The Fourth Option (A Centrist Perspective) Blog

More and more these days I find myself thinking about The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. It is a 1906 novel based on the undercover work that Sinclair performed in 1904. In the novel Sinclair depicts horrific working and living conditions, misery resulting from the lack of social programs, the prevalent feelings of hopelessness among the poor, and the entrenched corruption of those in power in turn-of-the-century Chicago. Sinclair novel allowed the public to see, for the first time, the vulnerability of the individual in the work place, and the level of exploitation to which he/she can be subjected. It allowed the public to see the powerlessness and the helplessness of the workers to acquire basic human rights and dignified treatments in the absence of collective actions and public interventions. They are many historians who points to this novel as one of the reasons standards and laws governing safety conditions in the work place, the length of the work day, minimum wage, and other ri...

The rights of every American are clearly defined in Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States. Essentially they state that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. These rights include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At that time, James Madison was very concerned that the statement of this idea as it is expressed in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence would be misinterpreted. He feared that Americans would believe that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were the only rights they were granted by God. So to make it clear that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were simply three of our numerous birth rights, he wrote the Amendment IX in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. The role of the government is also clearly defined in the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States. Essentially they state that the government’s role is to assist Americans in securin...

It has to be one of the biggest ironies in Wisconsin: If Governor Walker and the republicans want to see the worst group of teachers in Wisconsin, they should look in their mirrors. They should focus on themselves, and literally try to understand that all leaders are teachers, whose actions and deeds help to form our children’s beliefs and values. Governor Walker and the republicans need to make themselves aware of the fact that their performances and conducts are teaching our children lessons about trust, loyalty, fairness, respect, compassion, truthfulness/honesty, tolerance, equality, civility, and unity. Moreover, Walker and the republicans need to know that you can’t teach honesty by telling lies. You can’t teach fairness by being unfair. You can’t teach respect by being disrespectful to others. You can’t teach compassion by being cold and indifferent to others. Pitting one group of workers against another is an awful strategy for teaching children the importance of “unity.” Sec...

Goodness from others is like a delicious, nutritious meal. It is easy to digest, and its benefits continue hours, days, weeks, ― years after the meal is completed. It makes us feel better and healthier. It improves our thinking and concentration. It gives us more energy. And when we look in the mirror, we begin to notice the smoothness of our skin tones and the disappearances of wrinkles. Goodness from others brings an overall feeling of well-being and a thorough sensation of contentment. Wickedness from others is like an over cooked, too greasy, high calorie, non-nutritious potluck. It is very difficult to ingest. Its unbearable taste lingers in your throat hours, days, weeks and years to come; just the mare thought of this regurgitated repast is enough to make its bad taste flood our memories and our bodies, which physically do not feel better, look better, or function better. Wickedness from others brings an overall feeling of poor health and a complete mood of discontentment. Excel...

The poet and philosopher George Santayana in Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Later today, Governor Scott Walker will take his place in the long line of republicans whose actions proved George Santayana was correct. He will sign his so-called “Budget Repair Bill ,” and similar to his republican predecessors, he will carefully stage this “propaganda event” by vigilantly screening individuals, who will benefit the most from this unfair bill, to be his audience. (Some of his wealthy-employer friends will coerce their employees to be present, so that it gives the impression that the middle class is represented.) Then Scott Walker appearing before the news media, which have done atrocious jobs of investigating the ills of this budget, will state that his budget will put Wisconsin on the path to economic recovery by bringing business to Wisconsin, increasing employment, and lessening the tax burden on prope...

I thought about this poem, which I published a few years ago, when I heard President Obama's speech about bringing the troops home, and the republicans objections to his ideas:   Rules of Engagement It's becoming more common: Rules about when, where, how, and against whom military force should be used, are decided by well fed parents, reclining in comfortable chairs, living in gated communities with their well manicured lawns, while their sons and daughters are safely tucked away in plush dormitories, on expensive colleges and universities, as privileged children, whose biggest concerns are finding a date for the weekend and wondering what type of designer clothes are appropriate for their beach party with their friends, while spending monthly allowances that are larger than the annual salary of a marine lance corporal  ¾ even when his family get additional help in the form of food stamps. It is becoming less common: Rules about when, where, how, and against whom m...

A few days ago the Green Bay teachers were ordered to work an extra half-hour each day. No one consulted with them and no one offered them a salary increase. They were simply blackmailed by a system of government, which is becoming like its leader, Scott Walker, proponents of a national republican ideology that believes the best way to work in concert with employees is to tell them "Take it or leave it, and shut up! We will be expecting you to work harder for less pay, and any time you don't like it, there is the door!" It is the beginning of the slippery slope of workers' exploitation that takes place to workers who cannot collectively bargain for their rights. The article below is a reprint of an earlier article I wrote concerning the increasing number of freedoms the republicans are taking from the American people:  The Republican’s Gift to America: Less Freedoms Every time the republicans pass a law, I feel it makes us less safe, less free, and less in posse...

