Adam: Helm's Deep vs Minas Tirith

The Empire Strikes Back, The Godfather Part II, The Dark Knight, The filling in an Oreo, What do they all have in common? They are all in the middle, nestled perfectly in between. The Two Towers is no exception. It is no secret that typically the second film in any trilogy is known as the best one. The first film has the heavy task of world building, the third film has to stick the landing, but the middle, the middle film gets to have all the drama. The middle film can cold open with our favorites previously known from the first and end with a horrible cliffhanger where it seems all hope is lost leaving the tying of loose ends to the third film. The middle film is the best part of a Saturday night. It’s not the beginning where you’re ordering the Lyft, getting to the venue and stone cold sober. It’s not the end of the night when you’re sitting on the curb eating Taco Bell wondering where all your friends went before the hangover on Sunday. It’s that middle, that sweet spot, where you’re riding that buzz and everything is as it should be.

Helm’s Deep for nearly two decades has been known as the greatest battle scene in movie history. All, myself among them, agreed nothing could compete with this battle, the drama, the stakes, the mood. Back in 2019 the Battle of Winterfell attempted to come for the crown. “The cast and crew filmed for 55 nights straight in Belfast to produce The Long Night - often working from 6pm until 5am. Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys Targaryen, revealed it was -14C during the shoot.” The longest battle scene across film and television was held by Helm’s Deep until the Battle of Winterfell doubled it, 78 minutes of uninterrupted warfare scenes. But as we learned from Game of Thrones, a lot of screen time doesn’t always mean better. 

If Game of Thrones couldn’t defeat Helm’s Deep, with its hours and hours of character development and tension building can any battle scene? Maybe we don’t have to look much further than the 11 Oscar winning succeeding film in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Return of the King. I know what most of you are thinking, your knee jerk reaction is to lean on nostalgia and push back at the thought of anything being better than Helm’s Deep. We’ve spent most of high school romanticizing and remembering its incredible moments. But much like the Jordan v LeBron debate I ask that you wipe all bias of nostalgia from your mind and journey with me once more to Middle Earth with a fresh lens.

First let’s talk about the setting. Helm’s Deep begins in a very moody night scene when a sudden rainstorm falls upon the fortress heightening the mood. Minas Tirith begins in the day with a bit of overcast. However, As the siege goes on it turns to night sans rain. 

Next let’s discuss the characters. The Helm’s Deep battle involves Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, Théoden, and Haldir. Minas Tirith involves Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, Théoden, Éomer, Éowyn, Meriadoc, Pippin, and a rare and very welcomed Gandolf fighting. 

On the other side of the coin, the foes our heroes face. At Helm’s Deep we see a battle against the uruk-hai. At Minas Tirith: uruk-hai, trolls, wargs, Nazgûl riding upon fell beasts, great beasts pulling the Grond, the Corsairs of Umbar and their ships, olog-hai, and the Haradrim riding on mûmakil. In addition to these foes there are enemies with dialogue: Gothmog and the Witch-king.

Next let’s move to the action sequences. We’ll cover the broad strokes first. Helm’s Deep opens with arrow volleys while Minas Tirith has catapults. Helm’s Deep moves to ladders up the walls while Minas Tirith uses siege towers pushed by trolls. A lone uruk-hai runs a torch to light the Fire of Orthanc creating a hole in the wall of Helm’s Deep. Uruk-hai use catapults to launch the Fire of Orthanc into Minas Tirith after fell beasts had swooped through grabbing and dropping soldiers. The uruk-hai attempt to break down the gate with a log at Helm’s Deep. At Minas Tirith the Grond is hauled in using great beasts and operated by trolls to break down the gate. Both battles fall back. One to the keep the other to the second level. The uruk-hai use a ballista to again raise ladders at Helm’s Deep while the olog-hai break through at Minas Tirith. At this point Helms Deep has reached its eucatastrophe (which we will discuss in a moment) The battle at Minas Tirith rages on. The Corsairs’ ships close in by sea. At dawn the riders of Rohan appear to the east with the sunrise behind them. They charge the uruk-hai, catching Lieutenant Gothmog by surprise. During this flank the Haradrim arrive riding their mûmakils. It is at this point after more combat Minas Tirith reaches its eucatastrophe.

The eucatastrophes. Helm’s Deep is saved at the last minute at dawn on the fifth day from the east. Here we have Gandolf and Shadowfax accompanied by Rohirrim riders and Éomer with the sun in their faces, the uruk-hai panic and are defeated. Minas Tirith is saved in its darkest hour by the Dead Men of Dunharrow led by Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas fulfilling their oath thus allowing their souls to finally rest.

Zooming in a bit let’s take a look at some of the drama of the battles. Helm’s Deep has the torch run, which is worth a second mention, the Legolas shield slide, the Gimli toss, Haldir’s death scene, followed by a heroic Aragorn rampage. Minas Tirith has Gandolf saving Pippin followed directly by Pippin saving Gandolf, We also have Gandolf at the end of his rope against the Witch-king suddenly distracted by the horns of Rohan. Pippin and Gandolf together save Faramir from the pyre of Denethor which leads to the shot of Denethor running off the edge of Minas Tirith engulfed in flame. Éomer spears a Haradrim soldier causing his mûmakil to take down another mûmakil. Éowyn and Merry ride underneath mûmakils slicing their legs as they go. The Witch-king unseats Théoden from his horse forcing the showdown between Éowyn and the Witch-king. Aragorn and Gimli kill Gothmog before he’s able to kill Éowyn. Lastly, Legolas after defeating a mûmakil slides down the trunk of the beast.

At this point we are beginning to see one battle seems to have everything the other has and a bit more. But in a film there is more to a battle than the action. There is the context, no battle happens in a vacuum.

B Plots: While Helm’s Deep is happening Merry and Pippin are attempting to persuade Treebeard and the ents to help them fight. This ends with the ents attacking and overrunning Isengard (mostly with water from the dam). Also as the battle nears its end Faramir takes Sam and Frodo to Osgiliath where a Nazgûl nearly overcomes Frodo but not for Sam.  During Minas Tirith Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli travel the Paths of the Dead and encounter the Corsairs of Umbar fleet. Frodo battles Shelob and Sam again saves Frodo. Denethor II is sprinkled throughout as he attempts to kill himself and Faramir on the pyre.

