Brian Hess was the radical, the revolutionary, the outsider. He cultivated that image, and from 1992 to 1996 at Franklin Pierce College, he wore that persona like a royal robe.

He ambled around campus carrying his tattered copy of Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States under his arm, its frayed pages inhabited by countless tiny bookmarks. His faded jeans, a size too big, were always torn at one or both knees. Whether he wore something like a Dead Kennedy’s t-shirt, or a Seattle-grunge flannel one, it always hung loosely on his slight, somewhat hunched, 5’6” frame. His backward-turned hat covered his straight, black, unkempt hair. His turbulent, agitated, restless mind was belied by the clear, placid, blue eyes, through which that mind gazed upon the world. They dominated his rather pale, inexpressive face. 

To anyone who would listen, Brian would describe his experiences of protesting in Berkeley, and how he was shot by rubber bullets. He would talk about his time at Antioch College in Ohio, the ultra-liberal school that in 1993 required its students to ask permission of their partner before each step of a sexual encounter. Brian had a million stories of struggle, of his fight against the establishment, and of their vicious counterattack. He championed liberty, while “they” imposed suppression. One of his favorite expressions was “Who are you to impose your morals on anyone else?”

Like every college student, he was seeking his true identity. Brian wanted to be different, to be “alternative” from corrupt conventional society. He considered himself to be an outcast, but also as an activist advocating for a more just world.

Brian was suspicious of the US government, critical of US history, and alive to conspiracy and injustice throughout the world. Though he did not belong to the one-dimensional “hate America” crowd, he surely hated some acts and attitudes of his country. More so, he despised what he perceived as American culture’s inclination to whitewash its history and to unconditionally accept what he saw as his country’s naïve and dangerous policies.

Brian deplored what he considered to be the theft of Native American land by European settlers, the immoral conquering of Mexican territories, the cruel relocation of the Native Americans in the 19^th century, the despicable capitalist intrigue that resulted in US annexation of Hawaii, the inexcusable jingoism that lead us into war with Spain in 1898, the arrogance of American power that contributed to the Cold War and to potential global cataclysm, the combination of hubris and foolishness that resulted in the fiasco of the Vietnam War, and the fraudulence of the government’s reasoning for the 1991 Gulf War.

The premise of his views was that America’s self-centered, exceptionalist, perception of itself as entitled to paramount global influence caused its foreign policies to be particularly unilateralist, overconfident, and self-interested, resulting in chaos wherever the US went. Brian used the overthrow of Guatemalan President Arbenz, and of Iranian President Mosaddeq, both assisted by the CIA, to support his point.

Domestically, the basis of his positions was his belief that the US was governed by an oligarchy composed of economically powerful individuals, of multinational corporations, and of entrenched politicians. The oligarchy was concealed by the façade of democracy, and shielded by the apathy of the public. The exponential gains in wealth by the richest Americans, the rocketing stock market which benefitted only the investor class, and the stagnate or weakening condition of the lower and middle classes, were products of the oligarchy’s policies.

To all of this…I rolled my eyes. I was dismissive of Brian, perhaps even a little contemptuous. I figured that he merely belonged to that tiresome, cliché category of campus rebel, whose members railed against the evils of the world, while they were secluded in private colleges costing $20,000 per year. For Brian and his cohorts to promote sexual freedom, legalized drugs, a lower drinking age, and less law enforcement, hardly seemed revolutionary, deviant, or unpredictable. Practically every college kid wants all that.

I was Brian’s opposite. While Brian read his Zinn, I read Samuel Eliot Morison. When Brian was listening to Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky, I was listening to William F. Buckley and Newt Gingrich. As Brian admired Eugene V. Debs and Emma Goldberg, I admired Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt. About the European conquest of the New World which Brian bemoaned? The Aztecs would have conquered Spain and stolen its wealth, if they had known how. The conquest of Mexican territory? They lost a war, we won. And, we paid them for the land. The removal of Native Americans to reservations? Relocation preserved them: If they weren’t relocated, they would have been killed by White settlers. Annexing Hawaii? There was a revolution there. The new government asked to join the US. The Spanish-American War? We freed the Cubans from cruel Spanish domination. The Cold War? The USSR started it by preventing free elections in Poland. The 1991 Gulf War? The US needed to demonstrate that rogue states should not act brazenly just because the Cold War was over. The Vietnam War? Well, actually, I always believed that it was a mistake.

Though our beliefs and perceptions fundamentally differed, Brian and I got along. We lived in the same dorm, Crestview. Being history majors both, we were often in the same classes, with Professors Ley, Moriarty, and Marra, none of whom were reticent about sparking classroom conflict. (“History is argument,” Professor Moriarty would say.) My debates with Brian were frequent and always civil. We shared a mutual respect, of a sort. While we never socialized, we sometimes ate lunch or dinner together. The cold Tuesday night of November 3, 1992, found Brian Hess and I as the lone occupants of the Crestview lounge – which I believe is now Professor Forbes Farmer’s office – watching the presidential election returns, late into the evening. We both voted for Clinton.

Nearly 16 years have passed since that night, and more than 12 since I last saw my perennial opponent, my friend, Brian Hess. Three generations of classes have gone from being freshmen to being seniors at Franklin Pierce, each one with its own unique impact, memories, and lore, since Brian, I, and the Class of 1996, turned and glimpsed the campus across Pearly Pond from Route 119, for the last time.

Since then, as I imagine is true of most of my former classmates, I have experienced supreme happiness, proud triumphs, and devastation beyond description. Such is the arc or life. I have also learned and realized much about the world, about humanity, and about myself, since those carefree days walking across Manor Lawn, in the crisp New Hampshire air.

One of those realizations, one which fiercely jolted me, I feel obligated by intellectual honesty to admit publicly: Brian Hess was right; I was wrong.

In the United States, the top 1% of the population is wealthier than the bottom 90%. The current distribution of wealth is the same as it was in 1929, the year of the Great Crash. One of every four American children lives below the poverty line – despite that most of the parents are employed. America’s percentage of children living in poverty is the highest of the 21 most affluent countries. In the US, the world’s richest country, 46 million Americans are without health insurance, 9.5 million of them are children. The per capita income of the US in 2006 was $36,714. The salary of members of Congress is more than 200% higher. And they never miss their annual pay raise.

The US Senate is now, as it was in the Gilded Age, a “millionaire’s club.” In 2003, 40% of senators were worth $1 million or more. The Republican and Democratic party nominees in 2004, 2000, 1996, and in 2008, were all millionaires. Bill Clinton wasn’t one when he ran in 1992, but he and Hillary Clinton are worth more than $100 million now. There is nothing inherently wrong with being a millionaire. But one who is   cannot relate to the stresses and challenges vexing the average American. When millionaires comprise the American government, the public will feel justifiably alienated – as it does. Senators, representatives, and of course the president, exist in a bubble that is as accessible to lobbyists, consultants, marketers, money, and influence, as it is insensitive to the needs of typical citizens.

Money rules Americans politics. In 1995, Representative John Boehner distributed checks from the tobacco industry to his colleagues on the very floor of the “People’s House.” He is now the House Minority Leader. Members of the Democratic Party establishment attended exclusive, lavish parties, in Denver, prior to going to the presidential convention. The parties were sponsored by companies that have business before Congress. As they sipped champagne, the party-goers were surely pleased that they had chosen “public service” as a career. On any of those same nights, nearly 1 million Americans were not at posh parties, nor were they at home, because they don’t have homes.

