Newsletter about the City Council meeting of January 19, 2010

This newsletter is about the Hickory City Council meeting that I attended this past week. City council meetings are held on the first and third Tuesdays of each Month in the Council Chambers of the Julian Whitener building.

At the bottom right of this page under main information links is a Hickory's Local Government link. If you click on that link, it takes you to our city’s website, at the bottom of the page you will see the future dates for meetings scheduled for this year.

At the top of the page, if you click on the “Documents” link, you will find historic Agenda and Minutes links. Agendas show what is on the docket for the meeting of that date. The Minutes is an actual summary of the proceedings of the meeting of that date.

Here is a summary of the agenda of the 1/19/2010 meeting. There were a couple of important items that were discussed at this meeting and the details are listed further below

Invocation by Rev. Robert Ford, Chaplain at Frye Regional Medical Center


Consent Agenda:
A. 2010 Census Proclamation Committing to Partnering With the U.S. Census Bureau to Help Ensure a Full and Accurate Count in 2010

B. Approval of Citizens’ Advisory Committee Recommendations for Assistance Through the City of Hickory’s Housing Programs -

Geraldine Wansley of 47 44th Avenue Place, NE is being recommended for approval to subordinate City’s second mortgage to BB&T due to refinancing the first mortgage provided the mortgage loan is no more than what is owed on the property. She is refinancing for a lower interest rate and payment. Pressly Development Company is being recommended for approval for assistance not to exceed $20,000.00 to assist with building materials for new construction of Grayson Elderly Housing located around 16th Street, NE and 29th Ave, NE. Assistance would be in the form of a 3% interest loan for a 20 year period. Funds are budgeted for the above through the City’s former Rental Rehabilitation Program income received in FY 2009 and/or program income received through the City’s Community Development Block Grant Program.

Vernal S. Duncan of 1781 15th Street Place, NE is being recommended for approval for assistance through the City’s 2009 Urgent Repair Program for emergency related repairs not to exceed $5,000.00. Funds are budgeted through the City’s Community Development Department funding received in FY 2009-10. The Citizens’ Advisory Committee recommends approval for all of the above.

C. Budget Ordinance Amendment No. 14
1. To appropriate $315 of Local Government Revenue and budget in the Police Department Overtime line item. This revenue is the December 2009 payment from Catawba County Mental Health for a portion of an Officers time spent when accompanying involuntary commitment patients.

2. To appropriate $62 of General Fund Miscellaneous Revenue and budget in the Fire Department departmental supply line item. The Fire Department received funds from the sale of scrap metal to Mountain Recycling.

3. To budget a $15,000 Library donation from the Friends of the Hickory Library in the Library Capital Improvements line item. This donation is for the construction of a small conference room on the second floor of Patrick Beaver Memorial Library.

4. To budget a $459 insurance claim check from Farm Bureau Insurance Company of North Carolina in the Water and Sewer Pipes, Hydrants and Meters line item. This payment is for damage sustained to a fire hydrant on 11-28-09.

5. To appropriate a $17,745 transfer of General Capital Reserve funds to the Police
Department M/A Com Radio System Capital Project Equipment line item. This transfer is necessary to pay for two additional handheld radios and two additional mobile radios for the city’s radio system upgrade.

New Business - Departmental Reports:
1. Quarterly Financial Report - Warren Wood delivered this presentation. Warren highlighted a couple of projects. $17.5 financing for the Northeast Wastewater Treatment Project funds were secured was financing at 2.48%. He thanked Chuck Hanson for that. Bonds might not be necessary to facilitate the project. The Cripple Creek Project ($3 million) was secured from stimulus money. $1.9 million is financed at 0% over 10 years and $1.19 million comes from the Clean Water Trust Fund. Warren next went over the funding of $2.5 million for Traffic Signaling, he stated that hard work by Chuck Hanson saved a $.5 million dollars on this project.

