What Are We Doing?

Basic education for all- $6 billion

Water and sanitation for all- $9 billion

Reproductive health for all women (so their babies don't die... 1 in 16 in Africa) -$12 billion

Almost 100 billion pounds of food is wasted in America each year.

Proportion of Americans living below the poverty level: 12.7 percent

Percentage and number of poor children: 18.9 percent (13.5 million)

The poverty rate for children is higher than for any other age group.

Poverty rate for non-Hispanic whites: 8.2 percent

Poverty rate for Hispanics of any race: 25.6 percent

Poverty rate for African Americans: 26.1 percent

[http://www.soundvision.com/Info/poor/statistics.asp]

In 1996, an estimated 637,000 adults were homeless in a given week. In the same year, an estimated 2.1 million adults were homeless over the course of a year. These numbers increase dramatically when children are included, to 842,000 and 3.5 million, respectively.¹

In 1996, the median monthly income for people who were homeless was $300, only 44% of the Federal poverty level for a single adult.

“…(T)he average wait for Section 8 rental assistance is now 28 months.^”

[http://www.nrchmi.samhsa.gov/facts/facts_question_1.asp]

20-25% of homeless individuals have a serious mental illness.

There are up to 200,000 people with a serious mental illness living on the streets or in shelters.

[http://www.nrchmi.samhsa.gov/]

By 1995, 36.4 million Americans lived in poverty. Of which, 40 percent were children.--U.S. Bureau of Census, via the National Coalition for the Homeless.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Ghandi

Government Shmuverment

Hate is wrong...correct? Should those who choose a certain lifestyle be marginalized simply because we, as the "ultimate moral authorities" happen to sit on the opposite side of the fence? I would think not however, as is usually the case, something much deeper is occurring the deepest bowels of your government that exceeds what meets the common eye.

As many of my avidly-political readers are aware, the body whose vocation it is to represent you the constituent, has performed the ultimate sleight-of-hand with you the American public, as its adoring audience. Colloquially known as your United States congress, this traveling tour of vaudevillians has displayed one of their most lauded illusions...misdirection.

In yet another desperate attempt to sit their ever-growing posterior a few short years longer in the comfortable seat to which they have become accustomed, your governing body has magically shifted the spotlight of the American public from the records of these wretched wranglers, to the more important volition of "protecting the sanctity of marriage."

Correct me if I am wrong my ever-growing-in-intelligence readers, but your current United States congress holds the flawed belief that our founding fathers made a desperate error in the writing of the constitution and inadvertently forgot to include a section legislating what a marriage is...and what a marriage is not

Are our representatives openly declaring to be out and out gay-haters? I would say not...a true libertarian such as myself may suggest that any chance that your governing body receives to strip you of the few dwindling freedoms contained in the constitution, they would take it. When one sees marginalization, this reporter sees socialization. However, if this is true then a more important question arises; if congress is going to amend the constitution to "protect the sanctity of marriage", shouldn’t they also pass laws forbidding divorce, verbally abusive arguments, pornographic addictions, and adultery...all of which violate the "sanctity of marriage"? More government control is always a result of rights being "defined".

What all astute individuals must keep in mind, if the state creates a law by a representative majority defining "marriage" as between one man and one woman, it would ultimately be affirmed by myself. However there is a large gap between the "state" representing the people, and the "congress" limiting our freedoms.

So what is every patriotic American to do about this important issue? Place blame on those "damned republicans" or those "sneaky democrats", I would deny that notion...politicians are to morals as Alger Hiss is to patriotism, it is expected for them to be corrupt. However I ask, are the American people expected to sit idly by whilst their rights are being defined by a clearly biased governing entity? Your constitution was created as a tool not to restrain the people, but to restrain the government. Are they in need of a good restraining....you decide.

I Mean Hey, This World Ain't So Bad

The very moment that our index finger finds its way to the obnoxious radio or television station that we choose to bombard ourselves with, we are launching ourselves into a state of mini-depression. Our hearts drop as we are happily informed of the fact that we reside in the very worst area of the very worst state in the very worst nation of them all; the United States of America. For without the media, we wouldn’t be aware of this pertinent information. Unspeakable (but surprisingly reportable) offenses have been taking place all around us, unbeknownst to us, and we choose to continue to be blissfully ignorant of such atrocities as we go about this existence we so cavalierly call “our daily lives”. Fortunately, we have ordained an entity with the humble volition of enlightening us to the tragedies of this existence, commonly known as the “mainstream media”.

We have never personally experienced death by an unknown air toxin, the assaulting of our person by a minority, or the commonality of a mysterious stranger sneaking into our daughter’s room in the middle of the night, however thanks to our media, we continue to be informed daily that unless we are overtly-cautious, these tragedies will surely occur to us. In the interest of safety, we knowingly welcome into our psyche fear in its most pure and piercing form and that form is entertainment.

