (even on a 1700 point loss) at 11,700 on the 17^th, even at a time when so much of the country is without jobs, homes, hope for the future.

We simulate health and mood through pharmaceuticals. We simulate food through genetic modification and additives. 

With so much emphasis on what we can design and pass off as real, I’m beginning to think maybe we have forgotten the value of reality altogether.

Given these circumstances, it’s not too surprising that our own federal Congress can no longer recognize even a vegetable. I don’t think some of them would recognize a carrot if it jumped out the ground and sliced itself into their salad. Just today they ruled that pizza is now a vegetable. I know there are a lot of folks out there suffering identity crises – men wanting to be women and vice versa… but I’ve never known a carrot who wanted to be a pizza or vise versa.

Congress can’t even recognize the limits of its own power, and now thinks it can simply proclaim something… as something it’s not… just because they say so.  Congress says the bail out of banks and a failure to prosecute was fine, so we’re supposed to believe it’s fine. Congress says the stock market indicates the economy is fine, so we’re supposed to believe it’s fine. Congress says a pizza is really a carrot, and we’re supposed to believe that. Congress says corporations are people, and we’re supposed to believe that too.

That kind of thinking says a lot about how our fabrications are failing us at every turn. We are now so mired in what we think is real – from education to energy – we cannot recognize the value in things as they are, and work within that framework to preserve and develop the greatest potential within… and that goes for the potential of our systems and the potential of our selves.

All this imitation has cost us our identities – including our flaws and our latent means of overcoming them.  It has allowed us to dwell in a place of dysfunctional and destructive denial. We lose our ability to discern reality as it is. And that costs us personal accountability and the chance to better ourselves and our world as it is serving us or failing us.

So what is real? Andy Rooney passed on over these past two weeks. That was real. He was beloved by so many, and encouraged writers to write the truth. That’s something to remember as real consequences mount against our ability to recognize and embrace them.

Real is the majestic 65 foot tree chopped out of the Sierra Nevada forest on November fifth to whither in front of the US Capitol in a ceremony marking a season of ‘good will’, and incidentally infusing a the Hill with a bumped up round of tourism.

Real is the Occupy Movement’s ‘Move Your Money Day’ in which an idea begun and shared on Facebook translated into 80 million in deposits relocated from big banks to credit unions.

Real is Dorli Rainey, an 84 year old woman drenched in mace by Seattle police on the 16^thas she demonstrated what she believed was real… a real opportunity to physically occupy a space in her home town and display real discontentment over real and degrading conditions, really affecting her as granted by the real authority of the US constitution. Real is when just one person stands against mass delusion and challenges the artificial perceptions that define our boundaries, our subscriptions, our applications, our conscious regard and common sense.

As we continue to react to our own perceptions blurred by the inability to recognize what is real and what is imitation, what is natural and what is forced, what is acceptable and what is unconscionable… the challenge to grow beyond what is limiting us grows more complex and challenging.

Full immersion in reality; interaction with the physical; investigation of the holistic and unvarnished truth; our embrace of the flawed and uncomfortable; and, the rejection of synthetics in favor of authenticity – this is what will rescue us from ourselves and our imposed notions of an ideal reality.

Until we do, we are destined for a genuine collapse, and if we aren’t prepared to accept reality as it is today, the eventuality of a harsher tommorrow is sure to impose even an even greater and very real sense of shock.

11.03.11 Accountability and Conviction – Engines of Reform and Revolt

This past week a rare snow storm hit the East Coast widely blanketing the region with snow and challenging the protestors of New York City’s, Occupy Wall Street movement to remain stalwart in their convictions despite being without propane tanks and generators.

The tanks and generators, cited as illegal safety hazards, had been removed under order of Mayor Bloomberg just ahead of the storm. They were dutifully gathered and removed by New York City fire teams, leaving protestors to huddle in tents, under sleeping bags and by whatever manner they may be able to avoid exposure.

It’s interesting that, in this situation, hypothermia isn’t considered a safety hazard, but taking steps to avoid it is.

Really, this bassackward thinking isn’t all that unusual in our modern era. Increasingly, common sense continues to take a back seat to political agenda cloaked as efforts to help ensure public safety and welfare.

After all, propane is a product of natural gas – a resource currently being exploited through all commercialized political channels to the wide exclusion of the development of alternative, sustainable, safer, cleaner energy sources. Domestic drinking water poisoned from natural gas operations somehow assures our energy future even as the fuel itself is being exported to other nations. Somehow, smoking a cigarette in a lounge is unsafe, but a natural gas rig can be erected out your backdoor, belching unmeasured and unreported toxic emissions twenty-four hours a day.