Throughout US history, our foreign policies have been aggressively expansive. During the last 50 years, they have been baldly imperious. American officials have used American wealth and military power to try to contain threats, to prevent problems, to quash instability, to in any way necessary ensure that the world is friendly to the American way of life – that is, hospitable to American industry.

The consequences of that approach to foreign relations are tragic and undeniable. As we reflect on the world in 2008, the US has been mired in Iraq for five years. American  global credibility and authority are shattered. The US is impotent to influence events in Georgia, in the face of a resurgent Russia. The US is too economically dependent on China to seriously object to human rights abuses there. America is a slave to OPEC. Stupendously inept involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan means that the US cannot effectively contest Iran’s development a nuclear program.

This is a post-American world now. The 21^st century surely belongs to China and to India. China is sending vast numbers of workers, and huge sums of money, to build and strengthen the infrastructure of poor African countries, in exchange for raw materials to feed China voracious economy. Apart from negotiating agreements beneficial to US oil companies, the US has historically cared little for Africa. The seemingly limitless Indian labor force is attracting multinational corporations, helping to lift millions from poverty. Meanwhile, the US dollar is being dumped for the Euro, petro-rich Russia is again global power, and the largest transfer of wealth in world history is occurring as the US purchases exorbitantly-priced oil from the Middle East.

Yet, the recent Democratic primaries may be evidence of nascent American renewal. Two qualified, brilliant, passionate, and totally unconventional candidates, energized voters and created millions of new ones. All Americans should be proud that exactly 45 years after Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a Black American accepted the nomination of a major American political party for president of the United States. Even John McCain’s nomination suggests burgeoning discontent among Republicans with the corrupt status quo, since he has hardly slavishly followed conservative dogma. His unorthodox selection of Governor Sarah Palin reveals his awareness of the public thirst for a new political mindset. 

Still, both Obama and McCain are silent about poverty, the concentration of wealth, homelessness, intra- and inter-minority violence, degraded overseas perceptions of the US, and a multiplicity of other issues that scream for the need for radical transformation of American society and politics.

Perhaps soon the thick fog of false justification, rationalization, and misdirection, created by an entrenched establishment to blind and suffocate Americans will evaporate from the heat of explosive public indignation and frustration.

I hear that Brian lives in Washington, D.C. these days. Surely he fancies himself to be a kind of constructive virus, trying to give that city a fever, so that in its delirium it can see a new reality. 

And Brian, if you should read this, I implore you to finally adopt a position of mine, and stop calling the Kennedy assassination a coup d’ etat.”

Obama is not a member of the Establishment. Although he is a Harvard-trained attorney, and a US Senator, he is not White, has not been in politics for decades,  has not had a career in business or industry, nor was he born into wealth. Obama is not a member of what C. Wright Mills called “The Power Elite” of political, economic, and military leaders that comprise the Establishment. Members of the Establishment are a privileged few, who understand Americans’ daily lives only theoretically. They fail to understand the stresses, obstacles, and problems, that average Americans encounter daily. Isolated in their plush offices and private jets, they perceive the American populace as merely an entity to be manipulated. The Establishment seeks to prevent class consciousness, but to maintain false consciousness. The goal of the national political class is to retain power, and the goal of the multinational corporate class is to obtain profits. The Establishment are antithetical to Barack Obama because he is not one of them, as John McCain, George W. Bush, and even as Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, are.

Obama has been personally affected by America’s flaws, but has nevertheless triumphed. Obama knows that the United States is not perfect, in a way that only a Black American can know. Unlike others in the political class, Obama doesn’t just subscribe to the dismissive, sentimental view that “America isn’t perfect, but it’s still the last best hope of earth.” The United States has serious, fundamental problems. The infrastructure is crumbling, the concentration of wealth is growing, and our foreign policy is improvised, as examples. In that Obama was raised by a single mother, abandoned by his father, was economically deprived, and also is Black, he was structurally denied access to the means to success in American society. And yet, he succeeded. But Obama knows that he didn’t succeed because it was inevitable that he would. He knows that education, perseverance, and intelligence were responsible for his achievements – not the privileges of his birth, skin color, or name. Obama has insights, borne from his experiences, about modern American life, shared by few others in national office.

Obama has not been involved in politics long enough to be corrupted. People in power tend to want to stay in power, and history demonstrates that they will do most anything to remain in power. Obama has held the esteemed office of Senator for only a few years. Ambition, and opportunity, have driven him to seek the presidency. But, his desire to remain senator hasn’t driven him into the arms of lobbyists or other Washington, DC powerbrokers. Despite being brought up politically in the notorious Chicago machine, Obama has no skeletons in his closet. The Tony Rezko issue is unimportant. Obama has not had vacations paid for by lobbyists, he has not had his ethics questioned, he has not been suspected of anything illegal, nor has he engaged in any unseemly, but legal, quid pro quos. There are few national politicians that can say the same.

Obama is bold, and he exhibited that most spectacularly by not only challenging, but by beating, Hillary Clinton to the Democratic nomination. The United States needs a president who will not blindly adhere to conventional wisdom. Prior to Obama’s ascendency, such conventional wisdom was that Clinton was unbeatable. That’s why she ran an incumbency campaign, a campaign of inevitability. Obama surely understood that, even if Clinton didn’t exist, his attempt to be nominated would be wrought with challenges: He is young, relatively inexperienced, Black, and not well known nationally. But, he realized that he had some strong supporters, he trusted his ability to run well, picked a good team, and he went forward. And by employing a smart strategy and excellent organizing, he overcame all obstacles. He could have looked at the odds and averred. Instead, he looked at them, looked at himself, but moved on, and won.

Obama is a self-made man. He does not owe his success to his family’s wealth, to his name, to his background, or to luck. He is successful because he worked for it. John McCain was the son and grandson of admirals. The resources McCain needed to prosper and to attain success were available to him on the day he was born. No, McCain did not choose a path without challenges and hardships. But, he had his choice of paths to take. Obama knows what it is like to have to build a career, to create opportunities, to force advancement through determination, skill, and through force of will.

Obama is smart. His educational accomplishments, use of language, and, of course, that he is at the threshold of becoming president of the  United States at age 47, all reveal Obama’s high intelligence. Obama’s deft campaigning during the primary, his understanding of how people perceive him, and his selection of sharp campaign aides, also testify to his intellect. The president should be the smartest person in the room. If the president is Obama, then that will be so.  

John McCain is running a negative, infantile, trivial campaign. Rather than accenting McCain’s positive traits, his campaign is emphasizing Obama’s supposedly negative ones. Unlike most members of either major party, McCain has indeed demonstrated a capacity for independent thought and action, for which he deserves credit. But, it ultimately seems that McCain would simply like to be president, because it would be a great way to close his career. Obama, conversely, seems that he wants to be president so that he can accomplish an ambitious and positive agenda.

McCain’s economic plan proposes tax breaks for oil companies, of which Exxon just reported nearly a $12 billion profit in the last quarter. Obama wants to give every American at least a $500 check, from the vaults of the bloated oil companies. McCain wants to retain the Bush tax cuts, which primarily benefitted the wealthiest Americans – and which McCain voted against. Obama believes that the rich should pay more, but that middle-income Americans should pay less. McCain is apparently unwilling to match wits with the foolish and hypocritical Venezuelan president Chavez, or the egomaniacal Iranian president Ahmadinejad. Obama doesn’t appear to be afraid of engaging either of them.

John McCain will support and defend the status quo. As president, he will be reactive, not proactive. He will enjoy the office, propose a few superficial changes (which will never be enacted), then play golf. McCain has adopted the mantra of “reform” only because the American people had indicated that they want “change.” Even knowing that, McCain only supports reform rather than change. Obama, however, is very likely to strongly pursue fundamental changes: National health care, a multilateral foreign policy, and a greater commitment to economic equality. Since Obama is not a member of the Establishment, he is less likely to try to preserve the environment in which they alone can prosper.  

