The Fourth Option (A Centrist Perspective) Blog

      At some point in recent years, we started looking at corporate America as the most important component in our democracy and our lives. I suspect it happened after the end of the Cold War, because it certainly wasn’t our perception during those years when our country was engaged in an “arms race” with the Soviet Union. Back in those days, we clearly understood that corporate freedom wasn’t free: We knew that our democratic, free market system, which allowed everyone the freedom of starting businesses with little or no money and growing them into billion-dollar corporations, was only possible because fellow Americans were fighting on the battlefields to protect this freedom. And we also knew that they were paying tremendous prices in doing so; it was costing them their limbs, their lives, their livelihood, their marriages, their will to live, their mental health ...   It was costing them everything.        Most importantly, how...

           Have you noticed that today’s media discussions of politics have become elitist conversations? Or to state it another way, have you noticed that social and economic news reporting, in the United States, seem to be entirely concerned with the affect policy decisions will have on the wealthiest Americans, revenue enhancement for wealthy corporations, and preserving the “Bush Tax Cuts” for the richest one percent of Americans? I have, and I find it troubling and downright worrisome.        I find it worrisome because I believe the United States will only remain a strong nation if it protects, develop, and address the real concerns of its middle class. I believe that America will only remain the number one super power in the world if it keeps middle class communities vibrant, provide middle class workers with well-paying jobs, develop an effective education system, and create a long range strategy for increased gr...

     Forward thinking is a beautiful concept. Its very name – Forward Thinking promotes the images of innovations brought about by assertive (or aggressive) proactive thoughts. It appears to be the new way of thinking that is loaded with creative ideas. Cooperate America seems to be telling us that it is an excellent way to increase company productivity. Politicians are telling us that it is the key to balancing national and state budgets, reduce unemployment, improve our schools, provide universal health care, and most importantly – reduce the heavy tax burden that is keeping American corporations from hiring more American workers. Everyone is doing it now: “forward thinking,” or at the very least, they are claiming to be doing so.      Maybe you are one of the converted or someone who is planning to become one very soon. Before you jump on the bandwagon or travel too far on this “forward thinking” trip, there are a few points we ...

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”   The Life of Reason (1905-1906) by George Santayana        If you’re the parent or grandparent of a young adult, who graduated from high school last year, it is important to know when the “Bush Tax Cuts” started, that young adult was beginning first grade! If you’re the parent or the grandparent of a student who is currently in 12 th grade, it is helpful to know your precious child was beginning kindergarten, when the “Bush Tax Cuts” that were going to “make the future better for the children” started.      Here we are 12 years later and the future for American children is looking dimmer and more uncertain: ·       American children are facing stiffer global competitions from students in other countries, whose governments believe in investing in education.  ·       American children are rapidly becoming members of a shrinking American m...

Laws of Nature " Order to all things " was the command and the universe stands obedient to it, including all things on Earth: energy, matter, motion, forces … everyone of them obey the laws                                                         ―   but  from Whom ? Courage, Candor, and Conclusion  ―    in a Lab Coat To every question there are two correct answers: The first is the best answer as we know it to be at present, and the second is the greater, more appropriate answer that we'll discover tomorrow. The conformist's goal is to always settle for the first answer knowing that it will please the masses. The scientist's goal is to always find and state the second answer even wh...

Oxygen of real sub-atomic particles Present everywhere, yet so unnoticed Moving in an out of everything undetected Sustaining the other creatures and us, without fanfare Combining with the other elements To decide, whether to run, to stand To arrive, to depart  Simultaneously, in all entities   Essential to life Thirst quenching in life Nourishing for life Always present in life, but Invisible, Just like a  Spirit.  by James A. Porter

     The practices and ideologies of the present Republican Party are shameful, sad, and poor replacements for the great practices and ideologies of the earlier Republican Party.      The ideas of the present Republican Party are flashbacks to the “southern dixiecratisms” of the post-civil war, pre-civil rights era. They are gradual (but intentional) reinstatement of Jim Crow laws, denial of voting rights, repeal of women’s rights, suppression of the masses’ individual freedoms, and the reestablishment of the plantation mentality, which previously culminated in two classes of Americans – the “haves” and the “have-nots.”         The ideas of the earlier Republican Party were courageous, challenging, innovative, God-fearing, democratic visions, which foreshadowed America’s later achievement and laid the ground works for the great nation it became.      I can site many examples that show the dram...

It always feels so comforting and reassuring to have one in the wilderness, in the woods, or in the middle of nowhere. For regardless of the thickness of the jungle, or the denseness of the trees, or the absence of civilization in all directions; it simply and quietly points the correct way you must travel today, tomorrow, and in the days to come ―    proving that sometimes the strongest, most accurate instructions are neither spoken or written.  by James A. Porter  

      I think that most historians would probably agree that the current Republican Party is the diabolical opposite of the great party that gave the United States of America highly principled leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. The republican party of these four great leaders made us feel hopeful, confident, God-fearing, and in charge of our lives, our environment and our natural resources. We knew that we were on our way to becoming " the shining city on the hill."             Before I became a centrist, I was a republican ― by accident. I didn’t plan on becoming a republican; it simply happened by coincidence. It just happened that during that particular time I lived my life in accordance with the principles that the republicans (I knew) believed and practiced. They included honesty ― being truthful with yourself and others; respect – showing that you value yourself, and confirming th...

     I hear republican leaders, like Governor Mitt Romney, Senator Rick Santorum, Congressman Paul Ryan, Governor Scott Walker, and House Speaker John Boehner, saying it all the time: “We’re saving the future for our children,” but I am never quite sure what they mean. Their 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 messages that more accurately resemble “We’re saving the future for the children in our household ― 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...

Once upon a time there was an oak tree that stood strong and imposing; it was the biggest and tallest tree in the forest. One year, in mid-summer, its lowest branches began to turn yellow  ―  a sign of high stress and poor nutrition.  "Will you help us?" the lowest branches asked the tree. "Please send us more nourishment from the roots, and tell the higher branches to allow us to get more sun?" they pleaded. The tree replied, "There are no free nutrition in our roots and I will not ask the high branches to ration the sun; they high branches got to the top of the canopy by their hard work and their perseverance. You should have done the same. So that winter the lowest branches died. The next year, in mid-summer, the middle branches began to turn yellow ― a sign of high stress and poor nutrition.  "Will you help us?" the middle branches asked the tree. "Please send us more nourishment from the roots, and tell the higher branches to allow us to ge...