The candidate published the following statement on September 19, 2001 at the Paradigm Research Group website.   One year later the main points raised remain to be determined.

The nations response to this extreme act of political terrorism will have far more consequence than the event itself.   There is a great opportunity to reestablish trust in governance by U.S. citizens and foreign states.

As often stated, the business of America is business.   But the honor of America is justice and fairness for all people and nations.   It is essential the response of this nation to the political murder of September 11 not tarnish that honor.   

The American people have acted with extraordinary compassion and circumspection to this provocation.   Via unprecedented media coverage, the world has witnessed a great and good people at their best and now awaits the actions of the government that represents and serves these people.

Let the response be so wise in its execution, so fair in its application, so just in its outcome, the billions of the world's inhabitants who mean America no harm and look to it for guidance and support, will have their belief in America's values and intentions reaffirmed.

The most valuable currency in this century will not be the dollar, or Euro, gold and silver, or microchips - it will be trust.   Any nation that has it and builds it will be able to pursue the hopes and dreams of its citizens.   Any action or policy that diminishes it, diminishes us all.

Paradigm Research Group Update – September 19, 2001  

The "War on
Drugs" and the
Criminalizing
of America

In the 1970's Andy Warhol made a prediction, "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes."  It became the anthem for the celebrification of the culture.   Here's another, "In the future, everyone will go to prison for 15 minutes."  Let it be the anthem for the criminalizing of America.

As of April 10 of this year the U.S. combined prison population reached 1.965 million inmates.  One in 145 Americans is now in prison.   This is notable as it makes the United States number one - the highest incarceration rate in the world - just edging out our new friend and old enemy, Russia.  Why is this?  Three words - war on drugs.

The "war on drugs" is and has been a social disaster in America.  First and foremost, the word "war" should be held in reserve for the launching of ballistic missiles against another nation, the landing at Inchon, the response to Pearl Harbor - not social policy.   It is time for Congress to stop making war on the American people.   The "war on drugs," "war on crime," "war on poverty,"- this is simpleminded policy making.  As an adjunct, it would also be helpful if no more "Czars" are ever appointed to head any agency of government ever again.

It is not the government's business what private citizens wish to put into their bodies in the privacy of their homes or the homes of their friends.   It is a fundamental invasion of privacy and an abuse of power.  If this awful testament to arrogance and social engineering is not terminated, soon every American on a regular basis, including children, will be peeing into a cup on command.

The "war on drugs" has destroyed inner city families across the nation; criminalized ethnic minorities; created a funding vehicle for a vast array of criminal groups including terrorist organizations; undermined trust in government; prompted the invasion of countries and the spraying of other nation's crops by U.S. personnel; corrupted the police, the ATF, the FBI and the CIA; disrupted U.S. foreign policy; created an almost totalitarian entity, the DEA; and wasted untold billions of taxpayer dollars.    And that is just for openers.

The white middle class has repeatedly supported pandering politicians as they used this "war" to gather votes.  Racist elements in American society supported this "war" as it produced increasing levels of "black-on-black" violence.   For these elements, when a black man shoots to death another black man, it's a two-for-one, one dead and one in prison for life.  

When underclass kids with a fraction of middle class opportunities turn to drug selling for money, they are removed from society via incarceration.    But as the "war on drugs" has advanced, the turrets of the big guns aimed at the inner city are slowly turning and will soon have increasing numbers of the sons and daughters of the white middle class in their sights.  (Note: drug use is higher in white suburbia, where criminal prosecution is least - for now.)

This madness must end.  Courageous politicians such as Republican Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico, former Democratic Mayor of Baltimore, Kurt Schmoke and others such as conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. have called for the end to this "war."  But until there are more members of Congress willing to put the nation's welfare ahead of their political careers and challenge this policy, it will continue.

Let's be clear.  It is the public's business if anyone using drugs is driving on public roads, flying planes in the public airspace, conducting brain surgery, driving a school bus and other such circumstances - there are many.  Those laws will and must remain.  But those laws are not ripping apart American society.  It has been estimated that one in seven Americans now has a criminal record.

