Report from the San Francisco Rally
September 11- Unanswered Questions (good overview with links!)
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A delegation of people met with Senator Feinstein's and Senator Boxer's staff, to raise our concerns, demand a Congressional Inquiry, raise these questions, offer copies of (some of) the articles listed to draw public attention to these issues which concern us and the entire world.
I represented myself as a member of
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
The questions-
On January 15th activists marched to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo’s office to submit documents and demand an inquiry of 9-11, the event was covered by Channel 2 and broadcast on local television.
Details were posted as an
article at the sf.indymedia website.
Scholars Call for Release of 9/11 Information (Over 20,000 signatures so far).
Support Ellen Mariani who is taking legal action against Bush and others under the RICO Act to get to the truth of 9-11 and hold those most responsible accountable for the death of her husband all all those others who lost their lives.
Toward a New Criminal Investigation into the Events of September 11, 2001.
A PETITION OF SOLIDARITY with New York legislators, first responders, victim families, and millions of NY citizens calling for a new investigation of unsolved 9/11 crimes, and the full prosecution of those found responsible. (Over 10,000 signatures, so far.)
Here's another petition worth signing- Calling for an INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION (not the obvious government sanctioned cover-up commission).
Repeal the Patriot Act- (over 15,000 signatures)
Release of Classified DOJ-IG Report on FBI Cover-Up (on behalf of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds) (over 14,000 signatures)
And another!...Truth, Amnesty and Reconciliation for Sustainability
A new petition, created by the women appearing in the documentary, 9-11 Press for Truth
9/11 Call for Truth, a petition created to draw attention to 9/11 Truth Candidates
The SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 TREASON INDEPENDENT PROSECUTOR ACT, A petition urging Congress to try Bush/Cheney for treason for their role in 9/11.
Repeal the Torture Law
The recently enacted Military Commissions Act of 2006 not only constitutes an assault on habeas corpus, it has effectively legalized the use of torture by the United States government. Of this act, George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley has said, "What the congress did and what the president signed essentially revokes over 200 years of American principles and values."
Oppose Blackwater's Plans for a Training Facility in California
Increasingly corporate, mercenary armies are being created which are unaccountable and make mega-bucks for corporate cronies. Blackwater needs to be exposed and stopped nationally. Check out Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
by Jeremy Scahill to learn of this new threat against Americans and the world under the guise of the "bogus war on terrorism."
Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth- Calling for Congress to have a full independent invstigation of the collapses of the three World Trade Center Buildings
January 2, 2009
We returned from Canada at 2 am this morning, so I haven't quite been able to catch up on my sleep (laundry, grocery shopping, email... news), but we do have the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance Strategy Meeting/Retreat tomorrow- which I'm sure will be productive. One of the questions I'll have to raise is whether we should reprint the Deception Dollars, I think all of us (who have been distributing them for years) are running out finally...
December 21, 2008, Winter Solstice
I've been very busy the past few days working out some of the logistic details for Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance's participation in the upcoming American Citizen's Summit, in Denver, Colorado, February 11th-15th. David Ray Griffin and Cynthia McKinney are invited speakers and the 9/11 Truth Movement and issue is welcome at the conference- which is really moving towards "Truth and Reconciliation" and acknowledging the shadow side of our country.
At our last meeting/celebration, we voted $1200 to send Ken Jenkins, Richard Gage, and I to the Summit. Fran Shure and the Colorado activists have generously offered to host us. We have yet, to work out all the details, and I'm afraid we will have a hard time persuading David to attend in winter. He is also under deadline to finish a book. I hope that they will include Richard Gage, AIA, as a speaker... but we will have to wait and see.
December 12, 2008
Given the changes that are taking place on the political landscape, I'm not the only one re-evaluating the current situation, trying to figure out where to put my time, energy, resources. I've been to six organizing meetings/events in the past 9 days and have received two new books on Money and Monetary Reform.
Yesterday, I was in downtown Palo Alto, at my usual spot, for the now monthly Listening Project/ 9/11 Truth Action. Although I received a camera for Christmas last year (just so I could get photos of events/rallies that I attend or organize that otherwise might not get photographed), I still haven't read the manual or had time to figure out the new camera. Chuck Millar who often comes and takes photos, didn't make it.
One of the passerbys whom I questioned was an artist and told me about his art, now on display, that incorporated some of the deception dollars into an art collage about 9/11 and "how it was used as a tool to help subvert our rights" which is part of an exhibit that will be up until Dec. 29th. It was a pleasure to meet him, a young man, Michael Denning (Heart of Chaos Director and Juvenile Hall Art Teacher) who also told me that the first 9/11 Truth event that he attended was the premeire of "The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw- The Great Conspiracy" at the Guild Theater in Menlo Park (With Barrie Zwicker, Peter Phillips, Webster Tarpley, Michael Kane) back in March 2005 that I had organized. He mentioned that he had been working at Trader Joe's Market and saw 14 of his regular customers at the event- each one wondering "What are you doing here?" Obviously, the event had some impact, and he incorporated lots of our outreach materials into his collage.
Details of Michael Denning's collage
I do feel very lucky to live in a place where I have been able to exercise "Free Speech." As I wash dishes, cook for the family, engage in the mundane tasks, enjoy the simple, normal pleasures of life, I am glad that I have chosen the path of "challenging empire" rather than "unconsciously supporting empire through material acquisition"... In the video, True News 13: Statism is Dead - Part 3 - The Matrix, the methods of control to domesticate and control people, while maintaining an illusion of "freedom" are examined. I also received a link the other day to a lecture Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making with author: David Rothkopf
In the first video, the "rulers" certainly conspire to maintain their power and control over humanity. In the second video, Rothkopf, who jokes that he would like to sign up for such a global conspiracy, if it were an option, and makes fun of how he "doesn't belong to the "Superclass" that he describes in his book, also talks about his interview with the Federal Reserve chairman and his visits to Davos for the World Economic Forum. While he notes the incredible concentration of wealth, and the networks that connect the "Superclass" he dismisses a conscious intention to "rule the world," but says that when they act in unison that they can determine a "global agenda." This is their great power he says, neglecting to mention the consolidation of the media into very, very fews hands, the media's ability to omit, distort key information, perpetuate self-serving lies. He also quietly threw in the Al Qaeda myth in his talk, framed the need for a global governance structure to refrain the "bad actors," bashed "nationalism" (Hugo Chavez) and stated that the vast majority would never be in control, that only one group of elites might replace another under the guise of "serving humanity"... I can only hope that he is wrong, if we are to avoid totalitarian rule by the most corrupt, ruthless, wealthiest, deceptive people on the planet.
December 8, 2008
More on Pearl Harbor -- I was really moved by Admiral Kimmel's grandson's presentation on how they broke the Japanese code prior to the attack (at the Toronto International Inquiry into 9/11, which is corraborated by Stimmet's book and other sources. Today I received a link to this article-
Advance Warning?
