Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Leave the hills alone

There can be no doubt that of all the land sub-dividers in Humboldt County Bob McKee is king and is single-handedly responsible for bringing into Humboldt County thousands of people seeking to realize their “back-to-the-land” dreams.

I would have been one of these people had I not fairly early on discovered the “other side” homesteading in Humboldt County, the side that homesteaders rarely want to talk about which is the ecological destruction to wildlife communities that accompanies rural homestead subdivision development.

Like a great many people Bob has helped in purchasing homestead land Bob gave me a terrific deal when I organized a Salmon Creek Land Trust land partnership in one of Bob's then new subdivision developments. A $1000 down held some 281 acres for we land partners to come up with the rest of money through the now well-established pattern of growing pot to pay for the land.

Only law enforcement had a different idea the next year and our Land Trust group was the target of a prototype C.A.M.P. S style large-scale bust. The pot bust and foreclosure crisis created major conflicts within our land partnership, problems so bitter and ugly that I and my family sold our shares in the land and moved off the hill.

I realized my heart wasn't in it from the beginning because my dreams of an alternative lifestyle “off the grid” and out of the commercial exploitation world revolved around creating ecologically friendly cooperative communities and individual homesteading just did not fit the bill.

Why? Because homesteading is not an ecological lifestyle. I think most of you have read my letters and op-eds over the years about homestead eco-damage that E.P.A. Studies of the So. Fork of the Eel River and Mattole rivers confirmed in 1998.

There is no question these days for people who have researched the issue that homestead subdivisions with their hundreds of miles of dirt roads servicing individual parcels are main source of over-sedimentation of Humboldt creeks and rivers. Not logging operations of a comparatively few but the daily in-and-out traffic of thousands going up and down all those homestead subdivision dirt roads are the major culprits filling up the creeks with sediment.

And then there's the over-consumption of dry season water from the hillside springs and creeks due to packing the hills with too many homesteads. With water sources taken for human usage, wildlife goes dry and species disappear. They disappear even faster with the introduction of dogs and cats.

Homesteaders do not want to think about these things because they have convinced themselves that they, and not the city and town dwellers, are models of environmental purity and wisdom. And armed with this self-righteous mindset they support what amounts to a counterculture war against mainstream Humboldt citizens, a social and economic war that has divided our community into warring camps for the last two decades.

Enter Bob McKee and his legal subdivision problems with Humboldt County. Enter now great support for Bob McKee by those he has helped buy his products--land, building materials, community parks, and water tanks, this last item paraded by Bob's company men and his customers as sure sign of Bob's commitment to environmental protection.

I'm sorry but I don't buy into making Bob into some sort of developer saint. When homesteaders do so, what they are really doing is patting themselves on the back, saying isn't it great that Bob allowed us environmentally conscious counterculture people means to get into Humboldt County to save it from eco-destruction at the hands of corporate America.

But it's not true. The homestead lifestyle means our children and their children will likely never see the wildlife species that were in the hills of Humboldt before sub-dividers came in and cut their habitat to pieces for resale at profit. For the sake of future generations the very best thing homesteaders could do is move off the hills and into village and town cluster living that doesn't impact wildlife communities which needs to be free of human activity as much as possible.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Free Speech at KMUD? Don't count on it.

KMUD Radio has two men, said to be buddies, who are allowed to control free speech on KMUD. Michael Jacinto is KMUD's programming director and along with his friend, Paul Somebody or other, the chairperson for the KMUD Board of Directors, these two men have banned Steve Lewis from having any KMUD shows.

What is their reason for such bannishment? Was my Steve Lewis Show too disruptive to air? Did I break FCC rules while on the air? Did KMUD listeners complain about my shows? No, no, and no. The very same words Paul used on me when I asked the Board if I could have another Heartlands Show or any more Steve Lewis shows on KMUD. Why not, I asked? No reasons given except Michael Jacinto chiming in to say there were "issues".

The "issues" Michael is referring to have to do with Michael's abrupt attempt to take away my and my Heartlands Project partner Sparky's free speech right to talk about Heartlands and its former relationship with the Bear River Tribal Council. Michael Jacinto had gotten a fax from then Bear River Casino Manager John McGinnis telling Michael that neither I or Sparky could talk about Bear River on our Heartlands show.

