I hope this conveys the main gist of what I am looking to come across with,,,admittedly I did not spend a lot of time on this article, just wanted to express these concerns and follow ups that blend together may be quite political on nature,however, are just the facts as I understand them that I am repeating here as told to me, all interesting in their own right as well as collectively.
I really have blended three topics herein that do tie together well and deal with the local politics of Cumberland, Maryland, as I have observed, heard from friends, and witnessed and read about in out local paper, as well as being a citizen here.
These practices, I believe are practices that keep us all much farther away from progress in the long term, even when they look great in the short term.
The school could be a fiasco right now as we are looking at a great possibility of being downgraded buy the creditors that rate us here and this school budgeting fiasco that is not critical to make a judgement on right now, is something that may just break our budget, which just a short time ago was in A1 perfect condition.
I do not think there has been any deep thought on this issue an I think it has been a planned sales job from the beginning.
DECEMBER 06, 2011
Here is a link to a letter I sent that is self explanatory if you read the link. My point is not to complain here, but rather discover why we have such a failing locally at the simplest forms of communication and what should be at the least common courtesy.
I guess like common sense, common courtesy has exited the building, stage left as well.
http://mountainmaryland.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-letter-to-andy-vick-executive.html
Its been a year...was I perhaps not articulate enough o receive a response or simply just not important enough?
Judge for yourself...
I think this speaks speaks volumes of an overall uncoordinated vision of too many entities not communicating together.
Take a lesson from C3I...utilize modern technology appropriately and communicate and share knowledge, and we will all be the better off for it, much more efficient, safer, and have a more sound foundation upon which to build whatever it is we all decide we truly desire for the benefit of both the present and the future.
This is not rocket science!
To start with, struggling through a difficult economy nationwide the challenges are set and the bar is extremely high.
I see the failings at Canal Place here in Cumberland over and over again.
I still see a lack of (VISION) a unified organization, overseeing the coordination of a planned municipal business minded infrastructure and new inviting direction we all to often hear of but do not too often see the progress of here in Cumberland, Maryland, Allegany County, and Western Maryland, that should instead be leading us to the areas of promised ideal retail on a local level, where we can collectively emerge from out of the doldrums that have long since echoed and haunted this town with the vacancies of the departure of corporate giants that reorganized as the Japanese model of middle management sent shock waves through our marketplaces, and forever changed business in the United States of America.
I also see along with mismanagement and ignorant policy (not to be read as stupid people) and poor planning of other local facilities (Rocky Gap, an inevitable backslide on a local level that is looking more and more grim.
I hate politics, and I hate the grim atmosphere we have. I can easily overlook the bad in this town with its unequaled beauty, but the moral fiber in me screams to cause a wave of attention and demand, through peace and education, to implore that we rededicate ourselves locally to a new vision we all agree on.
C3I does it right, because they have a common mission, to uphold the laws and to do so with discretion, not an iron fist.
A mission statement should be that simple.
I am thankful we are not like the state of Nevada, selling sin, with a motto that says," what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." Catch and certainly memorable and the butt of so many jokes, any what an unsavory way to communicate to a younger generation any quality of life.
How about, "Cumberland, Maryland, where history, art, science, education, and culture blend and transform lives."
Well, then we have to back that up.
I placed a picture of our beautiful attractive UNDER THE TRAIN TRACKS tunnel in my song and video called,
"BLUESJAMMAMERICAFORPEACE"
The song is what it is as is the video...I really wanted to document that we are a society, the first in modern civilization, to live amounst our own ruins, and we have them all around us in Cumberland.
We need to stand strong with new vision and make this town the attractive magnet it should be.
It takes a tough veneer, intestinal fortitude, and dedication through hard work and unity of all of our people to bring a resurgence back to this area.
It does not need to be a Mecca, however, it needs to support itself and it's inhabitants, or we are collectively failures.
Seems as though communication at the very essential and basic most levels is breaking down further, to a degree, as we are all too often consumed in the self we think and perceive as the all important, versus, the collective we that is priceless.
