POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS IN AMERICA!

POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS IN AMERICA!

(National Center for Children in Poverty/Hope for the Homeless/Frazer Chronicle)

America, land of the free and the home of the brave, a country where, if you work hard, keep your nose clean and stick to business, good things will happen for you and yours. At least that is what I was taught, at least my generation, I kind of passed that on to my kids, but the message was never a priority of mine.

I grew up in a smallish town in northern Lower Michigan, a tourist mecca, in a region where people have been flocking for generations to enjoy the crystal clear water and to marvel at the majestic view of the beauty that is the region.

When I was a kid, my sisters and I never really wanted for anything, except maybe another piece of cake, or an extra slice of cherry pie. Our family wasn't rich, or well off, my Dad was a carpenter and my Mother a secretary. Both were cautious, watched their money.....and kind of planned for a rainy day.....which thankfully never really came.

We were just like thousands of other families in the region, hard working, God fearing.....probably good Republicans. My Dad was a Catholic, "not practicing," and my Mother was a Protestant, "practicing." I guess you could say that the Frazer's were a racially mixed family, religion wise anyways, and the division did make for some separation between my folks.

My Dad worked hard, actually was kind of a workaholic, and my Mother, "a business school graduate," worked at 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. job for the Grand Traverse School District. My Mother actually was the Michigan State secretary of the year back in the middle 1970's, and if there would have been a "secretary's hall of fame," she'd have been a member.

My Dad was a cracker-jack carpenter, built dozens of homes around the area and did thousands of repair jobs, and even worked on the Mackinac Bridge when it was constructed. My Father was a self made man, with little formal education and only knew one way.....hard work.

Neither would have made it in today's world, what with the beliefs and education that they had.....and actually that is sad. It seems each generation passes on to their off-spring a legacy of war, pestilence, more debt.....and usually a poorer relationship with the "captains of industry."

WHO SUFFERS?

Everybody suffers from either poverty or homelessness; absolutely nobody is spared the effects of a homeless person, or family in the United States. Being homeless or living in poverty is the underbelly of society in today's world. Nobody escapes the degradation of what has become a primary social problem.....a problem that is being largely ignored by the everyday "Joe" on the street, and Washington as well.

All of the people that read this blog have never experienced the stress and strife that is homelessness; there really have no first hand understanding of what it means. And sadly, the problem does not discriminate; it can take white, black, young and old. Few in America are immune from the tentacles of poverty or homelessness.

Many people in the work-place of America today are living from paycheck to paycheck, an even larger number are not saving, and not planning for their retirement, they simply do not have the money. They are paying the minimum payment on their credit cards, are chronically late on house and auto payments, have a minimum amount of insurance, and have little or no time for their families.

We all suffer from poverty and homelessness because they drag down not only their quality of life, but everybody else’s as well. Poverty dictates that people use hospital emergency services as if they were their own personal health care providers. And who pays for those "unpaid" services, the rest of us.

The homeless and those living in poverty are really a blight on society, are a problem that most us choose to look away from, and not deal with. Some people figure that whatever has happened in these people's lives, has happened because they are lazy, do not want to work, are looking for a handout, and are people of color.

Sorry to disappoint, but poverty and homelessness is not a race issue today, these two social problems have largely been spurred on by the decisions that few of us have any say in. War, economic practices and work-place procedures are basic culprits.

The real losers in the United States plight of poverty and homelessness are the children, the innocents, the ones that have never had a chance at grasping for the gold ring. 1.8 million children go to sleep without a home each year. One in 50 have a chance to experience homelessness in their lifetimes.

Children without homes are twice as likely to experience hunger as other children. Two-thirds worry they won't have enough to eat, and more than one-third of homeless children are forced to skip meals.

Healthcare for a homeless child is virtually impossible to get as conditions dictate initial care or follow-up treatment. Homeless children are twice as likely as their counterparts to have moderate to severe acute and chronic health problems.

Educating the homeless is an awful task for parents as well as city, county or state officials, homeless children are more than twice as likely to have to repeat grades, be suspended or expelled, or they simply drop out of school. Few homeless or poverty ridden children are proficient in reading or math.....and less than 25% graduate.

WHO ARE AMERICA'S POOR CHILDREN?

Nearly 16 million American kids live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level, which is around $24,000 for a family of 4 today. And this study is flawed, citing the fact that it takes almost twice the $24,000 for a family of 4 to live comfortably.

America's poor children are saddled with poor and poverty stricken parents, mostly adults unable to keep a job, or must work for sub-standard wages.....and today; a sub-standard wage is anything under $15 dollars an hour.

That's right, $31,200 is a sub-standard wage in today’s society.....now a good conservative, and in many instances liberals would say that these people need to get a second job, or at the very least a part time job. I can't argue that thinking, I've been there and done that, but if people do take a second job, or a part time job, it means that somebody without any job will find it harder to find "even" one job.

Homelessness is a national tragedy, should be unacceptable, and should be addressed until it is completely wiped out from America. Poverty needs to be addressed in the same way, aggressively and with a "no holds barred attitude. Taskforces in neighborhoods, townships, cities, states and nationally need to be set up to deal with the problem, with Washington as the center governing body.

The "if it doesn't affect me, I don't care attitude" needs to go, the "they don't really want to work" talk is basically stupid, and needs to stop. There are well over 100 million people in our country who wonder if their paycheck will last the week, that's almost a third of the country's population.

You can't tell me that a hundred million people don't want to work here in America, remember, we were the country that woke from a depressional slumber in 1941, and became the world's giant of industry. By sheer numbers of workers, the United States completely retooled itself, and became a dominate world leader.

That is the blood-line that we come from, it is what we are, it is our essence, our destiny, and the potential is in each and every one of us to varying degrees. All we need is leadership.....real leadership, not the pansy politicians in Washington today.....remember this in November.

  

A BUM RAP!

A BUM RAP!

What nobody is telling the American worker is unbelievably obvious.....in fact it's so easy to see and understand that even I "get it." Collectively as the countries working stiffs want is equality, good paying jobs that will elevate us to the heights of the middle class, and some of us can even achieve touching the lower edges of the upper class.

Come on, do you really think that business, whether small, medium or large is interested in making you, the worker, a boat loads of money, approaching equal stature. There ain't no way baby, the thinking process of the rich movers and shakers in this country.....and the world, they don't think that way.

I belong to a health and fitness club here in Green Bay, the Kroc Fitness Center, with funds donated by the Ray and Joan Kroc foundation. The facility is beautiful; there is a weight room, work out areas, a basketball court and a pool. As I understand it, the Krocs funded the construction, while maintenance and staffing costs comes from memberships and walk up traffic.

It's all very nice, encourages fitness, a sense accomplishment and is a great outlet for kids and families to do things together. However, that said, I feel funny when there are signs everywhere telling the users of the facility to be fair, to understand the wants and needs of others, and.....ah, there are worship services every Sunday at 10:30 A.M.

Why you might ask "do I feel funny about the church thing," well I'm glad you asked and the answer is really quite simple, at the present time, there is no program for the needy, the destitute, the under-employed, the unemployed, and seniors without transportation.

They have scholarships for the needy, but at the present time there isn't any room for these types of people. The program is full and the Kroc is unable to "help" anybody with not enough funds to take advantage of the healthy environment that the center offers.

