Saturday, October 4, 2014
Big Will Sitton
My Grandaddy was known as "Big Will Sitton, born in 1888. He was in his teens before he laid eyes on an automobile. When he learned to drive a car as opposed to driving a team of horses, there were no paved roads just muddy ones. So he developed the habit of not wanting to stop his vehicle. If you stopped you were stuck in the mud. He consequently ran lots of stop signs his entire life. The process of Grandaddy's driving is where I learned a lot of "cuss" words. Everyone was always in his way and were often "damn fools" for gittin' in his way...and the SOBs ought to by god be took out and hanged.
My earliest preschool memories of him include being placed up on the seat of his wagon as he worked the barbed wire fence line with the team of horses setting posts...building fence. He put me down on the ground and showed me a nettle, warning me of its painful sting. In East Texas they were called "bull nettles". Sure enough I got into one and got stung. I cried and complained. So Grandaddy said,"pee on it!"...which I proceeded to do right away. He said, "feel better now?" I said, "uh huh", shaking my head up and down.
Will Sitton was born a few miles from Lindale, Texas in Smith County. For a few years he was a contractor rebuilding oil well pumps in one of the early Texas oil fields near Burkburnett,Texas, Wichita County discovered in 1912. He made enough money to pay cash for 105 acres of land in northern Smith County of the S.M. Grace survey. The price was $800 and in doing so in 1921, he reclaimed some of the original land purchased in the 1800s by Sittons and later lost in a tax sale on the steps of the county courthouse. His pump rebuilding business involved the use of a specially trained team of horses who obeyed his voice commands as the pump was pulled from the depths one sucker rod at a time. Forward and back by voice command as Grandaddy disassembled the rods. Upon finally getting the pump to the surface, he disassembled it and rebuilding it followed by placing it back into the hole in the ground in the same manner.
Paying cash for 105 acres of land in 1921 was quite of feat for a man who was a farmer because the Great Depression of the 1930s came early for farmers...it came in the 1920s for them. They had supplied WWI and Europe with the food to fight the war and recovery but when the war ended, food production for the war and it's aftermath soon stopped causing the price of farm products to fall drastically, setting the stage for the crash of the stock market in 1929. That's when the Lindale State Bank failed in Lindale, Texas and my other Grandfather, Pete Malone lost all the money he had.
I was somewhat inspired by country life and farm animals so as a senior in high school in Tyler, Texas I participated in vocational agriculture and was a member of the FFA. I bought two 2yr. old heifers. One was a Guernsey and when she calved the calf died and I had to learn how to milk quickly. Each morning I was up quite early and drove from Tyler to Lindale to milk my cow. Big Will also milked his cow so we waded through the morning dew together to milk. After the job was done, my Grannie Margaret Amy Mason Sitton, strained the fresh milk and had breakfast on the table ready for my Grandad and I to sit down for breakfast. ...hot biscuits, cane syrup, black berry jelly, eggs, sausage...every morning, then back to Tyler for school. Looking back those mornings seem like a treasure...how many teens would have had such a thing of value to later day dream about?
Back to an earlier memory, pre-school age, I remember the Sitton hog killing. It usually was a frosty cold October morning. Grandad's Sitton cousins came to help; three or four pairs of extra hands for the hard work. A wood fire was built under a metal barrel of water. The action took place under a massive oak tree close to the hog pen, to which a block and tackle was attached on a very large overhanging limb. The hog were killed and bled out very quickly and hoisted up above the hot water and dipped to clean and soften the skin. This was followed by a lot of scraping and dipping. The hog was then gutted and the head removed. Grandad chopped and sawed the hog in half from rear to front with his ax and hand saw. They raised very fat hogs in those days (1940s) so as to render the fat to make lard for house hold use in the kitchen. This cooperative activity was standard for people who were "self reliant". Favors were always reciprocated. The daughter of one of those cousins, Ruby Sitton Robertson, recently deceased, told me "Will Sitton was always ready to help anyone who asked for a hand to get things done. He often robbed bee hives for people."
Another early memory was of a family gathering at the home place. I think it was just after WWII and all the sons and inlaws were home from the war. The atmosphere was festive. It so happen that a lone horse wandered up the long drive way from the dirt road, a horse no one recognized just a stray. One of the men came up with a devilish idea to get the horse to go back home. The idea was put in action and got instant results. An empty gallon can with a few rocks inside was tied to the horses tail and a quick slap came down on the horses rear. The noise of the can with the rocks sent the poor horse into a full run jumping and kicking in an unsuccessful attempt to rid himself of the can. We watched as the horse ran down the long lane, turned right and ran over the RR, up the hill and out of site still at a kicking run. The group of men laughed themselve to loosing their breath. They bent over slapping their thighs and had faces tortured with uncontrolled laughter. It seemed like a group of Indians dancing around. I smile as I play the memory in my head! Only one of those men is alive today. It seems like such a long time ago and my heart feels heavy. A lump comes up in my throat with longing for the innocence of my childhood. It was not a very nice thing to do to a poor lost animal...but I did not know that at the time.
Isn't it amazing...all the memories that die with every person who walks through that garden wall?
