Prairie Voice

Will Private Corporate Influence Drive the Public Out of Public Schools

We are witnessing a take over of public education by private money and powerful corporations. It is happening daily and those of us in the classrooms now are experiencing the affects.

I am referring to the partnership between the Gates Foundation and the Pearson Foundation. The agenda is to create an education system that is dogmatically focused on test scores as a corporation is focused on making money.

No Child Left Behind started the push that test scores matter most of all, and it was solidified into law and funding policies. Now, those of us who were teaching when NCLB went into effect are seeing it shuffle away as the failure we knew it was doomed to become.

So what will come next? First there is the acknowledgement that the current tests are of limited value. However we cannot abandon testing, we need the scores and the data to show we are producing more widgets than before, to display that profits are growing. So a plan is developed to create a new generation of tests that, of course, will be superior to existing tests. The new tests will incorporate technology and be based on new and better standards. In steps the Gates and Pearson Foundations with millions of dollars to develop on line reading and math courses aligned with the standards they had a say in forming. The Gates Foundation has been a huge supporter of Common Core Standards.

(A NY Times article from April 27, 2011 reported that the Gates Foundation, “the world’s largest philanthropy,” and a foundation associated with Pearson announced a partnership to create online reading and math courses aligned with the new academic standards that some 40 states have adopted. Gates, Pearson, and a “suite of investments” totaling more than $20 million, into new technology-based instructional approaches that “have the potential to fundamentally change the way students and teachers interact in the classroom.”)

Bill Gates once said, “It may surprise you—it was certainly surprising to us—but the field of education doesn’t know very much at all about effective teaching.”

He does not mention the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards that was developed by educators over the past two decades. The National Board created standards that included creating strong classroom communities that nurture and support all students. They include how well we meet the diverse needs of students from different cultures. Now however, because of the influence of the Gates Foundation, and others from the Business roundtables, the National Board faces great pressure to include test score data as an important indicator of teacher quality.

The Gates Foundation is investing in research that defines “effectiveness” as the ability to increase test scores. The way the research questions are devised and how the data is interpreted; allow one to control much of the debate. These studies ask questions that focus on the “impact … on student outcomes,” as measured by test scores.

The next step then is to bring the targeting down to individual teachers and their students; this can insure compliance by teachers. This then leads to professionalism being redefined for teachers so it no longer allows for autonomy and responsibility for one’s own work. Now, being a professional educator means you get paid on your results and are subject to having your pay docked or worse, termination, if your students fail to reach the bar set by predictive models created according to a business model not a human model.

Teachers of real children, not computer models based on rigged research, have been pushing back. Teachers know that test scores should just be ONE measure that an accurate reading of student progress relies on “multiple measures.”

So if you have millions of dollars to throw around, and if you stand to reap billions of dollars from the sale of on-line curriculum, on-line tests, study guides for those tests, as well as virtual schools and courses; you put money into a struggling non-profit advocacy group to get them to do your lobbying for you; groups like Teach Plus, Students First, and Stand for Children. Then you pour millions into a media campaign, a major television event such as NBC’s Education Nation. Last year’s Education Nation was tied into the release of Waiting for Superman which had $2 million dollars in publicity provided by the Gates foundation.

This is how the media and research come together to provide the very “facts” that are discussed in the public. An example in our own state is a section in the January 9th 2012 edition of “Pritchard’s Perspective.” In a section entitled “Stretching the Educational Dollar.” Rep. Pritchard first talks about the Governor’s budget projections in relation to education and the changes that lie ahead. He is holding an Education Council January 18th 7pm in the DeKalb County Outreach Building on Annie Glidden Road, DeKalb.

He goes on to say: “We will look at information presented at a recent meeting sponsored by The Gates Foundation which directs our focus to school structure, performance outcomes, and community engagement. They made clear that traditional cuts and tinkering with the school budget will be insufficient.”

So who is directing the conversation? Who is deciding was is and is not sufficient for public education? Not the public. Not even the elected officials.

Mr. Pritchard continues: “At the core of the Gates Foundation quest to improve education is the belief that teachers matter more to student achievement than any other factor inside schools. Research has led them to the conclusion that we must better understand what makes a teacher effective and find ways to rethink how we recruit, retain and evaluate teachers in our schools in order to improve student outcomes.”

Research paid for by the Gates foundation? Research interpreted by “experts” hired and paid by the Gates Foundation, to go out and spread the new “gospel” to state legislators around the country.

Pearson Steps into Hot Water

Speaking of spreading the word, and the lingo of the “new educational system,” a January 1st article in the NY Times reported that Pearson Foundation, which is the nonprofit arm of one of the nation’s largest educational publishers, financed free international trips for education commissioners whose states do business with Pearson company.

The Illinois superintendent of education, Christopher Koch, took trips to China, Brazil, and Finland with the Pearson foundation. According to the NY Times article, “The only Pearson compensation he listed on state ethics forms was the cost of the flight to China, $4,271 for business class. Asked why hotels, meals and other flights were not documented, a spokesman for Dr. Koch, Matt Vanover said. ‘What we’re looking at is a litmus test; they just want to make sure he’s not traveling first class.’” Illinois is paying Pearson $138 million to administer the state’s standardized testing program.

In New York the States’ Attorney has been investigating similar trips involving other education officials. In Illinois we have heard verily a word from neither our Governor nor our States Attorney.

So consider is all of this test, test, testing based on truly sound pedagogical research? It has actually been found to be pedagogically unsound. Also consider isn’t it clear that policy making at the highest levels, which trickle down continually upon our classrooms and our students, has more to do with business economics and political ideology than teaching and learning. Dr. Koch accepting such travel bonuses reinforces a hunch that our educational policies have more to do with the best interests of business than with what is in the best interests of the children.

Also consider attending the “Education Council” that Rep. Pritchard is hosting. I especially urge young teacher who are just starting out, this is your future that is being discussed. And it is being discussed without your input, but which your students and you will be living with for decades to come. Any one who cares about preserving the public in public schools, and any one who cares about the well being of the whole child, should attend. The stakes have never been higher.

Thank you. It is great to be here with all of you tonight.

First join me in a big thank you to Eric Sterling and Melissas Burlingame, and everyone who helped to put this all together for us tonight. A great effort that has led to a great event.

Tonight I’d like to talk about the creation of a DeKalb Community Sustainable Master Plan.

I have lived in DeKalb since 1974. And I have seen many changes in the community since then.

One of the biggest changes has been the movement from small farms to large corporate mono-culture petroleum dependent farms in the county.
Also the growth in housing since 1974 has been huge, and many of the homes have been what has become known as Mc Mansions with unsustainable energy use.

Another major change has been DeKalb. like many other Midwest communities, has moved from a city with a industrial base that actually made things to becoming a warehousing center for storing stuff that is in transition from China to store shelves around the Midwest.

