Like much of the wintry Mid-Atlantic, we've been buried under a blanket of snow here in Pittsburgh.  I've probably spent at least two hours shoveling in my new involuntary exercise plan.  But, it is interesting to see people actually interact outside their cars.

We live in a bubble world.  Our house is a bubble.  Our car is a bubble.  Our friends are a bubble.  We put ourselves in certain circles, whether they be tangible or mental, and don't see what exists outside them.  I thought about this today as bubbles bursting had people laughing and skidding on snow.  Traffic had ground to a halt, there were problems everywhere, but it was fine because everyone was okay.

I look to burst bubbles too.  I try to reach out between different groups and ideas to force people to rethink how they see both themselves and this world.  When I think on ideas, I always try to see them through the eyes of the other.  I recognize that I can't ever have a full substitute for experience, but even the difference in perspective matters.  It brings new insights and increased empathy.

So, while we play in the snow, or try to get out of it, think of when was the last time you actually talked to someone who you don't talk to, and give it a chance.  It's interesting to learn about the people and the worlds you didn't know ever existed, sometimes just a snowbank away.
 
 
These are going to be the colors for my brother's forthcoming wedding (Congratulations, James!), but that isn't why I'm sharing them tonight.  After looking over what was said at the State of the Union Address last night, it has me thinking about what I think should happen.  Here's my tri-color strategy for improving America with our current government.

White:  We start with a blank slate, taking all the bills pending off the table as America neither wants nor can afford them.  The issues remain salient, but anything that will be passed will require real communication involving both parties as well as the people themselves.  Call it a white flag of truce or surrender, but there is something better to be found, and I know this Congress lacks the resolve now to carry forward with anything discussed previously.

Green:  People need more green in their pockets, and since we have an administration that is committed to being involved, why not involve one of their favorite items:  green technologies.  Use green technologies to upgrade the national infrastructure, revitalize our industry, and create both blue collar and white collar jobs so people can have some green in their pocket.  Wall Street does not create wealth.  Jobs, small businesses, and factories do.

Black:  After spending to create jobs, focus on getting this nation into the black.  Now that the debt ceiling is about to rise to $14.1 trillion dollars, we absolutely must get this down or America will be bankrupt.  This is not a partisan issue; it is a national security issue.  Cut all other spending and allocate toward debt reduction.

This isn't what I think will happen, but if Congress and the President had vision and a willingness to work together for the good of America, this is the best I can imagine they could accomplish together.
 
 
For those who haven't already heard, there was a landmark decision reached today by the United States Supreme Court in the case Citizens United v. FEC.  What was being contested was whether or not corporations, unions, and other entities would be permitted to spend money in support or opposition of a given candidate and at what time.  After McCain-Feingold was passed in 2002, limits had been placed upon this type of political speech reinforcing a precendent going back to the Austin case from the late seventies.  The decision made today by a 5-4 majority essentially tears down these provisions and allows these actors to make such political statements as they desire.

I find myself very conflicted about this.  It is a ruling that I think is both correct in fact, but terrible in practice for what it will mean.  The First Amendment clearly guarantees freedom of speech in political matters, and to suggest that any entity be deprived that right seems injurious to the public will.  I understand and agree with that logic.  However, I also see that making this decision will have the functional impact of making our system even more afloat with money than it already has been.

Starting with the 2010 midterm elections, it is now inevitable that you will see corporations spending millions of dollars nationwide in their own campaigns to defeat opponents of their policies.  While these contributions will not be made to the candidates directly, it is frightfully easy to imagine how candidates could become surrogates for the forces seeking their retention or removal.

When we have a government spending trillions of dollars, investments of millions will be smart and easy for corporate donors, but impossible for individuals to match.  Even the most vigorous of campaigns cannot compete on an individual basis with this spending, and so our decisions will be invariably shaped by who spends most, not who is most right.  This is a consequence of free speech, and yet, when the airwaves are drowned out by the attack ads, I wonder how free speech has become if it must always be paid for so dearly.