Hog killin. Cow milking. horse can kicking
Monday, September 29, 2014
America is Not a Country, It's a Business
A government which functions on the basis of Democracy means that ordinary people are involved in decision making as opposed to decisions made by fiat by the elite. This broad inclusion of participation should be the only requisite for open debate and discussion. The expressed opinion of ordinary people does count. Yes, there are certainly dangers of taking action based on the latest opinion poll! But the danger of rule by the effete is just as great if not a greater danger. It was alleged from the beginning that a republican form of government would deliver the result of "government by the People", thus eliminating the dictatorial nature of a tyrannical government. But after an experiment in government of more than 200 years, is democratic republican government what we now have? No it is not. The experiment has failed by evolution toward the side of tyranny.
One of the most influential Founding Fathers was Alexander Hamilton and in his commentary on the new Constitution presented in The Federalist No. 11, there may be revealed one of the major reasons for the disastrous erosion of the power and influence of the common people on the government which in modern times rules their lives. Hamilton was in a position as the first Secretary of the Treasure to put his ideas of economics into reality and in so doing to precurse the history of the United States. The perfect example of this is the issue of slavery. During the formation and deliberation of the Declaration of Independence some members of the Continental Congress were against allowing slavery to continue and others were for it. The issue was put off; slavery was continued based on economic reasons. The moral issue of slavery was postponed until The American Civil War based on economics. Economics and industry has always been the strong suit for the United States. What a massive commercial, industrial, and economic juggernaut we became. The question is "has this strong suit of capitalism become the weak suit for the original inalienable rights we tried to establish in the course of human history? We have granted the balance of power to economics and commerce over human rights!
The Founding Fathers, gentry that they were, were somewhat fearful of pure democracy. Using the term populists, or populism, they considered such democracy unstable and conducive to insurrection,they anticipated a deadlocked government disabled by extreme passions. Observing the events of the French Revolution would lend some credence to these views. The French Revolution ushered in a temporary tyranny of the new French Citizen and executed so many without the benefit of due process. Shying away from pure democracy they chose the republican form. In a similar way the evolution of the republican form under the guidance of American business interests has stolen the power of the populace and and awarded that power to American business, commerce, and industry. The scales are tipped. The People are at a loss. The power of voting for representatives has been relinquished into the hands of those who have the money to buy it.
With the last line of the movie, "Killing Them Softly", Brad Pitt says, "America is not a Country, it's a business".
Sunday, December 22, 2013
A World Which Did Not Exist
Winter solstice 2013. My thoughts go back to Christmas 1945 or 1946. I had perfect parents and perfect grandparents. They met every need but added so much more above the necessities of life. I was just a child of 3 or 4 years. On Christmas morning(now-a-days I do not spell that with a capital C) I awoke to a beautiful electric train all set up on the wood floor in front of the gas space heater which I still have in my garage almost 70 years later. The train was all metal, perfect in every detail. Its whistle sounded so real like the massive steam engines which thundered past our back door at all hours of the night shaking the ground as we tried to sleep. There on a side track one train would wait on the other to pass while it hissed and blasted steam in a night shattering game of waiting. When it was finally clear to go, the monster would begin a rhythmic series of massive blast of steam and slowly increase its rhythm eventually fading into the night. The idea of Santa Claus was so magical and exhilarating...he brought me a toy train. Mother and Dad poured their essence into making my sister and I happy. I can still see the single strand of tree lights with heavy cord, large bulbs all of which seemed to last 20 years or more. We were allowed to put the lead based "icicles" on the tree...the presents under the tree were off limits.
It seems that was the year my uncle Ken came back from the Navy and the war in the Pacific to reunite with his bride, my aunt Helen at our home. He was laden with gifts which he purchased from the Japanese in Tokyo, Japan. For me he brought a tiny Japanese camera which would fit into the palm of my small hand.It had real film and took real pictures. For my sister there was a hand painted picture of her on a silk roll painted by a Japanese artist from a black and white snap shot. The colors were vivid, the lips so red like the lips of a Geisha. I remember one other gift which I never considered to be good because I was terrified of chief Wahoo, a carved coconut with a fearsome glare on his face. His angry eyes were embedded seashells with great black pupils on bulging white eyes. His face was painted in warpaint, bearing his teeth in a menacing grimace. At his ears hung long dangling sea shells. It seemed I could see his fearsome face even in the dark and could never sleep in the same room. I would never enter the room without a tight grip on Mother's hand.
Looking back it seems that I grew up sheltered from the hardships and the sorrows of life. I knew mostly joy and laughter...with out want, because in one way or another I was always in the grip of my Mother's or my Daddy's hand...and looking back, I realize, now that they are all gone, that world only existed in my mind and my oblivion was nothing like the reality of the rest of the world in 1945. More than 50 million people were killed in WWII, including more than 300,000 American service men and women. Millions across the globe were left with scars which I never laid eyes on. Radiation burns, wounds of war, combat fatigue, empty chairs at the dining table.
I grew into the 1950s and 60s. Safe neighborhoods, walking to school, then bicycling, lots of guys in the neighborhood, sharing an idyllic life in the perfect post-war family nor really realizing that negro children in my town Tyler Texas, didn't have it so great. There was a public swimming pool 5 blocks from my house where no Negroes came. I hardly noticed. There were no Negroes in any of my schools. I became of age, got a license and a car. When I joined the military service in 1960, for the first time in my life the people in charge said, "there will be no discrimination regarding race or creed". I slept in a bunk next to Negroes and ate with them at the chow hall. When I later enrolled in college, there were just a few black students, from foreign countries.