Sometimes it comes as a gentle shake in the dark that awakes me from my sleep: "Wake up it's time to think. Suppose you did…" It begins. "And what if…" It continues. "It will work if you do the following …" It assures me. "I believe you're correct," I reply. "Why didn't I think of that before," I continue. "I agree; it will work if I do the following…" I assure myself                                                             ¾ now fully aware that I am                                         ...

I hear republican leaders, like Congressman Ryan, Governor Walker, and Speaker Boehner, saying it all the time: “We’re saving the future for our children,” but I am never quite sure what they mean. The use of the first person plural possessive pronoun ― our, suggests that the future is being saved for all the children we have . However, their actions, rhetoric, and policies articulate a different message. They express messages that more accurately resemble “We’re saving the future for my children ― not yours !” Giving them the benefit of the doubt by assuming that they are “saving the future for all children” is still very confusing. Does it mean that they are trying to insure that the United States will be more “user friendly” in 10 – 15 years to our children? And if that’s the case, why is making the United States more user friendly 10 - 15 years from now more important than making the United States more user friendly 10 - 15 minutes from now? Why is creating a United States that...

People who run governments should be sensitive and caring human beings. They should be elected officials who are keenly aware that their decisions have consequences, and their policies are going to produce outcomes, including many that will be grave in nature. Leaders, with this depth of understanding and sensitivity, do not take the task of decision-making or policy implementation lightly. Instead, they look at problems from all perspectives. They consult with their supporters and their oppositions. They, with the help of their staff, role play the end-games, envision the negative consequences, and creatively construct the scenarios of the most likely outcomes their decisions and policies will produce. By performing these measures they are able to see the wide range of effects ― from happiness and prosperity to misery and starvation ― that their decisions and policies will create. This, however, doesn’t mean that these leaders, who become aware of the negative consequences attached to...

Many of us, these days, are feeling doom and gloom about the future of our economy and the employment outlook. We feel that things are bad and they’re going to get worse. We believe that unemployment will stay high. Wages and pay increases will stay low. And the cost of living or the prices we pay for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, etc. will sky-rocket. Many economists disagree, including the 2010 Nobel Prize Winning Economist, Peter A. Diamond, PhD, Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They point to the fact that this type of cycle― high unemployment followed by low unemployment followed by high unemployment followed by . . . has happened many times before, and it will happen again. At some point, they argue, the cycle will return to low unemployment, as a continuation of this cyclical pattern. I, a citizen without any degrees in economics or any economic awards for my economic knowledge, disagree. But I do so for reasons that I ...

Dear Republican Leaders in Madison, WI, It appears that there are elements of civility that you do not understand. So, with all due respect, I am taking the time to explain them to you, and they are as follows: 1. When you perform a lawful act that is morally and spiritually reprehensible , it makes you by definition a Law Abiding Scum-Bag! 2. When you perform a deceptive lawful act that is so morally and spiritually reprehensible that you perform it in the dead of night, under the cover of darkness, it makes you a Law Abiding Sleazy Scum-Bag! 3. And when you receive praises from the national republican leadership in Washington, DC for performing deceptive lawful acts that were so morally and spiritually reprehensible , that you performed them in the dead of night, under the cover of darkness, they made you All-American Law Abiding Sleazy Scum-Bags! They did not make you ― God-Fearing Christians, moral human beings, or decent and respectable Americans. There’s gotta be a “Hell,”...

Today is a special day. It is June 14, 2011. It is the official Flag Day in the United States. All military installations throughout the United States and the world will fly our largest flag or the Garrison Flag. Its dimensions are 38 feet fly (length) by 20 feet hoist (wide). It’s most impressive in appearance. In its upper left corner beams the stars, bigger than you have ever seen them, one for each state in the union, in harmony with the blue heavenly background that seems to reach out and extends itself to the blue sky around the flag. The stripes do not extend or complement anything anywhere in the universe. They simply evoke memories of blood (red stripes) in harmony with valor (white stripes) of the Thirteen Colonies and the Revolutionary War. They simply bring to mind the great leaderships and visions of The Founding Fathers. They bring to mind remembrances of all the wars and conflicts this flag has seen. They create thoughts about the many times this flag was present when i...

This is a reprinting of an article I wrote on April 20, 2011. The article is censored by several interest groups.  Eradicate Groupthink Teamwork can only occur when all voices are heard and thoughtfully considered – especially the opposing voices. In any and all environments where the opposing voices are suppressed or silenced: where everyone goes along with the strongest dominant voice – because of fear, intimidation or coercion, the collective action of the group is “groupthink” not "teamwork!" It is important that we make this distinction, in this day and age, when the buzz word in cooperate America is "teamwork ," which is considered to be the heart and soul of productivity – the essential ingredient that promotes a “true” spirit of cooperation, enhances morale, and enables the company to function most effectively and efficiently. “We are looking for team players” is the foremost request of company executives; and the American public agrees – the willingness ...

