Me, Myself, and I in Harrisburg

She was the only person that could beat Mayor Reed and Mayor Reed had to go!

Last night I went to a seminar called “Money Matters 2011” sponsored by the Pennsylvania Securities and Exchange Commission (PASEC). As I stood in line to get my registration assignment papers for my sessions, an employee of the PASEC came up to me and said, “I know you. You are the person that goes to City Council meetings. I see you on TV. We have a local celebrity here.” All I could do is say “thank you very much” and continue with my business. I get this in supermarkets, malls, at the bank, and at work.

Seeing me on TV means many things for many people based on their own needs and view of City politics. Some people think that I attended to support Mayor Thompson. Other people believe that I am in support of City Council. Many people think that I hold an office in the City like City Council Member. Yet other people think I am present because I am going to run for office.

What they do not understand is that I am involved in City government representing three people, me, myself, and I. In the lunch room at work, two fellow employees stopped me and wanted my opinion on the situation in the City. What they really wanted to know was what side did I support, the mayor or the “Gang of 4.” After the conversation they still did not get their answer.

The reason why they are so confused is because all they get on the news is sound bytes. People really do not get real information that they need to know to figure out how the issue relates to them. The media is a business and must sell advertising to stay in business. The job of telling you the real problems in a complicated story like the Harrisburg Financial Crisis takes a multiple hour program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkFQh_UeGxA
Click the link above to see a sound byte from TV8

This sound byte talks about lawyers going head to head with each other over a bankruptcy filing. However, it says nothing about how the City should pay it bills with no money in the treasury.




TV21 News did suggest that the City can't make payments if they do not have the money. The old Governor talked about selling assets to pay its bills. But TV21 did not come back and ask the governor "once the assets are gone, who will pay the bills next year?" By the way, I wrote and called the old governor's office in 2007 telling him that this day was coming and asked him to meet with me on this issue. He nor his staff would give me the time of day.



TV21 News is the only mainstream network to give any detailed news to the City story. But as Linda Thompson said, she is not an expert but she thinks that with the help of the state she can get out of act 47. They did not ask the mayor "What help?" since the old Governor told the City that they are on their own. The new Governor is only interested in making sure the bondholders are paid.



I am not the only person that was telling the public that the clouds of doom was near. The Financial Coach Bryan Binkholder (http://www.FinancialCoachShow.com) examined the Municipal Bond failure of Harrisburg Pennsylvania and what it means to other bondholders.




Thanks to people outside the mainstream media, people can get information on what the real issues are because the Internet has become more popular with area citizens.

Education Malfunction

This crisis should point out another problem that the people of Harrisburg need to correct.

Most people do not know how their government functions especially their local government. In my opinion, this is a malfunction of the school district. If you don’t know how your government works, how can you petition your government for your needs? How can you vote for a representative that has the same government view as you? I know a person who ran for a city office thinking that he was going to use that position to change the school district. That person did not realize that the school district falls under the State Department of Education and was separate from the local municipal government.

With this type of malfunction, a smart politician like Mayor Reed could manipulate the voting population into believing anything that he wants. He could mismanage the incinerator project and blame the problems on City Council. Then he can run “Yes” people against City Council Members. Mayor Reed did just that and changed the make up of City Council every two years. In affect, he hid his City “screw ups.” He changed City Council keeping new members ignorant of the system. That gave him full control of the government for two decades. Mayor Reed did not want anyone to know what was going on and how the Harrisburg political system worked.

When I started going to City Council Meetings 10 years ago, many people living in the City did not know that City Council Meetings were public meetings. Many times, I sat in the meetings as the only citizen in the audience. Fewer yet knew about the City Council Committee meetings where the actual discussion takes place about the issues and the action that City Council would take to proceed. At first, the 2002 President of City Council tried to intimidate me so that I would not attend anymore meetings. At one point he told me not to come back. From that attitude I thought that I should continue to attend because knowing my history of governments, something was wrong.

No public participation meant that public official can do whatever they want in secret. Here is why the people did not know that the incinerator project was going south and the Mayor was able to blame City Council. They did not know that less and less police officers was on the police force from 1990 to 2009. No one told them that the City over the years was moving into insolvency.

This scene took place at a City Council Committee Meeting in June of 2008. Roxbury News an independent news agency along with the Internet was a major player in ending Mayor Reed's Administration.

Conclusion

I am not in this because I want to belong to a gang (for Linda or for the gang of 4) as the news media plays the situation. I do not attend meetings to support one side against the other nor to support people for office. I am not in this to support the Governor.

I want to see a long term solution to the City's Financial Problem. This has been my goal for the past 10 years. I will support whatever plan works. From my research, the only plan that would work would be Bankruptcy and negotiations with lenders. If the act 47 plan would pay the bills over the next 10 years, then I would be all for that. If a state controller could make sure all bills were paid over the next 10 years, I would be all for that.

