FORGOTTEN HEROES OF SEPTEMBER 11

9-11-09

Eight years ago today, one of the most beloved men in New York, Patrick J. Brown, died at the World Trade Center. Captain Brown was the most decorated member of that city's fire department.. He died trying to rescue badly burned civilians.

Here is what one of his men read at his funeral:

Eulogy for
Capt. Patrick Brown
11-9-01

by FF Mike Moran
On the morning of Sept. 11th, enemies of the United States attacked the World Trade Center. Their followers rejoiced, they even danced in the streets. They thought they had achieved success. But they did not.

They made the mistake on the morning of Sept. 11th, when all they saw when they looked at the WTC was 2 buildings. What they failed to see was the nation that stood behind them. What they failed to understand was the terrible resolve they had awakened.

And if there is justice in the afterlife, and I believe there is…..

Those fanatics who crashed those planes into the WTC did NOT get to meet Allah......... They did NOT get 70 virgins. Instead, they met Patrick J. Brown. And they discovered they messed with the wrong Marine.

Because you don’t mess with 3 Truck. You don’t mess with Patty Brown’s guys. Not when he is working.

When Patty first came to 3 Truck, he earned our undying respect when on 2 different occasions tough guys thought they could push Patty or his guys around.. They found out the hard way that Patty was not only a Black Belt in Karate, but also a heck of a Boxer. He was what my father would call----"Good with his hands".

We used to joke around in 3 Truck and tell the officers that they were not ‘in charge’---they were just responsible. Well, we never, even whispered that about Patty, because we all knew he was in charge. And not because he yelled. But because he spoke softly. He was humble. He led by example.

He was bigger than life. Therefore, a simple request from him was like a shouted order from another.

Late at night you could usually find him in the kitchen talking with the guys. He liked to shoot the breeze with the men. It is a testament to his character that with all the famous people he knew; all the mayors that pinned medals on his chest. All the big chiefs that were relieved when they saw his familiar visage enter the fire ground.

That Patty liked nothing better than hanging out with the men. Because Patty never stopped being a fireman. He only cared if you showed enthusiasm, if you were willing to learn. He didn’t care how many medals you had on your chest or how many bars you had on your collar. He only cared about the content of your character.

Guys that had had problems in other houses wanted to come to Ladder 3, not because the Capt. was soft---but because he was strong. He didn’t pre-judge you, he let you prove yourself to him and the great thing about him was---you didn’t want to let him down. We were becoming the Oakland Raiders of the Fire Dept.

And I will tell you this---we loved having him. He was not only a great storyteller; a true raconteur; he was also a great listener. He took tremendous interest in the guys’ lives and well-being. The funny thing is---most of us never realized that in those informal chats that the Capt. was teaching us. That is what he was doing. He was teaching us the Fire Dept. Way, the 3 Truck Way, and most importantly the Patty Brown Way. He was respected and loved because he lived his life so well.

I am reminded of the movie Braveheart when the men saw William Wallace for the first time. It wasn’t much different than when the Capt. First walked through the doors of 3 Truck. It was whispered, "This can’t be the man they call Patty Brown, he is not big enough. Patty Brown is 8 feet tall." Well, he wasn’t that big, but his heart was. That is the burden of being a legend. One that Patty carried with tremendous grace and humility.

To hear the stories and legend of Capt. Brown was to be inspired. But to actually meet the man, to be led by him, to follow him down that long, dark, smoky hallway was to be blessed. Because Patty’s strength, courage, and experience were a tremendous comfort in tough times.

When you went to Capt. with a request or a problem---his usual reply went along the lines of: "Don’t worry, we’ll see what we can do, we’ll take care of it." Anything for the men.

So, I can only imagine that is how it was on those final moments of Sept. 11th. Capt. Brown leading his men. Helping those 30 to 40 severely burned people down those dark stairs.

Patty giving ‘Maydays’ that saved many other firemen’s lives. But he and his men refusing to leave those people behind. I can see the guys from 3 Truck---turning one last time to Patty and being comforted by a nod of his head, a shy smile. "Don’t worry fellas, we’ll take care of it." And they were inspired.

So this marks the 12th, and fina funeral for the men of Ladder 3. And it is fitting that Patty go last. The last man out.

Patty never would have left any building until all his men were out. He couldn’t leave the scene or the firehouse until all his men were cared for. He would even come by on his off days to take care of things for his guys.

So, on behalf of the surviving members of Ladder 3----"You can ‘take up’ now Capt. All your men have been cared for. And they have gone home. You should join them there and rest easy. Any problems that come up----don’t worry, we will take care of them. For you taught us well. You taught us the Patty Brown Way."

Another one: Yesterday my cousin Tim Meier, a Jesuit priest, celebrated his 30th anniversary of sobriety. As some of you know, Tim became a U..S. Army chaplain during his 50th year on earth.. He just came back from Iraq, where he won a Bronze Star. Now he is off to Kosovo as part of a peacekeeping force.