In other words, "if you can afford it," the Kroc is ready, willing and able to service your needs to the tune of $50 to over a hundred dollars a month in membership fees. To me, this attitude of monetary gain goes against the grain of what the Kroc is all about.....family and the less fortunate.

Now I ask you, "with priorities that far out of whack," how can the rich truly understand the plight of the "little guy." Talk about the trickledown effect, "I built it; now for you to use it.....you gotta pay." I am in no way saying that paying a membership should not be expected, but if you can't afford it, pay me later.....or never.

WAKE UP AMERICA:

I do not advocate bigger government, in fact a bit smaller one would be fine with me, and regulations do get in the way of progress at times. But understand this, almost without exception, the rules and regulations that have been mandated by the federal government regarding employment were for a reason.

I read an article a few years ago about kids, some as young as 5, working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania as sorters, "throwing out rock or ratty product," and getting .5 cents a day. Child labor laws were needed, were enacted and are still on the books.

The 12 to 16 hour work day, the unsafe environment in the work-place, no overtime and forced work on week-ends and holidays. With few exceptions, the union movement in this country put a stop on these practices.

During the years that unions came to dominate industry, there was a sense of accomplishment by the worker, of a living wage being earned, bigger houses and 2 cars in the garage.....things were good, right.....wrong.

Industrial leaders, at first didn't notice the subtle changes that were taking place right under their collective noses in the work place. The vanguard of industry was getting older, and didn't care quite as much, but over the past 50 or so years, leadership has changed and they have changed the rules of the game.

RULES OF THE GAME:

The rules of labor and employer has ebbed and flowed over the years, some years the worker benefited from a fairer situation, while at other times, employers reaped the benefits of lower wages, and little or no benefits.

The United States now finds itself in yet another flow in its work related ideals, now workers aren't as important as in past years. Technology and re-training is the rule of the day, an education in today's working world is more important than ever.

It's "keep your trap shut, do your job and keep your nose clean," because you can be replaced in a heartbeat by somebody out there wondering around on the streets. Many, many people today feel "fortunate" to have a job," forget about being paid a living wage, at least they have a job.

In todays work world, there is a war going on, an unnecessary war, but nonetheless a war. This "war" has been fought countless times, and the outcome is predictable, workers lose. Workers are usually poorly organized, and can be fragmented even further by the very people that are trying to bring them together.

THE FINAL ANALYSIS:

Are American workers getting a bum rap by employers, absolutely, can unions save the day, I don't think so. The American worker has become "soft" relying on the employer to offer, through negotiations, health care, life insurance, and breaks, paid lunch, paid holidays, sick days, personal days and top of the line equipment.

In many cases, the employer is being forced right out of their chosen profession because of the high operating expenses. In many instances, when an employer says that he is broke, he actually is. That is why employers want to keep operating costs down, down to a bear minimum.

Workers need to understand and respect the owners’ plight, and renew efforts to keep the guy afloat; he actually needs your help.

The employer needs to understand the employee's plight also; prices go up, it costs more to run a family than ever before. The employer needs to attempt to pay a living wage, and when he can't, he needs to sit down and talk to his people, inform them about what is going on.

And Mr. Employer, never, never buy a $150,000 motor home and profess poverty, because the words that might come out of your mouth are just so much dribble and bull----. If you don't understand what is going on with your employees, hire somebody to serve as a "go-between" so that you can understand.

Most employees want to see their employer make money, it is a source of pride for them, of being a part, albeit a small part in the engine of success. Dignity and respect are the key words in the relationship between an employer and his employee.

If there is a "bum rap" here, it is shared by both parties, employers can't fabricate money, the last time I looked, and it was illegal. Employees can't sustain a family on a minimum wage job, and employers need to acknowledge that fact.

Okay, "class is over," now go out and play nice!

   

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION!

(Green Bay Press Gazette/Frazer Chronicle)

Okay I know, you all are getting tired of me "short stroking" the government and some of the silly things that they do with regards to regulations, or the lack there-of. I have blogged on many occasions about how government intervention can be a bad thing, and also how people need to take charge of their lives, their actions, their futures and be a better informed electorate.

I used to drive a semi truck and always giggled whenever I crossed a state line into West Virginia and was confronted by a entrance sign that proclaimed that "West Virginia was open for business." It just seemed inappropriate to me, kinda like "come on in, anything goes."

Wisconsin has adopted that attitude of favoring business with regards to less regulations, and more and better business opportunities. God knows that every single state in the union needs business so that everybody has a chance at a job, of paying their own way, being a responsible citizen, and the great feeling that comes with that accomplishment.

Nowhere in my thinking, or  beliefs do I feel that government should throw up "road-blocks" to encumber the business of business in Wisconsin, or in any other state in America. People get out of hand with sanctions on business all over the country, sanctions impede business, hinder it and in some cases, chase business to another state,  or right out of the country.

BUSINESS'S RESPONSIBILITY:

Business is responsible to make investors, stock holders, or owners a profit first and foremost, at least that is the overbearing objective today. Business people do not come into an area and say something like, "oh, hey, this looks like a nice area to develop our business ideas, we could really help this community out, good jobs, better living conditions, new cars and a roast in every cooking pot."

These business people look at a potential site and wonder what kind of a tax break then can get, how much infrastructure will the area cover, and how many skilled on unskilled people will be available to work for a sub-standard wage.

Business wants as many breaks as they can possible get, no matter whether it is legal, or a benefit to the working people, or to the people living in the area. Business people come into an area thinking the bottom  line right away.

Business has almost never seen a regulation that they didn't want to break or at least bend any way they could. And in today's work-place, with the domestic as well as  foreign competition, can you blame them. 

There is an iron mine in the central part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that was in business for a little over a hundred years. The waste rock that was produced by the underground mining operation was hoisted to the surface for years, and dumped into an adjacent lake, compressing the lakes size by about a mile in total. Did the mining company care that they were destroying the lake, not even a little bit.

Business was.....and is out of control, it's pretty much the way business does business in America. Locals except it, regional(s) except it, and state and the federal government pretty much goes along with it.

DEATH IN THE PLACE WORK:

The predictable happens whenever business has it's way, and there is a general attitude by local, state and federal government agencies of complacency, workers sustain injuries and in sever cases, death. These 2 attitudes have always been a mix for disaster as history has proven over and over again.

I worked in and around dangerous equipment and situations most all of my working life, from table saws, to power hand saws, to overhead booms, to all types of machines and have been witness to untold injuries. I have never attended a "safety meeting" that wasn't mandated by the federal government. In absolutely no situation did an employer ever call a safety meeting.....ever.

Many work place areas are set up to be as economical and efficient as possible, if worker safety is jeopardised, so be it. In many company establishments today, there is a safety officer who is supposed to take care of safety issues in their workers places, that's great, until one considers who is paying this official. How far are you going to go to carry out your responsibilities as a safety official at a factory, when it's likely your actions would be quite the same as a dog biting the hand that feeds him.

Death occurs way to often in today's workplace, unless you feel that the following figures don't show that opinion:

Chicago-Naperville-Joilet, IL. In. Wi. Metropolitan area, 100

Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Tx. area, 119

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana. Ca. area, 115

New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Ny-Nj-Pa mentropolitian area, 152

These statistics are for 2009, the last available year for these numbers, they amount to 486 deaths. Each your more then 4000 people die in work place accidents in the United States, deaths that effect hundreds of people, and leave countless widows and orphaned children.

