Great article in The New Yorker
My response to a friend's posting on Google+, Tim O'Reilly, The Obama Memos, Cumberland, Maryland and local politics
This is long and has a lot of links.
It makes for excellent reading and studying as well as, a offers a better vision of what our collective future looks like in The U.S.A., in some aspects.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all
above: A friend on Google+ shared this, and I am responding to it as well, as it is quite amazing as I have written on some of this just last night alone.
I wrote:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/news_detail.html?news_id=16404
and wrote last night:
http://mountainmaryland.blogspot.com/2012/01/cumberland-maryland-fracking-health.html
So, this is a mix match of lots of stuff, but it covers this topic.
The article from the New Yorker even talks about political trenches, as I wrote about first...perhaps a popular cliche.
What timing though.
I grew up a Conservative Republican and I voted for Obama.
My point is we needed change at that moment in time, and he would deliver that quickly.
I felt that, I knew that, and I buckled in for the long haul, 20-25+ years, and I have seen great short term progress.
The fact is some things we may not see come to fruition for a very very long time, however, perhaps that will change too, and I think it will by the nature of the changes being made. The bottom line is we need to pick a path and stay on that path overall, or we will never have any long term progress.
During Obama's run to the White House, I went to the very last rally before the election in Manassas, Virginia and there was truly electricity in the air. Of all the concerts I have been to in my life, none even ever came close tor having this feeling. I have seen Frampton, Jethro Tull, G and R, David Russell, the SuperSuckers, The highway men, Garth Brooks, Brooks and Dunn, and on and on, hundreds of concerts, and this place just felt like electricity was all over, a buzz filled the air, and it was an excitement with a calming overall.
I would love to see decibel readings from that night when Obama first came out.
I remember, from television, The skins at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C., the same place I saw Guns and Roses and Metallica.
I remember that place rocking during the playoffs in the NFL, as the skins fans may have been the loudest fans ever, and were that day for sure, hands down.
That is an awesome exhilerating power for the NFL, and Manassas was louder then that.
You could just tell. I was watching one on television, and I was at the other, but I have been to all these loud concerts, and sang in bands, and this Manassas rally was out of this world.
The electricity in the air was incredible and I felt the wave of the future, this positive energy in the spirit all in one place at a one time, and it was a new intensity for me personally.
I blogged about it some where, the entire experience that night, because it was very noteworthy how it all happened and that we were close by, as I had suggested to my girlfriend that perhaps he would pop up somewhere at the last minute...and he does, totally unplanned in Manassas, and we were visiting my folks in Alexandria, Virginia...oh come on.
This oddity was followed with another rather funny one I will quickly share, just because it is fun and strange timing too. Perhaps destiny.
This happened to me and my ex- girlfriend pertaining to a SuperSuckers show once...we are in Denver, Dad somehow books an extra night at the Holiday Inn in Denver, and we got nothing to do. Nothin I tell ya! (lol)
So I say let's see if The SuperSuckers are playing close by, and we both knew that they were in Europe because we always want to know if they are coming to whatever town we are in at a moment, and that may sound great, but the truth is that town is 99% of the time, Cumberland, Maryland.
So anywho...lol again, I log on to the net at the hotel, check the schedule for the heck of it, and what do you know...down the road at Ft. Collins, CO at the Aggie Bar is, yep...The SuperSuckers...so we rent a car and off we go to check out our favorite band together.
So fun coincidence or not...both times above were exciting, but nothing like the Manassas experience.
That night gave me an experience that made me appreciate a generation a lot more even, that lost Kennedy.
I had never seen an outpouring from and of the people towards our President in my lifetime, even with Reagen.
I was at Reagen's Inauguration live, and I went to Obama's in Washington D.C. as well.
At 44, I remember back to Nixon and Ford pretty well overall.
So back to this current administration, Obama's Administration has worked hard to make a more efficient government and is the first administration to implement this much new technology and more importantly, infrastructure, so heavily.
Perhaps this is simply due to timing, but it has to have been there first with vision and foresight, as that is how great planners have always planned, and we can do so more then ever today, more easily then ever before.
I am researching and compiling some information about the need for Cumberland, Maryland to invest in it's broadband infrastructure.
If we do not make this investment, we are ripping the barely beating heart out of the economic soul of the future of Cumberland, Maryland, and perhaps this entire Allegany County, which in turn always affects Garrett County.
In Maryland, Annapolois is a different kind of world away, although fairly close if driving, and it usually has a different kind of politics on the surface, but we all want safer better safeguarded wetlands/ bay/ forests/ tributaries, better education, better farming, better everything and I am proud to say my great state of Maryland is on the cutting edge of the Green Era Envelope just as Pennsylvania is today.
These states are rich in natural resources, be it coal, natural gas, or agriculture and wildlife, and for the most part those raw materials have usually been well protected and well utilized, although that needs further scrutiny.
I only bring up the scrutiny part because of certain methods of mining we use to use and have grown away from in favor of better ways, as well as current "fracking" that I think is at least highly questionable at the very least.
These states, Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, have wonderful production on a large agricultural level, with excellent farming areas for a variety of crops across each state, and in this Tri-State region I would say most especially, as this is an extremely diverse region in every reguard imaginable.
There is enough to study and enjoy within one and a half hours direction from Cumberland too keep you busy studying, traveling, and curious, and enjoying life forever.
If we do not make this investment in broadband locally now, I say we miss the boat entirely. It is an economic arc akin to the one Noah used to save humanity and wildlife, and you get left behind if you do not board.
I voted for the best man for the job at hand when I voted, and that was it.
That is how I was raised, and it may fly in the face of my earlier political beliefs, but that was what I knew was right and was needed now.
The war in Iraq is resolved with a relatively safe extraction, logistically speaking.
The "people's" voice is being heard, and government responds, maybe not quickly enough still, but quicker then before.
The economy stinks, however it could be worse. Question here is for the long term. Are we digging such a hole weill never get out ? Possibly.
TODAY
I will close with this.
We need to spend more and make more money to finish this infrastructure that is being put in place.
To me, in the bigger picture, the infrastructure should be built and we need to tread carefully with concerns of the country's finance quite obviously.
We need to start manufacturing of new Green Products quickly and provide jobs to our citizens, again quickly.
The shifts in the energy companies deserve a worthy look.
We could start with some windmill part production or assembly, and so many other things like that.
I hope someone at a Federal political level sees this and reads it, and many on the state level as well all the way to local.
I know we are ready to embrace the Green Era here in Cumberland, and all over our Tri-State Region, and we are a hub, once again, as we are 150 miles or less from Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., and Baltimore.
We are merely a stone's throw away with proper direction from being that hub for Green Industry, perhaps manufacturing, distribution, education, and research.
I would like to see this come to fruition in my lifetime and I would like to see what we can do here at home to help.
Please post up a comment or question or email me anytime.
I hope this offered some perspective and facts about what can be if we work hard together, and I want your ideas because I will research them, write about them, and suggest them when I write letters and send them out too.
I do not do that too often, but when I do, because I get much more direct and to the facts and support those facts, I always get very positive responses.
It has taught me that writing such as this during preliminary stages of fact finding and communication, is a key to gathering even more knowledge more quickly.
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
My response to a friend's posting on Google+, Tim O'Reilly, The Obama Memos, Cumberland, Maryland and local politics
This is long and has a lot of links.
It makes for excellent reading and studying as well as, a offers a better vision of what our collective future looks like in The U.S.A., in some aspects.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all
Tim O'Reilly - 9:27 AM - Public
The Obama Memos
Fabulous New Yorker article explores who Obama really is as a politician, based on analysis of actual decisions he made while in the White House.
"A close look at the choices Obama made on domestic policy, based on a review of hundreds of pages of internal White House documents, reveals someone who is canny and tough—but who is not the President his most idealistic supporters thought they had elected."
Fabulous New Yorker article explores who Obama really is as a politician, based on analysis of actual decisions he made while in the White House.
"A close look at the choices Obama made on domestic policy, based on a review of hundreds of pages of internal White House documents, reveals someone who is canny and tough—but who is not the President his most idealistic supporters thought they had elected."
above: A friend on Google+ shared this, and I am responding to it as well, as it is quite amazing as I have written on some of this just last night alone.
I wrote:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/news_detail.html?news_id=16404
and wrote last night:
http://mountainmaryland.blogspot.com/2012/01/cumberland-maryland-fracking-health.html
So, this is a mix match of lots of stuff, but it covers this topic.
The article from the New Yorker even talks about political trenches, as I wrote about first...perhaps a popular cliche.
What timing though.
I grew up a Conservative Republican and I voted for Obama.
My point is we needed change at that moment in time, and he would deliver that quickly.
I felt that, I knew that, and I buckled in for the long haul, 20-25+ years, and I have seen great short term progress.
The fact is some things we may not see come to fruition for a very very long time, however, perhaps that will change too, and I think it will by the nature of the changes being made. The bottom line is we need to pick a path and stay on that path overall, or we will never have any long term progress.
During Obama's run to the White House, I went to the very last rally before the election in Manassas, Virginia and there was truly electricity in the air. Of all the concerts I have been to in my life, none even ever came close tor having this feeling. I have seen Frampton, Jethro Tull, G and R, David Russell, the SuperSuckers, The highway men, Garth Brooks, Brooks and Dunn, and on and on, hundreds of concerts, and this place just felt like electricity was all over, a buzz filled the air, and it was an excitement with a calming overall.
I would love to see decibel readings from that night when Obama first came out.
I remember, from television, The skins at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C., the same place I saw Guns and Roses and Metallica.
I remember that place rocking during the playoffs in the NFL, as the skins fans may have been the loudest fans ever, and were that day for sure, hands down.
That is an awesome exhilerating power for the NFL, and Manassas was louder then that.
You could just tell. I was watching one on television, and I was at the other, but I have been to all these loud concerts, and sang in bands, and this Manassas rally was out of this world.
The electricity in the air was incredible and I felt the wave of the future, this positive energy in the spirit all in one place at a one time, and it was a new intensity for me personally.
I blogged about it some where, the entire experience that night, because it was very noteworthy how it all happened and that we were close by, as I had suggested to my girlfriend that perhaps he would pop up somewhere at the last minute...and he does, totally unplanned in Manassas, and we were visiting my folks in Alexandria, Virginia...oh come on.
This oddity was followed with another rather funny one I will quickly share, just because it is fun and strange timing too. Perhaps destiny.
This happened to me and my ex- girlfriend pertaining to a SuperSuckers show once...we are in Denver, Dad somehow books an extra night at the Holiday Inn in Denver, and we got nothing to do. Nothin I tell ya! (lol)
So I say let's see if The SuperSuckers are playing close by, and we both knew that they were in Europe because we always want to know if they are coming to whatever town we are in at a moment, and that may sound great, but the truth is that town is 99% of the time, Cumberland, Maryland.
So anywho...lol again, I log on to the net at the hotel, check the schedule for the heck of it, and what do you know...down the road at Ft. Collins, CO at the Aggie Bar is, yep...The SuperSuckers...so we rent a car and off we go to check out our favorite band together.
So fun coincidence or not...both times above were exciting, but nothing like the Manassas experience.
That night gave me an experience that made me appreciate a generation a lot more even, that lost Kennedy.
I had never seen an outpouring from and of the people towards our President in my lifetime, even with Reagen.
I was at Reagen's Inauguration live, and I went to Obama's in Washington D.C. as well.
At 44, I remember back to Nixon and Ford pretty well overall.
So back to this current administration, Obama's Administration has worked hard to make a more efficient government and is the first administration to implement this much new technology and more importantly, infrastructure, so heavily.
Perhaps this is simply due to timing, but it has to have been there first with vision and foresight, as that is how great planners have always planned, and we can do so more then ever today, more easily then ever before.
I am researching and compiling some information about the need for Cumberland, Maryland to invest in it's broadband infrastructure.
If we do not make this investment, we are ripping the barely beating heart out of the economic soul of the future of Cumberland, Maryland, and perhaps this entire Allegany County, which in turn always affects Garrett County.