Tim and Paddy did not know each other. But I can guarantee that they would have loved one another.

Mike Graham

ACTRESS LYDIA CORNELL ON “THE LINNDA DURRE SHOW”

For Immediate Release: LYDIA CORNELL to guest on radio's "THE LINNDA DURRE SHOW" 09-08-09, 12-1 PM (EDT) 9-10 AM (PST)

Listen to live-streaming audio by clicking the ON-AIR logo in the upper right-hand corner - www.810WEUS.com Local residents can listen on 810 AM radio in Central Florida.

Call 407-774-1085 for Q & A with Lydia Cornell on the debut of “The Linnda Durré Show,” on Tuesday, September 8th from 12-1 PM (EDT).

Linnda Durre' is a radio and TV talk show host, author, writer, and award winning filmmaker. www.LinndaDurre.com Contact her at 407-739-8620

photo: August 2009 Lydia and Jim Bullock

About Lydia Cornell

· Actress - AFI Best Actress nominee and People's Choice Award winner, best known for her role on ABC's Too Close For Comfort (as Ted Knight's daughter "Sara Rush")

· Recently on HBO's “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, and in the new indie film "Damage Done"

· Has been Invited to contribute her writings to The International Museum of Peace, which houses letters from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou & Sir Edmund Hillary

· Comedienne - Improv and stand up in Las Vegas at the Riviera, Sahara; opening for Paul Rodriguez at Pechanga 1500 seat theater

· Author - “Falling Up” of 5 books in her upcoming humor book series

· Blogger - Best Writing awards, World Report, Thinking Blogger, Weblog and known for being attacked by Ann Coulter

· Radio Show Co-Host www.BashamandCornell.com AM morning drive Las Vegas, the only Progressive talk show in Vegas

· Recently interviewed Pulitzer Prize Winners, White House advisers, presidential candidates, Senators. Congressmen and women, and bestselling authors.

· Mentor/Volunteer - Mentors teens; volunteers with sons at homeless shelters.

· Wife & Mother - Happily married to a Neanderthal with a son and stepson

· Received the USO Distinguished Service Award for her trip to a war zone, Beirut.

Lydia Cornell is an award-winning actress, writer, comedienne, and talk-radio host best known for her role as "Sara Rush” - Ted Knight's dazzlingly beautiful yet stereotypically dumb blonde daughter on ABC's '80s hit sitcom, “Too Close for Comfort.” Lydia starred in over 250 TV shows & films including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Full House, Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, A-Team, Hunter, Hardball, Hotel (2), Love Boat (6), Fantasy Island, T.J. Hooker and the pilot of the cult series Quantum Leap with Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. She signed hundreds of autographs at their convention earlier this year in Los Angeles.

As one of the most popular sex symbols of the era, Lydia won the People's Choice Award, was a Best Actress nominee at Method Fest for her leading role in the AFI film "Miss Supreme Queen" and has She recently co-starred with Larry David on HBO's “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and is in the new indie film “Damage Done.” www.lydiacornell.com

Lydia will talk with Linnda Durré about her life and career in Hollywood, her hilarious experiences with famous stars, and her depression after Ted Knight died and the show ended.

Her spiritual enlightenment that ensued after dealing with a drinking problem transformed her life, resulting in a very funny and "catastrophic" awakening.

"I began experiencing so many uncanny events, I can only call them miracles. What appear to be miracles are actually natural laws. We have been conditioned to believe that the external world is more real than the internal world. Quantum Physics says just the opposite: there is no solid matter. What’s happening on the inside determines what’s happening on the outside. Our world is shaped by our thoughts. So our loving attention to something literally alters the physical universe.

The key was acceptance and surrender; I surrendered all my fears and worries to a higher power and began the road to humility. I love the acrostic: EGO = Edging God Out. I began investigating Quantum physics, because I wanted to understand how these miracles happened. I now believe science proves the existence of God, but I'm talking about the God of love, not religious fundamentalism. Religion is man-made; God is within each of us.

More about Linnda Durre

One of the greatest sources of frustration and tension in our lives comes from the workplace.

Linnda Durre, Ph.D., one of the nation's most popular psychotherapists, says sometimes it is the root cause of problems in our relationships at home as well.

Her latest book, "Surviving the Toxic Workplace," is a practical manual for dealing with a variety of issues, from how to handle annoying coworkers, inexperienced bosses and intolerable situations.

The book, which will be published by McGraw Hill, doesn't come out until Feb. 19, but you don't have to wait until then to start learning how to survive and thrive at work. Click the play button above and start changing your life today.