The last two categories I’d like to compare intertwine fairly well, leaders and speeches. The leaders of the battle of Helm’s Deep are Aragorn and Théoden. Théoden has a number of memorable speeches before, during, and after Helm’s Deep. “Where was Gondor?” “How did it come to this?” Aragorn goes off as well, “I shall die as one of them.” “There’s always hope.” Both men come together for one hell of a duet speech:

So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?

Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them.

For death and glory!

For Rohan. For your people.

Yes. Yes! The horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the deep ...one last time!

Let this be the hour that we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake. Now for Wrath, now for Ruin, and a Red Dawn! Forð Eorlingas!

All the while Gimli is caught up in the tisy and scurries up to blow the horn and what a sound it is! Lastly, and maybe most importantly Sam gives a speech while a montage of Isengard and Helm’s Deep plays.

Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.

The leaders of the battle of Helm’s Deep are Théoden, and Gandolf. Again Théoden hits us with a solid speech. “A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!” He then leads his troops to a chant of “death” which seems like he tried to do with Aragorn back at Helm’s Deep but Aragorn corrected with, “for Rohan, for your people.” Éowyn removing her helmet to serve up the line “I am no man” is worth mentioning here. Gandolf stepped in as the leader of Minas Tirith after bonking Denethor who was overcome with fear. Finally Gandolf gives a great speech to Pippin as the troll pounds on the gate at the second level.

Pippin: I didn't think it would end this way.

Gandolf: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.

Pippin: What? Gandalf? See what?

Gandolf: White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

Pippin: Well, that isn't so bad.

Gandolf: No. No, it isn't.

Helm’s Deep vs Minas Tirith both give us so much to enjoy, both have so many strengths and so many moments. Here they are laid before you hopefully with fresh eyes the characters, the setting, the foes, the stakes, the action. Compare them pound for pound or take them as a whole within their context against one another. I won’t draw any conclusions for you. It is a question we must all ask ourselves. If anything I hope this has given you a new appreciation for perhaps an often overlooked scene. In addition maybe this has renewed in you a desire to watch the trilogy again which isn’t so bad. No. No, it isn't.

Adam: Con-life

 At what point does the soul enter a human body? Allow me to back up a step, do you believe in the existence of a soul? The mere posing of the question in America is made possible by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” 

Without the first amendment the United States government could prohibit my freedom to ask the question and could prohibit your freedom to believe what you’d like about the soul. And because of that freedom you are safe to believe in the soul and with it when the soul joins these vessels we call bodies. I say this because the question of a soul is not scientific. It is not something that the realm of science can measure or detect. Because of this it falls under our beliefs. But the very amendment that allows you the freedom to believe whenever you want about ensoulment is the same amendment that allows me to disagree with your belief. 

Some believe ensoulment happens at the moment of conception.

Some believe when the child takes the first breath after being born.

Some believe at the formation of the nervous system and brain.

Some believe at the first brain activity, heartbeat.

Some believe at viability or when the fetus is able to survive independently of the uterus.

Some believe at quickening.

Whatever your belief you must understand that your freedom to believe is the very same freedom for others to disagree.

There are people in this country who believe killing or eating animals is murder. But what if someone doesn’t believe that? What if that person believes it’s fine to eat animals because they believe animals don’t have a soul, or culturally they’ve decided which animals are acceptable to kill and eat? Should they be forced to follow another person’s religion or belief? Should vegans be allowed to force their belief system through government to prohibit the killing of animals? 

There are people in this country who believe in the existence of a soul and believe that soul enters the human vessel at conception or heartbeat. These people believe that a woman who is pregnant must carry that fetus to birth or it is murder. But what if that woman doesn’t believe that? What if that woman’s belief is that ensoulment happens at first independent breath? Should she be forced to follow another person’s religion? Isn’t that unAmerican? 

On June 14, 1967, Governor of California Ronald Reagan signed the Therapeutic Abortion Act. It was the most liberal abortion bill in the country at the time. In 1968, a conference sponsored by the Christian Medical Society and Christianity Today refused to characterize abortion as sinful, citing “individual health, family welfare, and social responsibility” as justifications for ending a pregnancy.

In January 1973, the Supreme Court issued a 7–2 decision ruling that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a "right to privacy" that protects a pregnant woman's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. Among the concurrences Justice Harry Blackmun wrote, "The attending physician, in consultation with his patient, is free to determine, without regulation by the State, that, in his medical judgment, the patient’s pregnancy should be terminated.” W. Barry Garrett of Baptist Press wrote, “Religious liberty, human equality and justice are advanced by the Supreme Court abortion decision.” W. A. Criswell, the Southern Baptist Convention’s former president said: “I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person ...and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.”

Time and time again in the 20th century we see governors like Mr. Reagan, Justices like Blackmun, pastors, and christian news outlets all advocating that the government should have no say in the healthcare decisions of citizens. The Supreme Court said it would be against the fourteenth amendment, I believe it would be against our first amendment for the government to force a religious belief upon all people about ensoulment or the beginning of life.

Imagine for a second you are walking down the street and suddenly some doors fly open along the sidewalk. A doctor runs out of the building points at you and says, “Come quick I need your blood. If you don’t this patient will die!” Would you stop what you were doing and follow the doctor? Let’s say you do. After the doctor hooks you up to some equipment she tells you, thanks to you the patient will live. As you get up to leave the doctor stops you and says, “Wait you can’t leave, you have to stay connected to this patience for a year.” The patient cannot live without your body contributing to their existence. At this point if you tell the doctor you would like to be unhooked, would you be committing murder?

If we are going to identify the very minute a fetus becomes a human and if our government is going to determine that human has rights while simultaneously having their existence 100% tethered to the life and rights of another then we really need to start reevaluating the rights of all people in this country. 

Roe v Wade determined that the government has no right to get involved in the confidential discussions between a doctor and their patient. If you believe the government should absolutely get involved then you are obviously pro a government forced mask mandate during a pandemic. Every life is special and in order to protect the sanctity of life you should be advocating for a mandatory shut down of the county and masks whenever out of the house punishable with jail time.

