At Second Glance

     I have decided to write a rebuttal to Ms. Karla Cariaga and her commentary “Homeless left to Starve.” I feel that Ms. Cariaga might have misinterpreted what is being stated in this article.  I would like to state that I agree with Ms. Cariaga personal feelings and applaud her compassion for those individuals in need. However, I believe that her personal feelings and passion on this topic, like many of us share, often closes our minds to what is really being stated. I ran into this same scenario when I surveyed opinions on the participation #4 issue.

     In her first paragraph, Ms. Cariaga quotes from the article As Homeless Line Up for Food, Los Angeles Weighs Restrictions written by Adam Nagourney and published in The New York Times. Ms. Cariaga paraphrases part of the article and states the following “Somehow Its decided its not right because of the two calls from two Los Angeles City Council members to banned them from giving food to the homeless.” Nowhere in the article is this stated.  What they are saying is the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition, who provides this service, may have to relocate to continue providing this service. And, this would not be the first time they have had to do this. They were forced out of a prior location in 1990.

 

     Paragraph 2, Ms. Cariaga quotes the comments made by an “actor” and then criticizes his comments. I do not believe that Alexander Polinsky meant that the homeless themselves were mentally challenged but that their behavior of walking around aimlessly, congregating for their next meal is much like a “mental ward.” He talks about the “collateral damage,” but not in reference to the people. The collateral damage is the trash left behind. The paper plates, plastic forks, spoons and knives, Styrofoam cups, napkins and even food scrapes not eaten.  And, when people eat they soon are in need of restrooms. If there are none around guess what your hedges and trees become.  In this regard, I will tell you first hand, he is not incorrect in his assessment and they are not just because he has money and is in power as stated by Ms. Cariaga.

     My experience.  I live in proximity of the Braker-Lamar, Braker-35 neighborhood. Several years ago we tried an outreach program for the few local homeless in this area. Food and other services in conjunction with the neighborhood church, which is also a listed homeless shelter under extreme weather conditions, were offered.  The problems that we encountered and are still dealing with years after stopping the program are unbelievable.  First, the number of homeless multiplied within days and they did just as stated in this article. They stayed. All day, all night, laying wherever they wanted. Petty theft within the neighborhood soon followed.  Trash, as in beer cans, wine bottles and even some of the personal hygiene supplies (our donated dollars) and garments given were discarded everywhere.  We soon had to organize additional clean-up parties to deal with the trash. Drugs moved in and hypodermic needles were found by the neighborhood children walking home from the school bus stops. We had to petition the city and local businesses to have pay phones removed as they were now being used to make drug deals and bring unwanted characters in our neighborhood.  We then lost a hundred year old oak tree, which according to the arborist, had been urinated on so much that it killed the tree. I did not even know that was possible.  One volunteer was followed home and two of the homeless that we tried to help, moved in under this elderly woman’s home, sleeping there at night. After defecating for weeks they were discovered. Property values dropped. A local cemetery of African Americans dating back to early 1900’s was almost destroyed. We are still dealing with a large number of these problems and have even videotaped homeless individual’s drunk and shooting drugs in their arms (real footage shot in broad daylight) and yet, the Austin Police department can do very little in helping us.  In one month, we had over one thousand 911 calls made in regards to the activities of our once invited now regretted visitors.

     Again, I agree with Ms. Cariaga that we must continue to show compassion to those less fortunate. And let me clearly state that not all homeless individuals are responsible for the disregard that some homeless choose to repay the kindness shown them. But this article highlights the need of a central location for the provisions of taking care of those less fortunate without interfering or infringing on those who are often the one’s helping and providing for.

     Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition is providing a great service for a great cause, please follow the link to donate if you can. However, at the end of the day, they pack up and leave and the problem shifts to the businesses and home owners of that area. I understand their needs to have this program relocated but no one in this article is suggesting the program be banned or the homeless starved.

Call to Action

     “Now comes the hard part--how do you convince your fellow Americans to move from weariness (there's no shortage of weariness) and move to action?”  This was one of the comments I received after writing my very first commentary, The Party is Over. Indeed, this will be the hard part. What will it take to get others, including people I don’t know, to get involved?  Millions of dollars have been spent in this same pursuit and it hasn't worked.  Educational programs have been introduced, even mandated and that has not worked. What possible thing could I have to offer that would incent another person to vote.  I still have difficulty finding the time needed in researching and making an intelligent voting decision.  Politics and its procedures are still very confusing and very frustrating to me. What am I supposed to do?

