Nat Turner and John Brown:

The struggle for Black freedom does not begin in 1831 with Nat Turner. But the rebellion he sparked is the first to reach regional and national level of awareness. The weaknesses and abuse of the then wide spread practice of human slavery was exposed to the light of day. The fact that many areas of Virginia were overwhelming populated by black slaves is of crucial interest. This fact insured that fear of other uprisings became a driving force from 1831 forward in American race relations. Indeed fear not tranquility underlies the entire South from 1831 until as late as 2008. Long term fear will over time extract a dreadful toll.

How is the story of Nat Turner recounted? In almost every history text book he is described as a Black religious fanatic and portrayed as being totally or partially insane. The term brutal and the famous quotation of Patrick Henry both appear in research material. Nat was found guilty of the capital offense of murder on November, 5 1831 and hung on November 11 some 6 days later. After death his body was flayed beheaded and quartered. No burial location is given.

The result of this unsuccessful revolution was that both abolitionists and slavers became more entrenched and more bitter and fearful. Some 55 Black persons were executed by the state as being suspect in Nat Turners rebellion. An addition 200 Black people many completely innocent we set upon by angry white mobs and beaten to death or lynched.

As a direct result of the events of 1831 the events leading up to Harper’s Ferry in 1859 occurred. John Brown became convinced that he must help his children defend their land in Kansas against attack by slavery supporting white southerners. Lawrenceville Kansas was attacked by a roving band of what amounted to white terrorists. Five people died in this attack. John Brown led a counter attack that killed 5 white southern ruffians some 5 days later.

The Kansas Nebraska Act attempted to resolve the expansion of slavery issue. Stephen A Douglas US Senator from Illinois and friend to railroad interests crafted this bill. Essentially it repealed the Missouri Act of 1820 and permitted the residents of either of these new territories to decide if they would enter the union as free or slave states. After some months in congress the bill was passed by both houses and signed into law by President Pierce on May 30, 1854. Interestingly enough both Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and Sam Houston of Texas opposed this Law. Though the die was cast another result was the Lincoln-Douglas Debates which placed Lincoln in center stage for the presidential nomination of a new political party.

Events continued to spin out of control and what Abraham Lincoln was to complete; John Brown began when he attacked a federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry Virginia in October of 1859 with the express purpose being to arm Black slaves in and about this location on the border of Maryland and Virginia. John Brown hoped that armed slaves could and would preserve their freedom by force of arms. This did not in fact come to pass and John Brown was executed for the crime of treason on December 2, 1859 some 11 months before Abraham Lincoln was elected to the office of President.

These two men were not the first to die and countless thousands more would die in the struggle that followed. The struggle is still going on in such places as Jasper Texas. Truly the vintage that John Brown’s boots trampled from the grapes of wrath is still being drunk by both sides in this ongoing conflict.

Complexity and Chaos:

There were several ideas presented on TV the other night that really held my attention. The first was chaos theory as applied to the current financial crisis. The point of view being that the system may have become so complex that its reaction to an input has become unpredictable. I am not a first rate theoretical mathematician but it seems to me that if this is true we might have to treat market disturbances in a statistical manner. That is to say that cause and effect are not clearly linked in all cases.

Using statistics to relate inputs to system responses is exactly what one does in quantum physics. Where things become truly worrisome is when one realizes that the financial system may have become an example of a chaotic system. In a chaotic system all of the relationships between inputs and outputs are not known. To say that another way it is impossible to predict with any certainty the outcome of a given stimulus. The best example of this is attempts to predict the weather. Prediction further out in time than 3 days become simply a guess or a wish.

I think everyone would agree that one wants to have a fairly tight control over what happens to financial systems on a national level. When a government looses control of its financial destiny then that government normally falls or becomes a vassal state to which ever government is controlling its financial destiny. Today one can argue that America has become a vassal state to the producers of petroleum. If you do not understand this concept somehow you have slumbered through events of the past 35 years. In fact you have been encouraged to slumber. Those that would deprive you of your wealth and free agency did not slumber however.

Today America is in the throws of a financial crisis that was brought on principally because we were not paying attention to world events. Nor were we taking steps to curb our own American greed. Frankly we consumed more than what we were entitled to. Only a very few saved for a rainy day. Folks it is raining and most people don’t have an umbrella. Many more have found their umbrella is in tatters.

The wealth of a nation is best gauged in the 21st century by that nation’s independence in energy generation. To me that should be the guiding law and principle of governance for America for the next 30 years. Until and unless America can satisfy her energy requirements domestically or with a financially balanced series of trade agreements coupled with domestic energy production America will be doomed to second class nationhood.

Cherry Picking History:

We Americans do a strange thing. I call it cherry picking history. But one could as easily call it gerrymandering history. We pick and choose what we want to remember. It is as though we move forward through time by looking constantly in a rear view mirror. But it is more than just that we look to the past we constantly change the record of the past. Over the past 140 odd years the seminal events of the mid part of the 19th century have become hopelessly blurred in the minds of most Americans.

Now this follows on top of the already fractured view that most if not all Americans hold of the past as it regards the Native Americans. To better see that distortion ask yourself who settled America and when was it settled. Words begin to flow from the mouths of our citizens perhaps describing the landings of the Spanish in the Caribbean Islands. Others begin their narrative in what was to become Virginia. Still others begin to tell the tale of the Plymouth colony. The trek made from Asia across the Bering Sea is forgotten completely.