The Red Cross Connection
By Daryl S. Borgquist
Naval History, June 1999
It details how the Red Cross did receive emergency medical supplies and warning prior to the attack and how they kept that information quiet.
Additionally here is another link to an article- Misallocated Infamy, by Srdja Trifkovic with a compelling timeline of the events leading up to the attack.
My own article will probably be forever buried on this website, as I was horribly unsuccessful at posting this in a timely manner.
December 7, 2008 - Pearl Harbor Day
Sixty-seven years ago, on Sunday, December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, killing over two thousand people and wounding over a thousand. The attack enabled FDR to enter World War II, and prompted huge numbers of Americans to volunteer for military service. In the book Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor (2000), Robert Stinnett unveiled a memo outlining an 8 point plan to provoke Japan into attacking the US.
Admiral Kimmel, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, was removed from office and demoted, taking the blame for the losses at Pearl Harbor soon after the attacks. Researchers, over the course of many years, believe that critical information was withheld from Kimmel and that he was unjustly punished. One of those researchers was his grandson, Manning Kimmel IV, who persuaded the U.S. Senate in 1999 to pass a nonbinding resolution exonerating Admiral Kimmel and Army Lieutenant General Short.
In addition to shifting public opinion and gaining popular support for the US entry into World War II, Pearl Harbor was the justification for the passage of the National Security Act of 1947; the creation of the National Security Council, the CIA, and the Department of the Air Force; and the reorganization of the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the Defense Department. Manning Kimmel IV, who worked for the FBI and the CIA, noted that emblazoned on the CIA’s walls is the reminder that the CIA was created “To Prevent Another Pearl Harbor.”
Philip Zelikow, author of the US “Pre-Emptive War Doctrine,” has studied and written about the use, and misuse, of history in policymaking, including “beliefs thought to be true (although not necessarily known to be true with certainty)”…“Searing events that take on 'transcendent' importance and, therefore, retain their power even as the experiencing generation passes from the scene.” In 1998 he co-authored the article Catastrophic Terrorism: Elements of a National Policy, which speculated that if the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center had succeeded,
Zelikow, as the Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, was able to control the “investigation,” write an outline for the contents of the report prior to the investigation, omit or distort facts, and edit the final report (much of it based upon confessions derived by torture). Amazingly, he and the 9/11 Report blamed the attacks upon a “failure of the imagination” on the part of the US government to even conceive of using airplanes as weapons. (This false statement, contradicted by innumerable reports and facts, was unquestioned and repeated by the mainstream press.)
In 1944 George Orwell wrote:
The failings of the official 9/11 Report were clearly chronicled by David Ray Griffin in his books-- The New Pearl Harbor- Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration Volume I, and his latest book- The New Pearl Harbor Revisited, 9/11, the Cover-Up, and the Exposé Volume II-- and in many documentaries, including 9/11: The Myth and the Reality. However, the report was accepted by the press uncritically. Congress accepted the official narrative and used it to justify the creation of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center, and to pass the most dramatic change since 1947 with the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which created a new Director of National Intelligence reporting directly to the President, determining and directing the budget of all the national intelligence agencies.
The Project for a New American Century, founded in 1997, advocated for American “leadership” throughout the world, including the extension and reorganization of the military. Their document, entitled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century,” states:
Immediately following 9/11, the military received substantially more funding and was expanded to fight the “war on terror,” a war that was not expected to end in our lifetimes. “Pearl Harbor” was the “code word or concept” behind the preamble and the aftermath of the event. For nearly a year prior to 9/11, “Donald Rumsfeld routinely stated that the inevitability of surprise was a guiding principle of the Bush administration's national security strategy and handed out or recommended Roberta Wohlstetter's 1962 book, Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision.” [1] The Hollywood film, Pearl Harbor, which was released in May, 2001, conveniently maintained the popular myth and served psychologically as a recruitment tool. On 9/11 Bush, himself, very publicly wrote in his journal, “The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today.”
On 9/11, in response to the horrific attacks on our country, we entered into “Continuity of Government,” but, unbeknownst to most of the American people, a shadow government has been in place ever since. Cheney and Rumsfeld worked on the plans for Continuity of Government for decades prior to 9/11, the provisions of which have been shrouded in secrecy. Even members of the Homeland Security Oversight Committee are not allowed to see its classified plans, but apparently Congress is an expendable entity when Continuity of Government is declared. While the country is in a declared “State of Emergency,” the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are ignored. In this context, the recent financial crisis, the Military Commissions Act, and the deployment of 20,000 US troops trained to respond to civil unrest as well as terrorist attacks within the US are less than reassuring.
Although time and public opinion appear to be sweeping the now unpopular Bush and Cheney from the Oval Office, their policies and legacy remain. There has been no accountability for the “intelligence failures” leading up to 9/11, nor for the “failure to intercept the hijacked planes.” In a report released last August, NIST claimed that for the first time in modern history, fires felled a 47-story steel-framed building, World Trade Center 7, even though it exhibited all the characteristics of a controlled demolition. An earlier report claimed that fires plus two airplanes brought down the twin towers, ignoring the witness testimony and physical evidence that explosives were used.
Zelikow is allowed to praise the incoming Obama cabinet on National Public Radio. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, after expanding upon Zelikow’s pre-emptive strike doctrine to include nuclear first strikes upon nations who might develop nuclear weapons, is retained by Obama as Defense Secretary. The winners might change, but the lies remain the same, as well as the direction of US foreign policy.
Napoleon believed that
The rulers seem particularly afraid of the internet, the information technologies which allow people to communicate directly, bypassing corporate and government control, the erosion of faith in government and the media, the challenges to their tenuous claims to be the legitimate elected representatives of the people or the titans of industries which serve humanity. The promised "endless wars" provoke endless "protests" and increasing repression to quell the rising tide of dissent.
Just as Pearl Harbor was encouraged and used by FDR as a pretext for war, 9/11 has been an equally deceptive new Pearl Harbor used to expand the National Security State into a Global Police State, where torture, pre-emptive war, surveillance, curtailment of civil rights, the Rule of Fear dominates the Rule of Law. As we remember the tragedy of Pearl Harbor, and we should educate and remind our fellow citizens that it was encouraged and allowed to happen by FDR as a pretext for war. Incidents since then- the Gulf of Tonkin, the story of babies thrown out of incubators during the invasion of Kuwait, were fabrications to trick the American people into supporting war. While the best historical parallel to 9/11 is the Reichstag Fire, used by Hitler to criminalize the communists and pass the Enabling Act (which bears a striking resemblance to the PATRIOT Act), Pearl Harbor and 9/11 both have been used to make the most sweeping military reorganizations within the US possible. Both events have served the powerful interests of genuine terrorists who have used the events to deceive the public, recruit soldiers, launch wars.