One of those students was a black man from Nigeria in his early 30s. Three slash marks on each cheek...of royal blood. In Nigeria he had been a school principal, a Baptist minister, a father of three children who with his wife waited for his return. He was a product of Southern Baptist missionary work there and came to East Texas for college. He was however not welcome at any Southern Baptist church in Harrison county Texas because he was black and was told to go to the local black churches. He visited and slept in my home, ate at my table. His name was Benjamin Adawoosi. It's been almost 50 years.
No...the world I thought existed did not.
Gradually over time I have become a skeptic.Some people call me a pessimist because I have become someone who insists on facing realities. I am so dissatisfied with reality because I believe that people can actually choose to be good and to do good. There are lots of people doing good...it just seems that they are not the ones in charge. I believe that democracy would work if we actually tried it. Eventually it will be tried...in the work place. That's where it will do the most good; businesses owned and controlled by the people who work there. Practicing democracy at work.
Winter Solstice 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
Letter to President Obama
President Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President,
The Declaration of independence states the basic purpose of government, "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,...; securing the rights of The People. National Security therefore should mean to secure liberty and civil rights to the nations citizens. The "just powers" to carry out this purpose are derived "from the consent of the governed". But how can The People consent to what is kept secret? How can the powers of the government be controlled if the People do not have the opportunity to consent or decline? In a republic, representatives exist to represent citizens. I was struck by the last line in the movie Killing Them Softly when it concluded that "the United States is a business"...similar to a conclusion which I have over time come to: that "the national interests" are synonymous with "business interests". This corruption of representation has degraded the essential element of representation of its ordinary citizens, replacing it with Fascism. It follows that we no longer have a republic.
You know from my letter of October 28, 2009 that I voted and campaigned for you in '08. I hesitatingly voted for your second election. However my support and lack of support is tempered by your own challenge that we who elected you hold you accountable. Since both your elections, I have been disappointed. The basis of my disappointment is contained the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth amendments to the Constitution. You, federal, state, and local governments are "infringing" on our civil rights. The purpose of government according to the Declaration of Independence , is to secure that cloud of inalienable rights. When government fails in this duty, The People have a right to change it. But how can the common citizens change the government in the face of literally billions of dollars of power injected by the multinational corporations while SCOTUS backs their power grab? The only hope appears to be some form of revolution. A violent revolution is not an option because during such an event the citizens would be slaughtered. It therefore appears that system is beyond our reach and growing more sequestered. President Lincoln reiterated this right saying the Citizen has the right to "...rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better..." But the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, and the suppression of civil rights is turning our country into an Orwellian police state. The corporations buy anything they want...auctioned off to the highest bidder. John Q. Citizen has 0% political power. Many Americans are very dissatisfied with this state of affairs. I among them feel that you are leading us deeper into this bad dream, when you should be leading us out of it. Sir, to these actions of government I do not consent.
The American people have not had the opportunity to consent to the present status of government surveillance which infringes on our privacy. A photo of every piece of mail! Really? The fourth amendment is being violated. As you have said, we need to have that dialogue. Many in government seem to think that the people are too ignorant to have a discussion before a government action. We seem to do so when there's a leak which reveals some of the truth. I recently read Legacy of Ashes, a well documented account of on the record information showing how our foreign policy for 60 years has operated outside international law and US law...that is if we could expect the CIA to operate within its Charter. Billions of tax dollars and illegal dollars to do what? Promote democracy and human rights? No! The "national business interests"! The cold war was advertized as a fight for democracy vs. communism, but was it? It was a fight to make sure our multinational corporations could continue their corporate Colonialism. We removed democratically elected governments and leaders in foreign countries beginning with Iran in 1953, installing dictators who would provide stability for capitalism, "free markets". We do not promote democracy internationally, we promote "free markets". Everyone and everything is bought. In '08 you said you would change this. That's why you won the election! You said you would "change how Washington works". You have let us down! You doubled down on serving the big corporations. The People have no Voice! You had a mandate! You know the Constitution. It was your oath to defend it! What a glorious administration yours would have been had you done what the People elected you to do because they are tired of big bank Republican government, big money, global government. It is past time for someone to defend the Constitution not the corporation! I do not consent!
Some of the accusations which the Declaration hurled at King George III can now be leveled at our own governments, federal, state, and local. "He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power"..."For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us"..."For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury". Sir, state, federal, and local police engage in enforcement of criminal, and regulator laws with armed squads in riot gear, weapons drawn and overwhelming force. The People have not consented to the present police state atmosphere where law enforcement across the nation line up with weapons and tear gas against peaceable assemblies where citizens protest and air their grievances as is their right. The nation is criminalizing dissent! Why did you not protect the citizens exercising their First Amendment Rights during the Occupy Movement? On this issue you seem to have lined up on the side of the Orwellian-like state, not on the side of The People.You seem to ignore their expressions of outrage at the felonious activities of the banking industry and the abuses of giant corporations. You have carried on the Bush era Republican big bank policy of "non-prosecution" of Wall Street's felons with "deferred prosecution agreements", while you are determined to fight the ignominious War on Drugs against the common citizen. It is the right of The People to expect that the words of the pledge, "...with liberty and justice for all" be true not false, that the 1% abide by the laws of the land like the 99%, and be prosecuted with the same vigor as the poor! It appears that there has arisen a two tiered system of justice, one protecting the elite from prosecution from their felonies and another going hard after the poorest of the nation. The People resent this!Officials in the present government are unwilling to "do justice", they just want to talk justice. We hear a lot of that on the Fourth of July. Perhaps the speech of Fredrick Douglas on July 4 1852 should be repeated annually. Speaking of the nation he said, "I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot: for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins". He stated, "...the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced." But we prosecute the whistle blowers who expose criminals rather than the government criminals, the war criminals and the banking criminals, letting the real criminals go free. I do not consent to these actions of government! How can The People in this course of human events, make a new Declaration of Independence from this tyranny?
