Talking Points:
Musicians are not average people. At heart they are performers. Being sensitive to low frequency sound and having tinnitus in your ears makes you more aware of pollution in your environment.
Living in close proximity to the world's largest military base is not average. It gives you insight and knowledge to which others are not privy.
Domestic surveillance by any means, military or civilian, creates neurosis in the population. The military should not use the civilian population as guinea pigs when they train.
The heat that is Global Warming is man made.
Much of the heat that is warming the oceans is created by over-sized cruise ships.
If and when I feel like a persecuted Jew or African-American slave, it is because I am being surveilled. I was not sure that the word surveil could be a verb. Surveillance. Surveillance has risen to prominence in our current age of technology, and this technology, when compared to America's lineage of technological development, is nothing more than legal microwaves. The technology that built America, fostered the Industrial Revolution, created automated manufacturing, and put men on the moon is more steadfast and hard-earned than remote controlled drones delivering pizza, Distributed Power in freight locomotives, unmanned aerial vehicles, and any other video-game like manifestation that seeks to entertain weak minds. The concept of remote control using microwaves from satellites and auxiliary intermediary aircraft is sloth. Things don't mean nearly as much if you don't work for them. How did another acronym of IRS rise to such prominence in the military and private sectors? Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance has become the dominant force of the military. Simply it is another Cold War. Who has the biggest stick, Iron Dome, synthetic aperture radar, or phased array antenna? This trend in national defense has set the world back decades, while over-anxious soldiers play video games and follow orders. When it strikes, whatever it is, and all of that wireless communication stops in the blink of an eye, immediately we will revert to pre-technological tradition. (and that is technology of our definition, which only is cell phones and Blue Tooth) It is kid stuff. That the Ukrainian Army uses Starlink Satellites for logistical support is ludicrous. Surveillance is nothing more than intimidation. It is a form of non-lethal weapon. The genius is it easily disguises itself within its own construct. We know electromagnetic radiation causes cancer, but under the auspices of national defense widely and readily we use it blurring the lines between antagonism and protection. I am surveilled almost 24/7. How I know is provided by the musician in me. As a vocation and profession I am sensitive to sound. My entire life and area of study has been devoted to the manipulation of sound, mostly in the field of music. Often I forget this, because being a composer is not common in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I should remind myself that I completed all of the course work for a doctorate in music composition at The Ohio State University. What does that mean? It means at one time in my life I was adept at representing sound in graphic form on paper. Music notation. Music theory. Harmony. This study of music no longer is important to America. As such I changed my musical focus to aural traditions, music that is preserved over time by ear and memory. This is much of American music. How many contemporary/classical American composers can you name? Aaron Copland? Charles Ives? William Grant Still? What is interesting about this American music from folk origins (and I mean from the folks, not just Folk Music as a genre), is that largely it is defined by geography. My interest in the Blues has been that I have the blues. That the Blues originated from a very specific American lifestyle in a specific geographical region is telling. In America today we have lost our roots. We have lost everything that accurately defines us, and gives us insight into our current lives and potential future. The DNA of America, our hereditary threads that give our lives meaning and purpose, have all but been eradicated by the onslaught of foreign influence. The connection with our land and its own life that nourishes us is being exploited. That exploitation is coming from two sources. I am hesitant to spell this out in words, because when I do I am attacked. The nature of these entities, like microwave surveillance, is the perfect vehicle. Easily it skates between legitimate commerce and illegal domestic terrorism. We can't tell the difference. Only when you live in close proximity to the world's largest military base will you begin to see some of these oversteps. Privatization in government further has made it more difficult to tell the difference. This privatization was not a good idea like the deregulation of corporate America. Policing one's self is a tall order, and because of human weakness most of us will fail. If one wanted access to America through her infrastructure, what would one choose? Ironically one of these choices traditionally was a cornerstone of American growth in commerce and culture. Our modern times have forsaken America. One only has to look at Venice, Italy and the entirety of the Mediterranean Sea to see what is in store for America. It is an industrial wasteland, exploited and left to rot. The exploitation of our own geography and natural resources without conservation will be the end of us. They stripped the Alaskan territories to the bone over fishing and over hunting until nothing was left. On what will man live, soylent green? It is difficult to tell if the egregious overstepping of corporate America is purposeful or consequential. Is it simply greed, or as the Trump philosophy boldly outlined an overt attempt to rid the system of burden? If your president openly says its okay to kill old people, immigrants, and criminals then you'd better believe him. The extremism of the Republican party has not waned, and they are the drivers. They are the CEO's, the management, and the work force. If a campaign is launched there is no better place of origin. The military is a logical choice, but it still operates under the auspices of democracy. Fully I believe they are a part of this attack on America, but innocent enlistees are being exploited as well. Dangle perks in front of their eyes, nice homes, food allowances, and privileges, and it would be difficult for young people to resist. Why is it so important for Fayetteville, North Carolina to have a red eye flight to Charlotte at five o'clock in the morning? It is because of the manic pace and immediacy of the internet. The national power grid is a sacrificial lamb for cyber currency mining. Washington has failed in its responsibility to monitor and regulate business. The full court press of the corporate lobby paints every harmful business proposal as the next Vegas jackpot. The rail and aviation industries should be paying an oxygen tax, not a carbon tax. It is our air they burn and replace with toxins. Why should they get this for free? My example of corporate exploitation is Piedmont Airlines. Piedmont was well known in the 1970's and 1980's as a budget airline. Often they were the punch line of Johnny Carson's jokes on the Tonight Show. "They just open the cabin door and let you jump out." With their new resurrection they set up shop in Charlotte, and direct to Charlotte flights emerged from Fayetteville all through the day. Previously it only was two, Delta and United. I know because I flew to my cruise ship destinations often. When I took my first direct-to-Charlotte flight it was an improvement. The Charlotte airport is nicer than Atlanta, but I had to get up at three in the morning to make the flight at five a.m. Fayetteville had cleaner air before these flights. The more telling issue is Piedmont does not adhere to any traditional concept of flight path. At will and with abandon they fly wherever they want, whatever best suits them with no thought for those below. They blanket the city of Fayetteville with black soot. What kind of corporate decision is this? There are so many planes in the sky over Fayetteville, both military and civilian, and many of them are civil service, we are hard pressed to discern who the bad buy is. Widely it was reported many of the planes operated under shell companies were of Russian origin. It to me is indisputable that when military air traffic is rife, and Fayetteville air quality is poor, people become ill. I know this from first hand experience. My day to a large extent is determined by nature, not nurture. I go outside and breathe in, and that sets the boundaries of my days challenges. I have done everything in my power to clean up my end, but micro-particles that easily permeate walls roofs, bricks, and wood are no match for airborne allergens and disease. The people that created Covid 19 in a lab know this.