     My first thought in answering this is “Why?” Why don’t we vote, why don’t we care?  In my research I found Thomas Patterson, a Bradlee Professor of Government & the Press at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Patterson published the book, The Vanishing Voter (Knopf, 2002). Derived from his book is a five part series called; Where have all the Voters Gone? This series is published on the History News Network (HNN) website. I highly encourage the reading of his following series:

Part 1, Where Have All the Voters Gone, highlights the issue of the two parties and how their diluting platforms have led confusion to the American voter and the lack of party support.

Part 2, Why Do So Many Americans Hate Politics, addresses the mudslinging that becomes so negative and vile that many Americans simply turn it off and tune it out.

Part 3, Why Is News So Negative These Days, Discusses the media’s role. The framing and agenda setting we learned of in our government class lectures.

Part 4, Why the Re-election of Incumbents Year After Year Is a Threat to Democracy, this one is a real eye opener and discusses the PAC money we recently learned of.

And part 5, Can Anything Be Done to Increase Voter Participation,  coincides with my commentary’s thesis and demonstrates a few actions that could help in increasing participation. But even these suggestions by Patterson require changes above and beyond that of the single individual and thus puts me right back at square one. Or does it? Is this the answer right before me.

     I may not be able to influence the hundreds or even thousands but, if I can convince one person or even two to get more involved and they in turn can get two others then the multiplying effect, although not overnight, will increase the involvement needed to make the significant changes needed. Sharing articles like the one above that I am sharing with you, is the first step in the right direction.  Getting involved in conversations about politics and leading those conversations away from the negatives of politics to the positives of changes we are able to accomplish will in time take effect.  Finding, joining and promoting an interest group with the same ideas, hopes and dreams of a better way for the American people will also help.  Writing a simple letter or series of letters to your representatives will let them know that you are out there and that you are watching them. These are all little things and simple things that have the ability to grow, to snowball into greater things.

               

     I can make a difference and so can you!

Not so Bemused on this One!

     I’m choosing the Bemused Citizen and his commentary A Desperate Cry for Reason. Well written and articulated, it is obvious that Jonathan is not bemused in his feeling for what is taking place at our Nation’s Capital and rightly so.  Jonathan makes a point on how these representatives get to Washington and become everything we did not vote them in office for.  How the corruption of their position consumes their integrity and our voice is sold out to the highest bidder.

     I appreciate and share his optimism with the knowledge that there are, indeed a few out there who will rise above the corruption. I agree that all that is needed is for the elected to listen to the voices of the individuals who seated them in their office and to remember from where they themselves once stood.

    What has happened to patriotism, to the American dream and to our Nations standing that all other countries once envied.  Jonathan is right, although tarnished, America can and will become great again and it will do so by American Patriots such as the Bemused Citizen.

     

     Thank you Jonathan for sharing your opinion.

The Party is Over

Once upon a time there was a National Government. It was a nice Government. It represented all the people of the Nation. It established guidelines for all the people to live together and to get along.  It watched over its people and guided them. It protected them from their enemies. It provided a means for all of them to be happy and to achieve every goal in their lives.  It……………….Yeah right buddy, whatever you’re smoking, pass it this way.

It is incredibly easy to find all kinds of things wrong with our National Government today.  I do not have to point out our current government shutdown, or the battle of Obamacare. The constant struggle between Republicans and Democrats.  No one is surprised anymore by the budget deficit and many of you now have firsthand experience at the lack of employment opportunities available in this “Land of Opportunity.” 

We can blame it on this President, the last President, the President before him; Congress, the Democrats, no it was the Republicans. This war, that war, this scenario or that damn younger generation. Which is the exact same thing they said when I was the “that younger generation.”  Who is at fault or what is the cause of our current situation does not matter anymore. What matters is that we are here and we really want to be there. So how do get there from here.  Damn good question.

