The importance of good morals and ethics in society

One might think that the most important subject matter to get across to children in school, involves the basics of mathematics, reading, and writing.  While, no doubt, mastery of these subjects are of immense importance for all, the bottom line is that those that are educated, or non-educated for that matter, need to also be taught and to take to heart, without exception, the importance of as well as the value of good ethics and sound morals.  That is to say, a society that brings up its children in a manner in which their moral compass is suspect and their personal ethics correlate wholly with their selfishness, is not going to be a good and safe society, but rather will devolve into being a dog-eat-dog construct.

It is always far better to address morals and ethics, when a child is young, for good habits developed at a young age, create a sound basis for good behavior.  While, it is true, that it is never too late for change for the better, it is a truism that the more ingrained bad habits and bad behaviors are, the more difficult it is to extricate people from the mindset trap that has been so created. 

It is wise to remember that when children are born that their environment and their upbringing impresses upon their psyche, and such can either be of benefit to that child in its good development, or can be in conflict or of harm to the innate goodness of children; so that  in absence of good role models, or sound familial structure, children need to know not only what is right and what is wrong, but the reasoning behind such, as well as taking into their being the comprehension as to why good morals and sound ethics makes for a good and better society, as well as for a better and more secure life.

After all, if stealing, cheating, and lying are all occurring in the here and now of a child's development, of which, there is nobody or no one to help explain why this is not appropriate behavior which is being perpetrated from various adults as well as other children; in which, it seems that in many instances, the perpetrators of these bad things often are not being caught or made to own up to their misbehavior, then nothing but confusion and uncertainty is going to enter into the mind of a given child.  For, the bottom line is that though we do have police and a multitude of laws, it is in a very large sense, up to people themselves to be the ultimate person responsible for their own behavior, good or bad, and to thereby to keep their own house in order.

Everyone should know the difference between right and wrong, and further, the need to have developed within themselves the discipline to not allow impulsive and bad acts to override their common sense, a good moral compass, and good behavior.  Additionally, our free will, is our responsibility to own up to, so that we need as much as possible, from good familial relationships, good schools, good friends, as well as mentors, the abiding knowledge that good morals and sound ethics properly applied will serve as our good restraint upon our bad actions, for if we do not learn to appropriately restrain ourselves, then the state apparatus or outside elements will surely do so.

Locking up the wrong people for the wrong reasons

According to Wikipedia.org, the United States incarceration rate is 655 peoples per 100,000, of which the prison population in America is estimated to be 2,121,600.  In comparison, Japan, a country of 126.8 million peoples, has a total of 51,805 as their prison population, with an incarceration rate of just 41 peoples per 100,000.  This would seem to indicate that Japan is a much more civilized and a much more just country than America is, and that probably is a fair conclusion to draw.

There isn't any country in the world that has more power and more aggregate wealth than America, yet, America demonstrates by its exceedingly high crime rate that there must be something fundamentally wrong with this picture.  That fundamental wrong is that America is quite clearly a very unequal society, in which while having an incredible amount of wealth, way too much of that wealth, is held in the hands of the very, very few; and in addition, America has an embarrassingly high amount of poverty, often concentrated in low opportunity zones, as well as those impoverished people often suffering from ill education.

The very people that America specializes in incarcerating are their most impoverished citizens, who suffer from a lack of good employment opportunity, thwarted dreams, discrimination, and living within an infrastructure which provides them with very little of real substance.  Not too surprisingly, people that live on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, clearly do suffer from the stress of never being able to get ahead, along with having the innate knowledge that the game is most definitely fixed against them, of which, the justice system that they must contend with, is unequal, unsympathetic, and uncaring; thereby making them easy targets for the policing arm of this country to prey upon, for they do not have the resources to put up any sort of fight, and if they do fight back, they often suffer an ever more debilitating fate.

All this signifies that America, has for decades, concentrated far too much of its resources on incarcerating people for the basic crime of living in low income areas, that lack any ready means for a good and living wage; and punishing those trying to make some money, in an environment, that does not afford them a true and fair opportunity to make money, any other way than the means that they so often pursue.

Yet, all the crime that occurs in America, never goes away, no matter how many are arrested, processed, and incarcerated, because as long as there is a such a significant subsection of Americans that are exploited, abused, segregated, targeted, and discriminated against -- the crimes to be found and to thereby be charged against these unfortunate people, will never run dry.

So then, what America refuses to do is to take and to make a thorough investigation of all those that are exploiting the poor, as well as to examine thoroughly all those that create and are the beneficiaries of the conditions that make for the poor, of which, these people are seldom arrested or incarcerated.  Yet, if America was to concentrate fully its immense justice and political resources upon all those that are so clever in taking unfair advantage of their fellow citizens, as well as to level the playing field, so that all would have an equal chance at the table of prosperity, then its crime rate would surely come down, for the real criminals are specifically those that steal the lives, happiness, and freedom of their fellow citizens, for their own profit and selfishness.   

The federal government should borrow money directly from its citizens

It is quite unfortunate that because of its name, that the Federal Reserve Bank, is considered by many to be the national bank of the United States, but it most surely is not.  In fact, the Federal Reserve Bank, is made up of banking consortiums, such as Citigroup and Chase, and is a separate and independent banking consortium, which is not part of the federal government.  However, our coin of the realm comes from this Federal Reserve Bank, in which the dollars so used, are designated as Federal Reserve notes.

As might be expected, anytime that anybody borrows money from a bank, that entity is going to have to pay something for the privilege of that money so borrowed, of which, the United States,  as reported by thebalance.com, is estimated to be expending $479 billion on its national debt for the fiscal year 2020.  That is to say that $479 billion is paid from this government to the consortiums that are the member banks of the Federal Reserve Bank.

A far better idea, is for the United States, itself, to get its funding, not from the Federal Reserve Bank, but rather from the people that populate this country, and to do so, directly, by putting forth bond issuances or similar to the people, that will thereby create the "greenbacks" to use as the legal currency in this country.  In point of fact, this issuance of currency directly generated by the government might not even necessitate interest payments, whatsoever, depending upon the structure of that money creation.