The course of Obama’s life demonstrates that he is not easily cowed, that he accepts challenges and overcomes them, that he understands the weaknesses and strengths of the United States, and that he is willing to try to lead 300 million people in a direction that they have not gone before. He is not of the Establishment, does not have a vested interest in the status quo, and owes his success to no one but himself, to his skill and judgment. That is what Americans deserve in a president. That is why I am for Obama. 

Passaic County Jail, in Paterson, New Jersey, is a notorious correctional facility. Known for its poor conditions and for being poorly administered, Passaic County Jail (PCJ) is a modern dungeon. A federal judge investigating conditions there called the place “shameful.”

Starting soon after September 11, 2001, PCJ has detained several hundred Muslims suspected of terrorist links. In February 2003, eight Muslim men conducted a hunger strike to protest the appalling conditions of the jail, and the harsh treatment of prisoners. The detainees demanded to be transferred to another jail, thinking that any place would be preferable to where they were. Correctional officers attempted to force-feed the protestors, but failed. Eventually, their strike was successful, and they were moved to Bergen County Jail. 

Later that year, three correctional officers were suspended for severely beating an inmate who had insulted the K-9 officer’s dog. This incident was publicized, but most incidents of official brutality are not.

These episodes are indicative of the treatment of inmates, and of an atmosphere permissive of official violence, which is created and maintained by the very highly-paid bureaucrats who manage the jail.

When entering PCJ, inmates are given a handbook of rules and procedures. It indicates that PCJ intends to provide a safe, sanitary, humane environment. It states that religious services, regular recreation, health care, and nutritional meals are provided for inmates. After examining the handbook, a new inmate may feel secure knowing that during the repayment of his debt to society, though he may be unfree, his life will be bearable, if not comfortable. But people who have spent time at PCJ know something about the handbook that new arrivals do not: That hardly anything in it is true.

At PCJ, there are 2 types of inmate quarters, 3-man cells and dormitories. The 3-man cells were designed for only two men. But, as the jail’s website itself admits, the jail is overcrowded. Thus, in a room hardly larger than an average home’s bathroom, 3 men are confined.

The dormitories were intended for 30 men, but now hold 60. In the dorms, men sleep on 20 triple-bunk beds, the third bunk being seven feet from the floor. There is no ladder to reach the third bunk. Only two thin bars across the middle of the first and second bunks provide the means for climbing. For a person to slip and fall when trying to get down from the third bunk is not uncommon. The beds are about an arm length apart, close enough so that if two inmates are facing one another, they can feel each other’s breath. This is one reason that, when one person becomes sick, the illness spreads to everyone else rapidly.

For humans to be among 59 others in very close quarters is not only unhealthy, but nearly unbearable. The constant din of 60 voices, all competing with one another, the televisions, the yelling correctional officers (COs), can drive people mad. The noise never stops: With 60 men, at least 25 will always be awake, will always be talking, will always be producing punctuating sound. Because of the noise, sleep is halting at best. Much of the violence that occurs in the jail surely results from the lack of undisturbed sleep which is prevented by the constant noise. The continual blare of people’s random chatter, and the sleep thereby prevented, leads to a room full of consistently tired, irritable men, ready to snap. 

Typically, the dorms are freezing during the winter, and sweltering during the summer. The temperature of the ground level dorms is influenced more by the outside temperature than by inside climate control, if any exists. During the winter, the dorms are frigid. The inmates are forced to shield themselves under the one blanket they are permitted. Despite the temperature, the vents continue to pump cold air. To block the freezing air, inmates use plastic trash bags, and tape, from wherever they can find it, to cover the vents. Such a solution lasts only until the COs tear down the bags. Despite that the vents supply the only source of fresh air to the dorm, it is necessary that they be re-covered, otherwise the temperature becomes intolerably cold, especially for those whose beds are immediately below the vents. Further, because of condensation, the vents constantly drip cold water. The COs consider the covering of the vents with plastic bags more of a problem then the temperature of the room that necessitates the covering, or the water leaking from them.

In one dorm, there was one corner in which no one could sleep on the top bunks of 2 beds, because the ceiling was persistently wet and dripping. After any large snowfall that begins to melt, the dripping becomes a torrent of water pouring from the ceiling, creating a puddle of yellow, rust-colored water on the floor. In one case, 2 inmates from an entire bunk were forced to move their mats to the floor to escape the wetness. The water in the ceiling began obviously spreading, and soon was dripping over a four bunk area, while pouring water over half that area. At the time, one captain, one lieutenant, and countless sergeants were alerted to the problem on numerous occasions, but nothing was ever done to stop the water, or even to absorb the puddles. The pouring water continued for about a week, and the water on the ceiling lasted, in total, about three months. It only disappeared when the weather consistently exceeded 50 degrees. There is no doubt, though, that the problem resumes every winter. There is equally no doubt that nothing will be done to solve it.

Inmates control the showers with one button, which activates the water for about 30 seconds. There is no temperature control, and the water is always either scalding or icy cold. Only rarely, and unpredictably, is it comfortably warm. Although COs were alerted to  the problem of extreme temperatures, and they took note of it, no fix was ever attempted. Of course, that COs never act on problems, even when they ask if there are any. In the section of PCJ called Max 2, a sergeant asked inmates if there was any trouble to report about their cells. One exasperated inmate asked the officer what the point was of saying anything, since the officer would merely write down the complaint and then forget about it. The futility of even acknowledging a problem is learned by every inmate.

The designers of the jail apparently considered doors on the toilet partitions too luxuriant. Inmates attempt to provide more privacy by covering the partition walls, which have holes, with sheets or shower curtains. A torn sheet creates a clothesline across which a sheet or shower curtain forms a crude door. PCJ administrators decry the destruction of county property, such as ripped sheets. However, if the jail itself provided even a modicum of privacy for a person using the toilet among 59 other people, such destruction would be avoided.

The toilets appear to be the breeding ground for the other inhabitants of the dorms, small flies. Hundreds cohabitate with the inmates. They fly around heads, land on food, and buzz in the ear when one is trying to sleep. But they congregate around the toilets. No amount of cleaning can eliminate them. Their effects on health can only be imagined, but the jail administrators surely do not even do that.

The potential for sickness is exacerbated by the lack of fresh air. The supposed source of clean air are several air vents on the ceiling. However, if air does spring from them during the winter, the air is freezing and water is also leaking from them. During warmer months, the air from them is hot. Therefore, people are forced to choose between fresh air that dramatically adds to the discomfort in the room, or no air at all. They frequently choose the latter, if only because inmates sleeping under the vents object to either being wet and cold, or being suffocated by hot air in the summer months. Without the vents, the only source of different air is whatever seeps through the bars, air which itself is contained between two locked doors.

When a state inspection of the jail is scheduled, administrators are given plenty of notice. Preparation for inspectors typically includes repainting and refurbishing the corridors and walls. There is always plenty of labor available for those tasks. Some inmates will maintain a naïve hope that inspectors will be shocked by the conditions which fresh paint cannot hide. However, the visitation by state officials is merely a formality, not an effort of oversight. State inspectors prefer to oblige the jail’s administrators by focusing on the reconditioned corridors, which is the only place the inspectors apparently go. If the inspectors were interested in the facts, they would keep their arrival date a secret. The inspectors surely do not see 85 or more men crammed into 1-2, the classification dorm, a number commonly reached. They surely did not see a lot, because the inmates never see them.

