Dear Mr. President

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Dear Mr. President.

For you, yours and all the rest of Humanity, I am not wishing but insisting, that we have a wonderful and happy 2014. It's time! I think we have earned it. Enough with the irrational. Time for a little Pure Reason, wouldn't you think?

It is along this line of Reason that I write you today. As Bucky Fuller could clearly see, it is pretty much Humanity's destiny to eventually live off of the dense physical plane of the Planet. So, a tiny step in that direction, the eventual appearance of "Drones" in the skies, was unavoidable.

You are perhaps a bit tired of hearing about Drones. Heaven knows that the Congress is full of such beings who do not work but do a lot of buzzing around and are able to fertilize various irrational pieces of legislation. And of course there those which fly around from time to time blowing up some bad people and the unfortunate individuals who happen to be hanging around. Typical example, by the way, of how irrationality seems to guide our ingenuity and imaginations to come up with stuff to first kill people and only then to make applications that will actually help.

Refreshingly, I read in this morning's New York times  a lengthy article on drones that says the Federal Aviation Administration is authorizing test sites for the commercial applications of drones. A big Hallelujah is appropriate for this decision which is tending toward a rational use of resources to benefit the Common Good, something seldom present in the present actions of Capitalism.

However, I saw nothing in the article that speaks to the People's interest in the creation and use of these machines. Their use will do away with a multitude of tasks that people presently do, thus eliminating the contributions, what we call taxes, that each employed person makes to the Common Good, contributions that support the health and welfare of the People. They will be using the People's energy and air space to do their tasks. They will require the creation of whole State and Federal departments to license and regulate their comings and goings, and what they can and cannot carry, or deliver, or do, plus a whole bunch of other stuff that we can only guess at just now.

Exclusivity has always been irrational. It does not exist except in an illusion. We really, if we are going to be rational about this, we really need to start figuring out how we are going to include these human created machines in the complex of our interrelated existence. As I mentioned in an earlier note to you, We need to figure out how they will make a contribution to the Common Good in which they operate.

2014 is going to be a very interesting year. I feel a growing awareness in the people regarding the irrationality of "business as usual."  Big changes are coming. Expect a great year, hard, but great!

lots of love

-tom

Dear Mr. President

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

As I watched and read your eulogy of Nelson Mandela, I strange feeling came over me. I realized that I was crying and that I was feeling proud to be an American, proud that my President was standing there in that stadium saying the things that you were saying about Nelson Mandela and by extension Humanity because Nelson Mandela, like those before him whom you named, was first and foremost simply a man, a human being. He was a living example of what it means to be a  human being, of what anyone of us can be regardless of our place on the planet.

It was so refreshing to hear you extend the principles upon which our country was founded, and is still based, to all of humanity, to the One Humanity. By doing this you aligned and identified us with all people in the world who strive for what we have, freedom, liberty, justice, and the opportunity, as you put it, to work hard and to achieve a decent living for one's family.

This speech signaled to the world a major shift in the direction of our vision. We know that it was not the first time that you have so signaled, or that such a speech has been made by one of our previous Presidents or great leaders. However, as we have seen, over the past 55 years in particular, such signals have to be given over and over for there are still many who consciously resist, and many others who are simply heart blind and deaf to the expansion of the concept of Democracy and the appreciation of our indivisibility both from each other and the Planet.

I think that through making this speech, you helped release the energy that was Nelson Mandela, the energy that made of him a messenger, a forerunner, a way shower, and hero into the hearts and minds of many, many of our sisters and brothers. Watch for the results.

I thank you for that.

lots of love

-tom   

Dear Mr. President

Thursday, December 05, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

Thank you for your talk of December 4. It was wonderful.  I hope to see/hear many more such talks over the next months.

The 2014 election cycle is presenting us with an enormous opportunity to bring balance back into our systems. Balance means that the system is supporting the Common Good and the General Welfare as opposed to the insane kind of distribution we have at present.

At the breakfast table the other morning, Mary and I who have a relatively secure middle class retirement income because we worked for Los Angeles County whose retirement system is sound, and because we have decent Social Security incomes as well as Medicare, were talking about the impact of robotics on employment and how it is and will continue to be putting people out of work. There are lots of good sides to this, such as freeing individuals from tedious and repetitive labor, and not so good sides, such as how are these people going to make a living?

The employment issue can be largely solved by adding many millions of teachers and support staff to the educational systems, many millions of doctors and support staff to the health systems, and many other human relation roles that machines cannot do. Humans caring about and for each other seems kind of natural, doesn't it?

The loss of jobs to robotics, however, does affect  FICA and income to the Government from tax on wages. There is no reason corporations who "own" these huge manufacturing and distribution systems should benefit from not having to pay humans wages and support the Common Good which consumes their products.

An Idea surfaced: Each robotic device that replaces a human worker should be taxed at some level and made to contribute to the FICA system. The "owners" do not have to pay actual wages, but are still responsible for income tax and FICA for each worker replaced by a robotic device. Why Not?

lots of love

-tom

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Dear Mr. President

This is a Thanks Giving message.

Thanks to you and your Administration for "hanging in there." First, thanks for running for President, and then running for reelection. Thanks for devoting these last five years and the coming three years of yours and your family's life to working for the enduring presence of our  Nation as a symbol and model of freedom and liberty for all.

