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A follow-up on why I became a socialist

Of the responses to my recent essay, “Why I Became a Socialist,” I received this one negative reaction.  I believe my reply to Mr. Wynman will help clarify the questions.  I believe we need a revolution, hopefully a peaceable one.  Unfortunately, those in control, when they feel threatened, will cause the violence when people get upset enough to protest and even act with civil disobedience.  I believe it has to eventually come to save our democracy from far right fascism.

J. Glenn Evans

16JUL14—Bob Wyman

With J. Glenn Evans’ 21 July, 2014

I doubt that whoever wrote this piece of junk was ever a capitalist or ever understood the free market.  (S)he claims:  “Then when I considered the injustice of the gross and growing inequality among people that is wrought by pure unregulated capitalism,”.  We’ve never had “pure unregulated capitalism”. 

Bob, I want to thank you for taking the time to respond to my essay, “Why I Became a Socialist.”  There was a time in my life when I would have reacted with the same venom you have when you call my writing a piece of junk.  This was the time when I spent over 20 years as a stockbroker and investment banker raising capital for small companies and making markets in their stock.  During this time I served as a vice president of two brokerage firms and president of two others, first starting my own firm with $5,000 worth of junk securities and maybe a couple of thousand in cash shooting for ten million, reached three million in ten years, before I went bust from greed, over-expansion, too much success on a manual bookkeeping system and had my fill of bureaucrats so decided to go back to my earliest ambition to become a writer and publisher.  Also during this brokerage time I operated an exploratory mining company and a movie company that financed and co-produced a full-length movie co-starring Slim Pickens with a five star rating.  So I am hardly a wild-eyed idealist; I’ve had good grounding in the business world.

You are right; we have probably never had a totally unregulated capitalistic system.  Main Street Capitalism when there was true competition, the customer’s freedom to choose with whom they would do business served as a check on the unscrupulous.  On the state and national level when we had regulators who regulated for the best interest of the public, we prospered and the opportunity for folks to start a business and grow still had a chance.  When I referred to unregulated capitalists, I was referring to what we have today, where the  “supposedly regulated” are now with big money in control of Congress and the lobbyists for big uncontrollable corporations now write the laws for their benefit and playing musical chairs between government and business they have a tremendous effect on the regulators, and who and who not to go after.  How many Banksters have gone to jail?  So regulation is now reserved for the small exploratory mining company and a movie company that financed and co-produced a full-length movie co-starring Slim Pickens with a five star rating.

The USA has always been a mixed economy, part capitalist & part socialist & the socialist part has increased over the last 200 years as more & more “capitalists” climb into bed with the State bureaucrats and become part of the fascist State/corporate partnership that’s destroying our civilization.

I couldn’t agree with you more; we have become a fascist state, at least by Mussolini definition that Fascism is a marriage between business and government

The article doesn’t get any better; it’s filled with misrepresentations, untruths utter BS, such as “As a result of global capitalism and corruption, the socialist systems in Russia and China evolved into state capitalism with ruling coming from the top down”.  “State Capitalism” is an oxymoronic label for fascism, with nothing in common with free market or capitalism.

Bob, I would recommend that you read John Perkins’s Confessions of An Economic Hit Man.  He was on the inside and well aware of what our CIA and National Security outfit have been doing in the world, taking leaders out who do not take their bribes and do their will, how the World Bank, so set up to help third world countries has been used as a vehicle to get countries overextended debt-wise, doing projects that little benefit the people.  When they cannot pay, then putting the squeeze on and having our corporations take control of their resources and impoverishing their citizens to pay back the interest and principal of a debt, they little benefited from.  Only a few rich sycophants made out.

What started out as intended as Democratic Socialism, from the people up, in Russia and China, was taken over by bureaucracies ruled from the top down, with little input from the people for whom the productive resources were supposed to be owned.  Since the state owned the productive assets or capital, I don’t know what you would call it other than State Capitalism.  Fascism is a partnership between private business corporations and the government.

I don’t know of any free markets unless they are the local farmer’s markets.  Above that it is a myth put out by subsidized special interests.

No one who ever understood the free market could ever write:  “We also need progressive taxation and inheritance taxes above a certain level to prevent excessive inequality. ”.  In a free society, we all have equal opportunity to become as unequal as we are capable of becoming.

Unfortunately the statement, “In a free society, we are all have equal opportunity to become as unequal as we are capable of becoming,” is also a myth.  What if you are born black or poor and in a slum or handicapped or happen to be a woman?  When I went to college, my semester tuition was $45.  All I had to worry about was buying my books and earning food and shelter.  By working summers and after school I was able to work and earn some more money.  When I got out of college I did not own a big debt that our young folks are loaded up with today and most likely will be enslaved by such a debt for years.  Some of our greatest people came from the working class.  Look at Lincoln; look at Ben Franklin and thousands of others.  Would we deny these people an opportunity to serve their community by cutting them short on an education, while rich people waste money on the likes of George Bush and with their money put him in high places where such people can do so much damage.  Ask Iraq and Afghanistan what they think.

When I left the game of greed and took up my earlier ambition to be a poet and writer, where I have spent over 30 years and came to associate with people more concerned about the well being of their fellow citizens and others in the world in achieving economic, social and political justice for all, rather than gaining a lot of wealth and self-aggrandizement, I came to realize that resources of this world are here for all life, not for a few grabbers.  Why should one person accumulate enough for a thousand lifetimes and a thousand family go hungry and unsheltered?  Anyone earning over a million dollars a year does not earn it.  It is made from speculation or exploiting money from those who work for them.  In a world of diminishing resources hogged up by mega corporations owned by the 1%, progressive taxations and inheritance taxes are the main tools for maintaining an equitable balance.  

We have all seen how great wealth in the hands of the few has destroyed our democracy in their takeover of our government.  Without inheritance taxes what are we trying to do build up another aristocracy, with the Earls, Dukes and Barons just changing their names to Banksters, CEOs and Lobbyists?  Capitalism has had its day of inequality and constant wars just like the feudal system and it is time for change.  We must devise a new system of cooperate and share rather than compete and beat.  Socialism may not have all the answers, but they are in the forefront of human rights issues and standing up for economic and political justice and it works.  Look at the Scandinavian countries.  We better do something quickly; otherwise in time we are headed toward another French like Revolution

I quit reading at the point the big lie was repeated:  “There are certain functions too big for small companies, including transportation, public utilities and some industrial undertakings that would better serve the public by being community-owned.  Banking, insurance, health care and education can better serve the citizens by being community-owned rather than filling the pockets of private capitalists that seem to turn into monopolies.” … and should have quit reading much sooner.

–bob

Hardly a big lie when you see big pharmaceutical monopolies feasting on the sick, health care and assisted living corporations bankrupting our citizens, our industrial corporations shipping our vital industries to other nations with the decimation of our own local communities, financial and banksters sucking money out of the nation for their speculations and cannibalizing and plundering their competition.