In the wake of the legalizing or de-criminalizing of banned substances, the billions of "drug war" dollars would be shifted to medical treatment, rehabilitation, education, research, prisoner reintroduction, parole programs and other constructive societal options.  

The cost to society every time a citizen becomes a felon is enormous.   Apprehension, investigation, trial, incarceration (often higher per year than attending Harvard University), loss of productivity, loss of voting rights, single parent families, and much more, drain money from productive programs and tax payer pockets.  Creating felons due to bad social policy and bad law is not a luxury the nation can afford.

Since 1975, every time the United States has sent troops into any foreign circumstance, whatever the reason, critics would always raise the question, "Is this another Viet Nam?"   Fortunately, for all such instances, the answer has been, "no."    Unfortunately, since 1975 America has indeed been immersed in another Viet Nam - it is the "war on drugs."

These issues have considerable impact on the critical matter of trust in government.

Any citizen should properly ask, “If a government can’t even secure the borders of the nation, what good is it?”  Failure to secure the borders of the United States between Mexico and Canada is eroding trust in government and preventing the implementation of a range of policies.   The border between the U.S. and Mexico is a farce.  The border between the U.S. and Canada is much more of a problem then the public generally understands.  

Politically conservative Americans and landowners across the Southwest are angry at the wholesale incursions of illegal immigrants across the southern border.  Politically progressive Americans are upset over the treatment of legal and illegal immigrants and want support structures and amnesty programs. 

But the failure to secure the U.S./Mexican border has made it impossible for the right and left to come together and make good policy.  The southern border of the United States must be made secure - whatever it takes.  If this means more and bigger fences, walls, expanded border security personnel, national guard, so be it.  Once this has been accomplished, the prospect for broad policy agreements improve.    Work visa programs, amnesty programs, support services, and most importantly, trade and economic assistance to Mexico, become much easier to legislate.

Unfortunately, this pair of issues is another example where good policy is deliberately suspended in the interest of bad politics.   The political left sees illegal  immigration as a source of new voters.    Corporate supporters of the political right want the cheap labor and see the porous southern border as a dependable drum to beat at election time.

It's time to put politics aside and do what is right - secure borders, fair immigration policy, fair political asylum policy, and aggressive economic cooperation with a major trading partner.

The 1947 partitioning of the Middle East was a well-intentioned mistake driven by well earned Western guilt over the abysmal treatment of  Jews and the Jewish faith.    A half-century ago the indigenous Arab peoples of the Middle East were viewed as weak and irrelevant to Western concerns.   Whatever upset would be caused would damp out.  That did not happen.   Fifty-five years later the world is far more dangerous.  Now this conflict, which has defied all manner of solutions, could be catastrophic if not resolved.   Time is running out.

Only a solution which transcends the previous thinking has any chance of holding over time.   Here is one such proposal.  The Middle East will have to be partitioned one more time, and all parties - the Western World, the Arab World, the Palestinians, the Israelis and the United Nations - would sign off on this new partition.  The Palestinian state would be fully contiguous and have its fair share of access to the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan.   The Israeli state would have its fair share of coastal and river access, would be fully contiguous, and have defensible borders.  

Massive financial and material aid from the West and Arab World would be provided to assist the transition and begin the process toward economic parity.   The fairness of this partition - as viewed from the present, not the past - would make possible the complete dismantlement of the Palestinian resistance organizations with full cooperation from the Arab World.  International peace keeping assistance, notable by its lack of either Arab or United States personnel, would be employed to assist in maintaining stability while the transition to peace is completed.

Jerusalem, a critical part of three of the World's major religions, would be declared an international city, would be managed by a tribunal of Arab, Christian and Jewish officials, would be declared an arms free city with no weapons permitted save for the small arms of public safety officers, and would or would not be the capital of the two states as the principal parties wish.

Any candidate who considers this proposal to be naive and unworkable, should put forward their own proposal.   The cost, which some might think exorbitant, should be judged against the cost to all parties when the inevitable nuclear or other WMD event occurs in this region, and the real "clash of civilizations" begins. 