Nobody said it would be easy, and, as you know, probably better than anyone, it has been at times excruciatingly difficult. There are a lot of individual things that I could name for which I thank you and your Administration, and for which I think that most of our brothers and sisters thank you. However, just let me say that I loved your comments last Monday regarding shifting our efforts from bombs to diplomacy in order to bring rationality and sanity into the International conversation regarding how we all need to live together on this rather tiny planet.

“Tough talk and bluster may be the easy thing to do politically, but it’s not the right thing for our security." To me your "signal" re the Shift from might to Right was the light at the end of the tunnel of ego insanity through which humanity has been plodding for centuries. It is, as you undoubtedly realize, the only way out. Thanks to the tunnel vision of fear and greed which has been driving us over the last 100 years, we can currently, and rather easily, destroy the whole planet.

With this shift I am hopeful that we can as well, rather rapidly now, shift a significant amount of our resources, that is our tax dollars, from might to Right. I have in mind our Infrastructure by which I mean a lot more than our roads and bridges. These are, as we can easily see in videos of collapsing bridges and broken highways, in terrible condition, and putting resources into their reconstruction would greatly improve the circulation of energy; i.e., money through our national body. All good!

Not so easily seen is the 30 or 40 year decay of the basic infrastructure of our Democracy, our educational systems. All of them are in pretty bad shape, but primarily the elementary systems are near collapse. These infrastructure failures are not so easily seen, but very evident in many ways that cannot compete for attention with collapsing bridges, and many, many times more destructive.

This is a problem that can only be fixed by throwing resources, our tax dollars at it. Those dollars would employ vastly more people, thus circulate vastly more energy, money, than working on the dense physical infrastructure. The reconstruction of our dense physical infrastructure is very important. I am sure we can do both simultaneously. This would solve many problems re. unemployment and so forth.

I know that you and your administration know vastly more about this than I do. So, for me it's a matter of priorities. Health care for everyone was/is a huge priority. Educating the electorate is the most significant thing we can do to further the Dream. Healthy, uneducated people are great for totalitarian systems. Democracy only works if the electorate can think.  I am urging that you make the reconstruction of our educational systems priority One

Lots of love

-tom

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

I will be brief:

I just finished reading your "hand written" letter. Wonderful! This letter carries the energy that the people of our country need to feel and hear coming out of Washington, and especially from you and your spokespersons.

I heard Senator Warren talking with Rachael Maddow about Social Security. She carries and delivers the same energy. This energy is lighted. It carries compassion, caring, concern, respect and appreciation for our country and our people, all of our people. It speaks from the heart to other hearts.

Please, do a lot more of this. We all need it, including our Republican brothers and sisters who seem to sometimes forget about our roots. The way into a dark place is to lead with the light of the heart.

lots of love

-tom

Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing because I am concerned about the overwhelming emphasis that your education policy is placing on vocating rather than educating our young.

I understand the need to vocate or train individuals in the new kinds of skills that our increasingly technologically driven society demands. And I support all of the efforts in that regard. What concerns me is that this effort is being made at the expense of the educational side of the equation.

By "education" I mean being deeply exposed to the great ethical, and moral Principles which underlie our Civilizations and Cultures. These Principles such as goodwill, honesty, courage, love, and compassion are responsible for the relative success of any of our past civilizations. Their presence in our DNA is responsible for the enduring efforts of Humanity to build evermore just and inclusive systems of government that foster liberty, freedom, happiness for everyone.

Democracy is not possible without an educated people. Fascism, totalitarianism is not possible with an educated people.

Those not interested in the democratic principles have always resisted any effort to educate the general population. Their assault on our educational system has been non-stop. One of the more insidious aspects of this assault is the notion that some of our people are too stupid to learn anything other than some vocational skill, so why waste their time on history, literature, art music, or learning how to write. This notion is only a bit less ignorant than the attitude that very smart people who can operate in the technological world do not need to waste their time on such fluff.

Any educational program needs to be anchored in the Humanities. The reason for this is that these fields carry the Wisdom of what Humanity has managed to learn through our enormous struggle over many centuries. They are the archives of all that makes humanity human. To fail to equip our children with these treasures is a crime.

You spent two years at Oxy, and I know you know how important that experience was to who you are now. My view is that if we could have a nation of individuals who had the education that you had, this would be a very much different and a very much better, more inclusive, loving compassionate, intelligent, heart driven nation and model for our brothers and sisters in the rest of our world.

Can you do something about this?

lots of love

-tom 

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

Just a brief note:

I have been monitoring the problems with the roll out of the Affordable Healthcare Program. I was not surprised  that there were a lot of glitches and soft and hardware issues. As long time employees of the Los Angeles County DPSS my wife and I experienced the launch, crash, and resurrection of many of most everyone of our computer programs.

The complexity of the Affordable Healthcare program is many times greater than any of our programs for Food Stamps AFDC, Medi-Cal. I think that the issues facing us in the Affordable Care program are in reality par for the course.

That they are being blown up into a giant issue is also par for the course, typical of the retrogressors processes.

I do have a suggestion on how to fix this thing.

You simply transfer a 100,000 or so of those, probably highly paid, programmers and software program wizards from NSA to work on this problem. Probably take them about week to have it humming.

Probably do a lot more for our National Security too.

lots of love

-tom

Good Comes From Good!

