Hello

Submerged Drowning beneath the surface, I gasp out for air. Reaching out for help, but no one seems to care. Falling out of view, I’ve found my resting place. No time for final wishes, no time for saying grace. Beneath the murky waters, I’m all forgotten now. It’s just another tragedy that one should not allow. If there were another way, it might not be for me. I’ll now embrace eternity, underneath a frigid sea.

How Big Corporations Are Unpatriotic (Common Dreams) by  Ralph Nader Many giant profitable U.S. corporations are increasingly abandoning America while draining it at the same time. General Electric, for example, has paid no federal income taxes for a decade while becoming a net job exporter and fighting its hard-pressed workers who want collective bargaining through unions like the United Electrical Workers Union (UE). GE’s boss, Jeffrey Immelt, makes about $12,400 an hour on an 8-hour day, plus benefits and perks, presiding over this global corporate empire. Telling by their behavior, these big companies think patriotism toward the country where they were created and prospered is for chumps. Their antennae point to places where taxes are very low, labor is wage slavery, independent unions are non-existent, governments have their hands out, and equal justice under the rule of law does not exist. China, for example, has fit that description for over 25 years. Other...

From the Cooperative Grocer Network, I found this article on www.organicconsumers.org Building the GMO Labeling Campaign(Article From Cooperative Grocer Network) The growing demand for labeling that identifies genetically modified ingredients (GMOs) lost the California referendum but will be on the ballot later this year in the state of Washington. Whole Foods gave the Just Label It campaign, justlabelit.org, a boost by announcing that by 2018 all products in their stores must id entify on the label any genetically modified ingredients. Co-ops already have strongly supported the Just Label It campaign, and the National Cooperative Grocers Association continues to approach its suppliers about the issues. Here are some additional comments (3/11/13) by Berkshire Co-op General Manager Art Ames: “It behooves us to continue to look at other ways that we can effect change so that it is in the manufacturers' best financial interest to eliminate GMOs. In fact, it needs to be a great enoug...

Paycheck of Perversion The green paper feels so good in your hand. With it you can buy laws at your command. Money talks too much, and you can’t mute. The decay from this pay, you cannot dispute. First you just wanted to control your life. But the power of money soon led to strife. A choice was made, and family was left behind. Your watched life fade as you robbed others blind. Now, all alone, do you still feel that strong? Pretending you’re ok, you try in vain to belong. The actions from your past haunt you still. Now, even your wallet, you cannot fill. Justice was served, though it took a while. Behind steel bars, you cannot buy a smile. Let it be to you as a wise lesson learned. Your former glory is no longer concerned.

Military Might The arms race begun long ago, Yet it still deals us a heavy blow. Billions of dollars over the years Is spent to calm all of our fears. We build up our military far and away. Are we much safer?  Who can really say? Much talk perpetuates this intense race. Leaders and the news praise our weapons base. Underneath this system, I see a different light. There’s much more to a nation than their military might.

Important short documentary on the impact that NAFTA and similar agreements have on once productive American communities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v4ieiHpGU3s

Newsroom - Video/Audio: Bernie Sanders - U.S. Senator for Vermont I echoed some of Senator Sander's words at a recent open mic night held on Plattsburgh's campus.  We have dozens of major "American" corporations outsourcing their labor to cheaper countries, stashing their tax havens in remote areas such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.  The only time these corporations "value" America is when it comes time for bailouts.  Then all of the sudden the American taxpayer is treasured, for a brief and flirting moment.  Well, I agree when Mr. Sanders says that these same corporations should go to the Cayman Islands, and where ever else their income is stored and ask them  for a bailout.  Why would they suck American taxpayers dry, stash their earnings offshore and beg for Americans to bail them out?  Unfortunately money speaks volumes, and these enterprises have enough to fill libraries forever.   Citizens United vs. F.E.C.  perhaps dealt the fin...

