I look at what was happening and I wonder what I would have done, wonder if I would have had the courage to do what thousands of men and women did for people they didn't know...

When the Fugative Slave Law passes, with much help from northern politicians eager to keep the South in the Union, no slave was safe until they were on Canadian soil.

I wonder what I would have done.

Engaging in protest is easy. Putting your life and limb on the line for a cause...

I learned that the Spiritials were all coded and about the Underground Railroad.

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, coming for to Carry me home....

The Chariot is the Underground Railroad. The River Jordon was the Ohio River.

It's amazing that the Republican Party here in Ohio was once fighting for freedom for the Slaves and that now, they resort to coded racial slurs in order to garner the votes of those who still view African Americans as inferior to the White race...

Every time they get a chance, they increase spending and cut taxes...

How many times do they have to do this before people catch on?

I know it has a lot to do with the media focusing on the visceral instead of the intellectual, but it is more than that.

I firmly believe the GOP does everything to reinforce that misguided perception.

I wonder why the democrats don't get to the gut level and just call 'em like they are.

I mean, why don't the democrats, at every breath, repeat that the GOP is the party of deficits and tax cuts for the rich?

The GOP still uses that hoary old Tax and Spend liberal crap and still gets away with it almost 50 years since Reagan et all embraced that moniker.

Why do Democrats always make it hard to define a simple concept?

The GOP, the party of deficits.

There was such an enormous disconnect between what people believe can be done via the political process and what actually is possible is huge...

I blame it on the expectations that slogans go a long way toward dumbing down the American people.

I also was really bothered by people wanting to know what denomination I was as if that would tell them how I would comport myself once I was elected to office.

Somehow people who vote believe that if someone is a "good" Christian, Catholics need not apply, btw, they will stand up for what is righteous and good. We all know how well that has worked out over the years.

And the interest groups that are there to determine if you are worthy enough to be an officeholder.

Take the cause of abortion.

The first district I ran in was very catholic. I went in front of one of the women's organizations that offered an endorsement as well as financial assistance to all of the candidate.

This organization wanted me to introduce or at least cosponsor legislation to get government assistance to poor people seeking an abortion.

Now I had thought this out before going into the interview and when that came up I said in deference to the overwhelming catholic make-up of my district, I would not feel as if I was representing the that district if I introduced such a bill. I added I would vote for the bill in committee and on the floor but I would not introduce the bill.

Cuyahoga County said yes. I replied if I lived in the districts that they represent, I would be glad to. But the key here is I would be representing the people who sent me to Columbus while also taking into consideration your concerns.

Needless to say, I did not get an endorsement.

Another part of the process that bothered me was how the press viewed political figures. Since the news depends on advertising for their revenue, there is a conservative pro republican slant to the news, especially on the local level. What has happened over the years is the political beat is more about politics and less about governing.

This is why it costs so much money to run for office. The news outlets have no interest in covering political stuff especially if it about someone who is going to upset the cozy relationship between the advertisers and the people own the papers.

I had some dirt on one of the guys I was running against and gave it to the Plain Dealer and all they said to me it was up to me to get my message out.

The papers still endorse but that is no longer as important as it once was.

I just wanted to put a few things out there that I experiences in the three times I ran for office.

What a wonderful way to explain some persons lot in life at times in that life when circumstance overwhelm a persons life.

It's how I wish people hold to as they go about observing and then commenting on the world around them...

It's unbelievable that nothing has changed since the twenties and the sixties and now....

There were bearded men, foreign men, outside the high school selling French Postcards....

These outsiders who worship at Harvard, Yale and Princeton....

These Unatarians....

I mean this is what they were pushing even back then.

Nothing changes for these people, nothing.

I guess it's easier to latch onto an image than to create a whole new set of boogey men

yet another opportunity to sell crap.

How shallow do we appear to the consumer experts to think that every minute waking hour is to be spent on contemplating purchasing some kind of crap with no chance to ponder anything deeper than what shiny pretty thing I can snag for a cheaper price.

Perhaps if we really are more than that, we would never have let ourselves become so distracted.

We are slaves to consumption.

A few years ago, I started to really look around to see what was important to me.

Over the years, I have scaled down my wardrobe, cut back on my incessant collecting of things and got rid of a mess of stuff that I just didn't need any more.

Good lord, I had over sixty ties! I now have five and I do not care if they are the right length, the right width and the right fabric.

Don't get me wrong, I still love to buy things. But big things, things that make me happy to have. I bought a good guitar and a good keyboard, I was once in a band, and I have been getting much joy and comfort from taking the time and learning about my instruments and how to play them as well...

What I mainly concerned about now, I guess, is that so many people in charge of our political and economic think the only way we can get ourselves out of this Malaise, is for us to start spending again.

Maybe it's time we stop looking at ourselves as meerly consumers and start thinking about the true value of a life well spent.

After all, if your live is all about spending, about mindlessly accumulating things rather, than than perhaps you have wasted your time on this earth.

All I can really say is I want my life to be more than that.

I'm not banking on an afterlife, but if there is, I am pretty sure that those of us who never contemplated anything deeper than how I can get my hands on a ........ all will be well, then you may be condemned, like Sisyphus to keep pushing up that hill and falling back just to start again....