The main enemy in jail is boredom. While reading is not a popular hobby among inmates, many do rely on it for relief. Inmates’ access to books is via the book cart, which is supposed to make regular rounds. However, for at least one dorm, it appeared only twice over two consecutive days during a period of 4 months.        

Religion consoles many inmates. For Catholic prisoners, there is supposedly a Catholic service every Sunday morning. But, unless a fellow inmate tells you so, one would never know it, because the COs do not mention it. Nor do they announce it or invite anyone to go. Other services are, again, supposedly available, but rather than being informed what and when they are, inmates must find out from each other. Even if an inmate does learn about a service, he may miss it entirely because no CO is around  to bring him in time. Just like their ought to be dry ceilings and climate control in the cells, there ought to be widely-known and regularly-scheduled religious services for inmates of all faiths. The reality is that within span of several months, Christian services will be called only 2 or 3 times. Inmates report never hearing a service called for Jewish or Muslim inmates.

Not only does the jail force inmates to call collect to use the telephone, but their only option is to dial 0, the most expensive method. The only function the phone has is to permit such collect calls. Not even free calls (800 # calls) are permitted. These restrictions are not only a burden to the inmate, but also to the recipient of the calls, usually the family – who by his absence is already struggling financially. Given the myriad of options available to call collect, there is absolutely no reason to require inmates to dial 0. To do so is only gratuitous punishment to the inmate and to his family. To call through 0 there is a $5 connection fee, and then the price is about $1 per minute. One inmate told his friends that he called his mother twice, and the phone bill exceeded $150. Another inmate called his wife twice a week over a period of four months, and his phone bills exceeded $3000. Obviously, there is no reason not to permit inmates from being able to use calling cards, or at least a discounted collect call method. Forcing inmates to call only through dialing 0 is an unnecessarily burdensome  policy designed to profit not only from their mistakes, but through the misfortune of their innocent families and friends.

In an environment without fresh, circulating air, 60 men cramped together inhaling one another’s breath, sickness is more common than health. When inmates arrive, they inevitably are afflicted by what inmates refer to as “the county cold.” Soon the person is sneezing and coughing, sometimes covering his mouth, sometimes not. On “the outside” a cold typically lasts about a week. But, given the multiplicity of germs inside a large dorm and the resulting weakening of the person’s immune system, upon finishing with one illness another one immediately descends. It is not uncommon for an inmate to experience two or more consecutive illnesses. One inmate had a  persistent, dry cough for more than two weeks. Another was sick about three weeks with three different illnesses. Each time he recovered from one, after about a day of health, he experienced the familiar feeling of his nasal passages again swelling. His cough lasted about a month.

The jail administrators are not, of course, interested in the health of the inmates, nor, therefore, in improving the conditions of the dorms to reduce the frequency of illness. One example is of an inmate who failed the mandatory tuberculosis (TB) test upon arrival, but who was nevertheless placed among 50 other inmates. That particular inmate, after many months at PCJ, was released to the custody of a drug program. Only days later, he was discharged from the program and returned to PCJ because he failed another TB test. He could only return to the program if, after X-rays were taken, it was determined that he did not have TB. Of course, about one month passed before the X-rays were taken. Because he had already failed a TB test, he should have been isolated and treated. Instead, he was housed with 50 inmates even after the drug program remanded him to PCJ. Tuberculosis is a highly contagious airborne disease, and this inmate’s test indicated he was not clear of it. But, this fact was not enough to separate him from a large population. He was ultimately cleared of having TB, but no one could predict that conclusion. The people who had breathed his air for months considered themselves lucky when he left.

If an inmate requires health care, the procedure is to complete a “request for medical care” form, and then wait to be called to the nurse practitioner. Unfortunately, after completing the form, it is usual that the inmate must wait four or more days before seeing the nurse practitioner, and not uncommon that he will never see her. Only very rarely will an inmate see her in fewer than two days. For dental care, inmates typically wait months, while their decay and pain worsens. Being provided medical care in reasonable time is the exception rather than the rule. The example below is illustrative.

One inmate slipped from the third bunk while on his way down, and seriously injured his knee. A lieutenant witnessed the fall, since it occurred during roll call. But he did nothing, nor did any other officer. The inmate soon realized the extent of his injury, given its massive swelling. At about 11:35 pm a CO was informed of the problem. The CO said he would obtain some ice. After waiting forty-five minutes without the CO returning, the inmate called his parents, and asked them to call the jail and request medical attention. The call was made, and a CO almost immediately brought the inmate to the nurse. The nurse gave him a pain-reliever, and told him he should place some ice on the swelled area. After returning to the dorm, the CO said he would return shortly with ice. After thirty-five minutes he still did not return, so the inmate called his parents again and intended to ask them, again, to call the jail and see that ice is brought. While he was on the phone, the CO brought the ice, about forty minutes after he dropped off the inmate. The CO who first saw the inmate and promised ice returned about an hour after that, with no ice. In total, about two and a half hours passed between the time of the accident, and the inmate receiving ice. The following day, the inmate was brought to see the nurse practitioner. She wrote a prescription for Motrin for the pain. But the inmate never received the medicine.

In every dorm, several inmates will be HIV+. Typically, the inmates are aware of who among them has HIV. In one dorm,  HIV+ inmates were permitted to serve food. In the one case, one served drinks. That is, he dipped his glove-covered hand into a vat of Kool-Aid and filled a cup. In another case, an inmate served the trays of food. While it is true that the inmates, like all servers, wore gloves, taking the risk of contaminating the food was not necessary, nor is it excusable.

No inmate would deny that these examples are perfect illustrations of medical “care” at PCJ. Male inmates, of course, are too concerned with ego and macho to complain about not being cared for, especially to their wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters. But, those women have a right to know how their men are being (mis) treated.

One episode of brutality by the COs toward an inmate is illustrative. In this case, several federal inmates were being brought to speak to their attorneys. While in the elevator, an inmate insinuated that the police dog which accompanied the COs was homosexual. Then the inmate suggested that the dog’s handler was also gay. After separating the offending inmate from the others, one sergeant and two officers thoroughly assaulted him.

The prevalence of official brutality at PCJ is difficult to determine, since no one is willing to discuss it. Officers will not for obvious reasons. Yet, inmates will not do so either, for reasons of pride and fear. Inmates feel that being beaten is their problem alone, and it is a problem that they will solve eventually, somehow. Nevertheless, the idea that beatings occur much more frequently than the “not at all” claimed by PCJ officials is nonsense. Correctional officers enjoy their power, and an inmate only needs to disobey slightly before that power is used, and abused. Being threatened by a handcuffed inmate is not supposed to be the CO’s threshold to use force. One inmate, aged 21, made a disrespectful comment to an officer while dinner was being served. After the trays were collected, the offending inmate was taken outside by the insulted officer and a sergeant. Those in the dorm could see the inmate being placed in a headlock and yelled at. But, when he returned, the inmate did not talk about it. 

Inmates are provided three meals per day, roughly six hours apart. Breakfast is served about 4:30 am, lunch at 11:30 am, and dinner at 5:30 pm. One unfortunate consequence of the time that breakfast is served is that it is only 5 ½ hours after final roll call, and 2 ½ hours before the first one. The result is that even if inmates immediately fall asleep after last roll call, they would only have 5.5 hours of sleep prior to breakfast, then only another 2 until first roll call. Indeed, the longest span during which an inmate can sleep without interruption is after dinner and before last roll call, a period of about 6.5 hours. The predictable consequence of their fragmented sleep schedule is irritability, which obviously enhances the chance for violence. The ability to sleep, to escape the reality of one’s daily life, is one of the few pleasures of inmates, but they are never granted it for long.

