Rick Scott to Visit the Sarasota Military Academy

A Warm Welcome to Governor Rick Scott

Good Moring and welcome to Sarasota County!  Your itinerary includes a visit to our local charter-dynamo Sarasota Military Academy (SMA) - your office has chosen your visit well; indeed this ten year old charter school has drawn so many accolades over the years from academics and politicians alike that the local newspapers are now ordering their ink by tanker truck.  Here is an honest review of the facts about SMA:

1. The Sarasota Military Academy FCAT scores as of 2011 were the best in the  

    county, second only to the admission-based Pine View School.

2. SMA sent 94% of its 2011’s graduates onto four year colleges.

3. Student cadets assume important leadership responsibilities as a regular part of 

    their education – a situation unheard of at most schools.

4. As of School Year 2011 85% of the cadets are at or above grade level in math, 

   87% of students are meeting state standards in writing.

5. This all adds up to the most prestigious award – the Florida Department of 

    Education cumulative School Grade for the Sarasota Military Academy, an A for SY 

    2010. 

SMA provides leadership opportunities to both boys and girls without the oppressive odor of political correctness – rather, both sexes are treated fairly with dignity and respect. 

The impetus for SMA’s success is its founder Daniel Kennedy – a man who had a vision of an academically rigorous preparatory school in a military setting where the focus would be on making the cadet the best person and citizen he or she could be.  This vision became a reality in 2002.

Colonel Kennedy is a perfect mixture of General George S. Patton, Jr., full of high expectations, intolerant of mediocrity, with Charles Edward Chipping, the cool-headed and big-hearted headmaster in James Hilton’s masterpiece, Goodbye Mr. Chips.

On the school’s website he writes to the cadets: “If you have questions, email me or stop by.  My door is always open and I will look forward to speaking with you.  Onward!  Dan Kennedy, Headmaster/CEO.  If his students only knew that he runs 8 miles every morning and is in his office by 6 a.m.  In short governor, Dan Kennedy can give you a run for your money when it comes to work ethic.

As the Herald-Tribune reported 9 years ago in 2003:

As the first year of the Sarasota Military Academy ends this week, people across Florida are now asking Kennedy, the high school's first headmaster, how they can duplicate the program in their counties.

"I expect to see these in a lot of communities," Kennedy said. "I think it's the best educational bargain on the planet."  This is still true today.

Comparisons can be made between SMA and numerous private schools like the storied Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts with its impressive selection of AP courses but according to Colonel Kennedy, “SMA has added the prestigious Advance Placement International Diploma Program (APID).  In order to qualify for this advanced diploma, cadets must take a minimum of 5 AP classes.”  With discipline problems at a minimum and academic opportunities at a maximum, the Florida Taxpayer is left with a true bargain.  After all, the Andover day–student must pay $32,200 per year.   

Please enjoy your visit to Sarasota County and to her Flag-Ship Charter School.  It should be a welcomed breath of fresh air to see these high school cadets excited about learning and happy to be at a great school.  The fact that you’ve made education and charter schools a top priority of your 2012-2013 state budget by increasing the state’s investment by more than $1 Billion is a testament to your commitment to the future of Florida.  The Sarasota Military Academy is certainly one school that can put that investment to good use.  Enjoy the sunshine, the pristine air of our county and the smiling faces of our cadets.

Word Count: 638

Geoffrey G. Fisher is a certified history teacher working in southwest Florida as a guest teacher.  He holds a BA in History from the University of Connecticut and a MA in Public Policy from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.  In addition to teaching he is a former elected official and speechwriter.  Mr. Fisher now writes the political blog: THE THINKING CAP at www.theamericanthinkingcap.blogspot.com.  

                                             
     

               

THE VERTIGO OF SOLEDAD O’BRIEN

THE VERTIGO OF SOLEDAD O’BRIEN

The New Racism of the Left

By

GEOFFREY GRISWOLD FISHER

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The old one-drop rule of the Jim Crow south has been dusted off and this time applied by the new left – if you think you have one drop of sub-Saharan African blood then brother, you’re black.

How else can you explain this statement from CNN’s Soledad O’Brien?

I'm on the phone with a confused reporter, and I'm confused too. She keeps asking me why I "count myself as black... And why does Barack Obama?" My answer (for Sen. Obama, at least) is "have you seen him?" But she won't let it go. "Is your father annoyed that you deny him?" My dad is white. I interject. "Let's conference him in," I say. "Listen, he married a black woman, he has six black children. He'd be the first person to tell you I'm black."