 

Why I became a Socialist

I spent most of my life a devout capitalist and over 20 years as stockbroker and investment banker. Today I am a Socialist. As the years went by, I observed the amoral practices of capitalism that rigged the system in the absence of regulation. The system forced otherwise good people into that mold because they could not compete unless they played the same game.

The very word, Socialism, has been so demonized in the U.S. and compared to Stalin’s so-called communism, that I did not even consider such a system as being socially and economically just. Then when I considered the injustice of the gross and growing inequality among people that is wrought by pure unregulated capitalism, I decided to look into this so-called demon, the Socialistic system.

My first introduction to and respect for Socialism came after reading the life of Eugene Debs in Irving Stone’s book, Adversary in the House. Debs was incarcerated by Wilson’s administration for speaking out against World War I. That and other wars inspired General Smedly Butler to write War Is A Racket. Debs ran for president as a Socialist three times. The last time he ran while he was still in prison and he still won around a million votes. Wow! What a man and true lover of humanity. Then I was pleasantly surprised at the reputation and caliber of people who were professed Socialists. Some of my real heroes were Socialists, people like Jack London, Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, and George Bernard Shaw. There had to be something good about such a system if these esteemed people considered themselves Socialists.

Then I discovered that Socialists were always in the forefront of standing up for both political and economic justice for all, same as me. When injustices and abuses occurred in our present capitalistic system, Socialists always took the stand for people and true justice. Socialists take a strong position for true democracy and demand that all citizens have an unhampered right to vote [U.S. Constitutional Amendment XV states: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be abridged by race, color, or previous condition of servitude. In practice this has become fiction]. It is the vote that gives the citizen the right to respond to unfair laws and in effect gives them a say in such laws. In true Socialism all positions are subject to recall and replacement by those who elected them if they are dissatisfied with their actions and votes. As a result of global capitalism and corruption, the socialist systems in Russia and China evolved into state capitalism with ruling coming from the top down instead of from the people up.

We must remember that all resources of this earth are here for all life, not reserved just for a few rich grabbers. Certain characteristics of Main Street Capitalism have proven to be good for the community, with individual services to their fellow citizens and personal initiative in creating goods and services and filling needs. Yet even at this level you need regulations and rules to play by to keep the unscrupulous in line. We also need progressive taxation and inheritance taxes above a certain level to prevent excessive inequality. There are certain functions too big for small companies, including transportation, public utilities and some industrial undertakings that would better serve the public by being community-owned. Banking, insurance, health care and education can better serve the citizens by being community-owned rather than filling the pockets of private capitalists that seem to turn into monopolies.

Unregulated Corporate Capitalism, industrial and financial, leads to control by political oligarchies and economic monopolies. Capitalism like Feudalism has had its day and we need to move on and design a new system to replace it.

Some may call this a rant, but it is an honest statement of why I am enraged at the abuses of capitalism and think it smart to be a Socialist.

When I see my fellow citizens paid poverty wages and forced to pay excessive unregulated rents, I am enraged and think it smart to be a Socialist.

When I see the obscene and extravagant increases of as much as 140% paid in compensation to CEOs while their employees are lucky to get even 3%, I am enraged and think it smart to be a Socialist. [Wendell Potter, Center for Public Integrity]

When I see my fellow citizens sleeping on the cold, dangerous streets and under bridges when there are empty buildings and vast wealth hogged by the few, I am enraged and think it smart to be a Socialist.

When I see our young people burdened with unpardonable debts to get an education when earlier, less prosperous generations were provided almost free education through college, I am enraged and think it smart to be a Socialist.

When I see people having to declare bankruptcy because of health care problems when most other advanced societies take care of these needs, I am enraged and think it smart to be a Socialist.

When I see our prisons being turned into private moneymaking ventures to profit from the misery of people incarcerated when they are not a real danger to society, I am enraged and think it smart to be a Socialist.

When I see unfortunate poor and black people in jail for nonviolent crimes while banksters and corporate executives commit wholesale crimes and even murder and get off free or with a slap on the wrist or a fine, I am enraged and think it smart to be a Socialist.

When I see predatory corporations and banksters robbing other countries of their resources and using our military to protect their interests, I am enraged and think it smart to be a Socialist.

When I see the 1 percent’s toadies in Congress create a security state that has trashed our Constitution by the passage of laws, including the Homeland Security Act, Patriots Act, Military Commissions Act, and the recently renewed NDAA that allows the president to maintain a kill list that even includes American citizens without their day in court, I am enraged and think it smart to be a Socialist.

When I see the corrupt Supreme Court declare that corporations have the same rights as flesh and blood citizens who die for their country and not declare such laws as those mentioned above that have trashed our Constitution as unconstitutional, I am enraged and think it smart to be a Socialist.

When in the hell are we all going to get enraged and quit supporting these predatory corporations, international banksters, manufacturers of killing machines and quit voting for the corporate toadies in the Democratic and Republican parties?

Copyleft 2014 J. Glenn Evans

(Feel free to copy and distribute to others)
J. Glenn Evans

Part Cherokee, native of Oklahoma, founder of PoetsWest and Activists for a Better World, hosts PoetsWest at KSER 90.7FM, a nationally syndicated weekly radio show. Evans, an award-wining poet, is author of a book of poetry, Window in the Sky and three chapbooks, Buffalo Tracks, Deadly Mistress and Seattle Poems. He is author of three novels, Broker Jim, Zeke’s Revenge and Wayfarers, is a former stockbroker-investment banker. Evans has lived in Seattle since 1960, worked in a lumber mill, operated a mining company and co-produced a movie, Christmas Mountain, with Mark Miller, co-starring Slim Pickens. Evans, in addition to poetry and novels has written numerous political essays and is the author several local community histories including a history of Seattle’s Pike Place Market and has been published in many literary Journals.

15 NOW HAS BECOME A NATIONAL MOVEMENT

Many people strongly support 15 Now, but some seemingly have gotten on the 15 Now bandwagon, including some people who always oppose propositions favorable to working people.  Don’t be fooled by some of this fake support.  They know labor is waking up and will no longer tolerate a less than living wage.  Labor has come to realize that landlords, drug manufacturers, mega food peddlers, and other large companies have kept raising prices and enhancing their profits that mainly benefit CEOs and stockholders, but have kept labor costs down.  This has been going on for years.  Some of these fake supporters are mouthing 15 Now, but want to stretch out the advances as long as ten years to reach that level.  The way inflation is going, minimum wages by then will need to be at least $30 per hour for a living wage.

Don’t be fooled by this false rhetoric.  The 15 Now is just catch-up on a modest scale.  These exploited folks have been working for less than a living wage for ten years or more while prices and profits have been escalating to the advantage of the few.  Rents won’t wait and other costs of living have not waited, so why should labor have to wait.  For a living wage, $15 per hour is needed right now.