So it is obvious that with the coming natural resource depletion that we are facing in the next few decades that this way of life, depending upon the flow of goods by truck and rail to and away from these huge warehouses is not sustainable.

I also come at this subject as someone who has done considerable research over the past couple of years on the flow of garbage within our county. I have been the chair of a citizens’ grassroots effort to stop a major landfill expansion proposed by Waste Management Inc, the largest waste hauler and the biggest single landfill management company in North America. It’s revenues exceed $11 billion a year and yet they want to take 500 acres of productive farm land, the land that also has a large natural habitat with a stream and a pond surrounded by trees, they want to take all of this and turn it into one of the last regional mega landfills in the U.S.

Waste Management in essence is turning our county into the garbage dump for 17 northeast Illinois Counties, including Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendal, etc.

Waste Management will be making billions of dollars over the next 45 years taking in over 2,000 tons of solid waste per day from these other counties.

Again as a teacher of nine and ten years old I also see that this is not a sustainable situation. When the children I am teaching now are my age they will be left with a mountain of garbage and the environmental problems large landfills cause and at the same time have no place for their own garbage.

So seeing the unsustainable sand that our community is sitting on it seemed like a good time to try and change our present direction and path.
So I proposed to the Citizens environmental Commission, which I am a member, to look into the possibility of creating a sustainability master plan for our community.

Sustainability is a broad and often over used term these days. It can have many different definitions. And ideally each community will come together and create their own definition.
For now, for me, the one that is simplest and makes the most sense comes from the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development. They state:
“Sustainability meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Meeting our needs now without screwing things up to the point where future generations have to clean up our messes and at the same time not be able to meet their own needs.

So in essence we need to return to the thinking of the Native Americans generations ago, when they lived with their thoughts and based their actions on a vision of seven generations ahead.

Too often today, driven by the worship of the bottom line, and the misguided belief in an economy based on endless growth we are shortsighted instead of taking the long view.

We are lucky if our policy makers at all levels of government think beyond the present generation.

So the need is there to create a master plan to guide policy makers and to lay the ground work for a community that is thinking ahead, thinking ahead to what it can do today to protect the viability and livelihood of the generations to follow.

A plan would provide the city of DeKalb with a sustainability vision, providing opportunities for sustainable practices, and serving as a guide for developing a sustainable philosophy.

A plan identifies areas which could address sustainability in terms of energy, water, construction and building technology, economic viability, a respect for the environment, a healthy land ethic and land stewardship, transportation, safe waste management, and sustainable living practices.

A sustainability plan promotes responsible management and effective stewardship of the city’s built and natural environments, a plan that is capable of transforming the city of DeKalb into a model government that is clean, healthy, resource-efficient, and environmentally conscientious.

An overall plan could include goals in nine areas of sustainability:

Alternative energy
Green Building Technology
Healthy Living & Community Education
Transportation & Mobility
Water & Land Resources
Economic Development
Green Infrustructure
Recycling, Composting, and Waste Management
Healthy Community and Urban design

The city of Elgin can be used as a model to learn from. They just passed their first Sustainability Master Plan this August and are just beginning to implement it.

The city of Elgin first had hired an expensive consultant, but then the citizens said they could do this for themselves. So they fired the consultant and took over the creation of the plan. They set up nine working groups each responsible for drawing up a plan for their chosen area. Over 100 citizen volunteers worked for eleven months to develop the plan. By holding public forums and workshop to gather as much citizen input as possible.

The goals or recommendations put forth by the working groups related to these nine areas of sustainability are not all-inclusive or expected to represent all sustainable solutions but they would provide a road map to move the city and its citizens toward a more sustainable life. The plan would need to be dynamic and ever-changing as recommendations become implemented and as DeKalb’s collective sustainability vision evolves.

The overall mission of such a plan should be to improve the quality of life for DeKalb citizens and improve the local environment, while making DeKalb a sustainable, viable, and vibrant place to live. The strategies that emerge from the plan will hopefully help DeKalb manage its environmental assets, reduce our environmental impact, promote citizen engagement, and educate the community-at-large.

The DeKalb Citizens’ Environmental Commission

Which is made-up of members from NIU and members of the community is a logical organizing body for such an effort.

One of the duties of the commission as stated in “Chapter 50: 50.04 Duties” of the Municipal Code of DeKalb states: “The environmental commission shall examine, study, and identify issues related to the environment”

It seems that the coordination of the creation of a sustainable master plan for the city would be a worthy undertaking of this commission.

Not to create the plan but to move the creation forward, after gaining city support to do so, and establish citizen working groups that then will study, discuss, and write the various sections of the plan that the Environmental Commission can then finalize and present to the city council for adoption.

We have available here this evening a sign up sheet if you would be interested in being a volunteer to the process. It will also provide as an organizing tool for a new citizen’s group forming called Citizens for a Sustainable DeKalb County.

The time is right in this community; the citizens group would be focused on finding ways forward to creating the community we want now and one that will supply for our children’s children.
Please sign up on the sheet if you would like to be part of such a process.

In Closing

I often think of my time here on earth as my turn to run the relay. In a sense I have been handed the baton of the earth and its resources, now is my turn to run with the baton, that soon I will be handing off to others to carry on.

Every generation has its own responsibilities.

Without a clear and comprehensive vision of what we want our community to be, we will continue to follow the path that is laid in front of us without seeing seven generations ahead and we will not meet the responsibilities of our generation.

Thus we need to create our path, one that will preserve and enhance our city environment to meet our needs today, and also preserve and enhance our resources for the generations to follow.

Thank you for listening and consider being part of the change, and being part of the process.
Thank you and thank you for all the good work you are doing for our Earth Community.

Here is a link to Elgin’s sustainability plan for an example.

http://www.cityofelgin.org/green

Step Into A Garden

It has been a troubling week.

On Tuesday what many thought was confirmed, that the Federal government actually spends more when it out sources services to the private sector. A report completed by the Project on Government Oversight found that 33 out of 35 occupations the government turned over to the private sector actually cost the tax payer billions of dollars more to hire contractors than it would have cost to have government employees perform the same services.

On Wednesday the U.S. Census Bureau reported that another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty. 46.2 million Americans living below the poverty line is the highest since 1964 when Lyndon Johnson declared a “War on Poverty.” Also median household incomes fell last year to the lowest point in 14 years.

Another report from the U.S. Census Bureau reported on Thursday that, as we had always thought, the poor are still getting poorer. We now have 45 million people using food stamp assistance, 1 in 8 adults and 1 in 4 children. We were also informed that 1 out of every five veterans are homeless.

