Michael Jackson died because his heart unexpectedly stopped working, and when it did his death took everyone around him by complete surprise. A few of his friends suspected he was ruining his health by overwork and over-medication with pain pills – but none expected that he would actually die from a damaged heart.

But maybe Michael Jackson’s heart was damaged in many ways, many years ago, back when he was still a very young child.

In 1965, Michael’s mother, Katherine Jackson, became a Jehovah’s Witness. Katherine had always been very religious and a Baptist, but on the suggestion of a friend began to study with the Witnesses and fully accepted the teachings of the Watchtower Society as her new faith. Her husband, Joseph, never became a Witness, but apparently allowed her to raise all of nine of their children in her new faith. Daughters Rebbie and LaToya, as well as her son Michael, became the most active Witnesses in the family. The rest of the siblings either became inactive or simply quit the religion when they became of age.

In an article written for BeliefNet.com in 2000, Michael described his childhood this way:

“More than anything, I wished to be a normal little boy. I wanted to build tree houses and go to roller-skating parties. But very early on, this became impossible. I had to accept that my childhood would be different than most others. But that’s what always made me wonder what an ordinary childhood would be like.”

Many of us who were also raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses can relate to what Michael was trying to say. It is almost impossible to have a “normal” childhood being raised within a very controlling religion. As a Witness child you’re discouraged from playing with the neighborhood kids, you can’t join the Little League, or engage in high school sports.

Going to school for a Jehovah’s Witness child presents constant choices, issues, and teasing because they won’t salute the flag, sing the National Anthem, celebrate the other kids’ birthdays, or engage in any activity that relates to a holiday. Singing in the school chorus or glee club, or playing in the orchestra, presents obvious problems around Christmas and other national holidays. After all, how can you be in the marching band and not play the National Anthem?

Plus, there is the fact that as a Jehovah’s Witness child, you are going to be discouraged from going to college or university. So why waste your time taking all those college-prep courses in science, languages, or mathematics? There’s no reason at all to try to earn a scholarship if you’re not going to try for a college level education.

Michael Jackson was faced with all of those issues, plus being forced into becoming a full-time entertainer at the very early age of ten. In his home, father Joseph was clearly the boss and tough disciplinarian. Joseph could be a very harsh taskmaster; Michael and his brothers were expected to practice their music at every opportunity – they had little or no time to play or just kick back and be normal children.

On Friday and Saturday nights, when all the other kids were home watching TV, going to movies, having dates, or spending time with their families, the Jackson boys were performing in local bars or making concert appearances in other towns.

For Michael, only Sundays offered some respite from the career being forced upon him by his father. His Sundays were dedicated to the other master in his household – his religion – Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Michael continues his description of his early life (again quoted from the BeliefNet.com article):
“But what I wanted more than anything was to be ordinary… [Sunday] was the day I was able to step away from my unique life and glimpse the everyday… Sundays were my day for ‘Pioneering,’ the term used for the missionary work that Jehovah’s Witnesses do. We would spend the day in the suburbs of Southern California, going door to door or making the rounds of a shopping mall, distributing our Watchtower magazine. I continued my pioneering work for years and years after my career had been launched… Up to 1991, the time of my Dangerous tour, I would don my disguise of fat suit, wig, beard, and glasses and head off to live in the land of everyday America, visiting shopping plazas and tract homes in the suburbs. I loved to set foot in all those houses and catch sight of the shag rugs and La-Z-Boy armchairs with kids playing Monopoly and grandmas baby-sitting and all those wonderfully ordinary and, to me, magical scenes of life. Many, I know, would argue that these things seem like no big deal. But to me they were positively fascinating.”