Some in the 15 Now movement have acknowledged such an immediate raise would place an undue hardship on small business and suggest that for small business, the raise should be spread over the next three years, but not a longer period.  Then business plays games by saying small businesses should include firms that have up to 200 employees.  Poppycock!  For purposes of the 15 Now campaign, only firms with less than 50 employees should come under the three-year stretch out; all other firms should be immediate.  Their CEOs have not waited.  Rent has not waited so why should labor wait.  This is catch-up.

Strong rumors have developed that war chests of up to $30 million are being put together to fight this 15 Now, most likely to come in at the last moment to confuse people if the matter comes to a people’s vote.  Big Bucks developed war chests of $20 million to fight labeling of GMOs and $3million to fight $15 per hour at SeaTac with only 6,000 workers concerned.  15 Now is not just a local Seattle movement, but it is national with cities waking up all over America with all eyes on Seattle.  You can image the efforts big business will expend to defeat this matter.  As mentioned big business did the same thing to defeat the labeling bill on GMOs by confusing people.  Anyone with brains of a gnat should know that we have a right to know what goes into foods peddled to us that we put in our bodies.  Yet big money with a last minute media blitz was able to confuse people so the initiative failed to pass.  Big Bucks will try to do the same thing with 15 Now.  So let’s be wary of their last minute confusing tactics and let’s remember at the next election time how legislative representatives voted on the 15 Now issue.

Copyleft 2014 J. Glenn Evans

(Feel free to copy and distribute as broadly as possible)

A manifesto for We the People, in honor of Nelson Mandela

Dedicated to the memory of Nelson Mandela who died on December 5, 2013 at the age of 95.  He led Africa’s struggle for freedom and justice.  A hero to millions, he will be mourned around the world.

 

We the People need to speak truth to power.  We need to be heard.  We need to restore our democracy and rein in the national security state that was established on the false premise of looking for terrorists.  The elected legislators in all branches of government represent the interests of the corporate welfare state and not the interests of the American people.  Our Constitution has been trashed and our Bill of Rights destroyed.

 

Civil liberties

Journalists and whistle-blowers jailed and prosecuted.  Citizens working for justice denigrated, marginalized, jailed, or even taken out.  Municipal police are being militarized.  Police brutality used against peaceful protestors who are beaten and jailed.  Citizens detained without access to family or lawyers.  Citizens may disappear into Controlled Management Units (CMUs). Infiltration of activist and dissident organizations [Amendments I, V, VI of the Constitution, NDAA, Military Commissions Act].

The national security state spies on us all.  The expansive military machine can turn on us at will.  National leaders who speak out can be taken out.  Look at what happened to John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy.  Look at what is currently happening to our more recent patriot heroes: Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Jeremy Hammond, and Edward Snowden. [Amendment IV of the Constitution]

 

Climate Change

The science has been pretty well established, yet neither the corporate media nor members of Congress mention the growing perils associated with climate change.  This may well be the most critical element in the future life of our planet and all living things.  The content of mainstream media has been dumbed down to infotainment so that what we see, read and hear is hollow.

Increasing changes in climate will worsen economic conditions and those hardships help to drive immigration.  Land and water wars will increase the social stress with resulting mass exoduses of refugees.

 

Congress and the Corporate State

Congress passes legislation written by lobbyists and corporate lawyers. [Article I of the Constitution]  Congress passes legislation that legalizes what is illegal.  A former democratic society is now a plutocracy with titles of Director, Lobbyist, CEO and President (instead of Baron, Duke, Earl and Monarch).  Regressive tax structure that benefits the 1%.

The use of offshore tax havens and other tax avoidance strategies by wealthy to avoid payment of income tax.  “Tax dodging by the rich and corporations costs every other American taxpayer $1,026 per year in higher taxes or reduced benefits and services.”  [WA Post May 24, 2013]

National Priorities Project reports that (1) corporate tax breaks will total $108 billion in FY2013 – more than 1.5 times what the U.S. government spends on education funding. Between 2007 and 2013, the revenue lost from U.S. corporations deferring taxes on income earned abroad rose 200%, going from $14 billion to $42 billion. (2) All tax breaks for individuals will exceed $1 trillion this year, with about 17% of the biggest individual tax breaks going to the top 1% of earners. More at a report out today from the National Priorities Project. [Amendment XVI of the Constitution].

Excessive involvement of the military and corporations manufacturing arms in formulation of U.S. foreign policy [Caldicott, Helen, The New Nuclear Danger, New Press, 2002].

A corrupt Congress has defunded and decreased the regularity authority of governmental agencies, putting profits before people and the planet.

The Extreme Court does the bidding of a very small political elite [Article III of the Constitution].

Congress fails to curb secret negotiations that affect relations between countries and corporations.  Current examples include TPP and TAFTA.

 

Economy

It’s all about money.  The obscene level of wealth and economic inequality is a moral issue, as well as an economic or political issue.  Marketplace autonomy, financial speculation and widespread corruption have caused the current massive inequality in societies the world over.  Workers and even our soldiers are treated as goods to be used and thrown away.  The wages of working Americans have remained stagnant since the late 70s while, at the same time, easy credit has made Americans slaves to debt.  The United States is last among 21 developed nations in union membership, reflecting a downward trend since 1983.  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports union membership at 11.1% in 2012.  [Bureau of Labor Statistics. Union Membership-2012. [Washington, D.C.:] U.S. Department of Labor, 2013. Web. 23 January 2013]  The current union membership has been reported to be a meager 10%.

 

Elections

All citizens of legal age have the right to vote regardless of the state in which they live.  When election fraud is used to restrict their right to vote, why should they owe allegiance to a government that denies them the right to vote?  [Amendments XV and XXIV of the Constitution]

The two major parties have betrayed the American people.  They have been bought off by the 1% and are no longer worthy of our support.  Increasing numbers of Americans are alienated from the political process and don’t bother to vote.  More Americans might participate in elections if it were a national holiday.  It is time for a national debate on making voting mandatory by Constitutional amendment and making provision for run-off elections instead of the electoral college.  And it is time for legislation on term limits. [Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution]

 

Immigration

The attack on so-called illegal immigrants has been accelerated to distract us from the real problems facing this nation.  I daresay that most immigrants would rather stay at home but indigenous farmers can’t compete with highly subsidized U.S. agribusiness.  One may argue whether undocumented immigrants are an economic drain or an economic boon. The debate goes on and on while we witness an immense growth in border security with nationwide immigration sweeps, over 20,000 US border agents (highest in history and twice that of a decade ago), growth of agencies in addition to Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE), such as Secure Communities program. [Obama speech & Council on Foreign Relations], high number of deportations causing family breakups.  The construction of a double wall along our southern border also infringed on the rights of indigenous people to their land [Truthout Dec. 5, 2013].