If you'd like to learn more about Dr. Durre, check out:
-- www.DrDurre.com
-- www.LinndaDurre.com
-- www.Experts.com

Or call 407-739-8620

Greg Proops, Cheryl Hines, Lydia Cornell (in gold gown) in the Green Room backstage at the World Travel Awards, Barbados. Richard Belzer, Davy Jones, Martha and the Vandellas, Sharon Case from Young and the Restless; Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos. Below: group shot

DOG STORIES * WEEKEND JOY plus OBAMA INSPIRES KIDS

The other day I woke up, reached over and started petting our little rescue dog Sasha, on her smooth belly. She sleeps on her back, and usually ends up in the middle of my husband and me, like a child under the covers. (When we first got her, I woke up and she had her head on the pillow; she was staring into my eyes, with her head was sticking out from the covers like a little child.

Anyway, on this particular morning, just before dawn, it was hazy but I could see her longish tan torso/tummy and I felt the back of her skinny little legs which were extended. I kept rubbing her smooth belly and then I panicked. She wasn't moving or breathing.

I said, "Paul - wake up! Sasha isn't moving. I think you're smothering her! I kept pulling her torso out from under my husband. It seemed as if her head was under his armpit and all I could feel was her belly. I kept pulling, trying to pull her out from under him, when I heard a bark from the end of the bed. It was Sasha barking at me. Who was I petting then? Suddenly it became clear that I had been "petting" my husband's inner arm the whole time! The inner arm was smooth and the outer sides had hair, so I just assumed it was the dog -- and in the haze his arm was just her size.

What I thought were her hind legs, were actually my husband's fingers. YOU HAD TO BE THERE! I still can't stop laughing about this!

__________________

FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

I Just received this from Obama's office. It thoroughly lists the TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH about Obama's public health care option. Please read it.

8 Ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without Coverage

1. Ends Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.

2. Ends Exorbitant Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Deductibles or Co-Pays: Insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses.

3. Ends Cost-Sharing for Preventive Care: Insurance companies must fully cover, without charge, regular checkups and tests that help you prevent illness, such as mammograms or eye and foot exams for diabetics.

4. Ends Dropping of Coverage for Seriously Ill: Insurance companies will be prohibited from dropping or watering down insurance coverage for those who become seriously ill.

5. Ends Gender Discrimination: Insurance companies will be prohibited from charging you more because of your gender.

6. Ends Annual or Lifetime Caps on Coverage: Insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.

7. Extends Coverage for Young Adults: Children would continue to be eligible for family coverage through the age of 26.

8. Guarantees Insurance Renewal: Insurance companies will be required to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full. Insurance companies won't be allowed to refuse renewal because someone became sick.

Learn more and get details: http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/health-insurance-consumer-protections/

8 Common Myths about Health Insurance Reform

1. Reform will stop "rationing" - not increase it: It’s a myth that reform will mean a "government takeover" of health care or lead to "rationing." To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies.

2. We can’t afford reform: It's the status quo we can't afford. It’s a myth that reform will bust the budget. To the contrary, the President has identified ways to pay for the vast majority of the up-front costs by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse within existing government health programs; ending big subsidies to insurance companies; and increasing efficiency with such steps as coordinating care and streamlining paperwork. In the long term, reform can help bring down costs that will otherwise lead to a fiscal crisis.

3. Reform would encourage "euthanasia": It does not. It’s a malicious myth that reform would encourage or even require euthanasia for seniors. For seniors who want to consult with their family and physicians about end-of life decisions, reform will help to cover these voluntary, private consultations for those who want help with these personal and difficult family decisions.

4. Vets' health care is safe and sound: It’s a myth that health insurance reform will affect veterans' access to the care they get now. To the contrary, the President's budget significantly expands coverage under the VA, extending care to 500,000 more veterans who were previously excluded. The VA Healthcare system will continue to be available for all eligible veterans.

5. Reform will benefit small business - not burden it: It’s a myth that health insurance reform will hurt small businesses. To the contrary, reform will ease the burdens on small businesses, provide tax credits to help them pay for employee coverage and help level the playing field with big firms who pay much less to cover their employees on average.

6. Your Medicare is safe, and stronger with reform: It’s myth that Health Insurance Reform would be financed by cutting Medicare benefits. To the contrary, reform will improve the long-term financial health of Medicare, ensure better coordination, eliminate waste and unnecessary subsidies to insurance companies, and help to close the Medicare "doughnut" hole to make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors.

7. You can keep your own insurance: It’s myth that reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors. To the contrary, reform will expand your choices, not eliminate them.

8. No, government will not do anything with your bank account: It is an absurd myth that government will be in charge of your bank accounts. Health insurance reform will simplify administration, making it easier and more convenient for you to pay bills in a method that you choose. Just like paying a phone bill or a utility bill, you can pay by traditional check, or by a direct electronic payment. And forms will be standardized so they will be easier to understand. The choice is up to you – and the same rules of privacy will apply as they do for all other electronic payments that people make.