For instance, crypto currencies, which are so prevalent today, are backed by absolutely nothing, but are accepted as a form of currency because such is anonymous, prevalent, electronic, reliable, and serves as a means to make transactions from one party to another.  In fact, as estimated by cointelegraph.com, the market capitalization of all crypto currencies is approximately $213.7 billion, in which, crypto currencies only came into existence in 2009.  This so signifies, that people are quite willing to use other forms of currency other than our current Federal Reserve notes, in which that currency pays to the user, no interest, and those currencies are backed by absolutely nothing.

Additionally, greenbacks as issued directly by the United States government could in theory, be backed by some sort of combination of assets that are already owned by this government, such as land, mineral rights, commodities, gold, silver, oil, natural gas, buildings, and various other material assets owned by our national government which are estimated to be worth many trillions of dollars.

There isn't any good reason why this government has to beg, hat in hand, to banking consortiums, as well as to provide the exclusive usage of the coin of the realm to the Federal Reserve Bank.  The act of 1913, that created the Federal Reserve Bank, can and should be rescinded, and replaced by the United States government utilizing its own assets to create the sound basis of its own greenbacks, and to do such in a manner in which, this government interacts directly with its people; in which, time and time again, the good people of this great country, have demonstrated their patriotism by investing their faith and their good labor into the coin of the realm, as not only an act of civic duty, but as their expression that this last great hope of mankind, deserves no less.

501(c) (6) nonprofits and the need for transparency

Not all nonprofits are built the same, though the cursory belief is that anything that is designated as a nonprofit sounds like a community good, because it is believed that those that are involved in a nonprofit ostensibly must be doing so for the greater good. However, not all that glitters is gold and not all nonprofits are actually good, in fact, some of them are a real menace to democracy and fairness.

In point of fact, though the 501(c) (6) is a nonprofit, it is per new IRS regulations, in many cases, not subject to the reporting of their donor names and addresses, which was formerly done through IRS Form 990.  Of course, when it comes to the tax code, the IRS, and lawyers, it is never as clear as a new regulation may make it out to be, but the bottom line is that when a 501(c) (6) is able to successfully hide the names of its donors, and the amounts of those donations that these organizations have so received, and subsequently are able to utilize such in political contests, amendments, and propositions in which the money so being donated to those things, is coming not from a given individual, specifically named, nor limited to a specific dollar amount, but have come from a 501(c) (6) nonprofit, instead, than that money so utilized is clearly a form of "dark money".

Further to the point, money influences all sorts of things, and those with the most money are on the inside track of successfully putting through their agenda as compared to those others, that are monetarily outgunned.  Additionally, many 501(c) (6) nonprofits have innocuous names, along with the fact that they are designated as nonprofits, which allows these organizations to take on the aura of being a concerned institution, merely performing their civic duty as they see it, and as authorized by law.

The only possible way to even out the playing field is for all 501(c) (6) nonprofits that are contributing funds to elections, amendments, and propositions, to have publically disclosed in real time, the actual names of those that are donating these funds, visible for the public perusal.  Additionally, those nonprofits that pretend to be one thing when in actuality they are something else, should have their nonprofit status revoked, and should be effectively dissolved.

When it comes to influence in politics, amendments, and propositions, the amount of money put into play makes an important and material difference to the results so rendered, and when that money is influencing greatly the result of local and civic events, of which that money is not local to the community, though the nonprofit so created is; that seems to be wholly unfair to the community at large.

In all fairness, community concerns, that are taken up for a vote or debate, should be limited to those that are part and parcel of that community, of which each person eligible to vote, should have that one vote; whereas nonprofits that have taken on the guise of being part of that community, but are funded by those agents which clearly are not, have no legitimate place in the public and fully disclosed square.

Credit card interest rates need a Federal mandated cap

In all likelihood, usury has probably been around in one form or another, ever since mankind determined that the present value of money is not the same as the future value of that money -- and further that those that need a loan, in order to make it worthwhile for the person or entity so loaning the money, should receive something more in return for the risk and the period of time that the money is so being loaned.

In America, the banks seemingly hand out credit cards almost like candy, so that virtually every adult has received a solicitation for a credit card and subsequently has received a credit card on their person.  Unfortunately, the financial intelligence of the American consumer varies considerably, in which some of those consumers are quite cognizant and perceptive when it comes to credit cards, interest rates, penalties and so forth, and then there are those others that seemingly are clueless.

Not too surprisingly, financial institutions love those that really don't understand what they are signing up for, nor properly understand their obligations when it comes to their interest rate, penalties, due dates, and minimum payback requirements, for these consumers can be, and often are the most profitable consumers for these financial institutions to have.  Incredibly, while it might seem unfathomable, we find that in the 21st century that this modern and advanced nation, has some States of its Union, that for all intents and purposes, that do not have usury caps on the interest rate that their credit cards are issued upon.  Again, it bears repeating, that States such as South Dakota, do not limit the interest rate that credit card banking companies can charge their consumers, and that non-limitation has nothing to do with whether that person utilizing that credit card actually lives in South Dakota, but, rather the only thing that materially matters is that the banking institution must have its credit card charter operations located within that State.

In an era in which new car loans, are consummated at less than 5% for those of good credit, and mortgage rates for homes are around 4% for those of good credit, it seems to be a total outrage that some credit card companies are able to charge interest at 25% or even higher on credit card balances.  To say that this is a very easy way for financial institutions to make money would be an understatement, for as reported by fool.com, in 2016, it is estimated that credit card companies made $63.4 billion in interest income, alone.

For many traditional loans, the amount of the interest rate so charged, is based upon the "prime rate", which is typically defined as the interest rate charged to the bank's best customers, and stands currently at 5%.  The prime rate, is not fixed, and is essentially tied to the current Federal Fund Rate plus 3%; thereby signifying that the prime rate adjusts to the most current economic conditions, and because it does so adjust, allows those banking institutions to still make a reasonable profit.  In regards, to credit card issuance, this Federal government should pass a law, mandating that credit card interest rates be maxed out at the prime rate plus 8%.   This is more than fair to the banking institutions that will still be the ones that will first determine if they desire to issue a credit card in the first place, as well as being fair to the consumer, who is susceptible to paying way too much for credit so being issued, simply because no reasonable interest rate cap has been put into place.