We had invited both Wayne Moon, former Bear River Vice-Chairperson and our former Bear River Tribal Council Heartlands Project supervisor to call in on our Heartlands Show from where he is now living in Reno. We invited current Bear River Chairperson Leonard Bowman to come on our show or phone in like Wayne. We wanted Bowman to explain the reasons his Tribal Council gave the $10,000 donation to Paul Gallegos campaign and why he denied Heartlands had been under the Bear River Tribe's authority for over three years. That's when Leonard seems to have put McGinnis up to the job of skuttling any probing questioning of the current Bear River administration.

Michael had KMUD cave into this gag order by Bowman/McGinnis telling us that, sure, we could have our Heartlands Show, only we couldn't mention anything about Bear River on it. An impossible restriction and Michael knew it as Sparky is a Bear River tribal member and so is Wayne Moon and why the hell can't they talk about their own tribe on KMUD? Heartlands is completely independent of Bear River and is under absolutely no obligations to the current Bear River Tribal Council.

This forced cancelation of our Heartlands Show and the banning of my shows on KMUD is a free speech issue that KMUD has just let two men decide for all KMUD listeners.
The Steve Lewis Show has always been well-received by the majority of KMUD listeners. I've gotten along fine for years with KMUD staff except for Michael Jacinto, with whom I had had previous conflicts over freedom of speech.

One of the people I've introduced to the KMUD listening community is Rose Welsh who's been on my show several times. Rose is a treasure of an investigative reporter, one on the best if not the best in Humboldt County at digging beneath the surface to get to truth about those in office running our lives. With my show cancelled, KMUD listeners are deprived of Rose's knowledge and they are deprived of news about Bear River because Sparky can't talk freely about his own tribe.

Two men are allowed to control free speech on KMUD Radio. Because I wouldn't kow-tow to Michael and Paul's power-tripping, I had my KMUD show taken away as punishment. Is this how "Redwood Community Radio" operates? Free speech is denied those who cross KMUD personel? I think it's time KMUD reviewed its programmer and its Board of Directors head for their role in denying KMUD listeners access to uncensored news about what's happening in their own community.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Real Wealth and the Communitarian Social Profit Motive of Communitarian Capitalism* (1983)

What is real wealth? It can't be material goods or ownership of property or power over others. No, these things can be bought out from under any individual or stolen or lost in any number of ways. Real wealth doesn't come from ownership of things or from power to control others. Real wealth can't be bought or sold because it isn't transferable.

Real wealth exists only in relationships between living beings. Real wealth can be measured only by oneself as a quality value of one's relationship to others. Consider: can love, genuine love as we understand it if not define it, be bought or sold? Can genuine friendship be bought or sold? Can genuine care and concern be given a purchase price? Can an unasked for, yet freely offered helping hand extended to you when your need is great be given any sort of quantitative value? No, these are quality aspects of relationships between oneself and others and exist only as such. Therefore, real wealth can only be present in quality relationship with others. Real wealth then is a completely social phenomena inseparable from one's community of friends and loved ones.

Real wealth imparts well-being because human beings are always dependent on one another for their ability to cope successfully with the problems of life. No one is an island and no one stands alone for long without losing well-being. Without threat of oppression human beings will naturally seek the well-being of real wealth relationships. This is the communitarian social profit motive at work.

The communitarian social profit motive works more or less unconsciously in all interpersonal relationships. There is no social profit in dealing with others who demonstrate antagonism towards one's conscious or unconscious goal of forming quality relationships with others because quality relationships always add to one's well-being. Political or economic or other practical benefits may tie people together but if the opportunity for forming quality relationships is not present, these practical relationships become a burden that will be discarded as soon as circumstances permit transfer to quality relationships offering opportunity to form real wealth. The communitarian social profit motive naturally seeks real wealth and is therefore, the prime motivating factor that drives everyone, each at their own pace which is set during early childhood, towards a final goal of building social capital or real wealth.

Material capitalism or material socialism are irrelevant to the ever-present reality of the communitarian social profit motive which is at work in every kind of human social structure. The survival and longevity of any social-economic system is directly proportional to each system's degree of facilitating formation of social capital or real wealth between individuals within the system. Communitarian Capitalism then is not an offshoot of either capitalism or traditional socialism but is instead a basic or root mode of social organization millennia old that reflects recognition of a universal human economy measured in terms of quality and not quantity values.