Thursday, October 03, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

No doubt, it is your life experience of unquenchable striving and the will to move forward in the face of huge obstacles and power blocks that is is demonstrating in this most recent and perhaps greatest test. I can only say that I, and in that I, I am a "we" because I am part of that humanity that has a heart,  we are all ennobled and made aware of the strength of the human heart, the heart that thinks not of itself but of the common good of all humanity.

You can rest assured that WE  have your back, perhaps not in the billions of dollars sense, but in the much more powerful sense of the will to good and the determination to secure liberty and freedom and, yes, even health care for all of our people.

I was so moved by your closing remark to the UN General Assembly. When we, as a nation speaking through our President, extended the Vision, the Principles and  Guarantees of our Constitution to all of Humanity and the planet as inalienable rights, It was, I think, a defining moment in the growth of this Nation.

These closing remarks opened a huge door and turned on a bright light in the world's mind. The United States of America wants for all peoples of all nations what we have for ourselves.

"I know what side of history I want to the United States of America to be on.  We're ready to meet tomorrow’s challenges with you -- firm in the belief that all men and women are in fact created equal, each individual possessed with a dignity and inalienable rights that cannot be denied.  That is why we look to the future not with fear, but with hope.  And that’s why we remain convinced that this community of nations can deliver a more peaceful, prosperous and just world to the next generation."

Thank you for having the courage to be who you are.

lots of love

-tom

Insanity Makes Another Appearance

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

Well, the level of insanity and ignorance that we are facing has just made a decision that indicates how much deeper it has become. As you know, our benighted brothers have just cut 4 billion dollars out of the Food Stamp Program. Their delusion is that they think of Food Stamps as a huge give away that weakens peoples resolve to work.

I am sure that you have an abundance of experience with the acts of the Stonehearted, so I won't go into the cruelty and suffering that this particular act of the insane would visit on its helpless and innocent victims. Just in terms of the damage it would do to very young children, it would  make mass shootings look like a holiday.

However, I do think it is important for us to understand that this is not cutting 40 billion from the Food Stamp Program. This action would be cutting 40 Billion from the economy. The money that goes into the Food Stamp Program goes practically directly back into the economy. It is spent mostly in grocery stores for food.

Is this fact really that hard to see? It is  not very hard for me to understand that a bloodstream has to circulate blood to be useful. Bloodstreams that develop clots cause massive, usually fatal, heart attacks. Is it really that difficult for us to understand that our economy is our bloodstream?

The real danger to our economy, ergo our citizens, is not the Food Stamp Program. The real culprit is the Trillions of dollars being sucked out of our economy and stashed in the already bloated bank accounts of the wealthy few. This greedy delusion causes the generation of clots that interferes with, and in many cases brings to a dead stop, the free circulation of energy, i.e. money, through our system. This is the generator of the the massive heart attacks we call the loss  of homes, the unemployment of millions and on and on.

The true culprits constitute a  very small group of our population. They, generated--I sometimes think, deliberately--the recent economic collapse, and, according to all reports, are the  only ones who are really recovering. These individuals, by the way, spend more money on a bottle of wine for a lunch than the average Food Stamp recipient receives for a month of food and THINK NOTHING OF IT.

Apologies for the outburst there.

The Food Stamp roles have increased dramatically over the past 4 or 5 years. Guess why. It is not because millions of individuals, who now qualify for food stamps, quit their middle class providing jobs and say "Screw you. I would rather have food stamps because, if the truth be told I am basically lazy and would rather lay back, enjoy my unemployment and get Food Stamps than work."

No. they encountered a gigantic clot, call it by its real name, GREED, in the bloodstream!

I feel pretty confident that sanity, in this case those remaining in the Congress, will stop this, "irrational"  (Irrational is a nice word; however, if anything proposed by these brothers in the last few years is just plain stupid, this is it.), event from occurring.

Understanding and appreciating the forces with which you, on the behalf of the United States of America, indeed, the Planet, have to contend, I, we send you our love and determination to create Change that Matters.

-tom

Dear Mr. President

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

All things considered, I think we handled this Syrian opportunity quite well. When I say "we" I mean all of us. You were not alone in this. Decisions seem to be made by Presidents, Prime Ministers, government figureheads, whomever they may be, but they are most frequently group affairs, the results of the will or the absence of the will of the people.

Billions of billions of dollars are spent by certain sectors of our population to obfuscate, confuse, warp and twist reality, to hide the actual causes of events, and manipulate the will of the people into believing and supporting the lies and distortions behind destructive and retrogressive actions of all sorts, from bombing something to make a point, to polluting the environment for profit. Frequently, they are successful as they were in the initiating of the Iraq fiasco.

   

You, on the other hand, with considerably less money to spend, have been rallying the will of the American electorate for years now to hope, to believe, and to will change that matters, that people matter, that everyone deserves an opportunity to be respected as a person, to be able lead a life with dignity and value.

Guess what! You have succeeded to a degree that is astonishing. The change in the direction of this action, was "change that mattered"

The people were behind you on this. It was our will, evoked by your clarion call for support, that these "strikes" not happen. I think that it is obvious now that  you do have the will of the people who care about the integrity of the U.S. Constitution that recognizes that all are created equal and all deserve to be treated equally, that is with compassion, and loving understanding, for without these there will be no Justice.

This is a point, by the way, that seems to escape the minds of a number of your relatively close advisers.