In Maryland, Annapolois is a different kind of world away, although fairly close if driving, and it usually has a different kind of politics on the surface, but we all want safer better safeguarded wetlands/ bay/ forests/ tributaries, better education, better farming, better everything and I am proud to say my great state of Maryland is on the cutting edge of the Green Era Envelope just as Pennsylvania is today.
These states are rich in natural resources, be it coal, natural gas, or agriculture and wildlife, and for the most part those raw materials have usually been well protected and well utilized, although that needs further scrutiny.
I only bring up the scrutiny part because of certain methods of mining we use to use and have grown away from in favor of better ways, as well as current "fracking" that I think is at least highly questionable at the very least.
These states, Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, have wonderful production on a large agricultural level, with excellent farming areas for a variety of crops across each state, and in this Tri-State region I would say most especially, as this is an extremely diverse region in every reguard imaginable.
There is enough to study and enjoy within one and a half hours direction from Cumberland too keep you busy studying, traveling, and curious, and enjoying life forever.
If we do not make this investment in broadband locally now, I say we miss the boat entirely. It is an economic arc akin to the one Noah used to save humanity and wildlife, and you get left behind if you do not board.
Businesses will not come and settle here, or anywhere else, that does not offer the infrastructure needed to do business at the speed business is done today.
Again, to do business at this speed you must have the infrastructure in place first, or no one will relocate here or anywhere else, ever.
If you do not offer this primary factor that businesses consider, forget all the plans of the future you have that are based on, and therefore dependent upon, expecting the companies to move towards your town, or city, or county, etc., to do business.
Next you set up a vision for the future and outline quickly the huge reasons we want bigger business and Green Technology here, How we have streamlined our zoning (or need to ASAP !), how we have set up a tax break for the business on a graduated scale depending on the amount of jobs and earnings they will offer our community.
No one is welcome to exploit us, and no Corporation is welcome that does not build a Green Business, with these things in mind.
I have vision, I understand planning, and we have most of the infrastructure here in Cumberland and can easily build the rest.
We have an Interstate for easy access for trucking. We have a state of the art airport. We have affordable housing and lots of it available, and we have land all around too.
I studied a little architecture, and I am a naturalist.
If any business came here, I would want there to be a plan in effect and an idea where they can be and why.
Perhaps we suggest that this company go here, because they truck and we have an industrial park that is next to the highway, and close to the gas stations, diners, and hotels.
We have to have a plan on paper where things can develop together, be organized around this plan, have a fluid continuum for business, and be slightly away from the core of the city to keep traffic always manageable.
My city is suffering so bad we cannot keep tenants in what should be a goldmine if marketed proficiently.
I write and request travel information of some cities and states and get incredible publications that highlight everything a state, city, or locale has to offer, and they are sent to me free!
These states and municipalities believe in what they offer, and it shows.
I know this area like I know other more prominent areas, and I know what we have to offer on any level, be it excellent tourism and inexpensive housing nestled in these mountains, all the way to higher education offered all around this area, as well as the things we must do on a massive scale to ever have a future of any kind here that will give us all a higher level of living in this area.
I have been a marketing manager in the past, and if I believe in something after I study it up and down, and I am comfortable and know the product, you will not find a better advocate or salesmen then me peddling the product away to all interested.
Bicycle shop double entendre totally intended.
I worked in many bicycle shops and we have a great one here in Cumberland, Maryland.
Now here is a sad fact, that shop, I would say it is safe to say, has never turned a profit.
I say this with experience in that line of work after having been a manager at two separate shops, under the direction of direct ownership, and from two men that each had been in the business over twenty years each.
I had every responsibility of the one store in particular, as though I was the owner.
I ordered stock, built and repaired bicycles, overhauled them, built wheels, sold bicycles, rented them, and anything you can imagine.
We went to InterBike each year in Atlantic City New Jersey, and that was always a fun time, seeing new products and meeting great folks from across the industry.
It is a very tough business, one most typically never get rich in, however a business you may make a decent and comfortable honest living at and find great enjoyment along the way.
If it has turned a profit, I would be shocked, and here is the worst part of all.
In Cumberland we have this wonderful area called, "The Shops at Canal Place". Canal Place is a bunch of shops, a stage, and the Cumberland terminus of the C and O Canal and it is a charming area.
The issue at Canal Place has been poor city management, poor economy locally, and nationally, and poorly run businesses.
We have a restaurant and a bicycle shop that have remained in place and that is the second bicycle shop already.
The other places are empty, rarely kept hours that were parallel with tourism activity on a whole when they were open, and that area in general seems to be underutilized when it should be the main place to have any outdoor activity.
If we do not have more venues, free to the public, on a regular basis to attract even more regular local and tourist spending, I ask why did we build it to start with.
I set up a tour to visit the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia. It was a torpedo factory in WWII, then sat empty for a long time, and then was renovated into a place where artists could have small areas to work and sell there work and display everything entailed used to make this art, as you are in the studio with the artist
This has been successful since I was a child, and it still is successful today.
So I sent letters out and emails to local folks at many levels, and I did not get a single answer of any type back from anyone, and that just disgusts me, because it all has to do with Canal Place being a miserable failure, but once again, some folks here will apparently never see the light, they are so stuck in the dark.
The similarities with that part of Alexandria, and what we have here are uncanny. That place is what this place can and should be. I want people to go for a day and experience that and bring it back home and do it here but our own signature way to make for an even more unique and intimate experience especially for our tourists.
I want them to come back, enjoy our hotels and taverns, and restaurants.
To like the area and the folks here.
To enjoy our Steam Engine Locamotive Train rides from here to Frostburg, Maryland and back. Alex Trebek was here not long ago at all. Thanks Alex, we need to be put back on the map, it is just a funny phenomena that it does not seem to happen as a result of catalysts at a local level.
I have lived at each end of the C and O Canal, and i know the areas and businesses well, and we are truly at polar opposite ends of the comparison spectrum.
What we want here is on the other end, is it so difficult to go study that for a day, ow a weekend, together?
As usual I hear a lot of talk followed by minimal action that is often wasteful and ineffective when all is said and done, and often what is started becomes a bigger debacle to finish then what was ever imagined in the beginning, because failures are always more difficult to clean up then they are to make.
I can site several times this has happened, but that is our local paper all the time, and I have written about it in my blog as well.
SO, POLITICS
I am a real mix of very conservative republican and very liberal democrat.
I am a realist, and money can never buy that.
So locally again, if Cumberland, Maryland focuses too much on the small local issues, they will miss the boat on the largest issues and decisions to ever be promoted to us, our future for many years to come, and it will be a sad day when tunnel vision again hurts this small town, and at that moment, may make it impossible to ever be a place of prominence again in any foreseeable time, and that is not an over statement.
Our current Mayor is maintaining the local status quo, which is simple here, however he is failing hugely on the overall vision for Cumberland and not placing a large enough impetus on this point, nor is he rallying the community or educating anyone in any type of overall vision, other then to say a few meek words in the local paper.
The extent of the vision thus far is pretty much echoing sentiments to things I have written to the paper often first.
We need to clean this city up and work on blight, and crime, and you know, things that should never go unkempt to start with, and things that are always and continue to be, existent problems and issues. I thought that all went said without saying.
Finances coming in would help a little, and that is the only thing!
Pretty simple, so get a larger vision or leave office, because the pace of change here is really not acceptable.
The regular maintenance here has not really been acceptable, but it is getting better, and I will knock progress.
Had I been healthier, I would say it is safe to say, I would be Mayor because I planned on running.
I did not run, and this is my reality, nor have I been as active as I had planned on being due to my health, so instead I write and I say what I feel.
At 44, you keep your passion stronger but throw the emotions out the window and get down to business with a drive that you are going to accomplish whatever you want through the proper channels and do what you believe in and find that through communication and hard work.
What I will work on doing in the meantime is writing and sharing with my friends elsewhere what Cumberland has to offer, and how we should place that infrastructure here, why we should do it, all the great amenities and sites we offer, and why and how we will attract and keep the businesses similar to the ones we let get away recently.
We had a tech company looking at the old hospital site, and we had a syringe manufacturer looking at another location.
They each went elsewhere.
We had a huge shopping center planned, and it would have complimented the entire community, would have been located outside but close to the main downtown area, and been next to the highway and new hospital.
This was a slow process which did not help.
There were land aquisitions to be made, zoning issues, taxes, etc, and we just do not seem to have a decent protocol or goal in these types of situation what so ever, to expedite these types of things.
We have legal safeguards in place respectfully so, however, we also need to have a plan in place when it is obvious something needs to be expedited when it is to everyone overall advantage.
I hate that we traded 40+ acres for the old hospital site, and I hate that it was done so quickly, because the pressure to act quick came from the behalf of the WMHS Corporate heads pushing hard.
The city should be that one that controls a business deal, never the other way around.
It was great to see it accomplished quickly too on the other hand because it shows what can happen around here fast at times, however rare.
I am confident the hospital had their plan laid out well in advance, as any well run business should have.
That is planning and vision, but again, not that of the city.
This to me is an overbearing and glaring failure and short coming of our collective local leaders, and that main leader is our Mayor.
I like him as a person, but I have to say what I see and work hard for what I believe in. If we do not speak up for ourselves, he nor anyone else ever will.
The economy went south too, and that timing was very detrimental, however if we had a streamlined process in many areas, we likely may have had the ground broken for construction and commitments made.
The times our city has brokered deals recently, often times they have been massive debacles, sold our city short and long, and do not seem to have been learned from, which is perhaps more tragic then anything because we are more apt to repeat the exact same mistakes, and it looks like we do often.
The shopping center would have been a large asset for this area, and it never even had a real opportunity the way everything played out, however, I think again, it is an example where the city could have stepped up and made things happen much quicker and offered us a better chance at progress.
So we have messed up a lot here too, and we need better more capable leadership then the main leadership that is here and happy with just that.
If you want change you have to be about change and bring that here in a way that compliments this area and it's people and enhances lives here locally.
Mayor Grimm, who I net through a personal and mutual friend to each of us, promised me a lunch if he became Mayor, and I even told him I would run one day when I was was well enough, but in the meantime he had my vote.
That lunch you promised me and I have asked for, as well as an interview, because I would like to write about this administration here locally are costing more then an hour and a lunch should ever cost.
If you promise me something, I remember it, and if your a politician in the public eye, I will call you out on it as well.
That is my responsibility as much as it is anyone elses.
If you cannot keep a promise about a simple lunch, what can you deliver on?
Time will tell, as it always does.
You typically do not answer any emails directly, except perhaps on one occasion.
The folks at DNR answer me. Bill Valentine and Butch Hendershot answer me.
Jim Moran of Virginia answers me when I write.
We even shot pool together!
We met because I was the President of an organization in Alexandria, Virginia, and we played pool while we spoke, yep bi-partisan politics.
I am sure you are busy. I sure hope so as well
So I understand that.
Simply email back..."I am busy and will touch base soon. "
I think that took all of two seconds to type, then press send.
If you need help, ask volunteers like me to help, you may have any help I may offer for free, and I would be supportive as well, as I am not about personalities when it comes down to hard work and accomplishing the goals this community wants and desperately needs.
You have a ton of folks here that would help in so many ways, but I rarely see anyone ask for it, nor organize things to help, other then the annual, let's not look bad, organizations that do the great deeds they do.
We need to maintain and build the infrastructure and stop playing catch up now, or we will never be setting the example for others to follow.
I will say thanks and kudos on the assistance with the rides at the park and overheating this past summer of 2011.
I appreciated the email and calls and will not forget that.
I know for certain one call was made to me from the communication I sent to you, and that does not go overlooked, as I was concerned perhaps another family would suffer from overheating as mine did.
I again, believe in swift action, and at that time, the network worked perfectly, but most folks start to jump when they feel like a lawsuit may be coming.
We should jump together and avoid those pitfalls altogether the best we can. Did we learn anything?