I confess that I have succumbed to some form of American radicalization which was mentioned in your Drone speech. I think many on the left of the political spectrum have drifted in that direction.In the days of the Cold War, George Kennan was perhaps considered a radical because he voiced his opinion that our foreign policy should be the political containment of communism not exclusively military containment. He said that the foreign policies we carried out actually created much of the hostility and the threat which we blamed on the Russians. We are doing the same thing today. Creating 100 terrorists when we kill 10. While you are concerned about the radicalization of Americans, many Americans are immensely concerned about the radicalization of the government. Our "democratic" government is terrorizing its own citizens! Many are afraid of the government. I have some fear that there could be some form of reprisals against me because I am expressing my honest opinions of what our government has gradually become. Americans are tired of government secrecy, of attacks on dissent, and on Freedom of the Press, the last line of defense against government corruption and criminality. We cannot trust the government to police its own behavior , or the banks and corporations to monitor themselves to abide by the law. They write our legislation because the Legislative Branch of government is too busy soliciting re-election money. Mr. President, why are you attacking whistle blowers and journalists? Who will expose the white collar criminals, government criminals and war criminals if journalists fear they will be prosecuted for exposing criminal behavior? You are terrorizing journalists!Why does the Constitution guarantee freedom of the press? When government classifies massive amounts of information, who will hold individuals or the government accountable? We are tired of the perpetual wars and the Orwellian-like "war atmosphere". Big Brother knows best saying, "we can't reveal our government secrets...trust us". Richard Nixon is known to have said, "If its secret, its legal". The Founding Fathers did not trust government in any form. They would be repulsed and horrified by our militarism, our police state atmosphere, this retreat behind classified information hidden from the scrutiny of the American People. Why should government have total access to all the information of our lives but we are not permitted to know enough about what the government does to give or withhold the consent of a democratic people. Sir I do not consent to these policies of government.
I am specifically very displeased that you signed the NDAA into law on Dec. 31, 2012 with the provision of indefinite detention of US citizens by the United States military. I am equally dissatisfied that you have failed to close Guantanamo Prison. And I am totally exasperated and appalled that Congress passed both the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act with the violations of Civil Rights contained therein. For these government actions I do not give my consent. With St. Augustine, I must agree that "an unlawful law is no law at all"...especially when it is in conflict with the Constitution and the very principles of the Declaration of Independence. These are basic American ideals! It does not and should not require a law degree to understand their meaning!
The international community became quite disappointed with the United States during the Bush Administration and our "war on terror" with one sordid revelation after another: lies, no WMD, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and a policy of torture. We regularly place our international activities above international law. We helped create the ICC but refuse to recognize its jurisdiction over our own actions. We have made our military and civilian contractors into mercenaries, exempt from international law. The best soldier is the citizen as Stephen Ambros suggests in Citizen Soldier. The world disapproves of our attempts to be in charge of the globe. That's why so many hate us. It is time we reestablish the precept found in the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, to have "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind...". We should forsake these actions in fact as well as in political speeches. I do not consent to such illegal shame.
Mr. President, I live in the Congressional District of Louie Gohmert and have Ted Cruz and John Cornyn as Congressional and Senatorial "representation". I have no representation! I have consistently voted the Democratic ticket for my entire life. Here in Tyler Texas only the corporations are represented...along with the political and religious fundamentalists. My best friend, an attorney who has had 5 brain surgeries related to Parkinsons Disease goes out to fight the carbon industry and the Keystone pipe line in East Texas. For my Texas Representatives, big oil is a "slam dunk"...to hell with the environment and anything which carries out one of the stated purposes for writing The Constitution, to "...promote the general welfare".
I realize that this letter seems harsh and negative. But the first step in changing things for the better is facing the facts. God knows I have a broken heart about our sordid past of slavery, racism, genocide of the Native of our land, a foreign policy which focuses more on business "interests" than on basic harmony between nations, a government which has been hijacked by corporate money, and the continued theft of the American Dream by the 1%. Its time for the US government to listen to people like me. In the same way that the Declaration of Independence was an expression of outrage, as it was also recognition of what government ought to be, the Bill of Rights was an expression of general distrust for government, and an attempt to avoid the slippery slope of tyranny. The People must control the government or...the government will control the people. I respect the office of President of The United States and I respect you Mr. President as a gifted man, dedicated, of good intentions, and with a good heart. In '08, we were thrilled beyond measure with optimism and elated in anticipation that finally a man who knows both sides of America will act on the promise we remember so well, "to change how Washington works". Everyone knew then an knows now "how Washington works"...billions of dollars injected into the process of electing public servants. And we know that whomever puts in the most money gets the most "representation". We know that the political power of The People is not on equal footing with the political power of the corporations. We know who Washington listens to. We are still waiting Mr. President ...for that change.
