The Fourth Option (A Centrist Perspective) Blog

Sprayed ground meat: the only remains from them,  ―   outside my memories. Together: we laughed and cried and boasted about future dreams with beautiful wives, and children. Never again. Red and Green Mosaic: the jungle leaves with their splattered blood flowed like my mourning tears; I knew: None will ever drink a beer, nor own a house,  nor meet his future wife, or hold their babies to nurture through little league through wellness and sickness to attend prom and college and make grandchildren. Never again.  ( They only wanted to give those war torn children candies, knowing future Dads should practice loving them, Unknowing,  ―  that here:  Children were often wired as bombs to explode.) Never will they have a birthday. or reach the age of twenty or vote,  ―  for the first time. Never again.   I still cry... by James A. Porter

Reprint: I wrote this article on June 28, 2011. I am reprinting it because I think that it is important to remember the events and sentiments that lead to the recall of Governor Scott Walker. They were as follows: 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. Yo...

     I wrote this article on April 15, 2012. I felt that it was important to reprint it in these remaining days before the recall election in Wisconsin:      I knew it was just a matter of time before someone, like Governor Scott Walker (R-WI), acting on behalf of corporate America, would target and try to dismantle the professional public unions. The question in my mind was never  “Why are the public unions going to be dismantled?”  It was always  “When are they going to be dismantled?”  So now that the question of  “when?”  has been answered, I think it’s time to discuss the  “reasons why.”       Professional public unions or the unions that represent law enforcement officers, fire fighters, nurses, teachers, social workers . . . are organizations that speak for the men and women, who see the impacts of government policies – everyday! While the governor, who slashed entitlements, sees increa...

     I wrote this article on March 1, 2011. It was titled  Governor Scott Walker's Policies of Unequal Opportunities. I feel that it is important to revisit this article at the present time for the purpose of remembering that Governor Walker's balanced budget  wasn't a shared sacrifice!   And it will not be a shared sacrifice in the future: The middle class will continue to bear the lion share of the burden .  As a matter of fact, I am predicting that the middle class will work harder, earn less in hourly wages, and lose more of their rights and freedoms, after Scott Walker wins the recall.       The article I wrote on March 1, 2011 follows:   There is no doubt that the government in the state of Wisconsin is in deep financial debt. There is also no doubt that in order to reduce the size of this huge debt, Governor Walker needs to cut government spending (including the wages and benefits of Wisconsin’s public workers). What is ...

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 misery  (working and living conditions), 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...

We identify the losers of political elections as the candidates with lower vote counts. We seem unaware that when two rich guys compete for a political office, and the looser returns to private life, writes a memoir, which earns him upwards of 50 million dollars, then conducts year-long speaking engagements, with each engagement earning him upwards of $35,000; most of us middle class folks wouldn’t describe his end-result as “a lost.” Yes, we know that most candidates who lose elections do not wind-up with the lucrative outcome just described. However, most of them do return to prestigious, profitable jobs in the private sector. A better tally of “the authentic losers” of a political election should be achieved by counting the increased number of families seeking government assistance, the increased number of foreclosed homes, the increased number of unemployment . . . the increased amount of misery in every aspect of life – especially the increased lost of hope. These outcomes should ...

truth in politics is a meaning, lengthy  discussion with your pet  ― granite  rock: It's beyond grasp, beyond reach, beyond feelings  ―  benign neglect. truth in politics speaks with misused words: deviously, dishonestly concealing racially, economically, socially ―  dividing.  truth in politics   blindsides with evil all true principles  of the Christian faith and the sacrifice of Jesus! Yet, attempts to persuade in His name ―  hoping to fool those of us  who are too socially and politically knowledgable to be fooled  ―  and that’s the irony! by James A. Porter

     It’s unfortunate, but in the United States of America, citizens hold professional sports teams’ coaches/managers to levels of excellence that are enormously higher than the standards they set for national and states’ political leaders. Consider the case of Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) for example: After he became governor a year ago, the republican party (his party), which controlled both houses in Wisconsin, passed every law he wanted, gave him every tax incentive he requested, privatized the government functions he demanded, cut the entitlements programs he ordered, and marginalized the unions he was against. Essentially he got everything he requested and more. (Additionally, he received the backing of the National Republican Party, most of Wisconsin’s big businesses, and many of the one percent, richest Americans.) Yet, a cold hard analysis of the present social and economic picture in Wisconsin shows, in every aspect, conditions of most Wisconsinites are worse t...

Wisconsin Largest Job Loss in History The Republican Party gave Governor Scott Walker 100 percent support: They supported him in keeping revenues "off the table," ending collective bargaining, cutting entitlements, reducing the size of government, refusing federal funds for rail and health, and giving huge tax incentives to corporations.  The graph above shows the record of Governor Scott Walker, who promised the people of Wisconsin 250,000 jobs. It earned the title as "The Largest Job Loss State in the Nation" by defeating, among others, Ohio and New Jersey for the title! It's clear that the austerity measures of the republican governors are failing. States with the largest cuts to public spending and the most lucrative tax brakes for corporations have the highest job loss. (The only exceptions are those states with military bases, and huge defense contracts, like Texas and Arizona.) God help us!

Recitative I move as I had always moved: subconsciously unaware Of the enormous movements required for my dance, unaware of the dance movements required through life,  but somewhat aware of unique movements in the dance. Each life, and all things of my life, perceived by “The Other” in me, accepted by “The Other” in them, transferred from each “other” to “one another” Yet I danced within the dance of others in the presence of all their songs, for all songs require movements. The others who danced , the others who danced with me in the wide variety of our movements and songs that sometimes complements each other in harmony that sometimes struck a discord of dissonance  joyful and upbeat, soulful, spiritual, secular . . . swinging sometimes sad and solemn. All dances move in concentric circles Of their songs, within other dances of larger songs and larger circles: since most rhythm of dances are cyclic: All  songs construct the transcendent poly rhythms that are our lives; ...

           People who run governments should be sensitive, 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 these depths of understanding and sensitivity, do not take the task of decision-making or policy implementation lightly. Instead, the look at problems from every perspective, they consult with their supporters and their oppositions. They, with the help of their staff, role play, envision, or creatively construct the scenarios of the most likely outcomes their decisions and policies will produce. These steps enable them to see the wide range of effects ― from happiness and prosperity to misery and starvation ― that will result. This, however, doesn’t mean that these leaders would not proceed. Quite the contrary, if the decision or policy is absolutely necessary – in their judgment...

REPRINT: I wrote the following article several months ago. I felt the need to point out areas of “big government” and “big government spending” that are often overlooked in our discussions about reducing the size of government:        There is a misconception concerning the size of government, and it is this: If we reduce the number of public employees working directly for the government, we will reduce the size of our big government.   Nothing is further from “the real truth .” For although the visual sight of huge government buildings with thousands of employees sitting behind their desks, helps us to imagine these buildings and their employees as a massive part of an overblown, highly incompetent, wasteful bureaucracy ; in reality, this is a small portion of government. It is the tiny tip of the overall governmental iceberg: It’s like the visible portion of the iceberg that hit the Titanic; its enormous and dangerous portions were invisible – h...