What will be telling is if I hit the fair this year and take some pictures on a 96 degree day and see the same type of rides open and operating and no cooling stations for patrons.
If this incident unnecessarily repeats itself this summer or in the future, then no one heard a single thing.
Protocol and communication is missing all around this area.
From the hospital to our business planning in the city, it seems we would or should have a "check list" or develop one and know ahead of time where we are heading and what to do quickly and orderly to implement change in a positive direction as well as avoid pitfalls we have learned along the way.
The newspaper article recently in The Cumberland Times News (link below) was decent speaking of the cities vision, however it looks that that vision is such a hugely narrow scope.
That is not vision for the city, but a vision for within the city.
Although some things may remain the same, the document you are using is from 1996 and had two changes, in 2004 and 2009.
Does it say anywhere what the vision for the future of our city as a whole will represent and what we desire to have in our area, and how we will implement larger planning to bring those aspirations to fruition?
I never once read anything like that in an local media.
Do you hear anyone asking for jobs, business, and a future, or are you really that oblivious?
http://times-news.com/local/x1669697873/Residents-assess-city-s-strengths-needs-in-Neighborhood-Element
Is it so hard to look at last years events from the fair, and in particular other annual repeating events especially, and examine the shortcomings from those previous years, and make certain they are as avoidable as possible.
Did we lose Scythian's originally planned to be annual concert that Rocky Gap was hosting because of beer and licensing again?
We damn near lost DelFest, and if they moved on, either one, I do not blame them.
Who wants to visit a neighbor that looks incompetent and unwelcoming?
How did that happen?...again?
That answer should speak for itself, no words needed.
I worked at that festival as a volunteer the previous year, and was ready to do that again, and they brought a lot of people out here and that band has grown tremendously, so we just lost out on a lot of excellent tourism, yet again, for the city and the county.
What a shame!
I hardly saw any coverage on this and fortunately the band was understanding, even though they planned well in advance and we dropped the ball.
After the DelFest debacle, one wonders how could that have possibly even happened?
Just complete and utter incompetency, and those folks have been replaced, that is the good news.
That to me is one small part of having a logical protocol in place that would make for better safety and efficiency and follow through and completion with any thing the city does.
If we fail as we have so many times, it proves we are unorganized and an undedicated at getting better organized.
WMHS
The hospital is lacking better protocol as well, and it has been made thoroughly and abundantly clear to me by some but not all visits there, as well as several local health care providers having confirmed this with me.
This may be due to the staff moving into a new facility as well as combined with our more recent changes in health care due to recent legislation, however, if you see all that coming, and everyone could, you would think we would have planned extra hard for it.
The best thing is I am seeing progress at least.
Unfortunately, and I am always in the middle of the health care because of my own lack of better health, so I garner excellent first hand knowledge as a patient and I have friends that work in that community as well, and we share things when we communicate so perhaps we can be catalysts to positive change.
I have written to them at WMHS, as well as blogged about it, and it is not a personal issue as much as it is that I want to see the progress we all should demand and expect, and it will never happen if we do not speak up, write about it, and address those in charge where the changes can be made.
We have a beautiful state of the art hospital and I want it to be a huge asset here.
Most large corporations are more then happy when you point out their short-comings, and most businesses change and try to accommodate their clients, some even reward them.
I am fairly well read in this area and across the world with my blog.
The fact that I see changes made quickly and to the things that I address, and the fact that I do not get any complaints or negative comments or emails when I write about these things, are to me an affirmation that I am correct most often.
I am not unfairly critical, as I am this critical of myself as well.
I never feel personal animosity towards any individual over any issue. I just say what I think and let those cards play as they will and hope the collective has a winning hand for the community.
CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND AND BROADBAND
So the broadband investment.
Build it and they will come sounds so cliche, however upon closer examination I would say, see the future that is coming quick, build it with diligence and planning and efficiency, and design and be a part of the "new marketplace."
My Great Grandfather was friends of Ford, Edison, Firestone, and Burroughs, and he was one of the "Vagabonds".
The, "Vagabonds", were featured in our local paper, The Cumberland Times News, a couple of years ago in some excellent articles, and the history hear around us to those men is quite fascinating.
VAGABOND CUMBERLAND TIMES NEWS LINKS, AND DNR
http://times-news.com/archive/x20317062/print
http://times-news.com/archive/x546405621
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/feature_stories/FamousTravelersPart2.asp
I am certain these men must have often spoke of the exact same ideals in nature that they enjoyed together, as well as with the changing times they were under.
There was a tough economy in those days, and also the beginning or an entirely new era at that time too, just like today.
My Great Granfather, the botanist and professor of the group, authored books and articles, and other publications about things like, progressive sheep and pig raising, growing grass for the P.G.A., and biography on Burroughs, and all kinds of mind blowing stuff.
One report I read was a study authored by he and a few other men that was about race relations in that day and age and had guidelines and "protocol" suggestions about how to overcome these shortcomings in that day and age.
Those writings were quite instrumental to Tuskeegee Institute in helping to better implement better race relations at a time of serious tension.
I desire similar things to my Great Grandfather.
Simply put, justice, fairness, prosperity, education, and sharing for everyone.
I can hear my Great Granfather's voice echo in my soul especially when I read things he has written and only pray to be half as wise and with at least half that vision.
Their new era was the Industrial Era, and now here we are on the threshold of The Green Era.
It is almost like I have been here before, because I read things he and his friends wrote and get to walk in those shoes to a degree. They wanted there short-comings recorded and known as much as there great accomplishments shared to enhance life for the masses.
We are at that exact point again, but now in the future, and that to me is the essence of literacy, language, education, learning history, and developing this sense we all have, but it is one that in must be learned and it is hard work, however, the message echoes, again, through out history.
Civilizations with no vision seem to totally vanish through the halls of historical time.
No doubt, a few folks may be left and start a new.
The "Vagabonds", were successful because they had a core nucleus of geniuses that were all totally unique and each man was also individually and uniquely as brilliant as the other.
These men to me blow away any conglamoration I see of men today.
It is like 5 or 6 Steve Jobes, all hanging out and sharing their thoughts and ideas together.
They may have still achieved individual greatness, fame, and fortune alone, but they never would have accomplished the things they did accomplish had they not worked and shared these things together and share VISION.
I am certain of these things as I have family owned interesting personal correspondence from each of these men, which I will post pictures of soon.
For now here is a picture of all of them together, which I feel blessed to have.
My Great Grandfather is on the left seated in the first picture, and in the second he is the eldest standing with my parents and, my then baby sister, Susan.
Dad's a West Pointer, Mom and artist, My Great Grandfather a brilliant botanist and a "Vagabond", and my sister Susan, a professional diver, professional photographer both on the ground and under water.
She also went diving with none other then Jerry Garcia, while he was working with Henderson on wet suit designs.
Time to bring that out of the closet Henderson.
I am so enamored with all this history and makes me dig deeper into anything and everything I can, as I am more eager and curious today then I have ever been in my life, and that is a wonderful place to be again.
Our family shares amazing attributes that are not coincidence what so ever, but a direct result of a family that loves and care for one another, has been close and dedicated, can yell and scream with the best of them, and insists in the end on enjoying themselves in spite of themselves...just kidding, for the most part.
I am being sarcastic of course.
I see some family members cringe at Obama, and I think, well shiX, that's my family and I voted for him, and see dischord, however I do not add to that dischord. Why stir up a hornets nest unless you want to get stung.
I cringed a lot myself when Carter was President because we were in a similar situation, however not as deep a hole.
President Carter may have had what appeared to be an overall failure in some respects to his administration, however what became of that President is one of the finest diplomats after his administration served, that we have ever come to know, and he has set a precedence for our current president as well as the other presidents that have served and are still living, and it is time we outstretch an arm of friendship instead of paranoia and selfishness, as Carter has repeatedly done and helped shape our foreign policy and relations today into a more favorable world view, which we desperately need to continue working on.
We all really want the same things on the greater good across the world, and better communication is proving that.
The idea underlying the early fabric which became The Constitution of The United States was, that it be written in broad enough legal terms to not be overly burdened with to much detail.
This is the basic road map that we have and have accepted and are suppose to live by politically here in our country.
The states, then of course, have the autonomy to get more specific within the scope of Federal Law, however are not suppose to overstep Federal Law.
However at times in history the States do challenge and overstep the Federal law..
One such current example is the case for the Legalization of Marijuana, which I am personally an advocate of 100%.
If we plan carefully, relatively quickly and with reflection into the prohibition era, crack era, and other similar eras, we will be better prepared when we shift our ploicy on any substance from legal to illegal or vice versa.
This takes planning because the bottom line is this, there is always someone who wants a piece of that new pie.
In prohibition it was the mafia, and they fully took advantage of this.
My college education was in Applied Police Science.
For a two year degree from a communnity college, it was and still is, very enlightening to have learned from professionals in and from the field combined with their collective experience and hear about that along with the material of each text from class, every day of class, spoken of often in minutes what may have taken years of experience to learn.
I could not help but enjoy it, as this was the subject matter I wanted to study at the time.
I graduated with an Associates Degree and transferred to George Mason University.
TOUGH TIMES RETURN IN MY PERSONAL LIFE
When you are in college and a friend gets murdered and you have to testify against him, well Jack Daniels starts to look more and more like a friend, and I will just say, please, ask for help if you are in that bottle today, because people care, people are there to help, and drowning in whiskey is a more lonely place then anyone should ever know, and if you'r so worried about a stigma you will get because of going to get help and exposing yourself, the truth is, everyone else knows you are messed up, so get the help and return back to life with your friends in unison.
I did not graduate from GMU for reasons in a nut shell I explained above.
I also realized that I did not want to any longer become a police officer or work in that field, and I pretty much ruined that path even if I had wanted to pursue it.
If you ever wonder the why and how to that, ask and I will explain it.
So you re-set and start over to a point.
MORE RECENT TIMES
Here is a closer reality to today.
Think about immediate post 9/11.
Would you ever have thought at those moments:
1. We may be going to elect a black President (and I say that because that has been how he is historically portrayed), the first in our history....(and he is not black but just a man, the media says black but he is as much white, as I am so many from the melting pot, let's just get over ourselves finally)
2. Would you think a name like Barrack Obama would be on the ticket, or if a name like it was that anyone would take it seriously? We all know it sound Muslim, and that is no big deal, but it was a touchier subject then, and I think anyone who can be honest will say it is still a head turner and will be for a time to come. that is reality, and we should continue to work hard to remove the stereotypes that have transcended from those horrific days of now infamous history.
What is incredible is how we can, and did, move forward quickly as a nation and not choose to see through foggy blurry glasses but with better clarity then ever perhaps.
Obama seemingly flew in under the radar, and he is all of a sudden in the middle of an amazing political time.
Again, I voted for President Obama.
I voted for Bush, all three times, Reagen too, twice. Wow that core was around for a long time.
They still are around and always will be.
That core is to republican politics, what Don Coryell was to offenses in the NFL, even many years after he was gone.
That core of leadership in the republican party has existed since at least the Nixon Administration, and been tight knit, and is still there today.
In the NFL., coaches would make small changes, utilize their talents to the offenses strengths, draft for the proper type of player for this scheme of offense, and it would take time to build a solid foundation, but it was the philosophy and vision that was there first, and from whence these other "off spring" offenses emerged, however still stayed true to the "Coryell Philosophy".
OBAMA'S POLITICAL CORE.
So today, Obama has laid some great huge cornerstone's to pave the way for us as well as build atop of.
Because o these cornerstones he has helped lay, we have a quicker and more efficient way today of doing the business pertaining to government.
What I am inferring is, in particular, the administrative things that have historically taken far too long to accomplish and which makes our progress seem as though it is stuck and dragging it's feet.
A more efficient, smaller government, utilizing the technology at their disposal and doing so in a legal manner, of course, is simpler and easier to run effectively for a larger population as we have today.