Later on in his life, Michael seemed to develop an almost eerie passion to be with young children. He had relatively close relationships with Emmanuel Lewis, the diminutive star of TV’s “Diff’rent Strokes,” and Macaulay Culkin, the child star of the “Home Alone” movie trilogy, both much younger than he. He described his connection and special attraction to young children this way:

“[When I witnessing]…the funny thing is, no adults ever suspected who this strange bearded man was. But the children, with their extra intuition, knew right away. Like the Pied Piper of Hamlin, I would find myself trailed by eight or nine children by my second round of the shopping mall. They would follow and whisper and giggle, but they wouldn’t reveal my secret to their parents. They were my little aides. Hey, maybe you bought a magazine from me. Now you’re wondering, right? Church was a treat in its own right. It was again a chance for me to be ‘normal.’ ”

We all have to grow up eventually and face the realities of life as adults. Unfortunately, Michael Jackson never really grew up, and it seems clear that he did not want to. His body continued to grow, but by restricting his body’s natural development (he was reportedly 6-feet tall with a body weight around 120 pounds – about 60-70 pounds under norm), removing all or most of his body hair, and always speaking in a low volume, high pitched voice, he tried to remain a pubescent teenager. One observer commented that Jackson, either by design or because of psychological damage, essentially stopped growing socially at age 14.

You may look younger than you really are, but society’s norms do not look kindly upon middle-aged men who are obsessed with associating with young, unrelated children. Forty-year old male babysitters are not in high demand, but this is exactly what Michael Jackson wanted and tried to be.

His creation of his Neverland Park on his estate in Santa Barbara County, California was designed specifically to draw young visitors to his home. It’s true that many of these children were suffering from diseases and some were from poor or disadvantaged neighborhoods – and it’s also true that many were accompanied by a parent or guardian. His young visitors and those who accompanied them described their time at Jackson’s Neverland as “happy, fun, unique, much like going to Disneyland.”

It was Jackson’s obsession to be close to young unrelated children that eventually got him into serious trouble in the early 1990s, and formally charged with felonies in 2003-2005. He eventually paid out millions of dollars in one case and barely managed to survive his criminal court case in 2005. It is true that Jackson was found “not guilty” of all charges by the jury in that case, but in the court of public opinion he would be found guilty and punished severely for his behavior and poor judgment over the last few years of his life. His reputation and wealth would never fully recover from the damage inflicted during that court case.

Jackson’s closest friends and family continued to support him in spite of the accusations plus several incidents of allegedly inappropriate behavior with other people’s children. Most of them still expressed their feelings that Jackson was treated unfairly and punished for his totally innocent and kindly acts toward children. Almost everyone that has been close to him personally remains adamant that Michael Jackson would never hurt a child – simply because he loved children and loved being with them.

My own opinion (which is of course is “Just One Opinion”) is that they are right. My opinion has changed somewhat since his court trial and I now doubt that Michael Jackson ever intended to molest or hurt a child in any way.

I do still hold the opinion that his social development was retarded by the excessive discipline he received from his father, Joseph, plus the lack of normal social development due to his Jehovah’s Witness upbringing by his mother. It should be obvious to anyone that is paying attention that the man did not have a “normal childhood.”

We all see our life through our own eyes. Inside, I am still 20-years old and 145 pounds – but what I see every day is a 200 pound, 65-year old man in the mirror. That’s not me! It can’t be!

Michael Jackson’s own song hit, “Man in the Mirror,” touched on this phenomenon to some degree. I think that when Jackson looked in the mirror he saw a boy in his mid-teens – thin, hairless, beardless, and youthful – and he tried very hard to keep himself that way in reality.

When he was with young teenage boys and girls, he acted out his own childish fantasies with them, playing their games, singing their songs, acting silly and being stupid. He was trying to remain ageless, unchanging, just as he would have been when he was still a teenager.

During the trial, Jackson was accused of having pornographic magazines hidden away in his house, and this evidence was suggested as being proof that he was a child molester. But for all of us who were teenage boys, especially in the 1950s and 60s – didn’t we all sneak Playboy and Penthouse magazines into our rooms to share with our friends? Weren’t we curious about naked women? Didn’t many of us growing up in the 1970s and 80s have posters of Farrah Fawcett (rest in peace, Farrah) in a wet bathing suit hanging on our walls or on the back of our bedroom doors? Didn’t we hide our “dirty magazines” between our mattresses or under our junk in the closet so our mother’s wouldn’t see them? Remember sitting around with our friends and sharing nasty, gross, or sexually charged jokes that we had heard?

I think that is what Michael was really doing. He was reliving the teenage years he never got to enjoy like the rest of us – he was too busy working, traveling, and making money for his family. No wonder he busted away from the Jackson singing group and went out on his own at 18.