I often hear politicians on both sides of the American eagle argue about the best way to reduce our nation’s deficit.  This in itself appears to be a good thing for citizens to hear, since we all want a hopeful future for our posterity.  However when our leaders start talking about how they will cut the deficit, the shivers go up my spine.  “Cut or eliminate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid...”  The list of social programs that politicians are willing to cut goes on and on.  Yet, we are ignoring America’s rapacious military spending.  The $1 trillion in defense spending is hardly even acknowledged, let alone questioned by our mainstream media.  Moreover, those, like politicians Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders, Ralph Nader, Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson, Jill Stein and Jan Schakowsky, journalists Chris Hedges, Jeremy Scahill and Naomi Klein and intellectuals like Noam Chomsky, who question this, are often shunned and despised by mainstream media.  Whi...

Grand bargain could be grand sellout By Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) -  03/18/13 06:31 PM ET The media appear fixated about when and if a so-called “grand bargain” on our economy will be reached. Wrong question! The question we should be asking is: What should be in a “grand bargain” that works for the average American? At a time when the middle class is disappearing, 46 million Americans are living in poverty and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, we need a “grand bargain” that protects struggling working families, not billionaires. Before we pass a grand bargain, we have got to take a hard and sober look at what’s happening economically in our country today. In doing so, we must acknowledge that the United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth and that inequality is worse today than at any time since the late 1920s. Today, the wealthiest 400 individuals i...

The Last Letter  A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From: Tomas Young I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care. I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of ...

Mirror Image My dad and I watched evening news, And saw just how the violence spews. Deceit, greed and civil war Were just some of what’s in store. We saw the hearts of those who hate. Watching how they rule our fate. Suddenly I wondered why The things we saw made us sigh. It’s because we knew these things. Feeling the sadness it brings. A window can replace our TV. I saw all I needed to see. For all the things seen in our home Exist outside wherever we may roam.

Our Worth in Earth At the start, there was beauty for all to share. People lived, learned and grew without care. Gradually a new change occurred. A once clear vision now became blurred. Division seeped up from underground. Now longer did our resources abound. Today in our heated climate debate; We race onward to an unknown fate. Different sides all claim they’re right. Confusion is followed close by fright. As we ponder whatever we should do Great changes occur for many to view. Some will choose to contemplate; Others act before it’s too late. The choice exists for all to make. It’s wise to consider what’s at stake.

The vast majority of Americans have either witnessed or at least heard of the effects climate change has brought about.  However, there is much debate over how serious this problem (if it's considered a problem) is, and what, (if anything) can or should be done about it.  I believe that the media is largely going to answer these questions; but still, vast differences of opinion exist among different media outlets.  For example, programs such as Democracy Now! , Moyers and Company  and magazines such as The Nation  and Mother Jones  have been and still are sounding the alarm about climate change and its consequences.  On the other hand, Fox and other conservative programs and papers either completely ignore or downplay the climate issue.  One can carry this divide to politicians, where the debate is so partisan, it becomes extremely difficult to make even basic legislative progress on environmental issues.  The most outspoken and passionate ...

The Open Door Through the open door I go, Into a world I do not know. I’m left without any directions. Absent from all grand connections. Like diving into a pool at first, I choose to make the best from worst. Where I’ll travel down this road I don’t know, I wasn’t told. Yet on I go nonetheless; Gaining control of my stress. Although I’m not sure of the score, I don’t look back at the open door.

About the struggles of workers at an American clothing company, and their endurance against modern globalization and consumption trends.  Enjoy. Trying for Truth         Lew Harvey settled down on his milk white rocking chair, looking off to the horizon from his porch.  The setting sun cast its remaining rays over the vegetable garden; as a sign of things to come.  Harvey was in an insecure job at United Clothing, a local factory in Oklahoma.  Profits were down for this corporation, and trying to boost public support for their business seemed futile.  Although there was a growing demand for American made clothing, a great number of people wouldn’t think twice about buying the fifteen dollar jeans at Sears.  Harvey, like all his colleagues working in the factory, wasn’t in control of his future.  How could anyone be in times like these?          At forty three years old...