We have learned in the last few months that there might be a problem with our electoral system. The voting machines may not be as secure as we thought.  Our representative may not have our best interest at heart and the virtue they claim to have probably would not be recognized by Aristotle or Plato.  We have learned that our representatives are in a slightly higher tax bracket than most of us they represent. Okay, a lot higher tax bracket but I’m still hoping for the winning lotto ticket and no, I will not be contributing to your campaign program.  The point here is that we have learned. We now know what many of us kind of knew, heard about, but did not fully understand or just ignored because it made no sense at all and we just were not interested. 

But now we do know and we cannot ignore what is right in front of us.  It is not their problem anymore, it’s ours.  We cannot turn a blind eye and say we do not understand or it really does not affect me.  It does! It affects the very reason why you are striving so hard to earn your degree.  Your future, your job, your home, your security, and the life style you desire, all depends on how your Nation is governed. 

The system is not going to change itself.  Those that are in power are not going to wake up tomorrow and say, “I have way too damn much money and I need to give it to Professor Seago’s class and let them run my office.”  I have a better chance of winning the lotto than that happening.  When I first started this blog, I posted the following quote from Abraham Lincoln:

 “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.”

I am not inciting a revolution here, but the time to be weary is upon us. The part about exercising our constitutional right, we need to exercise that right and we need to exercise it to the fullest extent.  We need to wake up and realize that what we want for our tomorrow requires our action today.  It is up to us.

The Affordable Healthcare Act

                Is it Obamacare aka Affordable Healthcare Act or Affordable Healthcare Act aka Obamacare? Either way, from its inception it has been plagued with negativity and now that the role out has begun, it seems Obamacare is already limping.  In this editorial published on The Huffington Post blog, Jeffrey Young writes about a problem with the website.

                Before I continue, I would like to apply some recently acquired knowledge and consider the source of which I found this article.  The Huffington Post was founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, Andrew Breitbart, and Jonah Peretti. The site was launched on May 9, 2005, as a liberal/left commentary outlet and alternative to news aggregators such as the Drudge Report.  In 2011, The Huffington Post was purchased by none other than AOL which is now owned by Time Warner. So we can trace it back to one of the six major corporations. M-m-m-m Media Madness for $2000.00 please. What is “Concentrated Ownership” (This is an inside SI pun). 

                The one encouraging aspect is that in 2012, The Huffington Post became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize. With this, and the fact the Arianna Huffington, after selling to AOL for $315 million, stayed on as editor-in-chief, in my mind gives it some credibility.  Being a blog, I believe its intended audience is the general public and the writer Jeffrey Young is a health care reporter at The Huffington Post and has covered health care, business, and politics for more than a decade.

                In the Editorial, “Obamacare Website Failure Threatens Health Coverage for Millions of Americans,” Young stays with the issue of which he is writing about. I do not read into his article any bias on Young’s part in favoring or disfavoring Obamacare.  He references many sources throughout his article and quotes one individual from an established university, acknowledging this individual as an Obamacare supporter. Young also quotes the president of the Alexandria, Va.-based Health Policy and Strategy Associates.  In the many articles I researched to find this one, I find Young’s objective journalism to be refreshing if not encouraging. I feel his article is solely intended to inform the general public and is not an article that can be interpretive of agenda setting.

                In closing, I would like to state that I am extremely pleased that my military benefits covering my healthcare enable me to be excluded from this healthcare act and I will not be one of the millions that must deal with Obamacare or these types of obstacles.  This is a good thing as I still do not fully understand all the controversy surrounding this issue. I invite you to read this article and to be aware of this situation and the need to act now in securing your healthcare coverage.

Secret Agent Man

For the purpose of this assignment and to lay down the foundation for the position I am going to take. I feel it is appropriate to share some personal information in regards to my background. I served in the UnitedStates Marine Corps from 1976 until 1984. During part of that time frame I was involved with the Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity. Simply put, I worked with military contractors: Litton, General Dynamics, Sierra Research, 4C’s, Sperry Univac and a handful of others. They were the high tech leaders of that era and primary leaders in designing the tactical software and hardware to be used in a wartime situation.  To complete this objective I was trained, evaluated, investigated and finally cleared for a high level security clearance.  I had knowledge of and pertaining to information highly valuable to all and any of the enemies of my country.  I was not at liberty to discuss any of these projects with anybody. Remember the time frame, 1978 was just a few years after the ending of the Vietnam conflict.  The spread of communism, at this time, was a national fear.  The general public was still highly upset over Vietnam. North Korea was just as much of a pain in the ass as it is today. Russia was heavily active in Indonesia and using such countries as Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam to test and evaluate their future military capabilities at the expense of the population of those third world countries.  The above mentioned US companies did not want attention brought to the American public’s eyes of their involvement with our military. I was not permitted to wear my uniform, make any reference of my military service or address my officers in any military fashion while I was on a project or on their corporate campuses.  I was even allowed and encouraged to wear my hair longer and completely out of Marine Corps regulations. It was a wild time.