Then Thursday evening during the Republican debate, when CNN’s Mr. Blitzer asked Rep Ron Paul, of Texas, a hypothetical question about a 30 year old man who chose not to purchase health insurance and suddenly found himself facing six months of intensive care. Mr. Paul replied, “That’s what freedom is all about- taking your own risks.” Mr. Blitzer pressed him again asking whether “society should just let him die.” The crowd cheered and shouted “Yeah!” How far we have fallen from the ideals of the revolutionary radicals, as described by Gordon Wood in his The Radicals of the American Revolution. Wood argues that many of the revolutionary leaders were first-generation gentlemen, and for them part of being a gentleman was as Wood writes, “It meant dedicating himself to the public good.”

The atmosphere of the country can sometimes seem very ugly depending upon which way you are turned.

When I turn one direction I see that the lines at area food pantries are three times as long as last year. When I turn another direction I see our private sector plundering our common wealth to the tune of billions of dollars monthly. When I look another direction I see that we have come to the point where we are spending nearly $1 billion daily to maintain wars, and to run 900 military bases in 130 countries around the world. When I turn another direction I see that our unemployed are becoming more desperate as they see more of their lives slip away from them. And yet in still another direction multi-national corporations and banks are sitting on huge surpluses of cash.

With all this suffering we can be thankful that the public debate of our elected officials has finally turned to jobs, however we are far from seeing them agree to any thing that will bring relief. As Charles Blow pointed out in the NY Times, “three out of four of those below the poverty line work: half have full-time jobs, a quarter work part-time. Only a quarter do not work at all.” So it is not just jobs that is the issue, it is that we must create good jobs which pay a wage that a family of four can live on.

When I feel surrounded with bad news I go into the garden. I reach deep into the patchy sunlight that filters through the thick tomato vines to pick a bright red cheery tomato, my nose breathing in the strong green aroma of the vines. I harvest the garden and give the produce away to neighbors at area food pantries. I walk out into an open field with the woman who shares my life and we fly a kite togehter, talk with a neighbor, and lie back on the green grass and watch our kites dance against the soft white clouds that drift through a deep, light blue sky.

It is as clear to me as the sky I looked up into this afternoon, we will not see the condition of those who are unemployed, under-employed, homeless, living on food stamps, etc, get better while our policy makers are trying to fill their pockets with campaign cash from the elites. As Frederick Douglas said, and is often quoted, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Now, however, it seems that the people of this nation, a nation tottering on the brink of its own demise, still have not been able to muster the will to create that demand. (Although I think we can consider the strong message that was sent to Representatives at town hall meetings this summer with finally lighting a fire under them to move toward a jobs bill.) However we have had plenty of good jobs bills just sitting in committees for months, only time will tell if the tardy Obama bill moves or dries up to a mere spec that is casted about by the strong wind of need that is moving across our country to the capital.

While we are organizing and growing the will of the people to reach the demanding stage, we can also be building the new economy that will sustain us regardless of what the “too big to fail” banks do with all of their cash. We can create a slow money local economy that will see us through regardless of how many jobs Caterpillar and other corporations create in foreign countries while shutting down plants in the U.S. This “new economy” will be what will see us through the ever rising energy costs, and provide us shelter from the next financial storm caused by, what David Korten refers to as “Wall Street phantom-wealth.” The alternative that we will need to create in order to be sustainable through this changing world is a real economy based on people engaged in the production and exchange of real goods and services to meet the real needs of their children, families, and communities. “The solution to a failed capitalist economy is a real-market economy much in line with the true vision of Adam Smith.” Korten writes in Agenda for A New Economy.

And this revolution is already taking place in counties, cities, and towns all across the country. It is a silent movement that is growing daily. So like stepping into the garden, real security and hope comes with raising your own food and sharing your harvest with neighbors and friends. As Bill Mc Kibben writes in Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, “. . . local economies equal community, which in turn equals a better shot at deep satisfaction.” He goes on to say that the changes ahead may be scary but they are also appealing. If we lean on one another, create sustainable communities with our neighbors, then the world we want can be hand-made right now where we stand. If we create the garden then we can step into it and live the lives we were meant to live. Lives of mutual dependency, lives dedicated to the public or common good.

Shall I look for you in the garden?

Submitted by: Dan Kenney
September 17, 2011

Jobs Not Wars: People Not Greed

This Friday marks the first Friday of September. All through the month of September the Friday night vigil on the corner of North First Street and Lincoln Highway from 5pm to 6pm will be focused on jobs and the war economy that is destroying the working people of America.

One reason we will have this focus every Friday night in September is because of the destruction to our economy the $1.2 trillion in borrowed money to pay for two wars is having on our society. Without the war debt our U.S. GDP today would be in the area of $16 trillion, $2 trillion more than its present $14 trillion. This difference would translate into roughly a 3% growth rate. With a growth rate of that amount unemployment would be lower and the deficit would be lower. In addition to the $1.2 trillion borrowed to fight the wars the Federal Reserve, as reported by Bloomberg, loaned out $1.2 trillion during the financial crisis; the largest borrower being Morgan Stanley which received $107.3 billion. Citigroup and Bank of America each received nearly $100 million. While all of this was being handed out by the Fed an additional $700 billion of our money, in the TARP, was given to the banks from the U.S. treasury.

This amount for the Wall Street banks is nearly $500 billion more than the stimulus bill for the working Americans who struggle to survive on main street USA. And now those same banks are reporting huge revenues and are sitting on over $1 trillion dollars.

At the same time:

1 out of 5 Americans is unemployed or underemployed. At the same time 1 in 8 mortgages are in foreclosure.

We have over 15% of the veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq unable to find work And over 250,000 veterans are homeless on any given night in America.

As Arianna Huffington has written, the American dream is turning into a nightmare.

If you are unemployed come and take a stand on Friday nights for one hour.

If you are underemployed or working two jobs to try and make ends meet come and stand with others who are doing the same.

If you are tired of the same old rhetoric that the problem is not enough tax cuts for the rich, then stand with the people.

If you have had enough of being told that if only the poor would pay more in taxes then stand with your neighbors who are also fed up.

If you believe we need to create a new American Dream, one that will allow all Americans to live a good decent life, a life free from fear of not being able to provide for yourself or your family, then you will want to be on the corner on Friday nights.

The wealthy power elite’s greatest fear is that the people will join together. They want to separate us with spinning ideological battles and detract us from the real problem which is the divide between the rich and the worker.

We cannot wait for the Democrats or the Republicans to lead us out of this, they and their million dollar donors got us into this ditch, the people will have to pull themselves out.

In a special Time report, “Poor vs. Rich: A New Global Conflict” details that a conflict of two worlds is developing, one rich the other poor and the battlefield is the globe itself. It is as a British official described a “time bomb for the human race” We had the Arab Spring and next may be the American Winter of Discontent.

It is time for the people to stand together. Time for them to meet on the public square and unite around what they have in common, which is the foot of the power elite grinding down on their backs.

Of course those in power want to break up unions. Of course they want to divide nonunion against union. Of course they want to do everything they can to keep the people separated and afraid of one another, or hateful toward one another; and if we go down that path it is just what they want, it is a dead end.

