I'd Much Rather Laugh! Preferisco Ridere!: How You Can Save America from Ridicule and Ruin

By Vincent Licitra

Do not read this book if you are weak, scared, or otherwise indifferent to the world around you. Put this book down if you could care less about America and Americans or if you tire easily, are distracted quickly and would rather be superficially entertained while consuming a large bucket of popcorn. Stay away if you are content with your lot in life or do not believe in the power of love or the ability of the underdog to overcome hatred and evil intent on pressing down on the lives of your fellow man. Dont pick this book up because it can impact your world in ways you may not be prepared to experience.

This is a story of my life as I've lived it, and as I've come to see all things including: struggle, envy, scorn, individualism, prejudice and politics. The future must be confronted for it is always but one second removed from the present. Prepare to face your destiny and live a little.

If you are still in possession of this written material, let me thank you for being at least willing to think outside the box, for examining the possibility of being willing to live outside the box, and perhaps for participating in a movement to utterly destroy the box we've all been placed in, which, in its current set up, permits not the realization of American democracy. God Speed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479739813

Vincent Licitra

Vincent Licitra was a 5-year member of the NYCHA PD and a 12-year member of the NYPD. He also served in the USMC. As a convergence thinker, a Roman Catholic, a junior and senior college graduate and a father of two young daughters he seeks nothing more than to help and see America move toward a greater awareness of its future prosperity through honest introspection.

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Copyright © 2013 by Vincent Licitra.

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Nation as Sequoiadendron giga

Chapter 2 Do We, the People, Really Have a Place at the Table of Democracy? A Citizen Is Born as the Country Struggles Forward

Chapter 3 Some Facts That Need Saying!

Chapter 4 Take a Stand

Chapter 5 What Do You Think? Yes, You!

Chapter 6 The Past Is Present

Chapter 7 The New Global Quagmire: Nixon and China

Chapter 8 When Less Is More

Chapter 9 Let’s Get Back to Families

Chapter 10 Can We Cheat Our Way Back to Prosperity?

Chapter 11 Onward toward Civility

Chapter 12 Are We There Yet? History Can Guide Us!

Chapter 13 What Is, What Has Been, and What Must Be Done!

Conclusion

Recommended reading/viewing/listening

Addendum

Endnotes

Dedicated to Giovanna and Maria

While leaning into destiny,

Let us all take one long look in the mirror.