However, we, many of us, understand the razor edge Path. We realize what it takes to walk that Path. We have great appreciation for the model your represent, and you have our unwavering support.

One tiny suggestion. When next you sign off at the end of a talk or speech, you might consider saying something like this : "God bless you and all of the people of the world. God Bless the United States of America, and God Bless this beautiful Planet our mutual home, Earth."

lots of love

-tom

Thursday, September 05, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

Lets recall your often stated observation that you are the President of all of the people.  Almost 130,000,000 million people voted in the last election. 70,000,000 of those were Democratic votes. It is very clear from every source we have that the vast, vast majority of those 130,000,000 people, to say nothing of the other millions who did not vote, are not in alignment with this war resolution regarding Syria.

This situation is, of course, way broader than the United States. Whatever we do will involve Humanity regardless of national borders. Do you think that we have the right to involve 7 billion other human beings in a war without their inputs? All of the data we have from the other nations of People indicates that they are very, very opposed to doing this war thing.

This is an opportunity for you to be our President and follow the wisdom of the People rather than the "intelligence" community, a community, known for its frequent withholding of truth and its outright lying, a community  that has no credibility with the People.

There is another way to deal with this situation which is not a United States problem, but a world problem. The best way would be become united with the United Nations. These kinds of situations are examples of exactly why the People of the world, in their Wisdom, established the UN. If Bashar al-Assad is responsible for the poison attack, we need to deal with him and those closest to him. We need to start discriminating between the occasional mad man who gets in control of a country and the people, most  of whom haven't got a clue about what is going on.

lots of love

-tom

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

Regarding your position on the Syria attack issue:  "the international community and Congress's credibility are on the line if a chemical attack on civilians in Syria goes unanswered. Obama is seeking congressional and international support for military action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad."

Agreed.

However, our credibility as a rational peace loving nation will once again be highly questionable, even more so than it was after the Iraq boondoggle, if we respond with the murder of a bunch of innocent brothers and sisters, including children-- those whom the military tries to justify as "collateral damage."

We, the People, really do not have the data that you claim to have that proves "beyond the shadow of a doubt" that the Syrian President actually ordered this attack. If such data exists then we can try President Assad in the World Court and deal with him that way.

Surly this situation will not go away in a few weeks. Surly the image of our Nation would be better projected if we are seen as a People who follow International Law and do not rush to judgment simply to make a point about our macho image.

We are a better people than that.

lots of love

-tom

Dear Mr. President

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Dear Mr. President.

I watched your Labor Day message. Great! And, as you pointed out, nobody said regenerating, not just the middle class, but the whole notion of equality and our almost disappeared Democracy, will be easy. I think that you more than anyone of us realizes what an understatement that is.

But then, when, on the long, long trail over which Humanity has moved from being the property of the few to individual freedom and dignity, when has it ever been easy? We, as a people, do not expect easy. That innate drive into the future of freedom and liberty that has brought us this far has even made us suspicious of easy. If it is easy, we have learned, there is probably some game going on.

We have encountered some rather significant setbacks over the past 30 or 40 years. However, we also have learned that,  as we always have, we will continue to strive and to bring the inalienable right of individual freedom and the opportunities to live a dignified and meaningful life in spite of one's so called  "class" or station into manifestation.

Your vision of Democracy being an Idea which grows from the center or the middle out is profound. This is the way all Ideas manifest.  From their inception in the ethers of the imagination, Ideas or "images of Truth" move into matter and manifestation through the hearts of those who strive to bring them into the world of daily living.

From its very beginning, Democracy, like any Idea conceived in the Light, has encountered the opposition of  the "Status Quo." These new Ideas, which are based in the observable organic wholeness and inclusivity of Life, expand freedom and liberty. And, as they always have, these new ideas bring change and reconstruction.

The forces of opposition seek ever to modify and limit the basic truth of the new. They foster systems of exclusivity and privilege which generate  the sad conditions of inequality which exist in our contemporary societies. These modifications are envisioned in darkness and illusion. They are based in competition and separation.

Rather than generating an inclusive and expanding circle of freedom and liberty they establish boundaries which exclude individuals from Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, or to be specific, education, housing, health care, meaningful work with living wages, dignity. Ironically, the primary objective of these program modifications is abortion. They aim to abort the birthing of the Idea of Freedom and Liberty for All, a labor, which  on the shores of this continent has been ongoing for three hundred plus years.

We know from deep experience that opposition to Humanity's destiny always calls out the best that is in Humanity. We had, for example  in the thirties and forties of the last century the brothers Roosevelt, Truman. Then in the fifties and sixties we had Eisenhower (who actually foretold the coming danger in his remarks regarding the military industrial complex), the Kennedy brothers and King. After that, the opposition began to grow, and we were pushed back or lost ground.

This opposition is at the present moment, as you probably know better than anyone, more fierce than it has ever been. I think that this is so because the stakes are so high. We are so close to removing from this planet all such opposition through the expansion of that circle of inclusive freedom and liberty for All. This is actually phase three of the World War.

Now we have you and a handful of other heart centered leaders. We also have legions of other hearts. We will, of course, triumph, "but only by our own hand, only by our own hearts, only by our own work, only by our own striving."

I also read your commentaries and plans to improve education. I wondered about the discussions behind your use of the phrase, "to make education more affordable". Given the levels of opposition I can understand that these steps are all that can probably be made at this juncture.

