Two Constitutional fundamental flaws

 Dear Editor, (submitted Oct. 26, 2021 but not acknowledged or printed)

Former Congressman Garry Giffords’ disturbing list of violent and lethal attacks (Attacks on Politicians…Oct. 25, 2021) on US policymakers and other elected officials in increasingly unstable democracies missed two fundamental factors inflaming human passions.

The first.  Democracies don’t work. Never have.  Never will.  Majority decisions rarely reflect reality.  You can peg this habit to tribalism, cognitive dissonance, apathy, or simply gross individual ignorance regarding the multitude of disrupters that threaten everyone’s freedoms and security -- and the sustainability of our essential environmental infrastructure.  But then you would miss the other underlying engineering flaw of our government and governance systems.  The absence of justice.

They are both based on “independence” – a mental illusion that exists nowhere in the known universe.  This delusional principle infects the human mind to prioritize freedom – and ignore responsibility.   Wise minds have always understood that acting irresponsibly has negative consequences. 

Read the preamble to the Constitution.  It has six fundamental intentions that few people on earth would reject.  Everything after the preamble (except a few Amendments) is largely responsible for inflaming most civil discontent.  Too many laws passed with these are unjust.  Our Constitution is a legal system, not a justice system.  Its failure to “establish Justice” explains its failure to ‘insure domestic tranquility” and every other preamble intention.

Inscribed above the entrance to the US Dept. of Justice is “Justice is the great interest of man on earth.   Wherever her temple stands, there is a foundation for social security, general happiness, and the improvement and progress of our race.”

For those of us who have benefited from the status quo of our unjust system, it is hard to imagine the lethal rage of those at the effect of it.  It has been our sustained comforts and the failure of our imagination that has been fueling such discontent with our government and elected officials for decades.  From the Oklahoma City Bombing to the attacks on 9-11.  Real or perceived injustices drive rational minds to consider lethal violence when their fundamental rights have no majority appeal in a flawed or non-existing (international law) justice system. 

The founders insisted on the 2^nd Amendment as a check on any irresponsible government.  The founders also included our capacity to alter the Constitution.  Unfortunately, our dysfunctional two-party democratic system prevents that.

Thomas Ricks, in his book “First Principles” identified the word “virtue” as a core value of the founders.  It was used over 6000 times in the 120,000 archived digitized documents he searched.  Virtue appeared more than “freedom”.  

Abraham Lincoln once wrote that our Declaration of Independence is our “Apple of Gold”.  And our Constitution its ‘frame of silver’.    It is guaranteed that things are going to get worse, a lot worse until our elected officials understand the need to consistently codify federal laws that are consistent with “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”.  And start swearing an oath to protect these instead of an inherently flawed Constitution.

Once we fully grasp the reality of our global interdependence, the common phrase “US interests” would be replaced by ‘humanities interests’.  Then for the first time in US history, our nation would have a virtuous foreign policy.  And laws that finally reflect every American’s flag pledge of “liberty and justice for all”. 

Chuck Woolery   chuck@igc.org   240-997-2209

315 Dean Dr., Rockville, MD 20851

 

 

Virtue of greater value than freedom!

 

Dear Editor, (not printed in the WTimes as of 10-13-21)

Everett Piper displayed a profound misinterpretation of Dr. Fauci’s comments in Canada (“Small man’s disease...” Op-ed, Washington Times 10-11-21).   If the founding fathers of our great nation read what Mr. Piper wrote, they would laugh.

Anyone reading the quotes of those wise souls would readily grasp the vital importance of individuals being “responsible” with their freedoms -- if they intend to keep them.   In writing his book “First Principles” (an in-depth study Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison’s sources of wisdom) Thomas Ricks’ researched “some 120,000 documents in the U.S. National Archives’ database, Founders Online”. He found the word “virtue” mentioned about “6000 times”.  More often than the word “freedom”! 

In our nation’s revolutionary days the word ‘virtue’ had a different and very powerful meaning.   It was understood as an “essential element of public life” --  good men ”putting the common good before one’s own interests.”  Ricks quoted the historian Joyce Appleby who asserted that virtue was the ‘lynchpin’ of public life – that is, the fastener that held together the structure.”

In this proper context, Mr. Piper lacks a realistic understanding of what it takes to keep Americans in our freedom-loving nation healthy, alive, and united.   This pandemic has already killed more Americans than our last Civil war (which took more American lives than all the wars Americans had fought in since then…combined!)  If Mr. Piper continues his irresponsible rhetoric, his ignorance of biology, history, and reality may be turning this highly lethal rhetorical war into another bloody civil war.  

