A community should not support a faulted exercise of freedoms

The Michigan branch of Americans for Prosperity received a lot of attention Monday by posting fake evection notices on hundreds of homes Detroit’s Delray district. The words “Eviction Notice” were in very large print on yellow sheets of paper. Americans for Prosperity are against the State of Michigan building a second bridge across the Detroit River. The fake notices claimed that their homes would be taken to make way for the new bridge. This was their attempt to get the attention of the residents in the Delray district.

Businessman Manuel (Matty) Moroun is the owner of the Ambassador Bridge. He is strongly opposed to the state building a new bridge. It would obviously draw traffic and business away from the Ambassador Bridge, where Moroun makes money by charging a toll to use the bridge. He has been running television ads making some very outrageous claims about the cost of the new bridge to the taxpayers of Michigan.

Americans for Prosperity, reported to be a conservative group, is based in Washington, D.C. with offices in many states around the country. The group that peppered Delray with the eviction notices is Michigan based. Scott Hagerstrom is the official spokesperson for the Michigan group. He said that he could not say if Moroun’s company, Detroit International Bridge Company, supported the action. The company did issue a statement that said they didn’t support the tactics of Americans for Prosperity.

Americans for Prosperity have committed a faulted exercise of the freedom of speech and it should not be allowed. Buried deep in the story is an issue that needs to be explored to understand why it should not have been allowed. Hagerstrom said that the membership of Americans for Prosperity is secrete. Even though they are involved in the political process, the United States Supreme Court has ruled in error that membership in such organizations can remain hidden.

A representative democracy doesn’t work that way. That isn’t the way it worked over 200 years ago when we separated from England with the Declaration of Independence. John Hancock did not believe that. A wealthy shipping businessman, he could have had much to lose if the events of the day went wrong. It is clear that every British authority of the time knew who he was because of his business and wealth. But, there in the middle of the document is his signature. Many others also signed the document such as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, Roger Sherman. They wanted their names displayed on this document to show support for the movement at the time.

A country, a community, cannot be based on hidden agendas and secrete societies. It must be based on open government. If someone, anyone, takes a political stand on the issues they need to come forward to announce their views and sign their name. That provides everyone else with the opportunity to make informed judgments about the issues and the arguments for and against.

To Moroun’s credit, he is staking a sizable portion of his wealth by working against the building of the second bridge, not unlike John Hancock. While his assessments of the issue are suspect, at least he has signed his name to issue. Knowing who he is and what is at stake for him, his family and the Detroit International Bridge Company, we can make a better decision to either support or not support his position.

Every freedom comes with a responsibility. In this case, the concept of freedom of speech would have supported the fake eviction notices circulated by Americans for Prosperity. But, with that freedom comes a release of the supporters of the organization. Since the membership remains hidden, Americans for Prosperity have committed a faulted exercise of freedom. They were wrong in circulating the fake notices.

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It is obvious Representative Anthony Weiner needs to leave

Representative Anthony Weiner says he will not resign his house seat in New York.

Last night on national television Representative Weiner admitted that he twitted questionable pictures of himself. This after he said that he didn’t, or couldn’t be sure it was pictures of himself and said his Twitter account had been hacked. Weiner also did not do the one thing that most everyone in the world would do if it happen to them, call the authorities. Instead, he lawyered up, giving the very obvious impression that something was up.

Now, he says he won’t resign? If is almost a waste of the electrons on this blog to ask the question. Is there anyone out there that doesn’t believe he should?

The most basic of trusts, in our personal lives and public lives, is that we need to believe what someone is saying. The fall out in our personal lives can be a marriage that fails and the breaking of other personal relationships. But, in the public sphere, it could be the breakdown of a community and the mistrust of government. Our culture already has trouble believing what politicians say, something like this, where the politician lied and now won’t resign, makes it even worse.

Now is the time for the community to react. This is when the community should be calling on Weiner to leave, petition drives to recall him should be presented and law suits should be filed. While the House itself can take action, it is the citizens of the community that should be working the hardest.

Individuals and communities must be the first to take responsibility. As a way to insure that the right thing happens in situations like this, higher actions can and should be taken at the state and national level. Those actions are necessary to make sure that the entire system at the community level is not corrupt. But, the responsibility to make sure that a community’s representative is honest starts with the community.