 

Public Institutions and Government Services

Public institutions and government services are being privatized for profit: the military, education, prisons, etc.  Chicago closed 50 public schools May 2013, leading the way toward privatization.

According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, the five countries with the highest prison population are the US, China, Russia, Brazil and India. The US has a prison population of 2,239,751, or 716 people per 100,000. China ranks second with 1,640,000 people behind bars, or 121 people per 100,000, while Russia is third with 681,600, or 475 individuals per 100,000. Brazil has 548,003 people in prison or 274 per 100,000; finally, India’s prison population is 385,135, or 30 inmates per 100,000 citizens. Sweden ranks 112th and is closing 4 of its prisons.

The for-profit prison industry is thriving and dependent on a hefty prison population. Correction Corps of America (CCA), Management Training Corporation (MTC) from Centerville, Utah and the GEO Group, Inc., of Boca Raton, Florida, own and operate over 200 correctional, detention and residential treatment facilities and transport prisoners by land and air. They crank out $5 billion a year in profit.  “A perfect money machine, indeed — but only if the system keeps them supplied with prisoners.”

 

Government services, including the U.S. Postal Service [Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution], Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, even national parks and forests, are part of a larger strategy to privatize them under the guise of a budget crisis, or a manufactured need for austerity measures.  Social Security is not responsible for one dime of the so-called federal deficit.

 

The outcome of Citizens United has enabled a small minority of powerful interests with unlimited amounts of money to gain control of the government.  Huge amounts of money are brought into states to influence ballot initiatives on GMOs and similar legislation.  The corruption of government at all levels is so deeply embedded that it cannot be changed within the current political system.  See https://movetoamend.org/.

 

Wall Street

The criminality and chicanery of Wall Street and the big banks “too large to fail” have been well established.  These institutions are the primary cause of the budget crisis and yet not one of these high-level criminals has been held accountable by the Obama administration.  (Wall Street overwhelmingly supported Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.)  It is now known that secret Wall Street bailouts totaled $7.77 trillion!  On the local level, large financial institutions remove money from local economies to finance their Wall Street speculations and corporate take-overs.  They pay a minimal rate of interest on savings accounts, yet charge us 12 to 25 percent on loans.  That interest on loans is the lifeblood of the big banks.  These institutions work for the best interests of the 1%, rather than the interests of the American people.

 

War

The imperialistic and aggressive state of the U.S. in its perpetual war against “terrorism” threatens the peace of the world and the health of the planet and its peoples.  The destruction of Iraq, the high numbers of civilian dead from the use of drones, chemical warfare, (Vietnam, Iraq, etc.), threatens the health of civilians and the health of the planet.  The bloated U.S military budget is larger than that of the combined budgets of the 10 highest countries. [Stockholm Intl. Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, 2013. Compiled by PGPF.]

Partial list of U.S. aggressive actions below:

Overthrow of PM Mosaddegh of Iran in 1953

Overthrow of leftist government in Guatemala in 1954

The Invasion and Occupation of Vietnam – 3 Million dead 1954-1975

Coup d’état in Chile on 9/11/1973 – 3000 murdered

Complicity in invasion of East Timor in 1975, including shipment of arms (violates U. S. law)

Destructive policies toward Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines

Use of death squads in Vietnam, Central America, Iraq, Syria

Invasion and destruction of Iraq – 1 Million dead 2001 to present

Use of torture or “enhanced interrogation” (Bagram, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, global black sites) [Amendment VIII]

Destruction of Fallujah and use of white phosphorus in 2004

Use of depleted uranium in the Iraq War in 2004

Support for dictatorships in Middle East, South America & Africa, including Saudi Arabia; Bahrain; Yemen; Jordan

Complicity in human rights violations and war crimes by its financial, diplomatic and media support for militaristic and apartheid state of Israel

 

What to Do?

In 1999 thousands of citizens of the world gathered together in Seattle to stop the WTO conference then in progress.  On December 3, 2013 the The Ninth Ministerial Conference of the WTO meets in Bali, Indonesia from 3 to 6 December 2013.

How do We the People change the system?  First, We the People must support a new people’s movement or party and withdraw our support of the Democrat and Republican parties.  We need term limits.  We can undertake individual actions and also act in unison with our fellow citizens [Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution].  We see a kind of cruelty reflected in statements and legislation passed by a corrupt Congress.  We need to meet the needs of our citizens here at home, including our veterans, cut the bloated military budget and invest in America.

 

Move your money from the big banks to local banks and credit unions.  Save a little money if you can and your savings will make you free.  Free yourself of the tyranny of compound interest.  Support local businesses, banks and credit unions.  Work to build alternate economies to take care of local needs.  Support movements to establish state and city banks.

Support actions against foreclosures.  Be there if you can.  Urge your Congressional representatives to pass a financial transaction tax.

Don’t put a dollar sign on everything.  Someone needs something; if you have it and don’t need it, pass it on to them.  Don’t worry; that goodwill will come back to you.

Young folks who join the army under the poverty draft should take the oath to seriously uphold the Constitution.  When ordered to fire on peaceful protestors, they should aim high over their heads.

We the People want democracy, justice, a healthy environment, a sustainable economy, health care, and education.  These are human rights, not commodities to be traded on the markets.  We must build a movement to amend or rescind those laws that have destroyed our Constitution and our civil liberties.

 

Form community networks.  Help organize a People’s Congress as a shadow government to serve as a watchdog for liberty and rally support for people who look after the people’s best interests.  Become informed and engaged as much as you are willing and have time for.

Exercise civil disobediences to change unjust laws.  Yes, they may kill a few of us but they are killing us anyway.  Look at all the war victims and the deaths of our own soldiers who are sent around the world to protect the corporate interests of the 1%.

Support union workers in their efforts for decent working conditions, wages and pensions.  Support worker-owned enterprises.  We need to become citizens of the world and help each other rather than shoot at each other.

 

There is a growing undercurrent of dissatisfaction in the realization that politics as usual will not correct the corrupt system with its inequitable system of taxation and a bloated military budget.  Signs of change are taking place.  And the corporate media do not cover the growing vibrant movement that is going on right now.  When enough of us have had enough, the so-called 1% will run for cover.  Then we can lock the cover and build a new world of justice in which we take care of each other without the burden of those parasites who have been feasting on us ever since the development of mega capitalism.  We have one thing that scares the hell out of them that will eventually bring them down.  We have each other!