So I am going to rant about a few things here like I do...and once again, and I will always state this: This is not about persoanlities, as i do not have enough time in life to dispute personalities.
This is about progress, swift change, and regaining a stature in which we can all stand tall in it's shadow.
The tunnel in my video is Cumberland, Maryland...shortly after it appeared in the video, it was spoken of in the paper, and in the town meetings...could be coincidence, however, Cumberland Chat, FB, my blog, my music, and my actions have proven to be at the very least speakable and current in the communitty.
So as sloppy or as well as I may write (revisions being made, time permitting) The idea is to provoke thought, and positive action towards change.
Who would want to visit Cumberland, Maryland and walk through that stinking tunnel? So it's pictures in the video are evidence to failure that we have all around us.
On the brighter side, we have an incredible amount of change happening here in Cumberland, Maryland, and a vision is forming...just seems slow to crytalize.
Too many egos makes for waste and haste.
So, topic numero uno to contemplate:
Now we are about to dump 40 acres of the park at Constitution to the WMHS monopoly for a trade for the huge liability that is a drain on them each month...and they blew that building apart with their, "should be illegal" no compete clause, and now want to abuse the city and take advantage of us while our economic backs are to the wall and they will take all that they can...they want to permanently corporately steal our land for their huge massive corporate liability that will only cost them money in their future...and through blackmail, take our Park....how do you replace a park when it is lost?...it should be a completely illegal transaction from the beginning,
...and if their are not laws in place that make it so, and I think research would prove there are, there needs to be some added to our municipal legislation.
Worst of all they have made this proposition with a tight deadline on purpose so we can once again make a mistake under pressure...I would let them eat the expenses for a few more years, keep our park property that should have a civil suit filed if the contract is approved, and focus on things like not having a corporate entity here in Cumberland that is able to have a no compete clause, thus jeopardizing the very nature of capitalism and competition, and thus causing our community to suffer greatly because of these practices. We draw fewer fine professionals here because the tactics of the hospital on a corporate level are politically insensitive to the local community by the bottom line of the dollar, not the nice promised we all hear from the corporate talking heads.
The land could be claimed under imminent domain, if the city wanted to follow that route.
I prefer a peaceful resolution, and perhaps I am being closed minded about the land swap, as I do want the best for a future school, and the future of the education here to help our children towards a better shot at prosperity.
Can we offer them the land, and make a legal binding permanent contract that makes it so it is still park land, still utilized by the citizens or may be developed so if further expanded, and also so that it could have a primary clause in any deed stating, that all though nothing is owed to the city, that shall the hospital ever declare bankruptcy, we, the city, have the
primary and only claim to the property, and that the property can never be declared as a corporate asset, so as not ever be legally allowed to be used for financial leverage, as well as other reasonable clauses.
If the WMHS organization cares about this community as much as they appear too, they would embrace us taking a liability and assist us in making it a community liability, as well as not want to take valuable irreplaceable land from our oldest, largest, historic park in the city.
I personally, and obviously think the idea is assenine.
I watched a former park behind my home become one fiasco the city ultimately had to clean up and fix, and I lost my local park just behind my home. A huge reason I purchased in the area I did.
I'm sure it was covered in the paper and at meetings, however, I was new to the area, learning my way around, and to me it seemed like poof...park gone.
Nothing would disgust me more then to see the hospital with its battleship depressing presence, however beautiful and well equipped on the inside, further develop that area with another massive undertaking.
They had an ideal location, a recent multi-million dollar addition, and plenty of land at the former Sacred Heart location.
That "old" building could have been cleared after a new hospital had been built along side of it, it would have been an easier less costly transition, parking garages, as are at the new facility could have been erected and designed to build upon if further room was needed in the future, etc...I just think we are being played...and I do not like the way it rests in my gut, to be frank!
I have watched as our local medical theology here has changed. Perhaps due to new legislation, perhaps due to new avenues that have opened through loopholes in new legislation,perhaps due to greed, perhaps a combination of two or more mentioned as well as a plethora of other reasons.