History teaches us about so many things. Science teaches us about many, many other important things. But people teach us nearly all we need to know about ourselves. The elderly among us can and do teach us about ourselves and possibilities that we may expect in later life. The young teach us things we may have forgotten and, at times, things we never even knew to begin with. My daughter listened as I explained a bit about evolution as being a seed that sprouted, then grew leaves on a stem, and finally, the flower bloomed. We had just read this in her reading comprehension workbook, and she herself placed the stages in order. As I proceeded a bit further on evolution, she interrupted me to say, So, Daddy, we’re in the flower. A tear comes to my eye when I think on it, even now as I type it down. I thought for a second or two and said, That’s right, love, we’re in the flower. The young can learn and teach: My two beautiful daughters, my two flowers within the flower.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I  would like to thank all my friends throughout the years. Thanks for all the many laughs. To the members of the Societa’ Figli di Ragusa Inc. di Brooklyn, New York, Fondata in Febbraio 1935 (cc), thanks for the laughter and the chance to listen to the melodious Sicilian language. A special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Corallo and Rudy Corallo, shining examples of friendship taken to a whole other level. To my uncle George (may he rest in peace with my aunt Maria), who was like another father and protector to our family. He was funny, extremely skilled, insightful, and totally dedicated to la famiglia . And to the Tumino brothers, Emmanuele and Carmelo (May they rest in peace), both of them hardworking, funny, kind, and generous Sicilians who came to America, adopted, and lived the dream. Also Mr. Vincenzo Burrafato, a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. Thanks to the Pennisi family who are shining examples of caring and compassion. Also, thanks to my friends from Sicily and to my relatives who have helped keep me connected to humanity insomuch as they’ve helped broaden my horizons to my benefit and joy. To my best friends, Frank Pennisi and his wife, Patrice Cottrel, who stood by me always, and to Jesus Christ, who, as my best friends, always reflect to me and so many others through their good deeds, helping me push forward. A special thanks to my dearly departed father, Frank whom I love in as deep a way as the love I have for my departed mother Giovanna. Their love is why I walk this earth and have ultimately come to write these things which follow. I’d also like to thank some wonderful neighbors who offered valuable insight upon reading this work, Mr. and Mrs. John Faherty. I am equally grateful to my cousin Frank Licitra both for his help and inspiration, as he too has written a fantastic book in collaboration with a NYC fireman on the events of 9/11. Thanks also to Gaetano Cipolla, PhD, president and editor of Sicilia Parra , the official newsletter of Arba Sicula Inc., an international organization promoting the language and culture of Sicily for over thirty years—an entirely and qualitatively much better way to understand Sicilians than Hollywood’s often prejudicial and rather dumbed-down version, which only perpetuates false myths. All that is written is my responsibility and no one else’s; I hope that I’ve been fair and followed the Holy Spirit as closely as I could through a sense of inspiration in which that same inspiration drives my love for my family, my fellow man, my country, my Sicilian/Italian culture, and our God. Finally, I’d like to thank everyone I’ve ever spoken with, argued with, everyone who has brushed by me or bumped against me with or without saying Excuse me. I’d like to thank everyone who has been rude and/or courteous to me. You all have taught me important lessons. I have often heard so many of the things I’ve written about spoken to me by others, as if they were speaking back to me my own thoughts—even right up to this day. Let me apologize to anyone that I’ve been rude to, whether knowingly or otherwise. God bless America and the world.

PREFACE

I n 1989 as I watched, along with the world, the collapse of the Soviet Union and their brand of communism, I wondered to myself and later gave voice to my thoughts by saying to a few close friends that in one hundred years’ time, as communism fell, so too will capitalism fall. Predominantly or chiefly, the way capitalism has been practiced, for much of its history certainly, gives every indication that it cannot continue indefinitely. But things are slowly changing. So the question is, can the change that is afoot catch up with and surpass the widespread decay of our democracy and our brand of capitalism? But, you say, what does the one, capitalism, have to do with the other, democracy? Much more than can be explained in so many words, but to try in a word—everything. It is as abstract as supply and demand. Will our democracy grow in sync with our capitalistic tendencies; and will our capitalistic desires realign, redeploy, shift, and finally advance inextricably toward our true democratic ideals? Or will our preference for money by far outweigh our desire to be a free democratic champion of, by, and for the people?

Survival of the fittest in society is quite contrary to the survival of the individual or the family unit in a civilized culture. Which of the above two will exert the greater authority over American civilization? Which offers a better road forward while also contributing to the advancement of American hegemony? Is one road better to achieve these ends because it is less boastful while the other road can often be surmised to be born of arrogance?

The underdogs in American society, those who do not seek out praise, are the most valuable part and must play as pivotal a role for any future progress to occur in this country just as they’ve played in the past. Are you one of these unsung heroes? Most citizens are in this category, whether knowingly or not and deserve a just politic. Over the decades, American public policy has thinned the ranks of those most needed to lead this wholesome majority. As politically driven programs destroy innovation and innovators alike, serving only the interests of the power-elite, untold millions of Americans become a drag on themselves, their families, and a drain on the larger society. There are still those in all walks of life with the potential to thrust this society toward the next great revolution of the republic.

Follow along on a journey of exploration into my life, capitalism, democracy, and the decay of our national coat of armor. Like the knight who walks out onto the battlefield yet wishes the fight that must be fought could somehow, and in some reasonable way, be resolved, we Americans must put away childish thoughts and face our destiny. Hopefully, I’ll be able to enlist you into a movement to save America from ridicule and ruin while we all have a few indispensable laughs in the process.