 

Sources

There is a lot of information and research available to those who want to help in changing the political system and transform our society.  More help is on the way but you can start with these links:

http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-the-path-of-positive-resistance/ with Jill Stein and Margaret Flowers. Also http://greenshadowcabinet.us/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=1

Popularresistance.org or info@popularresistance.org

http://www.opensecrets.org/

http://www.peoplescongress.org

The National Initiative for Democracy

 Movie worth watching https://vimeo.com/55141496(enter password when prompted:( barbarasteegmuller ) – 2

 

The list of books is long and comprehensive. The following is only a sampling:

Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism, World Publishing, 1951

Blum, William, Rogue State, Common Courage Press, 2000

Fisk, Robert, The Great War for Civilization, Vintage, 2005

Gutierrez, Donald, Feeling the Unthinkable, Amador Publishing, 2012

Johnson, Chalmers, Blowback 2nd ed., Henry Holt, 2004

Wolf, Naomi, The End of America, Chelsea Publishing, 2007

Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States, Harper’s, 1995

Zinn, Howard, The Zinn Reader, Seven Stories Press, 2004

 

Copyleft 2013 J. Glenn Evans

(Feel free to copy and distribute as broadly as possible)

Out of the dark

It was a cold night.  A fine sleet pelted me as I walked down Seneca towards town to do some last minute shopping.  Walking on the north side of the street, I approached 6th Avenue where cars came roaring off the freeway.  I wasn’t paying much attention as I looked straight ahead, hoping to make the light.

I felt something hard press against my back.  A gruff voice said, “Sir, I will not hurt you, but I want your money.  You can keep your cards, just give me your money.”

I turned around to look.  The man had a dark beard, wore a bill cap and had a neck scarf thrown around his neck with the last swing covering his face except his eyes.  His gun was pointing right at my heart.

“My friend, if you need money you don’t have to rob me for it and endanger yourself to many years in jail.  I’ll share what I have with you.”

He grunted.

I took out my wallet and removed the bills and said, “Okay, here is a ten for you and a ten for me, a twenty for you and a twenty for me.”  I gave him another ten and a five and took the same for me.  “Here’s a one for you and another one for me.  I’ve got an extra buck so you can have it.  That leaves me forty-six bucks for groceries this next month.”

“Is that all the money you have?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“That will not do,” he said.  “I don’t rob poor people.  Here let me share with you.”  He stuck the money I had given him in his pocket, opened his wallet and gave me two 100 dollar bills.

“You are not going to get rich giving back more than you take,” I said.

“Getting rich is not why I rob.  I give most of the money I take to homeless people.”

“You could get killed robbing people with that toy pistol.”  I had seen that it was a toy from the light of a passing car.

“I’m not afraid to die, but I will never kill anymore people.”

“You’ve killed people?”

“Yes, far too many.  Iraq and Afghanistan and I feel terrible for what I did for this government.”

“That wasn’t murder.  You were being a patriot.”

“Patriot, hell, it was just plain old murder as far I am concerned.”

“If you only rob rich people, why did you stop me?”

“You’re wearing an expensive leather jacket.”

“I bought it at Goodwill for five bucks.”

“I’ll be darn.’

“Hey, let’s go have a cup of coffee,” I said.  “Maybe we can figure out a way you can help the homeless without robbing people.”

“I’ll listen to you, but I don’ think you can come up with any faster way getting bucks.”

 

After we settled down in a quiet corner of a café, deserted by the cold and the season of Christmas Eve, I asked, “Why do you think you should rob rich people?”

“That’s where the money is.  Besides, they pay so damn little in taxes with all of their dodges, while the poor working stiffs pay the full course.”

“I agree,” I said.  “We did have a taxing program that allowed the government to help less fortunate people.”

“Yeah, but that’s all changed.  They fucked up the laws so they don’t pay their fair share.  I’m just doing a little equalizing.”

“You don’t find the real rich people walking the streets.  They ride in chauffeured limousines.”

“I know, but I catch a few of their sycophants and they know I’m here.  That’s why they don’t walk the streets.”

“You could start a non-profit corporation and get donations to help the poor.”

“Ha!  Then you have a whole staff to pay and too little gets to the people who need it.”

“Yes, but look at the risk you take by robbing people.”

“I just even the score,” he said.  “It gets my adrenalin goin’ and most of the money I take gets recycled to the people who really need it.”

“What a society we’ll have if everybody takes up your habit.”

“Don’t worry.  Most people don’t have guts enough to do what I do.  Besides, I’m just small potatoes compared to those Wall Street banksters and corporate CEOs.”

“Can’t argue with that,” I said.

“Besides, I give the rich guys something to tell their kids and grandkids about.  Probably more excitement than the last time the raped and plundered another corporation.”

“Could be.”

“Look, they sent me over to kill and maybe get killed so they could make big bucks.  Now they are getting a little blowback.”

“Can’t I talk you out of this way of life?”

He stood up, tipped his hat, did a low bow and said, “Merry Christmas,” turned and left.

I said a little prayer for him and our mixed up world that sends such good-hearted people out on such a mission.

Review of Donald Guitierrez's Feeling the Unthinkable

This is a recent review on Donald Gutierrez’s new book, Feeling The Unthinkable that I wanted to call to your attention.  I sincerely believe that this book should be read by every American concerned about where our country is headed.

J. Glenn Evans

FEELING THE UNTHINKABLE
By DONALD GUTIERREZ

AMADOR PUBLISHERS, LLC
611 Delamar Ave NW
Albuquerque, NM 87107
(505) 344-6102
zelda@amadorbooks.com
$19.95

Every once in a while a book comes out that all of us should read regardless of age, status or political belief.  The 48 essays and reviews in Feeling the Unthinkable by Donald Gutierrez are a literary feast.  His essays hit in the gut, but his many reviews of other writers’ work introduce us to sources of information of which we need to be aware.  They help you to think and ponder on where we’ve been and where we’re going.  It is an incredibly powerful book from not only a prophet but also an historian and a philosopher that you will not want to miss.

Who would have believed a few years ago that America used torture?  Except for Nazi Germany, it was thought that torture went out in the Middle Ages when the elites used the rack.  Yet now we find that America used waterboarding in the conquest of the Philippines.  In Gutierrez’s review of Alfred W. McCoy’s book, A Question of Torture, it was disclosed that by 1972 the Provincial Interrogations Centers, each directed by CIA personnel, 20,000 Vietcong were murdered in a “pump and dump” practice.  How many were guilty and how many were innocent, nobody knows, except they were fighting a foreign invader.

By the time we got to Iraq and Afghanistan:

A colossal miscarriage of justice behind all this brutal increase of psychological and physical torture emerged when it became clear that, according to military intelligence from allied nations, 70 to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees had been arrested by mistake.  What comes across in this massive injustice is the culpability of a chain of command from the White House lawyers to Rumsfeld to senior military officers like Generals Geoffrey D. Miller and Ricardo Sanchez to ordinary soldiers who followed their orders.  Who takes blame if all this torture came to be proven illegal leads McCoy to the crucial issue of impunity. (63) … McCoy argues, further, that torture is not effective against terrorism, citing the very high number of innocent detainees from whom meager intelligence was coerced at Guantanamo. (64)

 

If we were not the most powerful nation militarily, our leaders would be brought before the world courts because of Nuremberg crimes.  A quote from Gutierrez’s review of Naomi Wolf’s The End of America: Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot is enough to send shivers up your back when you consider what has recently been happening here in the U.S.