Even if it were possible to sleep though breakfast and attempt to sleep for longer than 5 hours, almost no inmate does so because they are all constantly hungry. Beginning in the summer of 2002,  the portions of food have been reduced to subsistence level, the quality has been degraded, and the variety has been limited. Further, between dinner and next day’s breakfast – a half day – an inmate must go without food.

No meal is ever filling, and so much of an inmate’s life revolves around food. Hunger is a constant companion. Inmates gamble, fight, steal, and bully, all for food. It is indisputable that inmate hunger, together with fragmented sleep, are the primary causes of practically all dangerous behaviors. The inmates, for months on end, are tired and hungry. They will consequently be disruptive, and even violent.

Inmates are provided the opportunity to obtain goods from the jail’s commissary. An account is created for each inmate, and that money may be used to purchase commissary items. Of course, the jail arbitrarily takes $25 of this money as an “enrollment fee,” as if most of the people in that jail can afford such a “fee.”

The commissary items are notoriously overpriced, especially the food, which is what most inmates buy, due to their continual hunger. Candy bars are 75 cents each, while they can be purchased out of jail for 3 and sometimes 5 for $1. Drake’s honeybuns are 90 cents. The jail surely obtains them for nickels. PCJ’s profit margin certainly would make even the old Robber Barons feel guilty and extortionistic.

Yet, it is not only the inmate population who is being robbed by the PCJ commissary, so too are the residents of Passaic County. The commissary itself is populated by over $250,000 worth of COs, none of whom contribute anything substantial to its functioning. They do not even contribute security, since none of the inmates are, or will be, serving time that exceeds the seven-year escape charge they would receive if they tried to get away. The commissary is typically staffed by six inmates. These people are responsible for filling the inmate orders, organizing the bags, restocking the inventory, and cleaning the room. There are five officers assigned to the commissary. One of them takes the cart full of bags to the cells and dorms. But, the others really do nothing. One officer is styled “the commander” of the commissary, as if it were a Navy destroyer rather than an oversized cupboard. The primary responsibility of the other officers is to watch the inmates. It cannot be to ensure that the inmates are not stealing, since the inmates only have a small shirt pocket in which they might try to hide items. The room that contains the commissary is intended to hold about 6 persons, but, like the rest of the jail, it is overcrowded. About 12 persons are in there at any given time. In terms of production, the presence of the 6 inmates is justified, while that of 5 of the 6 officers is not. But, the county pays handsomely for them to be there.

Along with the inmates and officers in commissary are the mice. The mice are so comfortable there, and so numerous, that they actually nest there. More than one time one of the officers has killed baby mice living alongside the food that the inmates will eat. The potential for contamination of the food with so many persons touching it, inside such a small room, along with vermin and the associated feces, is obvious.

Passaic County Jail correctional officers are among the best paid state employees. They start at approximately $45,000 per year. Their average salary is more than that of a police officer patrolling the streets of New Jersey’s third largest city, Paterson itself. An officer with 12 years experience is paid more than $70,000, while a sergeant with about the same years of experience is paid $84,000. Officers of these ranks walk the halls, escort inmates, and do little else. Lieutenants and captains break the $100,000 per year level. It is difficult to believe that their administrative tasks justify taxpayers spending more than $8,000 per month on them for each one. Inmates often amuse themselves by wondering how it is that COs actually earn their money. It isn’t dealing with unruly inmates, because such is so rare. It isn’t by solving complex problems, since the unvarying procedures and rules prevent any. It isn’t by strenuous physical labor, since inmates perform all of that. How it is that officers of any rank justify their high pay is a mystery to inmates, as it should be to taxpayers in such an economically needy area as Paterson. While COs discuss their boats, cars, and vacations, families in Paterson – who probably know someone in PCJ, are worrying about their electricity bills and their food supply.

COs and inmates at PCJ originate in the same socioeconomic class. Many inmates and COs know one another from school, work, or otherwise growing up. The obscenity of the inmates’ language is completely matched by that of the officers, because their vocabularies are the same. Being a CO is surely the only profession in which the administration not only permits obscene language, but engages in it themselves. Indeed, the only difference between the two groups is that the officers have power, while the inmates do not. And the officers do not permit inmates to forget this difference.

During an inmate’s day he will hear officers utter countless unnecessary physical threats, provocative (and immature) name-calling, and other forms of derogation. Officers do this to remind their captive audience that they have power, while inmates are powerless. However, officers fail to recognize that being behind bars all day does not permit inmates to forget their status, and that officers’ disrespectful behavior only succeeds in enhancing the potential for violence and disruptive behavior. But, like typical bullies, cowardly COs cannot resist taunting inmates while hiding behind the safety of their badges and the bars. That COs exude politeness and respect toward former inmates they may see on the streets is a truth that amuses inmates who have witnessed it.

Given that the main responsibility of COs is to provide security, any laxity on their part should be disturbing. Unfortunately, laxity is common. It is laxity among COs that causes drugs to constantly infiltrate the jail, and that permits certain jail rules to be broken, especially  the prohibition on inmate smoking.

Smoking is prohibited within the walls of PCJ. But the administration smokes in the building. The COs smoke in the building. And the inmates smoke in the building. Inmates tasked to clean administration offices find, and steal, cigarette butts they find in the trashcans of this smoke-free building. The butts are hidden in the shirt pockets or in the shoes. They are missed during the pat-downs conducted by COs before re-entering a cell. Back in their cells, the inmates dissect the cigarettes, and remove the remaining tobacco. The tobacco is then sold to other inmates for food. It is sold not only to inmates in the same dorm, but the trade is widespread in the facility. Inmates who work throughout the jail leave their own cells with a bag of makeshift cigarettes in their underwear. While passing through, or while performing their cleaning duties, these dealing inmates simply linger in front of the bars of other cells and dorms. As the cameras record, candy and tobacco is passed between the bars. Either no one is watching the camera feeds, or no one cares.

The tobacco is rolled into a cigarette using newspaper, toilet paper, or food packages. They are lit by lighters stolen from the offices, also missed during the pat-downs. In the occasional absence of lighters, clever inmates used stripped wires from their radios connected to a AA battery to create enough heat to begin burning the cigarette. The elicit tobacco trade would be impossible if the PCJ administrators followed their own codes.

Inmates engaged in this trade are seldom caught. Inmates who smoke never are, despite that the stench of smoke passes easily through bars and into the main corridors. Even after 30 minutes, a passing CO should detect the smell of smoke. Of course, in an effort to mask the smell, inmates foolishly spray into the air a surface disinfectant located in every cell. Because it is scented, inmates consider it an effective air freshener. Inmates smoking in a cell will spray the disinfectant continually as they smoke, hoping to conceal the odor. The unexpected scent of disinfectant wafting through the halls near a cell should be as suspicious to a CO as the smell of smoke, but apparently neither is noticed.

Ironically, one of the best sources of tobacco is the Internal Affairs office. Internal Affairs is responsible for investigating rule violations of any kind in the jail, whether by an officer or an inmate. Smoking is supposed to be completely banned at PCJ. But, the very people responsible for investigating infractions are the ones inadvertently providing the means through which the smoking rule is violated by inmates.