However, what we overtly intelligent individuals must keep at the forefront of our conscience is the fact that the media exists only as a business which must generate revenue to succeed. Affiliates, networks, and the “mainstream media” in general are held at the good will of a corporation, to receive its funding and to promote its product. Without the blessings of one of a various number of corporations, the media cannot exist no matter how many “big business” it has claimed to have “taken down”. As a matter of common knowledge, the outlet that you willingly subject yourself to is part of a large corporation, and let’s go out on a limb here, suppose this corporation was hard-pressed with the choice to communicate to you complete and raw truth, or simply “stretch the truth” to receive an extra nickel on their pay-stub at the end of the quarter, would you suspect that the revenue-generating business would choose the money or the truth?

As with any trade, this business can only be successful if it succeeds in the daunting task of forcing you to crawl back for more of their useless garbage. So how does such a conspicuous entity such as the media accomplish such a feat? They make you shake in your Versace shoes. We are constantly frightened from the moment electrons hit the flat screen of our televisions and our speakers send out vibrations all of which our senses decode into discernable and useable information by our brain, we call this “watching the news”. Ponder this for a moment, I will propose to you a timeline; the television program entitled : “To Catch a Predator” constantly WARNS of children helplessly chatting with the trash of our earth sent from hell and encourages extreme offensive action to be taken by parents…find out what “experts” say is the best plan of defense…next! Buy this toothpaste and women will want to have sex with you. Consummation of alcohol will directly effect the amount of friends you call your own. Use this skin cream so you will look younger so men will want to have sex with you…because men want to have sex with younger people…and that is okay with the media, the younger the better.

The media feeds off of our fears, their pocketbooks grow in size as does their audience numbers. The local affiliate in your area frightens you of African Americans, CNN frightens you of George W. Bush (try this: run a Google search of the words “Child Molesters Evil” you get a return of about 642 thousand documents, now try “Hitler Evil” you get a return of about twelve million documents, now run a search of the words “Bush Evil” and you get a return of over FORTY TWO MILLION documents! Figure that out!), Fox News frightens you of Democrats…fear is a tool liberally used by the media.

At the dawn of the television age, your government (translation: the people) auspiciously held claim to the invisible waves by which a television signal is carried. During this time, a rare pact was agreed upon by the media and your government…this treaty was an agreement that the airwaves would be leased to information and entertainment corporations such as the Columbia Broadcasting System and the like. Such a lease was given on the condition that one service was provided to the people (government)…a half hour of NEWS. Your blessed government promised you a half hour of truth amidst of the lies of staged entertainment, and the media made well on this commitment…primarily. Amid the task of keeping the American people informed of the events occurring around them, the original objective was lost. The media quickly discovered that a certain way of thinking that benefited them could be forced upon even the cleverest of audiences. They claimed free reign on America’s airwaves and received no opposition or dissent thus giving birth to a new kind of media; today’s “mainstream media”.

Not a day falls off the calendar which is not filled with the propaganda spewing from our television sets and the sorriest of sorrows is the fact that this blather actually changes our minds! Our opinions and paths of thought are affected everyday by what the media opines. Consider this; for most of us, the sole proxy by which we have seen our president (who is apparently 42 million times evil) is through a television screen. The media has shown us what it chooses to show us and that is the sole basis for a vote or a certain thought process.

Many, including myself, have taken upon a mission of change; we will ignore the outlandish claims of the “mainstream media” as dubbed by the conservatives, and seek truth. When this rare and atypical event occurs, a small glimmer of hope unmistakably appears. We start to be in tune with the thoughts and beliefs that WE hold in our possession, we seek only truth and embrace only reality. At the core of our existence, aren’t the most important beliefs held supposed to be our own?

America is the most opportunistic, lucrative, powerful, accepting, and charitable nation in the world and believe it or not, we actually expel LESS pollution into the environment than many countries such as North Korea and Japan. And yes, our country HAS been more “deeply divided” than now (the civil war, WWII, Vietnam, "McCarthyism"), and the climate has been hotter than now (almost fifty years ago boasted the hottest temperatures recorded in history), gas prices have been higher than now (inflation-adjusted…gas now is less than half the cost of gas in the 1980’s) and the media has hated the president more than now (Hoover, Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan). It is a clever tactic to falsely convince the citizens of America that we are in a slew of “firsts” and “mosts” but as the fact remains, we are not.

Although occasionally temporarily discouraged by those desperately trying to earn a profit, this humble writer has a positive outlook both on the future and his country. This is achieved by a strict television diet of the political dissection program “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”, and a tolerant reading diet of everything from the musings of Ann Coulter, to the writings of Karl Marx. A fairly educated and well-versed in the literary field individual could be so bold as to suggest that I receive a “fair and balanced” look at the world and its inhabitants and from my humble view…it isn’t half bad.