The mechanics can change and still be under the philosophy of our, "Law of the Land", "The Constitution of The United States of America" and it's ratified, "Bill of Rights".
VISION AND CHANGE IN OUR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
Having been a bicycle and a car mechanic, and studying the things I often enjoy in science and technology etc., as well as, having built and played with computers all my life and understanding them inside out, I have an acute and keen intuition of what is coming usually.
Anyone that pays attention and stays educated about and on top of the subject matters pertaining to science and technology would more then likely make the same statement, or at least agree with it.
There is talk now ongoing on Capitol Hill, or at least speculation, where there is at least open minded contingency that is exploring and considering the closing of the doors permanently on several government agencies.
I am all for it with a few conditions.
The savings are put into Green Era development, even if that means set backs like Solara.
Solara may have been a large loss, however being hundreds of millions of dollars, it is only a small percentage of a total package that has had many more unheard of successes, and so far, one major failure.
It is major but it also happened for very specific business reasons, and not so much at all that there was any underhandedness and we are always going to have unfortunate setbacks.
What we should again quickly learn is that this is how quickly the face of technology is swiftly changing.
Solara only failed because we were playing catch up and did not even know it at the time.
There is the lack of leadership and vision in that example.
I do not believe there was a proper assessment of the marketplace to start with concerning solar panels, their technology, as well as their production, pricing, and well, entire marketplace.
We were lagging and are still lagging behind, but we are quickly learning where we can catch up and also set new examples.
Perhaps there is no better time to add this in.
Here are some interesting numbers that a friend of mine from high school days shared with our mutual friends recently. Thanks Esq. Kenny L.
"Even though surprising, I promise this is true: In America, only 2.7% of the things we buy were made in China (88.5% made in USA), China only owns 7.8% of our government's debt, and we only get 9.2% of our oil from the Middle East."
Read the entire article, because how the numbers were derived was interesting and convincing.
Once you read that it sure lends a certain perspective to things, and I will let you decide what that perspective is.
Extracted from the link below:
http://www.frbsf.org/
Google+ and Facebook are great tools to see what others are reading and what the issues truly are.
What we need today are more brilliant scientist and great mathematicians and engineers, like my Father and other great leaders I have known, seen, and studied.
On a side note, there is an incredible story from the Viet~Nam war era.
VIET-NAM HISTORICAL STORY:
just going to type this out as a banter...
It is a story about a squadron leader who has a member of his squadron gets half of his wing blown off.
So what does he do?
He places his wing under the other pilot's craft and he flies him all the way back to land, and to top that off...
he lands with him.
Come on ...FOR REAL...wow. Well that is my friend's Father, USAF Ret.General Hecker.
So when I first hear this story I am like...sure thing Mike (his son)...and when I get home I know this is a story that my Father will know because it is so heroic and inspiring, and from a War and an Era he served in.
If Dad says it is not true, I know my buddy is full of it.
I ask Dad,...100% true...wow.
My Father had heard all about this and remembered it very well.
The General has done well for himself and he is a man of the utmost integrity, as one would think after hearing this story.
He had and still has vision and confidence and an excellent education, a Master's Degree from Harvard Business School.
He, like my Father, have vision, have plans, work hard, stay educated and current, and follow a protocol.
Being successful is not a secret, and there really are no short cuts being sold on TV for $ 19.95 plus shipping and handling.
If you have read this far, you are more then likely also not one of those folks who will buy something gimmicky on television for $ 19.95 anyway.
I have done sale s long enough to know that gets pitched right away, never this deep into any sales pitch, if any of this was a sales pitch to start with.
I have watched men like those I have mentioned above all my life that are smart and wise and fair and you know you can trust them, and if you observe you cannot help but learn a lot very quickly.
Another commonality amoung these men is dedication and perseverance like I have never seen elsewhere.
Not to make excuses, but I have had such health problems all my life that I am often the spectator just itching to get back in there and give it my best.
The victories I get in my personal struggle are great, because they are hard to achieve they are even more rewarding.
Leaders show anyone through the principles that they lead by, that if you do in a similar and stick to it, you will find success, and failure in that philosophy is not an option.
That does not mean you ill never meet with failure, it simply means you do not have to accept failure as a final outcome, and if you accept it today, then you learn from it and make that same failure a tool to success in your future.
Political Science, Social Sciences, and Police Science all deal with learning about the past and that which is current now so we can better plan for the future.
When it comes down to it, what is not geared that way some how or another?
If something is not geared that way, perhaps we should take another look at it, unless I am missing something.
UPCOMING BLOG SOON
Some things I will be reporting soon will be quite mind blowing and enlightening, and they are related to all of this in a way, but then not 100%, however there is a great thread that runs through everything that will be even more evident later.
Some of what I write may at first even appear as incredulous information to some reader's, however it will be fully substantiated, as this is a coordinated effort of many friends gathering this data with me.
I am doing so independently and not under any direction from any other party involved at all, but rather, a parallel point of view to my observations I have shared with confidants.
There is a reason to put that out there for now, and I will leave that at that until the day future day of print.
I believe what I am observing recently is something that is like having a front row seat to, well pick your own favorite artist, musician, speaker, ad infinitum., you get to observe and watch and see from a reporters objectiveness the bigger picture.
The problem is this show is not a show of pleasure, but rather tragic opposites.
This is like a real Shakespearian play of tragedy I am watching, and in reality, it is so peppered with melancholy and back stabbing, and corruption, it is like parts of all of his plays all wrapped up into one, and it is reality, a very hard to believe reality.
In a situation like this, it is hard, at first, to remain objective, because you have to get focused and unemotional, not always an easy thing to achieve, when seeking balance where all of a sudden your world seems to be in an mere instant, upside down.
Enough of that for now, in the meantime, it is important to enjoy those I am with, be productive, and look forward to better times together in the future with my pals.
The article from the New Yorker was very deep and covered some wonderful material.
Some great quotes in here are as follows:
"Mario Cuomo said that Presidents campaign in poetry and govern in prose, and Obama’s shift from Keats to Keynes was abrupt. Before he even entered office, he had to deal with an economic cataclysm. The initial debate was framed by a fifty-seven-page memo to the President-elect, dated December 15, 2008, written by Larry Summers, his incoming director of the National Economic Council. Marked “Sensitive and Confidential,” the document, which has never been made public, presents Obama with the scale of the crisis. “The economic outlook is grim and deteriorating rapidly,” it said. The U.S. economy had lost two million jobs that year; without a government response, it would lose four million more in the next year. Unemployment would rise above nine per cent unless a significant stimulus plan was passed. The estimates were getting worse by the day."(more follows in additional paragraphs at this link)
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lizza#ixzz1kJB4ANL9
Now look at this link and see the population as calculated by data gathered in the US Census of 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population
Just consider 2,000,000 out of work and to illustrate that, according to what is at the link on Wiki,
that is the population of the 5th largest city in the USA, and that is a conservative estimate by those numbers so reported then, which have undoubtedly gone up since then, and would therefore now rank as somewhere between the second - 4th position if we viewed that population as a city.
I only do this because it illustrates just how massive a population this truly is, and we well know that that list does not truly count everyone just by the formula used.
It is more a guesstimate and under estimate, then it is a science and accurate representation, and if you can site something to argue that, I challenge you to please post it, as i would delight in seeing better numbers then what my research shows, however I do not think anything will materialize. As usual time will tell.
TAKING A BREAK ON MUSICAL INSPIRATION
Listening to Neil Young ~ Le Noise ~ The best album I have heard in years as it is heartfelt, real, Neil in your face, screaming feedback, wailing electric, mellow acoustic, incredible musicianship and writing, the one and only, Neil Young.
BACK TO OTHER TOPICS
Back to Green Era Philosophy.
Again, to do business at this speed you must have the infrastructure in place first, or no one will relocate here or anywhere else, ever.
If you do not offer this primary factor that businesses consider, forget all the plans of the future you have that are based on, and therefore dependent upon, expecting the companies to move towards your town, or city, or county, etc., to do business.
Next you set up a vision for the future and outline quickly the huge reasons we want bigger business and Green Technology here, How we have streamlined our zoning (or need to ASAP !), how we have set up a tax break for the business on a graduated scale depending on the amount of jobs and earnings they will offer our community.
No one is welcome to exploit us, and no Corporation is welcome that does not build a Green Business, with these things in mind.
I have vision, I understand planning, and we have most of the infrastructure here in Cumberland and can easily build the rest.
We have an Interstate for easy access for trucking. We have a state of the art airport. We have affordable housing and lots of it available, and we have land all around too.
I studied a little architecture, and I am a naturalist.
If any business came here, I would want there to be a plan in effect and an idea where they can be and why.
Perhaps we suggest that this company go here, because they truck and we have an industrial park that is next to the highway, and close to the gas stations, diners, and hotels.
We have to have a plan on paper where things can develop together, be organized around this plan, have a fluid continuum for business, and be slightly away from the core of the city to keep traffic always manageable.
My city is suffering so bad we cannot keep tenants in what should be a goldmine if marketed proficiently.
I write and request travel information of some cities and states and get incredible publications that highlight everything a state, city, or locale has to offer, and they are sent to me free!
These states and municipalities believe in what they offer, and it shows.
I know this area like I know other more prominent areas, and I know what we have to offer on any level, be it excellent tourism and inexpensive housing nestled in these mountains, all the way to higher education offered all around this area, as well as the things we must do on a massive scale to ever have a future of any kind here that will give us all a higher level of living in this area.
I have been a marketing manager in the past, and if I believe in something after I study it up and down, and I am comfortable and know the product, you will not find a better advocate or salesmen then me peddling the product away to all interested.
Bicycle shop double entendre totally intended.
I worked in many bicycle shops and we have a great one here in Cumberland, Maryland.
Now here is a sad fact, that shop, I would say it is safe to say, has never turned a profit.
I say this with experience in that line of work after having been a manager at two separate shops, under the direction of direct ownership, and from two men that each had been in the business over twenty years each.
I had every responsibility of the one store in particular, as though I was the owner.
I ordered stock, built and repaired bicycles, overhauled them, built wheels, sold bicycles, rented them, and anything you can imagine.
We went to InterBike each year in Atlantic City New Jersey, and that was always a fun time, seeing new products and meeting great folks from across the industry.
It is a very tough business, one most typically never get rich in, however a business you may make a decent and comfortable honest living at and find great enjoyment along the way.
If it has turned a profit, I would be shocked, and here is the worst part of all.
In Cumberland we have this wonderful area called, "The Shops at Canal Place". Canal Place is a bunch of shops, a stage, and the Cumberland terminus of the C and O Canal and it is a charming area.
The issue at Canal Place has been poor city management, poor economy locally, and nationally, and poorly run businesses.
We have a restaurant and a bicycle shop that have remained in place and that is the second bicycle shop already.
The other places are empty, rarely kept hours that were parallel with tourism activity on a whole when they were open, and that area in general seems to be underutilized when it should be the main place to have any outdoor activity.
If we do not have more venues, free to the public, on a regular basis to attract even more regular local and tourist spending, I ask why did we build it to start with.
I set up a tour to visit the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia. It was a torpedo factory in WWII, then sat empty for a long time, and then was renovated into a place where artists could have small areas to work and sell there work and display everything entailed used to make this art, as you are in the studio with the artist
This has been successful since I was a child, and it still is successful today.
So I sent letters out and emails to local folks at many levels, and I did not get a single answer of any type back from anyone, and that just disgusts me, because it all has to do with Canal Place being a miserable failure, but once again, some folks here will apparently never see the light, they are so stuck in the dark.
The similarities with that part of Alexandria, and what we have here are uncanny. That place is what this place can and should be. I want people to go for a day and experience that and bring it back home and do it here but our own signature way to make for an even more unique and intimate experience especially for our tourists.
I want them to come back, enjoy our hotels and taverns, and restaurants.
To like the area and the folks here.
