My rule for myself has been, "Don't knowingly do something that will hurt other
people. I don't mind breaking the law or manipulating the system, so long as
I'm not hurting anyone. But that rule has meant that when I saved money and had
to choose where to invest it, I chose only municipal bonds and not for profit
corporations because I knew that if I let some investment advisor put my money
where it would earn the best income, I'd end up with shares in armament
companies or private jails or God knows what. There are consequences to the
choice I made. As the Federal Reserve continues to lower interest rates, each
time a bond is called and I need to replace it, my income goes down because new
bonds consistently pay lower rates of interest than older bonds. But I never
wanted to financially contribute to war or despoiling the environment or
imprisoning people.
As for leaving some kind of legacy, I don't flatter myself that I've done that.
I had a good reputation when I was working, but aside from one or two former
clients and a few former colleagues, I doubt anyone remembers me. I have
contacts with people on email lists but you know about internet friends,
they're not solid presences in our lives. I don't take credit or blame for
whom my children are. Each of my daughters is a complex individual and it
amazes me, how little influence I've actually had on who each of them has
become.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, November 04, 2019 3:01 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Re:
[blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] 2020 campaign
reflects crisis of US rulers’ two party system
At some level most of us "sell out" a little. Life is full of compromises, and
I certainly had my share of tempting offers.
Probably the last major opportunity I was given was that as the Assistant
Director of the state agency for the blind, I would be in line to promote to
Director.
I passed on that opportunity and returned to directing the Orientation
and Training Center. My talents lay in working directly with people,
not in pushing papers. That was a choice which cost us financially.
But it was a choice based on prior commitments.
But as I said, few of us are without sin. In little ways we make "adjustments"
to what we believe.
Anyway, whatever we do, we are the ones who must live with the results.
Would I have lived my life differently? Maybe in some areas. But overall I am
satisfied with my contributions. My three major contributions are named
Jennifer, James and Renae. Three children who grew to be solid humans despite
their father's flaws. Beyond that? I would be pleased to think that in 20
years following my death, that anyone would know who I was, and what I'd
contributed to the Blind Movement.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/3/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm wondering, did you have an opportunity to sell out? I mean, how
many blind people get that opportunity? Some do, but within the limits
of work with the blind. There's good old Robert Acosta about whom Joe
sent all that material to us at one time. So Acosta has this so called
not for profit organization, Helping Hands For The Blind, I think it's
called. He got into some sort of legal trouble when he was president
of a chapter of ACB, something about the misuse of funds. Now he has
this organization with all those on line discussion groups and lots of
blind group members volunteering to put out innumerable announcements
of all the weekly discussions on all the email lists who he's conned
into accepting them. Since I'm on several email lists, I must get 10
or 15 repetitive announcements each week for things in which I'm not
interested. I'm sure the organization does other things and I know he has
some employees because he's mentioned engineers.
And, of course, he owns every blindness piece of equipment plus an I phone.
I know because he's mentioned this stuff from time to time when he
needed help in using it. I suppose you could have done what he's done,
whatever that is. When I was doing the adoption work, I was involved
with a lot of adoption facilitators and adoption agencies whose
ethical practices were, shall we say, on the edge. I had to draw
lines. There were things I wouldn't do and there were people and
agencies to whom I'd never refer clients, even though their
expectation was that if they sent me a client, I owed them the same
courtesy. There were some with whom I wouldn't work at all. It was
difficult because there was no real regulation. And when there were
regulations, they didn't actually stop the crooks from functioning. They just
put stuff on paper which made it seem as if they'd stopped them.
So I'm not discouraged about what I've done. But I am discouraged
about the world in which we live and about how incredibly unfair things are.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2019 3:09 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Re:
[blind-democracy] 2020 campaign reflects crisis of US rulers’ two
party system
In my mind, becoming discouraged is a waste of time and energy. I
understand it, and I have even done a bit of complaining...okay, a
great deal, but whether I'm feeling discouraged or very positive, it
makes no difference at all in the scheme of things.
I accept the fact that we live in a Dog Eat Dog, Greed Driven World.
I might have followed the path of some of my schoolmates, and lived a
richer life in a much more expansive home, but for all the reasons
that I am who I am, I would not have been able to live with myself.
Some of those schoolmates do manage to live with the knowledge that
they have blood on their hands, and that they have stepped on the
faces of many others as they clambered up the "Ladder of Success".
Fine, they have to live with themselves. And I must live with myself.
And in the long run, I can only be true to my own convictions. Having
witnessed minds far wiser and far more clever than mine, I know that
I'll never alter the course of history. But to be able to say with my
dying breath, "I never sold out", will simply have to be enough.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/2/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm so discouraged. I feel like the only effect of voting is
psychological.
We feel like we've accomplished something.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2019 7:54 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] 2020 campaign
reflects crisis of US rulers’ two party system
Two Parties, Three Parties, or only One Party. It makes little
difference when the Power is held by our Landed Gentry, the owners of
the United States of America. Even if we eliminated all political
parties nothing would change so long as the existing Establishment
holds the control. Another long, hard fought election is coming
around in one short year...after we've already subjected ourselves to
about two years of campaigning. Billions of dollars change hands,
but only among the "Political Players". That is not most of us.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/2/19, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://themilitant.com/2019/11/02/2020-campaign-reflects-crisis-of-
u
s
-rulers-two-party-system/
2020 campaign reflects crisis of US rulers??? two party system
??By Terry Evans
Vol. 83/No. 41
November 11, 2019
Well short of the backing they need from Republicans to impeach and
oust President Donald Trump before the 2020 election, many Democrats
are becoming increasingly nervous that none of the 18 candidates
contesting their party???s presidential nomination is capable of
beating him at the polls.