I must say that I was a fan of Michael Jackson during the peak of his career. Not a devoted fan, but still a fan of his music, an admirer of his many talents, and a fan that was cognizant of his many good works and philanthropies.

I was also very disappointed in Michael Jackson. I disliked his self-indulgent spending, the way he managed to snatch the Beatles’ music catalog away from his friend Paul McCartney, and the self-destructive damage he did to his face and body with constant plastic surgery.

To look at that handsome young man on the cover of “Off the Wall,” or the attractive, and athletic performer in the videos of “Thriller” and “Billy Jean” – and then compare the disastrous cumulative results of all of his facial mutilations twenty-five years later – was truly sad and heartbreaking for me.

So who’s to blame? I can not judge all of the players in Michael Jackson’s life. His father, Joseph, certainly had much to do with what Michael became, both professionally and psychologically. Katherine, Michael’s mother, made choices for herself and her children that clearly resulted in their socially dysfunctional behavior and unhappy relationships. No one can grow up as a Jehovah’s Witness child and not be scarred socially and psychologically; many of us manage to get over it and go on with normal lives – but Michael Jackson? Probably not.

Of course, Michael must share the blame and take responsibility for his own actions. His friends often tried to steer him away from his obsession with being around young children – but he wouldn’t listen.

His friends and business associates tried to rein in his excessive overspending and poor investment choices – but he wouldn’t listen.

Many doctors and surgeons counseled him against undergoing further plastic surgeries because of the damage he was doing to his face and health – but he wouldn’t listen.

And now he’s dead. Michael Jackson, the talented singer, dancer, performer, song writer – “The King of Pop” – is dead.

And now he’s dead. Michael Jackson, the generous philanthropist and friend to so many people, no matter their race, religion, creed, background, color of their skin or their disease – friend and stranger alike – is dead.

And now he’s dead. Michael Jackson, the young child that was never allowed to be normal, severely disciplined by a sometimes cruel father, raised as a Jehovah’s Witness by a mother caught up in a cult, denied the normal teenaged relationships that we all cherished – the little boy that never really grew up to be a man – is dead.

So Michael, we’re all so sorry that your damaged heart stopped beating and that you have left this world forever. But whatever your eternal destiny might be, no matter where you may end up, may you rest in peace…

Click here to go to the original BeliefNet.com article by Michael Jackson

Piddle

The aroma of coffee came thru bold and strong.
My taste buds were anxious to drink all day long.
I realized, of course, I downed more than I should.
But the third cup of java had tasted so good.

It’s now eight o’clock. We’re still on vacation
Our motel is quite far from our next destination.
One more quick visit to check out the room.
Also a chance to spray on perfume.

We jump in the car and toward Tucson we go.
But here is the start of my long tale of woe.
Nature calls loudly, and it’s a real strain.
To keep this discomfort from hitting my brain.

“Oh honey, please check for the nearest truck stop.
However, don’t speed and get stopped by a cop.”
I don’t want to seem like I’m in much distress.
But inside my body, I scream nonetheless.

Wait, there’s a rest stop ahead with a sign.
The words on the paper are making me whine.
“Power is out and we need to inform
That restrooms are closed because of a storm.”

We drive in pure silence but then my dear Bill
Points out a small restaurant just over the hill.
The sign on the door reads “Closed due to bad weather.”
I know in my heart that I am not altogether.

We look over the landscape as we endlessly ride.
No tree, bush, or cacti allow me to hide.
I’m starting to wonder if I could open both doors
And use them for cover as I pull down my drawers.

I’m ready to panic when there suddenly looms
A big dollar store which I hope has bathrooms
We jerk to a stop and I jump into action.
I’m sliding along till my shoes get some traction.

As I stumble and slip, the store is a blur.
Time is of essence. I cannot deter.
The “ladies”, of course, is way at the end.
No one is there, which is such a godsend.

I open the door and lock the door knob.
I’m so out of breath that I just want to sob.
Niagara Falls seems to take over me.
And I sit there and sit there and sit there and pee.

I have learned a lesson from this situation.
Drinking too much causes heavy urination.
So now when we travel, I drink very little.
Only once in a while do I stop just to piddle.