An Iraq war veteran was injured in an Occupy Oakland police riot by a projectile in the course of exercising his Constitutional right to free speech and assembly.  Apparently, his duty in Iraq to defend the merit of our Constitution was in the best interest of the public’s safety, but, his efforts to uphold these rights in his own country was worthy of punishment.

WTF? has never rung truer in the age of asinine, self-serving policy.

The other piece of news that caught my attention this week is based on reports that following the execution of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son and other high level officials are seeking refuge in friendly neighboring nations in order to evade prosecution by the International Criminal Court, currently pursuing the former officials for war crimes.

Given the long-established network of allegiances in the dessert borderlands between nations, and today’s shifting murk of international politics, the men fleeing failed governance, revolt and accountability are likely to be safely received.

Just as criminals fromLibya seek to absolve themselves of accountability in order to escape conviction, protesters of Occupy Wall Street are exercising stalwart personal conviction in order to help bring accountability toWall Street, Oakland and elsewhere inAmerica.

Obviously, it is not in society’s interest when people act with impunity, whether as individual dictators or cloaked as corporate persons. There must be accountability for one’s actions.

As Anthony Accetta has noted in his book, You The Jury: How Wall street Cashed in on the American Dream and Nearly Killed it, “What is not deterred becomes an incentive.”

Ignored justice incentivizes corruption which over-pressurizes an otherwise healthy, democratic system capable of absorbing conflict and translating it into productive reform.

When unjust actions persist and cannot be defended against the collective sensibilities of a fair society, then they and those who engage in them are bound to be brought to justice.

The longer the oppressive conditions persist and the greater the systemic resistance to reform, the more robustly fairness and justice will be sought by the oppressed.

When masses rise against a prevailing but failing system, whether that system is one of Libyan, Syrian, American or other making, the reasons behind individual dissent should not be lost through a distorted view of mass revolt, which can cloud resolvable issues and shift the focus from productive action to one of disproportionate defense.

Accountability summoned through conviction… is this not the engine of reform which spontaneously generates from within as well as without?

Conditions giving rise to dissent can be managed and made into a benefit for all stakeholders, simply through the tandem actions of awareness and adaptation.

Unexamined resistance from opposing parties typically confounds forward movement and only compounds conflict.

The telling convergence here is: With or without asylum, with or without generators, the quest for accountability will fuel conflict wherever it goes unmet.

10.27.11 What do 7-billion plus 10-billion really add up to?

This week it was reported that the world population was pushed over the 7- billion mark by the theoretical birth of a child somewhere on the planet.

More than the product of an algorithm, we know this person is a boy or a girl. We know they are living, breathing and in need of a safe, nurturing home. We know they will need food, water, shelter… but also education and opportunity if they are to grow into their astonishing potential and contribute to the astonishing potential of a global community.

We also know our planet cannot continue to provide security, shelter, opportunities – even basic life sustaining resources for everyone in perpetuity – especially when we adhere to unsustainable production and consumption models in our agriculture, transportation, communication – all manner of productivity.

Here’s the other piece of converging news. Exxon Mobil’s third quarter profits just tipped 10-billion. We know the fossil fuel industry is advances a wholly unsustainable business model of production and consumption. We know that  energy underlies everything we do, which enables the fossil fuel industry to wield incredible influence over our patterns of consumer consumption.

We know that in 2010, the fossil fuel industry poured hundreds of millions of lobby dollars into the US Congress in order to influence federal economic policy and actual federal laws which force American dependence on oil, coal and natural gas.

These laws help assure future demand, which encourages investors to feel more comfortable ahead of critical investment in things like operational, delivery and refinement infrastructure.

We know that hydrocarbons are a main component of synthetic plastics. We know that microparticles of plastic have been found on every beach in the world. We know there is a massive vortex of plastics drawn into the ocean conveyor somewhere up near the North Sea. What else do we know? We know the production of carbon is wreaking havoc with planetary weather systems and food production in kind, creating floods, drought, fire and famine.

We know the oceans are acidifying and reefs are dying. We know our planet is in the throws of another mass extinction – insects and amphibians the first to take a nose dive.

Many of us also recognize the telling convergence of these two events: Without a transition to renewable energy neither the baby born this month, nor any of us will have the future we all deserve and have an obligation to help ensure.

Are we to adhere to the low standards of the fossil fuel industry and perish as a part of the mass extinction, or are we to evolve as we can and should into a more equitable, peaceful and productive world population?

This is the telling convergence I see. What do you see?