The questions, to me, reveal more about the asker. This reporter surely doesn't know a lot of black people, or she wouldn't be struggling so hard. She'd know black people come in all hues. 

O'Brien's parents married in 1958 in Washington, D.C. Her father Edward, an Australian (from Toowoomba, Queensland) of Irish descent, was a mechanical engineering professor. Her mother, Estella, who is Afro-Cuban, was a French and English teacher. O'Brien is the fifth of six children, who all graduated from Harvard University;

Hispanic Magazine.com – June /July 2005 - Cover Story

So what would make a Harvard educated child who is ¼ black or to put it more directly, ¾ white, chastise a female reporter for suggesting the obvious – namely, that Soledad is primarily European.  Remember that Cuba was conquered and settled by white Spanish Conquistadors.  Further, one look at Ms. O’Brien would hammer home the obvious, that she is an attractive woman of European descent with a mixture of other cultural traits.  What would make her deny the obvious?  A pandemic of Hypodescent Fever.

Now it appears that Ms. O’Brien is not faking it.  Obviously, Time Warner, the current owners of CNN have a similar mindset - they hired Soledad O’Brien to host of all things the CNN series Black in America.  Ms. O’Brien’s dismissive posture and righteousness on this topic seems Orwellian.  Indeed, her full name is María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien.  Soledad and her husband Brad Raymond have four beautiful children – and it is important to remember that these children are American.  Only a severe case of Hypodescent Fever could lead any mother to decide that they are black – that is, to ignore there full heritage. 

Of course due to the pervasiveness of political correctness in the national media, no one at CNN or at the other cable news outlets have called her out on this point or even question the wisdom of having a predominately Caucasian woman hosting Black in America.  It is just like having an able body actor playing the role of a wheel-bound character – it only works with the willing suspension of disbelief.

  

THE NEW LEFT EMBRACES THE ONE DROP RULE

Soledad O’Brien might as well be the poster girl for the New Racism of the Left – namely, Hypodescent Fever.  But she’s not alone.  Consider the racists behavior of the Black Congressional Caucus (CBC).

White members of Congress have never been welcomed into the caucus, although CBC by-laws specifically prohibit any discrimination, (yet) when Mr. Cohen (Steve Cohen, white representative, D-Tn.) asked for admission, he got (this) answer. 

Rep. William Lacy Clay, Jr., D-Mo., responded on behalf of the CBC: He's (Cohen’s) white and the Caucus is black. It's time to move on.  We have racial policies to pursue and we are pursuing them, as Mr. Cohen has learned. It's an unwritten rule. It's understood.  Quite simply, Rep. Cohen will have to accept what the rest of the country will have to accept - there has been an unofficial Congressional White Caucus for over 200 years, and now it's our turn to say who can join 'the club.' He does not, and cannot, meet the membership criteria, unless he can change his skin color (or can prove one-drop of black blood.)  Primarily, we are concerned with the needs and concerns of the black population, and we will not allow white America to infringe on those objectives. Hearn, Josephine (January 23, 2007). "Black Caucus: Whites Not Allowed". Politico.com.

So let’s follow the logic: The Congressional Black Caucus is made up of black members of congress, okay – yet, there is a bylaw against racial discrimination in its make-up, and that bylaw is always ignored, even though the preponderance of the funding for this group is provided by non-black taxpayers.  The spokesman for the black only membership policy with the CBC is of course of mixed race – he is included in the CBC by the one-drop rule.  Even Mr. Orwell would be scratching his head.  That doesn’t matter to the new left ravaged by Hypodescent Fever.  Non Sequiturs are the norm rather than the exception.

So CNN is practicing a non sequitur when it trying to satisfy a diversity policy vis-à-vis race by hiring a Caucasian with 25% black heritage to host Black in America.  The most hate filled racist from 1910 Atlanta, Georgia (home of CNN today) would have shouted “bravo – one drop of black blood makes Soledad and her children black.”

Hypodescent Fever does allow us, however, greater insight into the history of race relations in this country.  Consider the controversy surrounding Sally Hemings vis-à-vis Thomas Jefferson, arguably the greatest founding father after George Washington.