Through the first six months of the year, the city is behind 2.5% in revenues compared to the 5-year trend, while the city has also lowered expenses by 2%. He attributed this to the hiring freeze. Revenues are $4 million over expenditures. Last year it was $3.6 million.

Looking at the water-sewer fund, he stated that the projections are right on target as far as revenues. Expenditures are lower than the projected average, because of the funding in the Northeast Wastewater Treatment Project, mentioned above, that ended up not being needed. They are breaking even with the water-sewer fund.

Cash and Investments of $43.2 million are thrown off because CD's are now paying .01%. Usually investments are spread across investments 1/3-1/3-1/3, right now the city has 47% of its investments invested in US Agency securities.

Warren next went over sales tax revenues. They are off by 11% in both the state penny and the local penny from what they were two years ago. The Hotel/Motel tax is also off from the peak of 2007-2008. He believes that the situation is tapering off and is not getting worse - bouncing along the bottom. Building Permit activity included a $30 million permit from Catawba Valley Medical Center. That property is not taxable, so it will not help increase projected future revenues. Without that permit, the city only issued $23 million in building permits, which is about half of the peak of$42 million from 2007-2008. New single family building permits are 12 down from 12 last year.

Warren next went over the unemployment numbers. He stated that we have seen improvement. He says we are not alone and other areas are worse off.

The Mayor stated that he had felt we had turned the corner in 07-08 and everything pointed to that. He says he is flabbergasted about what happened.

The Hound would like to thank Warren for introducing this map of the USA's unemployment since 2007 (Click this link), that I sent to my blog subscribers on November 19, 2009. I was introduced to this graph by watching an interview of Catherine Austin Fitts. She was Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in the first Bush Administration. Her website is one of, if not the, best real world economic websites I have come across. The website is called Solari (click on the link). The Irony is that she is from a little town called Hickory Ridge, Tennessee, which is east of Memphis.

Warren talked about the lower unemployment rates in North Dakota. He believed it was because of lower populations and farming areas. He talked about Slope County, North Dakota, which has a population of 675 in the county. I can show you it is because they have found oil. The Bakken Formation flows through North Dakota, Montana, and Saskatchewan, Canada. Shale Oil production is creating major sources of jobs and revenue in that region. Slope County is one of the counties in this region.

The lesson to be learned is if Hickory wants to help facilitate jobs, then they could rise off of their derriere and get involved in energy. Yes, everyone is in an economic death spiral, which is caused by government crowding out the capital markets, emasculating our currency, spending future generations into oblivion, and regulating everything to death. Even in these uncertain times, we need to be making plans for the future or there will be no future for this area.

The areas of the country that are more viable are areas involved in energy, such as the upper Rocky Mountain plateau, Texas, and southern Louisiana. We won't find oil here tomorrow, but we can find alternatives. Look how successful the Biomass Center is at the Landfill in Southwest Catawba County. We must build on that momentum.

About the Mayor's comments - I honestly believe that the Mayor has come a long way in the past couple of years on this issue. I know that he does care. I think the problem is that our leaders are insulated from many of these issues, because of this inherent need of the bureaucracy to justify and compartmentalize plans, actions, and functions. The bureaucracy wants to market everything and put a happy face on everything, even when it is just bad policy. The average person on the street has understood what has happened and is happening, that is where the frustration comes from. We are like, "What are these people smoking?"

We lost much of our manufacturing capacity and we really have not had any advocates to press this issue. All politics starts on the local level and our local representatives must hold higher-ups accountable. The jobs that were lost in 2001 were replaced by low paying service sector and temp service manufacturing jobs. These jobs were as disposable as the products the workers manufactured and sold.

We put ourselves at the forefront of a cyclical structure that did not build in any resiliency. We were at the mercy of the bubble (fake) economy. When the United States structure failed, we were vulnerable because of the temporary fix and band-aid economy that had been created. Hint-Hint, the retirement village concept has been advocated by local authorities under similar reasoning.