Simple. What they do not pay in taxes via deduction of contribution has to be made up some way. Therefore, my taxes are a bit higher.

I get that. It is one of the “costs” of living in a free society. The wants and needs of people I do not support or even agree with are subsidized through higher taxes for me.

We are, if anything, overly forgiving when it comes to the goings on behind the cloak of religion.

As much as I would like it, I do not have a freedom from religion.

If I did, there would be no tax deduction for contributions to religious organizations.

Do not get me wrong. I know that the overwhelming number of religious folks out there do wonderful things for millions of people.

So I bite my tongue, especially now that I am older and not so quick to shoot off my mouth about how I feel about religion.

It is what a good citizen does in a society that protects the freedom of expression. Whether I agree with what people choose to do does not really matter.

Why?

Because we live in a free society that worships the idea of freedom.

So these attempts by some from the tax deductible supported industry of religion are to restrict choices of some people when it comes to their health concerns are an affront to any person who truly believes we live in a free society.

Especially when their main desired outcome is to demand less freedom of choice to other Americans.

Again, I have no problem with what anyone believes, who anyone people worship and how they do their worshiping.

What I expect from someone here in the 21st Century is that they recognize that they live in a dynamic free modern society that allows them great freedom to do as they please.

We go so far as to subsidize all of them from the poverty-cloistered nun to the billionaire televangelist. As long as they pretend that there is worshiping going on, we turn a blind eye.

All I am asking is that these people recognize my freedoms as well.

Beause, after all, we live in a free society.

And that simply means you have freedom and I have freedom.

I do not try to undermine your freedom to believe what you choice to believe.

All I ask is the same consideration from you.

Because, after all, we live in a free society.

Exists, really, while we, meaning the 1%, will remain wealthy and rich...

Isn't that what they are really saying?

Sure they lulled us into thinking that the pie is always going to get bigger, it's how they convinced us the first few time to go along with their Supply Side delusion.

But now with all the evidence out there about peak oil, peak food, peak everything, how long are the rest of us going to stand buy while hundreds of million American's suddenly find themselves on the outside looking in at the very secure and very private gated communities...

They are still at it, with this global warming is a hoax, we can just drill our way to the Shopping Mall, we should never doubt the power of a "free" market. (BTW, the only free in that allusion is that a free market allocates accordingly when all it does is end up in one pile controled by a few people.)

This is really what we are going to see in our lifetimes as the Southern part of the Northern Hemisphere dries out and forces millions of people north. This idea of setting up a barrier is to test the efficacy of a secure border to stop the inevatable migration north.

I keep looking around the world and see everything churning, boiling, rolling around and around and all I can think about is that the Future is going to suck because of these reality deniers with their very deep pockets and their very large megaphone...

The same way.

Giving Capital Gains tax breaks is forcing more and more emphasis to be on how the stock of the company is perceived and not always, how it performs in the market place.

All the major discussion makers are vested in keeping the stock that they earn through option plans rising at whatever cost.

And with billions of shares of stock transacting each and every day, the pressure is on to keep the investors happy.

But are they really investors?

They are more like margin hunters who shave off profits from companies. The problem is there is no real consequence. Even the short-term capital gains rate is far lower than the highest marginal tax rate.

So if you make a couple of million dollars of salary, you pay about 39% on taxable income.

If you make a couple of million moving stock from here to there, your highest rate is still four percent below what you would make from earning a wage or salary.

The thing is this; there is an investor driven motivation margin on the value of stock.

And since the people who are running the company feel that the shareholders are more import, mainly because they are shareholders, they just might not make the most economical decision and choose to go to taking action to increase the value of the stock.

Now this really gets us down to the FoxComm thing.

The large computer companies are willing to shave the money to pay for workers in order to increase the value of the stock.

With technology and shipping put into the mix, I wonder just how profitable selling stuff here in the US of A would be if there were a tax on overseas manufacturing, you know, make it a little bit more competitive.

That is why all these trade agreements go the way they do. The companies, who have set up shop in the third world, mainly with US and European investments, have it both ways. They keep their profit margins high and still sell like crazy here in the biggest market in the world.

And then of course, there is all this emphasis on credit and must have things feeling in America today. That makes up nicely for the whole in the wallet that all this capital manipulation has put in the pockets of most Americans, you know, the 99% thank you very much.

But there will be a tipping point if the people here in this country can no longer afford the newest do dads and whatchacallits...

Then….

We have a lot of work to do to reshape this country. Perhaps the kids that now can’t afford to move out of the house until they are thirty may be just like my grandparents who never got over the fear of the Great Depression.

Who knows?

The bottom line, our culture has to change.

And I don’t care how much anyone dislikes the actions of president Obama. I cringe as I look at those loathsome margin chasers on the other side salivating to get the reins of power back so they can shovel more money at the rest of the 1%.

To, you know, stand uo for their union brothers with this right to work crap they passed just last week in Indiana...

After all, the Super Bowl is being played in Indiana.

It would be great if some of the big time Unions, NBA has a team in Indiana, to voice solidarity with workers.

They could really fuck things up for the whole country by refusing to play in states where they have right to work laws.

Just thought I would bring that up....