Learn more and get details:

http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck

http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck/faq

8 Reasons We Need Health Insurance Reform Now

1. Coverage Denied to Millions: A recent national survey estimated that 12.6 million non-elderly adults – 36 percent of those who tried to purchase health insurance directly from an insurance company in the individual insurance market – were in fact discriminated against because of a pre-existing condition in the previous three years or dropped from coverage when they became seriously ill. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/denied_coverage/index.html

2. Less Care for More Costs: With each passing year, Americans are paying more for health care coverage. Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have nearly doubled since 2000, a rate three times faster than wages. In 2008, the average premium for a family plan purchased through an employer was $12,680, nearly the annual earnings of a full-time minimum wage job. Americans pay more than ever for health insurance, but get less coverage. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/hiddencosts/index.html

3. Roadblocks to Care for Women: Women’s reproductive health requires more regular contact with health care providers, including yearly pap smears, mammograms, and obstetric care. Women are also more likely to report fair or poor health than men (9.5% versus 9.0%). While rates of chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure are similar to men, women are twice as likely to suffer from headaches and are more likely to experience joint, back or neck pain. These chronic conditions often require regular and frequent treatment and follow-up care. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/women/index.html

4. Hard Times in the Heartland: Throughout rural America, there are nearly 50 million people who face challenges in accessing health care. The past several decades have consistently shown higher rates of poverty, mortality, uninsurance, and limited access to a primary health care provider in rural areas. With the recent economic downturn, there is potential for an increase in many of the health disparities and access concerns that are already elevated in rural communities. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/hardtimes

5. Small Businesses Struggle to Provide Health Coverage: Nearly one-third of the uninsured – 13 million people – are employees of firms with less than 100 workers. From 2000 to 2007, the proportion of non-elderly Americans covered by employer-based health insurance fell from 66% to 61%. Much of this decline stems from small business. The percentage of small businesses offering coverage dropped from 68% to 59%, while large firms held stable at 99%. About a third of such workers in firms with fewer than 50 employees obtain insurance through a spouse. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/helpbottomline

6. The Tragedies are Personal: Half of all personal bankruptcies are at least partly the result of medical expenses. The typical elderly couple may have to save nearly $300,000 to pay for health costs not covered by Medicare alone. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/inaction

7. Diminishing Access to Care: From 2000 to 2007, the proportion of non-elderly Americans covered by employer-based health insurance fell from 66% to 61%. An estimated 87 million people - one in every three Americans under the age of 65 - were uninsured at some point in 2007 and 2008. More than 80% of the uninsured are in working families. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/inaction/diminishing/index.html

8. The Trends are Troubling: Without reform, health care costs will continue to skyrocket unabated, putting unbearable strain on families, businesses, and state and federal government budgets. Perhaps the most visible sign of the need for health care reform is the 46 million Americans currently without health insurance - projections suggest that this number will rise to about 72 million in 2040 in the absence of reform. Learn more: http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/assets/documents/CEA_Health_Care_Report.pdf

Visit WhiteHouse.gov

THE PURPOSE OF LIFE

Remember, the purpose of physical life is to learn how to love everyone unconditionally, including yourself. And to serve all other people with loving kindness.

GOOD NEWS: NEW WEATH IN ABUNDANCE

THE NEW ENLIGHTENMENT

If there is to be a human future, we must bring ourselves into balanced relationship with one another and the Earth. This requires building economies with heart.
- David Korten

Living Wealth

If we are to slow and ultimately reverse the social and environmental disintegration we see around us, we must change the rules to curb the pervasive abuse of corporate power that contributes so much to those harms. Taming corporate power will slow the damage. It will not be sufficient, however, to heal our relationships with one another and the Earth and bring our troubled world into social and environmental balance. Corporations are but instruments of a deeper social pathology revealed in a familiar story our society tells about the nature of prosperity.

Empire Prosperity Story

The prevailing prosperity narrative has many variations, but these are among its essential elements:
* Economic growth fills our lives with material abundance, lifts the poor from their misery, and creates the wealth needed to protect the environment.
* Money is the measure of wealth and the proper arbiter of every choice and relationship.
* Prosperity depends on freeing wealthy investors from taxes and regulations that limit their incentive and capacity to invest in creating the new jobs that enrich us all.
* Unregulated markets allocate resources to their most productive and highest value use.
* The wealthy deserve their riches because we all get richer as the benefits of the investments of those on top trickle down to those on the bottom.
* Poverty is caused by welfare programs that strip the poor of motivation to become productive members of society willing to work hard at the jobs the market offers.

This money-serving prosperity story is repeated endlessly by corporate media and taught in economics, business, and public policy courses in our colleges and universities almost as sacred writ. I call it the Empire prosperity story.