So come out of the echo chambers and stand with your neighbors. Share your stories, over and over. Listen to one another and forge together an alternative to the entrapment that has been created for us.

Let’s talk about forming cooperatives, work cooperatives, here in our own county. Pool what resources we have and begin to build solar panels. Work together to plant cooperative victory gardens, for this time it is not a war against a foreign enemy which unites us but a war against the powerful banks, corporations, and Wall Street investors within our own borders. It is a war of morals, greed or humanity.

Which side will you stand on.

Come out Friday night and make your stand.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Invited to a Kendall County Republican Family Picnic: A Call to Action

Saturday August 27, at the Kendall County Fairgrounds the Kendall County Republicans are holding their annual family picnic. And they are pleased and proud to present as their keynote speaker Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona, who they bill as “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” One could also add America’s most corrupt and racist sheriff. U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren will also be in attendance at the picnic, along with Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, and State Representative Tom Cross, and their families. They will also have autographed pink boxer shorts for sale, $15, a souvenir for the kids to take home, I guess. The pink boxers are in honor of the fact that Sheriff Joe forces his inmates to wear pink underwear; claiming pink is a calming color. He also uses pink handcuffs on the prisoners.

The Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff has been called an extreme human-rights violator. The stern law-and-order advocate has declared war on illegal immigration in his large jurisdiction, which takes in Phoenix. Arpaio, caught the nation’s attention when he chose to house his inmates in tents when jails reached capacity, the tent prisons have become known as “Tent City”. Though Arpaio’s severe tactics are popular among Arizonans, his deputies have attracted widespread criticism in their pursuit of illegal immigrants for harassment and the racial profiling of Latinos. Just a small fraction of the 33,000 arrests he has overseen have been based on documentation checks in the field, but Arpaio says the program to allow field checks is symbolically important: “This is a crime-deterrent program, too.”

“We are ecstatic that Sheriff Joe Arpaio is coming out to Kendall County to support the Republicans in Kendall County. I have always been a huge fan and supporter of his, and I always have said we need more law enforcement officials like him.” said Ken Toftoy, Chairman of the KCRCC and Kendall County Coroner since 1992.

“This guy is doing the right things,” Toftoy said. “Staying in jail shouldn’t be like staying at the Conrad Hilton. And people who do cross the border illegally are breaking the law. They should be arrested. I don’t think the sheriff is doing anything wrong. I absolutely believe in what he is doing.”

“I like the guy. I follow him,” Toftoy said. “I think more and more sheriffs, it’d be nice if they followed his lead. Of course, not everyone in the Midwest can do that because of the winter time. I just think in the United States, we’re too nice to these people. They screwed up and broke the law.”

The sheriff Mr. Toftoy thinks should be held up as a model to all sheriffs is the first sheriff to start female and juvenile chain gangs. His office has been the subject of thousands of lawsuits since he has been in office, leading to $43 million in settlements and expenses. Some role model!

Still Kendall county’s Coroner Toftoy said Arpaio can come off as tough, but he’s a “straight-up guy” when you get to know him.

It has been reported that on July 2 of this year, when the temperature in Phoenix hit 118 degrees, Arpaio measured the temperature inside Tent City at 145 degrees. Some inmates complained that the fans near their beds were not working and that their shoes were melting from the heat. However an analysis by the Maricopa County Office of Management and Budget, completed September 2010, found Arpaio has mishandled almost $100 million in taxpayer dollars over the previous five years. The analysis showed that some of the money was inappropriately spent on investigations of political rivals. Also misspent paying for deputies to travel to Disneyland and included a trip for the deputies to a fishing resort in Alaska. But at least he is a “straight-up guy.”

All of this expense is maybe why Sheriff Joe has also started using cheaper meals, sometimes serving up food that is spoiled, and he has even cut salt and pepper to save money.

Arpaio also uses chain gangs, wearing striped 1940s-style uniforms, to paint over graffiti and to bury indigent people in a county cemetery. Sheriff Arpaio’s recent abuse of power involved marching detained immigrants in black and white striped prison clothes through the streets of Phoenix to the “tent city” on the edge of town where immigrants are segregated. His targeting of the Latino community in Maricopa County is destroying Arizona’s rich multicultural heritage. The sheriff’s tactics include intentionally targeting the Latino community with raids of Latino neighborhoods and workplaces; detaining people who cannot prove their citizenship during routine traffic violations.

Locally you can count union leader Corey Johnson, business representative of Laborers Local 149 Aurora, as one of the Arpaio critics. Johnson said the Republican committee has made a mistake in inviting Arpaio to talk during the picnic. The local laborers union boasts several Hispanic members. He said these members have asked Johnson and the union leadership to speak out against the choice of speaker whom these members say has long discriminated against Hispanic residents in Arizona.

“These members are the same ones who go to our churches. They are same ones whose kids go to our schools. They are the same ones who pay taxes in our community,” Johnson said. “Yet the local Republicans bring in a guy who is truly offensive to them.”

“This guy is like the super villain of the Hispanic community. He is the Lex Luthor of the Hispanic nation. And still, the party brings him here to speak. I don’t think that’s a good move.”
As a means of showing support to those union members who oppose Arpaio’s policies, Johnson said, the laborers union will consider whether to donate money to the political campaigns of any politicians who attend the Republicans’ family picnic.

“We try to give support to the candidates in both parties, as long as they are for working people,” Johnson said. “We try not to lean either left or right. But when you have a party bringing in a guy like this, it’s a non-starter.”

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has misused his authority to create an environment of fear and intimidation all over Maricopa County. The sheriff’s tactics destroy families and the larger fabric of community in the Phoenix area. In the name of justice, he and the Sheriff’s department rely on the worst acts of profiling, discrimination and civil rights abuses. His actions also fail to address the criminal problems that result from the human and drug trafficking across the border because they only victimize the powerless.

In 2009, Phoenix New Times columnist wrote, “Every time I watch Sheriff Joe unleash his ‘posse’ on another neighborhood with a high Hispanic population, arresting people with brown skin for the most stupid of offenses such as honking their horn, having a taillight out, not signaling when they change lanes, I have to wonder how anyone could not see this as an assault on an entire race of people.”

And I have to wonder how inviting this law breaking and human rights violator to our neighborhood is not seen as an assault on our Hispanic neighbors, co-workers, and friends. If as a people we believe in justice and security for all citizens, and if we believe in standing up to tyrants, then we will not let this bully walk onto our block with out protesting.

Join others who are outraged on Saturday August 27, 2011, at the Kendall County Fairgrounds, located at 10826 Illinois Route 71 in Yorkville. It is time to stand with all of those who are against the politics of racism.

Directions to the Kendall County Fairgrounds:

From I-88 coming from the northwest or northeast: Take the Sugar Grove exit onto Route 47 and travel south through Yorkville. Route 71 crosses Route 47 about 1 1/2 miles south of Yorkville. Turn west to the fairgrounds. From I-80 coming from the south: Exit onto Route 47 in Morris and travel north to the Route 71 intersection. Turn west to the fairgrounds.