Putting those little trivialities into the right perspective

A lot of people get upset about things that really shouldn't upset them all that much, but nevertheless, even when they realize that their perspective is a bit skewed, they still get all worked up and agitated about relatively small and annoying things.  For instance, some people really get offended if they don't receive a hearty "good morning" or a wave or an acknowledge from another, when they say "good morning" to them; or they get bent out of shape when they perceive that someone has purposely cut them off on the road, or when someone doesn't appear to be listening to every word that they speak with careful and attuned attention, or when they feel that they are being ignored or marginalized, or basically they get upset when they are not feeling appreciated.

All of these various things can bother people, of which, some of these people, have a great difficulty in letting go of their various annoyances and trivialities that aren't really worth holding on to, to begin with.  Because so many people aren't able to get themselves consistently into an appropriate perspective, it sometimes requires a life changing or life rattling event for people to see things far more clearly.  For instance, a good friend that we have been having a feud with, suddenly has a catastrophic event happen to them, such as losing their only means of employment, or having their house being severely damaged via a ruinous flood; in which such an event such as those, is often going to allow us to largely let go of our past gripes with them, in order to best deal with this real crisis of real import. 

So too, perhaps we have been having difficulties with our children or friends, in which we feel that they are as usual, not really listening to us, or paying us their proper mind, which annoys us to no end.  Then when we go in to see our medical doctor, complaining of some annoying pain, only to find out after a very thorough diagnosis, that we have regrettably some sort of life threatening cancer; which changes not only our perspective in the here and now, but also our perspective about those others that had seem so damn annoying, to us.

That is to say, many people have all sorts of complaints each and every day, of which some of these complaints may have some sort of merit, and some of these complaints may indeed be justified to a certain degree; but what we shouldn't do is let life's little trivialities and annoyances to morph into something that they are not, when in the scheme of things, it just isn't that big of a deal.

After all, it shouldn't take a major crisis for a family to come back together, though, to give credit -- there are some families that can't come back together, even when there is a major crisis.  While there is something to be said about constructive criticism and the voicing of complaints; there is something also that must be said about those that accept people as they are, and thereupon make it their point to provide them with their unconditional love -- which is the best love of them all. 

Try not to make the mistake of waiting until some sort of disaster happens in your life or happens to a good and dear friend, to express that love that you truly have for them, for sometimes because of petty grievances and stubbornness, it really does come too late.

The insanity of prescription drugs in America

As reported by statista.com, "The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that prescription drug expenditure in the United States came to some 333 billion U.S. dollars in 2017."  To put this absolutely staggering sum of monies into perspective, statista.com, estimates that in 1960, a total of only 2.7 billion dollars was spent on prescription drugs, and in 1980, that total was just 12 billion dollars.  Further, as reported by statista.com, the United States, "… spent 17.9 percent of its gross domestic product on health care in 2017," as compared to only 5 percent in 1960, and just 8.9 percent in 1980.

This staggering increase in prescription drugs expenditures along with the corresponding massive increase in the percentage of monies spent on health care within America's gross domestic product, is quite clearly a crisis on a number of levels.  It must be said, it would be one thing if all this prescription drug usage in America was somehow miraculously resolving health issues and problems in America, but the fact of the matter is, that the United States is an exceedingly unhealthy nation in comparison to other western nations, therefore signifying that all of this prescription drug usage isn't actually being of real material benefit.  Additionally, no other western nation spends a higher percentage of its gross domestic product on health care; yet, the end result signifies that America's health is worse in aggregate than those other western nations. 

When it comes to health care in America, there are fundamental flaws with the orthodoxy as practiced in America, which somehow believes that the more prescription drugs that are prescribed and thereby are utilized by patients, the better off those patients will be.  This presupposes the fallacy that prescription drugs, in and of themselves, somehow are able to make people healthier, but the results clearly prove the very opposite.  What America fails to admit via its insane amount of prescription pills so prescribed, is that the whole physical body as well as its psyche is more complex than the medical profession wishes to recognize, and that therefore to believe that there somehow is a pill that will resolve, correct, and ameliorate every  illness so diagnosed is a false premise.

In point of fact, the foods that people eat, the exercises that people participate in, the stress levels that people deal with, as well as the living conditions and income of people are all salient factors in the overall health of a given person.  This thus means that to believe that for every problem the solution is some sort of prescription medicine is knowingly false.  No doubt, prescription drugs can be and have been of benefit for certain patients and specific illnesses, but they are not now, nor should they ever have been, considered to be something more than a conceivable aid for people experiencing some sort of health issue.

Further to the point, not every illness or discomfort, necessitates a prescription drug; for the body as a whole, is remarkable in being able to repair and heal itself, given enough time, rest, adjustment, cleanliness, and care.  Additionally, the fact that the prescription drug business is a for-profit business, greatly lends itself for those companies to have a material need to increase their sales, as well as to protect and/or to augment their pricing structure for the benefit of growing the profits of that corporate pharmaceutical industry. If, this country, through its government and its people, will not stop and make a thorough and comprehensive review of what exactly is going on and how much this has gone horribly wrong, then this will literally become a country drowning in prescription drugs, to the overall detriment to the health and financial well being of its population as a whole.

Prosecuting the prosecutors

The structure of justice in America, clearly favors the prosecutorial side at the expense of those accused of criminal activities, as well as hindering the defense attorneys of those so accused.   The reason that this is so, is because the prosecutor, in many cases, has taken on in fit, form, and function the mantle of not searching for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and thereby doing honor to that truth; but rather has replaced such with a deep abiding desire, to rack up victories, by prosecutorial actions that result in convictions, rightly or wrongly.  That is to say, many prosecutors are all about winning convictions, and seldom about performing their sworn duty that justice, above all, is served.

In point of fact, the prosecutor has an absolute obligation to provide to the defense all material exculpatory evidence, but when the mindset of that given prosecutor is convictions, above all else, then prosecutors are going to structure what is provided to the defense in a manner, that obfuscates or ignores such, to the detriment of justice and fairness.  Additionally, many prosecutors are wholly unfair in the charges made against defendants as well as the plea bargains so offered, especially for all those that are indigent, and without council or with council that are overburdened by case overload.

