Government and Society – Page 57 – Rural Tompkins County

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Cornithaca County is so corrupt . . .” 8

“There are no problems – only trouble makers.” When you have a dictatorship; everybody agrees — or else. And when the colleges that “define the county” are intellectually dishonest — you have the kind of oppression that permeates every thought and act.

The county’s “independent” bookstores are not independent enough to allow non-conforming books on their shelves.

And exposing an issue, even a serious one, that differs from those officially pronounced; is rejected by the local media on the grounds it “would confuse our readers.”

People don’t smile much: not from being serious minded — but from being afraid.

Form Based Codes create neighborhoods – and prisons: they’re created by the same people; and for the same purpose.

How do you get to be a “trouble maker”? Speak out. While you can.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Cornithaca County is so corrupt . . .” 7

“The politicians elect the voters.” It’s not such a reach as it seems – by controlling the community’s environment; politicians attract and select those who will fit into their template of society. Form Based Codes, lock-step bureaucracy, and intransigent, hand-picked policy making ensures that no opposition larger than an individual can be sustained.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “If you blame the rain . . .” Bumper sticker

There is no one like a politician or bureaucrat for sidestepping the obvious. If every lake that is surrounded by agricultural activity is impaired; they will find an impaired lake without agriculture; and use that to claim, “We don’t know what’s causing the impairment of our water bodies.”

Cause and effect cease to have any meaning in the political decision making process — and not by accident.

The elderly in New York aren’t dying because of equitable paddy cake and bureaucratic indifference — they’re dying from “COVID-19”; and they’re not categorized as “elderly” — but as “New Yorkers” — thereby removing both the identity of the victims, and the reason for their deaths. . . and not by accident.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Cornithaca County is so corrupt . . .” 3

The voters of Tompkins County have no say in the running of the county. Zoning Codes and decisions were based on the “visions” and “reimaginings” of Comprehensive Plans; themselves created without meaningful public participation or oversight.

This closed door decision making has been granted the respectability of legislation with Form Based Codes.

The defining characteristic of Form Based Codes is the power it gives government authorities to decide what people are allowed to do — and what they MUST do.

People can fight zoning decisions; but they can’t fight Form Based Codes. Fait accompli.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Cornithaca County is so corrupt . . .” 2

There are no real public meetings in Tompkins County – no meaningful public participation in the decision making process. In the rare instances where questions from the public are allowed – they are deflected with irrelevant, partial or unresponsive answers.

There is never any discussion or deliberation – the voting follows without a minute’s pause – exactly as planned – for the benefit of the county’s rich and powerful interests.

They’re not even called “meetings” they’re called “hearings” – it’s an event where members of the public can sign in, and talk for 2-minutes [timed] – to a group of authorities who have already made up their minds and are merely waiting for you to stop talking. People who don’t attend are labeled as “not wishing to participate.”

It’s the kind of government that’s sweeping the country — and sweeping away anything that stands in its path.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Sweat Equity” Bumper sticker

I thought of a number of things to say; but I don’t think I could make the point any clearer.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – New Disorders

New Disorders

Due to the upswing in the psychiatric healthcare market; a number of new disorders have been identified:

Bi-telemarketer: a “boiler room” disorder characterized by periods of making annoying telephone calls, and periods of killing co-workers.

Bi-furcated: a complex and heretofore unrecognized disorder researchers describe as “six of one, half a dozen of the other.”

Bi-Postal: in this “mood swing on steroids,” the victim’s behavior alternates between killing fellow workers, and killing customers.

Bi-bye: a Criminal Justice disorder in which the negative outlook on life created by incarceration causes felons to murder when paroled.

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Seek and you will find – You will find inevitably what you are looking for if you go about it in the right way. Politicians know the truth of this – You will always find enough work to mandate a new bureaucracy; even if you have to create it.

I had a number of learning disabilities in school; but I didn’t know it — my papers would come back with “careless” in big letters. I thought they were just problems to overcome and move forward. It was no big deal. Many problems in life are just part of the fine print.

Not everything comes out of the same box. Not everything comes out of a box. Not everything.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Everything’s transparent on the surface” Bumper sticker

Tompkins County’s pretense of transparent government is as thin as the smile on a billboard. Its inner workings are as opaque to citizen oversight; as its intransigent decision making is to citizen opinion.

Impassive faces and utterances of sound Doctrine echo the fears of the oppressed – while downcast eyes and conformity are the price of economic survival.

If you think this is melodramatic: then why are people scared to speak out?