However, I think that it might be helpful to the greater struggle if, while making the baby steps, you were more forthright about the facts concerning education. The education of our children, indeed, of our selves, lies at the very core of an expanding, inclusive freedom and liberty. It is the understanding of the true cooperative, inclusive nature of reality that makes us ever more free. Making education totally available for everyone, and not just from "kindergarten to high school" but from birth to death, is not only an essential aspect of Liberty it is an imperative, especially  if we expect to triumph over the ignorance that drives the opposition.

Nothing, of course, is free. There never was "free" education. We, the people have paid for making a good education available for all of our children practically form the beginning of this Nation. We. the people have, in fact, paid for everything that is national in this nation including not only our public educational systems but all aspects of our infrastructure and our armies, navies and air forces. We paid gladly with the sweat of our labor and the love of our freedom.

Perhaps the exclusive few see education as a business. But education is not a business. It is not a commodity that one can, or more likely cannot, "afford." Present oppositional forces block the use of our tax money to pay the cost for decent public schools. These same forces then complain that the schools are not performing and open separative, private, and for profit schools. Other than a few charity scholarships for the some "deserving" poor kids, these private schools mainly serve the few who can "afford." The opposition then establish bank programs to  "loan" our children money at a "fair" interest rate so that they can pay to go to the schools of higher education. Thus they create a whole new group of "indentured servants."

The degeneration of our formerly envy of the world educational systems from public paid for and supported schools to huge separative profit machines is about the best example of just how much "ground we have lost" in this current phase of the ages long struggle. We need to regenerate these systems into wombs of democracy, and as we do, let us not justify or dignify the act of theft that caused this sorry state of affairs by saying that we need to make education "more affordable."

lots of love

-tom

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

Forget for a minute that she is a woman. Measure her not by her sex but "by the content of her character." That measurement alone qualifies her for the position of Federal Reserve leader.

In addition there are those other less significant, but also important, attributes concerning her savvy re the investment/finance/economy game. Her skills in this arena are well documented in her years of survival and service. However, realizing that this whole area is a game based in a pseudo science called economics (in which she is also well versed) and rather disconnected from anything in the real world, Janet L. Yellen's character becomes even more important.

She will act for the Common Good simply because she is able to see the real world. She sees through the lens of her character.

This is not to say that others on the "short list" are bad people. For the most part, their actions, and records indicate that they are simply blind. They are not able to see beyond the dead ends of competition and the illusions of separation that divide humanity form one another and even from the planet.

This person, Janet L. Yellen, will make a vastly superior Federal Reserve Chair Person because she was apparently raised to see and understand the real world of unity and cooperation.

lots of love

-tom

Thursday, August 08, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

I really think it would be wise for all concerned: We the People, the banking system, the Democratic Party, the next president of the U.S. all of those who are and who will be running for the 2014 Congress and Senate slots in the Democratic and Independent parties, and of course, you, if you would support  Federal Reserve vice-chair Janet Yellen to replace  Ben Bernanke as Chairperson of the Federal Reserve.

I do not have millions of dollars to donate to anything; however, I am happy to  make my common sense available for your consideration. I could list 15 or 20 reasons for why supporting Janet Yellen would be good for the above named groups and yourself. And, good politics to boot.

Your political advisers who are frequently confused by bubble vision, are probably aware of some of them. However, I, who am virtually nobody, am aware of all of them, and if someone as non-existing in the "group of politically savvy people" as I am, know them, you can bet that I have lots and lots of company.

I will just mention two of the longish list. These two alone should be enlightening enough for you to see the sanity of the suggestion:

1. In the myriad eyes of those not confused by bubble vision, Larry Summers is seen as being a petty--although the sums in question are huge--crook. Stealing at any level is pretty demeaning of one's humanity.

2. Senator Elizabeth Warren thinks that Janet Yellen would be terrific in the role. There are many sound policy type arguments for this. I am certain that, as you probably already know, Senator Warren would be happy to help you out  on this. This Senator has demonstrated common sense on any number of occasions. Her vision is probably pretty clear on this issue.

You have, Mr. President, you have the myriad eyes and hearts of the people behind you. Nothing, really, can stop the engine of the people's will from being implemented.

You can do this!

lots of love

-tom     

Dear Mr. President

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

I am very concerned about the direction in which your Administration seems to be taking our educational systems.

I appreciate the concern for preparing our children for employment in a technology driven world, and thus the focus on building up the math, science and computer related aspects of the curriculum. However, I wonder if any of your advisors have connected the dots between the dysfunctional and destructive aspects of our governmental, political, and financial systems and the assault that was launched on the concept of liberalism and the idea of liberal arts in an educational curriculum.

This assault probably began earlier, but I first noticed it with the attacks on Adlai Stevenson. The assault really gained momentum with the first term of President Reagan and eventually made the concept of liberal and government into  dirty words. It has gone on to all but destroy the liberal arts curriculum in many, many of our primary and secondary schools.

Yes. We do need to focus the vocational aspects of our educational systems more on the fact that technology, in all of its many aspects, has replaced many, many of the "jobs" that needed doing in our society. This trend will undoubtedly continue to replace many more areas of employment that were the core of the industrial revolution. There are, however, other issues that need addressing which are core to our society: How are equality, freedom, liberty, and justice for all going to fare under this technological paradigm? These issues can only be addressed by individuals who have some inkling of what they mean.

