The Fourth Option (A Centrist Perspective) Blog

Some of the most cherished moments I’ve experienced in my life occurred at ceremonies where I played Taps , for many of these ceremonies were rich history lessons, which in most cases, were told by the men and women who lived them. For example, it was during one of these ceremonies on Liberty Island, under the welcoming arms of the Statue of Liberty, that I met members of the Women Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who told me about their experiences as pilots, who flew planes and fought alongside men in World War II. Several were fighter pilots. Others flew supply missions. And they accomplished all this in the United States before women’s liberation became popular. In a similar ceremony in Brooklyn, I met Korean veterans who never got “a welcome home” parade or the recognition they deserved. Many spoke of the awful treatment that Korean Americans were subjected to during that time. They all spoke about pride in being an American. During the ceremonies I perform...

My teeth chattered, and my body trembled ― uncontrollably. Minutes before, the sides of my jaws, along with my gums, lips and the entire inside of my mouth, lost all sensations. It was as if an invisible dentist has injected them with huge doses of Novocain. Moreover, the coldness was spreading. It was beginning to penetrate my forehead, creating the onset of an exploding migraine. I felt bone chilling cold, and I was worried ― standing there in zero degree weather, with a wind chill factor of 20 degrees below zero. Earlier that morning, local weathermen had advised Chicago’s residence on the precautionary steps for surviving this type of weather: “Stay indoors as much as possible,” they said. “When going outdoors, be sure to bundle-up and cover all exposed skin,” they warned. I had been standing ― outdoors, at this gravesite in St. Joseph Cemetery for about 30 minutes, and the freezing, cold conditions, which stabbed repeatedly through my body, like a switchblade, were contin...

Needing to feel my world was alive, and needing to see the earth’s graves not swallowing them up: Wanting to see the soil’s sad sepulcher as the beginning of lives After the war I came home And bought a farm, and started a garden Desperately desiring to see “the living” ascending in lives And life filled with the living of lives’ essence, Hoping live wasn’t only for the living in His presence After the war I came home And bought a farm, and started a garden Where I buried seeds for the purpose of seeing them rise From the places of interment, where they were laid to sprout and grow – and thrive alive, soaring upwards, stretching up to hug all stars. Most aware that I had planted them dressed and covered in Army green in uniform formation. Most aware that they would grow high enough to laugh with the sky and kiss the universe. Reminding me that the answers are always found by look up. Creating by using the tip of their tops to draw on the canvas of the clouds  the faces of my comrad...

Tet Offensive So much blood! Horrifying blood! Bullet soaked, urine stained bowel smelling blood; gushing from a scream ¾   an agonizing, horrifying, “I-think-I’m -going to die!” scream. My buddy delirious away form his legs, and an arm. Sergeant Major stepped on a mine, and exploded into pieces  ¾ thousands raining ground meat, and bones ¾  a mosaic of green leaves sprayed red fresh jungle kill stinker than filth. for my buddy did lose bowel control just before he lost consciousness and ignored the continuous pounding of mortars, rackets and bombs blowing blood from lives everywhere. His vomit, the least of my worries, as monsoon rain began pouring ice water in between the bullets from a Viet Cong gorilla aimed at killing my ass. He smelled my blood I spilled his with bullets of adrenaline, with hate, anger, and fear ¾   blowing his back off. Surprise! Felt amazement. My God! Wow! What a rush! It is so easy to kill a man just aim and squeeze the trigger. Then the q...

I think of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau often these days. I think about them, in part, because I live on a farm in an area where solitude and contemplation are encouraged by the seasonal attires of the shrubs and trees, where listening and receiving are buoyed up by the counterpoint renditions of the birds and critters, and where transcendence and consciousness of unconscious processes are inspired by the on going discourse among the branches, the leaves, the breeze and all the other living things. Life is a dance of lives here; it is harmonic motion in great big circles of cycles internal and external to me ― simultaneously! It is love, and my love for nature, and my love for the awakenings that nature brings into my thought, my feelings, and my soul ― at my invitation ― unconditionally! So it’s easy and comforting in these instances to think of Thoreau’s Solitude, Ponds, Spring, Walking, Wild Apples, Autumnal Tints . . . and Emerson’s Nature, The Transcendentalist, Sp...