What I have seen overall is a faltering in our health care on a local level, and i have had many folks in the community as well as patients as myself, seek services elsewhere.
How do you tout a new hospital and it's state of the art science and technology, yet scare the community away and make more folks weary of getting excellent healthcare.
A non compete clause, which is a "hush hush" policy, but is a 100% truth, should exist only in an active economic environment so that an employee of Institution A does not get hired by Institution B and share or steal corporate consumers, ideas, and intellectual properties to name a few.
In a proper fair and practical corporate business model in Capitalism and Free Enterprise, a non compete policy such apparently exists here, unless I am otherwise proven wrong, is unethical and counter productive to the entire infrastructure, and will build a manifold that will most certainly collapse back upon itself, without quick change.
So now its time to lose some more park property. I really hope not
As a citizen, that is my property along with the rest of Cumberland's citizens, and I do not think we should cave into corporate greed from a hospital that seems less an less capable of providing state of the art health care as they claimed they would be able too.
I know of many men and women who travel out of this area, because they know the health care here in Cumberland has fallen behind because of the business agenda that has changed as well as the transition, which is never simple even in the most ideal of times and planning.
WMHS dismantled the working spirit of health care that was long standing and long lasting withing this community when they made it more of a business as opposed to a service. People feel that...just ask around.
In concern to The Arts Council...similar attitude of alienation and their on privy agenda. I love the art shows and walks, and what they have done thus far in the community, however. there seems to be that critical communication breakdown abundantly present. It seems to exist quite a bit everywhere, so hopefully time will tell a better reporting of hopefully less promotion and more action on behalf of these local entities, and others.
The state of affairs here on many levels is rotten and permeates the fabric of all that we invest in within our community and the stench of it can spread through all factors and spoil more then thought fathomable.
Just think about it...I even waited over a year for a response...The old hospital site...I have been thinking...and this is just my gut...maybe it will be OK for the new school, but it does not look to be proposed in a very ethical or moral business practice philosophically speaking and appears to have way to much arm twisting politics and financial duress on a short time table, all purposefully orchestrated and calculated ahead of time.
It has an inherent air of illegality, it seems to me, at its core...just the fact again that the people of the city will again, lose 40 acres of park property forever...and land and trees and natural habitation is our most valuable concrete asset...there are plenty of viable places for a school, and there needs to be netter patience and diligence then just jumping into a decision so blindly and in such a rushed manner.
So the arts council, the hospital...Rocky Gap selling out to slots...we are quickly losing our grip on a beautiful way of life that exists here...perhaps we should build more jails, prisons, and other federal institutions, and heck ATK can continue their incredible work of...well lets just not say what they are up to....who works there ?....hardly a soul from here that makes any substantial money...nope...we ship in Mormons from Utah straight out of Brigham Young from my understanding...perhaps that's what is wrong! Perhaps that sounds politically incorrect, but I have heard it from too many reliable sources, that it makes one wonder what are they doing out there...I do not like weaponry...fact of life or not...I hate it all...so I am just stating facts to take a good look at...prove me wrong...I would be more then pleased...Are the Mormons that great at building munitions...that would appear to be the case and resoundingly so, because this is a lineage that goes very far back in the history of the way things are done with that company, and in great secrecy, of course...surrounded by all kinds of local state and federal institutions...if it sounds like Jesse Ventura conspiracy theory, that's on purpose...because without eyes and mind wide open, we are all too often to the oblivious that is happening right under our own very noses.
I can go on and on...Got FEMA ALL AROUND HERE TOO...why ? We do not need them here and I really do not see what they have to offer our area...again outsiders making big money, no help for the local guy...same story over and over again.
There is no help here for the little guy and there is no concrete effort to bring it here either, just a lot of talk and even a lot more welfare.
We have welfare and corrections...I studied them both well in college....and how the industries go hand and hand, and how they have further ripped the fabric of the community apart even further as they seem to perpetuate themselves.
Corrections and welfare on the whole are wasteful uses of money. They are however, necessary components of a civilized society, however unfortunate that may be, it is just a fact of life we will have to live with.