“Both Italian and German fascism came to power legally and incrementally in functioning democracies; both used legislation, cultural pressure and baseless imprisonment and torture, progressively to consolidate power….both aggressively used the law to subvert the law” (119)

 

In his essay, “The Great Military-Defense Swindle of America,” Gutierrez brings out the numbers, what we and our kids pay into the Military/Industrial Complex: $8 trillion on military expenditures from 1975 to 2000; $21 million for each M1A2 Abrams Tank (the army has 3,000 of them); $850 million for each Arleigh-Burke-class destroyer (the Navy acquired 17 since 1971 for around $11 billion); more recently 7 more Burke destroyers for around $33 billion.  The destroyers cost around $30,000 a day to operate or $11 million a year plus training costs.  Navy 18EF fighter-bombers, called “Super Hornets” cost $80 million each and the Navy wants 1,000 of them.

In the meantime, the Pentagon and its allies in Congress continue to seek rationalization for the mammoth military budget.  Partly this is needed to conceal the enormous contradictions between legitimate military preparedness and the irony of keeping unused defense factories open by designating perfectly suitable ordnance as outmoded to justify spending further billions for ever more high-tech killing weapons.  Thus, the worst thing that could happen to the Pentagon and America’s war industry is peace.  A more fitting definition of a society led by lunatics and greed would be hard to find, at least among nations describing themselves as democratic. (142-143)

 

Some interesting figures are brought out in Gutierrez’s review of Helen Caldicott, The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush’s Military-Industrial Complex.  The quotation from The Defense Monitor put out by retired military officers reflects what could be done with only one third of the military expenditure:

“Globally the annual military expenditure stands at 780 billion dollars.  The total amount required to provide global health care, eliminate starvation and malnutrition, provide clear water and shelter for all, remove land mines, eliminate nuclear weapons, stop deforestation, prevent global warming, ozone depletion and acid rain, retire the paralyzing debt of developing nations, prevent soil erosion, produce safe, clean energy, stop overpopulation and eliminate illiteracy is only one third that amount–$237.5 billion dollars.” (134-135)

 

In “Attending College Must Be Free Again (For the Country’s Own Good),” Donald Gutierrez brings out the fact that in the 1950s he was able to attend college at the University of California in Berkeley with no tuition.  There was a $35 semester charge described as an Incidental Fee for the use of the gym, campus hospital and a first rate library.  Now the semester tuition is $5000 and $16,000 for a nonresident of the state.  He states that Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law cost almost $18,000 per semester, including living expenses and expensive books.  Private schools are a lot more.  Why this must change:

Extreme financial stress on responsible college students is not only unjust, it is dangerous to the country’s future.  Higher education should be free to all young people who show an aptitude for and aspire to advanced learning and professional or technical training.  Society needs doctors, nurses, dentists, teachers, scholars, engineers, lawyers, economists, novelists, poets, and social, political and cultural critics and other experts—now and in the future.  If, however, those high college debt hurdles remain, the consequences are obvious and pernicious: For the most part, only youths from wealthy or comfortable families will be able to afford college, especially quality colleges.  The result will be not only a class-based educational structure—Yale vs. Flatsburg City College—but the hardening of a class-structured society. (177)

 

We not only have the Military/Industrial Complex, as President Eisenhower warned against, but now the Prison/Industrial Complex that allows corporations to make fortunes on other people’s misery.  Punishment for crime and rehabilitation for return to society are functions of the state and must not be delegated to private enterprise.  It behooves all citizens to be aware of what goes on in prisons.  With our present system of justice, any of us, innocent or guilty, could end up in prison.  Protest an injustice and be labeled a terrorist, you become a victim of indefinite detention, especially if you are nonwhite.  Gutierrez reflects on “The New Electrical Meanspiritedness in America”:

An alarming trend in American prisons is the use of electrical devices on prisoners.  This usage constitutes a serious erosion of what some regard as essential ethical restraint on prison authorities from imposing cruelty on convicts.  In a long 1997 article in the New York Review of Books entitled “Cruel and Unusual Punishment,” William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International, USA, discussed the increasing use of such devices as stun belts, stun guns, shock batons and electric shields by law enforcement officials to control prisoners. … According to Schulz:

 “Stun belts deliver 50,000 volt shocks to the left kidney which fan out from there through blood channels and nerve pathways.  Shocks can be administered by guards form a distance of up to 300 feet simply by the push of a button.  An 8-second application of shock inevitably knocks a person to the ground and may induce urination, defecation or unconsciousness.” (195)

 

From his own personal encounters with racism, to the hell of the Nazi death camps, to the reality of war, the global exploitation of the earth’s resources, and worldwide abuses of human rights, Gutierrez reminds us how the past haunts the present.

Gutierrez concludes the collection with a subject dear to me as a poet and writer: “The Power of the Pen.”  From a review of Howard Zinn’s The Zinn Reader, he moves on to the teaching of the humanities in college, fiction, war poems, the concept of “Us” versus “Them”, our mother earth as a living vital force, and finally poetry as both a prophetic and an humanitarian response to the dark side of human nature.  He takes us full circle with the Occupy Movement.

Dozens of books on American imperialist foreign policy and corporate greed have been written.  Some of them may seem general and abstract, and in Gutierrez’s collection of essays in Feeling the Unthinkable, he reviews a number of those books.  Many Americans prefer not to think about the abuses of power by its government, and who can blame them, but reading Gutierrez, we feel our humanity rise, to extend it in empathy toward the victims of American foreign policy, and to know that it is our common humanity that binds us together.  This is the gift of Gutierrez’s collection of essays in Feeling the Unthinkable.

 

Donald Gutierrez was a member of the University of Notre Dame English Department faculty from 1968 to 1975, then joined the English Department at Western New Mexico University in Silver City. He retired from WNMU in 1994 and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife Marlene Zander Gutierrez. He received a “New Mexico Eminent Scholar Award” in 1989. Gutierrez has published six books of literary criticism, two of which focus on D. H. Lawrence and one on Kenneth Rexroth. He has published over fifty essays and reviews, most of which concern social justice and American state terrorism abroad.

 

Reviewed by J. Glenn Evans, poet, novelist, activist, and founding director of PoetsWest

1100 University St. #17A

Seattle WA 98101

JGE2@poetswest.com

www.poetswest.com

206.682.1268

Syria: Nation and Region in Crisis, discussion in Seattle on Friday, June 28

The crisis in Syria is escalating to very dangerous levels. If Americans don’t want to see a repeat of the disaster unleashed in Iraq, we urge you to attend this very important presentation organized by Richard Silverstein, author and blogger of Tikun Olam. He will be joined by Rita Zawaideh, Arab-American humanitarian relief activist.