INTRODUCTION

I t has happened in our nation’s past that political parties have come into and gone out of existence. Everyone knows this. But the time has come when our two dominant parties must be taken down a notch or two, and we must disunite from them before our nation suffers just such a fate. Admittedly, not everyone will be in agreement with this. Hence, this book is in your hands. It will require each one of us to acquire a level of self-command that I believe folds in nicely with the civil aspect of the discussion which follows. Unlike the atom that will appose with most everything, we, the people, should oppose the dominant parties who overweigh our democracy and overwork this republic, causing a muddle and a sham of our politics. Its sham politics, and it must end with one fatal blow at the presidency in the manner that I have prescribed. * Do not let the man dissuade you with something personally beneficial to you yet ultimately disadvantageous to your progeny. If you agree, then do what you must, and maybe I will see you at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

What you will find within these pages will be a serious, sober, and sometimes shocking look at our country as viewed by myself over the course of my life. I will jump into events of my life and back out to events in American political and social culture, looking to draw the reader’s attention to the direct interconnection between our level of participation or nonparticipation in civic society. This failure in our society, we must all realize, is both a failure of the system, which has been manipulated until it is unrecognizable, as well as a failure in ourselves; the responsibility cannot be shifted or outsourced. Outsourcing is a common-enough business practice and increasingly a common political strategy to avoid the hard work of governing. It will not apply to my premise nor this discussion, except where I point out that far too many citizens are outsourcing their right to decide (their opinions) to others whom they would rather decide such things for them.† Term limits is a major focus of mine, but first we must tackle an even greater impediment to our survival, and that is the two-party system, which has outlasted its usefulness.

If you stay with me long enough, then you may begin to realize that what I propose within these pages is not as grandiose as imagined. But you must be ready, willing, and able to do your part for your family’s future as well as for your own. You can play a significant part in reshaping this land to better reflect what you would like your progeny to see fifty years hence. I hope that I can convince all of you that, yes, you must do what you can to achieve a better future for your families and, in the process, help save America from ridicule and ruin.

Finally, I want the reader to rest assured that there are, at any given moment in time, great successes occurring in this land of ours and throughout the world that are recognizable to some, invisible to others. People who manage to think out of the box and challenge commonly accepted principles often reveal new perspectives that create opportunity for progress of a kind beneficial to many while being detrimental only to status quo wishers. With that in mind, this book, from a structural standpoint, seeks to challenge in some small way conventional writing practices. By incorporating any relevant notes directly into the text as the work progresses, this book allows the reader to comfortably gloss over any personally interesting expansion of the writing while remaining engaged in the main body of the text. While it may prove distracting to some readers, I trust that others will find it useful to quickly refer to annotations close by, when and where they occur. I kindly ask any reader who finds this approach objectionable, to endure any discomfort, move forward to the end of any inserted notes, and continue as best you can.

One last point, for the reader who looks at the cover and sees nothing to laugh at, I say bravo. You recognize that certain things in this life are a matter of life and death, require courage to overcome fear and paralysis, and are clear obstacles to civil advancement of any kind. Therefore, it is to you I say keep in mind the word accretion as to what I would wish from each and every one of us in the advancement of American individualism as well as our democratic destiny.

*The route to our nation’s highest elective office, the presidency, needs to be widened to an extent that all but excludes our two dominant parties who have performed in a way undeserving of the people’s confidence. In putting forth candidates who lessen the prestige of that office and failing to put forth an agenda to capture a majority of the people’s consensus and imagination, both parties need to be rebuked.

†This phenomena is much discussed over our history as a nation and, more recently, in a lively written book by David Sirota called Back to Our Future. See pages 50-51 for a quick indication of this increasingly deviant occurrence in the civic life of a nation of followers who refuse to do the groundwork of securing our democracy.