The toll that the assault on a liberal education has already taken is causal to the dysfunctional and destructive aspects of our present situation. We need educated citizens at least as desperately as we need well-trained citizens. However, under the relentless assault on the ideals which make up the purpose and goals of a liberal education, what has happened over the years is that the notion of the purpose of education has shifted.

The purpose of education has shifted from the study of what makes a human being human—what it takes to make a government of the people for the people and by the people. The goals of education have shifted from teaching children or drawing forth from the children the understanding of their own wonderful, unique, innate value and goodness, their shared equality with the rest of humanity, and equipping them with the knowledge, wisdom and will to strive, to climb the ladder of compassion and brotherhood with all people, to bring forth that human being that exists in everyone.

The purpose of education now is not to teach or draw forth but to indoctrinate children with values of competition and exclusivity. We teach the skills and provide information necessary to climb the ladder of income, of exclusive personal power and prestige. The ladder of character is mentioned, if at all, as a quaint pass time, an elective if available. Our public schools need to be seen as the first line of our progress as a people, enabling individuals to be able to do what they discover they want to do not training factories for workers.

While some form of a liberal arts curriculum still exists in most secondary schools, the focus has changed from teaching us to be human beings to training us to be employable beings whose goal is to be able to climb the ladder of income, rather than to be a participating thinking member of the people, the true Common Wealth.

Rather than preparing our children to be inclusive of others, to be conscious of the interdependence of the world, to be thinking and self-reliant, the schools are rapidly becoming centers where human beings are viewed as raw material for Employers or Owners to meet their production, manufacturing, data processing or whatever, needs. These employers, small and large, are really not interested in having employees who think, who know who they are, who have opinions about the equality of the relationship between the Owners and the workers. They really want robots, and the educational system that your administration is proposing is tending very strongly in that direction.

These same employers are generally aligned against programs which serve the common good and general welfare, specifically educational  programs like head start or "pre-school" programs. These programs foster an enlightened people and work from the center of a democratic people out and actually include everyone. The recent "adjustments" to the student loan program are a glaring example of the retrogressive direction in which our educational systems have become steadily more exclusive and turned from schools for the benefit of the people to businesses which profit and serve the few.

It is true that the sectors of our society that concern the common good and general welfare— the environment, transportation, communication—can provide many "jobs" in the immediate future; however, most of these jobs will eventually be done by machines. The education and health care sectors right now would provide many millions of wonderful human jobs, jobs that machines, no matter how sophisticated, will never be able to do.

We need millions of teachers to teach millions of ourselves to do this work. These are service functions. This labor carries rewards to the individuals who are engaged in it, far beyond the ladder of income. It benefits others, is totally self-sustaining, does not damage the environment, and generates understanding and appreciation of our planet and each other. We are allocating Public money. Surly wisdom indicates that we make this sector the priority receiver of our common wealth.

Lots of love

-Tom

Dear Mr. President

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

Watched your presentation to the press the other day. It was a powerful and moving message. The low key straight forward truth of it carried compassion and understanding. It was the kind of message to which people can relate. It probably did not go over that well with the politicians and gamesters, and from the responses I saw and heard, many of them did  not even register what  you were saying but rather heard a political attempt to make points.

The usual kind of talks that I hear coming from you and your White House co-workers do not speak to the people. They seem "crafted" for other politicians, lobbyists, press operatives, billionaire funders, and random apparatchiks. The speeches/talks resemble data processing roll outs of the unending 5 or 15 point plans that accountants and bankers like to see for fixing or doing stuff that nobody who is not in that group even knows about.

The people, if by some accident they were even listening to begin with, tune out of those presentations in seconds.

These kinds of presentations carry a frequency that is deadly to the people. The numbers and details of policy say nothing to them. They cannot relate to this stuff which, basically, is heartless, and being heartless, it has no attractive power. It speaks to those who are clawing their way up the ladder of income or success and are very minimally concerned with the Common Good, if at all. These folks listen to see if they are going to benefit or not.

I think that it is actually amazing that 57% of the eligible voters bothered to vote in the last election. It says a lot about the effort that was made to get out the vote. The numbers of people voting for "change that matters" in the general election were encouraging, and the ongoing effort is also encouraging.

But, the 57% figure begs the question. Where were the 91,000,000 people who did not "bother" to vote? There lots of nuances to the answer to that question, but one obvious fact is that we are not reaching them.

Your talk to the Press regarding the Trayvon Martin tragedy carried the kind of energy that will, that does speak to people regardless of where they are on the ladder of income. It addressed the people at the level of their heart. You were speaking to the content of their character rather than the content of their wallets.

It, of course, takes character to understand the content of another's character. It is not by policy presentations, but by speaking from the heart to the hearts of the people, those 91,000,000 especially, that you and all those from the White House that speak for you can ignite the little flames of character that are slowly growing cold in those 91,000,000 chests.

I am hoping that you and you co-workers will make many more opportunities to speak directly to us, the people, about the things that matter, like character, compassion, and appreciation for the beautiful diversity that is the United States of America.

lots of love

-tom

Dear Mr. President

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

Regarding the talk you gave on your New Global Warming policies:

I read the talk and was most encouraged about a number of its aspects. I thought it was a rational approach to the realities of the issues. It lays out an adult path, one that recognizes the value of a time graduated well thought out path of reconstruction and solid movement into the future as opposed to the typical adolescent demands of some of our brothers on the "left" for overnight changes to issues decades, if not centuries, in the making, and our brothers on the right who see any change as the end of the world.