PENALTIES AND CONCLUSIONS:

The penalties for these work place deaths, with the exception of a precious few,  the Occupational, Safety & Health Administration, (O.S.H.A.) can lay an occasional fine on unsafe business practices or work place areas. However, without exception,  these business people  can  contested every fine as being unjust.

There basically is no penalty program to follow in most of the work place  deaths, the federal  government uses a case by case mentality on each issue. In many of the cases, the fines that are issued by O.S.H.A. can be halved or even resended, depending on the severity of the infraction and how serious the injury was.

Employees that are injured on the job usually do not to get compensation from the business owner. Workman's compensation laws allow for benefits to the injured from a fund that all business pay into.  Many of these compensation laws are antiquated, were established in the first decade of the 20th. century and favor the company,

There is a death benefit through the Worker's Compensation regulations, but in most cases, the awarded amounts can be next to nothing in monetary value. To date there absolutely is no regulatory rules to govern business no matter the infraction. O.S.H.A. does not posses the "teeth" to govern business, they do not have the man-power to police business, nor do they have the budget.

Business has the working class of the United States exactly where they want them.....by the short little hairs. George W. Bush took much of the powers away from the fed. and Obama has done little to restore it.

My only advice to you, the reader,  is to retire as soon as possible, before big business, the Republicans and some on the Democratic side take all workers rights away. The dark of "winter" in the business community, and the workers legions is just beginning.....things can only get worse because business really has a strangle hold on America.  

  





BAD MEN WITH BAD NAMES!

(AFP News Agency/Graham Smith/Frazer Chronicle)

Laszlo-Csizsik-Castary is the name of a man, born in Slovakia in 1915, has lived in various countries since 1945.....always one step from capture. He was a policeman, a laborer, and an art dealer during his working years, and now.....well he is on house arrest, awaiting a possible trail for war crimes during World War 2.

I always take "war crimes" with somewhat a grain of salt, basically because of the very nature of war. Some people seem to think that there are rules in war, somewhere in a book published by.....well that's just it, nobody knows who the publisher is or who wrote the rules. That's why war is to be avoided at all costs, and negotiations used for however long it takes.  

Of course World War 2 was out of our control....."we were attacked," by Japan, and Nazi Germany had to be dealt with in a harsh manner, but little was learned from those two military fronts. Unless you don't count Korea as a war, which broke out just 7 years after the 1945 victory over both Japan, Germany and their alleys.

Like most of you, I thought Nazi hunting was over and done with, that the Simon Wiesenthal Center had closed up shop, and it's members had gone home. But no, there still out there, looking for really old men.....now all in their nineties. One things for sure, whomever remains can't run very fast, if at all, oxygen tank hoses tend to get tangled if a person decides to run.

I can understand the almost fanatical over zealous feeling of these "hunters," trying to bring these war criminals to justice. Those that stood the human atrocities, those that witnessed the human degradation on a daily basis need some sort of justice. I do not believe in the term "closure," never have and never will. Torturing a person, or losing a loved one to torture can never be erased, the image is always there, and lived with every day. Revenge, yes, closure, never.

Nazi Germany dealt with either war prisoners or Jews in the same manner, brutally, inhumanly and ruthlessly. To my way of thinking killing them all would have been a better way to deal with an enemy. The Jewish question and solution arrived at during Hitler's regime was, brutal, but when you think about the question logically, killing the Jews was by far the ecomonical way to approach the issue. That said, I do not consider genocide of a sect, or race of people to be a healthy alternative to hatred or rascism.

Many people today hold an animosity towards black or brown colored people,  superiority is a chief reason for their feelings. Personally I dispise prejudice towards anybody, I work every day of my life to  "smooth out" my feelings towards people of color. We are all the same under our exterior and we all have the same wants, needs and desires.

Laszlo Csatary, during World War 2 proportedly helped organize the deportation of some 15,700 Jews to the Auschwitz death camp. During the war, Csatary was a senior police officer in Kosice, or Kosice City, Kaschau, or Kassa, Hungary. No matter which name was used at the time, in the summer of 1944, the city of close to 80,000 became a sub-station for transporting Jews to Auschwitz extermination camp number 1, 2, or number 3.

Of course Auschwitz-Birkenau is by far the most infamous of all the extermination camps that was operated by the Germans during the war. Some Jews, or war prisoners arrived at the camp and immediately executed.  More then 1 million people were murdered at the Aushwitz  killing complex, there is a debate as to the exact number that parished at the camp, but for me, 1 is to much.

Laszlo Csatary was in charge of the Kosice ghetto in 1944 from where thousands of people were hauled by train to the furnaces or gas chambers at Auschwitz.  Koisice was occupied by Nazi ally Hungary, and is now Slovakia. In 1948, a Czechoslovakian court condemned Csatary to death in absentia.

Csatary escaped to Canada where he worked as an art dealer in Montreal and Toronto until the 1990's when his citizenship was stripped and he again was forced to flee. He traveled to Budapest, Hungary and lived undisturbed until the Wiesenthal Center tracked him down in 2011.

He was detained on July 17th. by Budapest police and questioned about his orchestrating the deportation and eventual murder of 15,700 Jewish Hungarians. The events took place 68 years ago in an area that now falls under the jurisdiction of another country which raises several investigative and legal problems.

Of course there is outrage today, to bring Csatary to justice and eliminate one more of the few war criminals that remain free and alive. Anti-Semites have also come to the forefront to spew their rediculous garbage about the inaccurate accounts of the holocost and what it has meant to the world.

Several things are perfectly clear, Csatary was a high ranking police official at Koisice, he was in charge of the Jewish Ghetto, and has been remembered by some victims and onlookers as a brutal man who routinely beat women and old people.

Koisice had a population approaching 80,000 in 1944, of which 20,000 were of  the Jewish race, after January,  1945 the Jewish number plummited to less then 4000. On May 19,  1944, 3352 Jews were transported to Aushwitz, another expulsion train, on May 24, 1944 left holding 3172. During the night of June 3 and 4, 1944, a final transport left for the death camp holding 2439. In all, during about a 6 week period, some 15,700 people were expelled from Koisice, Hungary.

Of those people.....not one person ever saw the light of freedom again, each person, men, women and child met their fate in the horific gas chambers or the creamatory ovens of Aushwitz. Surely Laszlo Csatary knew what was happening, his hands have been dripping innocent blood for the past 68 years and his judgement day is closer each day he wakes.

Nazi hunters jobs are almost at an end, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's authority with regards to war criminals apprehensions  and trial(s) are at an end, the ravages of time having taken their toll on those remaining people.

Koisice, Hungary is now a bustling city of close to a quarter of a million people, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsys, the lame and the mentally retarded can walk together on any street in the community. People like Csatary are a dark rememberance to a by-gone time when insanity ruled. Those brutish, racist, rapers  that used to roam the streets are now mostly all gone. There are but a few left, and they will be gone within a few years.

What we.....as member citizens of the world need to remember is that state leaders can, and are people to be watched.....because absolute power.....corrupts absolutely.     

   

A CRIME WITH NO PUNISHMENT!

A CRIME WITH NO PUNISHMENT!