Social Justice from a Climax Social Evolution Theory perspective:

"Social Justice" can really only mean one thing as a political concept and that is equal rights for all members of society. Equal rights for all members of society can only be achieved in an egalitarian political-economic system where social power is fully democratized. Anything less is to achieve "Animal Farm's" dystopia where "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others", i.e., creating an even more abusive social system in the name of social democracy.

Social power is democratized by planetary equal distribution of basic information and communication systems, equal distribution of individual and community living and production work spaces, equalized access to raw materials and energy sources, and equal access to inter-community transportation systems. Social power is also democratized by equal treatment under law. Achieving social justice in essence means creating an egalitarian social system to replace ones ruled by various types and degrees of oligarchic control.

From the Climax Social Evolution Theory perspective this social change goal of insuring social justice by creating egalitarian social systems takes on a biological aspect and emphasis as well; to survive as a species human beings must stabilize their regional population numbers in self-sustaining bio-regional Climax Communities that harmonize human lifestyle needs with the ecology of the surrounding bio-regional.

Social stabilization requires the absence of anti-social or environmental aggression which in turn requires the absence of reasons why these anti-social behaviors have thrived in American soil. Invariably, the primary reasons for anti-social behavior are these: Inequality of distribution of goods and services produced by society, lack of social or emotional nurturance of the young, and lack of social or emotional outlets for natural aggression.

All societies produce aggressive individuals. How societies deal with aggressive individuals makes the difference between good social systems that are stable because they provide the benefits of social production to all its members without prejudices of any sort being built into the system. In other words, social and economic democracy in full for every citizen regardless of economic circumstances, ethnic heritage, educational or physical handicap, etc. Aggressive individuals must be educated as children into useful outlets for their natural aggression.

Social nurturance means insuring each member of society with the means of basic benefits of civilized life; basic nutritional food sustenance, basic housing, basic transportation, basic communications, basic education and access to world information. If a substantial number of members of a society are denied these basics by an inequitable social distribution system, then poverty and crime is the inevitable result. Poverty and crime destabilize society. Draconian repressive techniques may mask social instability for a time but long term social stabilization requires egalitarian reformation of society.

Emotional nurturance of the young is both a family and community responsibility. If the family fails to provide emotional nurturance for its members, especially the young, then the community and society will pay the price sooner or later when disturbed children and adults act out their frustrations from lack of emotional nurturance. So the community must be there for every child who's family is dysfunctional. It's a bottom line responsibility that cannot be ignored for any reason. Emotional nurturance for adults comes from loving relationships and spiritual communion.

The Spirit of Love and Compassion must be honored by the community in some form that makes these values visible and models for emulation. My Christian religious preference is, of course, the Spirit of Christ, Western Civilization's avatar of Love and Compassion. But the Buddha is also there as another model for millions East and West, and we are lucky in our times to have incredibly strong women as real life models of Love and Compassion such as Mother Teresa and Ang San Suu Kyi.

Sports is a fine way for youth, and adults for that matter, to vent aggressive attitudes and emotions. Sports, as most of us know, is also a fine substitute for war because it has Rules of the Game and the Fair Play ethic of good sportsmanship. The rules provide a safe arena for aggressive individuals to test themselves in competition in order to find their natural ranking in the hierarchy of the sport and the community at large.

In capitalist societies, real life Monopoly games are played by aggressive individuals for the benefit of only a very privileged few while their Monopoly Game cost is paid for by the many. Playing real life Monopoly games is unsportsmanlike behavior as the advantage of one player over another increases exponentially with success, i.e., the "winners" sitting on top of monopoly distribution system for products or services produced by society and needed or wanted by large segments of society, have a totally unfair economic advantage over beginners without capital. If the social system allows or promotes real life Monopoly Games with essential goods and services needed by all of society for the healthy functioning of society then the social system must be changed.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Martians!


What is this?

A friend sent me this photo taken from a recent Mars fly-by I think and there appear to be "man-made" objects on the surface of the planet. What in nature causes right angled formations in the earth?

The photo almost looks like one of ancient ruin digs where foundations of old buildings have been exposed. But what scale these things on Mars are, I have no idea.

