My assessment remains - the liberal press does indeed cover stories that fall outside of the target that I have captured while defining the "Keep Your Enemies On Trial So You Don't Have To Indict Your Friends" meme.
The real problem is that the "hard news" contents in the front section does not always get translated into Opinion page advocacy, or in the case of the "LampBlacked Yellow Journalist" function - their entire portfolio of propaganda sans their profiles of entertainment personalities.
This Blog Post Is NOT About The Mayors Of Trenton NY and Washington DC - It Is About YOU!!
- Hip Hop Wire: Trenton Mayor Tony Mack Has Become The Focus Of An FBI Probe
- National Journal - DC Poll Indicates That Citizens Believe That Mayor Gray Should Resign
As I read the tale about the conditions that are faced by the citizens of Trenton New Jersey in the NY Times (it was a printed article on July 23 or 21. I will post them both when I find them) I detect a pattern that is all too familiar in other "Mission Accomplished Cities" where similar sentiments are expressed among the people.
The population of (relatively) poor people who feel disconnected to the operations of the larger society around them tend to cling onto an elected official THROUGH WHICH they will receive a felling of justice and their "fair share" now that they have a fighter who is working on their behalf in office.
To be clear the image of this fighting man is mostly based upon the campaign rhetoric heard in front of a microphone that is trained upon the people. He knows the consciousness of the people standing before him and his selection of "boogie men" was fine tuned to their discriminating palate. Thus we must understand that this "vicarious living" is a two way street. The politician is using his awareness of how the people think they as they are using the POWER that the office affords him to wield a hammer against all forces that serve to threaten them - per their present consciousness.
As if often the case - the proximity and power of these said enemy forces have little bearing upon the temperance that EITHER side in this grand usurpation will display as a means of their commitment to rational thought and EFFECTIVE outcomes. In as much as it is the case that congregational unity, behind a machine through which they will carry out their political agenda - these feelings of comfort expressed between the constituent and the individual in power will go relatively untested. The normal checks and balances that the internal auditor function provides will suffer as the auditor is given the pink slip in the latest round of "Reduction In Force" (RIF).
In reading the tragic tale about Trenton NJ - spending on signs and artwork that honor the present mayor and past leaders while the contract for toilet paper in government offices had expired - I noted the basic model of this behavior can summarized as: Make Grand Monuments To Your Own Greatness While The Basic Operations That The Leadership Was Charged With Competently Executing Upon Fall To The Side.
Though we have heard that "Education is the great equalizer", these locales show how difficult it is to move from the "rhetoric of indignation" over to "effective operationalization" of these values. In truth this reference about the power of thrust that education has is meant to be an INDICTMENT against external forces that are seen as "shorting us" and not the self-leveling set of principles that guide the principal and every other adult within the community that is charged with enumerating the priorities that the young people in their charge will be molded by.
The summary point here is that once "The Struggle" is necessary made to shift from notions of "Nationalized Social Justice" over to EXPRESSION THROUGH THE PEOPLE - its "Houston We Have A Problem". The forces who have for so long USED the condition of impassioned ignorance of the people for their own marginal political agenda is now charged with having to leverage the community institutions that they now control as the key resource to actually attain what they had sold the people on.
I am fully aware about how Trenton and Camden and Newark are old industrial era towns that have oxidized into their present state as the economic forces that build them up changed dramatically at the macroeconomic layer. They should not be faulted for failing to hold onto these old industries which were responsible for "raising the height of their tent" to its previous levels. Instead the main criticism that should be levied upon the machine of people that now control these towns is their failure to field a more effective alternative engine for uplift after this machine took office with grand promises of advancement, uplift and justice.
"Social Justice" IS The Replacement Development Theory That Has Taken The Place Of The Heavy Industrial Centers Of Production That Were Responsible For Constructing These Cities As Population Centers
The global phenomenon where people move from rural areas into cities is based upon their desire to obtain a better life. The sparsely populated rural regions lack the critical mass of people and resources to deliver an experience that is up to their expectations. In as much as so much of our living standard is based upon "networks" (street gird, water, sewer, natural gas, telecommunications) it is also true that the concentrations of people in a city offer a more efficient economy of scale for investments in these networks - with the intention of a return on investment. This return appears as direct revenues and the "quality of life" that does not always translate into dollars.
Ideally the demand for this quality standard creates a market by which people are willing to pay for the amenities that support their lifestyle. Their demand produces individuals seeking to invest their capital in the attempt to service this demand. They employ human resources to assist them in delivering these services.
Further, the individuals seeking to "sell their labor and talents" have a motivation to obtain formal education as a means of increasing their competency in managing and executing upon the mission.
In Trenton (and Camden) , Washington DC and other 'Mission Accomplished Cities' we see an ABSTRACTION away from the high level cycle that was defined above. The school system's primary job of producing "finished products" now competes with the view that itself is a "jobs program". Those who look at the defects in the finished products that come off of the "assembly line" and who seek reform, just as General Motors would seek reengineering if they saw the same - risk being attacked by the forces who seek to retain the status quo, in support of their interests.
There is no question that, unlike a Chevy Yukon SUV, the factors that influence the success of the educational assembly line process reside largely outside of the classroom. In some cases, regardless of how hard an individual teacher tries - these external forces will exceed what she as an individual or even as a team within one school can surmount.
My counterargument resides in the fact that when it comes to development of "Equal Human Beings" - there is indeed a CONTAINER that we can reasonably erect at the city level, being comfortable that the balance of the forces that positively or negatively impact a population of children are contained within. That effective governance of the ecosystem within which they spend their formative years would produce the desired results.
It stands to reason, however, that the very same forces that seek to retain the status quo in the school system domain also has a vested interest in protecting their power at the municipal level. They do so by projecting "Establishment Power Repudiation".
As I said before - there will NEVER be an occasion by which there are no external forces bearing down upon the innerspace inside a "circle of wagons". Yet to attempt to nullify the results that have been obtained as a result of you having defined the circumference of the wagon of protection, per the election campaigns that were successfully, where you now stand in control - is an exercise of fraud and intellectual dishonesty. WHY DID YOU TAKE CONTROL IF YOU NOW WISH TO FEIGN INFERIORITY AND A DAMANGED STATE that is preventing you from carrying out what you have promised?
ANSWER: Because the constituents within - ALSO believe as you do and they are ultimately willing accomplices, who's own "incompetency at governance" disallows them to see how much the damage of their outsourcing has created.
Where Do We Go From Here?
The US federal debt is a consequence of BOTH SIDES believing that they can have it all and that the "Magic Money" from the Federal Reserve will cover their inability to live within their means.
The need to have our living standard produced closer to home has no liberal or conservative bias. It is a necessity for our common existence.
The only solution to the problems expressed in the "Mission Accomplished Cities" is to have a movement where the notions of federalism - allowing power at the periphery to return as the prevailing governing assumption - is allowed to return.
Those who point to history and note how "States Rights" allowed the enemy who had ill-will toward them to do as they pleased should themselves turn to the FUTURE and project their thoughts on a situation in which the centralized government collapses and they have no protections at all because it is insolvent.
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