Editor’s Note: This article was first published at Chi-Newman.com on April 4, 2009. Chi has been nice enough to share it with our readers. I think you will chuckle a bit as you learn the difficulties of dealing with English as a second language.

I feel so blessed that when my father sent me to the French School, “Sacre Coeur,” at age five in Beijing, China, the teachers taught us grammar first. Learning about participles, gerunds, moods, cases, genders, numbers, etc., was not easy, but once they are ingrained forever in your memory, then you can speak and write correctly.

Of course English is a little easier than the Romance Languages because of the neuter gender. The word “it” made English so much easier than French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. After all, why should “the sun” be masculine and “the moon” be feminine? Chinese has no grammar at all, which makes it easier to learn, although the tones may cause some difficulty.

Lest we forget how difficult it is to master the English language, I am going to invite you to join me in laughing at attempts to write in English from around the world.

In an elevator:

• “Please leave your values at the front desk.”

In another elevator:

• “To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.”

At some hotels:

• “The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.”
• “Special today, no ice cream.”
• “Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.”
• “English well talking. Here speeching American.”
• “Coolers and Heaters: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself.”
• “Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.”
• “Take one of our horse-driven city tours. We guarantee no miscarriages.”
• “You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous composers, artists and writers are buried daily, except Thursday.”
• “The manager has personally passed all the water served here.”

Menus in restaurants:

• “Salad a firm’s own make; limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumpling in the form of a finger, roasted duck let loose; beef rashers beaten up in the country people’s fashion.”
• “Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.”

In dress and tailors’ shops:

• “Ladies may have a fit upstairs.”
• “Drop your trousers here for best results.”
• “Dresses for street walking.”
• “Order your summers suit because in big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.”
• “Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.”

In a dentist shop:

• “Teeth extracted by the latest methodists.”

Well that is all. As I said: “English is difficult!”

“Stand by Me,” co-written and originally recorded by Ben E. King, was released the year I graduated from high school in 1961 and it was one of the few songs that was played repeatedly during my senior prom and graduation dances.

As I remember it, everyone -- and I mean everyone -- was on the floor slow dancing with their date any time it played. Unlike some other songs of that period, even the adult chaperons seemed to like it and would join us on the dance floor or rocked to its melody as they stood watching to make sure we were not “dirty dancing.”

A few months later, as I was cruising down the freeway in my ’53 Chevy, that song came on the radio. I quickly turned the volume up to a point where every other noise was completely drowned out and my ears were beginning to bleed. I was so totally lost in the song as I continued on my merry way, that I was oblivious to the red lights and blaring siren from the police car that was following right behind me.

“Do you know that I have been following you for almost five miles?” the officer complained as he wrote me a traffic ticket for making a lane change without signaling. “What the hell were you doing? I thought that you might be asleep or even dead at the wheel.”

I admitted that I had been listening to the car radio with the volume turned up all the way and simply wasn’t paying attention. “Well maybe you’ll pay attention to the road instead of the radio after you pay for this ticket!” he responded. 

In spite of that incident and having to pay a fine that I could not afford, I still loved that song.

There were a number of incidents in my life, many of them extremely painful and emotional, when this song would seem to suddenly reappear. I don’t know that it is my very favorite song, but it is one that can quickly stop me in my tracks to listen to it. At times it will bring tears to my eyes -- simply because of the power of its message on me.

Ben E. King was one of the many lead singers of the Drifters, a very popular black rock-soul group that had its beginning in the 1950s. When Clyde McPhatter left the group, King took over most of the leads, using his soulful baritone on big hits like “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment,” and other Drifters songs of that era.

King had originally offered “Stand by Me” to the Drifters, but they passed on it. He finally recorded the song as part of a session for his first solo album, but the producers decided not to include it on that album. Shortly after the release of that first album, “Stand by Me” was released as a single. That original version of King’s has become the standard by which all others are measured. There have literally been dozens of covers by prominent artists such as Marvin Gay, Ry Cooder, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Enrique Iglesias and Mickey Gilley. I feel that most of the cover versions that I’ve heard are quite good.

The one time I saw Ben E. King in person was during a concert appearance in the early 1990s at Billy Bob’s Texas Honky Tonk in Fort Worth. Due to bad weather, King barely made it to the concert, but the plane his band and all of their equipment was on didn’t arrive in time.