Submitted by: Dan Kenney

Something Is Happening In America:

Poverty Tour Stops In Chicago

(Aug. 8, 2011) Last night in the large stone St. Sabina church on Chicago’s south side over 1,000 people gathered to hear Tavis Smiley, Dr. Cornel West, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan speak. It was the third day and their fifth stop of the Poverty Tour organized by Tavis Smilely and Dr. West. The tour will cover 16 cities from the start on a Native American Reservation in Northern Wisconsin and ending in Memphis Tenn. The goal of the tour is to raise awareness about poverty, because as Mr. Smiley has stated the poor are becoming “more and more invisible.”

Smiley said the cities were chosen to cover people of all faiths, races, and ethnicities, ages-urban and rural- including immigrants. On the tour they will spend time listening to people and recording their stories. During the tour they will be staying in the homes of poor people and sleeping on the bus. They will also be staying at a homeless shelter and in a housing project. The stories they gather will be aired on the Tavis Smiley television show on PBS during the last week of September or the first week of October. Also beginning on August 22nd, Smiley’s radio show will devote one show per week to issues about poverty. In addition a dean and students at Smiley’s alma mater, University of Indiana, are working on a “white paper” about who are the new poor in America. The report will be presented on C-span in January with a panel.

Although it was said several times that this was not an “anti-Obama campaign” on this stop in Obama’s hometown, the words were challenges to Obama. Smiley said the tour is about “aiding and abetting the President,” pushing him to do the right thing for the poor of all colors in America. Smiley said, “It is really simple, are you going to stand with poor, or side with the rich. I am standing with the poor.”

When he ended his remarks his words built to a passionate and thunderous pitch. His words bounced off the stone walls and echoed from the high cathedral ceiling; all one thousand people seemed to stand at once, clapping, cheering, some with tears in their eyes as he shouted, “Say it Mr. President! Say the word Mr. President! Just say poverty! Let us hear you say the poor! Say it Mr. President!”

Next to speak was Lois Farrakhan. He began with a reference to the Sermon on the Mound, especially the statement, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” He said that Mohammed defined spirit as energy of life itself. Then he made the powerful analogy to the poor having their spirit strangled. That the poor don’t have the energy needed to fight for justice. That the poor walk with their heads hanging down, their backs bent. He also went on to say that it doesn’t matter who is in the White House. He said that we are poor in spirit because we are poor in leadership. “Where there is no vision the people will perish.”

Farrakhan then lowered his voice. “Obama is poor in spirit today because the bankers have surrounded our brother.” He went on to relate how the bankers are few but the people are many, The poor are the majority. We need to rally the poor, to re-energize the poor. Give spine to their backbones once more.

He directly called upon Obama to become a spokesman for the poor, to be a spokesman for his base. “You don’t have a lot of time . . . when the poor rise-up there will be blood in the street.” Farrakhan then went on to relate a story of a visit he had with the chief of the Chicago police, a visit he said took place at Farrakhan’s dinning table. He said I asked him why is Blackwater training our police officers. I asked him, why are you buying 17,000 assault rifles with armor piercing bullets. “There is trouble on the horizon! The poor are tired and they are not going to take it any more!”

He continued that the poor carry the government on their backs. The poor are what holds the wealthy up. All the wealth of this country is built upon the poor.

Then as he closed again with his voice rising with the standing people, the clapping people, some with outstretched arms and their index fingers pointing to the heavens above, “Obama if you are a one term president at least go out standing up for the poor. Obama if you speak for the poor, your people will have your back. If you stand-up for the poor Jesus will back you, the people will back you. Go out standing in the tradition of Dr, King!”

Then Dr. Cornel West took to the podium. Wearing his signature three piece black suit and white shirt. He said folks ask me why I wear a three piece suit. “These are my funeral clothes.” He said tugging on his lapels with both hands. “I am coffin ready, because when you fight for the poor you have to be ready to die.”

He began by saying something is happening in Chicago tonight. Something was happening in Joliet earlier today. Something was happening in Wisconsin yesterday. Something is happening in America.

He then channeled those who have fought for the poor through history, among those he listed; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. means something to me! Cesar Chavez means something to me! Malcom X means something to me! Dorothy Day means something to me!” Then he moved into how so many leaders today have “sold out!” Too many of our leaders have sold out to the oligarchy. He talked about how Obama’s first mistake was to surround himself with wall street advisors. He mentioned Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, who had been head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and before that was with Goldman Sachs, and Larry Summers former President of Harvard, former Chief economist of the World Bank, and former U.S. Treasurer. He also pointed out that Rahmn Emmanuel was the driving force behind who was chosen. “Now Summers and Emmanuel are gone, and he (Obama) is left with the mess.”

He made the point that we have enough money to address the issues of poverty. “The banks are sitting on 1.2 trillion dollars. If we need $700 billion for the banks we find it. If we need three trillion to fight two wars at the same time we find it. We have the money. The problem is “We don’t have enough folk who love poor people.”

They then took questions and comments from the audience. There were long lines at two microphones. There were questions and comments about the Take Back the Land Movement, which began in Brazil, and the anti-eviction work that is being done around the country, Smiley’s book The Covenant with Black America. (Smiley pointed out that the work done all around America to produce the covenant was done before Obama became the candidate. When Obama became the candidate then Smiley was asked to keep quiet about the covenant. He said he was told, “Don’t go bringing up that covenant now, first we have to get the brother elected, and then we can go back to the covenant.” So Smiley said he stepped back and worked for Obama’s election and now the covenant still has not been brought back up. Smiley also pointed out that Obama is the first President since 1948 who did not mention the word poverty in his State of the Union address last year. “One of the worst hurts you can cause someone is to make them feel invisible.”

Other questions and comments were about the split in the African American community between “grassroots” and “elites,” police treatment of blacks, need to eliminate tax cuts for the wealthy, Rahm Emanuel’s politics, and how much Congress is at fault (not just Obama).

Smiley also related the story of FDR and A. Phillip Randolph, who outlined the needs of black people. FDR agreed with Randolph and that he (FDR) had the bully pulpit to make it happen. FDR then turned to Randolph and asked him to do him a favor, FDR said, “Now go out and make me do it.” Smiley said that the tour was about making Obama accountable to the poor.

Father Pfleger of the St. Sabina church closed by asking everyone to “leave with a commitment to organize, to be a voice for the voiceless, to wake up the conscience of a world that is asleep, to find the moral center of those in power and lead them, drag them to our cause. May the poor be on their agenda because we refuse to shut up.”