Now, let us get on to the editorial before this becomes a paper of its own.  “Secret programs keep us safe: Opposing view.” An editorial by Ron Sievert, published in USA Today, August 1, 2013. Sievert’s editorial makes reference to the government’s National Security Agency and several programs that take place without the general knowledge of the American public. That is until Edward Snowden leaked classified information to the general public.  Sievert seems to be addressing those of the public who desire to end or have transparency in these programs and those who praise Snowden for his public disclosure. The editorial also mentions Manning in name, I choose to stay with the editorials main objective.

Sievert earns my support and establishes his credibility within his editorial by opening with a quote from George Washington.  If you can’t trust George who can you trust?  Sievert points out that 140 years later in 1936, our Supreme Court uses this very same quote to establish that the executive branch must maintain "confidential sources of information,” especially in time of military conflict. Sievert credibility increases throughout the editorial.

Sievert feels that many of the public have forgotten that we are in a current conflict. He paraphrases the current leaders of the congressional intelligence committee.

“First, we have a determined enemy still out to attack the U.S. And second, the confidential programs sanctioned by Congress and approved as constitutional by the courts have worked.”

I want to elaborate on this statement.

What they are saying is there are people, (determined enemy) out there that want to duplicate 9/11, (attack the U.S.).  Should a reminder be needed, please carefully review the following article:  9/11 by the Numbers published in the New York and updated in September 2012.

They go on to say that these confidential programs sanctioned by Congress (we elected, we voted for, representatives) and approved as constitutional by the courts (our US Constitution and our Judicial system of which we do have a say in. If we choose) have worked.

Sievert reinforces the “have worked” with this statement. “The director of the National Security Agency has testified that about 50 attacks were prevented by the disclosed NSA surveillance programs, and a program known as XKeyscore, according to a new Snowden leak, assisted in the capture of 300 terrorists by 2008.”  This statement certainly establishes Sievert's argument, and in my mind, justifies the need of such programs and carries all the logic I need to endorse this editorial.

In wrapping this up because I have a timed Aristotle quiz due on Blackboard tonight I want to say the following.  My military background gives me knowledge of what secrecy means to the protection of my country.  In my opinion Edward Snowden committed treason to my country and should face charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Sievert’s editorial is right on. We do need to allow certain programs to run without transparency to the general public and to our enemies both foreign and domestic. 

2016 Presidential Campaign

Part of the assignment was to tell your readers why you think the article is worth reading. That made this assignment a real challenge for me.  In the "suggested source," many source's are all telling the same story. If I am going to endorse a story than I need to find a story that I believe in, or at least, one that peaks my interest. Many of the topics are just a reminder that there is a flaw in our government.  This constant bickering between the parties and this chess game they seem to be playing with our lives and with our futures is appalling to me. And here's the real kicker, we are still in 2013 half way through President Obama's second of a four year term. The battle lines are already being drawn for the 2016 Presidential election.

In this article that I discovered in Time they are actually lining up the possible candidates for our 2016 election.  I find this amazing!  When you read this article you will be seeing governors that we are familiar with and of course a few that we would have no reason to know of.  There is a House Representative, a Senator and Hillary Clinton, who hasn't even announced her candidacy.  You will have to click on each prospective candidate to read a little of their campaign platform or what might make them a good candidate per their supporters. This is exactly where I think we as voters need to get involved.  We have an midterm election coming up in November 2014.  We need to start now in placing the candidates we truly believe can do the job for the seats that will be filled in this election. These are the seeds that we need to plant today, knowing that they will be running for higher offices in the future. Of the candidates that are profiled in the upcoming 2016 Primary election, I am not pleased with the selection. Of the ones I do know, they are not doing that well of a job in their current seats. How and why are they candidates for a higher position.