Representative Anthony Weiner needs to resign. If he doesn’t, the citizens of the community need to mobilize to remove him.

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We must build

The election cycle is coming around again. Next year, a presidential election will be held in November and the candidates are already lining up. They all have a lot to say about the role of government in our community. Unless we understand what we expect out of ourselves and our community, we will not be able to judge the candidates and their positions.

The Responsible Community has been exploring the four pillars of any successful community. They are to protect, educate, innovate and build. Over the last three blogs we examined protect, educate and innovate.

Successful communities build. They build cars, consumer products, houses, schools and many other things. The creation of capital, the skills developed and the income generated by building things has a long term positive effect on any community.

Capital to make the investment to build can come from all over the world. Once the money has been invested, is more than likely to stay.

The skills to plan, build a factory and then to ultimately make the product have beneficial effects on the citizens of a community. These skills are a community resource in themselves. They will attract more investment interested in utilizing the skills necessary to build more.

Additionally, products made in a community are usually sent all over the country if not the world. This increases the amount of income well beyond what the community could create on its own. These jobs also demand much higher wages than are generated in the service sector.

Successful communities build things. A community should do everything it can to develop its manufacturing center.

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Innovation is the key to rising above

The election cycle is generating a lot of talk about the role of government. Some tell us that it should stay out of our lives and others are asking for help from Washington. But, if we don’t collectively come to terms with what our expectations are from government then with each election there will be a course change that will undo some of the good from before the last election.

In a series that is examining the goals of a successful community, the blog has outlined four concepts that can be found in any successful community. They are protect, educate, innovate and build. Protect and educate have been discussed in previous blog posts. Today we will examine the importance of innovation.

Sometimes while doing research for this blog, a change in the understanding of the topic can come about. This is one of those times. Innovation is not just an invention though many think of it that way. An invention is the manifestation of an idea. Innovation is a change in the way we think about things and the way they get done. At its root, the goal of innovation is to improve, to renew and make better. It adds value to products, services or systems.

Innovation is developing solutions to problems that haven’t been thought of before. Too often, communities look at problems and bring out the very same solution that has been tried many times before. If as a community, we are to succeed, we must attempt to solve persistent problems with new ideas. That means that even if the current solution is working then we need to make sure that a new approach won’t work better.

Innovation means developing new systems for government. Many systems that are currently being used don’t achieve the policy goals established. To continue without challenging the results is foolish. Keep in mind, just because the system developed to solve the problem hasn’t achieved its goal doesn’t mean we should abandon any attempt to solve the problem. We just need to find the right solution.

Our evolution as a species was based not on following our DNA programming, but by allowing our imagination to see beyond the problems to the solutions. By just following the DNA solutions that was programmed into us, we would still be on the ground competing with every other life form. But, because we were able to think creatively, we were able to rise above and build a world to our needs.

Innovation was a key to that.

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Education is more than just teaching the acadmics

More people are jumping into the Presidential race in the United States. They all have their positions and say only they have the answers to the ills of the country, assuming of course, there are ills. The role of government in solving these ills will be debated, in some cases with great passion. How will we be able to make any judgment about what government can and should do if we don’t first think about what we expect from our community and its leaders.


In the first post of this series, a broad outline of the what a community should do to be successful was presented. In that post, the pillars of a success community were listed as protection, education, innovation and building. The last post explored the need for a community to provide protection from threats outside the country and from those that live in our community.

Education is the second pillar of a successful community. If the community can’t perpetuate itself, all will be lost. But, education involves more than just teaching the young about the academics, which certainly needs to be done. The community must also teach the next generation about how a good government should work and contrast and compare that to the one we currently live under.

Learning the basics is essential, but so is moving on to higher education levels. Without engineers, scientists, doctors and the many other professions that demand a longer education cycle, we will not be able to sustain our way of life or keep in front of the innovation curve that successful communities achieve.

We also need to have open and honest inquiry about how well government and the community operate. Without educating ourselves on the performance of the varies functions we expect from our community, we may never know if they are operating in the best interest of all.

Finally, as innovation happens, without re-investment in the education cycle for workers pass the traditional school age years, many will be left behind and present a drag on the community’s success. In today’s world, more so than any other time in human history, innovation takes over within just a few years. Technologies are developed, mass marketed and come to the end of their product cycle within a generation. The people that were needed to develop and build these technologies may need to change their skill set a couple times over a single life time. Without the opportunity to retrain and find other work, they will prevent a community from achieving full employment.