The major difficulty I am having in trying to discuss Governor Walker’s Education Reform Plan ( Education for the 21st Century High Standards and Accountability) is the fact that it is a bad plan that lacks the level of accuracy, thoughtfulness and specificity that a document of this importance should contain. Many of the ideas in the governor's plan appeared in better written, more comprehensive, earlier documents ― especially President Clinton’s Ten-Point Plan (Call to Action for American Education in the 21st Century ). Two other documents that presented thorough and thoughtful ideas, that has appeared much later in the governor’s plan are President Bush’s No Child Left Behind (The Elementary and Secondary Education Act ― 1st Revision), and President Obama’s The Race to the Top (The Elementary and Secondary Education Act ― 2nd Revision). A reading of any of these three documents ― especially President Clinton’s Call to Action for American Education in the 21st Century , wi...

           On April 12, 2011, I wrote the article below. My first objective was to explain the reasons why Congressman Ryan did not include deep cuts in his budget plan. My second objective was to point out the hypocrisy of the of the republicans in congress, who continue to tell the rest of us that government spending (especially the stimulus packages that were put into place by President Obama) is wasteful and wrong. While at the same time, unbeknowing to most American, these republicans are protecting and stimulating their states' economies through the use of the biggest stimulus packages in the United States: Defense Spending.        However, this article has been censored. You cannot find it on the internet because it has been blocked. Therefore, I am reprinting it here because I am hoping that everyone who reads it will forward copies to their friends and families: As Amer...

It is a wonderful and unique coincidence to be writing this article today, May 21, 2011. It’s Armed Forces Day, or the day our nation has so designated for the purpose of recognizing and paying tribute to the men and women, who have served or is serving in our armed forces. I said it was a coincidence because the men and women of the armed forces have been prominently on my mind as I studied the governor’s plan ― especially as I began to analyze its content for accuracy, clarity, and solutions. For accuracy, clarity, and solutions are the hallmarks of military leadership. And the United States Military ― particularly its officer’s corps, have produced some of the best leaders the world has ever seen: Washington, Grant, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Marshall, Patton, MacArthur, Kennedy, Carter, Dole, McCain, Powell, Franks, and Petraeus are some of the better known from among this group of incredible men and women who have served or is serving in the army, navy, marines, air force, and coa...

Several months ago, Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) unveiled his education reform plan entitled Education for the 21st Century (High Standards and Accountability). This plan, which on the surface appears to be an honest effort to reform education in the state of Wisconsin, is riddled with false assumptions, incorrect conclusions, lofty misunderstood goals, political shenanigans, and the misguided ideals of an arrogant governor. In short, it is everything ― except a thorough, well thought out group of final decisions, based on care considerations and important deliberations of the best arguments from all the important perspectives. My objective in this article and the others that will follow is to offer an analysis of Governor Walker’s Plan in a way that will, hopefully, allow you to see the reasons I reached the conclusions that are stated above. The goal of Governor Walker’s Plan is to return Wisconsin’s education system to the level of excellence that one made it “the model for the nati...

In Wisconsin, like the rest of the nation, public employees are retiring in droves. At this time last year, for example, Wisconsin had approximately 4,000 retirees. This year the number is almost 8,000. What has caused the drastic increase in the number of retirees? Most retirees expressed the fear of losing their retirement benefits. While this is probably true, my suspicions are that it probably goes much deeper than that. Law enforcement officers, firefighters, social workers, and teachers are highly trained and highly respected professionals, whose occupations require levels of dedication and commitment that goes beyond the work-hours for which they are paid. But more importantly, the men and women in these professions bring to their jobs levels of passion, devotion, and loyalty that are priceless: Service to their communities, their fellow citizens, and their nation are just as important, and in many cases more important, than their salaries. The adulations and respect of their le...

I suspect that the person or persons who helped President Obama create the slogan “The Race to the Top” aren’t keen observers of actual cross-country races, or running events in which any and everyone are invited to participate. For if they were, they would have realized that this slogan is more appropriate for the current state of education ― not the future of education. Let me explain: People, who are unfamiliar with cross-country running, usually have theoretical or romantic beliefs about the sport. Essentially, they picture in their minds a group of well trained and highly motivated runners arriving at race sites, then taking their position on the starting line, as soon as the command “Runners to the starting line” is given, then sprinting away, when the starting shot is fired, with the goal of finishing first. While this is true of cross-country team competition, in which selected teams are invited to compete, it’s certainly not true for “open participations” in which everyone is ...