To enjoy our Steam Engine Locamotive Train rides from here to Frostburg, Maryland and back. Alex Trebek was here not long ago at all. Thanks Alex, we need to be put back on the map, it is just a funny phenomena that it does not seem to happen as a result of catalysts at a local level.
I have lived at each end of the C and O Canal, and i know the areas and businesses well, and we are truly at polar opposite ends of the comparison spectrum.
What we want here is on the other end, is it so difficult to go study that for a day, ow a weekend, together?
As usual I hear a lot of talk followed by minimal action that is often wasteful and ineffective when all is said and done, and often what is started becomes a bigger debacle to finish then what was ever imagined in the beginning, because failures are always more difficult to clean up then they are to make.
I can site several times this has happened, but that is our local paper all the time, and I have written about it in my blog as well.
SO, POLITICS
I am a real mix of very conservative republican and very liberal democrat.
I am a realist, and money can never buy that.
So locally again, if Cumberland, Maryland focuses too much on the small local issues, they will miss the boat on the largest issues and decisions to ever be promoted to us, our future for many years to come, and it will be a sad day when tunnel vision again hurts this small town, and at that moment, may make it impossible to ever be a place of prominence again in any foreseeable time, and that is not an over statement.
Our current Mayor is maintaining the local status quo, which is simple here, however he is failing hugely on the overall vision for Cumberland and not placing a large enough impetus on this point, nor is he rallying the community or educating anyone in any type of overall vision, other then to say a few meek words in the local paper.
The extent of the vision thus far is pretty much echoing sentiments to things I have written to the paper often first.
We need to clean this city up and work on blight, and crime, and you know, things that should never go unkempt to start with, and things that are always and continue to be, existent problems and issues. I thought that all went said without saying.
Finances coming in would help a little, and that is the only thing!
Pretty simple, so get a larger vision or leave office, because the pace of change here is really not acceptable.
The regular maintenance here has not really been acceptable, but it is getting better, and I will knock progress.
Had I been healthier, I would say it is safe to say, I would be Mayor because I planned on running.
I did not run, and this is my reality, nor have I been as active as I had planned on being due to my health, so instead I write and I say what I feel.
At 44, you keep your passion stronger but throw the emotions out the window and get down to business with a drive that you are going to accomplish whatever you want through the proper channels and do what you believe in and find that through communication and hard work.
What I will work on doing in the meantime is writing and sharing with my friends elsewhere what Cumberland has to offer, and how we should place that infrastructure here, why we should do it, all the great amenities and sites we offer, and why and how we will attract and keep the businesses similar to the ones we let get away recently.
We had a tech company looking at the old hospital site, and we had a syringe manufacturer looking at another location.
They each went elsewhere.
We had a huge shopping center planned, and it would have complimented the entire community, would have been located outside but close to the main downtown area, and been next to the highway and new hospital.
This was a slow process which did not help.
There were land aquisitions to be made, zoning issues, taxes, etc, and we just do not seem to have a decent protocol or goal in these types of situation what so ever, to expedite these types of things.
We have legal safeguards in place respectfully so, however, we also need to have a plan in place when it is obvious something needs to be expedited when it is to everyone overall advantage.
I hate that we traded 40+ acres for the old hospital site, and I hate that it was done so quickly, because the pressure to act quick came from the behalf of the WMHS Corporate heads pushing hard.
The city should be that one that controls a business deal, never the other way around.
It was great to see it accomplished quickly too on the other hand because it shows what can happen around here fast at times, however rare.
I am confident the hospital had their plan laid out well in advance, as any well run business should have.
That is planning and vision, but again, not that of the city.
This to me is an overbearing and glaring failure and short coming of our collective local leaders, and that main leader is our Mayor.
I like him as a person, but I have to say what I see and work hard for what I believe in. If we do not speak up for ourselves, he nor anyone else ever will.
The economy went south too, and that timing was very detrimental, however if we had a streamlined process in many areas, we likely may have had the ground broken for construction and commitments made.
The times our city has brokered deals recently, often times they have been massive debacles, sold our city short and long, and do not seem to have been learned from, which is perhaps more tragic then anything because we are more apt to repeat the exact same mistakes, and it looks like we do often.
The shopping center would have been a large asset for this area, and it never even had a real opportunity the way everything played out, however, I think again, it is an example where the city could have stepped up and made things happen much quicker and offered us a better chance at progress.
So we have messed up a lot here too, and we need better more capable leadership then the main leadership that is here and happy with just that.
If you want change you have to be about change and bring that here in a way that compliments this area and it's people and enhances lives here locally.
Mayor Grimm, who I net through a personal and mutual friend to each of us, promised me a lunch if he became Mayor, and I even told him I would run one day when I was was well enough, but in the meantime he had my vote.
That lunch you promised me and I have asked for, as well as an interview, because I would like to write about this administration here locally are costing more then an hour and a lunch should ever cost.
If you promise me something, I remember it, and if your a politician in the public eye, I will call you out on it as well.
That is my responsibility as much as it is anyone elses.
If you cannot keep a promise about a simple lunch, what can you deliver on?
Time will tell, as it always does.
You typically do not answer any emails directly, except perhaps on one occasion.
The folks at DNR answer me. Bill Valentine and Butch Hendershot answer me.
Jim Moran of Virginia answers me when I write.
We even shot pool together!
We met because I was the President of an organization in Alexandria, Virginia, and we played pool while we spoke, yep bi-partisan politics.
I am sure you are busy. I sure hope so as well
So I understand that.
Simply email back..."I am busy and will touch base soon. "
I think that took all of two seconds to type, then press send.
If you need help, ask volunteers like me to help, you may have any help I may offer for free, and I would be supportive as well, as I am not about personalities when it comes down to hard work and accomplishing the goals this community wants and desperately needs.
You have a ton of folks here that would help in so many ways, but I rarely see anyone ask for it, nor organize things to help, other then the annual, let's not look bad, organizations that do the great deeds they do.
We need to maintain and build the infrastructure and stop playing catch up now, or we will never be setting the example for others to follow.
I will say thanks and kudos on the assistance with the rides at the park and overheating this past summer of 2011.
I appreciated the email and calls and will not forget that.
I know for certain one call was made to me from the communication I sent to you, and that does not go overlooked, as I was concerned perhaps another family would suffer from overheating as mine did.
I again, believe in swift action, and at that time, the network worked perfectly, but most folks start to jump when they feel like a lawsuit may be coming.
We should jump together and avoid those pitfalls altogether the best we can. Did we learn anything?
What will be telling is if I hit the fair this year and take some pictures on a 96 degree day and see the same type of rides open and operating and no cooling stations for patrons.
If this incident unnecessarily repeats itself this summer or in the future, then no one heard a single thing.
Protocol and communication is missing all around this area.
From the hospital to our business planning in the city, it seems we would or should have a "check list" or develop one and know ahead of time where we are heading and what to do quickly and orderly to implement change in a positive direction as well as avoid pitfalls we have learned along the way.
The newspaper article recently in The Cumberland Times News (link below) was decent speaking of the cities vision, however it looks that that vision is such a hugely narrow scope.
That is not vision for the city, but a vision for within the city.
Although some things may remain the same, the document you are using is from 1996 and had two changes, in 2004 and 2009.
Does it say anywhere what the vision for the future of our city as a whole will represent and what we desire to have in our area, and how we will implement larger planning to bring those aspirations to fruition?
I never once read anything like that in an local media.
Do you hear anyone asking for jobs, business, and a future, or are you really that oblivious?
http://times-news.com/local/x1669697873/Residents-assess-city-s-strengths-needs-in-Neighborhood-Element
Is it so hard to look at last years events from the fair, and in particular other annual repeating events especially, and examine the shortcomings from those previous years, and make certain they are as avoidable as possible.
Did we lose Scythian's originally planned to be annual concert that Rocky Gap was hosting because of beer and licensing again?
We damn near lost DelFest, and if they moved on, either one, I do not blame them.
Who wants to visit a neighbor that looks incompetent and unwelcoming?
How did that happen?...again?
That answer should speak for itself, no words needed.
I worked at that festival as a volunteer the previous year, and was ready to do that again, and they brought a lot of people out here and that band has grown tremendously, so we just lost out on a lot of excellent tourism, yet again, for the city and the county.
What a shame!
I hardly saw any coverage on this and fortunately the band was understanding, even though they planned well in advance and we dropped the ball.
After the DelFest debacle, one wonders how could that have possibly even happened?
Just complete and utter incompetency, and those folks have been replaced, that is the good news.
That to me is one small part of having a logical protocol in place that would make for better safety and efficiency and follow through and completion with any thing the city does.
If we fail as we have so many times, it proves we are unorganized and an undedicated at getting better organized.
WMHS
The hospital is lacking better protocol as well, and it has been made thoroughly and abundantly clear to me by some but not all visits there, as well as several local health care providers having confirmed this with me.
This may be due to the staff moving into a new facility as well as combined with our more recent changes in health care due to recent legislation, however, if you see all that coming, and everyone could, you would think we would have planned extra hard for it.
The best thing is I am seeing progress at least.
Unfortunately, and I am always in the middle of the health care because of my own lack of better health, so I garner excellent first hand knowledge as a patient and I have friends that work in that community as well, and we share things when we communicate so perhaps we can be catalysts to positive change.
I have written to them at WMHS, as well as blogged about it, and it is not a personal issue as much as it is that I want to see the progress we all should demand and expect, and it will never happen if we do not speak up, write about it, and address those in charge where the changes can be made.
We have a beautiful state of the art hospital and I want it to be a huge asset here.
Most large corporations are more then happy when you point out their short-comings, and most businesses change and try to accommodate their clients, some even reward them.
I am fairly well read in this area and across the world with my blog.
The fact that I see changes made quickly and to the things that I address, and the fact that I do not get any complaints or negative comments or emails when I write about these things, are to me an affirmation that I am correct most often.
I am not unfairly critical, as I am this critical of myself as well.
I never feel personal animosity towards any individual over any issue. I just say what I think and let those cards play as they will and hope the collective has a winning hand for the community.
CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND AND BROADBAND
So the broadband investment.
Build it and they will come sounds so cliche, however upon closer examination I would say, see the future that is coming quick, build it with diligence and planning and efficiency, and design and be a part of the "new marketplace."
My Great Grandfather was friends of Ford, Edison, Firestone, and Burroughs, and he was one of the "Vagabonds".
The, "Vagabonds", were featured in our local paper, The Cumberland Times News, a couple of years ago in some excellent articles, and the history hear around us to those men is quite fascinating.
VAGABOND CUMBERLAND TIMES NEWS LINKS, AND DNR
http://times-news.com/archive/x20317062/print
http://times-news.com/archive/x546405621
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/feature_stories/FamousTravelersPart2.asp
I am certain these men must have often spoke of the exact same ideals in nature that they enjoyed together, as well as with the changing times they were under.
There was a tough economy in those days, and also the beginning or an entirely new era at that time too, just like today.
My Great Granfather, the botanist and professor of the group, authored books and articles, and other publications about things like, progressive sheep and pig raising, growing grass for the P.G.A., and biography on Burroughs, and all kinds of mind blowing stuff.
One report I read was a study authored by he and a few other men that was about race relations in that day and age and had guidelines and "protocol" suggestions about how to overcome these shortcomings in that day and age.
Those writings were quite instrumental to Tuskeegee Institute in helping to better implement better race relations at a time of serious tension.
I desire similar things to my Great Grandfather.
Simply put, justice, fairness, prosperity, education, and sharing for everyone.
I can hear my Great Granfather's voice echo in my soul especially when I read things he has written and only pray to be half as wise and with at least half that vision.
Their new era was the Industrial Era, and now here we are on the threshold of The Green Era.
It is almost like I have been here before, because I read things he and his friends wrote and get to walk in those shoes to a degree. They wanted there short-comings recorded and known as much as there great accomplishments shared to enhance life for the masses.
We are at that exact point again, but now in the future, and that to me is the essence of literacy, language, education, learning history, and developing this sense we all have, but it is one that in must be learned and it is hard work, however, the message echoes, again, through out history.