More information is in the attachment. Hope to see you there to join in the discussion!

Please read the attachment even if you are not able to attend or out of the Seattle area.

Syria: Nation and Region in Crisis

Friday, June 28 at 7:00 p.m.

University Temple United Methodist Church, Fireplace Room (downstairs)

1415 NE 43rd St. (across from University Book Store), Seattle

Alternative to the Democratic Party

Below is the address I made at the University of Washington the 30th of January 2013 before a meeting of the Socialist Alternative Party.  It reflects my thoughts on where we are today and what we must do to redeem the dream of a true democracy that our founding fathers set out to create for us.  I strongly feel that more of our citizens must run for public office and replace the corporate toadies that have come to rule us.  Power lies within the political offices to make the necessary changes.  Our neglect to monitor the actions of our elected representatives and demand less secrecy is why we have lost our government.  We must began to reclaim our government starting at the local scene with city councils, school boards, county and state offices. 

A group of political activists and friends have strongly encouraged me to run for Seattle City Council.  I must confess I was tempted, because for years I have been preaching that it is a citizen’s duty to serve his or her community.  But at the age of 82, the thought of hustling my friends to support me financially and to devote volunteer time to help get me elected, I believe would unwise and not fair to them.  There are younger, mature and well-qualified people who better deserve this support.  With the deck stacked against us by the two-party system, we need people who can try for election more than one time.  It may take multiple efforts to achieve success.  I am a writer and political activist and at my age I can be more effective by being a burr ITA and help build a movement to replace these corporate toadies.  What do you think?  I would appreciate your opinion.

J. Glenn Evans, JGE2@poetswest.com, www.poetswest.com, 206.682.1268

ALTERNATIVE TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

SPEECH by J. Glenn Evans

I am a recovering stockbroker.  I voted for Reagan and was invited to the White House.  I grew up in a small town in central Oklahoma back when we still drove a team and wagon to town on Saturdays.  We used an outhouse.  My early ambition was to be a writer, but I had a very rich uncle who told me I should become a stockbroker.  I asked, aren’t those the fellows who jump off of buildings because they don’t want to be poor?  He said no, they learn how to make money on other people’s money.  If you want to make real money, Son, you go where the money is.  Well, I thought since I wanted to become a great rich writer, I might as well try to get rich first.  So I spent over 20 years as a stockbroker and investment banker.  And I was making money!

You know, events and circumstances can change people’s thinking.  For me, it was Reagan’s dirty wars in South and Central America killing civilians that turned me away from the Republican Party.  Even back then the mantra was that we must globalize the economy.  You don’t need a lot of factories to make things, because if you make the money, you can buy what you need.  It will bring us peace; you don’t bomb your customers and suppliers.  Well, how much peace do we have, and how much do people out of work buy what they need?

I left that business in 1984 and never looked back.  The Democratic Party, once billed as the people’s party, has pulled away from supporting the best interests of the people of this country whom they are supposed to represent.  The major changes started when Clinton set out to pursue the corporate dollar for the Democrats.  Since that time, the whole system has become so corrupt we have no choice but to develop an alternate party to the Democrats and the Republicans.  I did not become a great rich writer but I did become a struggling poet, novelist and political activist.  And I am much happier for it.

The failures of the two-party system are pretty obvious.  The current administration is George Bush on steroids.  It was a Democratic administration that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act separating commercial banking from speculative investment banking that caused the economic crash.  Just like it did back in the thirties before the Glass-Steagall Act.  It was a Democratic administration that enacted NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) that has been responsible for the growing exploitation of workers and unemployment.  President Obama campaigned on a promise to withdraw from NAFTA but did nothing after he took office.  Then its expansion in 2005 with CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement).  The continued retention of people imprisoned at Quantanamo even after they have been declared innocent.  The Democrats, even if they did not pass all of the laws, they continue to support them.  Illegal wiretapping.  Torture.  The privatization of prisons into a profit-making business.  The passage of unconstitutional laws, that the present Supreme Court fails to act on such  as Homeland Security Act, the Patriot’s Act, the Military Commissions Act, and now NDAA that allows the president to maintain a kill list that even includes American citizens.  The suppression of voter’s rights.  Extra judicial murder with the use of drones.  The ongoing illegal predatory wars.  Corporate crimes.  Not one Wall Street bankster has been indicted or prosecuted for their crimes.  Patriots imprisoned for exposing state crimes.  Here is the most blatant example [read Bradley Manning poem

A LONELY SOLDIER

 

A soldier of low rank

Ponders the night

What should he do

Be like his comrades

His fellow citizens at home

Be promoted like those who go along

 

His eyes had rested upon messages

From higher powers over him

That disclosed crimes committed

Under our flag in our country’s name

That trashed our Constitution

Heinous crimes against other peoples

 

What could he do

How could he expose those crimes

He could not trust his senior officers

He could not trust the corporate media

He could not trust the corporate congress

He could be charged with violating national security

 

He could expect life imprisonment or death

If he exposed those crimes

What would we have done if we were Bradley Manning

If we were privy to such disclosures

Crimes our government hides from us

War crimes against other people

 

We go about our business

We vote for the same politicians

Who put this patriot in prison

Who trashed our Constitution

Who act like dukes earls and monarchs

When will we storm the Bastille

 

J. Glenn Evans

 

When will they come for us?

Greed and exploitation of the world’s resources and its people have brought us to this point.  The resources of the earth are here for all life, not for just a few grabbers.  Why should one person accumulate enough for a thousand lifetimes while a thousand people go hungry and unsheltered?

We need a new vision and a new way of life.  We can have a world where everyone has food, shelter, health care and public education.  It is unconscionable that buildings sit empty while people sleep on the streets.  We must change the thinking that property is more sacred than people.  City government has the power to negotiate with the owners, giving them a grace period on taxes while the property is used for shelter.  The property can be returned to them in as good or better shape than when sitting empty.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans provide the vision that is needed.  We must build an alternative to the two Wall Street parties by providing and working toward this new vision, a society where we cooperate and share, rather than compete and beat.  We must build an alternate economy and withdraw our support from businesses and organizations that exploit and enslave people, whether here in the US or anywhere on the planet.  That includes places like Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and the mega banks.  We should move our money to credit unions and local banks.

We must develop new leadership to gain political power to correct the inequities and corruption that have developed, particularly since the Reagan era.  If corrections are not made, it may ultimately lead to another French revolution.  It starts right here in our own city.  We need to get new people, besides Democrats, on the City Council, on the School Board, on the County Council, and in Olympia.  We need similar citizen political participation in all parts of the country.  We must have direct run-off of elections and secure the right of all citizens of legal age to vote.  We must build a movement to engage people, especially the young, to take steps to restore those civil liberties that have been eroded.  And that means education on civil rights.

We must strengthen our communities by rebuilding the commons and start taking care of people’s needs.  This can be done jointly through government agencies with the personal initiative of individuals and small firms to provide the needed goods and services.