So back to the school, more importantly education itself...shall we build a new school or build a new philosophy, such as was done where I grew up...study the origin of Jefferson School of Science and technology in Fairfax County.
It is the more perfect fit to compliment what we have and not possibly further destroy the spirit of the exisiting schools.
My senior year of high school 1985-1986 I had to attend an arch rival school, which was renamed West Potomac high School. It was deemed that the student bodies would be combined due to cyclical under enrollment, (each school at roughly 50% maximum capacity) and there were many pros and cons to the transition.
The politics of it still have left a bitterness in many peoples minds today, all these years later, so from that one single point of view, consider that.
Spirit in a community can take a lifetime to build up, and only the ere of an instant to implode.
We really should make a super fast decision, just forget counting the chickens before they hatch, really...we are in fine financial times...we should jump on it...feel like the city is getting shafted by a used car salesman...no tact, pressure galore, such a deal...and all too often, that's not even close to the truth.
So what is the resounding message locally when someone has an idea to share...the typical sound is less then a thud!
However, I have had a few fine men that are well known speak up, invite me to their offices, even gave me their personal home and cell phone numbers...they are transparent, and they are great leaders and I see their passion...I sure hope they are successful spreading that passion and equally effective at swiftly changing this city.
Our city doe snot seem to have a collective unified thought, voice , or vision, but rather many separate entities going about business with their own objectives, as they should have, but lacking an overall objective of vision for and towards the betterment of the city.
I had hopefully yearned to hear back from the arts council...I never received a positive helpful response.
Is it best just to shun artists struggling at the lowest levels and leave them out of the loop?
I can track anything I post up and I keep excellent statistics...it is truly a shame what is read and never responded too, and this is not even close to the tip of the ice berg of what is ignored through pure lack of dedication.
It is a shame we are in such a perfect place for the arts and we have a community that's seems unable to embrace and bring into the community itself new art and artists...this is no way to grow an organization, and as I have seen countless times before, arrives from a lack of visionary collective transparent leadership, which in turn leads to a decline in membership, a lack of communal sharing an a failure to carry the mission statement and ultimately a pure breakdown.
Is a simple letter asking for help to become a member of something that is important to me as an artist to difficult to answer?
It made me wonder what on earth is on a mans mind like that that he shares no compassion at all for a simple heart felt request. Perhaps he simply overlooked his email that day...yeah...that's the ticket...
THANKS.
Bet you'll read this soon, and I do hope so, and I would really like to have an answer over a year later... if you have a reason that is satisfactory and decent now, and an answer alone is decent and acceptable.
It would just be nice to know when one takes time to communicate... that there is an ear on the other end receiving the communique and that they give a shit !...perdonneme
My Mother is a classically trained artist and taught in the past as well...A lack of communication is not what she taught this artist...I quoted it a million times...Led Zeppelin always has said it best with,"Communication Breakdown".
My Father taught at West Point, also where he earned his first of a few degrees. He certainly never failed to communicate anything worth hearing as well as standing for his beliefs and doing something positive about them always.
He always has the decency and the time, for decency and time. Simple!
I hate to be scathing, but I am left with no choice, because there is a pure lack of responsibility to community and fellowship by too many here.
When there is absolutely no follow through like I have experienced with this organization and others...scathe I will.
Ego and art do not coexist well...I have art...and I am sad to see there I is too much ego all about the management and old school ways of this city...shame such shame.
I have seen change in the last elections, and I am betting on that change.
Stay transparent, make progress, keep the doors open you have so kindly opened, and lets buckle up and stay at work.
Here is another idea I had that would and can still work...but the clock ticks and a great old historic building falls further into dis-repair...
http://www.torpedofactory.org/
I had it all lined up...a contigency of the city could tour The Torpedo Factory in Alexandria,Virginia where I grew up.
They could learn from a man who had been there for many ytears and was readily accesible and wanting to share this history and success with us.
I contacted him alone, interviewed him, spoke about past visits, and how much I thought of Old Town Alexandria in my youth, the way I see Cumberland now...so it seemed a no brainer.