In spite of the lack of his own band, King gamely took the stage backed up by a makeshift group of local rednecks literally brought together at the last minute. The only song that they could play was, of course, “Stand By Me” -- but absolutely nothing else in his vast repertoire. I doubt if the young fellows on stage even knew who Ben E. King was.

King played the piano on a couple of songs and the bass guitarist and drummer made feeble attempts to give his other songs a backbeat. King gave up trying to sing any of his Drifters hits or other songs. Everything worked out just fine when the audience joined in when he decided to just sing an extended version of “Stand By Me” that went on for about 20 minutes. When, nearing exhaustion, he finally stopped the song, the audience cheered and begged him for another encore.

Not one person in that audience complained or asked for their money back. That was the power of that song. Nobody in that crowd cared if it was the only song that King sung well that night.

I could go on forever telling stories about how this particular song has been a part of my life. I won’t put you through that, but I would like to share two recent occasions when this song popped up again, and as it has so many times before, totally ripped at my emotions.

On February 4th, PBS broadcast the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for 2009. The honoree was the late and greatly missed comedian, George Carlin. The show was both funny and very emotional as various guest hosts told anecdotes and shared video clips about Carlin. At the end of the program, 70-year old Ben E. King came out on stage and sang a very soft and subdued version of “Stand by Me” with a full orchestra behind him. I guarantee that there wasn’t a dry eye in that auditorium -- nor in front of my TV set.

Some months before, I was watching PBS and caught one of my favorite shows, Bill Moyers Journal. One of the segments of his show introduced a new video program called “Playing for Change.” The producers traveled all over the world in 2003 to record performers from different countries, cultures and colors all singing the same song. They then returned to their studios and edited the results into one extended and combined version, blending both the sights and the sounds of these impressive artists into one wonderful production that they released in 2006.

The idea behind the video was the promotion of peace and understanding throughout the world through the use of music. What was the song that they selected that everyone sang with such joy and emotion? “Stand by Me” -- of course.

The bottom line is that this song is powerful, stirring, and pulls at the emotions like few other musical compositions can (think of “Ave Maria,” “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America”). It has created a special place for itself in our recent culture. It works, not because of its repeating lyrics and simplistic melody, but for the uplifting message it sends like an arrow to the heart.

So please “stand by me” and enjoy this wonderful video of “Playing for Change” for yourself.  Be sure to check out the other great performances given with love and respect by a variety of artists in videos located in the side panel of this page.

Playing for Change -- Go to PlayingforChange.com for more information.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM

We’d both read The God Delusion and enjoyed it very much. Other than that one book, we’d not read anything else in common. Dick got up from the table and went to his office to get his copy of Farewell, My Beijing: The long journey from China to Tucson, a paperback book written by a lady he had met during a bridge match. He was clearly very excited about the book and the story it told.

“You have to read this book,” Dick said as he handed me his copy. “You’ll find the story fascinating and spellbinding. I guarantee that you will be impressed.”

In fact, he was so enthused that he wanted me to actually meet the author, Chi Newman, and her husband Richard, in person -- if a visit could be arranged while I was in Tucson. Later that afternoon, while Dick ran some errands and I retired to the guest bedroom to relax, I started reading Chi’s book.

Farewell, My Beijing might be considered two books under one cover. The two main sections of Chi’s story could be easily be expanded into separate books because their themes are so different as they cover two major periods in her life.

The first section is called “Pre-Communist Days in Beijing,” a rather short group of nine chapters that describe her childhood growing up in China as a member of a privileged and influential family. She tells of her relationships with her twin sister, her mother, and her father. She speaks well of the excellent education she received at a Catholic school that served the children of diplomats and other important people.

Chi’s description of her life in China, while brief, is quite vivid. You feel like she really has shared her memories and experiences as a child growing up in affluence, while being surrounded by poverty within a society hamstrung by its own traditions.

The last chapter in the first section, “Good-bye, Beijing,” describes her harrowing experiences during the early stages of the Communist takeover of China. Her parents made hasty arrangements to have Chi and her twin sister Lu transferred out of the country to Taiwan to live with their older sister. Taiwan was still under the control of the Nationalist Chinese government, so it offered some safety from the Communists and the atrocities they committed against all of the mainland Chinese that could not escape.