The following are important definitions taken from Funk & Wagnall’s New Comprehensive International Dictionary of the English Language, Deluxe Edition. I include these so the reader can readily refer to them as needed to clearly understand any meanings and usage of these terms in the text.

democracy, noun (plural: democracies)

1. A theory of government which, in its purest form, holds that the state should be controlled by all the people, each sharing equally in privileges, duties, and responsibilities and each participating in person in the government, as in the city-states of ancient Greece. In practice, control is vested in elective officers as representatives who may be upheld or removed by the people.

2. A government so conducted; a state so governed; the mass of the people

3. Political, legal, or social equality

democratic, adj

1. Of or pertaining to democracy or a democracy; characterized by the fact, spirit, or principles of popular government

2. Pertaining to or characteristic of any democratic party

3. Tending to level social distinctions; practicing social equality; not snobbish

Democratic Party

One of the two major political parties in the United States, dating from 1828

Republican Party

1. One of the two major political parties of the United States, founded in 1854 in opposition to the extension of slavery

2. The political party founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1792; full name: Democratic-Republican Party. One of its several factions became, in 1828, the present Democratic Party.

Republic, noun

1. A state in which the sovereignty resides in the people or a certain portion of the people, and the legislative and administrative powers are lodged in officers elected by and representing the people; a representative democracy; applied to almost every form of government except kingdoms, empires, and dictatorships

2. A community of persons working freely in or devoted to the same cause; the republic of letters

republican, adj

Pertaining to, of the nature of, or suitable for a republic; agreeable to the nature of a republic; also, of or pertaining to any party supporting republican government

Republican, noun

One who advocates or upholds a republican form of government or belongs to a party upholding republican government; one who believes in equality and liberty

freedom, noun

1. Exemption or liberation from slavery or imprisonment

2. Exemption from political restraint or autocratic control; independence

3. Liberty of choice or action

4. Philosophy: the state of the will as the first cause of human actions; self-determination in rational beings

liberty, noun (plural: liberties)

1. The state of being exempt from domination of others or from restricting circumstances; freedom

2. The possession and exercise of the right of self-government

3. The power of voluntary choice

civil liberty

Freedom of the individual citizen from government control, restraint of, or interference with, his property, opinions, or affairs, except as the public good may require

individual liberty

Freedom from restraint in the performance of rights outside of government control

political liberty

The right to participate in the election of rulers and the making and administration of law

civic

Of or pertaining to a city, a citizen, or citizenship; civil

civics

The science of government

civil

1. Observing the social proprieties; decently polite; not rude

2. Of or pertaining to civil or everyday life: distinguished from ecclesiastical, naval, military

3. Pertaining to citizens or to the state or to relations between the citizens and the state or between citizens as regulated by law; belonging to private legal rights; established by law: distinguished from criminal, political, or natural: civil rights

4. Occurring within the state or between citizens; intestine: civil war

5. In accordance with the requirements of civilization; civilized

6. Of or pertaining to civil law

See civil law. See synonyms under polite.

—civilly (adverb)

Imagination, consensus. You can do your small part in this endeavor by looking up the definition of these two words. Even if you may know these meanings, it is helpful to review some things we take for granted, and by doing so here, you may find you increase your willingness to do something more after reading this book. Thank you.

Therefore let us say with the Apostle, ‘I would not that I should glory save in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ.’

Saint Fransis of Assisi

CHAPTER 1

The Nation as

Sequoiadendron giganteum

A merica is in turmoil, occasionally very visibly, yet more often the evidence of this turmoil is anecdotal, subconscious; and it suffers from an illness akin to a cancer that, left untreated, will in all likelihood overcome it one day. We, the people, are the cause, some of us some of the time; and we are the cure, most of us, if we resolve ourselves to do what we must. My aim is to get individual Americans—rich, poor, or otherwise—to do an about-face voluntarily for the good of the nation. ¹ My approach to our nation’s problems, as I see them, was not to write ad nauseam about past events, much more abundant than any of us can stand to remember, which constantly demonstrate major structural deficiencies with our governing body as we find it to be and as it exists today in the eyes of the people. ² Here I am not only talking about those elected officials who rise up to take hold of both the power and the purse of our highest institutions, quickly lose their way whether intentionally or otherwise, and thus run afoul of their constitutionally mandated duties, but also those officials who are nominated or put into positions with equal or greater authority in some cases. ³ What I attempt to convey herein is the concurrence of our national events—past, present, future—and our individual lives or mine.