So when we look into the eyes of Soledad O’Brien we’re looking into the eyes of Sally Hemings.  Both women in 1790 Virginia would have been considered slaves even though both were ¾ white.  The only difference is that Soledad O’Brien would have had her hand in the air saying, “That’s right, I’m black.”  The problem with that type of bluster becomes apparent during Miss Hemings’ time – Brad and Soledad’s children would have been sold into slavery, just like the freckled face, red headed children of Miss Hemings.  Octoroons were 7/8^th white and 1/8^th black and as slaves fetched the highest price at the slave auction, especially the girls for obvious reasons.

If Ms. O’Brien acknowledge her full racial heritage as a facet of who she is rather than picking one aspect of her racial background and making it her sole identify she might restore some balance to her life – that is eliminate her current racial vertigo.

The one-drop rule was wrong in 1910 Atlanta, Georgia and it is still wrong in 2012 America.  Listen to the following words from a man of God more than 43 years ago and you’ll feel the power of one of greatest national mottos: E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

Washington, DC, Wednesday, August 28, 1963

Word Count: 1147

GINGRICH'S BAIN FREEZE

GINGRICH’S BAIN FREEZE

THE FORMER SPEAKER’S VIDEO RANT IS RELEASED

Geoffrey G. Fisher

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Recently, a friend of mine from college emailed me the long awaited video, “When Mitt Romney Came to Town.”  I made a decision to watch all of it – all 28 minutes and 6 seconds of it. 

The film was disturbing, not because of substance of the script itself but rather because of the maniacal mind behind the film - Newton Leroy McPherson Gingrich.  This political “ad” is 56 times longer than conventional ads for one reason – to fully vent Mr. Gingrich’s anger for his poor showing in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Most republicans will find this video creepy because it represents everything they are not.  The themes include the rich versus the poor, and the nefarious Wall Street financiers versus regular Joes.  Issues such as labor negotiations are ignored as was the need of any company or venture to make a profit.  The film was melodramatic to the point of being cheesy.

Some will argue that Newt’s actions are prepping the campaign strategy for President Obama – they are correct.  But at the same time the former speaker is inoculating Mr. Romney with a mild pathogen - the antibodies should be ready for the general campaign against the president, David Axelrod and company.  Many Democrats wallow in the atmosphere of class warfare which is why the Occupy movement prospered so much during the warm months of the summer and the fall.  The tone of Newt’s video was set when the narrator states that Mitt Romney was set to take his well-heeled Harvard Education and go ravage middle class America.

Republicans and clear-thinking Democrats should react to his educational pedigree differently.  Mr. Romney was Valedictorian and commencement speaker at his BYU graduation; he then went on to Cambridge, Massachusetts to obtain both MBA and JD degrees from Harvard University.  Many of the left including the Gingrich fringe chide the former governor for looking like a president from central casting, with a beautiful wide and five strapping boys. 

Those attributes didn’t hurt John F. Kennedy with his contemporizes or with historians and it shouldn’t be seen as a liability.  Indeed, no one should hold Newt’s looks against him either even though he looks like he fell off the turnip truck, landing on his head as he was completing a lengthy sentence.  Would it be fair to say that Newt Gingrich looks like MAD magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman all grown up?  The answer is no.  To launch any type of attack against someone’s looks or good looks is simply wrong.
    
University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business economist Steven Kaplan has said "[Romney] came up with a model that was very successful and very innovative and that now everybody uses”.  All Romney did was to add partial ownership in a company to the customary consulting fees of a venture capitalist.  After 16 years at Bain Capital (1983-1999) and 22 years with Bain and Company (1977-1999) Mitt Romney had built an impressive career as a man who can get things done.  Governor Romney only enhanced this reputation with his stewardship of the 2002 Utah Winter Olympics. 

And yes, there were failures as noted in Newt's video tome, but there were many more success stories in the private sector.  Just look at a partial list of Mr. Romney’s accomplishments: Monsanto Company, Outboard Marine Corporation, Burlington Industries, Corning Incorporated, Staples Inc. Accuride, Brookstone, Domino's Pizza, Sealy Corporation, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment.  I think it is safe to say that nearly every American has patronized on of these American companies.  It is also safe to say that Mr. Romney directly created more jobs than all of his Republican competitors combined.