Off shore illicit funds needed for global security

 

Dear Editor, (10-4-21):  NOT printed in the post.  Not even acknowledged.  

Finally!  The “billions” (and more likely trillions of dollars) stashed in offshore accounts made the Post’s front page!   I write trillions because that was printed in the Post’s “Five myths about Kleptocracy, By Natalie Duffy and Nate Sibley (both researchers at Hudson Institute’s Kleptocracy Initiative) 1-8-2017.   They referred to a 2012 report asserting that at least $32 trillion may be stashed in these anonymous havens by kleptocrats, oligarchs, international crime cartels, violent extremist groups, and rich capitalists avoiding taxes.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-kleptocracy/2017/01/04/42b30d72-c78f-11e6-8bee-54e800ef2a63_story.html . 

A later Post news article alleged that US authorities don’t know who owns approximately half of all the US homes valued at over $5 million in our nation’s wealthiest cities.  This anonymity is compliments of the greed of the US real estate industry lobby. 

And if that isn’t enough corruption corroding our nation’s financial system - that corruption also inflames our greatest national security threats (the forces of poverty that fuel hunger, pandemics, wars, environmental destruction, populism, refugee flows, species extinctions, indebtedness, and terrorism. Another news source April 5, 2017 (MARTIN KENNEY: PUT YOUR OWN TAX HAVENS IN ORDER, AMERICA, by Martin Kenney asserted that the U.S. holds 20 percent of the global market for financial services for non-residents with foreign assets of $16.75 trillion (2013), and foreign direct investment of $3 trillion (2014). http://www.fcpablog.com/blog/2017/4/5/martin-kenney-put-your-own-tax-havens-in-order-america.html#sthash.IiaU0HjG.dpufhttp://www.fcpablog.com/blog/2017/4/5/martin-kenney-put-your-own-tax-havens-in-order-america.html

In 2015 the United Nations offered the world a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals to achieve by the year 2030, and most nations have agreed to meet them.  These remain a comprehensive and holistic approach intended to address the root causes now driving most of our accelerating threats.  A lack of financial resources is not the problem.  Just the lack of political will and wise foresight to grasp that a “whole of government” approach cannot work against hyper corrupt globalization.   We need a whole of government's effort.  First to freeze these illicit funds. Then seize them and devote what is needed to actually achieve these wise goals.  Is there anything else that could bring our nation or our world together during this increasingly tense and chaotic time?    It is increasingly a self-evident truth that time is not on our side.  The momentum of change around us cannot be stopped with the glacial speed at which our democratic political systems change.  Why do we continue to ignore the warnings?

Freezing and seizing some of the $32 trillion stashed in offshore accounts could go a long way toward meeting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.. 

 "The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference" Bess Myerson

Religion's Purpose: On Columbus/Indiginous People's Day

 

Like economics, politics, science, and technology-- religion is a tool.

 

A multi-use tool.   Our mind (also a tool) can use each of these tools for saving lives, improving health, reducing suffering, or bringing life as we know it to an end on this unique planet.

 

Religious beliefs, rituals, and practices have the power to leverage the human mind to control the body in undertaking the noblest of actions - or committing the most horrific atrocities. It is we who decide what our minds will believe.  Choose wisely. Not just on what religion, ethnicity, or culture you were born into.   Heritage is important. But it should not be more important than the sustainable survival and thriving of humankind. 

 

There are an estimated 4,300 religions in the world with new ones being invented each year.  The seven most popular religions represent about 75% of the world’s people.  Christianity alone has an estimated 40,000 variations.  

Each religion has its own variations of beliefs, rituals, and practices.  But the popular religions are each based on a single call to action.  We know this as ‘the Golden Rule” – ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’.

This maxim is found in most religions and cultures for a reason.  It has a sound biological and moral underpinning of empathy, compassion, honesty, kindness, generosity, and trust.  It is linked to justice. 

Thus, justice, the Golden Rule, and the Jesus story of the Good Samaritan all represent a self-evident truth.  A fundamental principle essential for sustainably securing the “Blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our posterity.”