So my approach is instead to construct a mirror to my life through which we all can gaze out onto our national landscape and witness the lives and the styles and the choices we are making or failing to make, which result in today’s democracy gone astray; or as many think, though they will not bring themselves to say, that our democracy has become something strange. And when a democracy becomes like a stranger to the very people within that democracies purview then a big problem exists. At this point some of you just might be asking the question Who is this guy? Or as they quite naturally would have said in Brooklyn, New York, back in my day, if you could picture in your head the correct Brooklyn/Italian accent, Whosh thish guyi? Well, I began to ponder just that same question myself, and what follows is at least part of an answer. If you are with me so far then let’s move forward.

Our nation could be viewed as a growing tree—a sequoia*, if you like, as I in fact do, having a common center. Our national goals should be concentric to support the healthy growth and age of our sequoia, and the branches are our fifty states, or if you’d like to consider the sequoia grove where there are many trees of varying size and age, that’s fine also. The bark can represent all our individual freedoms that spark our effort toward personal goals for happiness. A tree, however, consists of more than what is visible, and so the roots are the route through which all those benefits accrue to the citizens as a result of our efforts and our united civilization. A sequoia can grow to such heights partly because the roots grab hold of the roots of the other sequoias in the grove to create a strong support structure for one and all.† These roots draw to the tree or people and the nation as a whole that which it needs to live in liberty; therefore, the roots are as important as any other part of the sequoia, for without the roots there is no tree and where there is no tree neither do you find roots. But the roots are below the surface predominately, even if only so deep, and in that regard, they can fairly represent our politicians at all levels of government: necessary, needed, as important as any other part but no more so and certainly no more visible than the awe-inspiring sequoia itself.a

What we find, however, is much resistance to growing or the healthy growth of the nation with enough cause for blame to go around. Who remembers, as a sadly comical event in our very recent history, New York Senator Charles Schumer on the television with so many governing officials surrounding him as he pronounced his intentions to introduce legislation to recapture at a 90 percent tax rate the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) money of which part was going to AIG and then to the employees as large bonuses? These employees certainly were part of the problem and equally certainly not the only or predominant part.⁴ The senate had only a short time prior authorized the disbursement of all that cash in a frenzied attempt to fix the economic crises we all found ourselves in by reason of our smart elite leaders in both government and industry.⁵ A crisis can bring out the worst in any of us, and our leaders are not immune to this.

We are all to blame, some of us certainly more than others; and no, there is no need to drown people’s senses with examples unending that support what we all know is deadly wrong on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC across the way in the congressional building and a short stroll over at the Supreme Court.‡ There is plenty of literature available to buttress what I will convey in the following pages, just as there is literature available to distract us from this reality. Americans are being outwitted by those other intelligent Americans who have studied themselves into near witlessness.⁶ Consider for a moment the following excerpt concerning affirmative action taken from Democracy and Distrust by John Hart Ely:⁷ Justice Powell’s observation that the white majority is composed of minorities [to which I’ll agree] may not have been relevant to the case before him, but it should have reined his effusive praise for the ‘Harvard Plan,’ in particular that feature of it that proclaims ‘A farm boy from Idaho can bring something to Harvard College that a Bostonian cannot offer. [Here I’ll grant a maybe as a courtesy.] Similarly, a black student can usually bring something that a white person cannot offer.’ [I’d say quite possibly always] (438 U.S. 613). That one-two punch is deadly—deadly to whites from the northeast and thus deadly to Jews and certain other white ethnic subgroups. Whatever the origins of geographical preferences—and I doubt they’re very pretty, at least at schools that need not worry about maintaining a national image—it seems unfortunate that Powell went out of his way to praise, and thus induce schools to move toward, a plan whose effect will be to guarantee the admission of an inordinately low percentage of white northeasterners. (I’d substitute artificially for inordinately.)

