CA Budget Crisis; open letter to CA Assemblyperson Noreen Evans

Dear Noreen:

You were missed at Dad's 80th birthday celebration June 27th. It was wonderful getting caught up with everyone so important to us.

I would like briefly to reply to budget issues at all levels, from community to state to federal. The private sector is taxed out. We must focus on our families, neighborhoods and communities. Individuals know best the needs of their communities and how efficiently their tax dollars are to be used.

The state and, likewise, federal legislators demand more and more increased taxation. Why? To provide for pet projects, union demands, pension plans, pop-science, mismanagement, et al.

Not only do state and federal governments burden us with regulation upon regulation upon regulation, but they erode local revenues and our livelihood. This makes it difficult to provide for ourselves those services we personally deem necessary.

It is more efficient when every dollar is used to support local needs. For when it is given to state and federal governments, its' value is diminished to support bureaucracy before it is returned to the rightful owner in the way of grants and services.

We want the state and federal government to stop meddling in our lives. Allow us in a free market to decide what our needs are and how to fulfill them. We demand:

1. our Individual rights to make personal decisions as well as those affecting our own communities, in accordance with the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights;
2. the State to realign itself with the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights and respect our individual rights; and
3. the Federal government to, likewise, realign itself with the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights and respect our individual rights and State's rights.

Our Founders developed an incredible plan, one that has been internationally admired for a couple of centuries now. If our legislators are unwilling to do so, "We the People" have the means to peacefully bring our country back on course.

• November 11, the People approved Proposition 11: Redistricting;
• March 4, the People rejected Measure A: City of Clovis 1% sales tax increase without sunset clause;
• May 19, the People rejected Measures 1A through 1E: Increased taxes/spending.

At his Fresno Town Hall June 18, Governor Schwarzenegger convinced me that he heard our message. We must overhaul the State government, making it once again affordable for the Citizens.

According to POTUS Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel: "Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things." You know what? In a way he is right! While he refers to expanding the role of government in our lives as the means to solving national problems, I take this as a call to "We the People" to unite and once again take control...of our lives, our responsibilities, and our Country.

Noreen, I love you like a sister as I have all these years. But I couldn't disagree with you more.

Respectfully,

Mark Blackney, President/CEO

Clovis Chamber of Commerce

Brief Speech delivered at Fresno Rally for Water July 1, 2009

(Delivered after several speeches regarding drought, Delta Smelt, environmentalists, lack of crops, mounting grocery prices, dust, unemployment, et al)

The energy, the commitment, the passion here today for this issue (water) is incredible!

Well, I had a wake-up call in Sacramento over this past weekend. At my father’s 80-birthday celebration there were guests from all over. And I was dismayed with either the low-level of concern or the total unawareness of our plight here in the Central Valley.

Today, I want to tell my sister and brother and all of my other family and friends in Napa County, Sonoma County, Solano, the Coast, Oregon – Wake Up!

To all others in the state of California – Wake Up!

And to the kleptocrats in D.C. – you know who you are, Nancy and Barbara – Wake Up!

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

To escape the chaos and insanity, I retreat to the basic basics. Return with me to the foundation of our great Nation and read the following from the Declaration of Independence. Take some time, reading the phrases three times each. Let the words sink in.

From the Preamble:

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes…

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

From the Charges brought against the oppressor:

“He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent…”

And the Summation:

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.”

From this reading exercise, I am aware of the erosion over the years of Rights from we the people and independent States, not to mention the seeming landslide in the last few weeks. We all know them, for they are repeated continuously in the media.

Please join others in TEA Parties April 15, 2009.

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

The Emperor's New Clothes

Read the children's tale "The Emperor's New Clothes," so apropos to the president elect. The crooked tailors in the story pretend to weave a special fabric when in fact it is nothing but air.

As did our media, they convince everyone that one is unenlightened if they cannot see the fine fabrics that they weave (fabricate). Even the Emperor is convinced that he, too, sees the new clothing so as to seem enlightened and of high intelligence.