In summary, the primary purpose of religion is to encourage us to be more virtuous.  We don’t need religion or even mediation to do that.  But it can help!  Unfortunately, in today’s world people too often believe that their beliefs are the truth.   A truth they are easily willing to sacrifice their lives for, or the lives of others who believe differently.  It is within this shallow and stubborn mindset that our own greatest and most immediate threat has been created.   It’s not climate change!  It is what our minds have created with science and technology in a world lacking justice.  Both nations, groups, and individuals now have an unprecedented capacity for mass murder.  Combined with economic beliefs that are driven by selfishness that has perpetuated global poverty and continues to trash our environmental infrastructure while ignoring our vital yet crumbling national physical infrastructures that Americans all depend on.

Even before the creation of the atom bomb Albert Einstein wrote “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” Albert Einstein, 1941

Next 4^th of July read the Declaration of Independence and deeply consider the two law sets (the Laws of Nature and Nature's God) that led to the phrase “all men are created equal”.  If you think “men” only mean ‘males’ remember who birthed and protected, you when your survival was most dependent on a female’s breast and loving care. And that males are all missing a fourth of the chromosome that mostly determines one’s sexual attributes.  Not always.  But mostly.  We all possess fundamental God-given rights, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – however, we define happiness.

And don’t forget that our founding fathers believed most in the value of virtue (mentioned 6000 times in more than 120,000 documents they exchanged between themselves and others).  More than freedom!  Back then the word virtue was understood as an “essential element of public life”.  It implied good men “putting the common good before one’s own interests.”  Historian Joyce Appleby asserted that virtue was the ‘lynchpin’ of public life – that is, the fastener that held together the structure.”   Religion may be the greatest human path to virtue.  But it is not the only one.

I’ll assert that nothing destroys the respect that many people have for religion…than those who do not practice the Golden Rule.  And most threats humankind faces are exacerbated by that.

 

20 yrs after 9-11: What hasn't yet been stressed?

 

Post 9/11: Truth or Continued Consequences:  What hasn't been stressed yet? 

What did 9-11, Covid19, the Covid variants, the end of our 20-year war in Afghanistan, recent extreme weather events globally, and a decline in democracy in many nations all have in common?  First, they were all predictable, predicted, and preventable. Second, more costly blood and treasure consequences are yet to come - unless we understand the root cause and urgently act on it.   

Everyone who was conscious on September 11, 2001, recalls the events of that day. But understanding both the origins and the results of 9/11 is far more important than any acts of remembrance that we might perform. If we truly care to honor those who died and suffered on that unforgettable day, we must use our powers of understanding to develop sustainable strategies for preventing the next terrorizing event that might occur. Understanding must matter more than body counts.

The Post’s lead editorial of 9/11 cites Abraham Lincoln's statement that, when combating danger "the best defense (against the dangers of his time) …lay in cultivating robust 'reverence for the Constitution and laws,' " as well as his hopes that doing so "would inspire and sustain the people's commitment to liberty and equality." 

In his writings, Lincoln also described the Declaration of Independence as “our apple of gold” and the Constitution as its “frame of silver.” To my mind, these analogies reflect our foundational goal of equality for all people, as invoked in the Declaration.   But our “rule of law, as detailed in the Constitution ignores both the concept of justice and humanities inalienable rights.  The Constitution’s reliance on the proposition of independence — a deeply flawed concept rooted deeply in our minds has not delivered justice or consistently protected human rights since its creation.  From the start it was engineered into every level of our nation’s government.

Many Americans today proclaim their allegiance to individual liberty at the freedom to infect others in their communities.  For a significant portion US citizens “independence” has come to denote the license to act irresponsibly without regard for the medical, environmental, or economic consequences their actions on others (rejecting masks, refusing vaccinations, or denying climate change).

This prevalent fusion of “freedom” with “self-gratification” has long consequences for rest of the world too. For many decades our foreign and military policies have disparaged other cultures as unworthy of the respect and privilege that we ourselves take for granted; we’ve dismissed foreign casualties as “collateral damage”, communist or terrorist sympathizers, or humans irrelevant to our nation’s interests.

My studies as a biologist and student of the natural world have made the fundamental flaws in our Constitution to be “self-evident”.  They consistently ignore the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” expressed in the first paragraph of our “Apple of Gold” the Declaration of Independence.   Interdependence is at the heart of nature’s laws. Chief Seattle (1780-1866), the head of the Duwamish and Suquamish nations, saw this clearly: “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect."   Yet most of us ignore our irreversible global interdependence environmentally, economically, militarily, and health wise.   Without being responsible with our freedoms abroad we cannot expect to sustainably preserve our freedom, security, or prosperity here. 