I will continue to look out for the interest of "me, myself, and I." I expect others to do the same. As for who to vote for in the next election, that is up to you!

Genes or Nationality?

My brother William Jackson Williams III is in the process of verifying the Genealogy work that I have done. I started my work from 1964 to 1990 by interviewing Great Uncle’s and Aunts in Central Virginia and other relatives in Pennsylvania. He has an easier job because of the invention of the Personal Computer and Internet data bases. However, it is still no easy task.

One of the things that my father and other ancestors told me is that I am a descendant of the Cherokee Nation. Now that does not mean that I am not a descendant of other people. When documenting your family, you must remember one basic fact. A nationality is not the same as Genetic make up. The definition of a nationality is; “The status of belonging to a particular nation by origin, birth, or naturalization; a people having common origins or traditions and often constituting a nation; existence as a politically autonomous entity; national independence.” The definition of genetic make up is; “pertaining to or determined by genes; pertaining to reproduction or to birth or origin.”

My genetic make up is European (Finnish, French, Orcadian, Romanian, Russian) about 15.29% and West African (Yoruba) 84.71%. But my father and many other relatives said that I am Cherokee. How can this be?

It is hard to comprehend because people believe many different things like politics and religion.

Hispanics in The United States

Percentage ______Races
53.0% -------------- Whites

36.7% ---------------Other races such as mix race (Mestizo, Mulatto)

6.0% ---------------Claim to be two or more races such as White, Black, Asian

2.5% --------------- Black

1.4% --------------- American Indian or Alaskan Native

0.4% -------------- Asian

0.1% -------------- Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander

This is not the make up of the Latin Section of the United States that you have been led to believe that is in this nation. Each group of people can be broken down into subgroups. From this you can tell that race is a political question as well.

Keep in mind that when dealing with a genetic sample of a nation, you are looking at them as they are at that time such as December 1, 1998. On December 1, 3498, that make up may be all together different. By that time, the nation may have moved like Ethiopia did in the past 5,000 years. Or the people in 1998 may have moved and a new group of people could have settled in by the year 3498. What if the geneticist has no sample to go by?

Orcadians are very ancient people and probably came over to America from the Northern British Isles before the time of Jesus. They probably intermarried with Native Americans. Descendants of the Finnish, French, Orcadians, Romanians, and Russians were probably slave breeders. Some slave breeders like Noah Smith had children and sold them to local farmers and wealthy Cherokee families. Some may have intermarried with Africans in America.

Yoruban people today live on the boarder between Benin and Nigeria. They were uprooted by chattel slavers and sent to America to be sold.

This is how someone with Yoruban Genetic Make Up can end up being a citizen in the Cherokee Nation. This is how someone 150 years later can get confused between genetics and nationalities.

The French occupy the nation of France. But the French come from many places and is made up of many people. Among them are from Albania, Germany, Greece, France as well as most of Western and Central Europe. The French finally settled in what was known to the Roman Empire as Gaul. So many of the people of Europe can be traced to the French.

Do you know that 8% of the world’s population can be genetically traced to Genghis Khan of the Mongol Empire 1162? – August 1227. This is why many Polish woman have black hair today.

These genetic “hand me downs” is why I have seen someone that looks like my brother but is a native Nigerian. This just happened recently. I bet in 600 years someone from Peru is going to look up their American Ancestors but their genes are going to tell them that they are Russians.

If you want to learn more about Black Indians read the book;

Black Indians by William Loren Katz, published by Simon Pulse, NY, NY.

From a Crisis to a Catastrophe in Harrisburg

On Tuesday night Oct 11, 2011, Harrisburg City Council did what it should have done in January 2010. That is file for bankruptcy. But waiting a year and a half to make up their minds to file allowed the financial special interest to gather there forces to stop such a filing. They knew what the City would have to do in order to save itself from a complete break down in City services. From their point of view, paying them is more important than servicing the residents.

Harrisburg is made up of lower income earners. They are the least educated in financial legal matters. So they would be afraid of a Chapter 9 filing. A recent poll commissioned by ABC27 News based in Harrisburg, Pa.; of 1,000 city voters shows that only 13 percent of the city’s residents support the bankruptcy option. But with more money owed to bond holders, suppliers, contractors, and vendors than revenues coming into the treasury, the city for decades have been going down the path of insolvency. Opponents say that no one else is taking this step. Over 600 municipalities in the United States have taken this step since 1929. The country of Greece may have to file some sort of insolvency statement and reduce the amount of money given to bond holders. Other countries may follow suit.

The people in this country have not come to grips that they are in a deep recession if not a depression. Harrisburg is caught in an economic worldwide buzz saw that will force its government to take some sort of action to relieve its financial debt just like every other government around the world.