Mr. Gingrich contents that Mr. Romney is a corporate raider bent on looting companies and in turn ruining small town America.  Steven N. Kaplan, an expert on the private equity industry, says that's "ridiculous." – NPR interview

"Looting a company and destroying a company does not create value," says Chicago’s Kaplan. "At the end of the day, in order to make money, you have to sell the company to somebody, and if the company ... has been looted and is unproductive, nobody is going to buy it."

According to NPR, “…Colin Blaydon, who heads the Tuck Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth College, says sometimes boosting value can also mean cutting costs.

You might ask your employees to take lower pay. You may shift the jobs somewhere else. You may replace people with robots, he says.

In that case, the gains are not so widely shared…that while private equity's bare-knuckle cost-cutting may be painful, it's really what any good manager should do…(t)hat's what we want in our economy, if our economy is going to be more valuable and more competitive," he said.

Bain Capital's approach of applying consulting expertise to the companies it invested in became widely copied within the private equity industry.  Steven Kaplan still maintains that "[Romney] came up with a model that was very successful and very innovative and that now everybody uses”. – NPR interview

The larger issue that Mr. Gingrich’s video inadvertently raises is that of character.  It was Mr. Gingrich, not Mr. Romney who was charged with 84 ethics charges, including a $300,000 fine as Speaker of the House of Representatives.  More importantly, it was Speaker Gingrich and not Governor Romney who cheated on his first two wives, and is now married to his former mistress Callista Bisek.  This is Hubris not conservatism.

Speaker Gingrich is not suited to be president because of temperament and because of his lack of control in his personal life.  In essence, he has too many shared traits with another poor boy from the south, William Jefferson Clinton. 

Newt Gingrich does have a supple mind for public policy and navigating legislation though congress – he would make an excellent Chief of Staff or Legislative Policy Advisor to President Romney.

Word Count: 972

MRS. PELOSI’S ONE-NIGHT STAND

MRS. PELOSI’S ONE-NIGHT STAND

While millions of Americans stayed up late on Christmas Eve wrapping modest presents – parents everywhere were thinking of excuses of why Santa didn’t deliver the more expensive gifts that were requested. 

Top excuses included, “Emily, Santa could not hire as many elves this year so he had fewer workers.  Be thankful for what you got because many children will be getting even less.  As fathers took the hands of mother’s to saunter off to bed, thermostats across American went down another two degrees.  No one complained because these parents like most parents in our country count their blessings to be Americans. After all, a big beach towel can serve as a quick blanket. 

Five hours behind Eastern Standard Time is the Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone.  As this loving couple starts up the stairs a giant jet plane lands on the tarmac of Kona International Airport.  Out steps Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi, an Italian-American practicing Catholic.  As a former Speaker of the House of Representatives and the current Minority Leader she commands a police escort waiting for her and heads off to the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka’upulehu in Kona on the island of Hawaii.

Mrs. Pelosi should not be blamed for the $34,000 police detail during her stay in Hawaii but she can and should be held responsible for choosing a hotel suite that cost a jaw-dropping $10,000 for one night.  Consider the following facts:

1. A luxury room at the same hotel with an ocean view and a king-size bed cost $775 per night.  Why would any human being need to spend an extra $9,225 to sleep?
2. Consider that Mrs. Pelosi could have donated the money of her one-night stand for 50 weeks of food for a family of four according to the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.
   

It is interesting that a woman who routinely excoriates wealthy Americans for not paying more taxes is allowed to squander $10,000 in an obscene fashion.  Well, Madame Speaker, in America we allow people the liberty to spend their own money as they please.  Liberty is such a treasured commodity that it allows hypocrites to harangue Americans in Washington D.C. while spending money like the Nouveau Riche in Hawaii.  It is unfortunate that with $58 million in net worth plus all the trappings of power, Mrs. Pelosi still acts like a peasant.

Madame Speaker, Americans do not hate the wealthy, despite the antics of the Occupy misfits, but they do appreciate understated elegance.  The road to rehabilitation Mrs. Pelosi is to tone down the self-serving class warfare rhetoric and try a Holiday Inn next time – we might all get a better night’s sleep.

         

WORD COUNT: 439

GENO AURIEMMA'S FUR BALL AND GENDER POLITICS

AURIEMMA’S TEMPER TANTRUM REVEALS THE ACHILLES’ HEEL OF WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

GEOFFREY GRISWOLD FISHER

Originally written - January 2, 2011

Nearly one year ago UConn’s Geno Auriemma nearly eclipsed the feat of his women’s basketball team with a self-inflicted fur ball.  What follows is a re-issue of the article covering that occasion.

