A voice from the heartland with something to say

A while back I posted a guest editorial from Stephen Anderson.  His editorial took exception to negative letters he read in a magazine and he questioned the accusations that were being leveled at the Occupy movement.  Even though he wasn't exactly singing Occupy's praises he was at least being fair and honest about his observations.  A friend of mine has been in communication with Mr. Anderson and he shared with me the following video that Stephen sent to him.  The video records a speech Anderson gave at an event in St. Paul, Minnesota back in 2008.  The speech was very timely then and it is still worth listening to now.  Mr.  Anderson continues to be a fair and honest observer of society and his style is articulate and entertaining.  Forty-five minutes isn't too long to give to this thought provoking verbal presentation. 

Corporate Influence

The January 23 issue of High Country News includes an article entitled Billboard corporations use money and influence to override your vote.  The Editor’s Note column on page one is headed with “An era of increasing corporate power” and you can read the editor’s comment online under the title Billboard corporations and other big industries make their own rules. 

Another example of corporate power and influence on government can be seen in the 2012 session of the South Dakota legislature a bill to undue what some people believe was a legislative mistake gets tabled in committee.  HB1098 would have restored state permitting power on uranium mines and reversed last year’s legislation. Cheryl Rowe, Lilias Jarding, and Rebecca R. Leas wrote letters to the editor of the Rapid City Journal expressing support for this year’s proposed bill.  Other opponents of last year’s legislation from the area near where the uranium mining would take place also testified before the committee.  However, one of the bill’s main sponsors decided that the bill needed to be “refined” and that she would resubmit the new bill next year.  

The following article is taken from the West River Electric February 2012 issue of the “Cooperative Connections” magazine, page 15:

It is worth it to do a little research into the reversal of the so called ban on incandescent light bulbs.  For another explanation of whether or not there is a ban on incandescent light bulbs plus lots more information on the topic look here.  One article referred to this recent US Congressional activity as a victory for the US Tea Party.  Was it in fact a victory for the Tea Party or was it an example of the effectiveness of political influence capabilities of Koch Industries?

Okay, ignore my inference to right-wing conspiracy and ask yourself some questions. 

1.  Who benefits the most from the examples of political influence listed above?

2.  Do you like looking at the local scenery that you can see through bill boards or would you prefer to just look at the scenery without the bill boards? 

3.  Is it worth the risk of polluting our drinking water in order to make it easier for Power Tech to mine for uranium in the Black Hills?

4.  If you can save money and help the whole world save energy by changing to a light bulb that is more efficient, why wouldn’t you?

5.  Who benefits if you don’t change to the more efficient light bulb?

I would like to read you answers.

It's a case of "kill the messenger"

Guest editorial

            Few people will deny the U.S. faces a serious economic crisis, an economic

Waterloo if you will. Yet I'm astonished where our letter writers and columnists place the blame.  One thing is certain: if the only advice a noted Ph.D. in economics has to offer Congress, the president, and the public is a silly, asinine fairy tale about 10 beer drinkers, then we as a nation are in serious trouble. No less a personage than Warren Buffet -- the oracle of Omaha and the second wealthiest capitalist in the U.S. -- has bluntly told Congress, "The rich should pay more." He used himself and his own employees as an example, clearly showing how he paid a lower percentage rate on his millions of income than his employees do on their monthly salary. If Congress and Ph.D. economic professors ignore Warren Buffett, don't blame beer drinkers.

            In the November 17 issue of Western Ag Reporter, every other letter writer or columnist gave environmentalists or the Occupy Wall Street movement a whack. Why? Was it tree huggers or was it Paul Volker, chairman of the Federal Reserve, who raised interest rates to 21% in the 1980s, resulting in an economic crisis in rural America?  Who was President of the U.S. when the E.P.A. was created and the clean air and clean water acts passed... socialist Adolph Hitler or Republican Richard Nixon?  Was it the Occupiers or the Banksters that created the housing bubble that ultimately crashed, creating a global crisis?

            After the 1929 crash and depression, numerous restrictions were placed on Wall Street to prevent a re-occurrence. Who removed those public safe guards.. the occupiers or Congress? The power of eminent domain to take private property was granted to corporations. Who changed the rules and constitution? Occupiers or Supreme Court?

Who robbed the Social Security trust fund and left only IOUs and a pending crisis? Occupiers or Congress?  Was it the Occupiers or Congress that negotiated the Free Trade agreements that gutted U.S. manufacturing and exported 10 million jobs to third-world slave labor? Was it a tree hugger or a federal judge who voided a billion-dollar jury verdict in favor of U.S. cattlemen? The ceaseless flow of 35 million illegals have overwhelmed our schools, hospitals, and welfare agencies and spawned unprecedented drug violence. Who condones and even encourages and exploits this illegal flow? Corporate hogs, dairy, poultry, meat packers, and fruit and vegetable growers or the Occupy Wall Street protesters?

            I haven't made a personal inspection of the Occupiers so I can't speak with authority on their lack of cleanliness as some have, but I view them as analogous to canaries in the coalmine. I do know that something is vitally wrong with our nation and that neither Congress nor our President is willing to take other than divisive political actions.

            When 30 major corporations can avoid paying taxes for seven years, when innumerable corporate CEOs like Lowell McAdam of Verizon draw pay of $55,000 per day (yes, per day!), when we have thousands of soldiers stationed in Germany and Japan 65 years after the end of WW II, then something is wrong. Turn off your TV and learn what our real problems are and who's causing them. By the way, what book commanded us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the widows and orphans, and love our neighbor as ourselves? The left wing, socialist Occupiers handbook or the Holy Bible?

                                                                   Stephen Anderson

                                                                   Alma, KS