Sincerely yours,
Judson Dennis Malone
The White House
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President,
The Declaration of independence states the basic purpose of government, "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,...; securing the rights of The People. National Security therefore should mean to secure liberty and civil rights to the nations citizens. The "just powers" to carry out this purpose are derived "from the consent of the governed". But how can The People consent to what is kept secret? How can the powers of the government be controlled if the People do not have the opportunity to consent or decline? In a republic, representatives exist to represent citizens. I was struck by the last line in the movie Killing Them Softly when it concluded that "the United States is a business"...similar to a conclusion which I have over time come to: that "the national interests" are synonymous with "business interests". This corruption of representation has degraded the essential element of representation of its ordinary citizens, replacing it with Fascism. It follows that we no longer have a republic.
You know from my letter of October 28, 2009 that I voted and campaigned for you in '08. I hesitatingly voted for your second election. However my support and lack of support is tempered by your own challenge that we who elected you hold you accountable. Since both your elections, I have been disappointed. The basis of my disappointment is contained the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth amendments to the Constitution. You, federal, state, and local governments are "infringing" on our civil rights. The purpose of government according to the Declaration of Independence , is to secure that cloud of inalienable rights. When government fails in this duty, The People have a right to change it. But how can the common citizens change the government in the face of literally billions of dollars of power injected by the multinational corporations while SCOTUS backs their power grab? The only hope appears to be some form of revolution. A violent revolution is not an option because during such an event the citizens would be slaughtered. It therefore appears that system is beyond our reach and growing more sequestered. President Lincoln reiterated this right saying the Citizen has the right to "...rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better..." But the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, and the suppression of civil rights is turning our country into an Orwellian police state. The corporations buy anything they want...auctioned off to the highest bidder. John Q. Citizen has 0% political power. Many Americans are very dissatisfied with this state of affairs. I among them feel that you are leading us deeper into this bad dream, when you should be leading us out of it. Sir, to these actions of government I do not consent.
The American people have not had the opportunity to consent to the present status of government surveillance which infringes on our privacy. A photo of every piece of mail! Really? The fourth amendment is being violated. As you have said, we need to have that dialogue. Many in government seem to think that the people are too ignorant to have a discussion before a government action. We seem to do so when there's a leak which reveals some of the truth. I recently read Legacy of Ashes, a well documented account of on the record information showing how our foreign policy for 60 years has operated outside international law and US law...that is if we could expect the CIA to operate within its Charter. Billions of tax dollars and illegal dollars to do what? Promote democracy and human rights? No! The "national business interests"! The cold war was advertized as a fight for democracy vs. communism, but was it? It was a fight to make sure our multinational corporations could continue their corporate Colonialism. We removed democratically elected governments and leaders in foreign countries beginning with Iran in 1953, installing dictators who would provide stability for capitalism, "free markets". We do not promote democracy internationally, we promote "free markets". Everyone and everything is bought. In '08 you said you would change this. That's why you won the election! You said you would "change how Washington works". You have let us down! You doubled down on serving the big corporations. The People have no Voice! You had a mandate! You know the Constitution. It was your oath to defend it! What a glorious administration yours would have been had you done what the People elected you to do because they are tired of big bank Republican government, big money, global government. It is past time for someone to defend the Constitution not the corporation! I do not consent!
Some of the accusations which the Declaration hurled at King George III can now be leveled at our own governments, federal, state, and local. "He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power"..."For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us"..."For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury". Sir, state, federal, and local police engage in enforcement of criminal, and regulator laws with armed squads in riot gear, weapons drawn and overwhelming force. The People have not consented to the present police state atmosphere where law enforcement across the nation line up with weapons and tear gas against peaceable assemblies where citizens protest and air their grievances as is their right. The nation is criminalizing dissent! Why did you not protect the citizens exercising their First Amendment Rights during the Occupy Movement? On this issue you seem to have lined up on the side of the Orwellian-like state, not on the side of The People.You seem to ignore their expressions of outrage at the felonious activities of the banking industry and the abuses of giant corporations. You have carried on the Bush era Republican big bank policy of "non-prosecution" of Wall Street's felons with "deferred prosecution agreements", while you are determined to fight the ignominious War on Drugs against the common citizen. It is the right of The People to expect that the words of the pledge, "...with liberty and justice for all" be true not false, that the 1% abide by the laws of the land like the 99%, and be prosecuted with the same vigor as the poor! It appears that there has arisen a two tiered system of justice, one protecting the elite from prosecution from their felonies and another going hard after the poorest of the nation. The People resent this!Officials in the present government are unwilling to "do justice", they just want to talk justice. We hear a lot of that on the Fourth of July. Perhaps the speech of Fredrick Douglas on July 4 1852 should be repeated annually. Speaking of the nation he said, "I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot: for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins". He stated, "...the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced." But we prosecute the whistle blowers who expose criminals rather than the government criminals, the war criminals and the banking criminals, letting the real criminals go free. I do not consent to these actions of government! How can The People in this course of human events, make a new Declaration of Independence from this tyranny?