Only by shattering the myths, exposing the lies, uncovering the truth about Pearl Harbor, our history, 9/11, the new Pearl Harbor, can we genuinely prevent the rush towards totalitarianism, a militarism based on fear, terror, disregard for truth, justice, human rights. Difficult though it may be, it is time to challenge the "War on Terror," expose the hand of intelligence agencies in incidents designed to launch new wars, before a nuclear Pearl Harbor obliterates the possibility of redirecting humanity onto a path towards peace and prosperity for all.
[1] http://shoestring911.blogspot.com/2007/07/before-911-donald-rumsfeld-was.html
November 30, 2008
I received a well formatted copy of an excellent article entitled Summary of Evidence of Controlled Demolition at the World Trade Center posted at firefightersfor911truth.org. As I read it, this particular bit of info jumped out at me-
And, as we say in the Citations section:
"There are 3 witnesses to the statement from F.D.N.Y. Chief of Department Peter Ganci, who was also killed in action on the morning of 9/11. All 3 witnesses were on-scene at the time and all 3 substantiate the statement, separately from the others, in virtually the same words and meaning."
David Ray Griffin replied:
Ooops... I felt badly about bothering him with something that he already knew about, and for forgetting that I had seen it before- since I did read 9/11 Contradictions An Open Letter to Congress and the Press. On the other hand, every once in a while, I am astonished that great writers and researchers aren't aware of key info that others have dug up, and have passed on to me, and I'd rather be little embarrassed, than not convey critical info which might be extremely useful to our best spokespeople.
Luckily, most people do send their info directly to David Ray Griffin. He is very good at judging it, and placing it in context in his own writings, speeches. The most difficult challenge that we all have to face is the abundance of evidence, and trying to sort it out, and convey the most compelling facts that we know to open the press, politicians, and public's minds to the improbablity and impossibilities within the official narrative. No one can keep up with all the research, evidence, continually bubbling to the surface. I think we need a new 9/11 Fact Sheet to incorporate some of the more compelling evidence produced in the past year. Tomorrow I need to drive to Oakland to pick up 10,000 new Patriots Question 9/11 cards that we just had printed.
I've had to borrow the latest version of the Deception Dollar from Gabriel Day and I wonder, if we will reprint them. The latest bombings in India, "India's 9/11," have CIA and MOSSAD fingerprints all over them. With the global economy in shambles, I'm afraid that The Powers Will Be will do what they can to distract folks with new wars, economic hardships, and false flag operations to boost recruitment.
I did finish reading The New Pearl Harbor Revisited, 9/11, the Cover-Up, and the Exposé and learned that Interlink has published it as a set, along with a reprint of The New Pearl Harbour and it is meant to be read in conjunction with the first book (if you haven't read it before- as a supplement or update). For those who read it years ago and are familiar with the topic, the book is very readable, engaging, with new information (maybe not all the information that has been unearthed in the past few years- but the most significant facts and evidence that David Ray Griffin chose to include). I do recommend it highly! And so does Publisher's Weekly which put it at the top of its list for Pick of the Week.
November 25, 2008
I cannot keep up with all the work and still need to write-up and post the minutes from last Thursday's Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance Meeting... but I was working on the speech for the rally to End the Fed until 1 am on Friday night. It's hard to access this computer because my son's computer is broken and he keeps bumping me, so he can do his homework and college applications. In fact, I just got bumped again, so I posted the write-up on the rally here, but won't be able to post it elsewhere til later.
November 18, 2008
Time flies by. Last week I started working on the local San Francisco End the Fed Rally/March. Gary Franchi, who I worked with to organize the 9/11 Truth Rally/March in Chicago, during the 9/11 Revealing the Truth, Reclaiming the Future Conference is trying to organize at the national level. It's a real challenge to coordinate multiple actions, and utterly dependent upon the self-organizing abilities of local folks. There are various people and groups working on the San Francisco rally/march and I got mixed signals, both welcoming and discouraging me from organizing more, so I just backed off and posted what the group decided on my calendars and I don't think I'll try to do media, just work on what I want to say, although I think the action has the potential to draw a huge, diverse multitude of folks, to oppose the financial heist of the century, and draw the media.
Perhaps, though, I am completely wrong. I have slowed down a bit this week to catch up on mundane household and family chores, including mending a long neglected patchwork quilt, while watching the stack of DVDs that I have been given to review. Last night I watched a DVD on Flight TWA 800, and heard the story of investigative journalist, James Sanders and his wife. They were vilified by the press and targeted by the Justice Department, convicted of felonies, in order to destroy their reputation and keep a lid on the cover-up that was being orchestrated at the highest levels of government. They truly experienced the "Into the Buzzsaw" betrayal of the corporate media, in the face of their honest, investigative efforts. I suppose that the biggest financial heist of the century wouldn't even be attempted, if there was a chance that the corporate press would actually prevent the most powerful people on the planet from getting away with it, but it is astonishing how much damning info is scattered throughout the mainstream press, this might be the straw that breaks the camel's back, exposing the whole crooked game.
I just know that educating the public about 9/11 has been relatively easy compared to my earlier efforts to educate folks about global economics and the monetary system- where there has been far greater resistance to the information, but perhaps that has changed and people are more apt now to want to understand what is going on, for their own safety and survival.
I also finished reading Mark Gaffney's The 9/11 Mystery Plane and the Vanishing of America which overall was excellent, documenting the presence of not one, but two of the E-4Bs that flew over Washington DC on the morning of September 11th. These "Doomsday planes," the most sophisticated communications platforms in the airforce, whose presence was denied by the military and excluded from the 9/11 Report clearly were present at the critical time over Washington DC, betraying the "we were so surprised alibi" given by the government for so many years.
What irked me the most was a factual error about Janette MacKinlay, a friend of mine, whom the author said was not in her apartment on September 11th, when I know for a well chronicled fact that she was. Small errors like that just make me wonder how many other "mistakes" made it into the book, and damage its credibility. I wonder how the author could get such a simple fact wrong.
I guess I need to be more careful with my own work. It is far too easy to make mistakes and one needs to check one's sources. It's hard sometimes when two sources that I trust have diametrically opposing views on critical issues.
I also finally watched John Hankey's JFK II- The Bush Connection. I posted a review on Amazon saying-
John is a High School teacher. This is a low-budget, labor of love. He does throw in some strange songs and language most inappropriate for a serious documentary, but the facts are completely damning, particularly the timing of the Congressional Investigation in the 70's when CIA Director Colby opened up during the hearings, was fired and replaced by Bush as CIA Director, and the subsequent murders of the key witnesses, and the end of CIA cooperation with Congress.