(Aljazeera/Frazer Chronicle)

It sounds kinda funny doesn't it, I mean the title of this blog, let’s see, there's lots of crime going on in the world with nothing more than a slap on the wrist as punishment. Probably 90% involves banking or the lending institutions, you never hear much about them because there's no punishment, or people say something like, "oh, it's just the bankers, or Wall Street, and their crooked anyways." Well booby, buckle up, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

HSBC has brought the banking world.....again.....back to the US Senate chambers to be grilled for misdeeds and money laundering. I am in no way an economist, nor understand the inner workings of the banking industry, but I can read, I can listen to the radio and I can watch television.

I'm sure that many of you, like me, didn't even know what HSBC stands for, I thought it was a "spin-off" of Household Finance Corporation.....but it's not, HSBC stands for Hong Kong&Shanghai Banking Corporation. It makes billions of dollars in profit every year, and moves trillions more around the world, apparently not choosing its customers very well.

Top HSBC officials are appearing before the Senate today to acknowledge their shortcomings in their anti-money laundering operations. David Bagley, (former) head of compliance resigned that position, "but" will simply be moved to another post within the government, or will return to the private sector.

Laundering drug money from the Mexican drug lords was.....and is a dangerous business, but the worst part of the situation is that it, "laundering" money from these people perpetuates the sale of illegal all sorts of stuff on the streets of America.

A yearlong inquiry by the United States government said that HSBC routinely acted as a financier to clients routing money from the world's most dangerous regions, including, Mexico, Iran and Syria. Apparently these bankers didn't know that drug cartels and families have guns, ammunition, and are more than willing to shoot anybody.

BANKING SCANDALS ARE NOTHING NEW:

The world banking business has had its share of scandals, and of course are too numerous to list here, suffice it to say, "the industry has been over-run with its share of business practices that are.....well, dubious, to say the least."

From price fixing, to jimmying credit rates and interest rates, to taking bad money, obtained through all sorts of illegal business dealings and practices, and turning it (money) into clean ready to use legal tender.

Banking scandals, down through the decades has wrought tremendous hardships and difficulties onto the regular unsuspecting customer. Everybody has heard about the stock market crash of 1929 and read what the action of bankers and their lending departments did.

Through all the scandals, all the dark shadowy practices, very few banking officials have been held accountable for their misdeeds. Some have been fired, while others are simply transferred to another branch within the bank, or transplanted to another state.

REGULATORS, SMEGULATORS:

The real problem with this illegal stuff going on is the bank regulators, a department within our government. They have cozied up to the bankers, have refused to regulate and have turned a blind eye to the industry. Lax control.....over at least the past 8 years, has brought billions upon billions back to the Mexican drug lords, helping them to make more secure their operations.

Poor systems to detect misappropriate activity were ignored, whistle blowers were summarily demoted, fired or simply or simply ignored. People in high places have been turning their heads with regards to the problem that has been created over time; many of these people stand to lose millions of dollars paid out in bonuses, or under the table payments.

HSBC had a net income last year of $16.8 billion, operates in 80 countries around the world, and is one of the top banks in the United States, with assets of more than $210 billion in its U.S. operations. It has used its U.S. operations as a "gateway" into U.S. markets.

Regulators must get a handle on the bank, at least here in the United States, I don't know about you, but I sure as hell don't want even a penny of my money going to support terrorists or the drug industry of some 3^rd world country.

Time to "clean it up boys," let's face the facts of life, this kind of profit, this kind of payoffs hurts even those people who get a bit of the "blow-by" of the money. We need first to clean up our own "users" before we can get to the next business on our agenda, smashing these folks who launder dirty money.

We need to punish these people for their crimes, we need to toughen our laws.....and get the job done on drug trafficking, and the cover-up.

WE NEED TO BE AWARE!

  


  

THERE'S MORE THEN ONE WAY TO SKIN A CAT!

(The Root/Frazer Chronicle)

I have never been against VOTER-ID, I just looked at the issue as.....well, a non-issue, unless people are talking about banning drivers licenses. I don't know about any of you, but I've seen drivers "out there" that have drivers licenses and can't drive a lick.

Now we come to a VOTER-ID issue, seemingly from the less fortunate, senior citizens, "being old is a misfortune you know," poor people, people of color and some rural area folks. All the news that I have read, or any information that I have ever heard says "the fee will be nominal, like less then $10."

Sure there might be a problem for some to get to a city and get their ID, but if that's the case, then they're going to have a tough time getting to the voting booths.....so what's the "hub-bub.....bub?" But more and more writers are raising the racism question, the disenfranchise issues and the "keeping the people down by the man scenario."

Some argue that a VOTER-ID is the same thing as a pole tax, or a literacy test, so to make my blog as accurate as possible, I looked it up. The argument that a VOTER-ID is nothing more then a pole tax, or a literacy test is a valid opinion. Both the pole tax and the literacy tests for potential voters was abolished by the U.S. government and reinforced by the Supreme Court in 1966.

Clearly both the pole tax and the literacy tests were prejudicial towards minorities, the poor and the elderly. And to learn that these 2 practices weren't addressed until 1966 by the government is another black eye on the American voter system. Both were obviously targeting blacks and the poor and should have been an outrage to free Americans everywhere....."how slowly we move."

Is the VOTER-ID issue just another way to "skin a cat," well my friends, you be the judge, for me, I've changed my tune, although I don't view the issue as an "unpinning of our democracy," I none-the-less feel that identification cards that might cost a dollar, and could be ordered over the phone, "application," and paid for through the mail.

BIG POLITICAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS:

Talk about a double standard, what about the "fat cats" donating thousands, or hundreds of thousands of dollars to campaign coffers.....in secret. What the hell is going on there, talk about a literacy test, do these people even have to "fluff their pillow?"

You know, when we step into the voters booth to cast our vote, to voice our opinions, do we even have a chance to be heard. Are the campaigns already decided, and exactly what does our political system mean if it can be altered before it's even voted on by these "fat cat" contributors. Our political system can be a sickening spectacle.

Voters enter the voter booth with blinders on, many having been influenced by the "money ads," talk about people needing "literacy tests." Don't get me wrong, I'm no different then you-all, I don't have a secret crystal ball that shows me where the money for these disgusting political ads come from. 

And the political season, it's not every 3 years like it used to be, as a nation, we are kept in a political pot, stewing, stirred occasionally by some new revelation, thrown into the pot by God only knows who.....to keep us bubbling, and unfocused on the real issues.

And by far the worst part of the whole deal, many U.S. citizens know this, and for whatever reason ignore the obvious. Absolutely blacks are being singled out, absolutely the poor and the elderly are targeted. What do we do about it, nothing, we fall back on our self serving ideals, we ignore the painful truth of our prejudices, the inferior blacks, native Americans, the Mexicans and the lazy, poor, sick and old.

What a bunch of "wieners" we are as a species, we have yet to come to grips with our own feelings, our own short sightedness and our frivolous desires. By far, of the developed and  progressive nations of the world, we are the most misinformed and under-educated.

Some nations, during their political seasons set aside 3 or 4 days, and in some countries, even a week, to make sure that people have a chance to vote, that they take advantage of  one of the most precious rights of a free people.....to be heard.