The single most powerful factor affecting the well being of humans and the planet upon which they live is population level.   The failure of society to overcome political, racial, ethnic and religious division and find consensus on population management is perhaps the greatest tragedy in all of history.   More suffering, deprivation and social unrest will result from this failure than all other factors combined.

As of 1900 world population stood at 1.7 billion people.  A century of technological innovations lay ahead, which, if applied to the needs of that number in steady state, could have led to a relative paradise on earth.  Instead, new technology, when not being applied to the art of war, was used as an excuse to justify more people.   By the end of the century population had reached 6 billion - what had taken 3 million years to achieve, had been duplicated 250% in 100 years.

In December 2000, just after the election, the National Intelligence Council, a subgroup of the CIA, issued a report titled Global Trends 2015.  It projects a population of 7 billion and the consequences.   It is a horror story.   

It gets worse.   Other reports such as the UN's State of World Population 1999, project a figure of  9-10 billion by 2050.  This number was met with relief by many worried the figure WOULD BE HIGHER!   Their relief is wasted.  They forgot to take into account this projection is NET of infant mortality and adult premature deaths from starvation and disease.   The amount of suffering embedded in this net projection is beyond description.

Where are American politicians on this matter?   The Democrat and Republican parties have nothing to say on population control in their platforms.  The candidates run form the subject, petrified.   The U.S. Congress is mute.   The United States has gone out of its way since 1980 to undermine the United Nations and other world bodies which might have influence on building population reduction consensus.  In short. there is no political will and a complete abrogation of leadership.

Population will make moot most, if not all, of the social programs of the next 100 years.  Trillions of dollars will be invested to improve the common good, only to see any short term gains eliminated by human proliferation.

World population can be contained and reduced without human rights violations and within the norms of international law.  But it will take global cooperation, and the UN will have to lead.  Until representatives are elected to the Congress with the courage to address this matter, the United States will fail as a leader on the most important factor

Some source links:

Bread for the World, Inc.

International Facts on Hunger and Poverty
In developing countries, one child in 10 dies before his fifth birthday. By comparison, in the United States one child in 165 will die before turning five years old. (UNICEF).....

Each day in the developing world, 30,500 children die from preventable diseases such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections or malaria. Malnutrition is associated with over half of those deaths. (UNICEF, World Health Organization).....

In the last 50 years, almost 400 million people worldwide have died from hunger and poor sanitation, according to the report. That's three times the number of people killed in all wars fought in the entire 20th century. (Bread for the World, Inc.)....

WHO Press Release - May 9, 2002

5,500 children die daily from pollution-related diseases
9 May 2002 | New York, Nairobi, Geneva | Every day 5,500 children die from diseases caused by consuming water and food polluted with bacteria, according to a new study released by three United Nations agencies. The report, Children in the New Millennium: Environmental Impact on Health, shows that children are the greatest victims of environmental degradation. It is being released as part of the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children.......

World Children's Center
The State of Food and Agriculture - Food and  Agriculture  Organization of the United Nations,  Rome, 2000
Windstar Foundation
Starvation.Net
World Health Organization

The oppression of women around the world is one of the great issues of this century to be resolved.   That a considerable portion of the human race is restrained, confined, hidden, undereducated by design, enslaved, physically abused on matters exclusive to gender (honor killings, clitorectomies, forced prostitution), underpaid and disenfranchised, is a huge barrier to a fair and just community of nations.   The candidate's view as to the critical importance of the empowerment of women within and outside the United States to the short and long term prospects of the planet can be best considered by reviewing a column written in August of 2000 titled "Women."

1. Does it harm the welfare of children within or outside the United States?  
2. Does it harm the welfare of poor, disadvantaged peoples within or outside the U.S?.  
3. Does it harm the environment within or outside the United States?  
4. Does it reduce trust in the United States of America?  

The answer to these four questions must be “no.”   Otherwise, such legislation should be reformed,  revoked or not passed into law.  