While one could appeal to the better angels of these prosecutors and thereby hope to see some sort of material change in their behavior, that probably isn't going to work, for prosecutors hold so much power and are so enthralled to that power, that such power has thoroughly taken control of their psyche. Rather, the only real way to catch a thief is for experienced attorneys, to oversee prosecutorial activities in a manner in which, this oversight committee would have the absolute right to investigate thoroughly questionable prosecutorial actions.

At the present time, each State has a State Bar Association, of which the current responsibilities of that Bar include the regulation and disciple of attorneys, in which within that Association, an offshoot could be created of retired attorneys, specifically structured in a manner to investigate suspected prosecutorial mismanagement.  Further to the point, such an Association should be constructed in which the people would have representation within that Association, so that combined, the people along with retired and experienced attorneys, would have the right to investigate thoroughly suspected prosecutorial material errors for misconduct, and to hold those prosecutors, accountable to such charges.

If such an Association was created, and created with some real bite to it, that in and of itself, would certainly impress upon even those most recalcitrant prosecutors, that their days of being the only sheriff in town, with no one and nobody to hold them accountable, effectively being over.  In other words, prosecutors operate today under the belief that there is no one and nobody that can stand up to them, so that the most egregious prosecutorial errors, mismanagement, and deliberate prejudice are permitted as a matter of course.  Prosecutors are able to conduct their business in that manner, mainly because so much of what they are doing is successfully hidden from public investigation or scrutiny of any kind; in which, when prosecutors are aware, that they are subject to a meaningful review from a superior body, with appropriate penalties so imposed, they very well might change the way that they conduct themselves to align much better with the principles of good law, fairly applied.

The correlation of lynching with economic hardship

Most everyone is aware, of the rather sordid and violent tale of white mobs lynching blacks in the late 19th century and into the 20th century, of which, it was believed that those being lynched, suffered to that fate, because of their being accused, rightly or wrongly, of various nefarious crimes, often involving white women or other social mores purposely violated by the black man.  While this is true, it is not the whole truth, for the fact of the matter is, that as reported by ehs.org.uk, that "…a standard deviation drop in the world cotton price led to a 0.09 to 0.16 standard deviation increase in lynchings in a cotton-growing county."  That is to say, when the price of cotton dropped, more lynchings occurred.

This makes eminent sense, for the business of cotton and of agricultural in general, is to make a profit, and when profits are lacking, somebody is going to have to pay the price, and those that are the planter class, are surely not going to blame themselves, and further they are not going to strike the blow against those that set the prices of cotton in world markets, because they know that doing such is futile; so then, their anger and frustration is almost always going to be taken out against the only real party, that did not have any viable defense to stop them, which pretty much meant, the blacks that worked for them.

Additionally, with the price of cotton down, the need for the continual employment of workers, is also going to be subsequently reduced, and certainly one way to get rid of excess labor is to lynch a few of them, which thereupon scares away the others, while also providing the object lesson to those that remain employed, that they need to do a whole lot better in their productivity or their fate may indeed be something quite similar.

The bottom line is that though lynching is a mob activity, it is always easier to fire up poor whites to do their southern duty, when times are tough, because those that have very little and are themselves on the verge of losing the little that they have, are usually quite eager to perform wanton acts of terror to thereby prove that though they might be seen by others as just being poor white trash, they are still, though, able to stand tall and get some lynching done, thereby proving to their  contemporaries and doubters, that they are most definitely, innately superior to the lowly blacks that they have lynched.

It can be said, that none of us lives inside a vacuum, so that when economic hardship comes, and those that are the master planter class, are suffering, they sure the heck aren't going to take it lying down, but rather they are going to rise up, quite often, in a visceral way; not so much because by doing so, it will successfully resolve their financial troubles and predicaments, but mainly because they do not desire and cannot afford to look impotent to those that typically respect them, and the one thing, that America, above virtually every other nation, proves again and again, is that violence successfully carried out, begets at a minimum, a perverse respect.

When law enforcement is wrongly incentivized

Most people are only vaguely familiar with civil asset forfeiture laws, and how they are currently applied in America.  This is unfortunate, as America's law enforcement agencies in the era of the War on Drugs, have been incentivized to seize property from "suspects" that are alleged to have been involved in criminal activities, of which such a seizure in many jurisdictions is not subject to even a criminal conviction, let alone a criminal charge.  The only legitimate reason why a law such as that has been allowed to be applied -- is apparently under the ostensible logic that criminal enterprises should not be able to utilize their ill-gotten gains in order to have those resources available to them for a defense against legal sanction.

While it does appear unfair for those with ill-gotten gains to use those funds in order to "buy" themselves some justice, the greater problem is really not that, but rather the fact that these civil asset forfeiture laws aren't really being applied against major drug traffickers but rather are being applied rather liberally to those that are least able to defend themselves from such forfeiture.  That is, the police have made it their point to somehow leave untargeted those that are connected to serious and insidious criminal enterprises, but rather, instead, focus on low level criminals, as well as people that are at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Additionally, whether the police even pursue criminal charges or not, apparently matters not, as when a law is constructed in the manner in which cash, cars, homes, and other property can be seized by law enforcement so that they thereby directly or indirectly benefit monetarily from that seizure, then the objective of the exercise, really comes down to seizing from entities that don't have the good wherewithal to effectively fight back.  This thus means that the law enforcement agencies are able to augment their resources at the expense of those so persecuted, wrongly or rightly.

In point of fact, when law enforcement is functioning as something akin to performing their duties in a manner in which they are able to effectively get "bounties" upon the citizens of their community, as some sort of perverse adjunct to their sworn duty to serve and protect, then that law enforcement is going to have a very strong tendency to do exactly that, which is what is occurring in America, in the here and now. 

There are already laws in effect to "freeze" certain assets of those that have been formally accused of committing a crime, and then, pending upon the resolution of justice, a determination is made as to the verdict of those assets.  The fact, that law enforcement is able to seize assets from citizens, under the color of these citizens apparently breaking some sort of law, but without a conviction of such, is a grand disservice to those citizens as well as to the community at large; for when permission is granted for law enforcement to seize whatever that it is, that they so desire to seize, of which, by doing so, those assets will be set to be forfeited into their hands, has morphed law enforcement into an agency of premeditated predatory prowling that means to benefit that law enforcement agency at the expense of the people that they are actually suppose to serve and to protect.