2. Update of the Greater Hickory Metropolitan Planning Organization (GHMPO) Transportation Projects - Chuck Hanson made this presentation. This presentation was mainly about road projects. Chuck went over the projects that have occurred during the last 24 years.

Chuck mentioned that the DOT has revamped and reprogrammed how they are tracking, financing, and planning projects. He talked about how separate plans in our area have evolved into the Hickory-Newton-Conover plan. Hickory is in 3 different DOT divisions. The DOT has created a more regional area.

Next, Chuck went over rankings of projects in our area. The next few years will be thinner for us. The US321 and bridge replacement project has the highest priority. The 321 corridor holds the top 3 priorities from HWY70 up into Caldwell County. Most of these projects are unfunded.
Chuck went over various other current projects that are currently underway.

Jill Patton asked about the progress of the L-R extension? Chuck stated that the DOT got caught out by the wet November and December. The project is now scheduled to be completed in late March or early April. Alder's Patton and Fox asked about the windows for planting? Chuck stated that if they are given permission to go onto the job site, planting can occur up into the middle of May. If this does not occur, then it will happen in the Fall.

3. Present to Council the Newest “Hickory Highlights” -

Recognition of Persons Requesting To Be Heard - Steve Ivester addressed the council about the Interbasin Water Transfer issue. He was very involved in the process. He stated that mediation is very much the way that conflicts such as these are resolved. He just hopes that our pirates are just as aggressive and blood thirsty as their pirates.

He is concerned that 10 years from now that Concorde and Kannapolis go to the Yadkin and not the Catawba. Under the IBT, they came in asking for 25 to 30 million gallons per day, but they were reduced to 10 million gallons per day out of the Catawba, which was already in place and the methods to deliver this were already in place. By their studies the cheapest way to get the water was from the Yadkin.

What Ivester is worried about is that the infrastructure is in place to take it out of the Catwba and no infrastructure exists to take it out of the Yadkin. He believes that as part of negotiations, it would have been good to have a bond, to create the infrastructure and access to obtain water from the Yadkin. When the faucets run dry, they will be coming back to the Catawba.

The Coalition (Catawba Water) put the infrastructure in place that will make sure that this never happens again. He also believes that it was a victory, because they asked for 30 million gallons per day and only got 10 million gallons per day.

Ivester is concerned about Lake James, which he says is part of the Hickory Metro. The threat is that when there is a drought they are going to be drained down to put water into Kannapolis and Concord unless the Yadkin River link is in place. He would like to see the 10 million gallons per day from out of the Yadkin increased to 20 million gallons per day. The Yadkin River basin and participants weren't parties, so they could not be negotiate without another IBT.

Ivester made comments from the letter below from George and Suzy Johnson, who were also participants in the IBT issue. They live on Lake James.




The Mayor stated that he had the great respect for the Johnsons.

January 19, 2010 - Hickory Hound - Wordle Snapshot Picture Collage

I'd like to give a shout out to my cousin Elizabeth Shell Bayshore in honor of her birthday. Happy Birthday Elizabeth, you have now been formally Googleized. Click the picture to enlarge. The word cloud is supposed to be a snapshot of what the Hound is currently all about.

Wordle - http://www.wordle.net/

January 17, 1961 - President Eisenhower's Military Industrial Complex Speech

The Hound: Is not heeding these words of one of our country's greatest leaders, forty-nine years ago today, not where we got off track. Listen and read these words and understand how far ahead of his time this great man was. We can break down these words and see exactly where he is coming from, from looking at today's world. Who would have believed how prophetical his statements were at that time.





Public Papers of the Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960, p. 1035- 1040

My fellow Americans:

Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.

This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation.

My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and, finally, to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years.

In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.

II.
We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

III.
Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology -- global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger is poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle -- with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.

IV.
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present

* and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

V.
Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

VI.
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war -- as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years -- I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.

VII.
So -- in this my last good night to you as your President -- I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.

You and I -- my fellow citizens -- need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation's great goals.

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful and continuing aspiration:

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

Can I help you see where I am coming from?