VOTER-ID is simply another way to keep citizens down, to manipulate the actions of the masses, to keep the power where these people want it. It's not a Democratic thing, it's not a Republican, it's the power brokers. Who has the most to lose in a national election.....the money guys, keep that in mind the next time you go to the poles, unless you think that these multi-millionaires really want to screw around with a political job for several hundred thousand dollars.

BE BETTER INFORMED 

SIEG - HEIL..... HEEL!

SIEG - HEIL..... HEEL!

(New York Times/Frazer Chronicle)

Picture it, an older gentleman is walking down the street, black coat tightly pulled up around his neck, one hand in his pocket, the other holding the coat tightly around his neck to ward off the cold evening air. It's mid-November and the winds can cut right to the bone, but that doesn't deter two beat police officers as they approach the slightly hunched over fellow.

Without hesitation, the lead cop pulls out his service revolver and tells the stranger to take his hand out of his pocket and put his hands in the air. A quick search produces nothing, the second cop, who has also un-holstered his weapon looks on in nervous anticipation, long seconds pass as the lead cop scans the lonely walkers I.D. card.

After several minutes of waiting, the identification document is returned to the older man, and he is told to "Move on citizen," everything seems to be in order. Is this a scene on a movie set; is this some sort of infomercial advertisement for some cable television station?

Actually the incident is becoming a "business as usual event" which is happening with increasing regularity across our country.....you know the land of the free and the home of the brave. Just because you happen to be walking down the street, and kind of look suspicious, in New York, you can be "stopped, searched and detained."

"Bull pucky" you say, well my friend, let me enlighten you, number one, these people are cops and have all the rights, and number two, they've got guns, case closed. You the average "Joe citizen" have the right to keep your mouth shut.....which by the way, in most cases, you'd better do.

A few years ago in upstate Wisconsin, a young police officer was jilted by his girlfriend, let the issue smolder for several days and finally decided to "take matters into his own hands," and went on a shooting rampage, killing several people at a Friday night private party.

When the dust cleared, and the bodies were counted, this cop, who by the way was really, really young hadn't had any formal training, was only part-time and hadn't even had in pre-employee evaluation with regards to his mental stability.

It was a small community, and access to sophisticated training and analysis wasn't available, but I don't think that fact will comfort any of the families of those people involved with the shooting. This kid simply should never have been allowed to be behind a police weapon and in a position of authority.

In New York City, the accelerated use by police to stop and frisk is being challenged more and more, and police officials are defending the practice with the same intensity as those opposed to it. This is the day and age of "taking away" by official acting and thinking people in the United States.

It's a pre-emptive strike on "possible" law breakers, usually people of color.....you are guilty before anything has happened. It's H.G. Wells and 1984, or Tom Cruise's 'Vanilla Sky', people are stopped before they even think about an illegal act.

Stop and frisk is probably one of the lowest forms of overt police activity, rivaling the "ass stomping" that happens in the Friday night drunk tanks around the country. The new motto of our police is becoming "To serve and kick the crap out of".

What has brought this mentality to police departments all over the country? These two factors: us and former president George W. Bush. We have demanded police protection for all sorts of what we perceive as offensive behavior. Language, actions, beliefs or religious activity, yup, you can get "head butted" for probably even thinking some things.....it's why I wear a hat, gotta screen those thoughts.

Are you wondering "what is going on in today's world?" I’m glad you asked, I'll tell you, it's simple and easy to figure out. Power and control, the more those in charge have power over people, the more they control. It's how every repressive governmental administration throughout history has operated.

I used to figure that I had the power and control over my family, you know, the "kingdom of Frazer," but huh, I didn't, my wife trumped all my aces, and trumped every bluff I ever made, come to find out, like most husbands, "I'm just a limp wristed wimp."

It's funny the things you learn as you get older, there are "perks" that you attain with age, but they are pretty much "trumped" with some of the realizations at just how much you really never controlled. I can't fight with my wife about my rights, or my space, "she has the power," but I can fight a police state.....as you should too. Keep your eye on the cops.....report any and all Gestapo-type activity to as many people as possible.....of course until they either shoot you, or put your butt in the slammer.

  

CELEBRATING AN AMERICAN TRADITION!

CELEBRATING AN AMERICAN TRADITION!

(Green Bay Press Gazette/Frazer Chronicle)

People celebrate all sorts of rituals or traditions, family, city, county, state and federal stuff, we seem to be celebrating something almost every week or so, especially during the summer months. I'm just as gullible as the next guy; I love a good festival, or a good old fashioned "ho-down."

Here in Wisconsin you have your church picnic, township regalia, and all sorts of county organizational get-togethers, ball games, both soft and hard, and just plain old parties that celebrate living or life. The food is great, the entertainment first class, and the beer, well, here in Wisconsin, we sure like our beer.

Family oriented celebrations here in the badger state are, well, actually events, some call them "bust-ups," others just good old parties. Whatever they are called, no matter the time of year, it is obvious that they are an important to the fabric of family.

Sons follow fathers many times in their life's job selections, daughters do likewise, and it just seems to be an excepted path for young people to follow. The importance of family is driven home, "unintentionally" pretty much on a daily basis.

Out in the "heartland" the dominate profession is farming, dairy herds dot the countryside, huge barns filled with hay, silos jut out of the ground like rockets ships, all full of silage. Cows "mosey" the hill-sides, grazing on the green grasses of summer.

And the cheese that is produced here, well let me tell you friend, it is impossible not to like Wisconsin cheese and be a resident of this state. I don't care what they say about California "replacing Wisconsin as the dairy state," it's just not true, no way; Wisconsin will always be the dairy capital of the United States, and "our" cheese 2nd to none.

Water sports, fishing and picnicking and the Brewers in the summer, hunting and the Packers in the fall, and winter sports and celebrations during the frigid winter season makes Wisconsin a "people's" paradise.....and it's true. Wisconsin has everything that a heart could desire.....and more, so many things to do see and enjoy, Wisconsinites are truly blessed.

There is, to me, at least one "chink' in the armor of Wisconsin's idyllic existence in America's heartland, in the "bread-basket" of the nation. I'm sure there are other points of dissension that we could discuss, but sense this is my blog and I get to choice the subject and be the dominate opinion-maker.....we'll take a look at an issue from my prospective.

GUNS, GUNS EVERYWHERE:

In amongst all the family parties, picnics, camping trips, and ball games, after the last brat has been washed down with a good old Miller, or Budweiser, we come to the "bone of my contention," gun crazy! It seems that almost everybody in Wisconsin owns a gun or pistol, in many cases.....both.

Firearms are meant for two things, and two things only, either to kill, or to protect, there is absolutely no other reason to be in possession of this made-made instrument of destruction. Owning a gun doesn't mean that you are protected from robbers or thieves, and in many cases, owning a gun is not a deterrent to whatever violence is impending, I don't know about you, but I think it would be unsettling to me to point a gun at another human being, no matter what is happening.

I don't own a gun, I did, years ago, but got hard up for money and sold the damn thing, it was my fathers, he kept it by his bed.....for emergencies, I always felt it kind of ironic, I mean my dad, all 5'-5" of him confronting a thug in the night with his weapon, hell, I'm not sure it was even loaded.

My dad used to rabbit hunt, way back in the early 1950's, we owned 6 acres, and after a snow, he'd grab his rifle and track rabbits.....I don't remember him ever getting one. It's probably a good thing; my mother would never have fixed "his kill."

