Authorities follow doctrine; and their doctrine gives them authority – manipulating symbols of symbols – and deciding which end of the egg to break open. Luckily; their decisions don’t require debate – lucky for them.
Exposing misconduct, corruption, and cronyism in Tompkins County is not just digging into the past – it’s yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
“Tompkins County and Tammany Hall” documented only small piece of the overarching policies and actions that dominate and control the lives of the county’s rural residents – and includes nothing that has occurred since its publication.
An unfinished and unpublished companion piece to the “Truck Route” chapter [Road Weary] has even more jaw-dropping disclosures of the actions of local and County authorities; and their ongoing displacement and oppression of the rural community – actions that only those who feel beyond the reach of social justice and legal oversight would commit.
I have sent copies of the book to many people who, I thought, would be open to change – without even getting an acknowledgement – and bringing readers up to date would do nothing to change the situation – it would only increase the “body count.”
It’s hopeless – but I have a plan – as my cousin used to say: “Don’t force it; get a bigger hammer.”
Looking at the inner workings; without being able to see the inner workings – is a common occurrence with those trying to participate in Tompkins County government.
Public policy is decided and ratified privately. Take it, or leave it: there’s nothing you can do about it.
The most grinding thoughts in our oily Social Policy machine; come from those we most respect — While apologists and toadies scour their writings: Gathering fragments of their broken dream – to reassemble an entirely different one.
Who do they think they’re fooling? You, of course. Just as there is public participation and meaningful public participation – there is regulation and meaningful regulation. How can we affect a slowdown in Climate Change – when those most responsible are held the least accountable? When the reduction of our country’s greenhouse gas emissions is due to the production of our goods in other countries – and the shipping of electric vehicles creates more pollution than those electric vehicles actually save.
It’s not what you do: it’s who you are – never more so than now. In a country that’s still covering up for their biggest polluters; how far away are we from doing anything about it? If they can’t have the world: no one can.
![“The World According to Doctrine” — Form Based Code Cornell [formerly Lansing] NY](https://i0.wp.com/www.ruraltompkins.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/9982_Form-Based-Code-Living-Lansing_FLAT.jpg?resize=660%2C912&ssl=1)
Form Based Codes are a simplified form; for a simplified government: themselves. Form Based Codes bring zoning into line with modern authoritative thinking: 100% public comments – 0% meaningful participation.
Form Based Codes are the perfect tool for Urban Colonialism: the preservation of urban spaces – and the resettlement and destruction of the rural community. A “streamlined” tool for taking.
“The real tragedy of these small enclaves of marginality and poverty is that people are playing a game of life that has been structured in such a way that they are required to play but prevented from winning.” — Janet Fitchen, “Poverty in Rural America”
In rural New York; No one can hear you scream.
With victims dismissively reduced to “complainants,” and murders spin-doctored down to “a robbery gone bad” – we should ask our increasingly distant government: “Is there a ‘robbery gone good’?”
Would that be a robbery with just the threat of violence? Or is it any amount of injury short of death? Authorities seem able to rationalize, and minimize, our suffering – and while some people may admire their ability to make so measured a judgement: it brings little relief to the nightmares of victims – only the closure of a file drawer.
“Discrimination is against the Law.” That’s a lie. Discrimination IS the law – “lawful discrimination,” that is.
You can walk both sides of a one-way street – If you’re certain that your talk and all your actions never meet.
Full disclosure – Full exposure of all government policies and statistics. Goodness doesn’t need to hide.
No it’s not–Yes it is – The evidence is everywhere. Cultural Genocide is “the systematic destruction of traditions, values, language, and other elements that make one group of people” – and the best way to do that is by removing that culture from public observance and awareness.
It’s demeaning to be categorized by what you’re not: and while apologists point out that the category; “Non-Hispanic white” was created by the Census Bureau – what is their excuse for our government refusing to change it?
Our government’s institutional partners, like AARP revise their calendars to designate March as “Women’s History Month” – with no mention of Irish History at all — and the History Channel banners “Women’s History Month” continuously; to the exclusion of Irish contributions to our country’s history.
The AARP calendar only designates months for Native Americans, Blacks, Women, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Pride — all groups who support policies of race, gender, and ethnic discrimination.
Dare to debate.