In March of 2007 I was watching the NCAA men’s basketball tournament as I do every year when I saw a news flash. Jason Ray, a UNC senior and Tar Heels mascot, had been struck by a car while walking along the shoulder of a highway, on his way to buy a burrito at a convenience store. He wasn’t much older than me at the time. 10 years later in 2017 I saw his name again in the news. “UNC mascot Jason Ray died but his parents assure his spirit lives on”  the article said because the 21-year-old was an organ donor, his death helped save or improve the lives of more than 60 other families. 60 other families.

Did you know that one organ donor can save eight lives? Did you know almost 114,000 people in the United States are currently on the waiting list for a lifesaving organ transplant. Another name is added to the national transplant waiting list every 10 minutes. On average, 20 people die every day from the lack of available organs for transplant.

If you are Anti abortion because you believe it is the loss of a life then you must also advocate for forced mandatory organ donation. Taking it a step further if 20 people die every day waiting for an available organ and one donor can save eight lives then it makes logical sense that you should be advocating for the murder and harvesting organs of three donors per day. If you claim to be pro life but haven’t offered to kill yourself in order to save 8 peoples lives today then I’m not sure you can demand a woman to adhere to your beliefs when you yourself don’t follow them.

If you’re thinking, If they didn’t want to get pregnant they shouldn’t have had sex. Then you believe purpose of sex is procreation. I ask you, is the purpose of gun ownership murder? Sex is designed to procreate. Likewise guns are designed to murder. If you can’t understand a secondary purpose of sex as an expression or anything else then I’m sure you also cannot find a reason for gun ownership other than the intent to murder and as a pro life person you must then logically be against the ownership of any and all firearms as they serve only one single purpose. You must then advocate to abolish the second amendment. If you claim to be pro life but haven’t demanded all gun owners be imprisoned for conspiracy to commit murder then I’m not sure you can demand a woman to adhere to your beliefs when you yourself don’t follow them.

Since 1980 there have been 61,655 U.S. Casualties in wars. Obviously all pro life advocates are screaming for the end of all wars. This number isn’t even counting the non American lives lost. Pro life advocates would never consider supporting the troops. If you claim to be pro life but haven’t demanded all soldiers and politicians who condone military action be imprisoned then I’m not sure you can demand a woman to adhere to your beliefs when you yourself don’t follow them.

Since 1976 more than 1,500 citizens have been executed because of the death penalty. All pro life advocates must be protesting and voting EXCLUSIVELY for politicians that will put an end to the death penalty.

193 People have died in ICE immigration detention from 2004 to 2019. All pro life advocates must be demanding our government abolish ICE.

“In 2017, there were 22 cities that reported the number of people experience homelessness who lost their lives without a place to call home. Out of those cities that reported, 2,525 homeless community members passed away. Consulting reports about deaths of people experiencing homelessness in 2016, we estimate that at least 13,000 people pass away each year while without housing.” From NationalHomeless.org If you are Anti abortion because you believe it is the loss of a life then you must also advocate for forced mandatory empty room donations. No pro life person could stand to have an empty room in their home while at least 13,000 Americas die without housing. Every pro life voter must be pushing to make a vacant room in a house illegal. Just as a woman must sacrifice her body without her consent in order to preserve life, so should every pro life person be forced by the government to fill their spare rooms with people who are homeless with the need for their consent. 

“Depending upon the study, we can derive that between 20,000 and 45,000 Americans die each year due to a lack of health insurance.” All pro life advocates must demand that the 

Individual Mandate of the ACA stay in place and also that the ACA does not go far enough that we must demand universal healthcare for every person. If you have enough money in your bank account to afford health insurance to a person who cannot afford it and you willingly choose to selfishly keep that money knowing tens of thousands die each year from it then you cannot be pro life. A pro life American would advocate the government commandeer those funds from every bank account in order to protect the sanctity of life. 

Police murder around 1,000 citizens each year before they ever get to have their day in court. Because of this every pro life advocate must demand we end qualified immunity for police officers who murder citizens. Along with advocating to abolish the police. It is impossible to call for women to use their bodies to sustain another life without demanding to abolish a government system that allows on average nearly 3 lives per day to be murdered. 

If you believe your religious views should be forced upon all Americans then you also believe vegans have the right to decide what foods you can and cannot consume. If you believe a woman should be forced to carry her unwanted pregnancy to birth for the sanctity of life, you also believe guns should be illegal, organs should be harvested daily from young healthy bodies, the government should enforce a federal mask mandate, all American wars should cease, the pentagon defunded immediately, abolition of the death penalty and ICE, the government should have the authority to force every homeowner to provide spare bedrooms to those without shelter, funds be taken from American bank accounts and distributed for those without healthcare, and the police be defunded immediately. 

Unless of course you’re just a fucking piece of shit hypocrite that doesn’t actually care about the sanctity of life. But if you do honestly claim to be pro life then I ask you, how many spare rooms you got? How many healthcare plans have you got sitting in your bank account? And why the fuck are you hording those organs when 8 people need them today you self centered hypocrite fuck?

Coup For Daniel

Through the entire administrations of presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter, the top-tax-bracket rate was at least 70 percent, and for long periods was much more. John Kennedy’s tax-cut plan of the early 1960s took the top rate from 90 percent down to 70 percent. Reagan took it from 70% to 28%.

Between 1985 and 2018, the global average statutory corporate tax rate has fallen by about half, from 49% to 24%. One reason for this decline is international tax competition.

Close to 40% of multinational profits are shifted to tax havens globally

U.S. multinationals are the main “shifters”: about half of all the shifted profits ultimately accrue to U.S. parents.

American Company X makes $10-20 billion per year in profit. They used to harbor that all in the United States before the 90s. Between then and the 2000s due to tax changes, American Company X set up “profit centers” in Switzerland and Singapore. Now when American Company X makes that $20 billion, instead of it being taxed 38% by the United States and the US getting $8 billion in tax revenue, it gets split up into profit centers and they rationalize as much as possible overseas. So now that tax revenue becomes $1 billion to Singapore, $1 billion to Switzerland, and a few hundred million to the United States.