Yesterday in the Green Bay Press Gazette, on the front page was a picture of a 10 year old kid shooting a .22 rifle with the headline, YOUNG GUNS. A kid, as young as 10 can legally go into the woods, "with adult" supervision and hunt wild game, wow, the idea kind of "took me a-back."

In a kind of "bi-line" it was stated that it was "up to parents to decide when kids are ready." How about never, why does a kid of 10, still wet behind his ears, and in his jeans need to know how to handle a loaded gun, or worse, go tromping through the woods looking for something to shoot at.

I don't get it, and I can't figure it out, are these dads so hard up to be excepted in their child's lives that they stoop to allowing them to learn how to use a thing that can kill, put a hole right through a body and obliterate it, wow.

If I want fresh meat, I go to the meat market, less muss, no fuss, and it's safer, I don't have to use the "duck and dodge" method of walking in the woods in my effort to put meat on the dinner table. I understand the idea of hunting for fresh meat, deer, rabbit and whatever else might be legal to shoot, but a 14 year old kid in the woods alone, with a loaded gun, looking for a deer, give me a break.

Many gun advocates say that we need to "change" our gun laws, that they are to strict, and if guns are outlawed; only the outlaws will have guns. It all makes for great press, but that attitude has never did much for me, I always figured that if I was confronted with a gun toting crazy, even if I had a gun, I'd still be in the deepest kind of crap, I have never shot at anything.

So what do we do? I'm sure taking guns out of the hands of your average citizen will never happen, at least not in my lifetime. So we make the laws governing firearms as strong as possible, and we sure as hell keep guns out of some "butch hair-cut little 10 year old Marine Corp. wanna be."

There is no reason in today's world, here in the United States for a 10 year old kid to be running around the woods with adult supervision looking for little "Bambi" to shoot at. Likewise, there is no reason for a 14 year old to be completely legal hunting in the woods alone. Why any parent would put that much pressure on their kid is beyond me.

In the final analysis, no matter your opinion, one thing is certain and clear, firearms (help) to promote violence. Not all American traditions are P.G. and family oriented and need to be celebrated.



FODDER FOR THE GRIST MILL!

FODDER FOR THE GRIST MILL!

(Nan Levinson/Frazer Chronicle)

War is hell.....this statement has to be true, I've read it, actually heard people say it, and seen the term in all sorts of war movies. Every man or woman who goes off to war, returns home injured, either physically or mentally, it's just a fact of the nasty business of war.

We've been at the business of war for over 10 years in God only knows how many fronts, in how many countries and backwater piss stops. The United States no longer has a conscription military force, it's all volunteer. In the old days, every male had to register for compulsory military service when he turned 18. It meant that you had finally reached the age of majority.....with regards to sacrificing your life for the preservation of the country.

Today military pay is better, the benefits are better and the military has all sorts of enticement programs to "sign up," you have to have inducements for an all volunteer military. And then of course there is after military service advantages, schooling, follow-up medical care....."Kind of."

Ten years ago the average military age was at an all time high, around 28, but today, as the retention rate plummets, the average age of a G.I. is approaching the early 20's. It's getting harder and harder for the federal government and the Pentagon to sell the wars in the Middle East.

I started to ask why we need war in our society many years ago, back in the late 1960’s; I just couldn't grasp what the hell the deal was. Why were Americans dying in some foreign land every few days? For what purpose did their deaths serve?

It has taken years for me to understand what is going on in our world, and I yet do not fully understand. Why would men be so completely committed to a country, to ideals, to a way of life and to political beliefs?

THUNDERSTRUCK:

It was really like a "bolt of lightning" hit me, the realization was so counter to what I had been taught, to how I had been living my life. There actually were people "out there" that wanted to continue war on a perpetual basis, some of these jokers never wanted war to be over, they wanted a state of readiness at all times, no matter the cost.

I begin to read, watch and listen, and boy did I learn.....what I learned was a very disturbing and depressing reality of what my country was up. Profiteering on a massive scale, whole areas of the U.S. were under the political, economic and patriotic thumb-nail of those people who wanted war.

We were and are being fed such a load of disinformation by our political leaders that it's a wonder we function as a nation, a land of laws, and a democracy. War has become a way of life for many in the United States, from the actual soldier to a trailer maker in northern Wisconsin, to the military engine rejuvenation shop in Peru, Illinois.

These are small businesses with less than a hundred employees, but they none the less are as dependent on foreign wars as the Pentagon, Pratt & Whitney, or Boeing. Military governmental contracts fuel our economy, no matter the shape it's in.

I was in the military, luckily I did all my "combating" in the taverns of Germany, I never shot anybody, never put a knife to the throat of an "enemy," and for damn sure never tortured a captive man. I'll never forget the Army saying, when I was doing double time around my barracks, holding my weapon in front of me reciting, "This is my weapon, not a gun, a weapon’s for shooting, (my gun is for fun)."

Learning the "ways of America" has been a painstaking process for me, my father, although never in the military had much respect for the men of the military. Dad didn't even like M.A.S.H, said it defamed soldiers and the efforts of the United States during the Korean War. I personally thought the show was funny and was a metaphor about all wars, and how little good came from them.

THE CRUX OF THE PROBLEM:

The problem I have with war, war for any reason, and war "no matter the cost," is that war never really settles much of anything. We have an all volunteer armed forces, are military is highly technical, so technical that we can shoot a flea off a baboon's ass at a thousand yards, trouble is, baboons don't have weapons, don't have armies and don't make wars.

Then there's the human degradation, mentally and physically, nobody comes away from a war zone without some form of lingering malady, a nervous tick, indigestion, heartburn, or a rage within. War is a nasty business, not as nasty as 50 or 60 years ago, but still nasty.....nonetheless.

What happens when "our" soldiers come home from the war, what happens to the wives that are left here, state-side, while their husbands or wives are off fighting the good fight? Divorce rates are up, unemployment tends to be wide-spread when soldiers come home, medical help, "mental wiseness" lags way behind, and there is a general decaying of the family circle.

Feeling sorry for our troops does no good, it's really not an option, and how can my "feeling" sorry for a U.S. soldier do anything for drinking, drug use, depression or destitution. Soldiers and their loved ones have problems that I can't even begin to understand, they all need professional help.

Who pays for that help, who follows up on problem men or women, and what in hell are we, "as a society" supposed to do with our military personnel. It's obvious that, as a country we can't continue to pay for the care that they need.

Our soldiers are all volunteer and are supposed to put up with whatever comes their way, after all, they signed up on a volunteer basis. However, in the final analysis, what does it mean to a human being when he knows that he is responsible for the deaths of dozens of men, women and children. I don't know.....do you?

Fodder for the grist mill, when will we finally decide to stop our downward spiral towards oblivion and tell these war mongers "the jigs up?"

   

GAME OF THE WEAK!

GAME OF THE WEAK!

(Frazer Chronicle)

I love sports, I swear.....even "pocket pool," baseball, football, basketball and even hockey, I do not however consider tennis, soccer, rugby, bowling, or any of those dart board games in the same league as the big "4." ESPN even has poker and pool on the airwaves, presumably to fill out their air time.

