“In 2001, a handful of extremists perpetrated the single biggest massacre on American soil in history. Since then, the entire Western world has gone into lockdown—ramping up security, launching international wars and trying its goddamn best to wipe out the terrorist menace. Only problem is: it isn’t working. Not only is ‘terror’ alive and well, our failed war on it is harming all of us, thanks to things like:
SOURCE: Listverse
A 19th century tool for instilling fear in the public to pay off debt.
“‘In the 1990s, Jack [Dawley's] drug and alcohol addictions led to convictions for domestic violence and driving under the influence, resulting in nearly $1,500 in fines and costs in the Norwalk Municipal Court. Jack was also behind on his child support, which led to an out-of-state jail sentence.’ After serving three and a half years in Wisconsin, Dawley, now sober for 14 years, is still trying to catch up with the fines he owes, and it has ‘continue[d] to wreak havoc on his life.’
“Tricia Metcalf is a mother with sole custody of two teenagers. In 2006, Metcalf ‘was convicted of passing multiple bad checks. The fines mounted into the thousands. Unable to pay the total amount owed, Tricia entered into a payment plan of $50 per month.’ Although she’s worked temporary jobs, a long-term job has been hard to find. ‘Whenever Tricia missed a payment, a warrant was issued and she was taken to jail.’
“The stories of Jack Dawley and Tricia Metcalf are only two of several compelling accounts in the ACLU’s new report, The Outskirts of Hope: How Ohio’s Debtors’ Prisons Are Ruining Lives and Costing Communities.
“The jailing of people unable to pay fines and court costs is no longer a relic of the 19th century American judicial system. Debtors’ prisons are alive and well in one-third of the states in this country.
“In 2011, Think Progress’ Marie Diamond wrote: ‘Federal imprisonment for unpaid debt has been illegal in the U.S. since 1833. It’s a practice people associate more with the age of Dickens than modern-day America. But as more Americans struggle to pay their bills in the wake of the recession, collection agencies are using harsher methods to get their money, ushering in the return of debtor’s prisons.’”
SOURCE: Harrisburg Patriot-News
“It’s rare for privileged Westerners to see, graphically, what many others experience daily”
By Noam Chomsky | AlterNet
“April is usually a cheerful month in New England, with the first signs of spring, and the harsh winter at last receding. Not this year.
“There are few in Boston who were not touched in some way by the marathon bombings on April 15 and the tense week that followed. Several friends of mine were at the finish line when the bombs went off. Others live close to where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect, was captured. The young police officer Sean Collier was murdered right outside my office building.
“It’s rare for privileged Westerners to see, graphically, what many others experience daily – for example, in a remote village in Yemen, the same week as the marathon bombings.
“On April 23, Yemeni activist and journalist Farea Al-Muslimi, who had studied at an American high school, testified before a US Senate committee that right after the marathon bombings, a drone strike in his home village in Yemen killed its target.
“The strike terrorized the villagers, turning them into enemies of the United States – something that years of jihadi propaganda had failed to accomplish.’
[Columbia news, views & reviews’ NOTE: Terrorism exists in many of the nations in which individual freedoms are diminished. Yet, there are those who believe that the U.S. must have “more security” in the shadow of the Boston bombing.
At what price? Fewer freedoms. We are reminded of this quote from American statesman: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Here are two interesting columns about the topic of increased security for diminished freedom; note that one was written on July 4, 2002, less than a year after another act of terrorism.
“Freedom Vs. Security” – The Daily Beast, July 2002
“In our opinion: Security vs. freedom” – The Deseret News, Salt Lake City, UT
(photo source: Fat Jack’s Erratic Rants)
“In America, freedom and responsibility often don’t ride together — as evidenced by motorcyclists allowed to ride without safety helmets, a practice that courts senseless death.
“The operation of any vehicle — autos or motorcycles — is a privilege, not a right. States license drivers and riders and rightly insist that they follow rules in the name of safety, like the seat belt requirement for motorists.
“But since 2003 most motorcycle riders in Pennsylvania have been allowed to go helmet-less in the name of freedom. The results have been predictable. The Governors Highway Safety Association reports a rising national epidemic of motorcycle fatalities, including 210 in Pennsylvania last year — a 5.5 percent increase.
“More than 5,000 riders died in the nation in 2012, only the third time that has occurred. The report points out that the number of motorcycle deaths more than doubled between 1997 and 2011, even as overall traffic fatalities fell by 23 percent.