Sometimes a brave or foolish inmate will inform the COs about the smoking. The COs will take the names of the offenders. But nothing will ever happen – except that a CO may offhandedly comment to the inmates that one of them is a “snitch.” Action is taken, however, when drug use is reported in the cells. Drug use by inmates is not rare. Crack,  heroin, and cocaine all find their way into the cells and dorms. One cause is that inmates will have hidden drugs in their clothing prior to their arrest. Their clothes are packed in a box and stored in a large room. The drug-possessing inmate will transmit word to inmates who work in the clothing storehouse that drugs are located with his belongings. The working inmates will then obtain the drugs, use and distribute them to whatever extent they can. Such a trade is could be avoided if COs conducted a thorough search of the inmate and his clothing. Obviously, that is not happening.

Some inmates are fearful of drug use in their dorms, and gather the courage to tell COs. Typically, their reward for providing the information is to be at best ignored, at worst to be revealed as a snitch by the very CO in which the inmate confided. An inmate thought to be a “rat”, or someone who informs on fellow-inmates, risks being severely beaten by his cell-mates.

Society is notably unsympathetic to the treatment of prisoners. But society has also decided that correctional institutions should rehabilitate as well as punish. Americans have decided that jails should, in addition to separating a convict from society, should also improve that individual so that when he is released, he is better than when he went in. The goal is to constructively use the time he is being punished to teach him, and to prepare him, to be a positive contributor to his community. The community is thus supposed to be doubly protected by a jail or prison: Protected immediately by separating the prisoner from everyone else. But also protected in the future by transforming a criminal to a productive member of society. The long-term protection is much more important then the short-term protection. Separating a person from society for a few months or a year is only temporary relief for the injured society. If rehabilitation fails then another crime can occur, or more if the offender is not caught. But if rehabilitation succeeds, then the society will benefit from the unique talents and characteristics of the reformed ex-convict. His attachment to society means there is one more person to defend it against those who may violate its laws.

While PCJ naturally succeeds in its one goal of punishing the inmate by separating him from society, it clearly fails in the goal of preparing inmates for a successful return to the outside. It fails because the people who operate it apparently do not recognize it as a worthwhile goal. They do not care that inmates leaving PCJ will be more angry, more bitter, perhaps more dangerous and vengeful, then when they went in. That is because the COs do not live in the communities that will suffer from the effects of inmate mistreatment. The COs do not go home to where just-released inmates are acting on their pent-up anger on those around them.

Based on the truth of what occurs within those walls, do the officers and administrators really deserve the high salaries they receive? And, despite the charges or crimes of the inmates, must they sleep among roaches and dripping ceilings? Should officers remain unpunished for beating inmates with impunity?

The sheriff is an elected official. How his jail is administered is an issue the electorate should consider. His warden, deputy warden, and many of his officers can verify the truth of what has been written here. They all must realize that adequate pat-downs, vigilance, and simply better organization and discipline would solve most problems at PCJ. More important, the culture must be changed to focus on the most crucial goal of any such institution: rehabilitation by means of humane treatment and opportunities for improvement.

The public, of course, may not care if inmates smoke or are given small portions of unidentifiable food. Such things may seem petty. However, these matters are important because they serve as a barometer to how an institution responsible for the long- and short-term security of the city is being governed. The public may not be alarmed about the failure to prevent mice from nesting among the food supply. But they should be alarmed about the failure to achieve the one goal for which PCJ exists: security. When there is inability to perform sufficient pat-downs, inability to prevent drug usage, inability to provide access to adequate medical care, inability to ensure access to religious services, and inability even to follow their own smoking ban, there is no security.

Most of all, the public should be alarmed about the failure of the highly-paid Passaic County Jail officials to realize that they can help to ensure community security in the future by helping inmates transform themselves right now.

Chris Kerr has it all. He is wealthy, successful, and controls his own destiny. Chris is married with two attractive children in their mid-20s, both educated at a local, prominent private school. One is a boy, and one is a girl, of course. He and his wife have been married for about 25 years, and they have lived happily ever after. Chris wife, Catherine, is a self-published author of books about local bicycle trails. The family is stable, happy, and comfortable. They epitomize  the perfect American family.

Chris owns a small but profitable business begun by his parents and bequeathed to himself. He has lived in the trendy, expensive, tourist-oriented town of New Hope, PA, all his life. About 10 years ago, Chris built himself a large new home on a vacant lot adjacent to the house in which he already lived. He decided to rent the old house, and maybe sell it later. Despite the modest size of the original house, its location alone will ensure a price of well more than a half-million dollars. But there is no reason to sell it immediately. The Kerrs don’t need the money. 

Chris’s compulsory education was at public schools. But college was different. Part of his university education was gained at the prestigious London School of Economics. Chris traveled around Europe, endeavoring to become the cosmopolitan he imagined himself to be. Although Chris studied Russian in college and retains some superficial knowledge, he is fluent in but one tongue, English. But don’t remind him of that when he is conversing with his foreign business connections.

The company Chris owns has one product, a catalog called Mariner’s Annual. It is a large book containing equipment and necessities used by the maritime industry. The book’s purpose is to serve as a common reference for those on ships and rigs and those on shore. Mariner’s Annual was first published in 1958, and has enjoyed success since. Chris’s parents operated the company until the late Seventies, when Chris was granted responsibility of daily business. His mother, a miserly, falsely modest German woman named Doro, has never relinquished the purse strings, however. She controls all money incoming and outgoing. Chris loves his parents, of course. They gave him everything. The building in which the business is located, Chris’s house(s), and his parents house, are all within 100 yards of one another.

Mariner’s Annual is staffed by fewer than 10 people, including Chris. The entry-level person is typically paid $20,000 per year. Chris pays himself $250,000 per year. But Chris doesn’t want anyone to think he is better off than they are. Like many shrewd business owners who do not want their employees to ask for more than they already get, Chris tries to show that there just isn’t anymore – not even for himself. Thus, Chris typically drives a base 4-cylinder vehicle, with a manual transmission. He dresses casually. He doesn’t want anyone to think he is any different than they are. But the differences are clear. The staff must be sure to be in on time, and to stay late to meet deadlines, and to get the job done. For Chris, those rules don’t apply. Irregular hours, frequent vacations, using company supplies for personal reasons, are characteristic of Chris. He hopes no one notices, but everyone does. The employees notice little things, like when he uses company stamps for his personal mail. They notice when he ships his wife’s books on the company tab. They notice bigger things, too, like that all of the company’s supplies are conveniently housed at his mother’s house – available for her personal use, too, on the company tab. When Chris announced “This company does own a 1200 DPI printer, it’s at my house but it does belong to the company” eyebrows were raised. Though such a high resolution printer would be perfect for an office that produces a book, it is also perfect for the owner’s wife who also produces books. Why should Chris use his own money for such a device when he can simply charge it to the company and keep it as his house? After all, it’s not as if employees will ask to go to the owner’s house to print an advertisement proposal. Nevertheless, Chris was vocal to everyone about the importance of keeping his family’s personal property separate from the company’s property, “for tax reasons.”

Employees notice that Chris is paid more in two months than practically all his employees earn in one year. Employees also notice that they are paid on salary so that Chris need not pay them overtime, despite that during the several months when the book being readied for the printer, extended hours are an unspoken given. But why pay employees for their extra time when such can be avoided simply by paying everyone on salary?

Marx introduced the concept of “false consciousness,” meaning a mental framework that is illusory, and typically detrimental to one’s self. Having a false consciousness about reality is what Marx believes prevents the proletarians from rebelling about their exploitation: they simply don’t realize they are being exploited. Chris depends on the false consciousness of his employees to sustain his lifestyle. He depends on their inability to perceive Chris’s true relationship to them, how he prospers from their labor while not being justly rewarded for it.