Talk, talk, talk, that's what has happened to my favorite games, I don't know about you, but I don't particularly care what a pitcher has to do to get a cutter to cut, a fastball to zip, or a curve ball to break, I just appreciate the fact that a major league pitcher can do those things with a baseball.

And hitting, wow, let me tell you, "and this is coming from a career .220 hitter on the amateur level," I am amassed at how far big league hitters can hit the old "horse hide." But hips flying open or inside out swings, or hitting behind the runner, like most fans, I don't care, as long as it's "my guy" with the flying hips.

There used to be announcers and the occasional "color" commentator, the old x ball player who was hanging on to the game up in the announcer’s booth. The Dizzy Deans, and Pee Wee Reeses, those fellas from the golden era of baseball, when the announcer AND the color guys were not as important as the game on the field.

I used to listen to the Chicago Cubs, the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers growing up in Northern Michigan, I'd watch the tape delayed Detroit Red Wing hockey games on Sunday nights back in the late 1950's and early 1960's. I marveled at the games that Ty Tyson, Van Patrick and Mel Ott would weave together during Tiger radio broadcasts.

I only wanted the score and the magic that these old time announcers filled the airwaves with, I was captivated and lived and died with their antics. By now I'm sure you've guessed that I'm a big baseball fan, I love the game for its simplistic, individual, yet teamwork play. In its simplest form, baseball is all about hitting the ball and running like hell.

Players of course have always been the biggest part of the game, romantic, super human, run like a deer, throw a ball through a brick wall and hit it a mile. Lost in all the commotion and noise of the offensive part of baseball is defense. Defense and pitching has always put "W's" in the win column, there have been all kinds of baseball teams that hit the ball all over the "yard," but couldn't field a grounder with both hands.

A close second in importance to the game of baseball is the announcers.....after all; we all can't get to the ball park and the games. Ranking right up there with announcers, and their importance to the game is us, the fans. We got our name from the old owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, back in the 1880's, who called the people that came to the ball park "fantastic." The name stuck, the word was shortened to "fan," and as they say, "the rest is history."

I think most baseball fans are like me, "they want to watch the game, or listen," and actually like the silence and dead air that accompanies a pitcher looking in for a sign, or a batter adjusting his batting gloves, or his "junk," before he (really) steps into the batter’s box to face the pitcher.

Do you get tired of the ticker tape thing at the bottom of the screen during a game, letting you know other scores, which NBA players are changing teams, who is winning a tennis match and which teams will be televised tomorrow night.....well I do.

I do like the balls, strikes, outs and at what speed a pitch is traveling, but the other stuff, well they can knock that crap off anytime. I'm a Detroit Tigers fan, but living in Wisconsin doesn't give me much of a chance to watch them, so I watch the Brewers. They aren't very good this year, "the Brewers neither are the Tigers for that matter," but I really don't care, not like I used to.

Baseball is a magic game; it's a game that everybody has played, at least once in their lives.....even girls. Short, tall, fat, or skinny, fast or slow, there seems to be a place for every body type and every athletic level. Go ahead, strike up a conversation during a game, chances are you won't miss much of the action, baseball moves a bit slower; the pace is part of the magic.

Nine out of ten people talk about baseball at some time during the year, whether at the beginning, or the middle, or the end of a season, it seems everybody takes a brief time out of their lives to talk with a friend, a brother, a son, father, girlfriend or wife about baseball.

I used to be involved heavily in baseball.....always on the fringes, but I treasured whatever association I had with the game, I valued every acquaintance that I made. I always knew it was just a game and really wasn't a building block for life. The events that were the games, the practices, the road trips, and the friendships made are jewels to be kept and remembered.....always.

Used to be a time when baseball was on television once a week, baseball was the game of the week, Saturdays, with the golden voiced announcers, and the expert color men, with common sense, done home humor, where ball players used to come from.

Now players are drafted out of high school or college, they have agents, ask and are given huge no cut million dollar contracts. Players go to spring training to "iron out the kinks in their games" instead of getting into shape like it used to be.

Don't get me wrong, I think that professional baseball players today are better fundamentally than ever. Today's players understand the game; have scouting reports, video, and all sorts of advanced information that helps them perform at the top of their game.

Everything today seems to be a "photo opportunity," a staged celebration, maybe not; I just feel that it is, it just looks that way to me. My old home town, Traverse City, Michigan has an independent minor league team for the baseball fans to come out and watch. Green Bay, my current residence has a collegian summer team for ball fans to come out and support.

I come from a long ago era when almost every town, village and in some cases, cross roads had baseball teams. Sure there might be only 10 or 11 players, but if they had a good pitcher, a guy who struck out 15 or so players every game he pitched, you always won more then you lost.

There wasn't much support, either from the business community, or whatever baseball fans there were. Mostly it wasn't the business communities fault, or the baseball fans either, it was the person running the team. And it usually was just one person, and he was stretched pretty damn thin with his time, and money.

We played because we loved the game, we loved the challenge, and we loved our teammates. My Traverse City teams were usually one of the top clubs to come out of northern Michigan. We played all comers, from Leland, Michigan, to Detroit, Grand Rapids and Green Bay, Wisconsin.....and we won more than are share of those games.

I am proud to have been affiliated with the Traverse City Capitals, and each and every player on the team. I also would like to tip my cap to those Northern Michigan teams that played us during the week to keep an 80 game schedule intact. You beat us sometimes, but not very often.

I suppose what we are going to have to do, now that we are well past our ball playing days, is to mentally block out those advertisements at the bottom the screen and watch with a little more intensity the game of the week, or the Fox Sports Network week-day games that you can subscribe to at your friendly cable company.

Yes the old days are gone, there is somebody telling you what happened with every pitch, how a hitter pulled the ball, how a fielder made a play that will be on "best plays of the week" video. Injuries have always been a part of the game, but "shutting a player down for the rest of the season" sounds so antiseptic.

I remember playing at Prick Park in one the neighborhoods back in Traverse City; the ground was un-mown, and bumpy as hell. The weeds and the bumps weren't the worst part, there were sand burrs growing all over the place, to dive for a ball was like taking your life in your own hands, and to slide into any base, well let’s just say the risk could be monumental.

I miss the old days.....for more than just playing ball, playing ball back then, in the late 50's to 1998 was my passion. And on an armature scale, I did a pretty good job, for a .220 hitter.

The new fangled way of doing things are here to stay, we older guys have better get used to that fact. We may support our individual teams as Will as the amateurs , both need us, some in high places within the organizations don't realize that yet.....but they'll come around.

And when they do, there won't be any more weak ball, it be week-end ball, or week day ball, but I doubt it will be quite the same......one thing will be sure, the game will better to watch and cheer for, at least that's my hope.

In the illustrious words of the old professor Casey Stenge said to his baseballers during an early spring training period, "alright everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height." Ain't baseball a great game?



BULLETS, ANGER, LIFE!

BULLETS, ANGER, LIFE!

(The Root/Frazer Chronicle)

Picture it, a sunny afternoon, kids giggling, playing little kid’s games and little hot Tamales, lemonheads, Gummi Bears stand in front of a house in North Austin, a Chicago suburb. Shots ring out and a little 7 year old girl lies bleeding to death with a bullet wound in her back.

Out of school, not a care in the world, her only thought, "how to sell her next Gummi Bear," not a thought about any political question, and not a thought about any of the hundreds of gangs that roam the streets of Chicago.