Every time the republicans pass a law, I feel it makes us less safe, less free, and less in possession of our individual rights. One by one they are taking away the freedoms in our democracy that are very precious to us. And their removal of one freedom after another is beginning to add up to a pretty extensive sum of freedoms that you and I have lost. Let’s look at the list: 1. The republicans granted the government greater freedom to bug our homes and wire- tap our conversations without cause. 2. The republicans granted the government greater freedom to use the most invasive forms of body search and privacy violations ― particularly at airports. 3. The republicans are granting the government permission to subject the middle class (to which I belong) to the unfair burden of paying the national debt without any help from the richest one percent of Americans. Apparently, the republicans believe that the richest one percent of Americans need money ― more than the rest of us. 4. The repub...

Is our democracy dying? Is democracy in this country – the United States of America – in a terminal state? My first reaction to these questions is a resounding “No!” Our democracy is alive and well,” I feel compelled to say. “Certainly,” at first glance, a healthy democracy appears to be the state of our government: We have more millionaires than ever before, the average household income is greater than any time in our history, the comfort of living and the quality of life we currently enjoy is at an all-time high, and we are living longer and happier lives. Hell, I might, at this point, support my argument by citing the works of the fiscal-conservative authors, who have written books to make the argument from this perspective far better than I could, and with far more passion than I could muster, while keeping a straight face: Ben Stein, Newt Gengrich, Bill Crystal, Brent Hume … “So,” you asked, “if you know that all these wonderful accomplishments are taken place in this country,...

It has become standard practice for American corporations, under the semblance of “too heavy a corporate tax burden in the United States,” to move their businesses to another country. Often they make these moves, in spite of the fact that they earned huge profits every year in the United States.. In addition to lower taxes in foreign countries, American corporations usually point to less government regulations and restrictions and greater corporate freedom, as their reasons for leaving. The fact that they are taking American workers’ jobs overseas doesn’t seem to have any bearing on their decisions. The only thing that seems to concern them is the increased amount of profits that they are going to make. However, it’s apparent that these corporations are unaware that their moves are short-sighted and potentially detrimental to the United States and – themselves! For while it is true that their moves are having bad affects on the U. S. economy at present, it is equally true that their mo...

What I have attempted to make clear throughout this four-part article is the fact that individual or collective greatness, in any field, is rarely achieved by guess work. In most instances, there are fundamental principles that make it happen. The same can be said of creating or restoring a great economy: There were tried-and-true economic principles that brought our nation to economic greatness; then we abandon them, and adopted a new strategy, which created our economic disaster. If we re-implement the old principles, they will put our nation back on the course to economic prosperity, lower unemployment, empowerment for workers ― and economic greatness. The basic concept is very simple and easy to understand. Currently, there are approximately 6,916,296,180 people in the world. Eighty million more will be added each year. They are consumers, who need products for all areas of their lives. I am convinced that the nation that does the best job of understanding their current needs, anti...

Please let’s keep this thought in mind: Let’s remember innovations create inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs. And all in turn create employment and empowerment for American workers! Please let’s remember it. And return to it, an embrace it, like we did before ― when it led us to greatness as the number one nation in the world! If there is one thing that our nation has proven time and time again, it is the fact that in times of crisis, we come together better than any other nation in the world. And through the use of teamwork, supporting each other, love ― and prayer, we have overcome all obstacles. So we know we can, because we have done it many times before! Let’s remember our strengths, which are numerous and down-right awesome: 1. Our nation, which is 235 years old, is a young nation in comparison to the major countries of the world. Many of them were born before Jesus Christ ― our Lord! Yet, in spite of the short time of our nation existence, as well as the fact that our nat...

Hardly a day goes by without some noted author, economist, journalist, scholar, or highly-respected member of a think-thank notifying us that several of the major countries have moved ahead of the United States in some areas of innovative technology. We are told that Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, and Canada are far more advanced than the United States in areas of technology that we once dominated. It appears that many nations in world are doing remarkable jobs of either catching-up or surpassing the United States in innovations. What’s even more remarkable is the way in which they are doing it. Evidently, they are beating us at our own game: They are using the strategies we invented and the game plan we designed, and apparently, while we were busy moving away from “the plan that made us the greatest nation of innovators,” these other nations were busy embracing the plan that we were abandoning. So, what plan did we abandon and they embraced? For most of our nation’s ...