It was reasonable. It made "common" sense. It was not obscured with a bunch of technical data.

I thought, well, anyone who can read will be able to see what is being said here. Then over the next couple of days I read the commentaries of individuals who have their commentaries published in various media outlets. For the most part I could not believe that they had read and were writing about the same speech I read.

One can dismiss a lot of the obvious sophistry the intent of which is destroy   reasonableness while generating fear and chaos. But whether supporting or attacking the ideas you presented most of the observations seemed to simply not get it.

Paul Krugman was the only one I read that even came close to getting it  when he observed that your comment to “Invest. Divest. Remind folks there’s no contradiction between a sound environment and strong economic growth.” ....was simple good sense: We really can invest in new energy sources, divest from old sources, and actually make the economy stronger. So let’s do it."

However, even this remark fails to see the key concept that you presented while addressing the Keystone pipeline in what was an aside. "But I do want to be clear: Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation’s interest. And our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution. The net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward. It’s relevant."

Fully realizing that "climate" is a global thing, a condition of nature that knows nothing about our separative national boundaries or nations, this comment outlines and raises to a very significant position that "our national interest" is not a separate exclusive thing but that it involves a global consideration and that the passing or not of this project would be judged on that indisputable fact.  I thought that since you had so obviously bookmarked this concept, it would be easily seen. But apparently not.

This is the clearest statement I have seen that you have made regarding service to the Common Good and General Welfare as being the principles and key determiners for the creation and passage not just for a pipe line but for any legislation. It may be that this position is so unheard of in our present world governments that it was simply not seen.

I am hoping to see many more such statements coming from your administration. This would indeed be change we could not just believe in but celebrate and work for.

lots of love

-tom

The Ancient and Well Honed Art of Betrayal

The young man's name is Edward Snowden. Mr. Snowden caused classified documents about the United States of America's government surveillance program to be  brought into the light of the Common Good. Mr. Snowden has been labeled as a traitor by John Boehner, Michele Bachmann, Dick Cheney and a large number of not so well known individuals who have access to our public media. Basically, a traitor is a person who violates his or her allegiance to and betrays their country or who, in a breach of trust, delivers his or her country to an enemy.

The issues that are being conveniently over looked by the above mentioned individuals in this bit of sophistic labeling are what allegiances to, betrayal of one's country, and delivering one's country to the enemies actually mean. The program that Mr. Snowden revealed is illegal. It is a huge violation of several of the Principles of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Mr. Snowden's loyalty and allegiance to his country impelled him to serve it, to protect it from its enemies.

He discovered that a group of individuals acting completely outside of the bounds of our Constitution had decided that their views on our national and international security outweighed any restrictions that our Constitution placed on what they saw as necessary to protect us. Acting completely outside of well known Constitutional guarantees against exactly what they did, they unlawfully created a gigantic system that used billions of tax payers' dollars to literally spy on us. In the name of protecting us from the kinds of subterfuge, criminality, terror, and lies that those who would undo democracy and liberty for everyone in the world have always employed, they knowingly violated one of our most sacred liberties.

A quick look at Humanity's history over the past few thousand years will reveal that this kind of sophistry has always been employed by those who would enslave us. The people who employ this kind of sophistry, if they consider it at all, may actually believe that they know what is best for us. They cannot trust the people to understand and take appropriate action. They believe that their superior vision of what is best for us justifies their violation of a sacred trust. They remain ignorant of the fact that the rejection of this attitude by the people was one of the primary drivers of the creation of this country and a huge step in the freeing of humanity from the grip of the elite few.

It is exactly this kind of blinding arrogance that drives traitors.  It is simple hubris that impels individuals to place themselves above others and in so doing to separate themselves from others, and to consider themselves to be above the Law. They do not see that their actions betray their allegiance to the basic tenants of our constitution which they claim to be protecting.

So, if we want to go on a traitor hunt, it would more be more effective to look for the nest that is spawning these insidious programs, than to try to crucify yet another person who had the courage to see a wrong and try to make it right.

Incidentally, by far, ancient nations and powers, just like human beings, crumble, not from some outside  power or force, but from an inner kind of insidious corruption.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Dear Mr. President.

As I was about to post this to you, I received your response to an earlier letter. Your response outlines all of the legislative actions that your administration is doing and has done. These are all great and good actions. They all deal with serious effects, and are quite necessary in the short term. What I am addressing in the following letter is a different kind of issue. I think we need to recognize and start to deal with the causes of these drastic effects. Until we do, we will be engaged in trying to patch up a ship that is surely sinking around us.

This morning I received a note from Campaign for America's Future which informed me that the Congress has cut funding for Meals on Wheels, another leak in that boat. This program is a wonderful example of how to use our money, that is the tax payer's money, to support the Common Good and the General Welfare. I am pretty sure that both you and the First Lady are well aware of this program, as am I. My experience came from the fact that it kept my mother fed for a couple of years.

Besides feeding our hungry elders with food that is actually good for them, there are a few other values of this program that are not apparent. It uses our money to employ people in a program that actually serves the Common Good and the General Welfare. It gives some elders, for example, those employed as drivers or delivery people in the program who are quite able bodied, something to do that serves the country.