Civilizations with no vision seem to totally vanish through the halls of historical time.
No doubt, a few folks may be left and start a new.
The "Vagabonds", were successful because they had a core nucleus of geniuses that were all totally unique and each man was also individually and uniquely as brilliant as the other.
These men to me blow away any conglamoration I see of men today.
It is like 5 or 6 Steve Jobes, all hanging out and sharing their thoughts and ideas together.
They may have still achieved individual greatness, fame, and fortune alone, but they never would have accomplished the things they did accomplish had they not worked and shared these things together and share VISION.
I am certain of these things as I have family owned interesting personal correspondence from each of these men, which I will post pictures of soon.
For now here is a picture of all of them together, which I feel blessed to have.
My Great Grandfather is on the left seated in the first picture, and in the second he is the eldest standing with my parents and, my then baby sister, Susan.
Dad's a West Pointer, Mom and artist, My Great Grandfather a brilliant botanist and a "Vagabond", and my sister Susan, a professional diver, professional photographer both on the ground and under water.
She also went diving with none other then Jerry Garcia, while he was working with Henderson on wet suit designs.
Time to bring that out of the closet Henderson.
I am so enamored with all this history and makes me dig deeper into anything and everything I can, as I am more eager and curious today then I have ever been in my life, and that is a wonderful place to be again.
Our family shares amazing attributes that are not coincidence what so ever, but a direct result of a family that loves and care for one another, has been close and dedicated, can yell and scream with the best of them, and insists in the end on enjoying themselves in spite of themselves...just kidding, for the most part.
I am being sarcastic of course.
I see some family members cringe at Obama, and I think, well shiX, that's my family and I voted for him, and see dischord, however I do not add to that dischord. Why stir up a hornets nest unless you want to get stung.
I cringed a lot myself when Carter was President because we were in a similar situation, however not as deep a hole.
President Carter may have had what appeared to be an overall failure in some respects to his administration, however what became of that President is one of the finest diplomats after his administration served, that we have ever come to know, and he has set a precedence for our current president as well as the other presidents that have served and are still living, and it is time we outstretch an arm of friendship instead of paranoia and selfishness, as Carter has repeatedly done and helped shape our foreign policy and relations today into a more favorable world view, which we desperately need to continue working on.
We all really want the same things on the greater good across the world, and better communication is proving that.
The idea underlying the early fabric which became The Constitution of The United States was, that it be written in broad enough legal terms to not be overly burdened with to much detail.
This is the basic road map that we have and have accepted and are suppose to live by politically here in our country.
The states, then of course, have the autonomy to get more specific within the scope of Federal Law, however are not suppose to overstep Federal Law.
However at times in history the States do challenge and overstep the Federal law..
One such current example is the case for the Legalization of Marijuana, which I am personally an advocate of 100%.
If we plan carefully, relatively quickly and with reflection into the prohibition era, crack era, and other similar eras, we will be better prepared when we shift our ploicy on any substance from legal to illegal or vice versa.
This takes planning because the bottom line is this, there is always someone who wants a piece of that new pie.
In prohibition it was the mafia, and they fully took advantage of this.
My college education was in Applied Police Science.
For a two year degree from a communnity college, it was and still is, very enlightening to have learned from professionals in and from the field combined with their collective experience and hear about that along with the material of each text from class, every day of class, spoken of often in minutes what may have taken years of experience to learn.
I could not help but enjoy it, as this was the subject matter I wanted to study at the time.
I graduated with an Associates Degree and transferred to George Mason University.
TOUGH TIMES RETURN IN MY PERSONAL LIFE
When you are in college and a friend gets murdered and you have to testify against him, well Jack Daniels starts to look more and more like a friend, and I will just say, please, ask for help if you are in that bottle today, because people care, people are there to help, and drowning in whiskey is a more lonely place then anyone should ever know, and if you'r so worried about a stigma you will get because of going to get help and exposing yourself, the truth is, everyone else knows you are messed up, so get the help and return back to life with your friends in unison.
I did not graduate from GMU for reasons in a nut shell I explained above.
I also realized that I did not want to any longer become a police officer or work in that field, and I pretty much ruined that path even if I had wanted to pursue it.
If you ever wonder the why and how to that, ask and I will explain it.
So you re-set and start over to a point.
MORE RECENT TIMES
Here is a closer reality to today.
Think about immediate post 9/11.
Would you ever have thought at those moments:
1. We may be going to elect a black President (and I say that because that has been how he is historically portrayed), the first in our history....(and he is not black but just a man, the media says black but he is as much white, as I am so many from the melting pot, let's just get over ourselves finally)
2. Would you think a name like Barrack Obama would be on the ticket, or if a name like it was that anyone would take it seriously? We all know it sound Muslim, and that is no big deal, but it was a touchier subject then, and I think anyone who can be honest will say it is still a head turner and will be for a time to come. that is reality, and we should continue to work hard to remove the stereotypes that have transcended from those horrific days of now infamous history.
What is incredible is how we can, and did, move forward quickly as a nation and not choose to see through foggy blurry glasses but with better clarity then ever perhaps.
Obama seemingly flew in under the radar, and he is all of a sudden in the middle of an amazing political time.
Again, I voted for President Obama.
I voted for Bush, all three times, Reagen too, twice. Wow that core was around for a long time.
They still are around and always will be.
That core is to republican politics, what Don Coryell was to offenses in the NFL, even many years after he was gone.
That core of leadership in the republican party has existed since at least the Nixon Administration, and been tight knit, and is still there today.
In the NFL., coaches would make small changes, utilize their talents to the offenses strengths, draft for the proper type of player for this scheme of offense, and it would take time to build a solid foundation, but it was the philosophy and vision that was there first, and from whence these other "off spring" offenses emerged, however still stayed true to the "Coryell Philosophy".
OBAMA'S POLITICAL CORE.
So today, Obama has laid some great huge cornerstone's to pave the way for us as well as build atop of.
Because o these cornerstones he has helped lay, we have a quicker and more efficient way today of doing the business pertaining to government.
What I am inferring is, in particular, the administrative things that have historically taken far too long to accomplish and which makes our progress seem as though it is stuck and dragging it's feet.
A more efficient, smaller government, utilizing the technology at their disposal and doing so in a legal manner, of course, is simpler and easier to run effectively for a larger population as we have today.
The mechanics can change and still be under the philosophy of our, "Law of the Land", "The Constitution of The United States of America" and it's ratified, "Bill of Rights".
VISION AND CHANGE IN OUR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
Having been a bicycle and a car mechanic, and studying the things I often enjoy in science and technology etc., as well as, having built and played with computers all my life and understanding them inside out, I have an acute and keen intuition of what is coming usually.
Anyone that pays attention and stays educated about and on top of the subject matters pertaining to science and technology would more then likely make the same statement, or at least agree with it.
There is talk now ongoing on Capitol Hill, or at least speculation, where there is at least open minded contingency that is exploring and considering the closing of the doors permanently on several government agencies.
I am all for it with a few conditions.
The savings are put into Green Era development, even if that means set backs like Solara.
Solara may have been a large loss, however being hundreds of millions of dollars, it is only a small percentage of a total package that has had many more unheard of successes, and so far, one major failure.
It is major but it also happened for very specific business reasons, and not so much at all that there was any underhandedness and we are always going to have unfortunate setbacks.
What we should again quickly learn is that this is how quickly the face of technology is swiftly changing.
Solara only failed because we were playing catch up and did not even know it at the time.
There is the lack of leadership and vision in that example.
I do not believe there was a proper assessment of the marketplace to start with concerning solar panels, their technology, as well as their production, pricing, and well, entire marketplace.
We were lagging and are still lagging behind, but we are quickly learning where we can catch up and also set new examples.
Perhaps there is no better time to add this in.
Here are some interesting numbers that a friend of mine from high school days shared with our mutual friends recently. Thanks Esq. Kenny L.
"Even though surprising, I promise this is true: In America, only 2.7% of the things we buy were made in China (88.5% made in USA), China only owns 7.8% of our government's debt, and we only get 9.2% of our oil from the Middle East."
Read the entire article, because how the numbers were derived was interesting and convincing.
Once you read that it sure lends a certain perspective to things, and I will let you decide what that perspective is.
Extracted from the link below:
http://www.frbsf.org/
Google+ and Facebook are great tools to see what others are reading and what the issues truly are.
What we need today are more brilliant scientist and great mathematicians and engineers, like my Father and other great leaders I have known, seen, and studied.
On a side note, there is an incredible story from the Viet~Nam war era.
VIET-NAM HISTORICAL STORY:
just going to type this out as a banter...
It is a story about a squadron leader who has a member of his squadron gets half of his wing blown off.
So what does he do?
He places his wing under the other pilot's craft and he flies him all the way back to land, and to top that off...
he lands with him.
Come on ...FOR REAL...wow. Well that is my friend's Father, USAF Ret.General Hecker.
So when I first hear this story I am like...sure thing Mike (his son)...and when I get home I know this is a story that my Father will know because it is so heroic and inspiring, and from a War and an Era he served in.
If Dad says it is not true, I know my buddy is full of it.
I ask Dad,...100% true...wow.
My Father had heard all about this and remembered it very well.
The General has done well for himself and he is a man of the utmost integrity, as one would think after hearing this story.
He had and still has vision and confidence and an excellent education, a Master's Degree from Harvard Business School.
He, like my Father, have vision, have plans, work hard, stay educated and current, and follow a protocol.
Being successful is not a secret, and there really are no short cuts being sold on TV for $ 19.95 plus shipping and handling.
If you have read this far, you are more then likely also not one of those folks who will buy something gimmicky on television for $ 19.95 anyway.
I have done sale s long enough to know that gets pitched right away, never this deep into any sales pitch, if any of this was a sales pitch to start with.
I have watched men like those I have mentioned above all my life that are smart and wise and fair and you know you can trust them, and if you observe you cannot help but learn a lot very quickly.
Another commonality amoung these men is dedication and perseverance like I have never seen elsewhere.
Not to make excuses, but I have had such health problems all my life that I am often the spectator just itching to get back in there and give it my best.
The victories I get in my personal struggle are great, because they are hard to achieve they are even more rewarding.
Leaders show anyone through the principles that they lead by, that if you do in a similar and stick to it, you will find success, and failure in that philosophy is not an option.
That does not mean you ill never meet with failure, it simply means you do not have to accept failure as a final outcome, and if you accept it today, then you learn from it and make that same failure a tool to success in your future.
Political Science, Social Sciences, and Police Science all deal with learning about the past and that which is current now so we can better plan for the future.
When it comes down to it, what is not geared that way some how or another?
If something is not geared that way, perhaps we should take another look at it, unless I am missing something.
UPCOMING BLOG SOON
Some things I will be reporting soon will be quite mind blowing and enlightening, and they are related to all of this in a way, but then not 100%, however there is a great thread that runs through everything that will be even more evident later.
Some of what I write may at first even appear as incredulous information to some reader's, however it will be fully substantiated, as this is a coordinated effort of many friends gathering this data with me.
I am doing so independently and not under any direction from any other party involved at all, but rather, a parallel point of view to my observations I have shared with confidants.
There is a reason to put that out there for now, and I will leave that at that until the day future day of print.
I believe what I am observing recently is something that is like having a front row seat to, well pick your own favorite artist, musician, speaker, ad infinitum., you get to observe and watch and see from a reporters objectiveness the bigger picture.
The problem is this show is not a show of pleasure, but rather tragic opposites.
This is like a real Shakespearian play of tragedy I am watching, and in reality, it is so peppered with melancholy and back stabbing, and corruption, it is like parts of all of his plays all wrapped up into one, and it is reality, a very hard to believe reality.
In a situation like this, it is hard, at first, to remain objective, because you have to get focused and unemotional, not always an easy thing to achieve, when seeking balance where all of a sudden your world seems to be in an mere instant, upside down.
Enough of that for now, in the meantime, it is important to enjoy those I am with, be productive, and look forward to better times together in the future with my pals.