Forgiveness v. an apology

Most everyone has done something wrong or has had something done wrong to them, which has basically necessitated the words of "I'm sorry" from the party that has done the wrong.  In consequence of that wrong, for some people, even making an apology is difficult and can even be heart-wrenching as they wrestle with their conscience or perhaps their humility; on the other hand, for the vast majority of people, saying that one is sorry is not only fairly easy, but appears often to be basically a pleasantry that really doesn't mean much of anything, except perhaps as a general acknowledgement of some sort of generic failure or wrong.

In point of fact, an apology, in many cases, whether acknowledged or accepted or not, really doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot, when the words are as simple as "I'm sorry," and nothing else is said.  For the very first question of the party that has been apologized to, might well be, what exactly are they sorry for?  After all, the person declaring that they are sorry, might internally really be saying that they are only sorry that they were caught or found out, or it could be that they are basically being forced or compelled to say that they are sorry because of some perverse power structure, just to keep the peace; so that, in actuality, in many ways, their apology can be quite hollow.

Then there are those that do apologize and also provide an explanation behind the apology, in which typical explanations follow one of these two paths; of which the more common seems to be the pleading that though they are apologetic, there are obvious extenuating circumstances, that created the situation, and only because of those circumstances, justified or not, did they commit the act that necessitated the apology.  The other path, is an abject apology, specific addressing the act that created the need for the apology, and owning up to their responsibility to it, without any "ands", "ifs" or "buts", and placing the blame on no one else, even when some of the blame may, in fact, lay elsewhere.

While a very good and well meaning apology most definitely has its place, the bottom line, is that those that are truly apologetic, without exception, need to go beyond making an apology, but also need to take the next logical step, which is to ask for forgiveness from the party that they let down and hurt.  So that when anyone apologizes but also requests forgiveness, they have gone beyond a mere soliloquy into desiring an actual dialog.  After all, when it comes to apologies, there are at a minimum, at least two parties involved, and the party that has been harmed has the right to not only have their say, but also retains the power as to whether such will or will not be forgiven at that time and place.

That is to say, not every apology is accepted on the spot, nor should every apology be accepted on the spot.  Further, the request for forgiveness is not necessarily something that can be provided at a moment's notice, but usually requires some sort of reflection and contemplation, for not every act, lends itself to forgiveness, for some acts are so heinous and traitorous, that forgiveness is not going to occur at that time and moment.  Yet, the very act of asking for forgiveness, starts the process of healing in motion, for those that will not admit to their error, are the hardest to forgive, for they apparently do not know or will not acknowledge that they have done wrong; and wrongs not acknowledged by those that are the perpetrators of them, are the hardest and deepest wounds to heal, by those so offended.

Fearful residents in problem neighborhoods

In America, neighborhoods run the gamut of being completely crime free to being insidiously crime infested, and those that live in problematic neighborhoods are placed into the unenviable position of determining what is best for them to do in order to maintain the integrity of their person, their property, and their family.  This thus means, that in some neighborhoods, certain houses take on the aura of appearing to be a sort of prison, with bars on their windows, alarms, security cameras, as well as iron bars on their doors.  This may, in fact, make those people that live within those residences, safer; but at a cost of being in danger of not being able to successfully escape from a fire or earthquake hazard in the sense of being trapped inside their home, as well as being isolated within their homes and therefore not actively engaged in their neighborhood, thereby leaving the streets to be effectively controlled by those that are creating the problems of the neighborhood crime or dangers, in the first place.

Whereas, one possible solution would be to have police patrols working more frequently in these neighborhoods, that often is not going to be the go-to solution, for in many of these neighborhoods, the police are not usually perceived as protecting and serving the residents, but rather are often more seen as exacerbating the poor conditions within those neighborhoods.  So that, in effect, the streets are left in control of those that operate upon those streets, even though they are few in number; but because the vast majority of the population as a whole appear content or resigned to living within their homes, and treat thereby the outside as an ever present danger, this becomes the result, for when a vacuum is created, it is going to be filled with something, and in this situation, it is filled with those non-desirable elements.

This essentially means that those that live within those homes of barred windows and barred doors simply exist within that construct, without making any real attempt to ameliorate that situation for the better.  It is a shame that children, as well as the adults, are effectively confined within their homes all of their free time, and have foregone outlets to express themselves as well as to see and to enjoy the world, because of it.  This signifies that such isolation, really does take on the aura of being imprisoned, even though these good people have done nothing to be deserving of any form of imprisonment.

So then, for residents of areas in which crime is very prevalent, of which they are too fearful to venture out even onto their front porch, they do suffer, and are fundamentally living reduced lives of existence, without a lot of hope or opportunity for change.  The solution, however, is never going to be more law and order, but rather the only possible answer is to get to the root of the problem, which is that enclaves of poverty, consisting of ill education, lack of living wage employment opportunity, dysfunctional families, and the lack of capital, must be met with a reinvigorated infrastructure that will provide revitalization for these impoverished neighborhoods; for in neighborhoods in which good people fear to tread, no good progress can ever be made until they are able to envision and to experience a bright and a more promising future.

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary" James Madison

The above quotation is absolutely true, so that, as much as we might complain about governments and their inefficiencies and errors, in the greater scheme of things, governments are necessary in order to be of assistance to the people as a whole.  The best government is not only wise, just, egalitarian, and fair; but also is a government that must be of the people, for the people, and by the people, for governments are instituted amongst the consent of those so governed to be of a blessing and of a benefit to those people.

Because governments are necessary for the appropriate governing of the people, it is important that those so being governed, are able to have a government that is responsive to their grievances, concerns, and needs; as well as being a government that is not above the people, or acts in a manner that is not accountable to the people, but rather is a government which is open, honest, and transparent to all.  For, any good government, that is not forthcoming as to what it is actually doing as well as what it is contemplating, more than likely means that it has taken upon itself, powers not vested in it.

The type of government that is most respected and most appropriate for the people is a government that applies its laws and governance, fairly and equally to all; of which, special favoritism towards the few, and discriminatory laws against the many, cannot ever be part and parcel of good government.  To the extent that governments are fair-minded to all, while taking into consideration mitigating and individual circumstances, than such a government as that is utilizing good discernment and wisdom.  On the other hand, all governments which are inconsistent, arbitrary, and discriminatory, especially in a manner in which certain segments of the population have no voice, whereas other privileged segments essentially represent the only voice that matters, are not fair-minded governments.