Having met several of these folks, I was impressed by their sense of commitment, and their own personal appreciation to be able to do something that was worthwhile for others. The other thing that Meals on Wheels delivers that is of great value and costs nothing is the human interface. The persons who delivered the food to my mother were always able, happy even, to spend 5 minutes or so chatting with her.  I am pretty sure that most of our elders who are in these situations suffer far more from a lack of human inter change than they do from hunger.

But my reason for writing to you this morning is a bit larger than this one, wonderful human sustainable program. The elimination of this simple, effective and economically smart (Keeping people fed, usually keeps them out of emergency rooms and so forth.) program is a glaring example of how our money, that is taxpayers money, is disbursed in a way that actually guarantees the failure of our country as a self sustaining democracy where government of the people for the people and by the people, that is for the Common Good and the General welfare, is known to be the only way that such a country can exist.

It would easy to list the programs which support the Common Good and our future as a nation of enlightened people and those that support the hysterical paranoia which infects the minds of those small groups of individuals who control the wealth of the planet and who are terrified that some other group of billionaires is going to try to take it away from them. This dichotomy is so stark, so apparent... Billions for the paranoid delusions of a few. Billions so that more billions can be amassed and put in "off shore" accounts. How many personal homes, planes, ships, islands are enough?

And of course, we can afford nothing for even minimal food for our elders. We can be sure that the elders of the few are very well fed.

In reality, while awful, the damage to the fabric of our society, of our people, that the defunding of Meals on Wheels will cause is small in comparison to others. Realize the  harm, the long term devastation, wreaked on the systems by transferring hundreds of billions from programs that actually guarantee our future as a nation such as the education of all of our children. These funds, our funds, are being sent to other programs whose primary purpose, while cloaked in all kinds of fear generated and hate oriented sheep's clothing, is to, simply and plainly, transfer our common energy, our tax dollars into those off shore accounts.

So, I cannot imagine that you are not well aware of all of this, and I realize that you are the President rather than the king, and that you are well acquainted with the razor's edge. I have been pondering on what we, us and you, can do to right this glaring wrong which, we both know, is a not just a local U.S. issue but a planet wide problem for Humanity. What I get in my pondering as to the way forward is Light.

The exposure in clear simple facts, which are abundant, from you and your administration revealing the long hidden selfish agendas of the power elite will enlighten, and help to wake up those who are still sleeping in the canyons of comfort. When the facts or truth of the situation is put out there the people will get it. Light brings revelation and generates real change. It is magnetic, and it will draw out the kind of support and power from  the hundreds of millions of us who are aware of this situation. It will help people to speak up where ever they are and to act on whatever level they can.  After all, the Big Document says "We the People", not you the president.

One concrete thing that only both of you (I mean the First Lady) could do,  and that you are both masters at doing, is to come to us much more often and everywhere through our communications systems, just you two, not all of these people who nobody knows, but you who we do know, who we voted for, twice,  talking plain and clean about who we are, encourage us to stand up and demand what we want which is simply justice and freedom for ALL.

lots of love

-tom

Dear Mr. President

Sunday, June 02, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

I won't be able to attend your next press conference; however, I do have a rather serious question for you.

As you know, on May 21st, the Senate voted to block an  amendment to reinstate $4.1 billion for food stamps. I found this bit of data to be amazing. When I then saw  that 28 Democratic United States Senators, including individuals like Senators Feinstein, Franken, Hagan, Harkin, Klobuchar, McCaskill, and others, voted with the Republicans, I was stunned!

The question is simple. If feeding children, who are far and away the primary beneficiaries of the Food Stamp Program, is not a democratic boiler plate issue, what is? And if it is, why do you suppose these democrats voted against this amendment? What makes these individuals Democrats?

Votes like these are nothing but politics as usual. There can be no special interests when it comes to Democracy. The issues are morally clear as glass. The Common good and the General Welfare are the bed rock of government of for and by the people. No program that benefits one section of the people at the cost of another is sustainable. If a program does not serve the Common Good, it simply is not good for anyone. Good can come only from good. What's so hard about that?

I really think it is time to clean up the party, to expect democrats to be democrats. I am quite familiar with all the "complexity" of what one has to do to stay in office. The lessons of our long history are very clear on this issue. It is clear that when staying in office or, as President's Lincoln and Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin L. King, and countless other heroes down the annals of time remind us, even staying alive is more important than supporting the Common Good and the General Welfare, Humanity is going to lose, and lose again.

I do not see you as individually or personally responsible for this situation, and I do see you as making incredible efforts to improve the system. I think that there are enough conscious people in our country now that changing the conversation from the details of various programs to a discussion of the principles of democratic government would be a very powerful thing to do, and would help a lot to generate the kind of support you need. It would shift the focus of the discussion from effects to causes. It would put light on the motivation behind the programs of division and greed that are so destructive. And, as you know, light and revelation are cause and effect.

Now that we have world around, practically instant, communication with each other, sophistry is not as effective as it was. In fact sophistry, or spinning as we  say, is becoming painfully obvious. There is nothing that makes it so obvious as a clear plain message about the meaning and significance of the basic values upon which our government stands. The new generations get this. They are ready for it.

I'm just saying.

lots of love

-tom