November 10, 2008
A 3 day migraine knocked me off my feet on Thursday, and I missed the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance Meeting. I guess my body is telling me to slow down and recover, before I plunge into more organizing, more responsibilities. So I am behind in my correspondences and promises, still drowning in reviewing books, dvds, essays that need to be looked at, and deserve more attention, dissemination... MX whose website I host on this site wrote a provocative essay (which hopefully will be posted here soon) looking at the real movement bubbling up beneath the psuedo movement backing Barama's "promise for change."
I know I have been sounding a bit disheartened, "realistic," pessimistic, in light of the challenges that I see before us. We have the promise of another 9/11 echoed by a bunch of world leaders in just the last day.
During my campaign, Barry Warmkessel saw my statement on KTVU, and contacted me, asking for a yard sign. He came over to my house, and we went for a walk and had an interesting conversation. His passion has been tracking the history of comet impacts and the possibility of future comet impacts upon the Earth. He suggested that 9/11 might be masking some other hidden agenda (besides the PNAC desire to take over the world and seize oil/drug resources) maybe to step up preparations for certain remnants of humanity to survive the cataclysmic impact of a comet. I must admit that idea had never dawned on me before, and Barry threw out a bunch of other provocative ideas on a range of subjects.
One of his ideas was that the evolution of humanity ocurred when people were able to overcome their fears, through love, and in the process, unleash extraordinary creative insight, deepening human understanding, advancing the entire species forward.
I've felt that we need to "overcome the dominant fear paradigm with a love paradigm, that it is not power that corrupts, but fear..." and that FEAR, overcoming fear, has been probably the single biggest obstacle everyone has had to face in countless facets of our lives. Barry surprised me by saying that soulmates- couples can overcome their individual fears, by cancelling one another's fears out, that usually each person has a particular fear that holds them down, and he began listing 7 fears which I had never heard of before-
Of course, I immediately wondered which was my main fear, and which was my husband's, and I suspect my main fear is probably "The fear of inadequacy" and my husband's is probably "The fear of change or dealing with new situations" and we probably do help one another to overcome these basic fears and foray into the wider world.
But then I started thinking that we could also apply these fears to a group or a movement, which often seems to shoot itself in the foot, such as the 9/11 Truth Movement. Having been involved since the beginning, I know how I personally have played various roles, including shirking responsibility and retreating into my "comfort zone."
I remember when I first became an activist I wrote a long letter which I blasted out to friends which basically attacked the CIA, The Powers That Be, for the wars, oppression, economic disparities, deceptions, the ills of mankind and the destruction of the Earth's biosphere... It was more or less a declaration of War upon a system which was causing so many problems. I decided to throw my lot in with the bulk of humanity against the most powerful political forces on the planet... I wasn't too worried that the CIA or the bankers would go after some obscure, enraged, housewife in Palo Alto. At the time, I kept up with probably 150 people, friends and relatives, that I exchanged Christmas letters with. My friends were very important to me, especially because before I had children, I never lived anywhere for more than 11 months and I had to write letters to stay connected with my friends. I still have boxes of letters in my garage. I probably lost a few friends when I became an outspoken polictical activist, but I also gained new friends and my mailing list continued to grow, in fact it has become totally overwhelming and unmanagable.
My greatest fear, as an activist, has been to be organized and effective enough to merit the wrath of The Powers that Be, and endanger some of my friends, in the process. My biggest horror would actually be to be well organized enough to have a database which could identify the best, most effective, key activists- and assist the repressive forces in targeting, not just me, but my friends, innocent, and well organized alike.
So while part of me wants to be effective and build an unstoppable powerful movement/or movements, the fearful side of me, would like to stay under the radar, remain disorganized, not be too visible, not be perceived as a threat, not just for the sake of my own hide, my family, my friends, but also to protect the larger movements which I belong to. This is ludicrous, I know, but as I oscillate between battling the problems and nurturing solutions, so I oscillate between feeling incredibly powerful and woefully helpless.
Last night I watched an outstanding documentary called No End in Sight which was a remarkable expose of how incredibly unprepared the US military was when they began the occupation of Iraq. "Incompetent" is the kindest and most generous description of the US actions that followed the initial violence.
Initially, I guess when I took on the role of an activist, my main thinking was "Are they evil or stupid or both?" and I decided that they were both evil and stupid.
I think part of the challenge for the movement is a combination of fears, including the fear of success, the fear of becoming so strong that we have to face the ruthless violence of a threatened beast who will do anything to survive. So we continue to try, but not too hard, and to shoot ourselves in the feet, and hope that someone stronger, wiser, than us personally, will show greater courage and take on the mantle of responsibility and shine a brighter light upon the uncharted waters of turmoil that we face.
What we need more than anything, is to support one another, build stronger coalitions, deepen everyone's understanding, make it easier for people to participate, contribute, feel supported, connected, safe, and feel that what we are doing has meaning, purpose, and that even if we don't succeed, it is worth the effort, that the process itself is our hope.
(Time for me to get back to the mundane responsibilities and tasks.)
Here are the details on those fears:
Positive Pole: Sacrifice - Negative Pole: Immolation
Those so afflicted are often well-disciplined people. They tend to avoid social contacts and do their socializing in very controlled situations like company luncheons, family reunions and cocktail parties. An intimate dinner for four is about as large a gathering as they can handle, and still keep some degree of control of the circumstances. They are often thought of as rather difficult people as they tend to be very authoritarian giving the outward appearance of success and tranquillity. Often they have a feeling of no accomplishment or a sense of being directed by others. This Chief Feature encourages terminal diseases such as cancer as it offers a way out of situations they cannot control.
The fear of inadequacy
Positive Pole: Humility - Negative Pole - Abasement
People suffering from this fear often inform others not to expect too much from them as they have many other "irons in the fire", all of which demand their time and attention. Often, they will take on far too much, then fail to "deliver the goods" because they are overloaded. Their self-effacing behavior can appear modest and they learn early to "bring others out of themselves" in order to accommodate the expectations of others. They lavish praise on others hoping that some will be returned to shore up their sagging confidence.
The fear of worthlessness
Positive Pole: Selflessness - Negative Pole - Mortification
These people will find a myriad of ways to "tempt fate" in order to establish their worth. They undertake an almost constant search for the illusive grail of worthiness. They put themselves at the disposal of others, whether it be a family member or just a friend on the phone. They are hard working, often volunteering their services to committee chairmen who keep heaping tasks upon them. They feel that if they suffer enough, someone will assure them that it is all worthwhile. This fear can bring on thankless families, wasting diseases, gallstones, sabotaged careers, destructive personal relationships, etc.
Greed - The fear of loss or want
Positive Pole: Egotism - Negative Pole - Voracity
There is no such thing as enough of whatever the greed is fixed on. This person is hardest to live with, as they are completely ruthless trying to satisfying their greed. They are rarely trusted by others, and rightly so. The Egotism makes these people self-centered, and appears outlandish unless they are public figures. Those who have greed centered on public recognition find that it makes accepting attention both easy and satisfying.