It isn't until later when he parades about his kingdom in his new clothes (role as a leader) that an innocent child in the crowd points out that the Emperor wears no clothes, making fools of everyone!

I might buy a Golden Book version and frame it for my office.

Is The Sky Falling?

There once was a hen named Chicken Little. One day while pecking at a meal, an acorn dropped hitting the top of her noggin. Startled, the poor soul ran away from the barnyard cackling: “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”

Racing for the castle to report this tragedy to the king, Little’s friends Henny Penny, Cocky Lockey, and Goosey Loosey joined in the hysteria along the way, all crying: “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”

Down the road, they meet up with Foxy Loxy.

When hearing their plight, the sly fox convinced the chicken and her friends that he can save them if they’d just step into his den.

Once he closed the door, the fox had them where he wanted them, growing fat from the meals they provided.

Like so many childhood fables, Chicken Little provides some great wisdom that went unappreciated when we first heard it. And of the various versions, I chose this ending for its cautionary message of jumping to conclusions.

Once again, ups and downs of the economy are a natural, cyclical phenomenon. Without interference, indicators predict that the current recession bottoms out in late spring and the recovery begins in late summer. Logically, the theory of laissez faire should prevail.

Last Monday, former Czech President Vaclav Klaus warned that: “Massive government spending and tighter regulation would prolong recession,” cautioning President Obama that such interference will endanger the free market economy. Following the fall of Communism twenty years ago, the champion of the free market Klaus thought he’d never again see the extensive government intervention as he sees today around the world.

Hastily crafted answers and solutions by government come with regulations and restrictions on our lives, not to mention the onerous tax increases and debt placed on generations to come. From all appearances, several elected officials are taking advantage of our misfortune to advance their special agendas, some even admitting to it!

Are we to be taken in by Foxey Loxey and manipulated for his own benefit?

Stimulate the economy, not the government!

Weather the Storm

Last week’s annual conference of Western Association of Chamber Executives was packed with invaluable guidance through the white waters of our current economy. Of the many gifted speakers, Richard Weiss, executive vice president and chief investment officer for City National Bank, reminded us that this recession is part of a natural process.

“What goes up, must come down.”

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Officially declared last November, this recession began as early as December 2007. Mr. Weiss suggests that the economy will bottom out near the end of the second quarter and begin to rise at the end of the third. In mid-2010, we should experience expansion once again. His predictions agree with other sources, including 200 years of history.

But history also demonstrates the harmful results of interference with a natural occurrence. In a full-page ad of the February 9th Wall Street Journal, 250 members of the Cato Institute disagree with President Obama’s insistence that only a recovery plan by our government can jumpstart the economy.

The prestigious Cato panel points out: “More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan’s ‘lost decade’ in the 1990s…

To improve the economy, policymakers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth.”

Supply-side and laissez-faire approaches require courage, patience, and maturity. Giving in to fear and panic leads to rash decisions of deficit spending, affecting generations to come.

And shame to those who use these temporary unfortunate circumstances to advance self-interest and greed! Consider the recent mishandled bailouts, the present Congressional “stimulus” packages laden with hidden social agendas, and irrevocable tax increases without sunset clauses.

The sky is not falling! For the moment, it’s best that we weather the storm. By the time what little “stimulus” revenues actually reach main street, the economy should be on the way to recovery… naturally.

Principle-Centered Leadership

It is curious that we celebrate the tenth annual Leadership Clovis Day this month in the midst of this most intense economic downturn and the aftermath of this particular Presidential election.

However in the confusion and distractions, the principles studied in my own two-year Leadership Clovis internship guided me through. Principles cannot be manipulated and, therefore, never change. They are our moral compass giving clarity.

President-elect Barack Obama was not my choice as a leader of this great nation. With college records and birth certificate sealed, we know very little of a seemingly guarded past, void of sound accomplishments prior to very short tenure as a United States Senator.