While I agree with the ruling, I think this stresses the need for reform to get money out of politics.  Lawmakers should come together, for the protection of themselves and this republic, and institute fair rules for campaigns that end these ludicrous displays where we spend billions bashing each other.  I look at the English system as an example.  Everyone who can collect enough signatures is on the ballot; there are publicly aired debates, a campaign of substance, and it is all finished within six weeks.

I want people talking about ideas, and want to hear from candidates themselves.  I think most Americans feel likewise.  I hope that someone, somewhere, shows a willingness to give us that.  If not, I fear terribly, as those interests that can buy elections, I seriously doubt will be willing to stop at that point.  Be they left or right, having money in these quantities is not healthy for America.
 
 
One thing that you learn very quickly in politics is that there is always an us and a them.  Depending upon where you are, your team members change, but that there is presented an irrevocable split is inevitable.  We love things where they hate things.  We're for the good where they are for corruption.  We are right; they are wrong.

Needless to say, if you're someone more concerned with results than insults this probably is not the most effective way to accomplish things.  As I have the opportunity to talk to more people, I find that this is one of the many reasons why people stopped listening to politics and simply walked away.

If you listen to candidate stump speeches, you'll see this very easily.  There are certain catch phrases and groups that you're allowed to villify.  They think this, so they are bad.  That doesn't work for me; I like to understand why people think what they think, and then I find it much easier to talk to them about what I think and why I think it.  Respect and dignity, two simple values lacking from our discourse.

As I get involved with local politics, nowhere do I find this division more poignant than in the contest between business and labor.  The irony of it is that they both like attacking each other for the same basic offense.  Business gets angry with labor when they want better pay and benefits because their profit margin gets cut.  Conversely, labor gets mad when business is making money and their cut isn't large enough.  So, they attack one another and ask government to play referee.

The truth is if they looked past the rhetoric, they would see an opportunity.  A business that treats its workers well will have loyalty, higher productivity, and more commitment.  These days, since many employees are shareholders in their company anyway, there has never been more incentive to have shared success.  The same applies in reverse.  Unions should know that if a business grows and expands that there will be more opportunities to bring in more workers and promote from within.  If instead of asking government to pick a favorite they could work together, they would see that the challenge isn't between them, but between the companies without.

This is a lesson Pittsburgh desperately needs to learn, and I believe it has begun to do so.  The fight of the future isn't between labor and business, but between our businesses and those in other places in this nation and the world.  We need to stop attacking one another, and see there is a way forward where everyone benefits.  Smarter government would help.  Cut regulation, taxation, and red tape for business, but with the understanding that the employees will benefit also.  There will be more money, more room for expansion, and more to go around.

Balance is the key, and a willingness to understand that us and them is something different today.  Us is all of us, because we cannot have economic renewal if no one can even afford to purchase the products we create.
 
 
Sometimes I feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, where everything is upside down and nothing makes sense.

I firmly believe in the idea that solutions to issues should be local and that acting thusly would create not just smaller, but more efficient government.  While I think that can be the case, what I am learning bit by bit is that, in fact, the opposite is often true.  It shouldn't surprise me; it makes sense that corruption would be easier to create when everyone knows each other.

We often rant about the size and scope of the federal government, but I learned an amazing fact today.  Taken in sum, the local and state governments in our nation would dwarf the size of the feds in terms of both numbers employed and expenditure.

Take Allegheny County.  I know their budget was in the $770 million range.  Plus, the City of Pittsburgh, plus the municipalities, plus the authorities, plus the school districts.  Add all these up and you'd have several billion dollars, spread across numerous governments that we barely know and most often ignore.  That scares me.

I'm learning how it works and two things strike me.  One, it will be much harder to reform things locally than it would be to fix DC.  Two, it is more important than that, for as much as I care about the national issues, the process is broken in our own backyard.  Contracts and candidates.  Authorities you never hear about.  And no one even knows what to ask.

To take on the system, I think you might have to expose it all.  You would make many enemies and few friends, but you would have the respect of people who wanted to know what was real.  I hope there are enough who feel that way, like I do.

For now, I will have to leave this as abstract as possible because I cannot explain all the relationships, and I am trying to understand myself.  I can tell you one thing:  The Point will be a gamechanger.
 