It’s the silly thing in how people talk about taxes in America. They act as if every company is only an American company that is only beholden to America. Every company you care about paying taxes is global. It takes little time and little effort to say “my company is headquartered in Singapore instead of Ohio.” It takes even less time to say “most of the money actually flows through Ireland then flows through the US.”

To make things better, you have to change the rules to incentivize as much money as possible from companies to go through the US in the first place. Then, you have to do the aggressive taxation and redistribution on the proceeds of that money (not the corporate money itself). Because for a billionaire to actually get out of paying taxes on the income or capital gains, they have to physically move to another country. Not easy or ideal for them.

So the idea is to lower the corporate tax rate to 5% or below (equivalent to the most aggressive other nations), require corporate leaders to have the US as their residence to be legally US headquartered, then tax potentially 70-80% out of income, dividends, capital gains, and options for people who make a certain amount. That way you actually get money flowing to the US, jobs flowing to the US, and rich people paying their fair share.

Our system would have to stay a progressive taxation system. To start, keep all steps up to $10 million in wealth acquisition close to what they are today. Then you step to higher than 50% potentially even 70-80% per traunch of wealth acquisition beyond that. Call it wealth acquisition because you need to eliminate all games that can be played. No loopholes for trusts. None for options. None for dividends or capital gains. None for real estate claw backs. A pure, systematic “how much more are you worth” on January 1, 2020 vs January 1, 2019.

If you are super rich, to get around it you can leave the country. But doing so by these hypothetical new laws would mean you have to relinquish all rights as a corporate director of the company you work for and spend over 50% of your year overseas.

Bezos could only avoid the taxes by,

1. Fucking over the company and moving it out of the US, which is now the best country for it, or
2. Losing his ability to control the company and acquire more obscene wealth directly.

However it’s the least politically easy to sell idea ever. “Reduce taxes on corporations by an obscene amount!” Liberals will love that. “Tax rich people to hell and back on all forms of wealth acquisition.” Conservatives will love that.

It’s an idea that would save the country, and it’s politically dead on arrival.

What kind of country could ever do such a thing? Singapore.

The only country in modern history to have a benevolent dictatorship run by scientists and economists.

So American Company X set up a profit center in Singapore.

Adam: Define Defund

Ohio Prison Total Population CY2019: 48,988 people

Ohio Prison Non-Violent Crime Population CY2019: 15,529 people

Ohio Correctional Mental Health Caseload May 2019: 10,551 people

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Total Staff: 12,278 employees

Ohio Top 5 Commitment Offenses from July 1, 2019 snapshot:

14.5% Drug Possession

10.7% Trafficking in Drugs

7.4% Burglary

5.5% Felonious Assault

5.2% Weapon Under Disability

Average Cost Per Ohio Inmate FY2018: $27,835.00

Ohio Total Spent on Incarcerated Adults FY2019: $1,447,395,021

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Average Cost per Employee: $59,031

Ohio Total Spent on Utilities FY2019: $41,376,971

Ohio Total General Revenue Fund Expenditures FY2019: $1,792,279,001

Ohio Total Non-General Revenue Fund Expenditures FY2019: $66,092,493

Ohio Average Prison Stay: 2.73 years

I’ve already ranted a bit about my frustrations with the criminalization of drugs rather than viewed through the lens of a public health crisis but let's break down the Ohio prison budget a bit. 

First it’s worth noting that 21.5% of those incarcerated in Ohio are on the mental health caseload of the DRC. But that’s probably best for another rant.

The number one and number two reasons people are committed to prison in Ohio is because of drugs. That’s 25.2% of everyone in prison. The data I found did not break down the other 56.7% of offenses. So for lack of more information we know that at least one out of every 4 people in prison in Ohio is because of drugs. We also know that 31.7% of those in prison in Ohio are because of a non-violent crime. So if we were to release non-violent offenders we could cut down on 31.7% of our prison staff. That’s 3,892 staffers with an average cost per employee of $59,031. That’s $229,748,652 per year that could be reallocated to other programs to help these non-violent offenders.

The average cost per inmate is $27,835.00. That’s an extra $432,249,715 in addition to the staff reduction that could go towards other programs per year. 

That puts us at $661,998,367 saved per year from the prison system in Ohio alone.

Columbus Ohio Police Department 2018

Emergency 911 Calls: 623,002

Non-Emergency Calls: 568,509

Total Calls for Service: 1,191,511

Sworn Personnel as of 12/31/2018: 1855

Percentage of sworn assigned to:

Patrol: 60%

Investigative: 24%

Support: 7%

Administrative: 9%

Now let’s take a look at my city’s police department. Columbus spends $359,970,422 per year on the police department. Of that budget 95% goes to personnel ($320,601,174). There are 1855 sworn personnel and 60% are patrol ($192,360,704). The police department received 1,191,511 calls for service in 2018. 47.7% of all the calls for service to the police were non-emergency calls. That would be $91,756,055 reallocated from the police department per year if we cut the patrol by 47.7%.

There were 102 homicides, 1,936 robberies, 1,695 aggravated assaults, and 771 rapes in 2018. That’s 4,504 violent crimes in the city. That isn’t even 1% of the Emergency 911 calls. 

$359,970,422 per year goes to policing for 0.7% of the emergency calls to be violent crimes. 0.38% of the total calls for service. 

We are asking too much from our under trained under prepared and overextended police force. 1,191,511 calls in this city asking for some kind of government assistance and the only public servants we have to respond are police with guns. A diversity training one afternoon isn’t going to be enough. A deescalation seminar a few years ago isn’t enough. We are setting our police up for failure. 

This isn’t necessarily the police department’s fault. It’s our city, our tax money, and our elected government. Defunding the police doesn’t have to be seen as such an aggressive move towards police rather it is realizing a fundamental systemic mistake on all of our parts as a society. It is the flaw of our country and society to ignore for so long the voices of the oppressed so have been asking for other options. We have failed to listen to the women who said the police don’t believe me. We have failed to listen to the black community who said the police target them. We have failed to hear the poor who are policed and patrolled excessively. 