I confess that I have succumbed to some form of American radicalization which was mentioned in your Drone speech. I think many on the left of the political spectrum have drifted in that direction.In the days of the Cold War, George Kennan was perhaps considered a radical because he voiced his opinion that our foreign policy should be the political containment of communism not exclusively military containment. He said that the foreign policies we carried out actually created much of the hostility and the threat which we blamed on the Russians. We are doing the same thing today. Creating 100 terrorists when we kill 10. While you are concerned about the radicalization of Americans, many Americans are immensely concerned about the radicalization of the government. Our "democratic" government is terrorizing its own citizens! Many are afraid of the government. I have some fear that there could be some form of reprisals against me because I am expressing my honest opinions of what our government has gradually become. Americans are tired of government secrecy, of attacks on dissent, and on Freedom of the Press, the last line of defense against government corruption and criminality. We cannot trust the government to police its own behavior , or the banks and corporations to monitor themselves to abide by the law. They write our legislation because the Legislative Branch of government is too busy soliciting re-election money. Mr. President, why are you attacking whistle blowers and journalists? Who will expose the white collar criminals, government criminals and war criminals if journalists fear they will be prosecuted for exposing criminal behavior? You are terrorizing journalists!Why does the Constitution guarantee freedom of the press? When government classifies massive amounts of information, who will hold individuals or the government accountable? We are tired of the perpetual wars and the Orwellian-like "war atmosphere". Big Brother knows best saying, "we can't reveal our government secrets...trust us". Richard Nixon is known to have said, "If its secret, its legal". The Founding Fathers did not trust government in any form. They would be repulsed and horrified by our militarism, our police state atmosphere, this retreat behind classified information hidden from the scrutiny of the American People. Why should government have total access to all the information of our lives but we are not permitted to know enough about what the government does to give or withhold the consent of a democratic people. Sir I do not consent to these policies of government.
I am specifically very displeased that you signed the NDAA into law on Dec. 31, 2012 with the provision of indefinite detention of US citizens by the United States military. I am equally dissatisfied that you have failed to close Guantanamo Prison. And I am totally exasperated and appalled that Congress passed both the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act with the violations of Civil Rights contained therein. For these government actions I do not give my consent. With St. Augustine, I must agree that "an unlawful law is no law at all"...especially when it is in conflict with the Constitution and the very principles of the Declaration of Independence. These are basic American ideals! It does not and should not require a law degree to understand their meaning!
The international community became quite disappointed with the United States during the Bush Administration and our "war on terror" with one sordid revelation after another: lies, no WMD, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and a policy of torture. We regularly place our international activities above international law. We helped create the ICC but refuse to recognize its jurisdiction over our own actions. We have made our military and civilian contractors into mercenaries, exempt from international law. The best soldier is the citizen as Stephen Ambros suggests in Citizen Soldier. The world disapproves of our attempts to be in charge of the globe. That's why so many hate us. It is time we reestablish the precept found in the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, to have "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind...". We should forsake these actions in fact as well as in political speeches. I do not consent to such illegal shame.
Mr. President, I live in the Congressional District of Louie Gohmert and have Ted Cruz and John Cornyn as Congressional and Senatorial "representation". I have no representation! I have consistently voted the Democratic ticket for my entire life. Here in Tyler Texas only the corporations are represented...along with the political and religious fundamentalists. My best friend, an attorney who has had 5 brain surgeries related to Parkinsons Disease goes out to fight the carbon industry and the Keystone pipe line in East Texas. For my Texas Representatives, big oil is a "slam dunk"...to hell with the environment and anything which carries out one of the stated purposes for writing The Constitution, to "...promote the general welfare".
I realize that this letter seems harsh and negative. But the first step in changing things for the better is facing the facts. God knows I have a broken heart about our sordid past of slavery, racism, genocide of the Native of our land, a foreign policy which focuses more on business "interests" than on basic harmony between nations, a government which has been hijacked by corporate money, and the continued theft of the American Dream by the 1%. Its time for the US government to listen to people like me. In the same way that the Declaration of Independence was an expression of outrage, as it was also recognition of what government ought to be, the Bill of Rights was an expression of general distrust for government, and an attempt to avoid the slippery slope of tyranny. The People must control the government or...the government will control the people. I respect the office of President of The United States and I respect you Mr. President as a gifted man, dedicated, of good intentions, and with a good heart. In '08, we were thrilled beyond measure with optimism and elated in anticipation that finally a man who knows both sides of America will act on the promise we remember so well, "to change how Washington works". Everyone knew then an knows now "how Washington works"...billions of dollars injected into the process of electing public servants. And we know that whomever puts in the most money gets the most "representation". We know that the political power of The People is not on equal footing with the political power of the corporations. We know who Washington listens to. We are still waiting Mr. President ...for that change.
Sincerely yours,
Judson Dennis Malone
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Civilizing the Savages
It is a shame that often it takes a lifetime to gain vision into the meaning of human events. One of the most baffling puzzles has been the treatment by European immigrants of the native tribal human beings of the Western Hemisphere, particularly the Indigenous Natives of North America in the United States.
There has to be some reason for the history of our behavior toward what most everyone calls "Indians", though these unique peoples did not come from India, nor did they live in the "West Indies". Stated in the simplest terms a thoughtful conclusion, after a life time of relishing American History, has raised its ugly head: the "fever", the passion, the "gold rush" for "free land" and the riches produced by that land. Nothing else could make human beings more brutal than the insanity of quick riches. Actually "free land" doesn't describe what happened because of the unspeakable and heavy costs paid by the original inhabitants.