 
Last night, I was at a meeting with a number of progressives.  Unlike many of the people whom I know, I try to actively consider viewpoints that run counter to my own, and am proud to have friends who disagree vigorously with me.  Debate and discussion is such an important part of the political process, and though I usually find myself arguing, I find myself learning more for the conversations that I have.

What I am learning that for as much dissatisfaction as exists on the right, the left is equally displeased with how things are going in Washington.  I talked to people who were angry about a President who ran a campaign promising transparency, ending a war, and helping the economy, and who saw either no results or outright lies.  They were angry, and much as conservatives felt betrayed by some Republicans, they were progressives who felt betrayed by the Democrats.

It leads me to wonder who represents the people.  It has almost become such that the political class just represents itself and the donors who perpetuate their success.  While money has always bought influence, it is hard to find any time where it was so blatant, unapologetic, and cynical as today.  We need reform.

Whatever your views, we need people to step up who are not part of the process.  I believe this can only succeed if we begin taking power back for ourselves as citizens.  Huge government allows for huge corruption, and whether you believe the state should be larger or smaller, I think everyone can agree that when politicians have to actually face and know their constituents, they will be held more accountable.

Decentralization of power is becoming ever more important in my mind, and I'm determined to help wherever I can to make this happen.
 
 
I read an interesting article in the Financial Times today talking about the new role of America in the world.  Countries that are nominal democracies such as India and Brazil gladly line up with China as partners, looking for something different than they once did.  I am not so naive to believe international politics is about anything more than power, but when you look at the geopolitical situation, and bring it back home, you have to wonder.

America has spent much blood and treasure in the world.  Some of the motives were pure, some were not.  But in sum, for all the missteps, we created a world where the idea of freedom was possible and desired.  We have an idea where people would prosper in liberty rather than toil under authority.  Even now, we find that battle happens daily under our own shores as we have a government that seems more concerned with the interests of the few rather than the benefit of the many.  But, I ask now, what would we become as Americans?

I have a vision of a nation that finds prosperity through liberty.  Democracy means nothing where people don't have the chance to think and decide things on their own freely.  We have celebrated that ideal for too long, not recognizing that democracy without the idea of individual freedom is just a rubber stamp for mob rule.  I am not claiming any country is that, but I also know democracy alone will not make the world safer or better.

We live in a dangerous world, and to pretend otherwise is folly.  America, for our benefit, security, and our own people must look to its own.  That we depend on other nations for so much of our resources and industry is a threat to our security.  Moreover, it is foolish.  We have people here who want to work, who are industrious and willing, and ample natural resources to produce for all our needs and be the great traders of the world.  What we lack is leadership that shows the vision how we can take those resources, take our very best beliefs, and build a future both prosperous and just.

It is not the responsibility of one man, one party, one government, or one state to do this.  Instead, I think of this as our mission to share together, where we can find and create the America of our imagination.  There is no other place in the world that can do this, or desires to do this.  They would have wealth, but what about justice?  They would equality, but what about plenty?  What about the individual?

It is this conflict that will define this decade, and this century.  Will humanity chart a course whereby we choose to become a social organism, sublimating our desires and skills to some larger created purpose by a fortunate elite?  Or, will we choose freedom, ushering in an era where the innovations we create serve to allow each man, woman, and child, a chance to better their lives?

The world seems to be making their choice.  We must begin making ours.  Liberty or security?
 
 
Happy New Year to everyone!

As the last few hours tick away here in 2009, I find myself thinking about the year that was and the year that will be.  After an extremely active 2008, it almost feels like 2007 was a respite.  Looking back, however, I can see that wasn't true.

In terms of what I was able to accomplish, I have to say that I'm most proud of Freedom Conference 2009.  We had three excellent speakers come and speak about the dangers of a steadily growing government, and used the event to generate both national and international news stories that talked about the importance of liberty.  While it wasn't perfect, it showed the power of possibilities.

I continue to learn how to reach people, how to talk to people, and to develop my own beliefs.  One thing I am very proud of myself about is that I am always willing to re-examine what I think in terms of logical arguments, and to talk to others with respect and thoughtfulness.  In the coming years, this will be even more important as my independent path leads me to new places.