I don’t want to seem like I have all the answers to the details of abolishing the police but with just a few quick looks at data it isn’t that hard of a sell for me. If we looked at the root causes is there a way we could prevent these crimes better than predominantly under trained white men in cruisers with guns? Could housing and livable wage help prevent robberies? Could conflict resolution counseling prevent aggravated assaults? Could gun control prevent homicides? And could mental health programs help rapists? Substance abuse counseling for those addicted. And what about our prison systems? Are they working? Are they rehabilitating or do repeat offenders find themselves again and again returning unable to clear their record and begin fresh unable to find a support system to help truly rehabilitate? Are the prisons keeping our cities safe or are they keeping families apart?

1,855 sworn officers in Columbus.

166 administrative

129 support

445 investigative

and 1,115 patrol.

If less than 1% of emergency calls are violent crimes committed what would it look like if we cut back our patrol to even 100 patrol officers?

1,015 positions in our city government for social works, mental health specialists, conflict resolution experts, deescalation professionals? 20 precincts across the greater Columbus metropolitan area. Imagine if each precinct had the same amount of manpower as they do today but with 5 armed police officers in each the rest with their masters in social work or their PhD in mental health? When 911 is called they already determine if they need EMT, Fire, or Police, let’s offer more options for the taxpayers of our city. What if the public servants of our cities lived up to that oath, to serve and protect? Imagine if one day we didn’t even need armed officers in a precinct.

P.S. If my calculations are wrong feel free to roast me in the comments. 

https://drc.ohio.gov/Portals/0/April%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf 

https://drc.ohio.gov/Portals/0/Annual%20report%20final%20ODRC.pdf 

https://www.columbus.gov/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=2147510958 

Adam: Wasted

Tuesday March 24th 2020 I read the headline: “Ohio schools looking at massive funding cuts due to coronavirus pandemic response” from abc6. “If we are forced to cut state funding by 20%, that’s going to be a massive cut to school districts,” said Stephen Dyer with Innovation Ohio.

Cut state funding by 20% and the first program in the budget mentioned was education. As a public school teacher in the state of Ohio I thought it was interesting the government would want to cut an already underfunded program. It’s always been interesting to me how a state could be stingy when it comes to training and educating tomorrow’s workforce.

According to InteractiveBudget.ohio.gov Ohio received $72 billion dollars in the 2019 budget.
$33 billion from tax revenue,
$35 billion from non-tax revenue, and 
$4 billion from ‘other.’
20% of $72 billion would be $14.4 billion.
The total budget for the Ohio Department of Education (Primary and Secondary Education) in 2019 was $11.4 billion (the department used $11.1 billion).

Then on April 3rd WOSU reported: DeWine Asking Judges To Consider Release Of 38 Inmates. The article stated: There are a total of 48,991 people in Ohio's prisons as of Friday April 3rd. According to Vera.org the prison cost per inmate for Ohio in 2015 was $26,509. If my math is correct that’s $1.3 billion annually. Let’s set aside the stupidly callous number of only 38 inmates during this pandemic and stay focused on the rant at hand. Moving on, according to ocjs.ohio.gov in 2010 Drug offenses made up 26% of Ohio commitments to the criminal justice system. According to KirwanInstitute.osu.edu “our prisons are over 130% of capacity. In the past decade alone, we have seen a 12% increase in Ohio’s prison population, despite a 30 year low violent crime rate. Between 1980 and 2016, the state prison population nearly quadrupled.”

The Ohio government says we will need to cut state funding by 20%. And so far this rant has focused on those cuts and tightening the budget belt. But there is another side to this coin or rather another coin entirely. As the saying goes: While other economic systems argue how to cut up the pie, capitalism bakes another pie.

Ah capitalism, seeing as how my state is run almost entirely by red blooded Republican politicians of course they are all fans of small government and the free market.

September 1, 2017 Ohio state troopers seize $333,000 worth of marijuana from turnpike traffic stop
November 8th 2018 Ohio State Highway Patrol seize $1.3 million worth of marijuana during traffic stop
November 21, 2018 Ohio troopers seize $1.2 million worth of marijuana during traffic stop
January 31, 2019 Troopers seize $75,000 worth of marijuana on Ohio Turnpike
February 27, 2019 Troopers seize $84,000 worth of marijuana after traffic stop in Cuyahoga County
May 31, 2019 State troopers seize more than $30,000 worth of marijuana in two traffic stops
March 4, 2020 Ohio police seize 905 pounds of marijuana

These are just a few news articles I found on the first page of a google search from every area of the state of Ohio. Now I want you to imagine how many drug traffickers do not get stopped by the police in Ohio each day.

Let’s talk about baking that other pie (emphasis on baking)

Colorado Marijuana Taxes, Licenses, and Fee Revenue:
Source: colorado.gov
2014 $67,594,323
2015 $130,411,173
2016 $193,604,810
2017 $247,368,473
2018 $266,529,637
2019 $302,458,426
2020 $50,070,970 (January and February)
Totaling over $1.2B in state revenue 

“Washington state collected a total of $395.5 million in legal marijuana income and license fees in fiscal year 2019, all but $5.2 million of it from the state’s marijuana excise, or sales tax. The marijuana revenues were $172 million more than that of liquor, and the marijuana tax income to the state for fiscal 2019 of $395.5 million grew by more than $28 million from the prior fiscal year.” Source: tre.wa.gov

Colorado and Washington state have a COMBINED population of 13.4 million. 
Ohio has 11.7 million.

And in case you’re thinking weed sales wouldn’t happen in the conservative midwest, here are two months of data from Michigan and one month from Illinois: 
According to mlive.com, “Michigan recreational marijuana sales near $18 million in two months. The state has generated $2,938,192 in tax revenue, including $1,769,995 in excise taxes and $1,168,197 in sales taxes. The excise tax on recreational marijuana is 10%. The sales tax is 6%.” The article goes on to quote the Chicago Tribune, “Illinois, a state that began selling recreational marijuana January 1, 2020 generated nearly $40 million in sales during the first month.”

We know the recreational pot retail industry could boost our state’s economy and thus its tax revenue. But could this state’s economy benefit from this agricultural plant in other ways?

Farmflavor.com says “Ohio has more than 75,000 farms and 14 million acres of farmland. The agriculture industry – the largest industry in the state – contributes $105 billion annually to Ohio’s economy.”