I sit here tonight thinking about how I might be able to reach more people to wake them up to what is happening with our government. I am torn about the way that I approach the subjects that I bring forward on this blog. I had a conversation with a mentor yesterday and without getting into specifics he basically told me that I need to be careful about the way that I approach subjects, because many people are not familiar with the current and future trends and my straight shooting approach may cause them to feel uncomfortable and have defensive reactions.

I have always understood this about myself. I am not a patient person, but I'm not looking for quick and/or easy fixes. I readily admit that my number one attribute these days is a sense of frustration. I'm ready to get on the road. That is the way that I was raised. I was raised not to waste time. That has always been my environment. That is the way the restaurant business is. Might I ask, if you went to a restaurant and the employees at that restaurant approached service the way government operates, how would you feel about that restaurant? Can you maybe see where I am coming from and what my feelings are?

I have to balance sensitivity with people, such as a co-worker, who believe me to be like the character Dale Gribble from the cartoon King of the Hill. I had to look up this character, because I don't watch television like that. Supposedly this is a character that is considered to be paranoid-delusional about conspiracy theories. Would you not admit that there is a difference between conspiracy theories and conspiracy facts? Do you really think you are getting the real story from the Mainstream Media? Do you believe everything not presented by the Mainstream Media is conspiracy theory? Are you a person that believes that blogs don't provide relevant information? Have you ever checked out information from sources such as Youtube?

The past year has pushed me way out beyond the left-right, Democrat-Republican paradigm. People are going to have to quit thinking of politics as some kind of athletic event and start looking at it for what it is supposed to be. It is supposed to be about the facilitation of governance in the interest of the electorate, whether that be at the local, state, or federal level.

I listened to Mayor Wright on Hal Row's show last week and I appreciated much of what he stated, such as his statement that the Small Business Job Growth Team would evolve into an entity of facilitation with the ability to fast track business proposals through Hickory City Government. I am still interested to see proposals of how this will actually happen.

Mayor Wright also reiterated a statement, which he has made several times. He stated that one of his teachers in school always had a saying that, "One man's liberty ends where another man's freedom begins." Yes, I agree with this in a certain sense, when it comes to interpersonal interaction with a fellow citizen, but there are laws and codes that deal with a citizen's interaction with government and those cannot be allowed to be arbitrary. Under those circumstances, the government must follow guidelines laid out in the United States Constitution and the North Carolina Constitution. Those documents firmly state an individual's rights against the government and limit the powers of the government.

I believe that it is most of the citizens' opinions that the Federal Government has gotten too big and overstepped its boundaries. It is my understanding that the founding fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson, believed that local governments best served and were more responsive to the needs of the people. But, what we have seen is a complete reversal of that, with Washington micromanaging government at all levels. I believe Washington has done this by empowering the bureaucracy, which seems to be directing our elected officials. Shouldn't our elected officials be directing the Bureaucracy, which is the Human Infrastructure of our government? Does it make sense for infrastructure to be dictating policy?

Can one see how this takes away the power of the people? If people don't think they have a role to play in what their local government does, then might this not be a major reason why we see so much ambivalence on the local level? Might that not be justified?

In closing, I would like for you to think about not watching the Major Media news tonight -- be it ABC, CBS, NBC, or Fox. Instead, please go check out a few of these Youtube sites that I will link below and see how these people, in my opinion, are thoroughly reporting on the relevant issues of the day. I assure you that it will be eye opening to the vast majority of you.`

King World News - Great Financial Trends site
Peter Schiff - Economist and Financial Advisor
Bob Chapman - Well Respected National Financial Advisor and economist
Wepollock - Economics and Political Philosopher from New York City
Inflation.us and Georgefortitle - Southern California Economic and Social Reporter
Demcad - National Issues and Detroit Issues about Economics and Politics
CrabbyDogTrix - National Issues and Colorado Issues about Economics and Politics
VisionVictory - Economist and Financial Investor
Tarpley.net - Webster Tarpley is a historian and economist
Stellaconcepts - Australian Precious Metals Br0ker
Catherin Austin Fitts - Financial cabinet Position under the GHW Bush administration

Keepin' it Real

I know that many of you know that I am a chef by trade. I have a Love-Hate relationship when it comes to the restaurant business. I love good food, I love different types of food, and I want what I do to be perfect. These days I don't get to practice my passion; it's just a job. It's like an athletic event called "How fast can you feed me." I don't think most of the people here in this area understand how difficult that is to accomplish.