Congratulations to the University of Connecticut Women’s basketball team for their remarkable accomplishment: 90 consecutive wins, breaking the old record by the 1971-1974 UCLA Men’s Basketball team. 

If you simply wanted to enjoy UConn’s moment there was a problem that development almost immediately.  Supporters of Title IX and women’s basketball cried foul – they cited the tepid interest in UConn’s chance for the greatest number of consecutive basketball games as evidence of sexism and intolerance.  In other words, why was it that the nation’s attention barely nodded its approval at this feat?

The lead critic of this view was not Bella Abzug, the fiery former New York Congresswoman, nor was the critic an alumnae of Smith College like Betty Friedan or Gloria Steinem – surprisingly, the loudest basher of the media’s coverage of this streak was UConn Women’s coach Luigi (Geno) Auriemma, himself, an Italian immigrant with a blue collar work ethic.  In 1994, Auriemma became a naturalized United States citizen after 33 years living in America.  His Italian variation of the quintessential Horatio Alger story makes his recent comments all that more disappointing and confusing.

This is what he said earlier last week.

Because we're breaking a men's record, we've got a lot of people paying attention," Auriemma said. If we were breaking a women's record, everybody would go, 'Aren't those girls nice, let's give them two paragraphs in USA Today, you know, give them one line on the bottom of ESPN and then let's send them back where they belong, in the kitchen.'  Really coach?

This type of pandering is better associated with the grievance politics of Jesse Jackson, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times and Representative Maxine Waters of Los Angeles.  Auriemma should know better and he does know better.  His rhetoric is lazy and silly.  Let’s look at the facts.

The reason the media and public in general paid less attention to the 90 game winning streak is because women’s basketball is not played at the same caliber as men’s basketball.  Here are facts Mr. Auriemma.

1. Stamina. 

Women’s basketball is played by women.  Women are slower and weaker.  Just look at the world records for 100 meter dash – the current men's world record is 9.58 second.  The current women's world record is10.49 seconds.  The difference is .91 seconds.  The female holder (Mrs. Griffith-Joyner) would have come in last place running at the men’s heat at the 2009 event.    

In the marathon category the same pattern is found.  The world record time for men is 2 hours 3 minutes and 59 seconds, set in the Berlin Marathon by Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia on September 28, 2008,

The world record for women in 2003 was 2 hours 15 minutes and 25 seconds.  This feat was done using male pacesetters.  The difference is 11 minutes and 26 seconds.

2. Vertical Leap

According to JumpsHigher.com, the average vertical leap of a woman between the ages of 21 and 25 is 14.1 inches, while the average vertical leap of a man in the same age range is 22.1 inches… Men leap higher for rebounds and shots than women do, and thus the slam dunk is an iconic part of the game of men's basketball, whereas in women's basketball it is nearly nonexistent. 

Coach Auriemma knows this fact.  Any team that can leap 8 inches higher is going to dominate the game.  The coach’s own Kara Wolters at 6’7” did not dunk the ball once during her career at UConn.  Women are built differently than men – their low center of gravity is suited for pregnancy – this may sound like a headline from Neanderthal Times, but it is still a fact.  I think I just heard the ladies from Connecticut Public Television collapse. This page was last modified on 3 November 2010 at 21:17.

Kara Wolters, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

3. The Basketball Itself

The women’s basketball is smaller, lighter, and has a greater bounce.  That means that every shot by a female player is cheaper. Therefore the Men’s basketball on average is a full inch bigger in circumference, and the men’s basketball is on average .3 inches bigger in diameter.  Therefore when the ball is perfectly centered over the cylinder, there exists a .15 inch space from the ball to the rim.   In addition, the women’s three point line is a full one foot closer to the hoop.  Coach Auriemma, that means that every shot is easier to make and less challenging that the shots required of the men’s teams – but of course you already know that. 

4. There is no 10 second rule for women to move the ball to the half court line.  This advantage is tempered somewhat by 30 seconds for women to take their shot versus men who get 35 seconds.

The big story should be how far women have come since they started playing basketball in bloomers.  The current configuration of five players playing over a full court was only inaugurated in 1971. 

