News from the Network, Vol. 2, No. 3

Just as the middle of the country (the United States) seems to be locked in a deep-freeze with respect to the temperature, things show signs of thawing in regards to political and economic mindsets. Inside the Washington, DC Beltway and along either coast people are caught up in the enthusiasm for "change" (which, when examined closely, bears a very close resemblance to what preceded it), but in the Midwest, largely forgotten and ignored now that its votes are cast, some signs of genuine change for the sake of improvement (as opposed to for the sake of change itself) are surfacing.

• Mayor Alvin Parks of East St. Louis, Illinois, has obtained a tentative opportunity to speak at a conference of mayors from across the country. His topic for the five-minute slot (assuming that he isn't "bumped" by HUD-Secretary-to be Shaun Donovan) will be Capital Homesteading. Mayor Parks plans on sending a copy of our book, Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen, to Obama, as an example of change for the better, instead of just change for the sake of change.

• Mayor Parks has arranged for Norman Kurland to meet with Senator Durbin of Illinois for half an hour. Norm will present the Capital Homesteading concept to the Senator, and present him with copies of Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen. There is a possibility that Senator Durbin, like the late Senator Russell Long, will recognize the opportunity to do what's right because it is right, not because of a vaguely perceived mandate for "change." Among the legislatives reforms Norm intends to discuss with Senator Durbin, who was born and raised in East St. Louis, is the immediate need to give citizen-owned Community Investment Corporations (CICs), also called Citizen Land Cooperatives (CLCs) the same tax treatment as leveraged Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). Mayor Parks, and 10 mayors in neighboring communities have already formed a Metro East Citizens Land Cooperative to enable their 100,000 residents to share profits from an economic redevelopment plan being developed through the Wyvetter Younge Center for Economic and Social Justice and the Advanced Renewable Energy Systems, LLC (ARES), with our help.

• On Monday of this week we had a very productive meeting with Mr. James Rogers, Director of Communications for the Jesuit Conference and president of the Colonel John Fitzgerald Division, Ancient Order of Hibernians ("AOH"), Arlington, Virginia. Issues covered involved 1) the development of a uniform social justice curriculum for grade schools, high schools, colleges, and parishes, 2) the possibility of increasing the commitment of the Ancient Order of Hibernians to social justice by working to promote the Just Third Way as the solution to the situation in Ireland (both political and economic), and 3) specific actions in the immediate future to introduce the principles of the Just Third Way to the AOH in Virginia.

• James Rogers (see above) raised the possibility of Norman Kurland giving a brief presentation at the upcoming AOH State Board meeting to be held in Woodbridge, Virginia, on January 24, 2009. James is working on presenting the idea to Mr. Patrick Naughton, AOH State President, and expects to know in the near future.

• This past week Economic Justice Media sold its first book in the United Kingdom, a copy of In Defense of Human Dignity. It shouldn't be long now until they start realizing the possibilities of Capital Homesteading and reading a little William Cobbett as a treat.

• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 15 different countries and 27 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. The spreading dissatisfaction with Keynesian economics and the multi-trillion dollar bailouts and stimulus packages based on Keynes' unsound ideas may be responsible for the fact that of our "top ten" postings, six relate to that defunct economist and his bankrupt (and bankrupting) ideas. Of the remaining "top ten," two are the weekly news postings, one is the posting regarding our new annotated edition of William Cobbett's The Emigrant's Guide, and the remaining one, now in the number three spot (having been bumped from number one by Keynes) is Steve Roy's open letter to Tom Friedman.

Those are the happenings for this week, at least that we know about. If you have an accomplishment that you think should be listed, send us a note about it at mgreaney [at] cesj [dot] org, and we'll see that it gets into the next "issue."