Then my African American friend and I went out into the Chicago night. I drove him to a mosque on the far south side and then to his apartment on the west side. We drove past the boarded up buildings, the dimly lit streets, corners where black market deals were going down, past the prostitutes arguing with their pimps. Turning around on a dead end street where drug exchanges were taking place; in the darkness, among the trash and cars with flat tires. We passed the fearful eyes of those watching the police cars pulling to a stop. The men on the steps of darkened buildings with bottles in their hands, their heads lowered, and shoulders stooped. Only black people everywhere one looked, except for many of the police who were white.

As I drove the dark streets I thought about what Tavis Smiley said in response to a question, “This deal they just signed for a trillion dollars in cuts is a ten year deal. If you think things are bad now, if you think poverty is bad now, just wait until these cuts start kicking in.”

And as I watched a teenaged African American boy riding up and down the sidewalk on a bike at 10 o’clock, a bike that was way too small for his long thin frame, I thought again of the moan and deep heavy silence that fell across the packed church pews when one short black woman stood at the microphone and said that she was the grandmother of the 13 year old boy that was shot by the police recently. And she shared that she also worked with a drug rehab program that had had its funding cut. “What is going on? Why cut money from those who are in need? Why would they shoot an unarmed baby like my grandson?”

The first year Obama was in office the number of children that fell into poverty was the largest single-year increase ever recorded. Yet he never mentioned poverty in his State of the Union speech.

Well this Sunday night on the South side of Chicago poverty was the said aloud, and the word poverty was shouted. There are streets in Chicago that could be the same streets I walked in Kenya, or one could walk upon in any third world nation. The situation with the gap between the rich and the poor in our country is not sustainable. The backs of the people are strong but they are capable of being broken. It is a matter of time before the poor will rise-up.

To prevent a desperate explosion among the poor, to keep our streets from erupting in flames of anger, we must keep the word poverty on our lips and we must make sure that the poor do not remain invisible. Something is happening in America. Let us work together to make sure that what is happening leads to a better life of justice and security for all, of all colors and all faiths. And may we work to make it happen before it is too late.

Will you stand with the poor or side with the rich?

Dan Kenney

On the Eve of Independence Day 2011

Tonight on the eve of Independence Day 2011, I am not looking forward to celebrating. As I take stock of the state of our union 235 years after the first Independence Day I feel like setting off an alarm instead of fireworks. And I ask myself what Thomas Jefferson would have to say tonight.

Tonight across this land over 14 million are bound by the chains of unemployment with no end in sight.

On this eve 15 million children, 21% of all children in the U.S. are held in the captive grip of poverty.

Tomorrow 17 million households, 1 in 7, will wake to face hunger pangs and the dread of struggling to meet their food needs one more day.

More than 60% of those in prison tonight are of racial or ethnic minorities. Their dawn will not be a dawn of freedom.

This July 4th over 55,000 legal and illegal immigrants will be in federal prison. Immigrants who pay more federal taxes than the largest U.S. corporations combined.

During the day tomorrow 46 million Americans will be living in fear of getting sick or injured because they cannot afford a doctor or to pay a hospital bill.

Tomorrow at some desperate moment another 16 veterans will take their own lives. This is another cost of our so called freedom.

I sit writing this at just 15 minutes into July 4th and I know somewhere across this town someone is sitting up as well, worried out of sleep, desperately trying to figure out a way to save their home.

On this Holiday our government will go 700 million more dollars into debt to pay for another day of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In this land of opportunity the top one percent earns over 20 percent of all income, which is more than the bottom 50% earns. The richest 400 Americans own more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans. The land of the free has become the land where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the middle class is disappearing. We are living through a period of the greatest gap between the rich and the poor since 1928.

No I do not feel like celebrating. Instead of celebrating freedom and liberty I feel a need to fight for liberty and freedom. Instead of waving our flag in celebration I feel a need to wave it upside down in distress.

It would seem the state of our country is not bleak enough for the poor, the workers and their families, now we are also under attack from those with the wealth and the power. As never before in my lifetime public servants, older Americans, children, and the sick are being attacked in the name of austerity. The elite are trying to balance the budget of our government on the backs of the weakest and the poorest among us. This injustice is being dealt by those who have paid the least and gained the most from the previous years of economic collapse.

Tomorrow when the sun has set and the air is filled with anticipation of the first bomb bursting in air, let us pause and weigh the facts of where we are and the path we were set upon 235 years ago. The Declaration of Independence set us on a path of shared equality and opportunity, not to become a nation that lives by the gospel of wealth. An America where so many struggle to put food in their mouths is not the America our fore fathers wanted for future generations.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

I think Jefferson, if he were alive tonight, would be writing a new declaration of independence to be read tomorrow from the gazebo in the park. He would read a declaration of independence from the corporations, the elite, from those in power; a statement of a desire to be free from those who live by the gospel of wealth at the expense of the many. I believe he would speak for those who are being attacked, the firemen, the police officers, the teachers, and all who are struggling to survive in a land hostile to the worker and the neediest among us.

I like to believe he would have the courage to stand-up and say enough is enough, to the millionaires in the people’s house. I would want him to have the strength of his convictions and give the house back to the people. Thomas Jefferson would say tonight that this will no longer be a land governed by the consent of those with the money to grease the wheels of government but that from this independence day forward will once again be the government whose powers come from the consent of those governed not by those who can afford to buy it.

Let us join together and find our strength to do what we believe Jefferson would do in this country in 2011. Let us join in one voice that cannot be silenced and say we have had enough and we are not going to take any more. Let us return to the true spirit of the first declaration of independence. Let us work together to make this independence day be the beginning of our creating the nation we want to live in, not one governed by wealth that keeps a foot on the back of the many, but a nation that provides shared equality of opportunity, a nation of hands lifting each other up, helping one another along. Let Independence Day 2011 mark the beginning of our return to what is the best in the true spirit of America. Let tomorrow dawn on a path of return to the roots of a country laid on the principle of the common good. Let liberty, freedom, and happiness for all be our cry once more, and let it begin with us.

Respectfully submitted by Dan Kenney

The Cost Risk of Privatizing War

By Dan Kenney

Co-coordinator of

No Private Armies

March 5, 2011

            The Bipartisan Congressional commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan came out with their second Interim Report to Congress on February 24^th. This report dispels any doubts about whether privatization is costing taxpayers too much. The Federal reliance on contractors is not only costing too much but billions are being lost to fraud and waste. The report proves that the unprecedented outsourcing that has occurred in these wars needs to be stopped. The “Commission believes the United States has come to over-rely on contractors.”

            The Commission’s conservative estimate is that since October 2001 at least $177 billion has been spent on private contracts and grants to support U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is equivalent to $407,000,000 per Congressional district or $1,505 per U.S. household. Of that misspent amounts run in the tens of billions.

            The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) warned the Commission in January of this year that the entire $11.4 billion for contracts to build nearly 900 facilities for the Afghan National Security Forces is at risk due to inadequate planning. This estimate does not include the waste that has resulted from Afghanistan‘s inability to sustain projects.