I sent emails to a mess of folks in town...politicians, councils, etc...who cares about names at this point...although I could dig them up in minutes...
again...not a single answer !
I am sure AI can set it up again. no problem...but it just seems no one has an open mind for outside ideas, but rather egocentric driven ideas instead, that most always lead to...well...here we are!
What is wrong with, "The Fairfied Footer Dye Works Shops and Art"... and then promote it, build it, believe in it...place the infrastructure we need next to Canal Place...we have left tenants at Canal Place on an island of nothingness when it comes to business...and that's not the economy leaving them to hang out and dry, it is the city collective responsibility to provide a reason for folks to shop their. It is poor planning of infrastructure in a timely manner.
The Crabby Pig does well, even though a lot of locals feel alienated by a pricey menu, the are succesful, as far as at least they have been in business a few years now and seem to work hard and appear succesful at it...I hope they are as in the black as they appear.
I ran bike shops...i could tell anyone that a bike shop there is a disaster waiting to happen...because it is...of course...a cyclical business....gotta laugh a bit...the cycles in that business are very difficult, so you budget well, keep reasonable stock, no need to try to impress, have a huge rental fleet at great prices, impeccable staff and mechanics an management, of which I have done all...and on the other end of the Tow path....at Tow Path Bicycles in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as Bicycle Pro Shop at the canal across The Key Bridge in historic Georgetown, and also at The Bicycle Exchange, as well as helped a friend set up shop in New Orleans years ago...a friend and fellow musician...we worked together in Georgetown where we met, did not like one another much at first, as he was a city boy in big ole D.C. and I was a red neck from 12 miles away...cracked me up when i told him I ran the halls of the senate and the house as a child...we told stories of truth that sounded like lies and fishing stories...he shared my mother's maiden name, Moss, we found that we shared music...art brought the two of us tough egos together...and we jammed together, trade my car for his P.A. system...he left Billy and The CrawDad's behind (his band) so that he could persue his ream of a bicycle shop in New Orleans, where he came from as a child....and we took that 79 Mustang I had fixed up and drove it down, took care of business in short order, and partied like rock stars the rest of the time...and that is not a cliche! Just silly youthful ignorance and bliss blended together into one heck of a trip...and I returned there...tragically, Bill lost his life when a motorist lost control in the city and killed him on the sidewalk shortly after he played his last gig on keyboards....he was well known in town...even had a beautiful N.O. style jazz funeral...I had no idea until quite a while later...or I would have been there...but I am there with him in spirit.
I hope you do not feel I got sidetracked or off focus...It is a passionate story of an artist great friend I lost because time is that precious and bad things happen no matter what we do...I am thankful he lived his dreams to the max, had a successful shop in French Quarter Bicycles, and a musical career that was more rewarding with friendship that money cannot and never will be able to buy.
Life is short.
Life is fun.
Life should be happening downtown.
Friday after 5 is a raging success, and grows larger every year...it should be a catalyst to catapoult this city into a much more successful tourism no matter the economy.
Why did we build a massive stage at Canal Place and rarely use it...let me get some acts to come here...I can demonstrate the power of art and music and feel quite confident I know who in the business would help, what bands would show and the attraction we can and should be, and use that to parlay our wonderful tourists to the Tow Path, our restaurants and all of our businesses.
We could use a free shuttle around the city too...could more then likely run one with the funds saved from once a week trash pick up...another pure waste of money I suggested we renegotiate a long time ago in an article published in The Cumberland Times.
I do dream a lot, but the fact of the matter is, I have lived many of my dreams, and refuse to die not pursuing a dream.
Death is something none of us escape...in Shakespeares Hamlet, my persoanl favorite, well read for yourself the quote below...he was faced with turmoil and perplexed.
I too feel this, who doesn't...this is why this is a masterpiece that is always the benchmark for tragedy and life, as they are intrinsickly intertwined.
So dream, but with this twist, "Perhaps a lucid dream, not to sleep quite yet, perchance to live in those dreams, ay, there really is no rub, simply perspective."
