During the past 10 days I have had the experiences of speaking to representatives of major charitable foundations, teaching my weekly class, FROM SLAVERY TO OBAMA, at the University of San Francisco, and speaking to members of the Grand Lodge, Freemasons of The District of Columbia. This has occurred against a national and media landscape of additional mass gun killings, Russia’s military intervention in Syria, the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington, DC, the activities and statements of Republican and Democratic presidential primary candidates, Republican Party disarray over its selection of their new Speaker of the House, getting close to World Series in Baseball, and the quickened pace of college and professional football From …
During the past 10 days I have had the experiences of speaking to representatives of major charitable foundations, teaching my weekly class, FROM SLAVERY TO OBAMA, at the University of San Francisco, and speaking to members of the Grand Lodge, Freemasons of The District of Columbia.
This has occurred against a national and media landscape of additional mass gun killings, Russia’s military intervention in Syria, the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington, DC, the activities and statements of Republican and Democratic presidential primary candidates, Republican Party disarray over its selection of their new Speaker of the House, getting close to World Series in Baseball, and the quickened pace of college and professional football
From the above I want to discuss three events that illustrate challenges presented in trying to rationally navigate between the Universes of Parallel Altered State and our 24/7 realities:
- Foundation representatives attending The Annual Conference of the Communications Network in San Diego
- The Republican and Democratic party presidential contests
- Mass killings from gun violence
Private wealth in the United States is provided with an opportunity of our tax code to shelter and minimize their wealth from substantial taxation by placing portions or most of their wealth that would be taxed at significant high tax rates, into foundations they can create under special provisions of our tax laws. The section most used is 501(c) 3 of our Internal Revenue Code.
Charitable corporate foundations in our country represent $ 358.38-billion dollars. Their collective donation of funds presumably in the implementation of their respective “Mission Statements” constitute .02 percent of the $17.9 trillion First Quarter 2015 of our GDP (gross domestic product). Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany, countries with smaller populations and GDPs donate a significantly larger percentage of their GDPs to address their various social, educational, and economic problems.
Donor foundations have “Mission Statements,” which provide generic and specific guidelines to be followed by those persons administering and managing the wealth that has been placed with them to shield it from high taxation
What I heard and observed at the Communication Conference Network’s annual meeting was often an “uncertain,” and, sometimes, times timid trumpet of advocacy by foundation administrators and managers for the application of funds entrusted to them for implementation of their respective donor “Mission Statements.”
Those apparent “timid trumpet” advocacies are not too dissimilar to “strict constructionists” members of our Supreme Court, Justices Alito, Scalia, and Thomas. Their interpretation of our Second Amendment Constitutional “right to bear arms” in the 21st century prohibits any limitation on the use and ownership of an assault automatic rifle and their high capacity magazine for reloading bullets. The Second Amendment is THEIR “Mission Statement.”
The Boards of Trustee and Executive Management of other foundations seek to interpret their foundations’ Mission Statements in response to the 2015 severity and magnitude of our current social, economic, and educational problems.
The “jury is still out” to determine whether or not the collective and aggregate wealth of foundations TODAY has been or is being allocated and targeted to achieve any significant remedial difference in resolving these problems. Hopefully, by next year’s Communications Network Conference in Detroit, we will be able to measure such results, if any.
Now, how do we navigate between the “Altered” Universe of our Republican and Democratic Presidential Primary Contests?
Among Republicans, in the absence of some extraordinary game changing event or public statement during the forthcoming various State primaries it appears more likely than not that Donald Trump could be the Republican nominee If this occurs, it will be a powerful statement of the widespread alienation and disaffection on the part of a major segment of the Republican party electorate.
However, the “below the radar” statement of a possible Trump victory may be the role of how effective or ineffective post Citizens United Supreme Court case campaign money has been in determining the outcome of these primary elections.
Few national issues reflect the challenges confronting our country today than that of our 24/7 existential gun violence. The above reference to the strict constructionists approach to the ownership and use of guns in our country is illustrative of the challenge we face in navigating between an “Altered State” and our current real world universe.
There are more guns in America than there are people.
I have tweeted that Americans ownership and use of guns to resolve the inevitable disputes between persons in our society has been and is conditioned by our daily use of video games and our frequent watching of multiple TV shows and movies in which the use of guns repeatedly occurs.
No meaningful change will occur in the reduction of deaths from gun violence UNLESS EVERY CONCERNED person is registered to vote. Such person must then actually vote for Congressional representatives who commit themselves to enact legislation that will place some form of accountability on gun manufacturers AND limit the sale, ownership and use of guns to only those persons who can pass a background check.
Whether or not any of the above can be achieved will depend upon the extent to which we believe and act upon the belief THAT WE ARE THE ONES THAT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR. This should be OUR compass as WE seek to navigate between an “Altered” State Universe and the real world in which we live.
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Navigating Between the Parallel Altered State Universe and Reality