            In addition to waste there is also the issue of fraud. According to the Association of Fraud Examiners an estimated 7% of revenue is lost to fraud, or $12 billion. Many observers also believe that waste accounts for substantially greater sums than the fraud and abuse.  

            The Commission conducted more than 900 meetings and briefings, along with a series of trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, and over 19 Commission hearings. After their research they have developed over 30 recommendations for congress and the Obama Administration.

            The Obama Administration has been just as silent as the previous administration on this issue privatization. In March of 2009 Obama issued a memo on government contracting in which he stated:

                        “The Federal Government must have sufficient capacity

                          to manage and oversee the contracting process from start

                          to finish, so as to ensure that taxpayer funds are spent wisely

                          and are not subject to excessive risk.”

The Obama administration failure to act on this memo however is made evident in a statement made by the Special Inspector General of Afghanistan Reconstruction. Major General Arnold Fields told the Commission in a hearing entitled “Recurring Problems in Afghan Construction” January 24^th 2011, “We don’t have enough trained folks within the federal establishment to provide the oversight of the very contractors we are brining on board.” When government agencies lack experienced and qualified workers to provide oversight, the potential for waste, fraud, and abuse in contract performances increases exponentially. In some cases contractors are hired to perform the oversight of other contractors for the federal agencies. To this fact the Commission stated, “The Commission firmly believes that contractors need to be managed by military and government civilian personnel. Anything less is unacceptable.”

During the same January 2011 hearing Secretary of Defense Gates expressed his own concern for the government’s “level of dependency” on contractors.

“Although there is historical precedent for contracted support to our military forces, I am concerned about the risks introduced by our current level of dependency, our future total force mix, and the need to better plan for { operational contract support} in the future. . . The time is now-while the lessons learned from recent operations are fresh- to institutionalize the changes necessary to influence a cultural shift.”

The issue of accountability is also covered in the report. The report states, “A serious concern with relying on armed security contractors is a potential gap in legal accountability.” This “legal gray zone” in which these private military contractors operate can lead to diplomatic conflicts with the host nations. Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan governments have all demanded private military companies to leave their countries. But this demand has not been met for the very dependency we have touched on earlier. As a nation the U.S. can not operate in Central Asia or any where else without the support of private companies. These present wars have become the most privatized wars in America’s history. We have moved into new territory and the Commission’s report makes it clear that this has been done haphazardly with great consequence to human life and taxpayer money.

Whether Congress listens to the Commission’s findings is yet to be seen. The report was ignored, coming out during the budget battle, although the connection between the Nation’s deficit and a war that is costing $700 million per week and nearly 50% of that amount going into contracts with over 600 companies operating in these war zones. And now we have the evidence to show that tens of billions of that money is being wasted or stolen. Also at this time of growing attacks on unions, workers, and the middle class in this country under the guise of budget deficits, it seems to be the most responsible choice to draw parallels between this wasting and thievery of public funds by private war profiteers and mercenaries.  

In its conclusion the Commission said, “If, on the other hand, the federal government cannot muster the resources and the will to strategically employ, manage, and oversee mission-critical contractors effectively, then it should reconsider using contractors, or reconsider the scope of its mission with a view to trimming them.”

Now that we have a majority in Congress that is dedicated to the Market solving all problems, and seemingly bent on breaking government down to a postage stamp size capabilities of real oversight, than it seems time for the citizens to call for the passing of the S.O.S. Act. The S.O.S. Act is the Stop Outsourcing Security Act, H.R. 4650, introduced by Rep. Jan Schakowsky D-IL and into the Senate by Mr. Sanders, I-VT.

 The S.O.S. Act calls for the U.S. to phase out use of private military contractors. It seems that given the lack of will in Congress and in this administration to take oversight of these contractors seriously, we should end our use of them. This will be a difficult task given the present climate; it will require a great outpouring of citizen support to make such a cultural change within the Department of Defense, the State Department, and within the intelligence community. (75% of the intelligence agencies activities are performed by private contractors.)

If the resolve and will of the government is missing than this policy change must come from the people. It is after all, our money, the lives of our loved ones, and the future of our nation at risk.

Blackwater/Xe Flees Jo Daviess County
But Training Continues

By Dan Kenney
Co-Coordinator of No Private Armies

Nearly four years ago citizens joined together in a small church near Mt. Carroll Illinois forming No Private Armies/ Clearwater to Stop Blackwater. The citizens group worked for four years to get Blackwater, now Xe, to leave Illinois. The last major demonstration held at the Blackwater/Xe training site in northwest Illinois occurred April 27th 2009 and resulted in 22 arrests.
Blackwater was once the largest and most powerful mercenary company in the U.S. making over $1 billion in U.S. contracts. But now beleaguered with lawsuits, and having undergone massive changes in the company’s administration the sole owner of Blackwater, Eric Prince has moved out of the country and put the company up for sale.
The Galena Gazette reports http://galenagazette.com/index.asp that Blackwater/Xe as of October 1st 2010 no longer has a financial interest in the Jo Daviess’ County facility. It is now a private business locally owned and operated. According to the current business owner Eric Davis, who was the manager of the site for Blackwater since 2007, “Blackwater is currently in the process of moving their equipment that still remains back to North Carolina.”
In 2009 Blackwater changed the name of their training facilities to U.S. Training Center. They still operate two training facilities one in San Diego and the other in Moyock North Carolina. Blackwater also owns and operates a mobile training unit that travels the country training law enforcement.
The facility on Skunk Hallow Road twenty miles south of Stockton, Illinois has been renamed North American Weapons and Tactical Training Center. The new company is owned by Impact Training Group. Mr. Davis, former U.S. military, reports that all of the full and part-time instructors are former law enforcement. The company’s Facebook page states: ‘Impact Training Group offers the finest and most comprehensive firearms and tactics instruction available.”
The NAWTTC also offers, “a unique training experience that can accommodate any of your training requirements or needs. Whether you or your unit wishes to rent our ranges, participate in IMPACT’s training courses, or just learn basic fundamentals of marksmanship give us a call and we’ll make the arrangements.”
The North American Weapons Group joins the many other companies that have sprung up around America over the past decade. These companies have moved in to capitalize on the growing trend to outsource the training of local law enforcement and military. Over the past two years I have been contacted by citizens in California, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio and Michigan concerned about start-up Blackwater want-a-bes.
It is good to know Blackwater was not able to make sufficient profit to continue to operate a training facility in northwest Illinois. However the fight against the outsourcing of America’s security continues. Currently contractors out number American soldiers in Afghanistan, where there are 206,000 private contractors performing many tasks, and in Iraq where 177,000 contractors remain. Over 40,000 of these contractors are armed and may engage in combat. In the first six months of 2010 contractor casualties outnumbered those of US soldiers; there is an increasing reliance on mercenaries to carry out American operations as US troops are brought home.
We are witnessing the largest transfer of combat fighting and security work from public hands to private in the history of our country. We are also witnessing the privatization of war by multi-billion dollar companies such as Dyncorp and Blackwater and hundreds of others like them. Some 600 private companies are profiting off of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is reported that nearly half of every tax dollar spent in these conflicts goes to a for profit military contracting company.
Senator Levine after a trip to Afghanistan stated clearly recently one of the dangers this privatization process presents:
“The reliance on private security contractors in Afghanistan too often empowers
local warlords and powerbrokers who operate outside the Afghan government’s control. There is even evidence that some security contractors work against
coalition forces, creating the very threat that they are hired to combat. Not only do these contractors threaten the security of our troops, but they put the success of our mission at risk –”
If American citizens want their security provided by soldiers who take an oath to uphold and protect our constitution and have strong allegiance to our country then we need to remain vigilant of what is happening to our security and what is happening to the way we conduct our wars. We also need to be watchful of how and by whom our local law enforcement is being trained.

