Light the Fuse, Page 4

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  This gives me pause. I need to explain something first, before I go any further. There’s something missing which I will clarify. I’m not sure the details will mean much or change anything, but they have led me here, where I am now standing, or sitting as it may. I am conflicted yet certain. She doesn’t understand and maybe no one else will. But the story goes this way…

  The man with the most to gain, who is he? Where is he from? How did he become the man with the most to gain? Does he have friends, relatives, enemies? Don’t we all. This man, who ever he is, he’s out there and he is calling the shots. He isn’t who we think he is, well probably not. That’s the hard part: proving who he is. And it might not even be a he but a who. All I know is he or they exist. And we all serve him/them.

  Why is this so hard to believe? I’m not trying to convince you, well maybe I am. Either way, reflect upon the news of the day from yesterday or today or last week. Time is sort of irrelevant, just the news. Think about the news for a minute. Think about the headlines. Who was in the headlines? What names were bandied about as being so important as to be paid attention to? Was he in there? Were they talked about? Probably. You just didn’t care to piece it together.

  I watch the news. I read the headlines. I piece together the puzzle. Maybe I will show you my diagram. It’s in what used to be the dining room. I turned it into my research room. She doesn’t like it. She doesn’t understand. She tells me she wants to listen so she can understand me better. But when I talk she isn’t around. She can’t hear me.

  My diagram has many headlines, many captions, and some pictures. I have three categories on three walls. The other wall has two double hung windows. They look out onto the backyard, where I dig holes. Anyway, at the top of each wall I wrote out my categories. They are: Those who are in power, those who help those who are in power, everyone else. This is clear to me. It came to me one day while I was reading news on-line. I cleared out the dining room and began my work. It was the middle of the night.

  For weeks I read, and clipped and glued and wrote. I had lines connecting people places and things. If I were a scientist, my work would have probably solved cold fusion. But I’m not a scientist. I’m a man who takes what he has been given and makes it come to life in unimaginable ways. I’m not crazy. I am concerned. I think the helicopters want to see my work. I need to hurry up and finish.

  The news media has a particular bias. It’s there. The bias. Trust me. One outlet will tell a story and it will be different from the next version. The third one may opt not to cover the story at all. The fourth will share some of the story but not all of it.

  The largest are the most distrustful; they have the most assets. The smallest, me and you, are the most honest but we have nothing so we are not heard, let alone believed. How could we possibly know anything? We have no resources; no assets; no news teams. We don’t have photojournalists, unless we are one. We don’t have copyright editors, unless we are one. We don’t have deep pockets. But they do. And we all listen. We just don’t hear anything.

  There’s this one man, he owns a conglomerate. Any idea what a conglomerate is? It’s a fancy way of saying someone, in his case, or something, in another case, is so large and so vast and has so many resources that they can’t adequately be called a company or corporation. Their fingers are in everything and they have answers for still more. The vast majority of folks think of these entities as good things, as job creation machines, as capital creators, as a means for a productive end and the betterment of our society. I disagree.

  From where I sit, a conglomerate is a consolidator of power. They are a usurper of individual freedom and choice. Any group with the resources to choke dissent or further a specific cause is dangerous. And in our world, these groups are lauded. They are extolled by those who don’t know any better. The dupes I call them. The wildly accepting collection of non-thinkers who believe a car in the garage and a flat screen in the living room is be all end all. Some might call them sheep. But I like dupes. The dupes are surprising like me in that they are part of the every one else category. I guess it could be argued that the dupes play a role in helping those who are in power stay in power but they lack the ability to play a meaningful role in that process.

  Anyway, there is this man who heads this conglomerate and he wants to build an oil pipeline; a large pipeline that will cover thousands of miles. The sound bytes say things like, “The pipeline will increase our energy independence” and “The pipeline will allow us to keep our money out of the hands of the terrorists” and “The pipeline will create thousands of jobs.”

  The sound bytes leave out the conglomerate owns the oil company that will eventually fill the pipeline, and the steel company that will supply the material to the company that manufactures the pipe, as well as the railroad company that will carry the pipe from factory to job site. It leaves out the finance company that will cover the bond issuance is also under the umbrella. Absent will be the current governors who were elected from seed money put up by the man at the conglomerate. Did I mention one of the media outlets, the one championing the cause the most and giving the subject the most air time is weaved into this quilt?

  Most will scoff and call me crazy. Maybe I am. I have lost track as of late. The fact remains one man lays claim to a vast empire and still wants more. And we enable him; the rest of us, the dupes. We skip the front page, we miss the headlines. We read the social pages, we memorize the sports pages. We look for movies and used washing machines. We stopped looking for jobs a long time ago. We watch TMZ. I’ll have to check. He might own them too.

  I mentioned the governors in the states where the pipelines are being planned. I said they were elected using seed money from this man. The governors are the second tier, those directly aiding those in power. How can this be you ask? Governors are elected officials and we the people elect them. When was the last time you followed an election closely? And I mean real close. Not many have that much time. But they are out there and they talk about their experiences. Those stories don’t show up in their media outlets though. Go look for them. Google Diebold and read about what that company manufactures. Then read what the alternative media outlets have to say.

  Back to the governors, elected by you, right? They run a campaign and make speeches. They have an agenda, a plan, and promises. They will do this, that and the other thing in the name of democracy and freedom. Then they pass strict laws that take our rights away, they weaken our ability to make a living, they weigh us down with an ever bloated bureaucracy. But they are allowed to pay back those in power and the other folks who keep the ball rolling, in an endless one-sided volley.

  I will suggest that yes the voting is done by the people, but the election is won by those closest to the seat of power, if not directly from the throne. Our votes are just a convenient manipulation of the system to give us the ability to choose a side not of our own choosing. What is that you say? How can we make a choice that is not our choice? Simple suggestion is all. Nothing more.

  A poor man with good ideas will lose to a rich man with a big house. We’re all poor. We know more than him. The person with the stiff personality can’t be as good as the one with the wide smile and quick wit. And how could we ever vote for the ugly out of shape character when the attractive fit one is still in the race. It’s who we are. It’s who they want us to be. Don’t believe me. Do the research.

  Those in power, those who assist those in power, and everyone else. My three walls. The diagrams. The lines connecting people, places and things. The pictures. The articles. The references. The audit trail. All of the work I have done. The hours I have spent researching, reading, writing, visiting, talking. What is it all about? What do I hope to achieve? What purpose do I hope to serve?

  I watched a debate the other evening there were two sides and a moderator. The discussion was random things but one thing stuck out. The idea of what a closed society is in relation to an open society. One of the speakers suggested ou
r country is an open society based upon our system of laws and media outlets. Syria was used as an example of a closed country. Syria is run by Bashar Assad and he can do what ever he chooses. There is no independent thought in Syria capable of standing in the way of his will. There is not much standing in the way of this argument. The countervailing measure carries with it a bit of ambiguity, if not out right hypocrisy.

  The office of the POTUS currently has the ability to order the execution of American citizens without the right to due process. And they have carried this out: Anwar Al Awlaki. The Patriot Act allows for the indefinite imprisonment of anyone suspected of having ties with a terrorist organization. The ties can be as loose as a humanitarian donation to the social welfare arm of Hamas. Support those who feed the babies of Beirut and you are supporting the suicide bombers in Tel Aviv.

  The National Defense Resources Preparedness order has been around in different forms since the Cold War. In its current format, the POTUS has the power to consolidate control into his office only. And I mean everything. Google it. Or don’t. But I didn’t make it up. And we didn’t vote on it. And to suggest that since we have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights doesn’t mean we are actually living in a free and open society. We’re everyone else. We do what they want us to do.