History Lesson -- Chi Newman lived through these events

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ-PbppXLic

After eight pages of photographs covering most of her life, Chi begins the second part of her story. Stories she tells about her travels around the world in this section could easily fill another substantial book.

Few of us could brag that we had been to practically every continent, but to also have lived and worked in cities as diverse as Taipei, Brasilia, Pretoria, Athens and Washington D.C. would be unimaginable. Yet Chi has “been there, and done that” in all of those far-flung places and more.

As I read the 160 pages of Chi’s book, I was not only hooked on her story, but I was craving more. To her credit, she is able to briefly describe the major events of her life -- but maybe in some cases just a bit too briefly. There are a places in the book where I wished that she had taken more time to expand, especially on the major incidents and experiences in her life, as well as describing in more detail the people she met and lived with.

One chapter describes the kidnapping of her husband, Richard, by Guatemalan rebels. While his kidnapping was apparently more for propaganda purposes, it was no less harrowing for him and stressful for Chi. In a mere eight pages, Chi manages to describe not only how Richard was captured, but also his experiences, his feelings, and how the final outcome was arranged. In the same chapter, she also shares her own feelings during the incident and tells how some of the other women in the community came to her aid and comfort.

Although the book ends with Chi and Richard Newman in active retirement in Tucson, Arizona -- my story continues. While I was busy reading the book, Dick Kelly managed to set up a meeting at their lovely home so that I could meet them in person. I thought I might be a little out of my element meeting the Newmans, both veterans of years of diplomatic service throughout the world, and especially Chi, a published writer, artist and contract bridge player.

I realized immediately why Chi had so many friends not only in Tucson, but throughout the world. She had not only lived a life that most of us could only dream about, had survived one of the major political upheavals in all of human history, but had also faced the dangers associated with diplomatic service in many countries. Yet there I was in her home and she was as warm and welcoming to Dick and me as if we had been close friends for years.

Get the book, whether you purchase it from Amazon.com (link is in our side panel to your right), at your local bookstore, or through Chi’s website at Chi-Newman.com. You’ll find it an easy and exciting read and I’m sure that it will be one of those books that you will want to share with your friends and family.

My hope is that Chi will return to her computer and write another book that expands on the stories she has shared in Farewell, My Beijing. As Senior Editor of Just One Opinion, I am grateful that Chi has agreed to share her insights about modern China and is willing to educate us about the history and culture of her ancestors. We are very privileged…

Editor’s note by Dick Kelly: Jon Waalkes lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Along with his wife, Kim, Jon has a passionate interest in making this earth a healthy and prosperous place for his future yet-to-be grandchildren to live when they are old enough to be responsible caretakers for our beautiful planet.

I recently finished reading The Green Collar Economy just in time. Because, for over the past month, the need for action at the level that the author, Van Jones, described has been ratcheted up a few notches. As the Senate debates the current stimulus package, the opportunity to make the changes described in this book is a distinct possibility. At least, I hope so.

Converting from a carbon/oil based economy to a green-collar economy and the subsequent use of renewable energy to power our lives, I believe, will not happen if the governments of the world don’t dramatically change the incentives and funding behind the change. This change must start with the United States. As one of the big abusers of the world’s environment, our country must change in order to have the world follow, and to persuade others by our standards and purchasing power.

The opportunity is now! The challenge is to make it financially viable for individuals to participate, businesses to start up, and communities to change. This is where the federal government needs to get involved. The government needs to spend on green initiatives, finance community spending, and rebate individual consumers for energy improvements to their homes and transportation.

In addition, the government must accelerate spending in research and development into alternative energies, as the efficiency model of 2020 that will finally cut our addiction to oil has yet to be developed. This is where the stimulus bill should be headed – real jobs, right now.

Tax breaks will not create stimulus. The old conservative model of the trickle down economy is obsolete. The tax breaks for the wealthy will only result in bigger investment portfolios—investments that don’t equate to jobs for the poorest of our society. It only equates to a CEO, with a bloated salary and bonus structure, making layoff decisions based on a quarterly dividend for the portfolio holders. This is why we need to give incentives to spending in green technologies as our way out of the ecological and economic mess we are in.