Gradually ingesting the truth of what our ancestors did to get us to where we are as a people steals the pride in America we were taught when young, replacing it with shame. When one visualizes the flag of the United States flying above the Native American village at Sand Creek, Colorado, symbolizing their commitment to the peace treaty they had signed... visualizing the attack by the Colorado Militia on November 29, 1864 resulting in the death of more than 100 natives, two thirds of whom were women and children... makes our proud flag fade, drip in innocent blood, and dissolve into shame. It was only one of many such events. The Cherokee "trail of tears" was the direct results of greed for gold in Georgia, North and South Carolina. The Cherokee had succeeded in mimicking white culture better than any native tribe. They had a written language, a Constitution...they wore white mans clothes, tilled the soil, had fences. But gold was discovered on their land. They resisted. They even won their lawsuit in the United States Supreme Court to no avail. Then Old Hickory, "Indian fighter" Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. They were moved in winter from their ancestral lands in the east to Indian Territory. Ten thousand perished in the move.
The Western Hemisphere had more than 800 nations when the Europeans came. The native population numbered easily as many as Europe at the time. It was not an uninhabited wilderness. Where we live now belonged to those nations for at least 15,000 years. Our ancestors took it, murdered the majority of its inhabitants because they were "savages"? No, because they wanted "free land", gold and silver. This sort of activity is central to the meaning of "Colonialism". Colonialism was where Europeans exploited land and the indigenous people around the world by means of a superior technology. They marched into countries with superior weapons, took the land, installed European style governments, and called it "civilizing the savages". But the American government was supposed to be different...our documents say it clearly, that all are created equal and have universal rights, number one of which is life itself. Alas.
It seems now impossible to "relish" American History as once was the case, because we have never really rejected the ideas of colonialism. The things which we have been taught and which we believed about America were in themselves momentous. They were events and documents which advance above all else human rights and populous government in place of "the divine right of kings". These events brought a recognition of the fact that the collective wisdom of the common people is superior.
But once again it appears that we are today gripped by a "fever"...the quest for riches, because government is no longer controlled by the population but by wholly commercial interests. The question now arises, who is being trampled and abused by our present "fever"? Who is loosing everything including their lives because of our greed?
It is a shame that often it takes a lifetime to gain vision into the meaning of human events. One of the most baffling puzzles has been the treatment by European immigrants of the native tribal human beings of the Western Hemisphere, particularly the Indigenous Natives of North America in the United States.
There has to be some reason for the history of our behavior toward what most everyone calls "Indians", though these unique peoples did not come from India, nor did they live in the "West Indies". Stated in the simplest terms a thoughtful conclusion, after a life time of relishing American History, has raised its ugly head: the "fever", the passion, the "gold rush" for "free land" and the riches produced by that land. Nothing else could make human beings more brutal than the insanity of quick riches. Actually "free land" doesn't describe what happened because of the unspeakable and heavy costs paid by the original inhabitants.
Gradually ingesting the truth of what our ancestors did to get us to where we are as a people steals the pride in America we were taught when young, replacing it with shame. When one visualizes the flag of the United States flying above the Native American village at Sand Creek, Colorado, symbolizing their commitment to the peace treaty they had signed... visualizing the attack by the Colorado Militia on November 29, 1864 resulting in the death of more than 100 natives, two thirds of whom were women and children... makes our proud flag fade, drip in innocent blood, and dissolve into shame. It was only one of many such events. The Cherokee "trail of tears" was the direct results of greed for gold in Georgia, North and South Carolina. The Cherokee had succeeded in mimicking white culture better than any native tribe. They had a written language, a Constitution...they wore white mans clothes, tilled the soil, had fences. But gold was discovered on their land. They resisted. They even won their lawsuit in the United States Supreme Court to no avail. Then Old Hickory, "Indian fighter" Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. They were moved in winter from their ancestral lands in the east to Indian Territory. Ten thousand perished in the move.
The Western Hemisphere had more than 800 nations when the Europeans came. The native population numbered easily as many as Europe at the time. It was not an uninhabited wilderness. Where we live now belonged to those nations for at least 15,000 years. Our ancestors took it, murdered the majority of its inhabitants because they were "savages"? No, because they wanted "free land", gold and silver. This sort of activity is central to the meaning of "Colonialism". Colonialism was where Europeans exploited land and the indigenous people around the world by means of a superior technology. They marched into countries with superior weapons, took the land, installed European style governments, and called it "civilizing the savages". But the American government was supposed to be different...our documents say it clearly, that all are created equal and have universal rights, number one of which is life itself. Alas.
It seems now impossible to "relish" American History as once was the case, because we have never really rejected the ideas of colonialism. The things which we have been taught and which we believed about America were in themselves momentous. They were events and documents which advance above all else human rights and populous government in place of "the divine right of kings". These events brought a recognition of the fact that the collective wisdom of the common people is superior.
But once again it appears that we are today gripped by a "fever"...the quest for riches, because government is no longer controlled by the population but by wholly commercial interests. The question now arises, who is being trampled and abused by our present "fever"? Who is loosing everything including their lives because of our greed?