Until we grasp the wisdom and survival value of putting the global protection of human rights and the environment above the protection of national sovereignty and corporate power, our vulnerability to the kind of dangers inflicted on 9/11 will grow.  Sustaining what quality of life that remains and improving it for ourselves and our children we must abandon the illusion of independence.

 

Our interdependence within this nation and on this planet is accelerating and irreversible. Nearly every troubling trend we are experiencing today is a symptom of our delusion of separation. There is a medical term for this mental condition – anosognosia.  It is when someone is unaware of their own mental health condition.  In a world with the accelerating evolution of weapons, pathogens, failing democracies, and civil strife It’s time for a wake-up call.

Our human-created construct of independence is responsible for our persistent failure to understand and respond effectively to nearly every danger we face (pandemics, pollution, terrorism, cyber security, economic stability, drug trade, refugee flows, food insecurity, extreme weather events…), each with lethal and unfavorable consequences for all — both here and abroad.

We can no longer simply react when disaster strikes. We can no longer build back to what we had before. It’s imperative now that we build forward in ways that prevent dangers and conserve limited resources.  It is our only means of maximizing any sustainable prospects of freedom, security, and prosperity for ourselves and our posterity.  Most nations have agreed to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030.  It is the only comprehensive set of solutions we have, and humanity is not on track to meet them.  Time is not on our side…and e may not get another chance. 

The truth of our interdependence can set us free.  Ignoring it will only have more unfavorable consequences.  

“Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half of the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren't going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security."   -Albert Einstein.  As quoted in Quantum Reality, Beyond the New Physics, p. 250.

"Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good."  -- Thomas Paine, Rights of Man [1791]

Yet reading his pamphlet “Common Sense” he concludes that the concept of complete independence is impossible. And, unless one does good in all things, one’s freedom and security can never be completely free of the negative consequences. 

On 9-11 anniversary Words should matter. In ‘American’ politics only body counts do.

 

Words should matter.  In ‘American’ politics only body counts do.

The deaths hundreds of thousands on 9-11, throughout the 20-year war in Afghanistan, the invasion/occupation of Iraq, and the Covid19 pandemic will have all been in vein -- if we fail to understand what led to these deaths in decisive terms.  Not terms politicians use to motivate voters and appropriate budgets to fund their own goals or cherished institutions.  Failing this will inevitably lead to catastrophic repeats in mass deaths from terrorism, pandemics, and extreme weather conditions because we react to these growing threats instead of preventing them by addressing root causes. 

Engineers, builders, scientists, medical doctors, and military planners use very specific words that mean very specific things.  This enables them to most effectively maximize their performance to achieve success.  Load bearing capacity, protons, T cells, and non-combatants imply specific fundamental principles that demand extreme clarity in their use.   

Politicians use words that can mean damn near anything - for achieving their political goals or ambitions.   We can best honor those who have died by effectively understanding what led to their deaths.  And using what we learned to prevent more.  Failing this, their deaths will have been in vain. 

We can start by ignoring political speeches that use vague words or phrases to inspire us and move us to support concepts that we have rarely examined closely.   

Consider the word “prevention”.  Policy makers have persistently defended our 20-year war in Afghanistan, needless war in Iraq, and the tens of thousands of US casualties and trillions of dollars…because they have ‘prevented’ another attack on our homeland.  The accurate word here is “preempted”.  They have stopped almost every attack on our homeland. 

What they ignore is the tens of thousands of collateral deaths that our military rules of engagement tried to avoid -plus the unimaginable physical destruction of homes, businesses, institutions, and farmland that have left millions in abject poverty and deep emotional pain.   This persistent reality only generated more anti-American hate, more Al Qaeda recruits, new extremist movements like ISIS, and impassioned vengeful motivation that guarantees future attacks on our homeland.  Now consider our extremely vulnerable energy, economic, global trade, medical, and mineral dependent systems we require for our prosperous and resource demanding (often wasteful and polluting) quality of life.  And, what it would take to preempt each of those individuals before one of them succeeds in ending civilization as we know it.   Consider weaponized small pox…or the collapse of the US dollar.

Over the last three decades the evolution of dual-use technology, extremely expensive weaponry, and our increasing dependence, vulnerability, and economic debt ushered in superpowered individuals.  These are extremists with immense capacity to intentionally or unintentionally, undermine a superpower nation.   And dysfunctional divided democratic governments are likely to be more susceptible to this than autocratic brutal regimes.   In the end they fall too.   Every government will without eventually ensuring ‘liberty and justice for all’.  People only put up with brutality, injustice and/ or suffering for so long. 