The other point of Van Jones’s argument is to develop a system that penalizes violators. The government needs to make it painful to these business offenders. Tax breaks to oil companies need to be reversed and a carbon tax/cap and trade system needs to be developed. The government’s role should be to accelerate penalization without creating economic difficulties for the poorest of Americans. To do this, the economic price of alternatives needs to be subsidized for the short term.

As I read The Green Collar Economy, I kept hoping the author would tell me about a successful, green collar, free-enterprise business model—a company that could be replicated over and over across America, rewarding investors and providing long-term financial opportunities to stakeholders (vendors, employees, and community). However, that company doesn’t yet exist – at least not one that doesn’t cater to just the eco-conscious elite of our society.

The serious deficit that renewable energy must overcome is witnessed by the recent layoffs at many of the wind turbine manufacturing plants. As the economy has turned downward, so have the employment levels of many startup turbine manufacturing companies that have created new hope in many communities across America. The financial incentives of alternative energy are not present at this time, requiring that the government must fully support the change to alternative energy in order to level the playing field. Government backing will make wind, solar, and geothermal energy a financial reality for everyone.

The author of The Green Collar Economy did identify some non-profit organizations that are doing well, but this approach alone is not going to cut it. Things must change, and that change must be initiated by Washington. It appears that we will need to ask our government to act with the power to both move mountains and stop the removal of mountain tops!

While I really enjoyed reading the book, it is a bit scary knowing that the roadblocks to achieving a green collar economy are so huge and some of the solutions still very far from our grasp. However, I look forward to hearing from other readers of JustOneOpinion.com on their views of the reality of a green collar economy?

Jon Waalkes

The book’s author, Van Jones, presents a well-written, substantive, and viable first-draft plan for solving what I believe are some of the biggest issues facing our country today. These include repairing the failing economy, eliminating our foreign oil dependency (a major threat to national security), and efficiently reducing our reliance on fossil fuels with clean and renewable energy.

I think the author may have tried to appeal to too many constituents because I felt the first 77 pages of the book dragged a bit and I was suspicious that this was just pie-in-the-sky stuff. When I finished reading the book in its entirety, however, I was a believer.

Am I getting soft in my old age? I don’t think so. I’m still a capitalist at heart, a business man who wants data, facts, and numbers, not wishful thinking.

Jones contends that our current economy is built on and powered almost exclusively by oil, natural gas, and coal—all fast-diminishing non-renewable resources. Our government subsidizes tens of billions of dollars a year to this pollution-based “gray economy” with little incentive for change.

Jones calls this potential new paradigm “The Green Collar Economy,” believing that it could create millions of new jobs for American workers. For this new economy to blossom and flourish, government policies must play a key role in setting standards, spurring innovation, realigning existing investments, and making new investments. It must include all segments of society. Jones also contends that only the business community has the requisite skills, experience, and capital to make it work. Success will be tied to new “eco-entrepreneurs”—and the success and survival of their enterprises.

We can no longer afford to engage in the old politics of naming, blaming, and shaming someone else, while concealing our own faults, flaws, and hypocrisies. It is most unlikely that the present high lords for oil, coal, and armaments will reverse course or give up their power without a bitter struggle. So a new force must emerge to realign American politics, transform the political landscape, and supplant the Texas/Pentagon axis.

If it is to succeed, the critical mass of businesses in this green collar economy must produce renewable energy and reduce energy waste. This can be done with the use of wind and wave farms, solar energy, bio fuels, solar-powered hydrogen farms, improved weatherizing of homes and office buildings, just to name a few. The author also lists over 50 companies that are currently making money in these market niches.

What I liked most about Van Jones’ vision was his macro view of today’s major problems and how everything is interconnected. More importantly, he spends the bulk of his time re-framing these problems into definitive opportunities that even I could understand, refusing to get mired in details or playing the blame game. And he does not advocate that government create a new bureaucracy to exploit this monstrous, once-in-a lifetime opportunity.  Instead, he reminds the reader that no major new set of modern industries—from the railroads, to nuclear power, to the Internet—has ever succeeded without government playing a powerful and supportive role.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj-7uRCLoX4

Take the time to read this book, all 197 pages, and you’ll come away with a totally new way of looking at “green.” It’s not about narrow-minded Ralph Nader hoopla and scare tactics, and you don’t have to believe that Global Warming is what Al Gore makes it out to be. Frankly, I’m turned off by all the misinformation about how to save the planet. However, my business instincts, as a consequence of the 33 years I spent in manufacturing conveyor belt products, tell me that the Green Collar Economy is a real business opportunity.