The Cuban embargo fails this test on points 1, 2 and 4.   Moreover it is failed policy.  It was and is economic revenge imposed by the United States over the Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs.  It should have been repealed no later than 1992 with the end of the Cold War.   Economic embargos against entire nations are very blunt ideological weapons with far too much collateral damage.  There are rare exceptions, but Cuba is not one of them.

The candidate supports the work of the 44-member bipartisan congressional caucus - the "Cuba Working Group" - pushing for reducing and perhaps ending the embargo in the interest of the Cuban people.

Pro-Choice vs.
Pro-Life

and

Pro 2nd
Amendment
vs. Pro-Gun Control

Since 1973 these two ideological struggles have consumed more money, ink and human passion than any other issue in American life.  All of this to maintain the status quo.  During this period over 40 million abortions have taken place in the U.S.  Each year another 40+ million abortions take place worldwide, over 1 million in the U.S.

Also during this period, nearly 1 million gun deaths occurred in the U.S.  Each year another 30+ thousand gun deaths occur, 17 thousand of these being suicides (another kind of choice).  

The media feast on these struggles with their extremist sound bites and rigid positions.  The politicians simply calculate the demographics of their arena, choose sides based upon the net votes to be derived, and then pander their way into office.  Once in office no real effort is required since the proponents are in ideological rigor mortis.  

The majority of the American people are weary of these standoffs.  What they want are fewer abortions and fewer gun deaths, and one way or the other, the organizations arrayed against each other will have to convert their passion to compromise and work together to get results.  

For this process to begin in earnest, two realities must be faced: 1) pro-life adherents must accept that Roe vs. Wade is not going to be revoked and 2) pro-gun control adherents must accept that the 2nd Amendment is not going to be repealed and is what it is - the Constitutional right to bear arms - and wishful thinking and strained interpretations are not going to change the wording.

If the money and time being expended by all parties were redirected toward common sense programs drawing upon the deep resourcefulness of the American people, unwanted pregnancies and gun deaths can be reduced dramatically.  There have been attempts to find common ground, but they have not had traction and have faded under the media and political exploitation of these issues.   The Congress must lead to renew these efforts.

If abortions and gun deaths were reduced by one half, it would be a profound moral and humane accomplishment, and it is doable.  Maintaining Promethean struggles and all-or-nothing ideologies for their own sake is no accomplishment at all.     

The answer to this mess was and is universal coverage for all Americans, single payer, with layers of add-on coverage available through employers and catastrophic coverage backed by the government.   Such a system built around a strong emphasis on preventative medicine and public awareness would save billions of dollars.  

The United States is the most powerful wealth creating society in the history of the world.   It is time to stop playing politics with the health and well being of millions of children.   If money is there for aircraft carriers, space weapons and savings and loan bailouts, it is there for the public health.    The current patchwork, Rube Goldbergian approach is wasting time and money.  It is only good for creating vote getting opportunities for political candidates more interested in winning office then serving.   

Universal healthcare combined with malpractice tort reform should move to the top of the list of social priorities.     

  
It is not appropriate for the federal government to dictate how a religion is practiced.  However, when the practice of any religion becomes a destructive force acting upon the secular interests of a nation's citizens, the government has a right and a duty to address that fact.   When the Catholic Church failed to deal with  long developing sexual abuse practices of its priests, it violated the laws of the land.  The victims and the public have a right to redress.   

However, those who are angered and pained by these crimes, should consider this: the position of the Catholic Church toward birth control has resulted in a level of human suffering which dwarfs the suffering of these sexual victims.   Hundreds of millions of unwanted and unsupported children have owed their existence and their suffering to this policy.  Tens of millions of abortions have resulted.   Entire nations have been committed to nearly unredeemable economic circumstance.  And the world population level now literally threatens the biosphere itself.

It is time for the Catholic Church to bring its religious doctrine into the 21st Century by permitting marriage among it priests and permitting women to be priests.  This would alleviate the extreme shortage of clerics which motivated foolishly keeping aberent priests.  It is also time to end its opposition to birth control.  The government cannot force these changes, but has every right to point out the secular consequences of these doctrines.