If the true origins of the true settlers of America have been forgotten so too have the struggles of the remnants of the black slaves so unhappily forced to plant, chop and harvest the major export of America cotton. The north never grew cotton to any extent. Cotton remains largely a southern crop, with the exception of California and Arizona. Cotton and slaves are chained together forever in my mind. Black hands picking white strands in the heat of a southern autumn. I can almost hear the circadian throb in the air. Do not let this tranquil image blur your mind to the flow of blood and tears and gun powder that have watered and fertilized these cotton fields. The pivotal events that still shape us as a nation today were played out upon these very hills and valleys.

The struggles and losses of the American Native have to a large extent been forgotten. Only today are the last vestiges of Indian heritage being removed by gambling establishments in places like Kinder Louisiana. The Indian reservation provides the land and law that permits the white America to once again speak out of both sides of his mouth. He may pray in church and gamble the Saturday night before both with ease if not grace.

We are in the closing days of a presidential race. Somehow it seems fitting that as this race draws to a close the folly of the almost totally white dominated banking system of America and Wall Street itself is in chaos. Are there signs in all of this? Is a chapter of American history drawing to a close? Is it American history that is ending or is it just changing into the history of the many diverse peoples that have always composed America? Will our history begin to reflect the struggles and contributions of all of the people all of the time. Or will we once again turn our backs upon the truth and continue to live in a haze of drugs and petroleum.

Who Do You Trust?

My father lived through the Great Depression that began in 1929. His small hardware business went broke and dad accepted a position with a large company selling in China. Dad largely missed the day to day horror experienced by most other Americans; the soup kitchens, the bread lines, the American citizens (largely male) wandering aimlessly seeking employment. All of this dad missed while in China. Of the many blessing my father counted this missing of events was quite high on his list. In fact my father upon his return to America was confused by the changes he observed. These had to be explained to dad by his brother.

I am struck by the fact that the years 1929 to 1932 are still referred to as the Great Depression. In late 2008 America (and the rest of the world) was struck with a second great depression that started with bank failures. These failures quickly spread around the world. What is bothersome is that like New Orleans in the face of Hurricane Katrina America’s banking system is composed of weakened levees to help defend the system. Chief amongst these was the Glass-Steagall Act. This act was unraveled starting in 1970 and repealed by a Republican controlled congress by such a large margin that President Clinton could not veto it.

Glass-Steagall Act - Wikipedia

A very prophetic article appeared the fall of 2007. This post by a fellow Blogger strangely enough.


None of this answers the question posed by the title of this writing. When I was young enough to earn a living practicing my trade I did invest 10% of my gross into investments for my retirement. Over a number of years I managed to amass I nice amount. Now a strange thing happened on my way to retirement. Following several bubble-bursts my funds had decreased by a remarkable amount. You see I was by this time in transition to a retired state. My job had been outsourced. The people who worked for me were let go with almost no notice. So I was at least not able to send good money after bad money by purchasing additional equity instruments.

I did not think at the time these moneys were lost, that anyone was acting in a criminal manner. It took the Enron collapse to realize that crooks are not easy to spot when it comes to Grand Larceny and I use “grand” as an understatement. Much the same fraud was perpetrated upon the American public at large that occurred at Enron. The deeper lesson of the ease and wide spread nature of the corruption at Enron was overlooked when a very few of these folks were brought to trial.

If you cannot trust corporate officers and officers of large banks just exactly who can you trust? This realization is at the very heart of this issue. Drugs have corrupted the American system of justice. Greed has corrupted the American corporations and banks. Where does the American public turn to now? Who is honest enough to be worthy of leading our nation? For whom will you vote on November 4, 2008? It matters.

Bailout or Investment:

The real problem that the people of America have with the current proposal is that government seems unable to administer programs well. This is not said lightly. The current administration managed to bungle its way into a war in the Middle East. Not only were there no weapon of mass destruction but intervention by the United States seems to have caused far many more problems than it solved.

Now the Department of the Treasury is asking for a blank check with which to purchase “toxic loans”. If these loans are purchased at a severely discounted price I can’t oppose the bill. My problem is that there is very limited oversight to assure that market values of the loans will be applied. It is just as foolish for the government to pay $100,000 for a house worth $30,000 as it is for an individual to do something that stupid. Recall doing exactly that is what brought Freddy Mac and Fannie Mea down.

So the real question is do you trust the government to purchase the loans and by doing so assess a correct value to these financial instruments. Such purchase could be considered an investment in the future of America or conversely it could become a rat hole into which many billions of dollars are wasted. The congress of America is charged with making this decision. Overwhelmingly the people of America think that to purchase these loans would be a colossal mistake.

Do we trust the judgment of everyday Americans? Or should we trust the experts and fund the purchase of these loans. Either way the real problem is to get the credit markets flowing. At the moment those markets have become clogged like an artery and the life blood of the country simply can’t get past the blockage. America has suffered a stroke. It is that simple. It remains to be seen exactly how crippling the stroke is and what parts of the economy recover and what parts do not recover.

These things are in the future and cannot be seen or foretold. The real problem is to break up the clot and get the blood flow of credit flowing again in the capital markets.