The fear of vulnerability
Positive Pole: Pride - Negative Pole: Vanity
These people are truly shy, although this behavior might not appear so during casual encounters with them. They will avoid anything that smacks of exposure. Sometimes, they will go out of their way to develop a very strong public image so that their true personality need not be exposed. These people are determined not to reveal any aspect of their vulnerability and even deny that it exists. If they have been wounded through their vulnerability, they will deny it and if they cannot, they will claim they can "take it".
The fear of missing something
Positive Pole: Audacity - Negative Pole: Intolerance
These people feel that whatever they have missed is more important than what they are currently doing. They have difficulty completing things. This fear is the hardest to live with since it causes constant restlessness and dissatisfaction. However, others around them find it exciting and intriguing.
The fear of change or dealing with new situations
Positive Pole: Determination - Negative Pole: Obstinacy
Someone so afflicted will tend to make a new situation as much like the one they are already familiar, or find inventive ways to avoid the new situation entirely. They develop skills in the social graces and can be very entertaining, going out of their way to make others comfortable in the old situation. Even if acted out of the positive pole, the determination is likely born of panic or other less obvious forms of fear. This is humanity's most common fear.
November 5, 2008
I put up the last of my signs in the sunshine yesterday morning, voted in the afternoon, and went to an Election Night Party with Peter Myers last night where we watched the election results roll in. Before I left for the party, I responded to queries from the Green Party:
"I know that I don't have a chance of winning (especially with the health problems I had earlier this year, and not really starting until late September), but I do think it will be interesting to see what impact the TV ad has had in the 14th District. I have received some very positive feedback.
"On a more personal note, my family was very opposed to my run in 2006, my kids basically said that it would ruin their lives, if I was elected. When the Green Party asked me to run again, I thought if I could do it without it imposing an ordeal upon my family, without them even noticing, then I would do it. They did notice when I had to admit that I was gathering signatures to get on the ballot. They weren't exactly enthusiastic, but they haven't mounted opposition. My husband even became a citizen in September. My son who is a senior in High School registered to vote. So my husband and son will actually be voting for me today, which means more to me than all the other votes that are cast my way. Elections come and go, but my family, my marriage, is what gives me the strength to continue this work throughout my lifetime."
This morning I sent Cres another statement for the press:
It looks like the record turnout also gave a larger percentage of the votes to Green Party Congressional Challengers. Democratic incumbent Anna Eshoo garnered 70% of the vote (as of 6 am) the Republican challenger 22% (down from 2006) Libertarian Brian Holtz 4% and Green Carol Brouillet 3.5%.
Clearly the voters have had enough of the Republicans, and the mandate is for real change. I hope that we will see a reversal in the policies of torture, imperial aggression, the assault on civil liberties and the Constitution. I hope that the changes are not merely cosmetic and that we will see a continuity of policies favoring corporate power, private profit at the public expense. The work of the citizens to pressure for the roll back of the offensive legislation of the past decade has just begun. I would like to see genuine investigations and real accountability, but I don't think the Democrats will be capable of that since they were complicit in enabling the Bush Regime. I would love to be proven wrong. I am glad that the Green Party enabled some of us to raise the taboo issues that the Republicans and Democrats refuse to discuss and to raise questions that still demand answers. If we the people, do not know what is true, real, how can we make wise rational decisions for our future? The lies that have gotten us into wars are unraveling, only the truth will help us forge a new, peaceful, hopeful future for our country and the world.
There's a Green Party Meeting tonight, a Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance meeting tomorrow night. I just finished reading Anthony J. Hall's outstanding The American Empire and the Fourth World- The Bowl With One Spoon- Part One and am in the mids of Mark Gaffney's new book The 9/11 Mystery Plane and the Vanishing of America. The family, of course, wants me to take a vacation (and clean the house, bake cookies, make more food, love them...) I'm actually looking forward to taking some time off, to catch up with my personal life, but I know I can't resist doing the political work.
Ellen Brown sent me a link to her latest article: All Is Well in Stepfordville: More on the Pre-election Chicanery of the Plunge Protection Team which again exposes the criminal fraud behind our rigged stock market, which keeps luring victims into the financial game that wreaks havoc upon the planet. I also couldn't resist watching Zeitgeist Addendum which I thought was excellent (except the font on the titles was almost impossible to read- and should have been bigger for watching on the internet), although the site appeared to crash three or four minutes before the film ended and is still down. I could tell that the film maker really believed in the solution that he profers, but having confronted much of the problem that he articulates in the film, I think his solution is far too limited and only relevant to a small minority of people. It is much easier to describe a problem, than to come up with "the solution." When dealing with a very large systemic problem, I don't think there is a "silver bullet solution," we can only nudge the direction away from the suicidal path towards the evolutionary hopeful path, raising consciousness as widely as possible. That "nudging" can happen in an infinite number of ways and requires the creativity, ingenuity, energy of the majority of the people.
November 2, 2008
Between the cold that I caught from my children and the rain, I haven't found the strength or energy to do all I had hoped to do for the Congressional Campaign. I really appreciate the fancy new website that my volunteer came up with, but it is a little frustrating that it lacks some of the major issues that I had hoped to draw attention to- such as Continuity of Government. An excellent video of Dan Hamburg and Peter Dale Scott was posted at 911Blogger.com.
The most sobering thing about it, is the admission that we are losing in the larger information battle. Peter says that in Chicago when the mafia ruled with an iron hand and over 1000 people were killed, their murders were not investigated. This parallels today's situation where the murderous criminality of the power-holders is an, off the table, taboo, topic that cannot be discussed in the mainstream press. One is ignored or villified as a "conspiracy theorist" if one hints at the darker reality that "the most" organized crime is in complete control of our government.
Those "disorganized" honest folk, like me, really don't have a chance of getting our voices heard. We can squawk and make noise all we want in the swamp of the blogosphere, but who will hear us? There are so many layers of buffers that most folk have no idea that we exist or have any inkling of the information that we have. In the interview Peter Dale Scott says that probably less than 100 people in Congress are aware of COG, which in fact is more like "Change of Government"- the elimination of our Constitutional form of government, as we move into this undefined area where the government can do anything to anyone without any checks and balances or accountability.
I feel so inadequate to the task of communicating what I consider to be critical information, not just to the public, but to my friends, allies, press, people within my voting district. The TV ad was my feeble attempt at drawing attention to the larger issues, and I don't think it reached, touched or moved many people. It got almost zero press coverage, less than 2000 hits online, and who actually watches TV? I don't. At least, since I ran in 2006, if there is any significant change in how many votes that I receive, it might be indicative of the impact of the ad, but my campaign manager/webmaster feels that if I didn't speak about 9/11, and just stuck to economics, then I would do much better. He feels 9/11 is a polarizing issue, and I have certainly seen that happen, but I still can't keep my mouth shut. I want people to question 9/11; I want them to learn that they have been lied to; I want them to wake up, and help them find the courage to challenge a murderous regime.