Few notice the implications of its legitimation of the power and privilege of for-profit corporations and an economic system designed to maximize returns to money, that is, to make rich people richer. Furthermore, it praises extreme individualism that, in other circumstances would be condemned as sociopathic; values life only as a commodity; and diverts our attention from the basic reality that destroying life to make money is an act of collective insanity. In addition to destroying real wealth, it threatens our very survival as a species.

Earth Community Prosperity Story

Consider these elements of a contrasting life-serving prosperity story that looks to life, rather than money, as the true measure of wealth.

* Healthy children, families, communities, and ecological systems are the true measure of real wealth.
* Mutual caring and support are the primary currency of healthy families and communities, and community is the key to economic security.
* Real wealth is created by investing in the human capital of productive people, the social capital of caring relationships, and the natural capital of healthy ecosystems.
* The end of poverty and the healing of the environment will come from reallocating material resources from rich to poor and from life-destructive to life-nurturing uses.
* Markets have a vital role, but democratically accountable governments must secure community interests by assuring that everyone plays by basic rules that internalize costs, maintain equity, and favor human-scale local businesses that honor community values and serve community needs.
* Economies must serve and be accountable to people, not the reverse.

I call this the Earth Community prosperity story because it evokes a vision of the possibility of creating life-serving economies grounded in communities that respect the irreducible interdependence of people and nature. Although rarely heard, this story is based on familiar notions of generosity and fairness, and negates each of the claims of the imperial prosperity story that currently shapes economic policy and practice.

The High Cost of Making Money

It took me many years in my work abroad as a member of the foreign aid establishment to wake up to the fallacy of the Empire story-the idea that advancing economic growth by maximizing returns to money is the key to ending poverty and healing the environment. The epiphany came during a conference in Asia at which nongovernmental organizations were presenting case studies of the social and environmental consequences of large aid-funded development projects undertaken to promote economic growth. In case after case, the projects displaced poor people and disrupted essential environmental processes to produce benefits for those already better off.

Eventually I came to realize that conventional economic growth indicators rarely measure growth in human prosperity. Rather, they measure the rate at which the rich are expropriating the living resources of the planet and converting them to products destined for a garbage dump after a brief useful life. The process generates profits for people who already have far more money than they need while displacing people from the resources they need for their modest livelihoods. In summary, the primary business of the global financial system and the corporations that serve it is to increase the wealth gap. It works well in the short-term for the privileged few, but it is disastrous for the society.

We see the effects in the current state of the world. The market value of global economic output has tripled since 1970. By conventional reckoning, this means we humans have tripled our wealth and well-being.

Yet indicators of living capital, the aggregate of human, social and natural capital, tell a very different story. The Living Planet Index, an indicator of the health of the world’s freshwater, ocean, and land-based ecosystems, declined 30 percent since 1970. According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 15 of 24 ecosystem services examined “are being degraded or used unsustainably, including fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water purification, and the regulation of regional and local climate, natural hazards, and pests.”

Indicators of human capital-the skills, knowledge, psychological health, capacity for critical thought, and moral responsibility characteristic of the fully functioning person, and of social capital-the enduring relationships of mutual trust and caring that are the foundation of healthy families, communities and societies-point to equally unfavorable trends.

Even as living capital shrinks, the population that depends on it continues to grow. Meanwhile, the growing concentration of money means a few people are able to claim an ever-larger share of a shrinking pie of living capital to the exclusion of everyone else. According to a recent United Nations study, the richest 2 percent of the world’s adults own 51 percent of all global assets. The poorest 50 percent own only 1 percent. This distribution of ownership is a measure of the global distribution of power-and the gap is growing at an accelerating rate. The power imbalance allows the privileged minority to change the rules to accelerate their expropriation of the declining pool of real wealth, which increases the hardship and desperation of those excluded. We are on a path to an increasingly violent last-one-standing competition for the Earth’s final tree, drop of drinkable water, and breath of air.

By our measures of financial capital, we humans are on a path to limitless prosperity. By the measures of living capital, we are on a suicidal path to increasing deprivation and ultimate self-extinction.

Putting Life First

If there is to be a human future, we must bring ourselves into balanced relationship with one another and the Earth. This requires turning existing economic priorities and models on their head and making the values of the Earth Community story the foundation of our economy. We must:

1. Turn from money to life as the defining value, from growing financial capital to growing living capital, and from short-term to long-term investing;
2. Shift the priority from advancing the private interests of the few to advancing the individual and community interests of all; and
3. Reallocate resources from supporting institutions of domination to meeting the needs of people, community, and nature.

We have enormous potential to improve the lives of all by reallocating resources from military to health care and environmental regeneration, from automobiles to public transportation, from investing in suburban sprawl to investing in compact communities, from advertising to education, from financial speculation to productive investment in local entrepreneurship, and from providing extravagant luxuries for the very wealthy to providing basic essentials for everyone.