Agriculture is the state's largest industry and lucky for Ohio weed is an agricultural plant. But do our rural farm county’s need an economic boost by introducing a new crop?

Athens is ranked as the 8th poorest community in the US. “The overall poverty rate for Athens County is Number 1 in Ohio at 30.6%, according to the new census estimates for 2018, based on a five-year survey. For child poverty - those age 17 and under growing up in the area - Athens County ranks fourth in Ohio at 31.5%. Each of the top six counties statewide for child poverty are in Southeast Ohio or nearby, with rates in Guernsey, Vinton, Gallia, Athens, Scioto and Meigs ranging from 30.7% to the high of 33.8% in Guernsey.” Source: Cleveland.com

Creating and providing a new economic industry in rural Ohio, the highest poverty rates of the state, could provide financial relief to many communities. 

When I think about the problems in the state of Ohio and I think about:
Opioid epidemic
Overpopulated prisons
Underfunded schools
Court systems logjamed with cases
Poverty in agricultural rural counties
Law enforcement wasting resources to seize marijuana
Potential job markets for retail, distribution, farming, marketing, small businesses 
Then I think about the state budget being cut and tomorrow’s Ohio workforce education being the first thing cut. I begin to wonder if these pro-business, pro-farmer, pro-free market, pro-small government Republicans actually believe in ANY of the policies they claim.

We talk about funding saved  from prisons decriminalizing nonviolent drug offenses
We talk about funding saved from police decriminalizing nonviolent drug offenses
We talk about funding saved from court systems decriminalizing nonviolent drug offenses
We talk about funding saved from stimulating poor agricultural counties with new industry
We talk about funding from potential Marijuana Taxes, Licenses, and Fee Revenue annually

As millions of Ohioians toke up this 420 I want you to take a minute to think about all of the tax revenue that could have gone to our potentially great state. I want you to think of the families that could be reunited when released from prisons, I want you to think about the impoverished agricultural communities across rural Ohio, and when you consider all of that as you take that first drag think about how all of the state’s efforts have utterly failed to keep that substance out of your hands.
Wasted.

Adam: Where to Draw the Line

After the 2010 census Ohio's 18 congressional districts of the United States House of Representatives were cut to 16, as a result of Ohio's fourth-slowest population growth rate in the country. This meant that the state legislative and congressional district maps would have to be redrawn.

In the fall of 2011 the Apportionment Board for legislative redistricting began its work. Here were the people on the board in charge of drawing the new congressional districts:

Governor John Kasich (R)
Auditor David Yost (R)
Senator Tom Niehaus (R)
House Minority Leader Armond Budish (D)
...and you guessed it none other than newly elected Secretary of State Jon Husted (R)

The 111th United States Congress from January 3, 2009 to January 3, 2011 consisted of 10 democratic representatives and 8 republican from the state of Ohio. Since the redrawn congressional maps of 2011 the Ohio representatives have been consistently 4 democrats and 12 republicans.

Eight years after the new map was created On May 3, 2019, a three-judge panel from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio declared Ohio's 2012 district map contrary to Article One of the United States Constitution, as "an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander." The ruling, by the panel from the Federal District Court in Cincinnati, ordered new maps to be drawn by June 14, 2019 to be used for the 2020 election.

Using terminology allegedly coined by the team of then-Speaker of the House John Boehner, Fram said the “Franklin County sinkhole” was the centerpiece of the new legislative map. He said the term referred to “packing” Democratic voters into a new Franklin County district that would ensure several surrounding districts would remain under Republican control. Fram then discussed an email written by RNC Redistricting Coordinator Tom Hofeller, in which downtown Columbus was referred to as “dog meat voting territory.”
-Kevin Koeninger, Courthouse News Service

“In this case, the bottom line is that the dominant party in State government manipulated district lines in an attempt to control electoral outcomes and thus direct the political ideology of the State’s congressional delegation. “In a free society the State is directed by political doctrine, not the other way around.” Calif. Democratic Party, 530 U.S. at 590 (Kennedy, J., concurring). For these reasons, H.B. 369 is an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.”
-From the ruling

Republican officials asked to delay remapping. The U.S. Supreme Court granted the state of Ohio’s request to delay a court-ordered redraw of Ohio’s congressional maps.

“These very questions were already pending before the Supreme Court in cases from other states… Common sense suggested waiting for those decisions, due next month – and now, the Supreme Court itself has said it is so.” said a statement Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (who helped draw the map) released after the court’s announcement.

On June 27th 2019 those pending questions were answered. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government does not have the authority to block the election maps drawn up by state lawmakers, no matter how partisan the motivation behind the maps' composition might be.

“We have no commission to allocate political power and influence in the absence of a constitutional directive or legal standards to guide us in the exercise of such authority," said Chief Justice John Roberts. Among the majority were Republican President Donald Trump appointed justices Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh. (Both confirmations were enabled by a rule change made by the Senate Republican majority in April 2017, which allowed nominations to be advanced by a simple majority vote rather than the historical norm of a three-fifths super majority vote.)

In October of 2019 The U.S. Supreme Court threw out the challenge of the three-judge panel declaring Ohio's 2012 district map unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The manipulated district lines by the dominant republican party in state government shall remain for the 2020 election. All of Ohio's 16 seats in the United States House of Representatives are up for election in 2020. 

Honestly, it's frustrating researching more corruption in my home state. If you'd like to hear more please click the link from the Koeninger article it's unbelievably disheartening. I am a voter in Ohio's 3rd congressional district, or as Ohio republicans call it the Franklin County sinkhole, dog meat voting territory. The 2012 district map was designed to create an Ohio congressional delegation with a 12 to 4 Republican advantage – and lock it in for a decade. That is exactly how it has gone these past eight years. This year's election will determine how the last two years of that decade will play out.

Adam: Mother of Exiles

On January 27, 2017 exactly one week into his presidency Donald Trump initiated Executive Order 13769, more commonly known as the Muslim ban. The order suspended entry into America from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The backlash was quick and very powerful. Many critics shot back with statements like ‘This is not who we are’ ‘We are a nation of immigrants’ and so on. But in all reality, This is exactly who we are.