Home Defense: A New Blackwater Course of Special Interest to Christian Warriors

By Dan Kenney

Co-Coordinator of No Private Armies

www.noprivatearmies.org

4/4/2010

In addition to training law enforcement Blackwater, now operating under the name Xe Services, is offering a course designed for any gun toting citizen. The world’s most powerful and best known mercenary company with the reputation of operating outside of the law in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan is now offering a new class in “Home Defense” at their 6,000 acre North Carolina and their 80 acre northwest Illinois training locations.

Blackwater’s training division is now known as U.S. Training Center. According to the US Training Center website the new course has this aim:  “The course is designed to make the armed citizen more aware of personal security whether at home or away; considerations in protecting self and family members.”

Upon closer examination of what the class entails raises questions about who may be included in the target demographic group for this new training. The training involves the following: “Introduction: This course will inform the concerned citizen on methods of protecting the home front. The students will receive classroom instruction and will engage in shoot/no-shoot, force on force realistic scenarios based on actual events that have occurred where their decision making process will be explored and tested.  This is not a basic firearms course but provides training for the time when use of your weapon becomes your only option. “ (My underlining for emphasis.)

The “students” will pay $595.00 for two days of training. The training involves the following: “Topics:

• Use of Force
• Security of weapons at home and away.
• Away from home considerations
• Gear & weapons
• Mindset/ Indications of Mental State
• Basic room clearing techniques for the homeowner
• Force-on-force scenarios
• Ballistic protection at home and away
• Dealing with the Police “

One must ask in which “scenarios” would a homeowner need to conduct a “room clearing?” Also who better to train a citizen on how to “deal with the police” than a company that is involved with training hundreds of police officers every year.  It would appear that Blackwater is willing to not only train the police but to train the citizen cops as well.

The only prerequisite for the class is that the “student” knows how to fire a gun. “Prerequisite:  Basic pistol marksmanship/familiarization course. This is not a marksmanship course. Handling skills are required prior to attending class.”

The equipment supplied includes: “Included Equipment: Simunition® Pistol (customer preference of Glock, Sig Sauer, Beretta), Simunition® safety gear, 100 rounds of Simunition®, holster & magazine carrier. “

Simunition is a General Dynamics-Ordnance and Tactical Systems-Canada Inc company that developed in the 1980s. Their mission, according to their website is, “to provide the most realistic training systems possible so that officers and military forces around the world can engage in experience building and ultimately lifesaving exercises.”

They also have a philosophy that includes, “helping law enforcement officers, emergency response teams and military personnel to improve their tactical skill and condition their fear response, our family of training products ultimately saves lives.” Interesting that there is no mention of citizens who take the law into their own hands; and also interesting that simulator weapons can be referred to as a “family of training products.” This brings a whole new light onto the term “family.”

The “Home Defense” course however does come with a disclaimer, “Disclaimer: This is NOT a pistol/shotgun course. Students should come prepared to operate their weapon system and be familiar with weapon handling, safety and marksmanship. Local authorities should be consulted on use of Lethal Force and the use of Lethal Force to defend lives and property.”  (My underlining for emphasis.)

Good to know. Always good to consult with “local authorities” before you use your Glock to kill someone. However they do not include a cell phone in their required gear.

Required gear according to the course description on their website:” Gear:  belt, flashlight, ear protection, clothing appropriate for climate and conditions, rain gear, and a water bottle or other hydration system. Cover garment for concealed draw is highly recommended.”

Now this kind of training for any gun carrying citizen taught by any company would be unsettling, but to have it provided by a company that is owned by Erik Prince who has been accused of murder by two former employees under sworn statements filed in a Federal court in Virginia last August is especially disturbing. According to sworn testimony by two former Blackwater employees, who were referred to as John Doe #1 and John Doe #2 for fear they may be murdered by Prince or one of his current gunmen, Erik Prince may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with Federal authorities who were investigating the company. The former employees also alleged that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.”  One must ask what other crusades may he see as his mission.

Here is an excerpt from the two five page sworn statements by the former employees:

To that end, Mr. Prince intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades.

Mr. Prince operated his companies in a manner that encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life. For example, Mr. Prince’s executives would openly speak about going over to Iraq to “lay Hajiis out on cardboard.” Going to Iraq to shoot and kill Iraqis was viewed as a sport or game. Mr. Prince’s employees openly and consistently used racist and derogatory terms for Iraqis and other Arabs, such as “ragheads” or “hajiis.”

One does not have to stretch too far to see a troubling possible connection between a company headed by someone who according to Jeremy Scahill in his book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, was “dedicated to a Christian-supremacist agenda” and the creation of the class to train any armed citizen on how to basically be their own law enforcers, just as Prince’s mercenaries operated in Iraq. Also one can also make the parallel between the rise of armed citizen militias, some of whom have a similar “Christian-Supremacist agenda,” and the need for a class that teaches citizens the same skills that are being taught to the military and to law enforcement.

In addition this is also could be an attempt to bring in more money since last month Blackwater was stopped by GOA from winning a multi-billion dollar contract from the US Army to train Afghan police. Now the contract has to be re-bid and DynCorp is in the running as well. Prince is also selling off his own private air force, Aviation World Services with its subsidiary Presidential Airways for $200 million to AAR Corp. This will mean a cut of another 240 employees after last year layoffs that resulted with the cancellation of the contract to build the Grizzly, an armored vehicle.

The former employees also testified that Erik Prince lives in fear of being prosecuted by the Federal government for the many illegal activities he is suspected of being involved with, such as smuggling illegal arms into Iraq, some of which were sold on the Black Market, tax evasion, wrongful death lawsuits which number in the double digits at last count, etc.

One thing all of this points to is that if you poke a desperate polecat with a stick he is bound to fight back. I wish this meant the downfall of Blackwater and the Prince’s Dark Kingdom were near, but I fear that it only means that a reshaping is taking place and who knows what dark hole it will raise from next.