I do think we need to hold a strategy retreat after the election. My husband wants me to take a vacation. I have received some great books in the past few days that I can hardly wait to read/review. I know that the next few years will be extremely challenging, and no matter what the outcome of the election, I certainly know that I need to organize myself better, to improve my effectiveness as an activist, person, political spokesperson. As it is, I still can almost never find a phone number, email address, or regular address when I need it- I have more contacts than I can manage scattered throughout stacks of paper, filing cabinets, the computer...
October 28, 2008
I can't believe the technical and physical challenges of the past few days. If I was paranoid, I would be highly suspicious of my nemesis, who is working closely with the NSA, and thinks the greatest threat to America today, is the cyberterrorist threat...
We had so much trouble with the campaign website and 99% of my emails to activists and activist lists bounced in the last few days- even the ones to the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance list which I moderate (actually those simply disappeared, as far as I know- or they could be buried in the 30 or so bounced emails that came back to me after the Tuesday morning press conference.8:27 pm I just figured out what I did wrong, my emails to the entire group for the past month have been going to the wrong email address- one we set up to facilitate the organizing of the 9/11 Film Festival- so the whole group has not been getting the emails- it's my fault, not the NSA...)
I just barely got the graphics done for the yard sign, in time to be printed and put together for the press conference. With so many details and things to bring and craziness (including taking people to and from airports) I managed to forget the most critical item-- the laptop with the ad on it. Tian did show up, allowing me the time to run back home and get it. I didn't know if any press or supporters would actually show up. I didn't have time to send out a single press release or print the one that Cres wrote. Don Kazak from the Palo Alto Weekly came by and a photographer/journalist from Stanford University, and a couple of other local activists, but that was it. I posted this at 911Blogger.com:
Tuesday, October 28, 2008, a press conference was held in front of the incumbent, Anna Eshoo's office, the new TV AD was shown to the only journalist, Don Kazak, who came to the pretty last minute event. I have known Don Kazak for years, he has written a few stories about my activism before. Here is what he wrote:
(Posted at paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=9825)
Palo Altan Carol Brouillet, who is the Green Party candidate running against Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, will get her message on TV with a 30-second ad scheduled to start running Wednesday.
Brouillet said the ads will run more than 200 times in the 14th Congressional District at or near prime time on cable channels CNN, Fox and CNBC. Because the ads are just running in the district, "they aren't that expensive," she said.
Brouillet has long been a critic of the government's explanation of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Towers were demolished by terrorists who hijacked commercial jetliners.
"A number of documentaries have questioned the official explanation of 9/11," Brouillet said. "Internationally, people are questioning the official story."
-- Don Kazak
If you could add a comment online, it would be appreciated. PS. We were passing out yard signs at the press conference for Cynthia McKinney and for Carol Brouillet, one woman, just passing by asked me if I was Cynthia and said that she had already voted for Cynthia, she was happy to get lawn signs for both of us to put up in her yard. (I still have signs for both McKinney and I, if anyone (local) would like one.)
I am so grateful and filled with love for the people who do come to events, show support, write letters, comments, help in any way. I must admit that I don't think I could do this work if I didn't know that no matter how mercilously I am treated by the press, when I come home, my husband and kids still love me and appreciate and support me and my efforts (even if they don't want me to win elections and wish I wouldn't work so hard.)
I'm still having trouble with the new campaign website, though. I still don't know how to move things around and use all the tools. I also managed to catch the cold that Jeremy gave to Daniel which means I just can't think as well as I normally do.
October 26, 2008
No matter what I do, I can never catch up with the work. I was trying to fix up the new campaign website this weekend, but it went down today and still isn't accessible or functional (although it should be up by midnight when I will crash...) Blaine was supposed to do a sign for me, but I guess he was too busy. There will be a press conference (for my TV ad campaign at Eshoo's office) on Tuesday at 10 am, but there is a lot to do before then- and I have yet to receive the revised press release from Cres or send him all my press contacts.
In addition to all the demands of the family, the international financial crisis is getting worse. Ellen Brown just posted an excellent article on THE NOT-SO-INVISIBLE HAND: HOW THE PLUNGE PROTECTION TEAM KILLED CAPITALISM. In the news, European and Asian leaders met to discuss creating a new global financial system, suggesting that they might even shut down the stock markets for a week or two to "sort things out"... The US does seem to have taken on the role of the world's pariah and cause of the debacle.
My son's sick and everyone is hoping that we won't all succumb to his illness...
October 23, 2008
We finished the new Carol Brouillet for Congress TV Ad
I also got an email from Jeff Bosakowski who interviewed me at the 9/11 Film Festival at the Grand Lake Theater on 9/11/2008 and posted the interview-
(Part II)
I think he did a good job, and I appreciate the help I'm getting from so many talented people, including activist, Robert Livingston, a gifted photographer, journalist, who also helped us at the Impeachment Rally/Cindy Sheehan for Congress Rally at the SF Chronicle, today, and created an entry in Wikipedia about me. Blain Machan, the Deception Dollar artist is going to try to help me with graphics for a belated yard sign. (I just picked up 43 that have a spelling error, and I can use the good side which is for Cynthia McKinney and paste one of my own over the side with the error.) Demand for them might pick up when the TV ad is shown. So much to do and never enough time. The campaign website needs so much work. I was up until 1 am last night trying to learn how to connect articles to live links on the site. Once I learn it, I'll be able to do a lot more relatively quickly, but alas I have so much to learn and never enough time to get all the articles, op-eds, press releases written and sent out, in addition to the legwork for the campaign. Plus I have kids to take to soccer games, on field trips, who need milk, dinner, attention, on top of the political work. At least the kids on the Gunn Robotics Team that I chauffeured today expressed a greater interest in my work than my own son (who is SO TIRED of hearing me articulate any political opinions because he has heard almost nothing else his entire life).
I doubt if I'll win the election, but I hope that I can at least raise the visibility of the issues I care about at this critical time. I know a lot of people are glad that someone is not to afraid to speak frankly and honestly about 9/11 and the total looting of the country by the most flagrant criminals/occupiers of high offices.
(If anyone has the energy/time next week to help put up signs in transportation corridors or your yard or window, if you are in the 14th District- please email me or give me a call- cbrouillet@igc.org 650-857-0927.