A New End for Hopkins Student Council

WARNING: The following contains free-thinking and opposition to those in power, if you are afraid that you will be targeted for thinking the same way as many of us, it may behoove you to not read the this statement…

For many, the ranting and shouting of conspiracy theories happens to be a corpulent discredit to the character of the orator. Unfortunately, I must join the ranks of these cursed individuals and declare my “two cents” as to what events occurred concerning Hopkins Student Council recently. As most of you know, I, being persuaded by my influential cronies, decided that the time for change was upon us…and I was the chosen person to take the reigns of change to lead our corrupt and despicable administration and it’s shoulder monkey “student council” back down the daunting trail of truth and representation…unfortunately, your blessed administration was reluctant to change. The following is an explanation of events of this election, I feel that you the voter (surprisingly…) still have the right to hear the timeline as observed by myself…

Being persuaded by my frustrated student body’s unending list of complaints, I decided to gather signatures of my allies to run for change in the system. I made this decision for the sole purpose that nobody who showed a keen interest in the disgraced president’s chair had any real vision for the future of our school. I knew what needed to be done and I set out to do just that.

Ah the election process! Smearing! Persuasion! Spin! I was in heaven! During many conversations with the current student council’s advisor (who just happened to be the principal’s secretary…being given a review by him yearly to keep his/her job) I was unmistakably told that speeches were to be delivered by both candidates. I was elated! I knew that a speech would give me the connection that I needed to communicate my mission and vision to those underclassmen who simply knew me as the “snobby, arrogant, and jerky” junior. I knew that a speech, properly delivered, would win me the election and thus, move us one step closer to change. I freely admit that some in my group of friends may, on rare occasions, show some distain towards those who are not in our little clan, but high-school politics are welcomed and even encouraged by your blessed administration, this is simply one rule that we chose to follow. We can at times be written off as superior and snobby but we try and do nothing to aid this stereotype.

Colloquially, a joe-shmo with no real plan for student council would have the upper hand in an election, as he/she would have the anti-support of anybody associating with those in our little faction. So I had the distinct mission of fighting this dogmatic way of thinking, and a speech was the opportunity that I needed.

Several days into the campaigning process, I wandered my way into the office of the principal’s secretary/student council advisor and asked him/her when the elections, which had been delayed several times, were to take place and when I would be presenting my speech to the student body. I was looked at with absolute distain. Something had changed in our rapport.

The night preceding this minute skirmish, I recalled, I had posted on my personal web-log, my campaign speech in its entirety. Obviously, my ever-growing in popularity blog had been read and reviewed by our administrators (as would be confirmed to me later) and the entire debacle had shifted.

A student had dared to speak his mind, but do not fret, your administration launched an all-out smear campaign on your humble correspondent…it seems to have worked.

I was told that the plans for speeches have been abruptly halted and that neither candidate was to be given their freedom of speech…they would be silenced. My speech was banned from the ears of Hopkins students and thus, I was banned from office. Still contemplating this staggering news, I strolled outside of the administrator apologist/leader of student council’s office to see a crime that made the previous situation look tame.

Every poster with the words “Cody Dalton” had been stripped from the wall. Even posters baring the approval stamp of the principal were deemed unfit for students to look upon as of late. Had my speech struck such a soft nerve?

According to an informant, the current president of student council (also attacked for complacency and awful decision-making by myself) had said that she was, ”going to make sure that Cody Dalton doesn’t win, I will do anything I can to bring him down.”

Well she did so what she could…after talking with several teachers who voluntarily showed support for me by hanging a poster in their classrooms, I knew what she had actually done…a coupe de tat. Using the guise of “student council” the current president ripped down approved Cody Dalton posters and disposed of them effectively. When confronted about this, she placed blame on the Student Council Advisor for giving the authorization…hmmm strange.

I decided to go to the top and start asking some questions…while chatting with the truly honest and helpful superintendent, the assistant principal of our school “casually” strolled in and left a few minutes later. Even later, I was called into his office and asked “what I had been to see the superintendent about.” As if it was any of his business, I always welcome honesty and discussion, and I told him. Many words were exchanged in that little conference which students should hope not to hear, for the true intent of the administration was revealed to me in fifteen minutes. Claiming that, “…the minute that a seventeen year old tells me how to do my job, is the day I get a different job…” showed the true feelings of the administration toward your voice and what you think.

My message had been barred from the ears of those who I couldn’t come in contact with (underclassmen), and it worked effectively…in a close race, the candidate with no vision or plan pulled ahead, winning the vote of the underclassmen.

Unfortunate? Possibly, I myself am slightly relieved that the stealing of your money and the lies that engulf student council aren’t going to come out of my mouth…but for you… I am truly sorry. I am sorry that you voice will not be heard and I am sorry that your rights will be continually trampled upon. I tried Hopkins students and staff, but it was a non-winnable race, I had poked the bulldog and he bit back. However, as I have said continuously, if I inspire one student to speak against that which they feel is wrong, than I have won the election…even if I am not president. Students in our school are starting to open their eyes to corruption and oppression and things are shifting into motion. Standing firm for what you know to absolutely true and right does not end with a superior telling you that you “don’t have the right”, because you do have the right, you are endowed by your creator, not the administration, with certain unalienable rights…just because they are spat upon does not mean they do not exist.
 
***Any inaccuracies in this statement can be commented on in the “comments” section and will be corrected immediately***