The champions of Empire dismiss any such reordering of priorities on the ground that it will bring economic disaster and unbearable hardship. They ignore the simple fact that those results are already the lot of roughly half our fellow humans. The proposed reordering can avoid the spread of hardship and begin to alleviate the existing suffering.

Economic reallocation and democratization are no longer simply moral issues. They are imperatives of human survival and must replace economic growth and the pursuit of financial gain as the defining purpose of economic life.

The work of bringing forth a new economy devoted to serving the needs of our children, families, communities, and natural environments begins with building public awareness that there is an Earth Community prosperity story that offers a vision of hope and possibility for a positive future. Although a story so contrary to the prevailing Empire story is likely to be greeted with initial skepticism, the Earth Community prosperity story enjoys the ultimate advantage because it expresses the truth most of us recognize in our hearts: if our children, families, communities, and natural systems are healthy, we are prosperous. Whether conventional financial indicators like GDP or the Dow Jones stock index rise or fall is irrelevant.

Rules for Conserving and Sharing

To get from where we are to where we need to go we must recognize that the market is an essential and beneficial institution for allocating resources in response to individual choices. But it is beneficial only so long as it operates by rules that maintain equity and competition and require players to internalize the social and environmental costs of their choices. And it is not sacred. Without responsible governmental oversight, the market can lead to highly destructive social pathology.

By its nature, the market creates winners and losers. Furthermore, the winners are often those most skilled in finding ways to pass social and environmental costs onto others. The winners increase their share of the resource pie, which increases their economic and political power to shape markets and rules to improve their future prospects. The result is a self-reinforcing spiral of increasing concentration of wealth and power. This supports the unjust hoarding and profligate consumption of resources by a privileged class. In an increasingly environmentally constrained world, learning to conserve and share resources is an essential requirement of social order and well-being.

Even with adequate regulation to minimize social and environmental abuse, the health of a market system also requires public intervention to recycle financial capital continuously from winners to losers. In the absence of such recycling, financial wealth and power accumulate in perpetuity, increasing the fortunes of a few family dynasties at the expense of democracy, justice, and social stability.

Recycling financial wealth to maintain a democratic allocation of access to real resources is, of course, totally contrary to the self-serving logic of corporate capitalism. Yet it is essential to democracy and social health, both of which depend on an equitable distribution of power, and an essential function of democratic government.

Community-based Economics

From a system-design perspective, a healthy society must either eliminate profit, interest, and for-profit corporations altogether, or use the taxing and regulatory powers of publicly accountable democratic governments to strictly limit concentrations of economic power and prevent the winners from passing the costs of their success onto the losers. This creates yet another system design issue. As government becomes larger and more powerful, it almost inevitably becomes less accountable and more prone to corruption.

Paul Hawken has correctly observed that big business creates the need for big government to constrain excesses and clean up the messes. To maintain equity and secure the internalization of costs, democratically accountable government power must exceed the power of exclusive private economic interests. The smaller the concentrations of economic power, the smaller government can be and still maintain essential balance and integrity in the society.

There will be less need for a strong governmental hand to the extent that we are successful in eliminating sociopathic institutional forms, making community-based economies the norm, and creating a public consensus that predatory economic behavior now taken for granted as “just human nature” is actually aberrant and immoral. Responsible citizenship may then become the expected business norm. There will always be a need, however, for rules and governmental oversight to deal with what hopefully will be a declining number of sociopathic individuals and institutions who seek to profit at public expense.
Equalizing economic power and rooting it locally shifts power to people and community from distant financial markets, global corporations, and national governments. It serves to shift rewards from economic predators to economic producers, strengthens community, encourages individual responsibility, and allows for greater expression of individual choice and creativity.

The Essential Choice

The human species has reached a defining moment of choice between moving ahead on a path to collective self-destruction or joining together in a cooperative effort to navigate a dramatic turn to a new human era. The profound cultural and institutional transformation that is needed goes up against the short-term interests of the world’s most powerful people and institutions. The barriers to what we humans must now achieve are daunting. By any rational calculation, the needed transformation is not politically feasible. Yet it is essential to human survival and prosperity, which means we must set ourselves to the task of figuring out how to make the impossible into the inevitable.

David Korten is co-founder and board chair of YES! His latest book is The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.

______________________________

Some of my ideas:

1. Cars should be made of fur; there would be less fatal traffic accidents. Think about it. A fluffy furry foam shell with no metal parts, except the engine. It could be waterproof. Why not?

2. We should desalinate the oceans, at least the Pacific in Southern California, which is suffering a severe drought and water rationing. We are not allowed to water our lawns on certain days. If we invest in desalination plants, we will create jobs and fresh water, as a bonus, we'll help curb the rising tides due to global warming. Maybe it sounds wacky but if we are using vast amounts of ocean water, won't that help balance the melting ice caps from overflowing and flooding? At least a little bit?