October 1492 “They willingly traded everything they owned... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for when I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants... With fifty men, we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
-Christopher Columbus, Journal

In 1641, Massachusetts became the first colony to authorize slavery through enacted law.

1662 the Virginia royal colony approved a law adopting the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, stating that any children born in the colony would take the status of the mother. A child of an enslaved mother would be born into slavery, regardless if the father were a freeborn Englishman or Christian. This was a reversal of common law practice in England, which ruled that children of English subjects took the status of the father. The change institutionalized the skewed power relationships between slave owners and slave women, freed white men from the legal responsibility to acknowledge or financially support their mixed-race children, and somewhat confined the open scandal of mixed-race children and miscegenation to within the slave quarters.

1705 The Virginia Slave codes further defined slaves as those people imported from nations that were not Christian. Native Americans who were sold to colonists by other Native Americans (from rival tribes), or captured by Europeans during village raids, were also defined as slaves. This codified the earlier principle of non-Christian foreigner enslavement.

1787 The Constitution of the United States did not prohibit, and therefore tacitly permitted, slavery. Section 9 of Article I forbade the Federal government from preventing the importation of slaves before January 1, 1808. As a protection for slavery, the delegates approved Section 2 of Article IV, which prohibited states from freeing slaves who fled to them from another state, and required the return of chattel property to owners.

1790 The Naturalization Law provided the first rules to be followed by the United States in the granting of national citizenship. This law limited naturalization to immigrants who were "free white person[s] ... of good character". It thus excluded Native Americans, indentured servants, slaves, free blacks and later Asians, although free blacks were allowed citizenship at the state level in certain states. It also provided for citizenship for the children of U.S. citizens born abroad, stating that such children "shall be considered as natural born citizens."

The Indian Removal Act in 1830, more commonly known as The Trail of Tears, was a series of forced relocations of approximately 60,000 Native Americans in the United States from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States, to areas to the west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Indian Territory.

The Greaser Act in 1855, legalized the arrest of those perceived as violating its anti-vagrancy statute. The law uses the word "Greaser" found in section two, to refer to individuals of "Spanish and Indian blood."

1859 The last recorded slave ship to land on U.S. soil was the Clotilde, which illegally smuggled a number of Africans into the town of Mobile, Alabama.

The Naturalization Act of 1870 revoked the citizenship of naturalized Chinese Americans.

The Page Act of 1875 was the first restrictive federal immigration law in the United States, which effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women, marking the end of open borders. Exclusion of women aimed to cement a bachelor society, making Chinese men unable to form families and thus, transient, temporary immigrants.

On May 12, 1879 (387 years after Europeans invaded America) in the court case United States ex rel. Standing Bear v. Crook., Judge Elmer S. Dundy ruled that "an Indian is a person" within the meaning of habeas corpus. It was a landmark case, recognizing that an Indian is a "person" under the law and entitled to its rights and protection. "The right of expatriation is a natural, inherent and inalienable right and extends to the Indian as well as to the more fortunate white race," the judge concluded.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a law signed by President Chester A. Arthur, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law implemented to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating. It also imposed a head tax on noncitizens of the United States who came to American ports and restricted certain classes of people from immigrating to America, including criminals, the insane, or "any person unable to take care of him or herself."

The Immigration Act of 1903 codified previous immigration law, and added four inadmissible classes: anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes.

The Immigration Act of 1907 prohibited “all idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons, and persons who have been insane within five years previous; persons who have had two or more attacks of insanity at any time previously; paupers; persons likely to become a public charge; professional beggars; persons afflicted with tuberculosis or with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease; persons not comprehended within any of the foregoing excluded classes who are found to be and are certified by the examining surgeon as being mentally or physically defective, such mental or physical defect being of a nature which may affect the ability of such alien to earn a living…”

The Immigration Act of 1917 one hundred years prior to Trump’s Muslim ban included a section of the law designated an "Asiatic barred zone." The zone, defined through longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates, excluded immigrants from China, British India, Afghanistan, Arabia, Burma, Siam, the Malay States, the Dutch East Indies, the Soviet Union east of the Ural Mountains, and most Polynesian islands.

 1920 The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution finally prohibited the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex.

The Immigration Act of 1924 set a total immigration quota of 165,000 for countries outside the Western Hemisphere, an 80% reduction from the pre-World War I average. Quotas for specific countries were based on 2% of the U.S. population from that country as recorded in 1890. According to the U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian, the purpose of the act was "to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity."

Manzanar War Relocation Center 1942 to 1945, is best known as the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.

Operation Wetback (offical name) May 1954, used military-style tactics to remove Mexican immigrants, some of them American citizens, from the United States. Overall, there were 1,074,277 "returns” in the first year of Operation Wetback. The deportees were sent to unfamiliar parts of Mexico, where they would struggle to find their way home or to continue to support their families. Those apprehended were often deported without receiving the opportunity to recover their property in the United States, or to contact their families. They were often stranded without any food or employment when they were released in Mexico.

The Immigration Act of 1965 immigration into the country, of "sexual deviants", including homosexuals, was prohibited under the legislation. The INS continued to deny entry to homosexual prospective immigrants on the grounds that they were "mentally defective", or had a "constitutional psychopathic inferiority."

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus
November 2, 1883

Since this hemispheres invasion over 500 years ago by white colonizers to today, who we are has rarely been any semblance to the country described in the poem at the feet of the statue of liberty. This nation has only existed for 200 years and in that 12 score the leaders and lawmakers have failed to recognize the personhood and human rights of the preexisting native nations on the land. Failed to recognize the personhood of black people, barred the entry of Asian immigrants, refused gay immigrants, and would not allow women to vote.

The statue of liberty asks for your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, the homeless, and tempest-tost. But the The Immigration Act of 1903 turned away the poor. The Immigration Act of 1882 turned away the huddled masses. The Immigration Act of 1917 would not allow the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. The Immigration Act of 1907 prohibited the homeless, and the tired.