Hamlet:
"To sleep, perchance to dream-
ay, there's the rub."
Hamlet (III, i, 65-68)
This is part of Hamlet's famous soliloquy which begins "To be or not to be", and it reveals his thoughts of suicide. He has learned that his uncle killed his father, the late King, and married the king's wife, his mother. This foul deed has driven Hamlet nearly mad, and he seeks both revenge and the escape of death. He has been disconsolate since learning of the murder, from the ghost of his dead father. In this scene, he ponders suicide, "To die, to sleep-/No more." But he is tortured with the fear that there might not be peace even in death. "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, /When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, /Must give us pause." Hamlet's moral and mental anguish is at its height in this soliloquy, which is the emotional centerpiece of the play.
footnote weblink:
So Cumberland...our beautiful Queen City we both adore and ignore...to be or not to be?
INVISION:
The history we can share, the passion to see it come to fruition, and the lives it will enhance, and the beautiful place this is going to emerge to be as a place people want to live in harmony and conduct art and green era philosophy and business...art studios all over Canal Place at the refurbished Footer building...
The downtown management is ready for new ideas to broaden their wonderful leadership. The old guard has lead the way valiantly, but times have changed and change we must or die we will. New will come to replace old and the leaders that paved the way to this point should sit back and relish in satisfaction and spirit with what is really just a beginning of greatness they helped to start.
The failure of follow through with communication of quite a few, the egos swinging their imagined clout, and the lack of overall success at Canal Place (safe to call the entire venture a failure economically thus far, but it will bear profit in time) is proof of a time for an even sharper changing of the guard so that we may evolve as a city into the next phase of musical and art talent and development being highlighted here in Cumberland and making that mainstay to our heritage, history, culture, and tourism a permanent attraction forever more, while at the same time getting a plan together very quickly to bring new green era companies of manufacturing into our area, into out tax base, into an eager intelligent workforce, into the future.
Here is my original post on my blog...which was first emailed as a way to ask for help and further immerse myself into an organization I thought may be happy to promote the arts.
I am not a fighter, but rather a vocal advocate of justice and fairness that seeks what I think we all seek...some success and some releif and some satidfaction that we are in a safe and beautifl town that is on the cutting edge of change. Perhaps that is the cutting edge of Change.
Just the fact that the US Department of Energy published my writing on green era and its philosophy truly is mind blowing.
Cumberland inspired that in me, because of great folks in this communitty helping a man out of some impossible situations.
I still struggle, it makes my art resonate, and the struggle is worth it, as i am always full of life when in a struggle, because the cusp of the essence of life is in your minds eye in tunnel vision when your physically in severe pain and at the same time fearful that life will escape you too soon...in the blink of an eye.
I dropped to my knees on the 4th of July 2011...not to pray, although I did, but because my spinal cord is so compressed and my spine is so ravaged with disease, broken bones, detiorating discs, and spinal stenosis through out, that at age 43, nearly 44, I have lost already 2 inches in height, as well as have an enlarged heart with arrhymia and a mitro prolapse valve murmer. Trashe shoulders...and I mean the type that was recontructed by a surgeon that was the orthopedic surgeon to the Redskins and Capitals, and gout...and I am a mess...but I am healing, I am changing, I am resilient more so then ever in the face of some of the worst diversity in my life.
I knoe I am not alone, i know we all suffer, i know it is tough, and I know we can do something about it.
I have a debt to pay and I want to help.
I have a mind that still works sharply.
I hope to gain permanent disability so I may have something to count on financially, as i absolutely cannot work, as sometimes I am unable to walk.
I have been blessed with less of that affliction more recently because I have lost 35 lbs, walk often, eat light and healthier, and just refuse to become a useless heap of life...
I have lived Hamlet's life in almost every way presented in theory as he wrote, as have we most, and the most valuable lesson Shakespeare always knew was of tantamount importance was the conveyance of the human condition we all share, and he wrote it so well, that in his time, the theaters were packed with the nobles and the serfs, and everyone in between, and it was shared and enjoyed, which is what the arts are suppose to be about overall.