3. We should have water pipelines from the Northeast states where they have too much rainfall. The pipelines would carry excess rainfall down to Nevada and California during drought season.

4. We need to create Green companies and new energies right now, which will create jobs. Solar panels on all businesses and grocery stores, as in Germany. They will receive tax subsidies for this. Wind, solar.

Why can't these things be implemented now? Also, if we allocated 2% of our GDP for public education and Universal Medicare, we'd all be covered.

Health Care is a National Security issue, a safety issue and a basic human right. It should not be for profit. GET STRONG OBAMA! Stay true to your promises, the way Ted Kennedy would. He was a true public servant in that he put the PEOPLE who have no voice first; not the ruling elite.

GOOD NEWS: THE NEW WEATH * FOOLPROOF WAY TO GET RICH

OBAMA: STAND UP TO LIES, AS TEDDY WOULD

Dear President Obama: The Solution to Healthcare Reform

NATIONAL HEALTH CARE IS A NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE

Most of us will do damn near anything to get out from under the thumbs of the multi-millionaire CEOs who are running our current insurance programs. Sign me up!

QUESTION:

Which of these socialistic (socialism) programs should we eliminate?

This is Socialism: Police Force, Fire Dept., Military, Veterans Dept., Clean Water, Public Highways, Public Parks. Medicare, Social Security are all government run for the protection and and rights of the PEOPLE, who run the Government. Which one of these vital programs should we get rid of?

It is immoral and un-Christian to make a profit off of cancer, illness or basic health care. We are the only country in the world that does not take care of its people and puts corporate billionaires ahead of the middle class.

THE gun-carrying "patriots" WHO SHOUT AT TOWNHALL MEETINGS HAVE NO IDEA THAT THEY ARE HELPING THEIR ENEMIES -- the INSURANCE COMPANIES like AIG!

Did you know the billionaire insurance companies are PAYING PEOPLE TO PROTEST THE TRUTH AT THESE TOWNHALL MEETINGS? THEY ARE USING YOU TO DO THEIR LOBBYING!! And what I find quite disturbing, is they pay their CEOs $30-50 billion dollars a year in salaries.

You like Insurance socialism? You like Corporate welfare? Try reading the bill if you can read. Basic health care is a human right for every human being in our country.

"You can't even bring a glass bottle, pocket knife or nail clippers to a rock concert or on an airplane. Why are angry gun-carrying loonies allowed to show up at Health Care rallies with weapons and assault rifles?

This is a violation of our rights — of our children's right to feel safe. Your "right" to own a gun does not mean you can bring it to public events, or wear it the frightening thing hanging off your body, where any angry psycho, including yourself, can grab it. It's far too easy to use a gun on a human being. I am ashamed and embarrased to have these as my fellow Americans and everyone should be ashamed of the current Republican party, it's leaders and politicians for taking bribes and payments from the Big Insurance companies to DENY the middle class free basic health care and for condoning LIES, RACISM AND HATE-SPEAK. And for inflaming the angry mob into believing outrageous lies about our president who simply wants to help create a FREE HEALTH CARE system FOR THE working MIDDLE CLASS!!

What on earth is wrong with you people?

You can't be pro-life and against universal health care. If you are, then you are being brainwashed by liars. Fox "News" and Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh take home *$45 million a year in salary. I never believed it could happen in America, that lies would be condoned on the public airwaves. These talk show hosts and pundits have to lie to keep the corporations that employ them happy.

This I know for the past 5 years, with every cell of my being, as a lifelong follower of Christ, the Great Peacemaker. For years I've been appalled at how you can call yourselves Christian when you leave out Christ! Is it because you don't realize the word "Christ" is the root of the word "Christianity" because the vowel sounds are different? I'm sorry I know I've used that joke ad nauseum, but I am seriously wondering where on earth right-wing fundamentalist "gun-loving" Christians think they are CHRISTIAN!!! Nowhere in any of my 7 Bibles does it say you are to throw stones, lie, cheat, steal, create fear, worship greed, despise the poor, hoard wealth, and kill thousands of our young troops in a war based on lies for oil! You are the pharisees, the very ones that crucified Christ. I am sick of being silent for fear of more death threats. You care only about the fetus but not about your fellow man, woman or child. At least the Republican politicians and anyone who listens naively to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Glen Beck or Bill O'Reilly -- who all MAKE $45 MILLION A YEAR TO LIE TO YOU IN ORDER TO MAKE THE CORPORATIONS THAT HIRED THEM, RICH!