I don't really advertise where I work on this blog, because I don't want to put the owner of the business where I work in any sort of a precarious position because of my forthright opinions, which offend people sometimes. He is a great guy, who gets along with everyone in town and never steps on toes. He is intentionally apolitical and I can appreciate that, because it is most likely what has gotten him to where he is today. My personal views don't represent him in any way.

The reason I am bringing my work up is because in my comments on the Hickory Daily Record website under the article Hickory officials, police wrestle with 'degrading' graffiti and on Youtube under the Houndvision video Houndvision Intro Video 1 , I was made fun of for what I was wearing in the Youtube presentations and for sitting in my grandmother's favorite chair -- notice her tube of BenGay to my right.

I apologize if I offended anyone because I was wearing a t-shirt and Wrangler carpenter's pants -- called sweatpants by the critic. That is what I wear to work, because I am comfortable wearing those clothes. The kitchen where I work is old and has basically been unchanged since it was opened in the late 1960s. We do the best we can with what we have to work with. During the summer months it gets really hot on the line where I saute. The temperatures can reach 120 degrees standing over the stove, where flames are constantly flying and you are constantly opening a 400-degree oven door. Below is a snippet of me browning and searing beef tips, before I flambe them with Marsala wine.



So I sweat profusely in my workplace in the summer. When I returned home and did the video that night, I was excited to present what was on my mind. It was midnight and I really didn't feel the need to go get dressed up, because to me it is about the words more than the image. Anyway, I think average people like myself need to come forward and present their case without the usual facade, such as that represented by the major media.

I do have some suits that I wear when I feel the need to. I wear a suit if I usher at my church, I wear suits to job interviews, I wear a suit if I am going to be in a meeting or event where others are wearing suits, I wear a suit to a funeral, and I wear one to a wedding. But lately I don't dress up much, because I feel myself to be a common person representing the interests of common people. I have a message and if people don't want to listen, because I'm not a GQ fashionista, then that is their problem. The message is for people who are willing to listen, not for people who are lost in trivial issues. Many of the great leaders of our time were not hung up on fashion. IT'S THE MESSAGE.

So you may agree or disagree. I do believe that their are times when one needs to put their best foot forward, but there is also a time for keepin' it real.

P.S. Check out the video shot by this guy. His pseudonym is Georgefortitle on Youtube and he pretty much does the same things as myself, in Southern California. He caught these teenagers tagging in his neighborhood and started filming it. Check out the way they act. How will you react when confronted by a similar situation?

Time to turn around

One of the biggest lessons that I learned in life is that when you are headed in the wrong direction, then you need to turn around and beat it back to the point where you got off on the wrong path and then get started in the right direction ASAP.

Here in Hickory, we are hurting because our manufacturing base has been decimated. We can see that totally wiping out this base with the rapidity and depth that it has happened has us at a real unemployment rate of around 25%. We have been put into this position by the actions of government and the Wall Streeters, who don't give a flip about the real people in this country. We are just pawns in their perverted game.

In studying economics, I do believe in the global economy, but not the way that it has occurred. Look at the ill-begotten effects of what has happened. We are enriching very few people, we are encouraging greed, we are sanctioning the use of slave labor in developing nations, we are consuming precious finite resources at an exponential rate, and we are wasting resources inefficiently in all of these processes. What is happening is mindless. We are not maturing as a species and if something is not done soon, we will suffer some truly serious consequences.