Education is more than “reading, writing and arithmetic”. It is also teaching about our way of life. It is also about researching our successes and failures so that this new knowledge can be applied to innovation.

And that is the subject of the next post.

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A common defense is the first purpose of government

As the election cycle approaches, those that are running for office including the presidential suite, will be telling us all the things government should or shouldn’t be doing. If we don’t layout a frame work of the purpose of government in advance, we could be pulled in many directions. We will also shift our own positions a dozen times as we hear good words from each of the candidates at all levels.

In the last post we outlined four primary pillars. They are protecting, educating, innovating and building. Clearly, the first, protecting, was the first reason individuals decided to create a community. Living together in an agricultural setting made individuals and families venerable to outside raiders. If everyone in the community came to the defense of any individual, the outside attacks were less likely.

Life in a community has evolved since that time and the definition of a common defense has expanded. Now there is still the risk of outside invaders. A strong military is needed to protect the territorial boundaries of the country. Not only from other countries with their military but also from their business practices, non military invaders, migration and diaspora.

But threats to the individual and the community come from three other areas. First, there is the criminal threat. This threat comes in big and small packages. It, of course, comes with the common criminal that local law enforcement can tamp down, but also from large organized criminal operations. This needs a national law enforcement agency that can move around the country where ever the threat exists.

Second, there is the threat that develops when there is a lack of standards in business, medical, construction and other industries. By establishing and maintaining common practices and standards, those that are honest can depend on them and those are not can be stopped.

Finally, the last is our own civil rights. This not only includes the encroachment of government on the individual’s liberties, but also those that would like to marginalize individuals that don’t fit a very narrow mainstream definition of behavior. It is just as important to enforce laws that prevent criminal activity as it is to prevent marginalizing individuals whose behavior may not be common, but their actions do not cause any injury or loss to any other individual.

As you can see, defense comes in many forms and at many levels. The ability of a community to defend individuals from many threats is the first priority of government. By creating an environment that allows individuals to freely live their own lives is the healthiest environment for the other three pillars.

More to follow on education, innovation and building.

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Protect, educate, innovate and build

Let’s back up the bus for a moment. Forget what the left or the right tells you about any issue the community faces and the purpose of government. While most politicians are good people, they do have their own agenda. They will attempt to move things in their own direction. Politicians are elected because in a free society like our own, we want them to just take care of things for us. Because of that, public opinion is swayed more by what the politicians say about the issues than what the facts are about an issue.

The time spend examining how problems should be solved will be a good exercise. The United States has a Presidential election cycle that is developing. (Are you ready?) All those that will be running for office will give you their advice on how to run the country. Unless we have set up our own standards, it will be impossible to examine each of the candidates and their proposals.

Most of the time, we can address on the problems a community faces. What is more difficult is finding agreement on how the problems are to be solved. It is believed that the left tells us that they should be solved by the community’s government. At the same time, critics of the right believe that the same problem should be solved by the individual. (Although, I am using a modern and popular definition of left and right in this case. The real definition of the two have nothing to do with government or individuals solving problems.) The practical answer to solutions is a balance between the two.

The individual can achieve great things for herself and her family. By working hard and making good decisions she is likely to succeed. But, she has little control over people outside of her sphere of influence.

A historical view of community makes it clear that the advancement of the human condition have come not just from the individual making good decisions independent of everyone around them. But, by working together in a community setting. Without community, the individual spends most of her time protecting her world. This provides little time for educating, innovating and building.

So what is the role of the individual and community in success?

The simple answer is to work together on four general issues. They are, protecting, educating, innovating and building. First, collectively, we can all protect each other better than we can individually. Second, we need to educate our children not only about the arts and sciences but also about our way of life and how to protect it. Next, is to innovate. With the freedom that a common defense provides and the knowledge that education provides we can develop improvements and advances in our environment. Finally, once we have developed the innovations we can then build them.

Everything we do as individuals and collectively as a community needs to be focused on the four pillars of any successful society; Protect, Educate, Innovate and Build. When one of them erodes, they all will begin to be washed away.

To follow, more on each pillar.

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