And on the campaign trail, not only did he move from the far left to the center for mass appeal, but he either dropped or denied radical associations as well. All this spun with the help of the media, internet, fellow politicians, and Hollywood, a president-elect was created. Sadly, we know very little about him.

With this said, through the election process created by the wisdom of our country’s founders, we shall transition peacefully and seamlessly from one leader to another.

The inauguration this January is of historic value. For the first time in over 200 years since our Nation’s founding and its struggle for racial equality, we will be lead by a person of color. This in itself is a reason for an incredible celebration.

May our moral compass guide us to unite behind him with our support.

Unlike the shameful treatment towards President George W. Bush on display to the world, I pray that we grant our new leader the respect that the highest office in our Nation deserves and that he grant us principle-centered leadership.

Bring it on, 2009!

A week into the New Year and I’m still toiling over a general plan for 2009. Post traumatic shock from the last few months has blocked my creativity and enthusiasm as I strive for a theme to carry me through. “Gonna do fine in 2009”…”Rise and shine in 2009”…”Toe the line in 2009”…

Unfortunately, the bleak economic predictions are not inspiring. The economy is like that point in the movie “Titanic” when the engines moaned and groaned to a halt, the lights on deck went black, and the momentary stillness was broken by panic as passengers and crew members ran about chaotically for quick safety of flimsy lifeboats.

Such are the quick-fix schemes of bail outs and stimulus packages that put the nation - and its people - into deeper debt indefinitely. Increased taxation with a potentially negative impact on commerce, results in diminished returns for all.

The mess is so complicated that there are no simple, short-term solutions. Finding answers will take time and wisdom. They must be mutually beneficial, taxing to no one, most of all our children, our future generations.

We must face this pivotal time rationally and unselfishly. Drop the game-playing of finger pointing and whose name will go on the bronze plaque. Let’s just get it done.

Bring it on, 2009!

Season brings out the best in us

What a roller-coaster ride this year has been! Stock markets are rising and falling. Foreclosures have reached historic highs as the inflated housing market is bottoming out, providing first-time buyers opportunities for homes.

“There’s a hold up in the Bronx,
Brooklyn’s broken out in fights.”

The world’s developed economies have slid into financial crisis and are expected to slip lower in 2009. As if unnoticed this past year, a recession was officially declared last month!

Congress and the White House are legislating a bailout for The Big Three auto makers, to be administered by a Car Czar – the same Feds that sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac!

“There’s a traffic jam in Harlem
that’s backed up to Jackson Heights.”

U.S. Troops and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan achieved stable democratic government. In between national remembrances of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, radical terrorists attacked the peaceful nation of India.

“There’s a scout troop short a child,
Kruschev’s due at Idlewild…”

As I write this, Governor Blagojevich was arrested for attempting to sell the president-elect’s vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. (Imagine that, in Illinois of all places.) Oh, and OJ is finally behind bars!

“Car 54, Where Are You?”

Through all this tumult, including nasty elections nationally, the refrain “Car 54, Where Are You?” began echoing in my memory. (For those unfortunates born too late, google “Car 54, Where Are You?”)

Last Saturday, I recalled the entire theme song while ringing the Salvation Army bell under the clouded morning sky at the Sierra Vista Mall. I began laughing to myself, realizing how important it is to look for the lighter side for relief from the constant barrage of doom and gloom.

During these challenging days you have to search for the positive side. For this issue of the Clovis Chamber News, we received 34 pieces of good news, including the record crowds at One Enchanted Evening in Old Town.

This season brings out the best in many people. While bell ringing, I was privileged to meet some of them, from the six-year old with the toothless smile who dropped a fist full of change into the bucket to the couple who handed me pair of black knitted gloves insisting that I needed them against the chilled morning air to the sweet elderly woman who has contributed to the Salvation Army in memory of her husband for each of the 27 years since his passing. Most everyone seemed determined to make the best of this chaotic year as they rushed about.

And so, focus on what you can immediately affect…you, your family and community. Whatever you celebrate, may you find laughter and good news, and a prosperous and healthy new year!