In 2010, the efforts to reach people will become a priority.  Between the efforts to establish the forthcoming newsletter, to be called "The Point", and my other endeavors, I will be coming soon to a neighborhood near you.  I want to learn what is happening, what people are doing, what is working and what does not, and move beyond rhetoric to begin to apply my principles to make a difference in the lives of the people in this place I now call home.

2010 should be a fun year.  I hope that it is for all my friends also, and that you enjoy yourselves on this night and every night.
 
 
I spent the better part of the last few weeks doing intensive research on political trends.  While it certainly was not fun, the information will surely prove valuable for the future, and I am glad of that.  Having finished, however, I'm now taking a brief vacation from thinking of this world and immersing myself in fantasy.

I often tell myself that if a day comes when I no longer find myself willing to fight the political battles that I do, that I will gladly retire and write so I can dream of worlds that make better sense than this one sometimes does.  In that spirit, I wanted to write a little different blog today.

In fantasy, we find images of the world that we hope to create for ourselves.  It is a sad truth that our existence today, with its many material demands, does not allow those of us who were not fortunate enough to find ourselves living in splendor to be as we might choose.  But we find an escape, and a place to where our minds can wander and where there is understanding in fiction.

Truthfully, for as much as I am personally better at writing non-fiction, I think that people gain more through stories with people and action.  I think we look to put a narrative to our lives to make it make sense.  It is a very hard thing to accept that all is either chance or luck, and so we add context.  We make beginnings and endings, even as the only ones we truly know are those when this world appears and disappears in ending.

Fantasy is an escape from that, and fiction allows us to explore our dreams and their consequences.  We call to a higher part of ourselves, and find ways to envision dreams before they are realized.  It is why I always enjoy reading good fiction, and the more fantastic, the more appealing it seems to me.  The world has much wonder in it, but so much of that comes from the things we think not yet possible, but still they can be.  We might not sprout wings, but we can find something better in ourselves, and through our heroes, hardships, and even villains, there is always something more to be seen.

Go enjoy something fanciful yourself if you haven't.  You might find yourself quite happy when you don't expect it.
 
 
The bills that are floating in the House and Senate for health care reform are absolutely terrible.  More terrible still is that I can say this without even saying the first thing about health care.

Whether you believe health care is a right or not, whether you believe government should or should not provide a solution, the process alone should be abhorrent to anyone who believes in financially sound, well rooted reform for the future.  The passage of this bill has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the ideas (which we know must be true because no time has been given for reading of any section of the legislation), but it is a desperate attempt to simply pass something.

That bribes are casually being bandied about to ensure passage is nothing but the most disgusting of legislative politics as usual.  I hope the good people of Nebraska, Louisiana, Connecticut, and those other states where Senators basically have managed to include several hundred millions of kickback dollars will be remembered for such when their respective terms end.  Health reform is too serious an issue to be bought in this way, to be bungled with a bad bill, and to be nothing to everyone.

Were I a liberal, I would ask how this bill provides for public health care for everyone: it doesn't.  I would ask how it protects a woman's right of choice: it doesn't.  I would ask this and more, but people on the left already are and we see unions and other prominent left sympathetic constituencies lining against final passage.

Were I a conservative, I would ask how this bill will be paid for: no one know.  I would ask how it will save costs: that doesn't matter.  I would ask this and more but expect nothing but attacks and threats.  I already know how many have lined up on the right to defeat this, but they are silenced by the majority.

But my question is this:  if there is a bill that so many people oppose on so many reasons, and that seems to be capable of passage only with such blatant bribery, why should it be passed it all?  A good bill, which addresses the serious issues of health care reform, should have been written deliberately with concerns for both the costs of the program, the needs of those not served, and mindful of the fact that millions of Americans who do have health care do not want and cannot afford to see their services lessened or made more expensive by government intervention.

I think there was a majority, on both sides, who could have come together on that basis, to build something better and lasting.  But that is not this bill, and the legacy of this Congress will be that it chose to go it alone, ignoring the will of the people, and butchering the chance for better health care reform.

2010 is coming.  Remember.