Whatcha think? Martians?

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Reopen 9-11

Although I do not share Ellen Taylor's anti-corporate Progressive ideology, I do share her concerns about Americans knowing the truth about 9-11. There has been another massive cover-up of the facts by our government that have left many of us wondering what the hell really happened on September 11, 2001.

The government's report lacks credibility. No explanation is really given why Building 7 in the WTC complex came down virtually all by itself as it wasn't hit by any planes. So too, the government's explanation of the Pentagon being hit by a 757 leaves us with wonderment on how such a big plane left such a small hole in the side of the Pentagon building where it hit. And where is the great debris, the dead bodies and body parts and luggage, etc. that always accompanies major plane crashes?

And then there's the beneficiaries of the attack, Silverstein, the WTC property owner who collected billions on the disaster and was quoted as saying he ordered Building 7 "pulled", the term for controlled demolitions. My brother says there's been thermite traces found on steel beams recovered from the WTC building debris. Has our government created a phony Pearl Harbor in order to get us involved in a new world war with all Islam?

There are so many unanswered questions that need to be answered before we find ourselves in a country that has lost its democratic ideals and runs now on political policies formulated by a foreign government--Israel?

New Steve Lewis Blog Site


I'm doing some fall cleaning and rearranging on my blog site, getting ready to use it as my primary communication vehicle in Humboldt County seeing how my days as a regular columnist for the Eureka Reporter may be numbered...again. I think my last two anti-Zionist columns have done me in as editor Glenn Simmons told me the E.R. took quite a bit of heat for them.

In any event, my relationships with newspaper editors has always been problematic for me as I am one of those awful egotistical writers who sincerely believes he writes better than his editors and resents like crazy any messing with what I've written. Not exactly an attitude guaranteed to win the hearts and minds of people used to controlling writers under their flag but, hey, no one's paying me any salary at the Eureka Reporter so if I can't say what I want to say in the E.R. or Times-Standard, or NCJ, I can do it on my blog site. And thanks to my short tenure as a Eureka Reporter regular columnist plus all my hard-hitting op-eds and letters over the years, my name is now well known enough for Humboldt blog regulars to find me.

Editors, who needs 'em now that blogs-r-us!

Roger tells it like it is

In typical unison, the Progressive voices are chiming in to criticize Roger Rodoni's criticism of John Wooley, Board of Supes help-mate for Progressive's political agenda. This time it was Bob Ornelas' turn to bash Humboldt County's most savvy Supervisor with lot's of slanderous crap leveled at Rodoni like "racism, thuggery, and sexual prejudice", oh, let's not forget, "arrogance, pomposity, and platitudes", and then add "stingy, self-righteous, neo-conservatism," and lastly, Bob's kindest remark showing his concern for Roger's health with suggesting he needs an enema.

Now we all know Progressives are always the most understanding members of the community, like Richard Salzman, so it's good of Bob to point us in the right, oops, Left, direction re Mr. Rodoni. We all need model citizens in office like Paul Gallegos, you know ones without a wiff of scandal about them, like this big uproar with the Leonard Bowman-led Bear River donation to his campaign which paid off for Bowman about 5 weeks later in the amazingly reduced sentences given Bowman's son.

As for Roger's very right criticism of Native American tribes joining HCAOG due to their sovereignty status as nations in themselves, Hoopa and all tribes should thank Roger for looking out for their sovereignty rights, some of which would be given up in order to join HCAOG. Anytime in the future when issues of tribal sovereignty come up in court for Hoopa or any other local tribe, the courts would look closely at any indications that Hoopa had discarded its sovereignty status in favor of joining as an equal partner in Humboldt County government. If tribes wish to keep and strengthen their tribal sovereignty status they should be very careful not to do things that work against that position such as joining HCAOG as just another community organization.

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Prophesy bearer for four religious traditions, revealer of Christ's Sword, revealer of Josephine bearing the Spirit of Christ, revealer of the identity of God, revealer of the Celestial Torah astro-theological code within the Bible. Celestial Torah Christian Theologian, Climax Civilization theorist and activist, Eco-Village Organizer, Master Psychedelic Artist, Inventor of the Next Big Thing in wearable tech, and always your Prophet-At-Large.