It is a given that human beings are not angels, and when those that are not angels are placed or appointed into the power of being the authorized representatives of the people, in which, those representatives do not behave in a manner consistent with good and fair governance -- and further, effectively ignore or supersede the Constitutional law and good governance of their community or country, than those representatives have aggrandized unto themselves as well as to the beneficiaries of their actions: unauthorized power.

Such unauthorized power is the bane of all good governments, and the only effective remedy for the abusive use of power, is for the people to have the means to negate such, either by the governmental structure so in place, which nullifies such, by, for instance, the separation of those governmental powers, so that not any one power of that government is strong enough to dictate its policies, without any constraints; or by the effective withdrawal of the people's consent of that government, so that a new and appropriate government with its representatives thereby takes its place.

Good governments are created by the consent of those so governed as a means to benefit the people as a whole, and to the extent that government does so, the people will be served; whereas bad governments are those governments good intentioned or not, that answer not to the people, while also exploiting those selfsame people for the benefit of those that run and are the beneficiaries of that government as practiced, and have circumvented the need for consent from the people that they ostensibly serve.

America's new slavery

In theory, the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, along with the Union defeating the Southern rebels, and in addition to the 13th-15th Constitutional Amendments, secured forever, freedom and full citizenship for those previously enslaved.  Of course, as always in America, there is the law as written, and there is the reality of the law, as practiced.  Still, credit must be given where credit is due, and in significant ways, it can be said, that slavery, at least in the form of chattel slavery, does not presently exist in the United States.

However, the fact of the matter is that the power structure of America is a very small subset of the population, of which this small elite of people, are forever afraid that their power and their control could somehow be wrested from them, and most especially are cognizant that since America has such a high percentage of those that own absolutely nothing, with little or no opportunity to become something, that they therefore recognize that those people could at a some point, create real and systemic domestic insurrection, which could thereby possibly upend the power structure of the elite.

This means, in consequence, that the elite have merely borrowed from the past, of what worked so well for the South, of which, had it not been for the hubris of the South, in deliberately provoking war with the North, slavery might even be the law of this land, today.  For the South successfully demonstrated, that a small percentage of plantation owners, few in number, could control a massive amount of slaves, as well as ruling the power structure of their communities, by being the force behind the policing factions, the justice department, and by the copious use of violence by their adherents profitably kept their slaves in their place.

Fast forward, to today's world, and recognize, that the people that are incarcerated and convicted of felonies, are most often, those that are the most indigent, ill-educated, and oppressed; in which such convictions are almost always accomplished without the alleged perpetrator even having their day in court, for seldom are felons actually convicted by a jury of their peers, but rather conviction after conviction is accomplished by "plea bargaining" in which the person so making the plea, is completely out of their element, and susceptible to every bit of pressure to do so, and have not the tools to effectively do any other.

Once a given person is convicted as a felon, irrespective of how long they have been incarcerated for, they are essentially stripped forever of their first-class citizenship rights, which has been replaced instead with something that doesn't even approach even second-class status, and is most appropriately seen as being designated as something less than fully human, and rightly seen as a new form of slavery.  For, felons, have all sorts of rights taken away from them, such as no longer being eligible to vote or to be on a jury, or to work except in the most menial and dead-end jobs, or be eligible for a passport, or to be eligible for student loans or for public housing or for supplemental nutritional assistance or for various other State and Governmental programs and benefits.  While it may be true, that some of these things are still available for felons, such are often amended or reduced to such an extent, that a given felon has little or no hope of ever being a fully functional, autonomous and free human being, again. 

All of the above basically means that in America, while the slavery of old is no longer legal, the workaround is as simple as getting an intended target convicted as a felon, and thereupon that person becomes, for all intents and purposes, enslaved for life.

Big lies and little lies

Most people don't want to readily admit that they do personally lie, mainly because admitting to such, basically reflects poorly upon them.  After all, being a liar is essentially admitting that for whatever reason, good or not, mitigated excuse or not, a person has deliberately told a falsehood, in which, the most obvious reason why this is done, is in order to protect oneself from potential scorn or reprimand, as well as doing so in order to make oneself look better than one actually is.

Lying has an awful lot to do with people, simply not wanting to face the consequences of either what they have done, or who and what they really are.  Additionally, because lying seems in many instances to be effective, in the sense that the other party does not seem to be aware of the falsehood; it thereupon reinforces itself in the liar's mind that this is indeed an effective tool to be utilized, especially when other avenues appear to be far less inviting.

The other thing about lying is that there are definite material degrees of lying, in which "little white lies" are considered to be socially acceptable by most people; whereas a constructed lie which has catastrophic consequences, usually for someone else to suffer from, of which this lie greatly impacts their life for the worse, is considered to be a lie of real ethical import, as well as a lie that once set in motion, is not something that can ever successfully be taken back, for the deed has been done, forevermore.

So too, it is always discomforting, when someone close to you, lies to someone else about something that is relatively small, knowing that you are quite aware that what they just said is indeed a lie.  While some people, might just say, that it was, after all, just a little lie, of no real meaning; that is probably not the right way to think about it.  Far better is to think that if someone is willing to lie about something so small, and feel not a tinge of regret or shame, than probably that so signifies that they will obviously lie about something of real importance, for those that construct little lies, are invariably those that tell rather large lies, as well.

In point of fact, in virtually anything involving deception, such as stealing or cheating, whether large or small, it does not really matter, that person should be seen as a thief or as a cheat, no matter the size of the action, or excuses so made.  For, the line drawn in the sand is absolutely distinct, and that line stipulates that on this side, for instance, there will be no lies, and the other side, there is.  So that, there is, never, some sort of neutral territory between the two, thereby considered to be neither lying nor truth telling, but something in-between. That is to say, there aren't any small liars, just as there aren't any small thieves, and there aren't any small cheats for each is cut out of the very same cloth.  The bottom line is that you are either one or the other, for a house divided will not stand.