The article from the New Yorker was very deep and covered some wonderful material.
Some great quotes in here are as follows:
"Mario Cuomo said that Presidents campaign in poetry and govern in prose, and Obama’s shift from Keats to Keynes was abrupt. Before he even entered office, he had to deal with an economic cataclysm. The initial debate was framed by a fifty-seven-page memo to the President-elect, dated December 15, 2008, written by Larry Summers, his incoming director of the National Economic Council. Marked “Sensitive and Confidential,” the document, which has never been made public, presents Obama with the scale of the crisis. “The economic outlook is grim and deteriorating rapidly,” it said. The U.S. economy had lost two million jobs that year; without a government response, it would lose four million more in the next year. Unemployment would rise above nine per cent unless a significant stimulus plan was passed. The estimates were getting worse by the day."(more follows in additional paragraphs at this link)
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lizza#ixzz1kJB4ANL9
Now look at this link and see the population as calculated by data gathered in the US Census of 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population
Just consider 2,000,000 out of work and to illustrate that, according to what is at the link on Wiki,
that is the population of the 5th largest city in the USA, and that is a conservative estimate by those numbers so reported then, which have undoubtedly gone up since then, and would therefore now rank as somewhere between the second - 4th position if we viewed that population as a city.
I only do this because it illustrates just how massive a population this truly is, and we well know that that list does not truly count everyone just by the formula used.
It is more a guesstimate and under estimate, then it is a science and accurate representation, and if you can site something to argue that, I challenge you to please post it, as i would delight in seeing better numbers then what my research shows, however I do not think anything will materialize. As usual time will tell.
TAKING A BREAK ON MUSICAL INSPIRATION
Listening to Neil Young ~ Le Noise ~ The best album I have heard in years as it is heartfelt, real, Neil in your face, screaming feedback, wailing electric, mellow acoustic, incredible musicianship and writing, the one and only, Neil Young.
BACK TO OTHER TOPICS
Back to Green Era Philosophy.
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/news_detail.html?news_id=16404
I get it, I wrote about it, I have been paying attention and studying it, and I see what the future holds, and it is clearly a new Era to quickly embrace or get left in it's wake.
Perhaps in an old world where I cannot do physical labor, I could have written and made music, which I do now, but perhaps it now can become a job, a way to contribute, and a way to make a living for myself and there is where I hold out some of the great hope that I have.
If ever I could make money and a career from it, now is the best time to try in comparison to any other time I ever recall.
In the meantime, I struggle on, but I work as much as I can, even if that is simply writing because I love to write. It is mental work and it keeps me sharper and healthier, and there is always a lesson where there is a struggle if one remains receptive, and perhaps many lessons too, so keeping sharp is, of course, always helpful.
What I see is that this has been an eye opening blessing for me to slow down, enjoy life, and be a catalyst of change and believe in that and speak up and out.
I can choose to look at it from a different perspective, but would rather be positive.
I understand when looking up the massive mountain of change that the challenge to hike it is huge.
However, it must be climbed in order to change these things in a massive way, and we are hiking as a nation today, towards prosperity again.
I think overall, without being overly critical, we are making progress.
However, I feel like anyone else on this point, progress can never come quickly enough.
What I see that is positive, not to be repititious, is that we are placing the infrastructure in place to be utilized for many years to come to hopefully have a more efficient government, and more efficient market places, more efficient citizens, and really there is no place this will not revolutionize on the whole.
BABYBOOMERS
The baby boomers are entering retirement age.
My point here is we as a nation will have the largest group of folks ever enter into retirement, and this will be a huge feat to stay on top of.
If we use our newest tools and streamlining and health care reform, we can get a handle of this quickly before it ever has a chance to get out of control.
On the other hand we have the generation behind them, my generation for the most part, coming into their respective own, and we are more savvy and use to this technology being in our lives, and we have seen life with it and without it as well.
The coming generation will be even more, "plugged in", of course.
The groundwork I see being paved fits my generation to the tee, and it was laid by those before Obama, helped along by Obama, and should always continue to be well utilized.
This will obviously be in place in the future if it remains maintained and up to snuff.
ON THE USER SIDE
For many users, upgrades of hardware will become less and less often.
The most needed upgrades will be made on the server side of the operation.
Think of kiosk style stations in agencies, rental cars at the airport and in certain stores, or service centers for car repairs for example as well.
I would think it safe to say, theses peripherals will need less and less upgrade, and may even disappear with our hand held device advancement and the advancement to the network it is tied too, which is always ultimately cloud / quantum computing.
BLENDING TECHNOLOGIES QUICKLY
I have written of blending these technologies quite often.
It is not a new idea, but it is an idea that is finally truly feasible, makes sense and has the time presented to it where it will be realized.
Everyday we let another company design what can be new products, we are losing out.
Read some of my Technology Challenges, and you will see simple ideas, some of which I have had over 20+ years, that can easily be done now.
If your reading this and you have no idea what a MagickJack actually is and have not seen one work. Do yourself a favor.
It is a prime example of miniaturization, the use of modern technology, This technology has now made this type on phone service portable and much less expensive as well as, it has excellent built in features, like caller I.D., Voicemail, and online billing and reminders.
In six years, the only thing I have ever received in the mail is the MagicJack itself...nothing more.
I like that and every feature I have and the only way I could see someone spending more money for the same thing is folks that are resistant to change and are therefore needlessly spending more money, and those who do not know about it, and lastly, people with no access to broadband, which is the next big adventure we have to finish to totally implement our newest technology that will help our economy with work, saving money in the government, and the people's pockets, and help to establish new factories to produce these Green Products.
The labor jobs will be there if we focus on these networks, and while that is happening those folks could be trained for a transition when that work phases out, and the companies could help pay that education fee, offer it in house or through a parent company, and when new businesses open up, we will have transitional jobs as well as new positions opening up.
If we rely too much on automation, we will shoot ourselves in the foot, so to speak.
If we have indeed "shipped" too many jobs away, and that is open for argument as usual, then we need to shift to bringing those jobs, or better ones, back home.
CLOUD / QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
The real crunching of the programs applications happens out there in the cloud somewhere, or everywhere for that matter, and the power needed to calculate, or run a program at maximum efficiency is always on tap, and turned off immediately when it is not needed.
We can become even more efficient, and will too, as soon as we further implement these changes that are dictating and refining many industries.
So we have this new system and with it comes proposed new laws.
So I ask you to just read this with an open mind, and follow the train of thought, and then asses if you think it sounds logical or not.
SOPA AND CONSPIRACY ?....lol
The nice thing about SOPA is that it proposes things that are obviously things that "they" know we can now control, and they spell it out pretty well, about what "they" want to do.
And, aye, there in, in a nut shell, is the rub!
In the days of the wild west, well, some law just did not work out west.
This new era for the internet will be interesting when it comes to these new laws, some of which I agree and others of which I dis-agree.
So what else is new? that is always par for the course for most of us.
No one appreciates scrutiny at any level, especially when the scrutinizing it is done without knowledge and when it is unwarranted, and most certainly all will agree, if it is done illegally.
No real conspiracy, simply a plan outlined and proposed as law because someone, as in many folks, have worked hard and are trying to protect businesses, copyrights, internet security, and many other sun net themes.
Perhaps thee need to be looked at individually as they occur or are occurring and let the order of precedence of order unfold.
I am glad to see there is a lot of thought and vision in regaurds to these new proposals, and we must be certain we never sign away our rights.
HOW TO OPEN NEW DOORS
All doors that become open eventually close. New ones open, but never the exact same ones again.
Usually, it is we that pick the doors to open to start with as well.
I have been fortunate at 44 to have done so many awesome things.
I am finally reading up on history and geography with a passion, and I never ever had that passion one single bit before.
Instead, the opposite is quite true, as I really dis-liked both topics with a passion.
However I have always had this incredibly mechanical, creative, and precise mind that can design things in my head, transfer them to paper, build them from my head or paper, repair things, study systems, etc.
I then applied this knowledge to myself, wondering why I did not like these subjects, and I remembered something I learned at a meeting.
Typically that which we do not like we do not like out of fear.
We react to these fears, sometimes justifiably so.
I am doing my best to use my mind, sharpen up and continue to find doors to open so I can progress, and I cannot progress in ways I use to, so it really makes me change everything I do and how I do it for the most part, and again, that is due to my poor health.
So I project where I may be in my future health and capabilities and work towards goals, whatever they may be, that I can achieve even if I have some setbacks.
To put it simply, like a Boy Scout, 'Be Prepared".
BACK ON TOPIC:
So back to the main topic, which is implementing positive efficient change through the use of modern technology.
I believe that we must make better and better decisions very quickly, because consequences to these decisions are coming at us seemingly faster and faster.
Let's stop making the mistakes we have when we can project into the future better then ever.
Logistics is always about projections.
I have written about a few things involving encryption and projection, and logistics, etc.,
...so it cracks me up when I see the new IBM commercial which I just saw last night during the NFL's, NFC Championship game, The Giants vs. The 49'ers.
They have a slogan that fit's everything I have been typing about, pertaining to my more serious topics, not my poetry and lyrics ~ artistic expression often fun, twisted, happy, sad, etc ~ again artistic expression, some real some not.
The commercial is about harnessing the power of cloud computing.
YOU CAN SEE IT HERE: below
A new 30-second ad from IBM debuted during the Chargers-Patriots AFC Championship game that touted its relationship with the NFL as an official league sponsor. The spot opens up with a wide shot of Bank of America Stadium, with the Panthers lining up on offense against the Texans. The ball is then thrown to Panthers WR Steve Smith, who breaks several tackles and goes for a long touchdown all the while with the game audio from the sequence being played. The ad uses actual NFL footage from the Texans-Panthers game while IBM adds their own technological spin. During the play, all the players on the field -- offense and defense -- have their name, number and stats above their head, and as Smith races down the field his yardage totals begin to increase. At the end of the ad, the following appears on-screen: “IBM helps the NFL provide stats digitally to news outlets and fans around the world.” After that, the company’s current campaign mantra appears in big, bold letters: “STOP TALKING. START DOING” (THE DAILY).
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2008/01/Issue-84/Sponsorships-Advertising-Marketing/IBM-Debuts-New-NFL-Themed-Ad-During-AFC-Championship-Game.aspx
I have a computer coding architecture in my head, it will work and it will work better then anything we currently have and I had first thought of this many years ago with knowledge I gained by studying about the advent of the upcoming cloud / quantum computing.
It is exactly designed with the overall concept of vision through logistics, derived from projection of known data sets.
I will not explain more here because it gets very precise very quickly.
What I have designed in my own mind, is at least close to what is happening now already, with intuitive computing.
What scientist are discovering now is incredible, what once took a million atoms to store 1TB, they can now store, in the lab only thus far, 12 atoms for the exact same quantity.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/enterprise-it/infrastructure/IBM-developing-storage-device-of-just-12-atoms/articleshow/11475204.cms
Here is another interesting read, although not 100% tied to my writing here, it is something of an interesting nature dealing with powerful computing.
Connect the dots for yourself.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/22/1993758/new-supercomputer-crunches-data.html
BACK TO OBAMA AND HIS ADMINISTRATION THIS FAR
It may just be the times lined up well for our President, but anyone should have seen it coming if they were paying attention.
He sees a bigger picture that will only be known in it's entirety 20+ years from now, and we will see if we failed or were successful now.
Any President elected would have had difficulties in the predicament we are still in and were in the day he was elected.
I feel positive his Administration will go down in long term history as the administration responsible for implementing the changes through the use of modern technology that will be the reason we will have a more
efficient government that can continually become even more efficient still.
Green Era philosophy works today and the proof of it is all around us and is quickly shaping up.
I blogged about this last night, how the administration in making great progress.
A great example is the tabling of SOPA.
Had the net not been accessible on both sides, perhaps the discontent would not have been voiced as well and the SOPA legislation not tabled.
Just a few long thoughts...