Consider the word “terrorism” or “terrorist”.   Autocratic nations will use it to brutally crush any resistance.  We use it to finance more expensive and intrusive weapons systems and think rearranging our institutions will protect us.   But terror is essentially fear.  And it will never be defeated.   Iraqi and Afghani civilians on the receiving end of US drone strikes have been terrorized longer and with more intensity than we have since 9-11.   We still believe our military and secured borders can keep us safe.  Unless a lone wolf terrorist rents a truck and loads it with fuel oil and fertilizer.  Or just murders 90 pedestrians in 2 minutes (Nice, France) by “mowing” them down without firing a shot. 

Understand that US politicians recently failed to agree on any definition for domestic terrorism so US laws could be made to protect us.   Consider the fact that US White supremacists work with other like-minded extremists abroad.  And their goal is the same.   Collapse the US government – so they can rebuild it in their image.   They aren’t smart enough to understand it is collapsing under its own disfunction. And this was recognized by our own nation’s national security experts in a survey done before Trump was even elected.   

This ‘word’ change in analysis and reporting of real threats is essential if we truly care to minimize the multitude of accelerating dangers in our future and truly honor the deaths and the suffering of so many.

Weapons and walls will not protect us.  A nation of good Samaritans could.   But first we would need to beg for forgiveness of all past sins.   Some reparations could be helpful.   But bringing together leaders who are chosen by their own people from all nations to engineer a just world -- where the rule of law (the protection of God given rights and justice for all) reigns supreme over the law of force – would be needed. 

Failing that, the least we could do is assist the nations of the world in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  There is no shortage of money, resources, technology, or energy in the world.  All we lack is political will and time.  And we are running out of time.

 

Afghanistan Truth or Consequences

 

After reading dozens of accurate reports and variedly opinions (many valid and some not) regarding the causes and consequences now on the ground in Afghanistan -- there are a few fundamental truths that I’ve yet heard mentioned.

First some existing truths.

1.       This is the longest war the US has ever been involved in.

2.       We lost approximately 2,300 US soldiers, 3,800 American contractors, and spent well over a trillion dollars.

3.       Afghanistan lost approximately 66,000 Afghan soldiers and police, and at least 47,000 Afghan civilians.

4.       Afghanistan’s wealth of rare earth metals is estimated at over $3 trillion in current value.

5.       Taliban’s income from illegal narcotics is estimated at few billion each year.

6.       The original US goal of killing OBL morphed into nation building mostly with military power.

7.       Given historical, geographical, political, religious, economic, national, and corruption conditions --a US defeat was inevitable.

The current situation in Afghanistan is the inevitable consequences of failed US foreign and military policy.   A Constitution that did not prevent an unauthorized war to go after a mass murderer who justified his attack as retaliation against a murderous US foreign policy.  We really waged a war against fear (terrorism) that could never really be won without committing genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity against people we suspect of not agreeing with us, but cannot prove in a court of law.  We served ‘justice’ with invasions, occupations, torture, and mass murder. 

In brief –our nation continued putting our own short term ‘interests’ above our nation’s founding principles stated in our Declaration of Independence.  Put bluntly – inalienable human rights continue to be expendable – without a court of law.  And any serious establishment sourced proposal - to systemically change this - is deemed unrealistic.   In truth such systemic transformation is the only way of preventing future catastrophic failures of such magnitude.

Tragically, the world’s most powerful governments continue to reject this self-evident truth - and increasingly function chaotically with predictable catastrophic consequences.  The current global governance system based on the illusion of independence between peoples was hatched over 400 years ago at the Treaty of Westphalia.  Back then the word sovereignty referred to a God given right possessed by each individual.  But the rulers of large groups of waring mutated this fundamental truth into a flawed concept we worship today as ‘national sovereignty’.   Originally this mutation intended to limit the scope and range of murdering innocent individuals beyond certain lines just because of their choice of religion or God appointed leader.   

Today the functional definition of this flawed system is in a world where national borders are irrelevant to the movement of money, pollution, communications, technology, and other WMD precursors.   Governments have created unenforceable rules we call “International Laws” that can only be enforce by war, sanctions (which can be more lethal than war – or spark one), diplomacy (threats), or covert operations (assassinations, cyber-attacks, or mercenaries.