Art is life, and life should be shared and enhanced through art.
How many folks know that Emmanual Episcopla CVhurch has unique Tiffany stained galss windows that were madein such a way no other artists has been able to replicate Tiffany's perfection in folding glass so that it would emminate shades of the light spectrum perfectly so that the windows so beautifully crafted show depth and vitality.
George Washington himself stood upon Fort Cumberland.
He saw the same beauty we all share here in these hills upon mountains cradled by geological folds of shifts in time and space.
he had vision, he shared vision, and he instilled vision.
I grew up a stones throw from his home, Mount Vernon, and had a home in Pittsburgh once.
Somehow I like the same trails he liked.
He really is the founding Father of West Point.
http://www.usma.edu/history.asp
I have stayed at West Point during wrestling camp for 5 years. I enjoyed a youth of football games with family tailgating in the parking lot at Miche Stadium, My brother graduated in 1982.
I often think of one evening when the kids from soccer camp were so rowdy I could not sleep.
They were across the way in one of the horseshoe shaped or right angular U shaped dormotories.
I was HOTT...so being older, as this was my final wrestling camp, and having a mustache...I quited them down very quickly as I told them this is a place to come and hone our skills and that we need rest so that we may be prepared to learn.
They were quiet, and I was full of youthful adrenalyn...so off to Trophy Point I walked...and watched the sun rise while the fog drifted away to reveal the beautiful Hudson Valley...a permanent memory etched forever in my mind like I am seeing it right now.
I stood by actual links of the chain that safeguarded the longest occupies military post in the United States, a post never taken by the British, even with the regretful treason of Benedict Arnold.
The West Point motto, simply beautiful, " Duty, Honor, Country "...with out those few things we have nothing.
West Point is inspiring like all places George Washington went.
I am stunned how much my travels have crossed his paths of travel, and I am in equal awe of what he saw that can still be seen today.
Beauty, Freedom, Vision.
Perhaps Cumberland can use this as our city motto...it is after all inspired by Washington, even if he never spoke those words in that same succession.
I look at his small headquarters in town...I have peered in the window countless times, and in that small building was where a man could work, lay his head and rest in warmth with fire close by, or with widow open to enjoy fresh mountain air that we always have here.
The Potomac always close by as the water and nature seemingly fueled his incredible vision.
The Hudson equally so inspiring, and both strategic historical points that were keys to defending freedom at home at any expense.
I am not one for war, however, I will war with any adversary that threatens me and my country and fight to death if needed, even if I have to crawl with my broke back.
When I moved here, I thought this city was constructed upon a foundation of this type of intestinal fortitude.
Perhaps I have once again been mistaken.
I am often told my goals are far too lofty for the folks in these here hills...our home.
I think not...I think we are a kind and gentle and peaceful people with a feirceness of a coal fired furnace when we are motivated and determined.
How much more motivation and determination do we need here or across this country, I have no idea.
I feel like I am watching a horror movie at times, and I am lucid just watching zombies helplessly drone around waiting for a miracle. The miracles I know of are from happenstance of planting a seed. Not of pure fantasy.
Principles are guides.
They may be a series of words, or a person in charge of a school, or thoughts yet to have landed in reality...innovation, creation, a gift we all have.
Words are most definitely the most incredible gift next to life itself; both so often discounted.
So to sum up several topics and progress in our city...communicate, respect, dream, love, work hard, write, study, be active, embrace life and all that it entails, and surround yourself with greatness or fail.
I really do not think Cumberland is going to luck into prosperity.
Prosperity is found in language, where we find education, communication, art, science, and all things that are worthy and enhancing.
If a new school costs 40 acres and several million dollars, so be it, if it is huge and a giant leap in the Faith of our communitty and shows the youth we beleive in them.
What do we truly offer the youth here locally now?
Not much...
I post a few technology challenges on here from time to time...
Here is a challenge...a musical challenge...
who wants to help me form a non-profit, find a lawyer and accountant, raise funds, apply for grants, and rehab a building we could more then likely get for free, and become a musical hub for the East Coast.