Like every capitalist of his status, Chris lives off the labor of his workers. They produce the wealth, and Chris benefits from it disproportionately more than they do. One of Chris’s – and his mother’s – main tasks is to ensure that the employees do not realize the unequal benefits in the relationship. So far, Chris has been successful. Without consciously applying it, Chris uses Ricardo’s Law of Iron Wages with his employees: They are paid just enough to keep them  working, living well enough, not complaining, and not asking questions. An example of Doro and Chris’s success in keeping employees ignorant but happy:  One day Doro walked in the office and announced she had $40,000 worth of checks in her hand. One employee clapped and gleefully cheered. Why? Is it because that employee would benefit directly from that money? Would she receive a bonus because of it? Would she be given a fraction of it as a reward, since her personal labor helped obtain it? Not at all. She was joyful because she has perceives everything through the  false consciousness of the proletarian. She is happy that the money is there, that it will help the company. She thinks Chris and Doro share that view. She doesn’t realize that they are thinking only of themselves. For herself, this employee will not freely share in the fruits of her own labor. Instead, what she receives will be determined by Chris, because she has sold her labor to Chris at a price he, not she, has determined. Chris will always control that price. And that price will not be raised because of the income of the business.

Yet the employees are not totally enveloped in the fog of false consciousness. Despite what Chris thinks, the employees sometimes discuss the most obvious aspects of the unequal distribution of benefits between themselves and Chris. Yet, where they realize the inequity, they – like millions of others who also realize it in their own lives, passively accept it. One employee of Chris’s said, regarding the unfairness inherent in the relationship between Chris and everyone said, “That’s just the way it is.” Meaning, yes, it is unfair that a business owner should profit so much more than his employees. That there are different economic and social rules for the employers and the employees. (But is that so?) Chris couldn’t have hoped for a better sentiment to be uttered. Passive resignation to the inequalities and exploitation inherent in capitalism is what Chris, his mother, and people like them depend on for their survival.

Mariner’s Annual, the book, is divided into two sections. The first is the catalog section, which covers equipment used by the marine industry on oil rigs and sea-going vessels. The catalog section serves the purpose of the book’s existence. Those are the pages that are used by the people on the ships, and the people who order for the ships. Pictures, specifications, and other information about the products are all located in the catalog section. While that section is most important to the users of the book, it’s the second section that is most important for Chris and the company: The advertising section. These are pages for advertisements by companies who manufacture or sell the equipment presented in the catalog section. It’s by selling space for advertising in this section that the company generates its main income. The advertising is separated from the catalog section, which means a user of the book would need to intentionally choose to look at an ad before he actually sees one. Probably the number of workers on oil rigs or sailors in the merchant marine who decide to browse the ads in Mariner’s Annual is slim. Probably the number of ship chandlers who do that is equally small. So who looks at the advertisements in the advertising section? What justifies the price Chris’s advertisers are paying? When asked why any advertiser would buy space in a segregated part of the book, given that it will probably not be seen by the users of the book – who will instead be looking at the catalog pages – Chris’s response was a wry smile and “Shhhh! Let’s not talk about that.” Just as Chris depends on the passive acceptance of the capitalist system by his workers, he also depends on the blind financial promiscuity of his advertisers, whose money Chris spends to send his kids to private school. When Chris finally receives the anxiously-awaited check from 3M, the book’s biggest advertiser, he always says in an exaggerated voice of relief “Oh good, we can eat.” Would ship suppliers not know of 3M without a full page ad way in the back of Chris’s book? That is just another question Chris hopes is not asked. 

Chris’s business is located in a dilapidated converted small motel, owned by Doro. Of course, the company pays rent to Doro for use of the building. That is yet another way the Kerrs have found to siphon company money to the family. Another is that Doro remains on the payroll, despite that she does little more than guard the company-purchased paper towels and white-out buried in her closets.

The office has one level, and spans the length of the building. But Chris’s customers are lead to believe that the Mariner’s Annual world headquarters is a sprawling, elegant building quaintly nestled in a small river town. Each customer feels special because they deal directly with Chris, the president. But all of them deal with Chris, because he doesn’t trust anyone else to deal with them. Chris also deals with the paperboy and trash collectors.

Chris lives in a world of illusions and false reality. Some he has created, and others have been created for him. Superficially, Chris is a good-natured businessman who lacks pretension and lives modestly. He treats his workers well, they are happy, and he wants everyone to prosper. But looking more closely reveals the objective reality. Chris’s stable, happy life is sustained by an organization he had no part in creating, but that he inherited. His wealth is generated by people who, while benefiting themselves in his employment, are benefiting Chris inordinately more. Without Chris, the company would function and prosper. But without the workers, the business will fail. Despite the greater importance of the workers to the survival of the company, they are rewarded less than a man whose presence isn’t necessary for the business to live. There is an inverse relationship between who labors the most, and who is rewarded the most from the labor. That, of course, is a situation that exists in practically every organization.

Chris projects an image of modesty and equality. But he denies employees the eagerly-anticipated June bonus during what he called a “financially difficult year” only weeks before he begins construction of his massive new home. While the company may have a difficult year, Chris never does. Further, Chris’s lack of adherence to his personally-expressed hard work ethic is unequalled by anyone working for him. While Chris wants everyone in early and to stay late, Chris is self-exempt. Chris knows that he need not stay for the tasks to be complete. Yet, somehow, he deserves for his pay to be 600% higher than the average employee’s.

Chris’s survival depends on a world populated by people who equate tradition with correctness. He benefits because people accept what is given to them, and don’t ask questions. In a world of questioning, critical people, Chris’s life would be much different. He would be the equal that he pretends to be. And his employees would be the equals that they deserve to be. 

While this essay focuses on one man, one family, and one business and its employees, the problems presented are universal and timeless. Chris Kerr is no different from the thousands of others who share his economic circumstances. Because of those circumstances, they all tend to share the same attitude, opinions, and beliefs. This suggests that a person’s economic situation influences – if not determines – a person’s very thoughts and behavior.

Chris is a Quaker. Quakers believe in the equality of individuals before God, and to each other. The Quaker who founded Chris’s home state of Pennsylvania, William Penn, created a stir when he would address the king of England as a common man. But to Penn, the king was indeed just another man, equal to everyone else in the sight of God. However, Chris’s life could not be sustained if he shared Penn’s attitude. If he treated everyone as he treats himself, his business could not function. If he allowed everyone to work only when they wished, utilize company property for personal uses, and to pay themselves $14,000 per month after taxes, there would be no money left for business operations, among other problems. Therefore, Chris accepts the inequality that his religion’s founder rejected, because he profits from it. The profit motive is Chris’s “inner light.”

Chris takes pride that he is one of the biggest financial supporters of his Quaker Meetinghouse.

President Eisenhower was right, it’s obvious now. He warned Americans about permitting the dominance of the “military-industrial complex.” But it definitely dominates. Today is the 4^th of July. It’s worthwhile to explore the juxtaposition of our independence with the power of the military-industrial complex.

The US’s commitment to containing communism after WWII ordained that the military would increase. Eisenhower’s efforts to control its growth were in vain when Kennedy took office. Kennedy raised the issue of a “missile gap” when campaigning, despite knowing that there was none. He increased military spending substantially, to ensure a “flexible response” to military threats. That meant having a larger conventional military, as opposed to Eisenhower’s “New Look” which less expensively relied on nuclear weapons. His pugnacious Secretary of State John Foster Dulles described the strategy as “more bang for the buck.”