October 13, 2008
I can't keep up with all the work that needs to be done. I'm trying to learn joomla and help with the new campaign website, but there is so much work to be done, and I still don't know how to navigate around the site and organize content. At the same time, we are working on a television ad which I hope will raise consciousness and inspire people, but it is pretty challenging to do a message in 30 seconds that won't shock, terrify, people who have never heard that there was anything wrong with the official myth of 9/11 before. Fortunately some very gifted, talented advisors are stepping forward to help. My husband is weathering the financial crisis well and I think the whole family is beginning to appreciate one another and the "most important things" over material "wealth." My article Evolution of the Apocalypse- Empire's Demise- Human Renaissance will be published in an Australian magazine called New Dawn and was also posted at 911Truth.org. I know that it could have been much better and shorter, but I was under deadline and had to get it finished, to move on to other deadlines. Maria Gilardin- who produces TUC Radio also wants to produce a radio show about it and get me to interview Mike Nickerson, which I hope to do, but I need some help from my husband first to install, and to learn yet more technology, so that I can record my conversations on skype. Maybe, in the future, I'll be able to resume the radio show, once I figure out how to record, edit, and upload sound files.
October 6, 2008
I've been extremely busy. Last Wednesday, I participated in Political Awareness Day at Foothill College, and people were very receptive to our message and table. That night I attended the Green Party meeting and brought home lots of Cynthia McKinney yard signs, which I need to distribute and get up. We received an unexpected windfall in donations. On Thursday I was able to give the financial report of an improved $7500 balance to the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance at the San Francisco Meeting where we had a couple of new faces. The group also voted to reimburse me for the $1500 I lost on the premieres of Loose Change last December, and they voted to donate $500 towards 911Truth.org. Vic Sadot also came to Foothill College and the meeting and needs some help to relocate to California. We did vote some money to buy some of his CDs to table and offered him the use of our new DVD burner. (We also voted $200 towards a new awning- but I'm not going to go shopping for that, as long as I can avoid it.)
I had hoped to get an article to Janice at 911Truth.org on 9/11 and the financial crisis on Friday morning, but it kept growing in length, and I just finished it today, after a good three solid days of work. I wrote it for multiple reasons, including to prepare myself for the scheduled radio show on Rethinking Money that was supposed to take place this evening, but I was a bit stunned to discover this afternoon that the We The People Radio Network shut down, as of today. I ended up posting a draft of my article Evolution of the Apocalypse- Empire's Demise- Human Renaissance on the show's website. Chuck is helping me to edit it, and I still need to add the footnotes.
It has been a challenging piece to write, in the midst of the passage of the $850,000,000,000 bailout bill which was rushed through Congress (much like the PATRIOT Act). In my research (no surprise to me and those who have been keeping an eye on this government), those most responsible for the crisis (like those most responsible for 9/11) are the ones who will benefit from the bailout and undoubtedly hope to benefit greatly from whatever follows. 9/11 didn't "just happen" and neither did the crisis, it was engineered. Naomi Wolf lays it out very well in a recent speech. Bush is following the textbook path to constructing a Facsist Dictatorship. His basic message to Congress and the American people in September was "Panic! Be very afraid! Only I and my cronies can save you, trust me." And on October 1, 2008 he brought in an army battalion to help him "maintain control."
Most Americans don't even realize we are living under Continuity of Government, in a State of Emergency, the world is Bush's battlefield and he can designate anyone, anywhere, anytime a terrorist or enemy combatant and have them disappeared, rendered, tortured, killed. Wolf suggests our best hope at this point, in light of Congress's failure to stand up to Bush last Friday and caving in to the pressure- urge State Attorney Generals to arrest Bush. We can't give in to fear, we must stop him before the situation gets even worse than it is now. Paulson was one of the architects of the crisis, he should be in jail, not determining which institutions go belly up, and which survive, and which will profit handsomely as they devour their rivals.
KTVU posted my candidate's speech:
I also plan on getting some ads on TV for ridiculously low prices and I was planning on drawing attention to 9/11 and the bogus NIST Report, but in light of the current situation, since I am so late in doing anything for my campaign, I'm thinking I should devote all the energy to the strongest message to just wake up the country. I only have 15 and 30 second spots, though. If anyone has some brilliant ideas, send them my way. I have so little time to come up with text, ads, signs, and I am in the process of revamping my old carolforcongress.org website- although we still don't have control of the darn thing.
September 29, 2008, My second son's 18th birthday
According to Rep. Michael Burgess from the 26th District in Fort Worth, Texas martial law (a procedure in Congress to bypass normal procedures to hasten passage of legislation) was declared over the weekend and Congress is really being forced to pass the Bailout, before it has been written, read, understood. It is probably opposed by everyone, except those few who will get a piece of the pie. I did call and write to Eshoo urging her to oppose the bill, but I'm not surprised that she seems to have already casted her lot in with Pelosi, Bush and the rest of the gang hellbent on looting the country. [Hey, I just heard that the bail-out was defeated! There is hope!]
Last weekend the American Monetary Institute held their annual conference in Chicago. They also posted their reaction to the criminally insane $700 billion proposed grab.
While I doubt if everyone in the country is ready to pause, sit still, and listen, it is certainly time for people to begin thinking about what is wrong with our financial system, how it works, what is money, how we could improve the system. I suppose the rush to push 700,000,000,000 into the pockets of those who have created the current crisis is to insure golden parachutes for those ready to skip the country to avoid the wrath of the American people and the world. While the likelihood of honest elections are remote, there is a chance of massive voter revolt at both the Republican and Democratic parties for their participation in the trashing of our Constitution, the illegal wars, and the economic havoc.
Our institutions- like the government and the media- have lost so much credibility, however, I doubt that anyone would trust them to come up with any sort of real reform to solve the problems that they have gotten us into. The only hope is ousting the incumbents, holding them accountable for their crimes, and finding some courageous, honest people willing to tackle the mess that they have made, including the financial debacle.
Next week I will be doing a radio show on Rethinking Money with Mike Nickerson, author of Life, Money & Illusion- Living on Earth as if we want to stay.
Mike wrote to me this morning:
Below is an article I recently wrote on the issue.
An alternative to panicking when GDP stops growing is to view it as a sign of maturity.
Human activity cannot expand forever on our finite planet. An economy growing at 3% a year doubles its size every 24 years. Centuries of such growth have brought us to a mature size. As with individual maturity, there comes a time for societies to stop growing and to take responsibly for their strength and impacts on others.
As a mature species, we have two responsibilities to Earth and ultimately, to ourselves. The first is to live within the availability of natural resources. Global production of oil has stalled for three years at about 85 million barrels a day, yet demand continues to increase. This results in rising prices. The increased cost is reminding us all about how dependent we are on this particular resource.
While fossil fuels are a well-known resource issue, there is also cause for concern with fresh water, forests, fish, soil fertility and other resources.
Our second responsibility is to keep our waste within tolerable bounds. Climate change is a direct result of human activity having grown to where our C02 emissions are overwhelming the ability of oceans and forests to absorb it, leaving it to accumulate in the atmosphere. What is the logic of policies aimed at doubling our size, when current activities, at the present population level, have already brought us to the edge of climate chaos?