“The Alliance for Bikers Aimed Toward Education, a group that lobbied hard to gut Pennsylvania’s helmet law, argues that more people are riding motorcycles and therefore more are being killed. ABATE is right about that. But the problem is really that more people are riding and riding without helmets — meaning they aren’t part of the general improvement in traffic safety.
“Dangerous situations demand helmets. Football players don’t play without them, soldiers don’t fight without them and competitive motorcycle racers strap them on. The human brain is fragile. When an unprotected skull hits the roadway, the brain usually loses.
“In fact, the exceptions to the state law — helmets are mandated for riders under 21 and for older riders in the first two years of being licensed — underscore how dangerous riding can be.
“Motorcycle tragedies do not happen in a vacuum — they involve first responders, emergency physicians and hospital staff and insurance companies. Families are stricken and the costs spread to society at large.
“It’s time to end Pennsylvania’s failed 10-year experiment of condoning needless injuries by reinstating a comprehensive motorcycle helmet law.”
(SOURCE: Opinion, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Obviously, the better way to find out what happens and what is said at any gathering of people, is to be there. Listen to what people are saying. Watch the Power Point presentation, if there are any. Look at who is saying what to whom. Observe who tends to sit with whom and who gathers together for small group discussion during breaks.
For those who were not in attendance at Tuesday’s Columbia Town Meeting, media reports and reports from those who attended become the source of information.
Here is one observer’s account of the town meeting: “Columbians seek to boost town’s quality of life.” - MyColumbiaNews
This is the third installment of Columbia news, news & reviews’ reporting of the note-taking of that meeting.
Police chief Jack Bromer followed the mayor’s Power Point presentation with his own Power Point presentation about the Columbia Police Department’s resources and statistics. The presentation included staffing numbers; call reports from the county’s 9-1-1 system; and the department’s upgraded weaponry. The mayor injected that the weapons were acquired at minimal cost to taxpayers; the new 40 mm hand guns and AR-15′s were obtained using grant funding.
The chief made references to the need for increased staffing. He spoke to the citations issued so far this year for dog violations; there’ve been 20.
The mayor and police chief agreed that speeding is a problem; the mayor said, “Ninth Street is a raceway.” The department is working on enforcement in town and on Routes 30 and 441. The mayor said the department will be getting “one-officer” radar speed abatement
The chief commented on his department’s responses to direct calls to the department as well as the recorded calls to the 9-1-1 system. He related actions and activities that the police department has been involved with; that list includes: making sure that the borough’s curfew is observed. The borough’s curfew ordinance appears online; it states, “The Borough Secretary/Treasurer shall provide notice of this chapter and of the curfew regulations established by it by having copies of this chapter posted in, on or about such public or quasi-public places as may be determined by the Mayor, the Borough Council and Police Department in order that the public may be constantly informed of the existence of this chapter and its amendments and regulations.”
“The Borough Council of the Borough of Columbia, recognizing the problem of crimes committed by and committed against juveniles during the nighttime and believing that it can be dealt with more effectively by regulating the hours during which minors less than 18 years of age may remain in public places and certain establishments without adult supervision and by defining more clearly certain duties and responsibilities upon those who have the custody and responsibility for the care of such minors, hereby enacts this chapter for the purpose of promoting the general welfare and protecting the general public through reduction of juvenile violence and crime within the Borough of Columbia, promoting the safety and welfare of the Borough citizens under the age of 18 years whose youth and inexperience renders them particularly vulnerable to becoming the participants in criminal activity and in being victimized by perpetrators of crime, and fostering and strengthening parental responsibility for children.
“The period of time between the hours Read the rest of this entry »
The explosion was catastrophic.
The cause of the explosion in West, Texas, is under investigation. NBC36TV/Twitter
The last time the fertilizer plant was inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was in 1985.
Hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate — an extremely dangerous and volatile substance — burst into flames, leveling nearby homes and severely damaging schools.
More than 200 people were injured. Fifteen died.
And a small town is left devastated, wondering how it could have happened.
Let’s make sure it never happens again.
Then forward this message to five friends who will call on the president and Congress to prevent future workplace tragedies like this.
For starters, OSHA’s funding should be increased and the fines against workplaces where employees are killed should be raised.
“The nation’s number one resource is its workers,” Public Citizen’s workplace health and safety advocate told The Huffington Post. (1) “But the agency that’s charged with protecting them is not given the resources to do it. I think it’s worrisome for the nation.”