Speaking about the Huskies, Bill Walton, the all-American center on those U.C.L.A. teams of the early 1970s, told The Associated Press: “They (UConn women) play with a great sense of team, great purpose, phenomenal execution of fundamentals, relentless attack. It is what every team should aspire to, regardless of the sport.”

Routinely, UConn schedules the toughest women’s teams in the country. Practices are taken no less lightly than games. The Huskies practice against male players, sometimes five women against six men. Come game time, UConn is unfailingly prepared. Great teams do not stumble into history, Auriemma has admonished his players in recent days.  Thomas Walker on December 21, 2010 in Sports

Speaking of my alma mater, I find the UConn women both stellar is their pursuit of perfection and wholesome in their public persona.  There are no tattoos that I can see and their shorts are worn correctly.  Their hustle and team play represents the best of collegiate sports and our country.  They also embody the ethos that it is okay to be feminine off the court and aggressive on it.  In other words they have a sense of sportsmanship and maturity that most men’s teams lack.

Congratulations to the Lady Huskies and may Luigi (Geno) Auriemma do what he does best: coach – leave the pandering to the professionals.

Words: 1078

Geoffrey Griswold Fisher is a native of Connecticut and currently resides in Sarasota, Florida.  Mr. Fisher holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Connecticut, 1978 and a Master of Arts in Public Policy from Trinity College, 2007.  In addition to being a certified history and government teacher, Mr. Fisher is a freelance writer on political and policy issues.

To Occupy Wallstreet: SHAME ON THE BOTTOM 47%

SHAME ON THE BOTTOM 47%

Today the democratic ethos of our nation is under attack – no longer do policy-makers in Washington speak to the need for all to contribute to the common good, rather they speak in patronizing platitudes of the constant duty to insulate the “working poor” from any civic responsibility.  This patronizing policy would have been rebuked by the working man just 50 years ago, but now many welcome it – former participants in the body politic are now self-serving observers. 

The most blatant example of this loss of self-respect is embodied in the Occupy movements around the country.  They saunter out of there LL Bean pup-tents and reach for the closest placard embossed with the Motto:  WE ARE THE 99% - the implication being that a nefarious 1% is scheming to control the lives of the average American.

A disinterested review of Tax Year 2008 from the IRS might provide a much needed cold shower for these latter day hippies.

The top 1% paid more than 38% of the federal personal income tax for the nation. 

The top 5% paid more than 58% of the federal income tax. And what of the bottom 47%?  They paid nothing.  In short, nearly ½ of the people of the United States paid no federal income tax at all.  Just 50 years ago this past January, President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to resist the self-indulgent wining that was in it’s infancy in the nation.

On that freezing morning in 1961 he proclaimed: "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."    

Either this proclamation is just another platitude destined for the trash heap of political rhetoric or it is a national motto written and lived by the young president himself – a man who sought front line duty during the pacific theater of World War II and suffered dearly from his experiences.  From General Washington leading his men across the Delaware River to rout the Hessians at Trenton in 1776, to the first responders entering the towers of the World Trade Pavilion on September 11, 2001, real Americans have always carried their fair share.

In 1961, a laborer might have stopped into the neighborhood pub to enjoy a hard earned beer.  While the hops filtered through his taste buds and into his nostrils, he would have looked at his hands – hands swollen from the 8 hours of manual labor.  This working man, most likely a Democrat, would thought of his wife and children, and felt a strong smile coming over his face, a smile of pride and belonging to the national fabric of the USA.      

Today, the injustice is not with the 1%, but rather with the 47% who contribute nothing to the federal coffers.  Unfortunately, in a grand strategy of national pandering to today’s working poor, our current president wants to increase the number of people who contribute nothing to their country’s national bank account.  A skeptic would wonder if the president realizes that his actions are building a permanent majority to vote for him and his Democratic cohorts of the future. 

In his ground breaking social critique of the United States, Australian author Robert Hughes railed against a people he saw as professional whiners.  Hughes used his pen in 1993’s the Culture of Complaint to hone in on the central problem of the new American psyche: complete and utter selfishness.  Robert Hughes was correct at least for 47% of our population.

Fifteen years earlier Russian dissentient Alexander Solzhenitsyn reached the same conclusion.  He delivered the Harvard Class Day Speech (A World Split Apart in 1978) and focused on the onslaught of modernization vis-à-vis consumerism and selfishness.  The speech was both intemperate given his status as a political exile enjoying asylum and brilliant since Solzhenitsyn identified a serious fissure in our national character.