I dream huge, or why bother !
Our youth would thrive in this type on environment, and there could be teachers that teach free, musical equipment to play and sign out for, after proper training on upkeep, care, and maintenance...etc.
We could have local ances, by local entertainment, we could have a larger venue for larger acts that could come and play and then have an after show of answers, interviews, questions, just as the do at the notorious Kennedy Center.
Culture is one of the finest treasures, and we should teach it well, and design infrastructure with that in mind of purpose.
One thread underlying all foundations makes for prosperity and efficiency which always work hand in hand.
I certainly hope that something here has sparked a neuron to fire in that brain of everyones that sets off a reaction that will be the catalyst to the true re emergence of this city.
We were once second in population next to Baltimore.
I for one never want a massive population here again, but that is just me.
I just want to see Cumberland flourish in the arts and produce even finer cultural leaders that we can all encourage.
I would like to see clean green indutry, or no manufacturing at all.
We do not need any more polluting monstosities like we have all around us, and we must change the way of those industries that have pillaged the raw materials and left debris in their own wake.
Here is a fun game...sickening really...google earth...follow water...watch it change color...go to places you know...where it is clean and fresh, and then changes color because of depth or lighting, and then find that same water meandering along until it gets closer and closer to a mill, a mine, a factory, a dump, what have you. Watch the unnatural colors that are often aglow in waste...just see it for yourself.
Part of the Green Era Phiosophy is erradicating this pollution akin to as we have done with some diseases tht once ravaged entire populations.
We are on a huge cusp, with our entire future at jeopardy.
That is finally being realized as a truth, and not what was once often considered insanity.
The problems that abound are truly countless, however the solutions do not have to be at all complicated.
They should however be pure in theological architecture and philosophy and practice and never be influenced by greed.
That is where I stop until nest time I write...
Thanks for thinking about these topics and reading with great insight, and mostly, thanks for your valuable time.
What I have written here is once again an exercise in progress, with real life situations, ideas, actions, lack of actions, lessons of language and communication, and I hope and pray more then anything...a spark that ignites a furious activity of unequaled green era trailblazing.
In closing, a whimsical parody of verbal play.
It is always better to shoot for the stars, because they will not shoot back, and it is there that we will all find our dreams be they collectively or individually.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Cumberland_(Maryland)
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2010
My Letter to Andy Vick, Executive Director of The Allegany Arts Council
After a wonderful discussion today with Mark and Dana Baker of the New Embassy Theater, they have agreed to let me propose my planning for a poetry reading, that will be scheduled in the near future, after all the preliminary planning is complete and the proposal is approved.
I am seeking help, volunteers and donations.
We need donations, that shall be paid directly to the theater for a total sum of $ 400 to pay for the rental of the space and employees, as well as the refreshments.
I would enjoy a donation from your fine Council, and further more would appreciate your help and welcome you warmly to come and enjoy a night of fine poetry, skits, live music, and refreshments, and what ever else the evening offers as it unravels.
As I am purely in the planning stages, I appreciate your kind reply and participation, and with or without a donation.
I would like to become a member of your Council as well, but due to poor health that has led to poor finances, this has just not happened yet. I am sure it will soon.
I am a writer of poetry, fiction (working on a book and its screenplay currently) and news articles of the reporting nature (featured in several local and national publications.) I also work with graphic arts of many types of media, and write, record and perform music that I also sing in. My musical band is MobiusTripz. I have a small debut album to be arriving in over forty online music distribution houses by the new year.
I am a classically trained violist, although currently out of practice as I am concentrating on the guitar and bass and keyboards in the meantime, and I am the son of a Mother who is a fine artist, classically trained from here college days and her own innate God given talent.
I would like your thoughts and ideas on this while the planning is underway, as I hope to further unite and share our beautiful artistic spirit in our cozy town.
As a final request, do you offer any discounted memberships for those on disability, as myself.
I want to further immerse myself into the arts I so Love.
Sincerely, John "Stephen" Swygert