The military under Kennedy grew not only in response to campaign pledges, but also to the US’s increasing involvement in Vietnam. Though beginning well before Kennedy’s inauguration, the US presence in Vietnam was enhanced during his term, and the US role became more active. The 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution gave President Johnson carte blanche to wage war there. The goal of US involvement was to preserve the independence of South Vietnam. Ten years later, at the cost of 58,000 American, and 2 million Vietnamese, lives, that goal was not achieved. Another casualty was Johnson’s Great Society agenda for social programs. Johnson sincerely wanted to help the poor, minorities, and other powerless groups. But, he could not both have his programs and the war in Vietnam. The last major effort to use American wealth to benefit underprivileged citizens was another victim of the war. In reflecting on that, Martin Luther King, Jr., observed that “The bombs dropped on Vietnam land at home.”

President Reagan was committed to defeating communism, to lowering taxes, and to deregulating corporate America. Within the decade after his inauguration, the Soviet Union disappeared, tax rates had plummeted, and corporations were unshackled.

President Clinton did little to change the country’s direction. The incompetent effort to create a national healthcare system handicapped him, and helped to give Republicans the majority in both Congressional houses for the first time in 40 years. Then, Clinton had no chance of getting anything done that he wanted domestically. Soon after the 1994 election, Clinton was reduced to defending his relevancy. “The President is relevant” he argued.  

Corporate influence in politics was not reduced during the Clinton era. The very demise of the healthcare effort showed the power of it. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, deregulating that industry, is another example. So is the wave of mergers that took place in the 1990s, creating fewer choices for consumers, but bigger profits for corporations. As well, Ross Perot was right about NAFTA: There really was a “giant sucking sound” of jobs going to Mexico after its passage, under a Democratic administration. 

President Clinton’s failure to arrest the military-industrial complex is not wholly a personal failure. Probably no president could have accomplished much. But as a Democrat, he was expected to improve the condition of the middle and lower classes, and to establish a more equitable playing field. Most Americans benefitted from the economic expansion of the 1990s, which began in March 1992, before Clinton was inaugurated. Clinton’s failure highlights that Democrats have ceased to be an opposition party. In the 1980s, Democratic leaders realized that if they did not begin competing for corporate contributions, they would be swamped by Republicans, who courted such donors unabashedly. So Democrats did begin actively pursuing campaign contributions from Big Oil, Detroit, Big Pharma, and the rest. At that point, of course, the Democratic Party became a client of those interests. That is why Ralph Nader argues that there is essentially no difference between the Democratic and Republican parties. Given how they have variously governed throughout the last 20 years, it’s hard to dispute his claim.

The two parties are both supported by the same corporations, that is why they propose nothing radical, and why they are both complicit in ensuring the continuation of the status quo. In this 2008 campaign, there is talk about the “huge differences” between the agendas of the two candidates. However, no one is proposing fundamentally changing how corporations are regulated, a substantially higher minimum wage, a drastic reduction of the military, a huge increase of corporate taxes to pay for health and educational programs for the underprivileged. It’s true that Barack Obama is less beholden to special interests, mainly because he hasn’t been in politics too long. However, it’s unreasonably optimistic to suppose he can truly be an agent of change. Though, again, there is more reason to think it will come from him than John McCain.

The “Power Elite” have not only gained control of the country during the past  60 years, they have also run it badly. There is no better illustration of that than the current administration. The Bush Administration argued that we needed to invade Iraq and topple Saddam because doing so would: eliminate a producer and potential distributor of weapons of mass destruction; make Iraq a bastion of freedom; increase the oil supply and thus reduce prices; be seen as a benevolent act by the US by the global community. And it would all happen fast. Of course, the situation now is that Iraq had no WMD, they had no relationship with Al-Qaida, Iraq is barely a functioning state, Iran is actively building a nuclear program and has known ties to terrorists, oil is at historically high prices, and the US is seen as a warmonger and completely inept by the global community. And 5 years have passed. The historical record of the past 6 years, since just before the war, is definitive: The Bush Administration went to war primarily for ideological reasons, bent the facts to fit their ideology and, at last, was completely incompetent in the planning and execution of a major military operation. The result has been a situation totally opposite of what they naively expected. The result has also been hundreds of thousands killed directly or indirectly by the US-lead action.

The success of the Power Elite is also evident by comparing the US to other industrialized countries. For example, in practically every European country, healthcare is free, education – including university –  is free, the standard of living is high, 4-6 weeks of vacation are standard, and the work week is about 37 hours. The tired counterpoint is that citizens of these countries pay 50% of their income in taxes. However, average Americans pay about 30% of their income in taxes – the first 4 months of the year – and get absolutely nothing for it. It’s probable that the vast majority of Americans would pay an additional 20% if that meant obtaining some actual benefits from the garnishment of their wages. Citizens of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and such countries that have a complete social support program, hardly complain about their high tax burden simply because they are actually receiving tangible, real benefits from that money. A Dane who reflects on half his wages going to the government can then think about how he has 6 weeks off per year, how he can go to the hospital for free, obtain free medicine, can go to college for free, and, if a father, can have 6 months of paid paternity leave. When an American reflects on working 4 months of the year to pay taxes, he can only then think about upon how his money is spent on subsidies to giant oil companies, to produce $1 billion aircraft, and to pay for the defense of a country in which Bibles are banned, women are forbidden to drive, adulterers are stoned, and Jews are presented as “pigs and monkeys” to elementary school children.

Worker productivity is at its highest level ever, but their standard of living is what it was in the 1970s. That means people are working more, and earning less. That is the ideal situation for the capitalist. Benefits are declining, wages are stagnant, and the gap between rich and poor is the same as it was back in 1929, the year of the Great Crash. Corporate spokespeople argue that it must be this way to ensure that the US is  competitive in the global economy. However, after 25 years of this, the US has become substantially less competitive. Our debt to other countries is in the trillions. Our dollar is at extraordinary lows. Industrial jobs have been disappearing for decades. No, the only beneficiaries of the reduction of perquisites and the slow growth of wages are the corporations, in the form of increased profits.

The policies of the last 60 years have resulted in a country with a weakening middle class, a bloated defense industry, a corrupt political system, an apathetic citizenry, a failed foreign policy, a dominant corporate class, and an elite upper-class that is as extravagant as it is disdainful of everyone else.

The ineptitude and myopia of political leaders since WWII, but especially in the last 8 years, have stripped the US of real global influence. Yes, the US has a strong military, but it lacks a strong moral force. Consider the effect in Africa: To whatever extent the US ever cared about Africa, the Chinese are now the dominant foreign influence there. China is using its new wealth to build and maintain social programs throughout eastern and southern Africa. Poor Africans are finding food, clothing, and education next to the Chinese, not the American, flag. Indeed, China is distributing its billions all over the globe, to establish friendly relations with other countries, to increase Chinese prestige, and to create strong trade relationships. The US has enough wealth to do that, but that wealth is instead transferred to military contractors like Boeing, Halliburton, and Lockheed.

It has been the mantra of the left for decades that the US could use its immense wealth to build schools, to provide healthcare, to provide free education, to fix its infrastructure, to help its poor, and to assist the needy throughout the world. If that happened, perhaps the US would become even more wealthy, because people would be happier and healthier. A large military wouldn’t be needed, because US aid programs would have built global goodwill toward Americans. The US wouldn’t need to be defended, because, since America would keep to itself, no one would have cause to attack it. Yes, this can be dismissed as being “the mantra of the left for decades.” However, there are no obvious flaws in the reasoning.

On the 4^th of July, Americans will be celebrating our powerful military, our extravagant wealth, and our limitless freedom. On that day, the average American CEO will earn $23,000, 170 times more than the average worker; the War in Iraq will absorb another  $341 million; and 18 million American children will be where they were the day before: trapped below the poverty line.

Happy Independence Day.