Lastly, I feel if we divide ourselves as liberal vs. republican on bigger issues, not all issues, then the tree that produces that fruit we seek to start with is already tainted with poison.
We need to make smart moves forward together quickly.
I am open minded and flexible for the times, as the times dictate.
Some look at that as flipping your political views.
Is there anything wrong with that if it is the right thing to do?
Here is an honest answer in a system too easily influence by money. Only when the guys that pay your bills (sign your paycheck) have a different point of view.
Politics in democracy, inseparable perhaps, but becoming more separated at least.
I get it, I wrote about it, I have been paying attention and studying it, and I see what the future holds, and it is clearly a new Era to quickly embrace or get left in it's wake.
Perhaps in an old world where I cannot do physical labor, I could have written and made music, which I do now, but perhaps it now can become a job, a way to contribute, and a way to make a living for myself and there is where I hold out some of the great hope that I have.
If ever I could make money and a career from it, now is the best time to try in comparison to any other time I ever recall.
In the meantime, I struggle on, but I work as much as I can, even if that is simply writing because I love to write. It is mental work and it keeps me sharper and healthier, and there is always a lesson where there is a struggle if one remains receptive, and perhaps many lessons too, so keeping sharp is, of course, always helpful.
What I see is that this has been an eye opening blessing for me to slow down, enjoy life, and be a catalyst of change and believe in that and speak up and out.
I can choose to look at it from a different perspective, but would rather be positive.
I understand when looking up the massive mountain of change that the challenge to hike it is huge.
However, it must be climbed in order to change these things in a massive way, and we are hiking as a nation today, towards prosperity again.
I think overall, without being overly critical, we are making progress.
However, I feel like anyone else on this point, progress can never come quickly enough.
What I see that is positive, not to be repititious, is that we are placing the infrastructure in place to be utilized for many years to come to hopefully have a more efficient government, and more efficient market places, more efficient citizens, and really there is no place this will not revolutionize on the whole.
BABYBOOMERS
The baby boomers are entering retirement age.
My point here is we as a nation will have the largest group of folks ever enter into retirement, and this will be a huge feat to stay on top of.
If we use our newest tools and streamlining and health care reform, we can get a handle of this quickly before it ever has a chance to get out of control.
On the other hand we have the generation behind them, my generation for the most part, coming into their respective own, and we are more savvy and use to this technology being in our lives, and we have seen life with it and without it as well.
The coming generation will be even more, "plugged in", of course.
The groundwork I see being paved fits my generation to the tee, and it was laid by those before Obama, helped along by Obama, and should always continue to be well utilized.
This will obviously be in place in the future if it remains maintained and up to snuff.
ON THE USER SIDE
For many users, upgrades of hardware will become less and less often.
The most needed upgrades will be made on the server side of the operation.
Think of kiosk style stations in agencies, rental cars at the airport and in certain stores, or service centers for car repairs for example as well.
I would think it safe to say, theses peripherals will need less and less upgrade, and may even disappear with our hand held device advancement and the advancement to the network it is tied too, which is always ultimately cloud / quantum computing.
BLENDING TECHNOLOGIES QUICKLY
I have written of blending these technologies quite often.
It is not a new idea, but it is an idea that is finally truly feasible, makes sense and has the time presented to it where it will be realized.
Everyday we let another company design what can be new products, we are losing out.
Read some of my Technology Challenges, and you will see simple ideas, some of which I have had over 20+ years, that can easily be done now.
If your reading this and you have no idea what a MagickJack actually is and have not seen one work. Do yourself a favor.
It is a prime example of miniaturization, the use of modern technology, This technology has now made this type on phone service portable and much less expensive as well as, it has excellent built in features, like caller I.D., Voicemail, and online billing and reminders.
In six years, the only thing I have ever received in the mail is the MagicJack itself...nothing more.
I like that and every feature I have and the only way I could see someone spending more money for the same thing is folks that are resistant to change and are therefore needlessly spending more money, and those who do not know about it, and lastly, people with no access to broadband, which is the next big adventure we have to finish to totally implement our newest technology that will help our economy with work, saving money in the government, and the people's pockets, and help to establish new factories to produce these Green Products.
The labor jobs will be there if we focus on these networks, and while that is happening those folks could be trained for a transition when that work phases out, and the companies could help pay that education fee, offer it in house or through a parent company, and when new businesses open up, we will have transitional jobs as well as new positions opening up.
If we rely too much on automation, we will shoot ourselves in the foot, so to speak.
If we have indeed "shipped" too many jobs away, and that is open for argument as usual, then we need to shift to bringing those jobs, or better ones, back home.
CLOUD / QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
The real crunching of the programs applications happens out there in the cloud somewhere, or everywhere for that matter, and the power needed to calculate, or run a program at maximum efficiency is always on tap, and turned off immediately when it is not needed.
We can become even more efficient, and will too, as soon as we further implement these changes that are dictating and refining many industries.
So we have this new system and with it comes proposed new laws.
So I ask you to just read this with an open mind, and follow the train of thought, and then asses if you think it sounds logical or not.
SOPA AND CONSPIRACY ?....lol
The nice thing about SOPA is that it proposes things that are obviously things that "they" know we can now control, and they spell it out pretty well, about what "they" want to do.
And, aye, there in, in a nut shell, is the rub!
In the days of the wild west, well, some law just did not work out west.
This new era for the internet will be interesting when it comes to these new laws, some of which I agree and others of which I dis-agree.
So what else is new? that is always par for the course for most of us.
No one appreciates scrutiny at any level, especially when the scrutinizing it is done without knowledge and when it is unwarranted, and most certainly all will agree, if it is done illegally.
No real conspiracy, simply a plan outlined and proposed as law because someone, as in many folks, have worked hard and are trying to protect businesses, copyrights, internet security, and many other sun net themes.
Perhaps thee need to be looked at individually as they occur or are occurring and let the order of precedence of order unfold.
I am glad to see there is a lot of thought and vision in regaurds to these new proposals, and we must be certain we never sign away our rights.
HOW TO OPEN NEW DOORS
All doors that become open eventually close. New ones open, but never the exact same ones again.
Usually, it is we that pick the doors to open to start with as well.
I have been fortunate at 44 to have done so many awesome things.
I am finally reading up on history and geography with a passion, and I never ever had that passion one single bit before.
Instead, the opposite is quite true, as I really dis-liked both topics with a passion.
However I have always had this incredibly mechanical, creative, and precise mind that can design things in my head, transfer them to paper, build them from my head or paper, repair things, study systems, etc.
I then applied this knowledge to myself, wondering why I did not like these subjects, and I remembered something I learned at a meeting.
Typically that which we do not like we do not like out of fear.
We react to these fears, sometimes justifiably so.
I am doing my best to use my mind, sharpen up and continue to find doors to open so I can progress, and I cannot progress in ways I use to, so it really makes me change everything I do and how I do it for the most part, and again, that is due to my poor health.
So I project where I may be in my future health and capabilities and work towards goals, whatever they may be, that I can achieve even if I have some setbacks.
To put it simply, like a Boy Scout, 'Be Prepared".
BACK ON TOPIC:
So back to the main topic, which is implementing positive efficient change through the use of modern technology.
I believe that we must make better and better decisions very quickly, because consequences to these decisions are coming at us seemingly faster and faster.
Let's stop making the mistakes we have when we can project into the future better then ever.
Logistics is always about projections.
I have written about a few things involving encryption and projection, and logistics, etc.,
...so it cracks me up when I see the new IBM commercial which I just saw last night during the NFL's, NFC Championship game, The Giants vs. The 49'ers.
They have a slogan that fit's everything I have been typing about, pertaining to my more serious topics, not my poetry and lyrics ~ artistic expression often fun, twisted, happy, sad, etc ~ again artistic expression, some real some not.
The commercial is about harnessing the power of cloud computing.
YOU CAN SEE IT HERE: below
IBM Debuts New NFL-Themed Ad During AFC Championship Game
Published January 21, 2008
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2008/01/Issue-84/Sponsorships-Advertising-Marketing/IBM-Debuts-New-NFL-Themed-Ad-During-AFC-Championship-Game.aspx
I have a computer coding architecture in my head, it will work and it will work better then anything we currently have and I had first thought of this many years ago with knowledge I gained by studying about the advent of the upcoming cloud / quantum computing.
It is exactly designed with the overall concept of vision through logistics, derived from projection of known data sets.
I will not explain more here because it gets very precise very quickly.
What I have designed in my own mind, is at least close to what is happening now already, with intuitive computing.
What scientist are discovering now is incredible, what once took a million atoms to store 1TB, they can now store, in the lab only thus far, 12 atoms for the exact same quantity.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/enterprise-it/infrastructure/IBM-developing-storage-device-of-just-12-atoms/articleshow/11475204.cms
Here is another interesting read, although not 100% tied to my writing here, it is something of an interesting nature dealing with powerful computing.
Connect the dots for yourself.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/22/1993758/new-supercomputer-crunches-data.html
BACK TO OBAMA AND HIS ADMINISTRATION THIS FAR
It may just be the times lined up well for our President, but anyone should have seen it coming if they were paying attention.
He sees a bigger picture that will only be known in it's entirety 20+ years from now, and we will see if we failed or were successful now.
Any President elected would have had difficulties in the predicament we are still in and were in the day he was elected.
I feel positive his Administration will go down in long term history as the administration responsible for implementing the changes through the use of modern technology that will be the reason we will have a more
efficient government that can continually become even more efficient still.
Green Era philosophy works today and the proof of it is all around us and is quickly shaping up.
I blogged about this last night, how the administration in making great progress.
A great example is the tabling of SOPA.
Had the net not been accessible on both sides, perhaps the discontent would not have been voiced as well and the SOPA legislation not tabled.
Just a few long thoughts...
Lastly, I feel if we divide ourselves as liberal vs. republican on bigger issues, not all issues, then the tree that produces that fruit we seek to start with is already tainted with poison.
We need to make smart moves forward together quickly.
I am open minded and flexible for the times, as the times dictate.
Some look at that as flipping your political views.
Is there anything wrong with that if it is the right thing to do?
Here is an honest answer in a system too easily influence by money. Only when the guys that pay your bills (sign your paycheck) have a different point of view.
Politics in democracy, inseparable perhaps, but becoming more separated at least.
I voted for the best man for the job at hand when I voted, and that was it.
That is how I was raised, and it may fly in the face of my earlier political beliefs, but that was what I knew was right and was needed now.
The war in Iraq is resolved with a relatively safe extraction, logistically speaking.
The "people's" voice is being heard, and government responds, maybe not quickly enough still, but quicker then before.
The economy stinks, however it could be worse. Question here is for the long term. Are we digging such a hole weill never get out ? Possibly.
TODAY
I will close with this.
We need to spend more and make more money to finish this infrastructure that is being put in place.
To me, in the bigger picture, the infrastructure should be built and we need to tread carefully with concerns of the country's finance quite obviously.
We need to start manufacturing of new Green Products quickly and provide jobs to our citizens, again quickly.
The shifts in the energy companies deserve a worthy look.
We could start with some windmill part production or assembly, and so many other things like that.
I hope someone at a Federal political level sees this and reads it, and many on the state level as well all the way to local.
I know we are ready to embrace the Green Era here in Cumberland, and all over our Tri-State Region, and we are a hub, once again, as we are 150 miles or less from Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., and Baltimore.
We are merely a stone's throw away with proper direction from being that hub for Green Industry, perhaps manufacturing, distribution, education, and research.
I would like to see this come to fruition in my lifetime and I would like to see what we can do here at home to help.
Please post up a comment or question or email me anytime.
I hope this offered some perspective and facts about what can be if we work hard together, and I want your ideas because I will research them, write about them, and suggest them when I write letters and send them out too.
I do not do that too often, but when I do, because I get much more direct and to the facts and support those facts, I always get very positive responses.
It has taught me that writing such as this during preliminary stages of fact finding and communication, is a key to gathering even more knowledge more quickly.
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