Gang warfare, fueled by broken homes, parents that don't care, rampant drug and alcohol use, sex, and a feeling of hopelessness, and in many cases, homelessness. They are seeking a mast-head of stability in their lives, a brotherhood or sisterhood. They need to belong, and need someone caring.

Many of these gangs, "most in fact," are populated by kids and young people of color, many of us do not understand the gang member’s mentality and their drive to become "made" members of such a violent society. I don't understand, but then again, I'm white, 68 years old, had pretty much a loving family, a safety net to fall back on.

I can't imagine walking down the street with a knife, or a hand gun, mostly for self protection, but also to attack rivals intruders on a moment’s notice. The value of life in these neighborhoods is low, so low that I can't relate, I have absolutely no idea of the value of life by these "gang bangers." I'm a racist, I make no bones about it, but to shoot a beautiful little 7 year old girl is just.....well.....I don't know, unbelievable to me.

I think everybody is a racist to some degree; we all worry about the brown or black guy if we happen to be walking down the street late at night. Hell, even the brown or black man worry about that, my point is that we all have hang-ups with race, it's sad but true.

The Chicago area has "per-capita," the highest rate of gang related deaths in the United States, and it's getting worse, up 38% from last year. So far this year, 2012, there have been over 260 homicides, and cops say that up to 80% of these killings are drug and gang related, that's well over a hundred fifty child deaths.

To help combat the problem, Chicago police Superintendent Gary McCarthy wants to maintain a force of 12,500 cops, including 9,600 officers. I guess the idea is a decent 1^st step, but force vs. force, to me.....it's the best solution. Let’s see, "trigger happen kids," against "trigger happy cops,” I wonder who wins here.....Smith & Wesson.

The street violence has city officials alarmed, and willing to pour tax dollars down a hole to help any way possible the situation on many of Chicago's streets. Plans are in the works to hire 450 to 500 officers this year to maintain the Chicago "cop shop." Everybody in the world knows that Chicago and Illinois is broke, so how in hell are these additional cops going to be paid, and more important, "from which fund?"

Estimates put 600 organized gangs in Chicago, with as many as 150,000 active members, those numbers are a bunch of unorganized kids running around the streets of Chicago, and it’s more like a semi-military army, with colors, slogans and weapons.

These gangs look at everyday life like it is a war, and to a degree, it probably is, maybe much of the United States is just like Afghanistan, or Iraq, except maybe for the I.U.D.'s along the roadways. Maybe we are so busy trying to solve the world’s problems.....for our best interests, that we have forgotten things that are happening right here on the home front.

The murder of Heaven Banks on the streets of Chicago is a tragedy, actually a national tragedy, and an incident that needs to be addressed now. Possibly not with more police officers, and more guys and bullets, but rather with the thought in mind of "understanding" exactly what went wrong with these young people?

What went wrong, and then fix whatever problem exists, not for the black or the brown, but for all society. It is way past the time when we need to nurture our potential, to put it in a morgue, death and “warring” never solved anything.

Chicago killings of their young has been going on at an alarming rate for way to many years, there is a problem there, most of us know what the problem is, we just need to address it.....and fix it, for the better of our fellow citizens.



HEAT WAVES ARE HERE AGAIN!

HEAT WAVES ARE HERE AGAIN!

(USA Today/Frazer Chronicle)

Man it's hot out there, and in there as well, I mean it's been hard to find a cool spot this spring and early summer. Up here in little old Green Bay, Wisconsin, we didn't even have a winter, no more walking to school in snow hip deep, not much snowmobiling or skiing weather, and the outdoor ice sports had a really short season.

It's been hot, the warmest for the first quarter of the year since those kinds of weather records have been kept. Should we be worried? Well sure, unless you completely do not believe in the global warming, people. Crops are being affected; staged festivals and celebrations are being curtailed or canceled altogether, which effects local economies all over the country.

Some say it's just a weather cycle, other say it's a message of things to come while others are packing their bags for the coming of the end of the world. Whichever you believe, one thing is clear, "It's hot out there."

In this day and age of almost "up to the second" news, sports and weather, I find it almost humorous to be having a conversation about what is going on with our environment and weather. Some of us out there talk about how humans have effected both the environment and the weather, me, well I lump both the environment and weather together.

I'm not one of those "tree huggers," I figure natural resources were created for a reason, one of which is for humans to use them. But I also understand that if we use our natural resources at an every expanding fashion, we need to be prepared, "as a people" to pay the consequences.

Hot dry weather might just be one of the results of using the planets resources, although I don't really care about the future generations, "they can deal with problems the same as I have," I do realize that if we don't conserve (somewhat) everybody we be in trouble "during my lifetime."

THE RUSH LIMBAUGH EFFECT:

Most everybody has heard of Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio conservative.....he's an expert on everything, if you don't believe me just check out his radio show; he'll tell you as much. Limbaugh, and people who share his thinking, figure global warming is some kind of liberal conspiracy. I have never quite figured out what these liberals will gain from winning the debate, and Limbaugh really doesn't have an answer either.

The Limbaugh camp figures that the weather is just going through one of its cycles which happens ever several hundred, or thousand, or million years. And that opinion is fine, in fact I think the idea has merit, it actually makes sense to me.

But Rush "baby" what if you’re wrong, what if the environment is just beginning to "kick up her heels" with the heat wave. What if ice melts and there is little or no snow or rain, how will we survive as a people, how can we make it without moisture, at least to the levels that we enjoy today.

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place, without the seasons, without a certain amount of snow, and rain, and cooler and warmer weather, as a people, we would be devastated. The food chain would be broken in a very short time, and I don't know about you, but eating is one of my favorite pastimes.

There is very little advantage that a liberal could derive from pushing a global warming agenda, sometimes I can't figure out some of these "flaming conservatives," if we keep using our natural resources, pretty quick we will run out, if we don't watch how hot we make temperatures to bake things, or how much junk we dump into the atmosphere, we'll make things hotter.....it's common sense.

WHAT CAN WE DO:

What can we do as a nation to survive.....well actually not much, like the man said, "the die is cast," we might be able to slow the process down, but way to many people want to take advantage of all the new innovative ways of making money. And there are too many people like me, not caring about future generations, and what they will be left with.

We want agencies to protect us from.....us, and that's just not possible, we've made this mess, we now have to suffer the results. There is going to be a whole bunch of misery before things will get any better.

Here in the Green Bay area, "emergency cooling treatment areas" will be opened during the height of the heat wave, sadly most will be closed today, July 4^th, but all will be up and running tomorrow. If somebody would have mentioned an "emergency cooling treatment area" 20 or 30 years ago, people would have figured you had been reading a science fiction book.

Hospitals, meeting halls, some office buildings and shopping malls are designated as official "cooling centers." I can't believe my eyes, and my ears, I never thought, in my wildest dreams that I would witness a "cooling center."

Back-up plans, it's what we need, but I'm not sure what plan a person could use to combat bad weather, or no rain, it kinda "boggles" my feeble little mind. I guess self reliance would be a start and a tougher exterior as well as a stronger interior.

But really, until we change our thinking as a nation, and as a world, heat waves are here to stay, and we'll just have to deal with them as best we can. No matter the temperature, I really don't like air conditioning, so except for my wife, I'm fine.