America was strong because all Americans believed in America and the goals that it was aspiring to achieve. The United States of America was created to be a nation that promotes, foster, and nourishes the rights and freedoms of the individual. The government’s job was to help the individual to live his life according to his beliefs, values, dreams, and abilities. The Founding Fathers literary made this point in the second paragraph of The Declaration of Independence when they wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” In the sentence that comes next in this paragraph, the Founding Fathers clearly state the government’s role in helping the individual to exercise his “unalienable Rights.” They wrote “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consen...

In yesterday’s blog I wrote an article entitled Buy Local . The article was censored. Particular interest groups decided that you did not have the right to read it. I resubmitted the article today under the title of Free Market Choices . I will write a follow up article about it in a few days. I decided that it might be helpful if I wrote an overview article on the topic of censorship: The Death of the Fairness Doctrine? I started writing these blogs six years ago, and the biggest change that has occurred during these years is the fact that it has become more difficult to be the dissenting voice or the non-group thinker. It has become almost impossible to tell the truth: Everything is becoming very corrupt ― including our free speech. A few years ago, those who did not want to hear a particular point of view switched channels or turning the broadcasting devise off. Today, those who do not want to hear a particular point of view are trying to insure that no one else hears it either. T...

This article was written yesterday and censored today. The reasons are obvious to anyone who reads it. I am reprinting it here under another title. Hopefully, you might be able to read it this time.  Buy Local More and more these days I feel bombarded by individuals who are telling me to “Buy local!” They are appearing all over the place. They’re in television commercials, local newspapers, and my community’s businesses ads ― telling me to “Buy local!” More and more I feel their invasions of my personal space, their encroachments on my private thoughts, and their establishments of parameters on my economic freedom to choose the “goods I like best.” Needless to say, I find this imposition on my individual rights very unsettling. “Buy local!” is a command. It is an imperative sentence that is quite different (denotatively and connotatively) from “Please buy local.” Moreover, it is shouted by individuals, who seem oblivious to the true essence of a free market: All citizens and I have...

One of the reoccurring events in Peanuts , the cartoon by Charles Schulz, is a scene in which Lucy holds a football on the ground, like “the field goal holder” on a football team. She tells Charlie Brown to run forward, and kick the football. Charlie Brown runs forward, but Lucy’s moves the football a split second before Charlie kicks it. This cause Charlie’s leg to go flaring in the air, moments before he looses his balance and fall to the ground on his butt ― again! She has done it to him umpteen times before: She held the football, told him to run forward and kick it, moved it at the last minute, and laugh hysterically, as Charlie looses his balance (because Lucy moved the football) and crashes to the ground on his butt. Charlie, who is a wonderful, trusting, likable kid, is acting foolishly in these instances; he is subjecting himself to the identical set of circumstances that always culminated with him crashed on his butt. Yet, he believes that the same set of circumstances will ...

I saw a five-year old dancing Impromptu, imperfect, innocence, dancing in movement of free expression, dancing in the universe that is his playground, dancing in ascending gestures above his head, dancing, in unhurried time. His chubby, little fingers, dancing in unsuspecting reaching up to tickle the clouds, dancing in soulfulness without restrictions. I danced like this five-year old, a long, long time ago. we all did ― danced like this five-year old, a long, long time ago, before we were forced to learn the formal dances: the dances that came with certain steps to take, careful steps to follow, and the order of the steps. We were forced to learn when to step aside, when to follow in someone else’s foot step, when not to take a step, when to lightly step around, tip-toe around, when to ignore the fact that we were stepped over, when to take baby steps, when to step back, (which is the most common movement in dances these days.) When to step forward will be less fashionable in future ...

Life comes most sweet, in increments, jumbled and mixed delicious. Constantly flowing in tidbits surprises: Our conglomerations of unexpected encountered wonderfulness ―a walk on the beach, The chatter of happy five-year olds on the playground The changing leaves “Oh! My! What a beautiful sunset!” “Did you see the wonderful sunrise this morning?” Conversations with the kids Ol’ friends dropping by to say “Hello” The cool breeze that invites itself onto your patio ― to keep company, and playfully turn the pages of the novel your enjoying. The sudden appearance of the sweet glass of lemonade sips of affection in nurturing hands of “the love one” who knows you better than you know yourself. Suddenly a cardinal croons, a blue jay joins in, and sings the counter melody, a woodpecker pecks the percussive beat, the squirrels, rabbits, and chipmunks enjoy their dinner-concert . . . Suddenly, a jet, high in the sky, draws a straight white line on the clear blue sky . . . A bald eagle glides in ...