In summation, The Green Collar Economy presents an excellent first draft vision of what America could and should do to revitalize its standing in the world community. And it matters not whether you believe that global warming is a serious threat to future generations or a cyclical phenomenon. If you are concerned about the current economic woes, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems

I thought it was ironic that 61 years ago a middle-aged woman came to my mother’s home, knocked on her door (the story is told in Growing Up In Mama’s Club), and gave her a book, purporting with certainty that a new world, a pollution-free paradise earth, was hers to have in her lifetime if she believed, followed its interpretation of the Bible, and proselytized its unique message. Unfortunately, Mama is still waiting for her new world that was supposed to arrive before I reached the age of 20.

At Christmas this year, a middle-aged woman came to my home and gave me a book, The Green Collar Economy. She didn’t set high and lofty expectations, but simply said, “Read it Dad. I think you’ll like it.” After twice doing as she instructed, making extensive notes, and confirming the author’s credibility, I was a believer. However, I realized that there is no certainty that any of this stuff can ever happen unless there is a groundswell of support -- from the President, members of Congress, and the majority of all the citizens of this country, not just a majority made up of affluent people.

Now, like Mama, I intend to proselytize the potential for a “new world”—not the one she hoped for—but one with a green collar economy driving it, a truly sustainable new world for generations to come. - Richard E. Kelly

Business Opportunities for the Green Collar Economy

• Wind Power Farms
• Wave Energy Farms
• Weatherizing & Retrofitting millions of Homes & Office Buildings
• Solar-Powered Hydrogen Farms
• Refining waste oil into Bio-Diesel
• Manufacturing and Installing Solar Panels
• Manufacturing ultra efficient vehicles, such as plug-in hybrids
• Produce/Farm more local, organic food, decreasing transportation costs
• Improving the Mass Transit System
• Manufacturing & Servicing Electric Vehicles powered by a clean energy grid
• Production of more Bio-Fuels
• Production of renewable fuels from non food biomass (switch grass, etc.)

What We Must Stop Doing

• Subsidizing fossil-based fuels
• How we transport food to reduce energy costs
• Using food biomass for fuel
• Allowing Rainfall runoffs to become “storm water”
• Using fossil fuels in our fertilizers and massive Robo-tractors
• Building new coal plants that can’t safely capture & store emissions

At a dinner party the night of his arrival, we introduced Dick to two of our friends, Jeff and Ed, who have been partners for seventeen years. During the course of the evening, we set a date for the five of us to see the movie and then afterwards dissect it over a dinner meal at The Feast, one of our favorite restaurants.

I thought it was a bit ironic that my wife and I would be watching this flick outnumbered, because this time we as heterosexuals would be in the minority. I must admit that I’m very naïve about the history of the gay activist movement, having been totally immersed in my business career for over thirty-three years.

While I was a bit squeamish with some kissing scenes, this movie rates a nine on my scale of one to ten, ten being as good as it gets. The story is real, the actors superb, and Sean Penn makes you believe that he is the real Harvey Milk. What a performance! Penn should have no trouble winning the Best Actor of the year awards.

While I was growing up, my mother, an Anita Bryant clone, and her Club, which she called Jehovah’s Witnesses, boldly stated that God condemned homosexuality and firmly believed and taught that it is “a disease spread by the Devil himself.” She was totally convinced that the only cure would come from reading the Watchtower magazine and regular association with her fellow JW inmates.

During dinner I thought about this absurdity, and yet I kept silent. My preference was to just enjoy a delicious meal and listen to three very upbeat, emotionally healthy, happy, intelligent gentlemen critique a very positive cinema experience.

I am still struck with the fact that all three of the guys knew where they were, what they were doing, and what was going through their minds when Harvey Milk was assassinated, the gay world’s Martin Luther King.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=unu-9vM9VZw