The Catholic Church is one of the most influential  institutions in the world.  Whatever its short comings, and all great institutions have them, it is a powerful force for good.  It is the largest dispenser of charity in America. It is also the most sophisticated religion in the world as regards posture towards extraterrestrial life and is quite ready to deal with a post-disclosure world.

The doctrine changes mentioned will only serve to make the Church stronger and more relevant in these complex and challenging times.

One very interesting aspect of becoming acquainted with the evidence for an extraterrestrial presence is that one is prodded to view the human race collectively as a species.  This can be a disturbing exercise (see World Population).

In a world where 800 million people are seriously undernourished and doomed to early death, tens of thousands of children die every day from starvation or pollution, are loaned into servitude for a few dollars, and where women are oppressed by the hundreds of millions, why animal rights?

Because it is an inevitable extension of a process of ethical evolution deriving from origins still not understood.  Humans are as capable of caring for animals as each other, and the growing acknowledgment of this is part of a developing expansion of human compassion.    This is a trend to be embraced, not repressed.

A society willing to tolerate the often grotesque aspects of  factory farming of animals,* the worst of animal experimentation or any sort of stomach-turning treatment of animals is much like the family who tolerates the pre-serial killer child within it who tortures the neighbor's cats for pleasure.  "What harm could it do?"   Callousness and cruelty are contagious, whatever the source.

The candidate would offer two points of interest:

1. The animal rights movement must more closely and publicly align itself with the human rights movement, the champions for preventing animal suffering more closely and publicly align with those who address human suffering, in order to further capture the public's support and attention.
      

2. The coming act of formal disclosure of an extraterrestrial presence will have a profound impact on the way in which humans view the animal kingdom.   Humans will go from being self-appointed lords atop the animal world to members of a larger continuum - one in which there are many entities with much higher S.A.T. scores.  And should  formal contact take place at some point after formal disclosure, what might the human race learn from advanced beings about the true nature of consciousness and sentience throughout the animal spectrum?

*Note: McDonald's Corporation  recently reassessed the factory farming procedures it finds acceptable by its contractors, and demanded more humane conditions.   If a mainstream corporation like McDonald's can do this, all American corporations can do this. 

Development of automotive fuels from crops is very bad policy.   It is absolutely unacceptable to utilize fertile soils and agricultural resources to grow crops to stick in automobile gas tanks,  when worldwide 15,000 children die each day from malnutrition related causes.  It sends the wrong message to the second and third world, that America is more concerned about gasoline than the lives of children.   The government should in no way support the development of automotive fuel from crops and should discourage this concept.  Instead, programs to increase the purchase of American farm products for worldwide distribution to countries in need, along with programs to encourage the resting of over used top soils, should be expanded.

The family farm is being eliminated as a way of life in America.   This must not be allowed to happen.   In general, U.S. farm policy has created a jury rigged farm industry and artificial business model.  Farm and food industry subsidies (milk, sugar, tobacco, etc.) are offensive to many Americans and send the wrong message to the second and third world.     

Subsidies to giant agri-corporations with fat bottom lines are particularly offensive.  Subsidies create artificially low prices which giant agri-corporations can deal with much better than small farmers.   Subsidies to corporate farms should end.  Subsidies to food industries should end.   The money going into family farm subsidies should be converted to small farm development funds to help new family farms get off the ground, research into sustainable farming techniques, support for cooperative buying and other efficiencies of scale, loans and loan guarantees.

The restructuring of electoral districts based upon little more than partisan politics is old paradigm and the voting public is growing tired of it.   The proposed plan for the 8th District of Maryland has one purpose and one purpose only - to defeat Connie Morella.   The interests of the voters and the communities took a back seat to a blatant power move by the State Democrats.  Of course, both parties continue to gerrymander, which has contributed to an increase in independent registrations.   Disclosure2003 is another opportunity for gerrymandered voters to register their displeasure.