Real progress and real wisdom

Orthodox mankind wants so badly for its constituents to believe that the progress of mankind is linear in its development, of life ever improving, and of mankind ever evolving.  It thus follows from this kind of reasoning that the mankind of today is far superior to mankind of yesterday, and that the mankind of tomorrow will be even more advanced.  Such thinking as that is absolute rubbish, for the progress of mankind has never been linear, but rather has its inevitable ebbs and flows, and to therefore believe that mankind has never been as brilliant and as superior as mankind is today, is a falsehood; for it conveniently casts aside any and all evidence that mankind has previously been quite knowledgeable and wise before and instead dismisses all ancient civilizations as grossly inferior.

While there is something to be said and to be appreciated about mankind's great progress in its recent mastery of this world, through its technological, medicinal and industrial advances, of which, such has brought forth to a significant swath of mankind, previously unknown luxuries and pleasures; to say that this therefore means that mankind has never been wiser or smarter or more industrious then every before, is fallacious.  In point of fact, extreme poverty exists at an exceedingly high level, even though mankind has the means to provide the resources as well as the governance to eliminate such.  Additionally, mankind has suffered through eons of war, of which, this too, has not even been close to being eradicated, even with such organizations as the United Nations, which apparently is proof positive that the world's nations aren't so united.  So too, mankind has proven it is the master of its domain, but environment disasters and continuing environmental troubles indicates that mankind still has a lot to learn as well as to comprehend.

All of the above is the counterpoint to those that pay endless homage to mankind's supposed brilliance.  In short, it must be recognized that those that believe so strongly that the mankind of today supersedes, hands down, all that has come before, typically display also the unmitigated gall and gumption to thereupon believe that mankind's wisdom has never collectively been higher.  This is a great fallacy, for knowledge is not wisdom, and if it can be said that never have so many known so much; it does not necessarily follow that never have so many been so wise, because not one of mankind's historic troubles in regards to war, famine, and pestilence has been fully and successfully resolved, proving that modern mankind in the scheme of things, thinks too highly of themselves, and do not fairly evaluate who and what they really are.

In truth, the real progress of mankind is not measured by the tools and toys it so produces, but by the great virtue and impressive wisdom that it so imparts and utilizes.  Today's mankind is in so many ways, absolutely petty, petulant, and perpetually problematic in the way that our society deals with one another, which is why all the troubles that have historically waylaid mankind, are still so prevalent, today.  This is indicative that the hubris of today will be the destruction of tomorrow; for when virtue is discarded as an unnecessary anachronism, and knowledge thereby trumps wisdom, the end result can only be catastrophic.

Fiat currency

In 1971, the United States through President Nixon, officially decoupled its Federal Reserve Note (aka USA dollar) from gold, and therefore made its currency, a fiat currency.  In short, a fiat currency is any currency which is back by nothing, other than the confidence and faith that entities that utilize such believe that it has worth.  Further to the point, all fiat currencies will over time, trend towards becoming of less and less value in what they are able to purchase, for it is well known, that "bad money drives out good," which is why you do not see anybody utilizing coins that contain silver such as United States quarter coinage made previous to 1965, which were 90 percent silver, being used for their stated value of twenty-five cents, but are instead are no longer circulated because their meltdown value is over $3.00.

To drive home further the point of the weakness of fiat currency, recognized that as reported by census.gov, the median price of a new home sold in the United States in August of 1971, was $25,300; and additionally as reported by davemanual.com, the nominal median household income for 1971 was just $7,626.  If those numbers seems astonishingly low, recognize that inflation is an insidious thing that erodes the value of fiat currency over a period of time. So that, such proves the point, that fiat currencies do not maintain their value, because fundamentally fiat currencies are merely transaction devices to more easily pay, procure and to execute business and personal affairs.

There are many that decry the absurdity of backing currency with gold or silver, though, in truth, this has been done for millenniums. Still, it is important to note that fiat currencies that are backed by nothing, other than specious words such as the full faith and confidence of the government are always intrinsically unsound.  In a modern world, though, there isn't any reason why currencies can't be back by other things of value such as land, oil, coal, natural gas, and so on and so forth.  The main problem with these other sorts of commodities is that they lack the ease of being physically transferrable and hence would necessitate almost always, some sort of physical or electronic scrip being passed back and forth, while also being susceptible to manipulations of all sorts.  Still, to have a currency backed by a basket of commodities would invariably help to stabilize that currency.

The fact that the United States dollar has become worth less and less over time, creates a scenario in which savers and investors have to find avenues of investment and saving vehicles that help to alleviate or that will exceed the value of what their currency has depreciated to.  This so indicates, that for the most part, even widows and orphans, must take on some sort of risk, for to merely sit on their dollars, is a losing game, of which all of this risk, is yet another factor in the instability of the dollar, and further increases the volatility of the value of the dollar as well as threatening its continued existence as a quasi-reliable fiat currency.

In short, all fiat currency is a confidence game, of which, all confidence games come to an end, when the deception is fully and completely exposed.

Discernment and privacy

In the social media age as well as in the age in which seemingly everything that we do, can be recorded, analyzed, evaluated, and saved; this so signifies that never has it been easier for friends and family, or private enterprise, or governmental agencies to know an awful lot about our habits, patterns, actions, and behaviors.  The bottom line is that in a society in which every social media posting is available for any "friend" to see, copy and view; as well as people's smart phones, effectively being a very detailed diary of every location that one travels to on a given day, that never have so many provided so much information to those that definitely do not have their best interests in mind.

For instance, when it comes to private enterprise and all the information that they siphon up from smart phones, internet activities, credit card activity, social friends and networks, including likes so posted; is that this information is really being evaluated not necessarily as a means to control or to compromise a given individual, but primarily is done so in order to specifically market to a given individual, as a way and means to increase business and profit.  After all, the reason that these social media sites and apps are free, aren't because they are created as some sort of public good; but rather are created as a means to monetize individuals for companies that are permitted to access them.

However, when it comes to government agencies, their motivation behind the accumulation of reams upon reams of information and data on individuals is to not only to monitor individuals but also to mold individuals in ways that are favorable to those that control that government.  After all, people are creatures of habits, as well as often having established patterns, in which those that know these things are best able to then utilize that information for their benefit, as well as manipulation.