???There is genuine concern that the horse many have bet on [Joe
Biden] may be pulling up lame,??? David Axelrod, a long-time
Democratic Party operative and former adviser to Barack Obama, told
the New York Times.
???And the horse who has sprinted out front [Elizabeth Warren] may
not be able to win.???
The crusade to impeach and indict Trump is driven by liberals???
contempt for ??? and fear of ??? the millions of working people who
either voted for
Trump in 2016, or who couldn???t bring themselves to vote for either
candidate of the two main capitalist parties. Convinced that these
workers are backward and bigoted, liberals want at all costs to get
Trump out now to prevent working people from electing him again in 2020.
Hillary Clinton, who smeared Trump supporters as ???deplorables???
when she
lost to him in 2016, has stepped up her public appearances, refusing
to rule out running again. Others from her wing of the party, like
former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Secretary of
State John Kerry are being urged to get into the race.
Weeks after launching their impeachment inquiry into the president ???
built around secret hearings and copious leaks to the press ???
Democrats now say they will put authorization for their inquisition
up for a vote in the House.
Democratic House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi says that the six
House committees investigating Trump will then place their ???findings???
before the Judiciary Committee so it can?? consider filing articles
of impeachment.
But liberals aren???t convinced that their ???evidence??? against
Trump will
be sufficient to get him thrown out. It rests on the president???s
request that the Ukrainian government probe corruption, including
Hunter Biden???s efforts to profit from his father???s position as
vice president.
So they continue to dig around on other fronts. New York prosecutors
got a court ruling that Trump must hand over his tax returns to a
criminal investigation they are pursuing, a move the president
appealed Oct. 23.
The Democrat-led House Ways and Means Committee has sued the
Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to try to force
them to hand over Trump???s returns.
Their goal is to criminalize those they disagree with.
Democrats use of FBI and CIA agents against Trump opens the door for
the use of the U.S. rulers??? political police and criminal
???justice??? system
against others they see as enemies. First and foremost this includes
militant workers the U.S. rulers fear will wage struggles to defend
themselves under the impact of the deepening crisis of capitalism.
Leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and the Minneapolis Teamsters
union were convicted in 1941 for organizing opposition among workers
to the rulers??? drive to join the Second World War. This attack was
led by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the liberals
who stocked his administration.
Stability of two-party system shaken
The ruling rich have not been able to restore the stability of their
two-party system, damaged in 2016. That setup works by convincing
working people that their only ???choice??? is to cast their votes
for the ???lesser evil??? ??? one of the two main capitalist parties.
The swath of Democratic and Republican candidates in 2016 evoked
unprecedented distrust and loathing from wide layers of working people.
Trump said he stood outside of the Washington quagmire, claiming to
be different from all factions within both parties. From the moment
he got elected, Democrats and their mouthpieces in the liberal media
like the New York Times?? have been in a frenzy to undo the result.
Both wings of the Democratic Party believe impeachment would help
clear their way to power. The left and socialist wing of the party
wants a road to the presidency built on turning their back on the
majority of the working class they dismiss as reactionary. They
believe they can get elected by winning votes of African Americans,
Latinos, and women largely in the big cities.
Elizabeth Warren, the front runner for the Democrats??? nomination,
says she???s a radical-minded capitalist who will manipulate taxes
and use an army of federal regulatory agencies to manage the big
corporations and make capitalist exploitation more agreeable. Bernie
Sanders offers similar policies in the name of ???socialism.??? Both
contrive to treat workers as objects to be administered.
Like Trump they both say they dislike U.S. wars abroad, but all of
them will continue to command Washington???s vast military power in
defense of U.S. imperialist interests around the world, if elected.
???In contrast to the Democrats, Republicans and other politicians
who seek to reform capitalism, Socialist Workers Party candidates
start with the capacities of working people to change our conditions,???
Seth Galinsky, SWP candidate for New York City public advocate, told
the Militant.
???We organize together with fellow workers to fight against
assaults by the bosses, their parties and their government. We
advocate building a labor party, independent of the capitalist
parties. Such a course offers a way to mobilize workers in our
millions to take power out of the hands of the capitalist rulers and
establish a workers and farmers government.???
In This Issue
Front Page Articles ???After 40-day strike GM workers approve
contract ???Back strikers??? fight against copper bosses??? union
busting ???SWP drive to sell books to explain party, its program
???Protests in Iraq, Lebanon target government, Tehran interference
???2020 campaign reflects crisis of US rulers??? two party system
???UFCW union local says ???No!??? to any prison ban of ???Militant???
Feature Articles ???The Turn to Industry: Forging a Proletarian
Party
Also In This Issue ???Hong Kong protests back Catalan independence
fight ???Blackjewel miners??? encampment protest wins back pay
???Striking Chicago teachers, school workers win support ???Florida
ex-felons push back restrictions on right to vote ???Socialist
Workers Party Fund Drive Oct. 5 - Dec. 10 (Week 3) ???Fall Campaign
to sell Militant subscriptions and books Oct. 5 - Dec. 10 (Week 3)
On the Picket Line ???Steelworkers in New Brunswick fight Glencore
lockout ???Quebec senior residence workers strike for wages and more
staff
?? Copyright 2019 The Militant?? -?? 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor
-?? New
York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxxx
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Okay, thank
--
---
David Hume
??? In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all
imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the
lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions
his belief to the evidence. ???
??? David Hume,