That a prestigious former member of our third branch of government (may Justice Powell rest in peace) would concur with the administrators of an elite college to beguile the American public is disparaging to all our individual soverignty.⁸ Also, that the Supreme Court is not the sole branch of our governing body to practice this official overreach form part of the basis for my diagnosis of what ails America.⁹ The skill of the judge, the legislator, the president, the craft of anyone who attains to a lofty level of accomplishment can often outrun the individual’s best intention and if not held firm will gravitate toward personal preference and not the common center of our National Sequoia nor our Constitution. The goal is not to all agree about everything at the moment decisions concerning our country are being or will be made but to view those same initiatives with an eye as to whether they funnel to the center of our core beliefs as a country and, therefore, to quickly correct what may not be truthfully in the national interest.

Greater minds than mine have wrestled with what ails our country. This is but my contribution, and if you have reason to question what I’ve written upon a full reading thereof—and any reasonable person could—then read Narrowing the Nation’s Power by John T. Noonan Jr. for an insightful perspective on the difficulties facing the Supreme Court as well as the legislature, and also see page 107 for a peculiar judicial rendering on age discrimination. The nation faces many issues people care about, be they minority rights, women’s rights, immigrant rights, rights of the disabled or worker rights to name a few, but what about citizens’ rights or, in other words, your rights as Americans?

I am not a man of letters as this book may make fairly obvious, but what I lack in skill or style of writing I hope is more than made up by the content within, which in my opinion is of a serious nature that has bearing on us all. In America, I believe we can all agree things have always changed; but the change is supposed to be the result of our working our way toward a more perfect union. America, it’s fair to say, has reinvented itself and has refocused on areas that have needed adjusting to the betterment of its people. However, it is equally true that change is slow at best and not always an improvement. There are millions of Americans who can attest to the truthfulness of that statement. The reason for this is that there are among us those with some vested interest who prefer the status quo or something other than the common good or center.¹⁰

I am not trying to impute that straight away our leaders who come to Washington have some cross-purpose; merely that as power corrupts, then, the power shared by our two dominant political parties has not served the nation well for some time now. Supreme Court justice Robert Jackson wrote these words on Flag Day 1943 on a case before the court: If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion or force citizens by word or act their faith therein (319 U.S. 624, 642).¹¹ This is a very important point and goes to the core of my argument on how to bring about unorthodox and complete change for the good of America.

I am not a bleeding-heart liberal but can more nearly be described as a conservative Democrat with Republican leanings of a liberal bent. I am not trying to disguise myself as perhaps former president George W. Bush, or his handlers, did when they described him as a compassionate conservative, though Mr. Bush might be a case of which I described earlier where he lost his way upon attaining the office of the presidency or was misguided by his inner circle. My faith is Roman Catholic, yet, like many among us—and I trust among other religions as well—I am not the perfect practitioner of my religion. I am not a freemason or an illuminati member. In any event, all of us who believe in a power greater than man can recognize when certain words have deep meaning. Saint Paul said, You must not fall in with the manners of this world; there must be an inward change, a remaking of your minds, so that you can satisfy yourselves what is God’s will, the good thing, the desirable thing, the perfect thing (Rom.12:2).¹²

While we certainly cannot know what God’s will is, we can with equal certainty know what the good thing, the desirable thing, if not the completely perfect thing is; and being civil to one another, honest if not to a fault, and willing always or as much as one can reasonably expect of themselves to cooperate with others are likely good, desirable, and quite nearly perfect things for citizens of a nation such as ours or any nation for that matter. In a recent book Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed, renowned scholar Howard Gardner delves deeply into similar virtues, and his approach to these concepts is a wide-ranging discussion of a kind that closely mirrors what I now undertake in these pages. However, Mr. Gardner quickly loses his footing when he insists that there is no single truth and certainly no absolute truth.¹³ Are you ready and equally important, can you believe?¹⁴ Now, we may falter and at times, even fail. It happens to all of us, but the trick is to get back up and try to head in the justifiably good and desirable direction once again.