What is it going to take to wake people up? Anyone who is paying attention can see what is coming down the pike. The Jobless numbers going into the holiday season showed that the economy shed 85,000 jobs, instead of the usual result of adding jobs (Jobs gloom hits west’s recovery hopes). What will this mean in the upcoming months when companies typically pare their payroll.

We wouldn't need an idea of unions, if the government would just enforce the laws on the books. Most financiers look at the term "Social Justice" as a bad term. And if it is the Marxist terminology of "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need," then I too am against this idea, because in reality it does not reward hard work and the pursuit of excellence. But, we do need Social Justice in terms of worker's rights when it comes to the individuals rights in a nation of, by, and for the corporatocracy.

Who is going to protect the individual worker's rights when corporations are married to the government and government is the final arbiter? Who is going to trust a Union that marries itself to entrenched interests and corporate-political governance? The individual worker is an afterthought in this system.

How does small business compete in this kind of system, when large multinational corporations own the government? Where will ingenuity come from? How will this not kill entrepreneurship?

We must demand the separation of these forces. We must create definite lines that cannot be crossed. Until we do this, we will continue to float down towards the abyss.

We have even seen this type of thinking become rooted in the thought process of our own local government. Local leaders obtain grants for family and friends through public funds and average citizens aren't represented on local boards and commissions. Existing businesses are told that they are going to be helped by our local government. In other words, we may just end up with a local version of "Too Big to Fail."

We have gotten too far away from our founding documents. We must reclaim them. We are being taught a lesson here. We were a special country defined by the freedom of the individual surrounded by the justice of natural law. Now all we have is a tangled morass of perverted process, which is leading to the destruction of all that we hold dear.

It is time to turn it around. We need to get back to justice. We need to reestablish the cornerstones, so that we can rebuild our foundation. We must become self-reliant. The government must get out of debt and get out of the way. The States must reassert their authority and stand on their own. The Federal Government needs to be caged and controlled. We must reestablish the relations of fellow man, instead of this perverted man-government relationship. We must demand fair trade. We must quit wasting resources and live with an eye towards the future; instead of today, today, today.

We can no longer afford to be myopic. We need to open our eyes and broaden our view. The world is simple and complex and sometimes we make the simple complex and the complex simple. But in the end, there is something in us that lets us know what is right and what is wrong. Many times we try to suppress and deny that innate knowledge, but you know where I am coming from. My faith is that at some point there will be enough of us to take charge and get everyone back on the right path.

May God Bless You on this Glorious Sunday.

Houndvision: The Personal Effects of the Housing Crash in our area

The depressed state of the economy has personally effected me more than most people, I am constantly surrounded by reminders that times are bad and there is no place to hide. I think a lot of people can go back to their lives of illusion, because they get in their nice car, go to their favorite hangout, or their nice neighborhood and nothing has really changed from what it was a few years ago.

I live in an area where there are tons of houses for sale; foreclosed houses, abandoned houses, and properties that were started, but never finished. This isn't the poor section of the city. This is where people go to buy their first home or an affordable home or a place to retire.

There are a lot of people around here that have lost their job or lost hours. These are people that will end up leaving Hickory to seek jobs elsewhere and if we don't start getting serious about these economic issues, then these houses are never going to be sold and these houses are never going to be finished. What will it be like to live in a community like that? Where every other house is empty or for sale or abandoned.

In the 4 blocks radius of where I live, there are at least 10 properties for sale. The video below shows what I am surrounded by. Two properties above me, where the foundation was started and abandoned in April 2008 and my neighbors house below, that has been on the market since last October because he works in construction and can't find a job.

What does this mean for housing values when supply outstrips demand by such a wide margin? What does that mean for the value of my house? What does that mean for the value of any of these houses in my neighborhood? In Northeast Hickory? Or in the City of Hickory? What will be the tax assessed value of these properties by Catawba County? What will happen with tax rates? What will happen to Tax revenues in this area?

This is what we have to look forward to and inquiring minds want to know what the strategy is on all of this, or are we just expected to fly by the seat of our pants.