We must quit doing only what is expedient and start doing what is right.  For example, give the Duwamish tribe one of our parks as a reservation promised them 150 years ago.

We live in a world that is crumbling and where all life is at risk.  You know it is quite possible that climate change will be the single most critical factor in determining events and actions in the future.  We must bring this issue into public discourse and this discussion must include reductions in the bloated military budget and investment in the deteriorating infrastructure, alternate energy systems, public works, and public transportation.

I’d like to end on a positive note.  There are winds of change in the air. We saw this in the unprecedented vote that Kshama Sawant achieved as a member of the Socialist Alternative Party in November, winning 29% of the vote against Frank Chopp, Speaker of the House.  We see young people engaged in political discourse on all these issues.  We see them thinking outside of the two-party system.  We see them studying and articulating their thinking.  We want to see young people run for political office.  It is creativity that makes us human so let us raise our voices in music and song, poems, and stories.

Copyleft 2013 J. Glenn Evans

Former card-carrying Republican and stockbroker-investment banker. Part Cherokee and native of Oklahoma. Earned a BS in Business from East Central University (Ada, OK). Has lived in Seattle since 1960. Worked in a lumber mill, operated a mining company and co-produced a movie, Christmas Mountain, with Mark Miller starring Slim Pickens. Award-wining poet and founder of PoetsWest and Activists for a Better World, hosts PoetsWest at KSER 90.7FM, a syndicated weekly radio show through Pacifica’s AudioPort.org. Author of four books of poetry: Buffalo Tracks, Deadly Mistress, Window in the Sky, Seattle Poems, two novels, BrokerJim and Zeke’s Revenge, essay book, Uncommon Common Sense and several local community histories including Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Widely published in literary journals. Listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.

 

Progressive Coalition Building: Sat 4pm in Seattle

PoetsWest Poets for Justice in association with JPWA (Justice Party of Washington State) is hosting a meeting on “Progressive Coalition Building – 2012 and Beyond” this Saturday May 19, 2012 at 4pm at the Green Lake Library, 7364 E Greenlake Drive North, Seattle. There will be a statewide conference call via Skype with Rocky Anderson, Justice Party candidate for president, who will speak. Following Rocky Anderson’s presentation there will be a general discussion and Q/A with citizens from WA. COME AND SHARE YOUR IDEAS. The public is invited.  If you are out of the Seattle area, please check out the links on Rocky Anderson

http://justicepartywa.blogspot.com/

Activists for a Better World

Freedom, Opportunity, Compassion & Security. Vote Rocky 2012

Why join the Justice Party and support Rocky Anderson for President

Remember hearing in grade school, “That’s not fair.”  That’s what justice is all about.  Our so call Justice System should really be called our Injustice system.  Over and over poor people, people of color, both brown and black, go to jail for years in many cases for petty and nonviolent crimes when compared to the wholesale crimes many rich institutions and people get away with.  Their only punishment may be a slap on the hand or a tweak to their pocketbooks.  Some of them are even rewarded.  People with money rarely go to jail.  Their high-powered lawyers are able to purchase justice for them.

Well, here comes Rocky Anderson with a new party called Justice Party that stands for environmental justice, social and economic justice, and political and criminal justice.  Such a platform includes justice for all life.  Environmental justice is especially important because that involves all life forms.  Rocky Anderson does not just talk about justice.  If you look into his background, he actually practices what he believes.

Congress and this government did not give us the Constitution, but the people through the founders of this nation created this Constitution to authorize the formation of government and set the rules for how it functions.  Its authority rests with the sovereign people of this land.  When those in power betray those principles upon which this government was established, they are traitors to the Constitution and Article II of the Constitution states “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.  And that, my Fellow Citizens, is where our great nation has run aground.

We repeatedly hear that we need a third party that will truly stand up for people against the corporate power yet no one has done anything about it.  Then Rocky Anderson had the courage to move on the idea.  The Justice Party and Rocky Anderson have taken a stand to put this nation back on the track of the ideals espoused in the Constitution to build a nation on which we can be proud.  We must replace this evil empire of war mongering, exploitation of third world nations and lawless government that will lead to the downfall of this nation.  All empires since the beginning of history have met the same fate; they crumble from within because of corruption and lack of integrity.

When the U.S. became the most powerful nation on earth we could have led the world to peace and justice, but greed for power and lust for wealth of a few in control have now brought the world to the final disaster of Global Warming.  The ideals of the Justice party will lead us back on the course we should have been following all along.  Let’s all get on board and support it so we can replace the duopoly of the two major parties that have led us down the path of self-destruction, empire and war mongering.  If things are not changed, we are headed toward a 21st Century revolution, a course of action no one really wants.  This will go hard on the 1%, especially after what they put the 99% through in order to keep their power.

Rocky Anderson and the Justice Party are the man and the party of the hour.  Their time has come.  The American people are finished with politicians who make pretty speeches, make all kinds of promises and once secure in office do the exact opposite of what they promised.  Once in power they follow the dictates of the financial bosses.  They become just another piece of merchandise bought and paid for to the total neglect of those who elected them.  American citizens have been deceived; they have been dumbed down by corporate media and Madison Avenue witchcraft.  Our people may be misinformed but we are not stupid, nor fools.  Let’s restore power to the citizens of this nation.

Rocky Anderson has limited political donations to his campaign for president to $100 per person.  Rocky has maturity and experience that brings wisdom to the job of president coupled with the desire to do what is right.  He is beyond self-aggrandizement and self-interest.  He has a record of doing things to serve the best interests of people and his country.

This is time now for a new beginning.  Rocky Anderson and the Justice Party offer a true alternative to the same old thing we have been getting each election period.  We no longer have to vote for the lesser of two evils.  That’s why I joined the Justice Party and support Rocky Anderson for president.  Let’s make it happen.  Go to the Justice Party website and subscribe to its updates and new releases.

Join the new national Justice party at

http://justicepartyusa.net

Join your State Justice party and if you live in Washington State at

http://justicepartyusa.net

J. Glenn Evans

Founder of PoetsWest and Activists for a Better World, hosts PoetsWest at KSER 90.7FM, a weekly radio show, syndicated nationwide to non-profit radio stations and is author of four books of poetry: Deadly Mistress, Window in the Sky, Seattle Poems and Buffalo Tracks, author of two novels, Broker Jim and Zeke’s Revenge, is a former stockbroker-investment banker.  Part Cherokee, native of Oklahoma.  Evans has lived in Seattle since 1960.  Worked in a lumber mill, operated a mining company and co-produced a movie, Christmas Mountain, with Mark Miller, starring Slim Pickens.  Evans, an award-wining poet and in addition to poetry books and novels has written numerous political essays and is the author several local community histories including a history of Seattle’s Pike Place Market and has been published many literary Journals.  Listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.