This highlights the main problem with the occupy members, they look and act like children.  It’s time for all adults to grow up and help this great country of ours to recover – one way to do this is for everyone adult to pay something for the greater good even if you’re poor.  To the pampered 47%, joining the legions of taxpayers would be one way “…you can do (something) for your country."  WORD COUNT: 709

Geoffrey G. Fisher

geoffreygfisher@hotmail.com

Geoffrey G. Fisher is a State-Certified History and Government Teacher. 

He currently works in Southwest Florida as a Guest Teacher.  He served for six years as a public official in Connecticut and holds a Master of Arts Degree in Public Policy from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.

Tax Year 2008

Percentiles Ranked by AGI	AGI Threshold on Percentiles	Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
Top 1%	$380,354	38.02
Top 5%	$159,619	58.72
Top 10%	$113,799	69.94
Top 25%	$67,280	86.34
Top 50%	$33,048	97.30
Bottom 50%	<$33,048	2.7
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income                 Source: Internal Revenue Service

Earth to Occupiers: Trust Buster Needed to Reform, not Toss Capitalism

WE NEED ANOTHER TRUST-BUSTER

TEDDY, WE MISS YOU!

By

Geoffrey G. Fisher

December 10, 2011

As insufferable and self-possessed as the Occupiers of Wall Street are, and they are, they have hit a national nerve.  Capitalism does need to be checked every now and then.  Corporate greed is now a danger to our national and collective-interest. 

109 years ago, under nearly identical circumstances, President Theodore Roosevelt filed a federal law suit against the Northern Securities Corporation for monopolizing the railroad industry.  The Supreme Court dissolved this monopoly in 1904 which proved to be a victory for laissez-faire capitalism and free trade and most importantly a victory for the American people.  Roosevelt did this again with the titans of the American coal industry, and in 1902 after an order to mobilize the army to commandeer the coal mines, the coal-mine owners finally agreed to arbitration.  Roosevelt the rough-rider and jingoistic imperialist, was now the friend to labor and the American Trust Buster – bully! 

Although the occupiers of Wall Street have touched a quintessential American nerve vis-à-vis fair play, they want to toss capitalism and replace it with European socialism or worse.  So, to these college-educated misfits, thank you for the wake-up call but keep your radical hippie agenda to yourselves.  Just look at the damage Spain and Greece have done to the European Union.  Just today, it was reported Bloomberg News that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's Pasok party is struggling to stay afloat with massive austerity measures being implemented in order to gain the financial support of the EU – this has not stopped many unions from working off the job as Greece crumbles before the eyes of the world.  This is what happens when 17 percent of the nation’s labor force is public employees.

Lasses-faire capitalism is the best economic system the world has ever known – it just isn’t perfect, and it needs to be check every now and then, like now.

Just like Teddy brook up the trusts of 100 years ago, and Ronald Reagan’s justice department busted the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1984 into the Regional Bell Operating Companies, also known as the Baby Bells, today we need bipartisan support to bust the Wall Street investment banks into institutions of a more manageable size – banks that serve the people and not simply nefarious stock holders.

Let’s start with the following five American banking houses:

1. Bank of America
2. Barclay's Capital
3. Citigroup
4. Goldman Sachs
5. JPMorgan Chase

Never again should a bank be too big to fail.  In capitalism, the freedom to succeed goes hand in hand with the freedom to fail.  Capitalism means the economy needs to be pruned by the invisible hand of Adam Smith. 

Now is the Time for President Obama, Speaker Boehner, and Senate Majority Leader Reid to join together to launch a trust busting party - where corporations, and large unions (the AFL-CIO and the NEA come to mind) are brought back into line with the interests of the American people.  This would be a feat supported by the political left and right – bipartisanism doesn’t have to be a pipe dream.  Perhaps this effort on behalf of the American people as a whole can ignite more bipartisanship on the economy.  Gentleman, "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." 

To the Occupiers, thank you for the wake-up call – now please go home and take a shower.  We all know your encampment will last only until the big apple becomes a big ice-cube.  You can return to New York’s Madison Square Garden on December 28, 2011 for the next Phish concert as victors.  (591 words)

Geoffrey G. Fisher is a State-Certified History and Government Teacher. 

He currently works in Southwest Florida as a Guest Teacher.  He served for six years as an elected official in Connecticut and holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.