In this modern area, we live within a construct in which entities that we do not control, and primarily do not have our best interests in mind, know us in a manner in which, what we believe to be of our private concern, is often, actually knowable and actionable information.  This thus means, that unlike a good friend or family member, that knows us, and in a mature way, utilizes their discernment and discretion to be of benefit to us; we are caught instead, almost unawares by private enterprise as well as by governmental institutions that are able to discern who and what we really are, for their benefit and for their exploitation of us.

To live a life in a fishbowl is a massive error, for unless those that look in upon that fishbowl are actually there to be of aid and of help to us, then we have provided to those intrusive entities, everything that they need to take advantage of us, to our own detriment.  It is vital to understand that the only people deserving of truly knowing us are only those that are our true friends as well as good family members, for these people have our best interests in mind, and further are able to discern what is necessary to do in order to improve us so we are better able to accomplish meaningful and good things.    Therefore, recognize that we should not willingly abandon our own watchtower, but instead be forever vigilant.

Motivation, aspiration, and parental involvement

When it comes to schools and the education that is received by the children that attend those schools, there are a multitude of factors that are relevant to the success or non-success of those students. For instance, the quality of the school and the teachers of that school, are absolutely of import, for if the teachers and the curriculum are not up to standard, it is hard to produce students that are going to excel.  So too, while there are many children that are self-motivated and diligent, having an environment that encourages and augments such motivations and diligence most definitely is of aid; as well as having a safety net in place for those students that lose their focus, to thereupon have available for them, one-on-one counseling that helps in keeping them on course and engaged.  Additionally, parents that are truly involved in regards to their child's education, are going to as a matter of course, make sure to provide their children with all the educational materials that are necessary, such as extra help as in tutoring, as well as positive feedback, in order to help keep their children on task and focused on the greater goal; which is the creation of good learning habits now, in their formative years, that will do them well in getting into the appropriate higher educational institutions and thereby obtaining the necessary accouterments for a very good opportunity of employment success.

The bottom line is that quite obviously, not every job is a good and fulfilling job, and the key to having a better opportunity towards that good job, comes more easily from those that have demonstrated through their educational achievements that they have the right stuff.  All those children that are backed up by parents that take an active concern in the progress of their education, as well as having teachers and a curriculum that challenge and make students think and therefore learn; in addition to those students that actually study and apply themselves diligently are going to have -- far more often than not, success in obtaining not only their educational goals, but also their career goals.

As for all those other students, that do not have the same sort of advantages or structure, it goes almost without saying, that the less that parents are positively involved with their children in regards to their education, and the less that teachers and curriculum are up-to-speed, and the less children do to apply themselves to thinking and to learning, the far bigger handicap that they will have, in accomplishing their educational goals, as well as fulfilling their potential in the greater scheme of things.  It is an extremely hard challenge for any child with a great mind -- to live within a construct in which their family is dysfunctional as well as low income, along with living in a non-desirable part of town, while also going to a school that hardly bothers to educate any of the students, but serves more as a glorified place of babysitting, if even that.

From good schools you can expect good students, and from involved parents you can expect better achievements from their children; whereas all those children that have various economic, discriminatory, and dysfunctional disadvantages are basically reduced to the hope that within their domain, there is the sanctuary of a really good school, that challenges them and thereby gets the best out of them, for without that, in conjunction with their own good efforts and concentration, they will surely be left way, way behind.

Solitary imprisonment should only be utilized, sparingly

America certainly knows how to build prisons.  It should, mainly because it incarcerates inmates at embarrassingly high levels and seems to delight in treating fellow human beings as something akin to a beast of burden, or worse.  The prison experience for all those involved is almost always dehumanizing, because the purposeful construction and conduct within America's incarceration facilities are done typically in a manner of not only of an "us v. them" mentality, but also pretty much conducted in a manner in which the best inmate is always going to be the compliant inmate, and none other.

Not too surprisingly, for those that are incarcerated, rightly or wrongly, and are invariably not profitably engaged in worthwhile activities, they are going to come up against situations in which a fellow inmate or inmates are perceived to be behaving in an inappropriate fashion, and subsequently is considered to be of danger to others or to their own self, or both.  Because there are a limited amount of guards within a facility, the go-to solution, is often to separate the alleged troublemaker(s) from the inmate population at large, allegedly for the protection of that inmate(s), and often done as a form of punishment.

That punishment for recalcitrant inmates is solitary confinement, in which social contact with any other inmate is drastically reduced to a bare minimum, and with the exception of a brief break here and there, those inmates in solitary confinement are truly and literally confined within a very narrow space for typically twenty-three hours of each day, with nothing really to do.  The fact that some inmates suffer solitary confinement from time-to-time, might be okay, if solitary confinement was somewhat similar to the "timeout" that a child is given at home or within a school system, of which that child's isolation is relatively brief and to the point.  However, solitary confinement in prison facilities, don't typically last for part of a day, or even days, or even weeks, but instead, can be and is quite often for months or even years.

The fact that somehow it is legal to incarcerate certain individuals via the cruel and inhumane treatment of being solitarily confined, while doing so for long or seemingly endless periods of time, reflects poorly on American jurisprudence as well as the rules and regulations of what is permitted in incarceration facilities.  The bottom line is that solitary imprisonment, first and foremost, should be done only as necessary for the protection of those working within the facility, as well as the inmates so incarcerated, and the inmate so designated as deserving of solitary confinement.  That said, solitary confinement, should only be done for a very short period of time, such as a maximum of seventy-two hours, before that inmate is entitled to be released from solitary confinement, or to at least having a hearing in front of some neutral party.

It is absolute insanity, to confine anyone for lengthy periods of time in solitary confinement, and somehow believe, that by doing so, that person will be better off for it.  Further to the point, if our incarceration facilities are unable to keep order in their facilities without having to incarcerate into solitary confinement, certain inmates for lengthy periods of time, then however are those inmates that have suffered from such long periods of isolation, going to be able to function in an open and free society when they are eventually released? 

The bottom line is if you want inmates to fail, or if your desire is to see a high rate of recidivism, then definitely treat human beings as animals of little worth, and especially isolate indefinitely, those that appear most troubling, and in return, you will do your part in helping to fully raise Cain.