Michael Jackson, for all his shortcomings, sang a song called—Can you feel it? Louie Armstrong sang the song—What a Wonderful World. Musical artists throughout the ages have sung, composed, or played creatively about what we need to effect pragmatically through an honorable impulse. Thank God for music and the musicians who create for our benefit tunes that help sustain us throughout our lives. We will certainly need their continued inspiration to help bridge the present reality we find ourselves in with the future we all would like for our posterity.

I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work. (Pearl Buck, 1892-1973)

The last thing I’d like to say before I proceed with this undertaking is that if this catches hold, it will not be because of me but only because of you whose eyes are resting on these pages. After all, it is you who has to read what’s been written and absorb what has been proposed. Subsequently, it is you who must react. Likewise, if this all fails to take hold, the fault will not be yours but solely mine and my message that have failed to ignite a revolution. The more we get to know people who are different in some ways, the more we will begin to appreciate the ways in which they are not, which is the beginning of political cooperation.¹⁵ Also, please keep in mind the title I’ve given this book. It is simply because I prefer laughter in life to many other things, especially to the effort I’ve put forth in these few pages. I found it necessary, however, to push forward because of many reasons as you shall read forthwith.

*Wendell D. Flint, To Find the Biggest Tree (Sequoia National History Association, 2002). Information on the sequoia was taken from this book.

†Leo Tolstoy, The Gospel in Brief: The Life of Jesus, trans. Dustin Condren (Harper Perennial, 2011), 135-137.

‡ Stephen Prothero, The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation (HarperOne, 2012), 11. But the ills of our chosen representatives are symptomatic of our own.

Notes:

1. Howard Zinn, A People’s History, 221. This turmoil has always existed in varying degrees from barely supportable to riot or other sporadic reactions. The attempts at political stability, at economic control, did not quite work… Sometimes there was spontaneous, unorganized uprisings against the rich… Sometimes the anger was deflected… Sometimes it was organized into demonstration and strikes.

2. Ibid., 233. Back then, at the dawn of the Civil War, the political parties… obscured the fact that the political system itself… [was] responsible for the problems they now offered to solve.

3. Mike Lee, The Freedom Agenda, 104-106. See also Mitch Daniels, Keeping the Republic-Saving America by Trusting Americans (Penguin Group, 2011), 49. But that’s only a part of the phenomenon. In Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma we may see a presidential or certainly a political signal post for correcting past mistakes.

4. Michael Reagan, The New Reagan Revolution, 250-253. The Soros Connection. Sometimes unscrupulous people laugh themselves all the way to the bank. It is downright sinister and shameful to an extreme.

5. Glen Beck and Kevin Balfe, Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth, and Treasure (Mercury Radio Arts, 2010), 126. In the end, our politicians gambled $3.7 trillion (and counting) of our money in an effort to save us from the misery that their own ineptitude had caused.

6. John T. Noonan Jr., Narrowing the Nation’s Power, 143-144. The author informs us that the Supreme Court justices opinions are driven by abstractions, which depend on the perceived certainty of rules that have the negative effect of a reduction in the expenditure of energy in thought; so much so the author is driven to ask What reform or improvement is more evidently needed than light on the decisions that fail to carry out the purposes set out by the constitution itself? Also see; Joel Salatin, Folks, This Ain’t Normal, 348. We’ve become too sophisticated for our own good. We’ve analyzed and studied and data-processed until we’ve lost sight of the big picture. The big picture is about leaving the door open to new ideas and out-of-the box solutions. See also p. 249, signing up for feudalism.

7. John Hart Ely, Democracy and Distrust, 260, 110n.

8. Narrowing the Nation’s Power, 80. Madison also made manifest that ‘[u]ltimate authority resides in the people alone,’ that is, that the people are the only complete sovereign. Also see, Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames, Freedom Manifesto: Why Free Markets are Moral and Big Government Isn’t, 84-85 & 179-181.

9. Niall Ferguson, Colossus,