As a teenager, I heard the first words that told me that Harrisburg was in financial trouble back in the 1960s. This is when my uncle who owned a business told me that he would not seek a contract with the City because the City is a slow payer. This was under Republican Mayor William K. McBride (Jan 6, 1964 - Jan 1, 1968). I did not understand why the City did not pay its contractors on time but 40 years later, the message came home.

The city went through several mayors such as Mayor Albert H. Straub, Jan 1, 1968 - Jan 5, 1970 and Mayor Harold A. Swenson, Jan 5, 1970 - Jan 1, 1978. Under Mayor Swenson the problems with the incinerator started. Next came Mayor Paul E. Doutrich, Jr., Jan 3, 1978 - Jan 5, 1982. Then came the downtown building boom days of Mayor Stephen R. Reed, Jan 5, 1982 - Jan 4, 2010. He is the author of the remodeling of the City of Harrisburg but few people knew that the remodeling was done on credit. That credit was borrowed by a City population that decreased by 40% from the time Reed started in office to the time he left office. Then by mismanaging and interfering in the rebuilding of the incinerator to meet EPA standards and to make money for the City, he sealed the financial fate of Harrisburg.

Mayor Linda D. Thompson, Jan 4, 2010–Present took office not knowing the true financial situation of the City. Mayor Reed kept the City financial picture a secret for 27 years. Few people knew starting in 2001 that a secretary was appointed to take calls from ventures starting in September every year, telling them that their money would be coming.

Mayor Thompson in her inaugural speech said that she was ready to hit the ground running. But when it was time, she just hit the ground. Mayor Thompson and City Council should have filed for Chapter 9 when they found out that Act 47 would not solve the City’s financial problems. Instead, they hesitated and allowed their debtors to contact the state legislator and Republican Party for political help in getting their money. The commonwealth is planning a state takeover of the City.

Now the City will have to fight a state Supreme Court battle for the right to file Chapter 9 and they will have to fight to stay an independent state city.

Occupy Wall Street Protests

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Governor's Mansion

The “Occupy Wall Street” protest is spreading across the country. The demonstrations in New York, Washington DC, and in many other cities in the country are against corporate greed and war. I have been involved in political change for the past 45 years. That is why many people asked me for my opinion on this most current action. Then they walk away when they do not hear what they want to hear. It is great that you have these movements on the right and on the left because that keeps the real people running your governments in check. These movements come and they go. That is how the founding fathers of this country set it up. They did this so that you would believe that you have a stake in what goes on in this country.

Most people don’t understand how the political system works. The media got people thinking that it is all about belonging to a gang; the right, the left, Democrat, Republican, and etc. But as they say, all politics is local. I say, all politics is me, myself, and I. Most people’s politics center around a place to stay, food and drink, a job, safety, education, and family.

The government that is the most important to me and you is your local government (township, city, and county). They are the ones that provide police protection, education, and rules so that you have a place to live. This is the government that most affects your life. But most people pay this government little or no attention until things get so bad that they have to act.

Your state government provides the rules for your education system, the rules for what jobs and businesses can be available in the state. They provide most laws in society such as traffic, what food and drink can be provided, and etc. The Federal Government provides for national defense, meaning that they tell you who the enemy is. They tell you what foods, medicines, and products can be brought into the country. They provide the general welfare to the 50 states and its territories. The polling places are usually more crowded when voting for the President than at any other time.

Most people believe that we live under a Democratic/Republic form of government. That may have been true until 1812. Today we live under a National Socialist Government that is run for the people under a Democratic/Republic form of government. Yes, you have the right to vote for him or her under the Democratic or Republican Party. You can vote for a third party if you want. In most places, they do not win. If your person wins, that person will help make the rules for you to live under. You do not vote for the rules at the poles. That is why it is called a Democratic/Republic.

The corporation is run by people who have the most votes. These votes are given to them by people with the money to buy shares of the corporation. If you have enough money to buy the votes than you can run the company. Companies with common interest band together and create associations. These associations put money into political campaigns on the state and federal level. In many places, they control the local governments. That way, no matter who you vote for, the politicians elected will be controlled by such business associations.

The corporation and its supporting businesses supply the jobs in an area. They are the businesses who the school system is designed around. That way the graduates of the school system can be used by the corporation to produce it goods and services. The roads and bridge construction is done with the corporations in mind. This is why for example; Pittsburgh, Pa. in the late 1960s was the third largest corporate capital city in the nation. It had a large middle class with most of them owning their own homes. The four county area was built on the steel, glass, and coal industries. But when they all moved overseas, the area collapsed. With no work, people lost their houses and had to move. Supporting businesses went under. The area was reduced to a small percentage of its population. They were forced to restructure their local governments and they lost congressional seats.

This is the power that corporations have in America. This is why these associations tell you; the public who to elect for federal and most state offices. This is why politicians must do what these associations say. These associations support cooperating politicians with large political donations. Here is why the Military Industrial Complex controls 25% of the federal budget.