I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
-Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. August 28, 1963

Executive Order 13769 is exactly who America has been. It is no wonder then when a man elected president cries ‘MAGA’ we begin to build walls, cage people, refuse immigrants and strip people of their basic human rights. It is exactly what this country has been. There are two voices in this country's political realm. One cries backward, one cries forward. It is paramount to understand exactly what backward means. To look back and see exactly what this country was and has been. But it is also important to understand what this country could be. What Dr. King dreamed, that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed.

Adam: Home

 One of the peculiarities of the white race's presence in America is how little intention has been
applied to it. As a people, wherever we have been, we have never really intended to be. The
continent is said to have been discovered by an Italian who was on his way to India. The earliest
explorers were looking for gold, which was, after an early streak of luck in Mexico, always
somewhere farther on. Conquests and foundings were incidental to this search—which did not,
and could not, end until the continent was finally laid open in an orgy of gold seeking in the
middle of the last century. Once the unknown of geography was mapped, the industrial marketplace became the new frontier, and we continued, with largely the same motives and with increasing haste and anxiety, to displace ourselves—no longer with unity of direction, like a migrant flock, but like the refugees from a broken ant hill. In our own time we have invaded foreign lands and the moon with the high-toned patriotism of the conquistadors, and with the same mixture of fantasy and avarice.

That is too simply put. It is substantially true, however, as a description of the dominant
tendency in American history. The temptation, once that has been said, is to ascend altogether
into rhetoric and inveigh equally against all our forebears and all present holders of office. To be just, however, it is necessary to remember that there has been another tendency: the tendency to stay put, to say, "No farther. This is the place." So far, this has been the weaker tendency, less glamorous, certainly less successful. It is also the older of these tendencies, having been the dominant one among the Indians.

The Indians did, of course, experience movements of population, but in general their relation to
place was based upon old usage and association, upon inherited memory, tradition, veneration.
The land was their homeland. The first and greatest American revolution, which has never been
superseded, was the coming of people who did not look upon the land as a homeland. But there
were always those among the newcomers who saw that they had come to a good place and who saw its domestic possibilities. Very early, for instance, there were men who wished to establish agricultural settlements rather than quest for gold or exploit the Indian trade. Later, we know that every advance of the frontier left behind families and communities who intended to remain and prosper where they were.

But we know also that these intentions have been almost systematically overthrown. Generation
after generation, those who intended to remain and prosper where they were have been
dispossessed and driven out, or subverted and exploited where they were, by those who were
carrying out some version of the search for El Dorado. Time after time, in place after place, these conquerors have fragmented and demolished traditional communities, the beginnings of
domestic cultures. They have always said that what they destroyed was outdated, provincial, and contemptible. And with alarming frequency they have been believed and trusted by their victims, especially when their victims were other white people…

-Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America 1977

According to Psychology Today, “Cigna and Ipsos surveyed 20,000 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, and almost half report feeling alone (40%) or left out (47%). One in four (27%) feel they are not understood. Two in five (43%) feel relations are not meaningful and they feel isolated (43%). Digital Natives (those born after about 1995) were found to be the loneliest generation. And social media use alone is not a predictor of loneliness. In all the findings, a lack of meaningful human connectedness is paramount." Health Resources & Services Administration says, “Friendships reduce the risk of mortality or developing certain diseases and can speed recovery in those who fall ill.” Loneliness has shown a “correlation with increased risk for early mortality, risk rates similar to those for obesity and smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Also, the findings relate to adverse health risks such as higher systolic blood pressure, body mass index, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Depression and suicide are also cited.”

Americans are lonely. Loneliness affects our bodies, our minds, our lives. According to the 2018 United States Census Bureau 10.1% of Americans moved. Of the movers 15% percent of them move to a different state. When people move to a new place two things occur. They move to a place without an established community. They move away from a community. One of my favorite writers Wendell Berry, who I have had the extreme privilege of witnesses read some of his works in person, has written many pieces about a sense of place. Throughout human history and across the globe cultures and peoples have had a sense of place, a home. But that isn’t the story of the colonization and “discovery” of America.

The first Europeans who stumbled upon America did not see a home they saw only resource. They saw a commodity. That has been the story of America (and capitalism) ever since. Americans have no sense of place. We don’t talk about our house or our land as being in the family for centuries because our country isn’t even 300 years old. We don’t talk about our communities as generational because we don’t see the value. We move. We uproot. We migrate. Once a place has been depleted of its use, whatever that may have been, we move on to the next. No consideration of sustainability no mindset of longevity. And so we move. 

We move to chase the dollar. We sacrifice community for opportunity. We prioritize financial potential. Mindset always thinking friends can be easily made in a new place. As half of America feels alone and left out, I'm beginning to wonder if we have it backwards. 

We move to chase a lie. As the Avett brothers said, “The weight of lies will bring you down and follow you to every town 'cause nothing happens here that doesn't happen there.” We leave our place in search of a new beginning, a fresh start, an adventure. But everything new becomes old. That is the nature of new. And a person is still that person no matter which part of the world they choose to stand on. As the new slowly fades to old we are faced with a choice, continue to chase new or  invest in home.

We move to prove our self sufficiency. Majority of cultures on this planet live in multigenerational homes. A strong community with a deep sense of being known. America is different. Our cultural priority is self sufficiency. The goal of our culture is loneliness. As big of a house as you can acquire with as few residents as possible. Roommates are for the young. Having the same community and friend group since childhood is considered strange. You must go out into the world and make something of yourself. 

What would America look like if we each invested in our place? If we all knew that we would never move? How would we spend our energy? What would our communities look like? What would our priorities be? How would we feel if Amazon wanted to move in tax free? If Wal-Mart wanted to enter our local economy? If Coca Cola wanted to share our water source?

This may be the preachiest rant I’ve ever ranted but as I stack up my laps around the sun I’ve watched friends put community behind other priorities. I’ve watched friends of my friends leave a hole in their lives. As my balanced scale of acquaintances and friends slowly tips toward the former I’m laughed at for suggesting staying in a place because of a community is a legitimate reason. So I sit here and read article after article and statistics about the loneliness of my generation and the health risks that pair with it. I see how loneliness only increases with age as the elderly suffer the most. I wonder what is to become of my community as it spreads across time zones. I wonder what is to become of yours. 

Be safe out there and know that a community may be rarer than a career.