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Oh where is the dwelling
Oh where is the dwelling I love the most
And what but that one poor place can please
Where the penny I lost and the youth I lost
Lie buried beneath enchanted trees
Oh There is the dwelling I love the most
And thither forever my feet are bound
Where the love I lost and the faith I lost
Lie buried in holy ground
Oh where is the dwelling I love the most
And what but that one poor place can please
Where the penny I lost and the youth I lost
Lie buried beneath enchanted trees
Oh There is the dwelling I love the most
And thither forever my feet are bound
Where the love I lost and the faith I lost
Lie buried in holy ground
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Things Gone Wrong
For this I will revoke my usual third person and use first.
For the last months and weeks I have had scores of topics racing through my mind about which I could express the turmoil which is seething inside. Whether or not I have the right to even experience this moral rage, I cannot answer. Perhaps some wise man could say...I do not know. I do not think that anyone gave me the right to be a judge of my fellow man. ...but I think of it more as a judgement of collective faults and conditions and not necessarily the judgement of individuals. Things do seem to go wrong when human beings team up to carry out the deeds of their worst angels. ... things have gone terribly wrong.
It seems that we have the propensity for the escalation of evil. Temptations seem so easily to out wrestle us. We succumb with little resistance...almost with pleasure, especially when we are enjoined with those who mingle their weaknesses with our own. Things have really gone wrong.
The thing that is so troubling is that hundreds of years of human progress, with democracy functioning for the benefit of all classes of people, has been reversed. There seems to be a propensity for elites to gain control of the state even in a democracy and to use it selfishly for their insatiable appetites and pleasures. The 1% have lives of pleasure and plenty, the 99% are collateral damage who mainly serve the purpose of providing the fodder consumed by the elites. I believed that the right to vote would easily defeat such tyranny...I was wrong. Things have turned for the worse.
This problem is not just one of the rich nation we are, but a problem of how the entire world has adopted the economic model which we have created. In err they have observed our wealth and ease and concluded that our example is to be followed in their own pursuit of happiness. Whats more, the masses of the world have been caught in nothing more than the ideas of the old original European "colonialism" where human beings are just dust under foot, their land to be polluted, their labor to be exploited and their riches taken with out consent into the upper echelons of "the market". Too damn bad if you are at the bottom of the heap! Things have gone from bad to worse.
A ray of hope has arisen. "Occupy Wall Street"...! When you watch the parades of protesters, the crowds, you read the signs, you see in evidence... lives which have been destroyed, jobs, homes have been lost, bankruptcies have occurred! Veterans who gave their essence have come home to a nothingness after having felt they were protecting the homeland with their very lives. You see they have not quite yet given up. They reached inside for the will to make things change. Some faith is still left.
The political power which we all know exists of a people united to a common cause, rests in them and only needs to be awakened. It only needs to be believed. The power is there to make things better and is sublimely dwelling and waiting for the numbers to swell. ...and when the numbers are enough, it becomes a tide...a tsunami! I dream of it's sweep, of it's power to cleanse corruption, to hold accountable the high crimes against the people. A fresh start is possible but it requires "E Pluribus unium".
For the last months and weeks I have had scores of topics racing through my mind about which I could express the turmoil which is seething inside. Whether or not I have the right to even experience this moral rage, I cannot answer. Perhaps some wise man could say...I do not know. I do not think that anyone gave me the right to be a judge of my fellow man. ...but I think of it more as a judgement of collective faults and conditions and not necessarily the judgement of individuals. Things do seem to go wrong when human beings team up to carry out the deeds of their worst angels. ... things have gone terribly wrong.
It seems that we have the propensity for the escalation of evil. Temptations seem so easily to out wrestle us. We succumb with little resistance...almost with pleasure, especially when we are enjoined with those who mingle their weaknesses with our own. Things have really gone wrong.
The thing that is so troubling is that hundreds of years of human progress, with democracy functioning for the benefit of all classes of people, has been reversed. There seems to be a propensity for elites to gain control of the state even in a democracy and to use it selfishly for their insatiable appetites and pleasures. The 1% have lives of pleasure and plenty, the 99% are collateral damage who mainly serve the purpose of providing the fodder consumed by the elites. I believed that the right to vote would easily defeat such tyranny...I was wrong. Things have turned for the worse.
This problem is not just one of the rich nation we are, but a problem of how the entire world has adopted the economic model which we have created. In err they have observed our wealth and ease and concluded that our example is to be followed in their own pursuit of happiness. Whats more, the masses of the world have been caught in nothing more than the ideas of the old original European "colonialism" where human beings are just dust under foot, their land to be polluted, their labor to be exploited and their riches taken with out consent into the upper echelons of "the market". Too damn bad if you are at the bottom of the heap! Things have gone from bad to worse.
A ray of hope has arisen. "Occupy Wall Street"...! When you watch the parades of protesters, the crowds, you read the signs, you see in evidence... lives which have been destroyed, jobs, homes have been lost, bankruptcies have occurred! Veterans who gave their essence have come home to a nothingness after having felt they were protecting the homeland with their very lives. You see they have not quite yet given up. They reached inside for the will to make things change. Some faith is still left.
The political power which we all know exists of a people united to a common cause, rests in them and only needs to be awakened. It only needs to be believed. The power is there to make things better and is sublimely dwelling and waiting for the numbers to swell. ...and when the numbers are enough, it becomes a tide...a tsunami! I dream of it's sweep, of it's power to cleanse corruption, to hold accountable the high crimes against the people. A fresh start is possible but it requires "E Pluribus unium".
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