Today’s leaders don’t lead by giving; they lead by taking. And they don’t lead by forgiving: they lead by hating. You can’t walk in the opposite direction from the great social leaders of the past; without your actions doing the same. All you can do is put on a mask of pretense, and lash out at anyone who tries to remove it.
A game with a storied the past — and a story for the future. Does it work for survival? Does it work for the survivors?
After many emails to County authorities with no acknowledgement of my question: “what requirements the residents of other local roads fulfilled to get approval for their “4 Ton” weight limit for non-local traffic”; I received the following response:
“Residents don’t decide where signs are placed. Petitions hold no merit. Roads are posted for other reasons.”
This is an excellent example of Black Box Bureaucracy: even when Tompkins County authorities are willing to respond; there is nothing to get ahold of — not only is there no meaningful public participation in the decision making process; there is no disclosure of why these decisions are made, or even who is making them.
What are the “other reasons” behind their decision that roads in some areas have a 4-Ton limit, and rural roads like Lansingville Road get a 20-Ton limit? Is it that we’re not golfing partners? Or because we didn’t make a big campaign contribution? Or maybe it’s just that we’re rural and have no place in their “vision” of a future society.
The role of Tompkins County government in the continued thru-cutting of large industrial trucks on rural roads will be fully documented and exposed in “Tompkins County and Tammany Hall.”
Preface
“Early Sunday morning, June 4, 2017, I was sicker than I had ever been before.
Too sick to even bend over, as I vomited all over the toilet, myself, and the bathroom floor— and I didn’t even care.
The previous afternoon, when I was outside mowing the lawn, a high-clearance agricultural boom sprayer sped towards me from an adjoining field and sprayed me with a cloud of a toxic herbicide.”
This issue is unresolved; and so are all the other issues and incidents presented in this book. The complete lack of any meaningful or substantive action on the part of authorities in Tompkins County and New York State was a driving force behind continued efforts to publish this book and get a positive resolution for the county’s marginalized rural community.
My “closure” in writing these narratives was not the bureaucratic closing of a file; but the act of keeping those files open and exposed to public view — and, hopefully, public pressure.
The circumstantial nature of these accusations is greatly strengthened by a singular lack of any contradictory evidence. Every incident I was able find has the same “earmarks” and points in the same direction. The sole basis for selection was the amount of documentation available through public records and my personal involvement.
Any effective circumstantial case depends on the number of facts that support a single conclusion: I have sometimes sacrificed readability in an effort to present those facts. This is not a Detective Story, it’s not a “who-done-it”; it’s a “what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it?”
In our government’s “vision” of society; there seems to be no room for public participation, approval, or oversight of its actions — we need to replace that vision, and that power, with ours.
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Everyone I talk to in the rural community thinks that Tompkins County government is corrupt and biased, although many are afraid to speak out in public. There are those who believe that my herbicide spraying was in retaliation for my advocacy of Rural Social Justice.
Urban Colonialism, like other colonial arguments, takes on a much darker form when its “greater good” rhetoric turns to on the ground boot heels in rural towns and villages.
This book exposes only a part, but a part is enough to begin with. The rest is just the same — and it stretches farther than you would believe.
There is a certain animal cunning in the survival tactics that authorities employ to protect their acts of corruption and misconduct from exposure; but they follow predictable pathways, and leave recognizable tracks.
One of their most common tactics is exemplified the progression in these signs. The first two steps: “Discredit the Witness” and “Discredit the Facts”; need no explanation. The third step; “Discredit the Context,” is the deliberate attempt to minimize and trivialize the incident or issue; they will claim that it’s been exaggerated to obtain money, or notoriety, that it’s a political attack, and more recently; to use scams like TDML to convince the public that everything is now under control, and there is no need to investigate or take further action.
If inquiries persist; authorities pull together to create an inescapable maze of “in-house” adjudications: by conducting investigations that ignore all pertinent material, handing the issue back to the group accused of the misconduct for a self-investigation, or falling back on the legality of a permit or a regulation that has been formulated for just this sort of eventuality — thereby effectively “caulking” all the cracks.
“Tompkins County and Tammany Hall” may be able to document and expose corruption — but that doesn’t mean anything will be done about it.
Corruption is sophisticated, corruption is the “Wild West” — it’s cool, it’s a tool, if you’re upstanding up you’re a fool.
Ethics committees are only for show; they’re a calming measure for the public. It’s not just that they’re useless in promoting an ethical government — every complaint gives a warning to those involved that it’s time to cover up and put on an act of innocence.
Corruption, like bias in government policies, is considered a means to an end — and no more subject to ethical review than the self-serving results it achieves.
Corruption is the cost of doing business. It’s the cost of keeping your job.
Corruption on the quiet.
Judging by outward appearances is a sure road to intolerance; but judging by a brief association or an isolated opinion can be just as misleading.
There’s more to people than a first page, or a first chapter.
Often the automatic categorizing as “enemy” or even “friend” is all that’s needed to shut down further exploration of what that person really is.
Abraham Lincoln said, “I don’t like that man. I’m going to have to get to know him better.”
If only we could make wisdom a law — or act like it was.
It’s not the world we want; that politicians are offering. Time and again over the years; people have clearly spoken of the world we want. Not the larger world of rules and rulers; but the smaller world of needs and accommodations — and human compassion. Maybe the best way to bring about world peace; is to make a world of peaceful communities.
You might think that these signs are acknowledging a government by the people — but you’d be wrong: It’s the acknowledgement of a subservient population to an all-embracing theocracy — The Revealed Church of Secular Self-interest.
Don’t tell me you still think there’s any meaningful public participation in government?!
Did “we” decide to have a government policy of discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and ethnicity? Sure, the same way “we” decided on a policy of slavery. Both decisions sprang from the same source –