CommonDreams.org

Dear President Obama: A Modest Medicare Proposal

by Thom Hartmann

Dear President Obama,

I understand you're thinking of dumping your "public option" because of all the demagoguery by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and their crowd on right-wing radio and Fox. Fine. Good idea, in fact.

Instead, let's make it simple. Please let us buy into Medicare.

It would be so easy. You don't have to reinvent the wheel with this so-called "public option" that's a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won't - just like the Post Office versus FedEx analogy you're so comfortable with.

Just pass a simple bill - it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people - that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.

So it's revenue neutral!

To make it available to people of low income, raise the rates slightly for all currently non-eligible people (like me - under 65) to cover the cost of below-200%-of-poverty people. Revenue neutral again.

Most of us will do damn near anything to get out from under the thumbs of the multi-millionaire CEOs who are running our current insurance programs. Sign me up!

This lets you blow up all the rumors about death panels and grandma and everything else: everybody knows what Medicare is. Those who scorn it can go with Blue Cross. Those who like it can buy into it. Simplicity itself.

Of course, we'd like a few fixes, like letting Medicare negotiate drug prices and filling some of the holes Republicans and AARP and the big insurance lobbyists have drilled into Medicare so people have to buy "supplemental" insurance, but that can wait for the second round. Let's get this done first.

Simple stuff. Medicare for anybody who wants it. Private health insurance for those who don't. Easy message. Even Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley can understand it. Sarah Palin can buy into it, or ignore it. No death panels, no granny plugs, nothing. Just a few sentences.

Replace the "you must be disabled or 65" with "here's what it'll cost if you want to buy in, and here's the sliding scale of subsidies we'll give you if you're poor, paid for by everybody else who's buying in." (You could roll back the Reagan tax cuts and make it all free, but that's another rant.)

We elected you because we expected you to have the courage of your convictions. Here's how. Not the "single payer Medicare for all" that many of us would prefer, but a simple, "Medicare for anybody who wants to buy in."

Respectfully,

Thom Hartmann

Thom Hartmann (thom at thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored Award-winning New York Times best-selling author, and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk program The Thom Hartmann Show.www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights," "We The People: A Call To Take Back America," "What Would Jefferson Do?," "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class and What We Can Do About It," and "Cracking The Code: The Art and Science of Political Persuasion." His newest book is Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture.

A message to the LIARS on Hate-Radio and at Town hall meetings:

How dare you lie to your listeners. These BLATANT lies have to stop. The Birthers and the Liars on Fox "News" -- Why are you allowed to lie for years about everything? You know the truth. You know you are being paid by wealthy insurance companies to defeat our chance for free and low cost health care. But you lie with every breath you take.

You are inciting people to violence, hate-speak and bringing assault weapons to Presidential rallies. This should be illegal. Now we demand stricter gun control! You people are denying me of my right to feel safe. This is more important than your right to flaunt you "guns and gun-rights" at a public rally on health care where children attend. We've had enough of you. You are un-American, self-serving, and have caused nothing but destruction.

After listening to Glen Beck, one man in PA murdered 3 Police officers in cold blood because he was all hyped up on FEAR. Guess who got him this way? Glen Beck kept screaming on his CNN TV show these kinds of LIES: "Obama's gonna take your guns!" WHERE DID HE GET THIS? WHY DID HE MAKE THIS UP? President Obama never said he was going to take away anyone's guns.

I can't even bring a glass bottle or nail clippers to a rock concert. Why are there violent right-wing racists allowed to show up at Health Care rallies with weapons? Huge assault rifles? I am ashamed and embarrased to have these as my fellow Americans and everyone should be ashamed of the Republican party for condoning LIES, RACISM AND HATE-SPEAK.

Now I know why I am no longer a Republican. Thank God. THere is nothing remotely Christian or moral about this current tribe.

To the HATE-RADIO right winge liars: BASIC HEALTH CARE is a human right. It should not be "for profit."

Why are you protesting against your own self-interests? Do you really like AIG and BIG INSURANCE SOCIALISM? You like the way they have jacked up your rates and denied you coverage? Why are the Big Insurance companies better at deciding your health care rather than YOU? GOVERNMENT IS THE PEOPLE. Medicare negotiates lower prices with Big Pharmaceutical firms.

I am sorry to be so outspoken, but we need to unite our country against the greed that is destroying us.

TRILLIONS SPENT ON WAR DURING BUSH, YET YOU WON'T SPEND ON LIFE AND HEALTH CARE

To those who brag about being right-wing terrorists: you spend trillions on war, on an illegal and horrifying invasion of Iraq based on lies for oil to profit BIG OIL. You destroyed millions of innocent Iraqi lives, children's lives -- and thousands of American troops lives. With your evil war, and these seeds you have sown, the result is over 30,000 maimed, injured American troops with the highest suicide rate of any returning military in any war AND YET -- yet you won't spend money on HEALTH CARE for your own people?

WWJD?