The sad truth is that this is what happens when we let corporations regulate themselves.
Right now, OSHA’s abysmally low funding means the agency has the resources to inspect plants like the one that exploded only once every 126 years. (2)
Meanwhile, the fine against workplaces where an employee is killed remains outrageously low: $7,000 per lost life.
The anti-regulatory fervor of corporate lobbyists in Washington has made it a matter of routine to prioritize profits over public health and safety.
If we’re serious about preventing workplace tragedies like that in West, Texas — and the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion in West Virginia and BP oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico — we have to provide OSHA the resources it needs to do its job right.
Sign the petition to the White House and Congress TODAY.
1. The Huffington Post: Texas Plant Explosion Reveals Wide Gaps In Workplace Safety Laws
2. Bloomberg News: Texas Explosion Seen as Sign of Weak U.S. Oversight
When most people think of the town meeting, they think of the open forum, all topics and issues brought to the forefront and debated convocation of the shareholders.
In its most pure form, the town meeting begun and practiced in New England’s states and commonwealths, was an open forum of voting citizens in a town. In Vermont, “It is the day when all the legal voters of a town have an opportunity to air their grievances; a day when true town business is addressed; and the source of a much-needed social respite towards the end of a long Vermont winter.”
Wikipedia says it this way: “A town meeting is a form of direct democratic rule, used primarily in portions of the United States since the 17th century, in which most or all the members of a community come together to legislate policy and budgets for local government.
“The term has more recently been expanded to cover public meetings that draw people in a geographic area to discuss issues but not vote on any legislative or administrative action. Notably, the term is commonly used by politicians in the United States to describe forums at which voters can ask questions.”
Was Monday’s meeting a town meeting?
At Monday night’s town meeting in Columbia, the “openness” and the general airing of grievances by citizens was limited as the unpublished agenda evolved as the mayor and police chief showed Power Point presentations. The mayor’s focused on observations about what the mayor’s observed around town and what he believes is needed; the police chief’s was a show about the police department’s resources and needs.
Yard sales: The mayor’s Power Point began with a slide showing yard sale signage and the mayor held up a yard sale sign that he’d gotten over the weekend. He went on to say that the uncontrolled yard sales (1) violate utility company policies when people post signs on utility poles; (2) that the signs not removed give a bad appearance to visitors ; (3) that the nails, tacks, staples and devices used to affix the signs present a safety hazard; (4) that signage taped to surfaces can scar and remove paint when removed and that the sale of food at yard sales by individuals can present a health risk.
The Columbia Website page headed ZONING says this about yard sales: “It is Read the rest of this entry »
Last night’s Columbia Town Meeting drafted by mayor Leo Lutz and police chief Jack Bromer brought together an assembly of around 80 people … citizens, business owners, religious leaders, the new borough manager, the departing borough manager, all of the councillors, the codes officer, the Columbia Economic Development Corporation and members of the school board of directors. The Town Meeting began at 7:00 pm and concluded just after 10:00 pm. At the conclusion, just under 40 persons were in attendance.
Those assembled for the Town Meeting, held at the Columbia Borough School District’s headquarters at the corner of Chestnut and Fifth streets, were welcomed by the mayor and police chief. Each shared Power Point slide shows. Chief Bromer welcomed the community’s shareholders then turned the program over to the mayor who began the meeting with a slide show showing some of the highlights of Columbia’s successes over the past years.
He identified the Yardwaste Facility, the Town Square, the Route 462 project through town, the new streets, the Market House, the added parking lots, the downtown streetscape, the River Park and more.
He then introduced Ray D’agostino, the executive director of the Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership (LHOP) and Jim Shultz, program development manager for LHOP. Each of them shared success projects about reclaiming neighborhood housing opportunities from the City of Lancaster. D’agostino and Shultz each spoke to the importance of bringing community shareholders together to develop planning to determine what they want their community to be in the future. D’agostino stressed that planning is great, but plans need resources to come to fruition.
He and Shultz announced and entertained questions about Community First Foundation initiative that will make some of those “resources” available – in the form of a grant opportunity of $100,000 a year for five years for the borough under the long-term creative solutions matching fund program: “To invest in creative solutions to benefit low-income residents in Lancaster City and Columbia.”
D’agostino continued by indicating that there is the potential for continuation and Read the rest of this entry »
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