Climate change is not the only issue related to tolerance. Respiratory problems, many cancers and other illnesses, which result from the accumulation of manufactured toxins, are also wake up calls.
The sub-prime mortgage crisis rivals the price of fuel and climate change in terms of public concern. It too can be linked to confrontation with planetary limits.
Over the centuries, the expansion of our growth-dependent type of monetary system has inflated it to gargantuan proportions. In North America, to accomplish 3% growth, over four hundred billion dollars in new business has to take place in the present year. This is over and above the fifteen trillion dollars worth of transactions already taking place. Large amounts of new money has to be loaned into existence to accommodate this expansion.
Before humans filled the Earth, there were areas of untapped natural resources, from which we could produce things of tangible value that people were willing and able to pay for - businesses, houses, tools, food and the like - to back up an exponentially expanding money supply. By the 1980s, it was becoming increasingly difficult to produce enough real wealth to do the job. Following "junk bonds," and the DotCom bubble, bidding up real estate became a primary means for expanding the money supply. When that bubble threatened to burst after 9/11, interest rates were dropped to almost nothing and mortgages were offered to people with no down payments and little credit worthiness. At hundreds of thousands of dollars each, great quantities of money were loaned into circulation. It appeared to work, until energy driven inflation prompted interest rate increases that many sub-prime mortgage holders were unable to pay.
These problems indicate that the time has come for a fundamental change. Fuel prices, climate change and the sub-prime mortgage crisis are all symptoms of one cause. They will not effectively be resolved until the fact that human activity has grown to stretch planetary limits is addressed. We cannot grow out of problems that result from our size.
When we stopped growing as individuals, it was not the end of the world. Indeed, for most of us, life had scarcely begun before physical maturity. Even as physical growth ended, we became better informed, more comfortable in ourselves and we developed the skills and relationships that define our lives. The same can be true for civilization.
Among the first things societies can do, as we acknowledge our maturity, is to shift investment into education and health care. Unlike cars and expanding highway networks, which are resource and waste intensive, education and health care (particularly care at the preventative level) consist almost entirely of knowledge and good will.
Another step will be to revive local, small-scale agriculture. Food produced in this way requires less fuel and other natural resources and has been shown to produce more food per acre, of a higher nutritional quality, than industrial scale farming.
Investing in education, health care and local food security makes sense, if what we want is a healthy, well fed, educated population. With the present commitment to make money grow, however, such goals appear self-serving. Our advanced size requires that all our efforts be focused on monetary expansion.
Do we want to grow money or food? As long as our goal is defined as making the GDP grow, efficiency will be measured entirely in terms of what makes the most money. Even though industrial agriculture produces less food per acre, than small-scale local framing, it does produce a greater crop of investment capital. Money borrowed for heavy equipment, fuel, pesticides and fertilizer earns interest and, driven by payment schedules, stimulates efforts to maximize financial return. Local farming, on the other hand, contributes relatively little to the immediate need of expanding capital. It tends to put money into the pockets of farmers who, rather than investing it, are more likely to buy food, shelter and education for their children.
When industrialization began, it was recognized that mechanized, mass production could provide products at a fraction of the cost of hand-made goods. The main obstacle to applying the industrial process to all manner of goods was a shortage of capital. Because it costs a lot of up-front money to build an industry, our system of mutual provision (the economy) was designed to encourage the expansion of capital. However, now that the world is awash in so much capital that, a continuous stream of speculative bubbles is necessary to give it places to invest, it is time for another goal.
As we mature as a society, the things that indicate well-being change. Measuring how much a baby grows is a good measure of its health; it is not an effective way to measure the well-being of an adult. If we want to resolve today's multiple crises, we need more detailed information.
At present, if there is a natural disaster, toxic spill or a health epidemic, the costs of dealing with the problems are added to the GDP, giving the false impression that we are better off. While more money might be flowing, life is degraded by such things. If we were to measure social and environmental factors of well-being with the same authority and enthusiasm with which we measure GDP, much of the confusion would be avoided. A Genuine Progress Index (GPI) would provide a broader spectrum of information, enabling the costs and benefits of different activities to be assessed with greater accuracy. Along with the traditional economic indicators, accounts about air quality and health issues, for example, would reveal that the hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually on medicine to relieve respiratory suffering is more a sign of distress than of economic progress.
A legitimized indicator that shows whether social and environmental factors are improving or deteriorating would create the awareness needed to stimulate serious actions toward solving the problems.
By identifying resource draw-down, pollution, and disruptions to communities, with a GPI, external factors would enter the picture. Presently externalized costs are not included in the price of goods. When such costs are added to production costs, those goods that are socially and environmentally friendly would be less expensive and those that cause problems would cost more. Both consumers and producers would then be inclined toward responsible products.
Taking the additional step of shifting the skill, ingenuity and persuasive effort that is presently applied toward engineering obsolescence, and, instead, using it to design durable, easily repaired goods, and to reclaim pride in objects that have long served us, could cut up to 50% off of our material and energy consumption and consequent impacts.
One final shift - from looking for fulfillment in material goods, to seeking it in friendships, knowledge, appreciation, service, music, art, sport and adventure - would complete the transformation. Coupled with environmentally responsible agriculture, such a change could reduce our impacts to practically nothing. That is, the real costs of maintaining well-being for humans, in terms of the ability of Earth to sustain life over time, would be negligible.
By finding satisfaction in the richness of being human, we could change the image of our species from that of a potentially terminal blight on the Earth, to something much more suiting to our position amidst the life of this planet. As a mature species, we could reward three billion years of evolution by adding laughter, love, awe and wonder to a deep appreciation for the incredible accomplishments by which life has brought us to this point.
While arguments persist about oil supplies, climate change and the possibility of perpetual economic expansion, we are well advised to acknowledge the ultimate finiteness of Earth and accept responsibility. Policies intent on expanding until the last possible moment will almost certainly be followed by disaster.
Human ingenuity is more than sufficient to provide food, shelter and other necessities without having to double the total of all our activities every 24 years. It is a Question of Direction. We need to choose between the goal of perpetual growth and that of long-term well-being.
We celebrate when our children grow. If an adult continues to grow like a child, however, it is cause for serious concern. Developing a healthy steady-state economy is no more frightening than the prospect of becoming adult is for a teenager. The silver lining to this economic downturn is the opportunity it offers to grow up and take responsibility for our impacts. It can be done.
Having spoken with numerous people who have studied money in depth, written many books, and who have come up with various ideas for change, I do realize that there is no one size fits all, magic bullet scheme to solving the current crisis. Money is basically an agreement, and it can be backed by brutal military force, or a spirit of cooperation and completely voluntarily. Ideally, it should be simple, clear, j
