May you and yours have God Health and Christmas Cheer throughout the New Year.

 Another Christmas.  Where’d the stuff in between go?  

Through another year, my sister worked harder and longer to get done what most of us take for granted.  Tommy Brubeck bounced his glass eye on a Selective Service desktop to get out of jungle fighting those rapacious little brown empire-seeking Vietnamese.  It was a lot healthier for him to play Blue and Gold football than to take his stance across the jungle line bayoneting the ballyhooed terrible Red Dominoed Gooks. 

My sister uses what little she sees out of her one non-glass eye to scrimmage everyday in the game of life.  Today, the trumped-up and unpaid for Iraq War that helped destroy the Middle Class makes it harder to find programs that help her play those daily games.  But she keeps pushing through chores, traveling to see her Cleveland friends, struggling through computer classes, volunteering, talking on Talk Shows, burning out phone lines, etc.

 Again, a significant part of my year was spent working the belief that if Christ, Santa Claus, Buddha, or Mohammed were spying on Earth, they’d push the world’s once undisputed moral leader, and the rest of the world next, to field an American World Service Corps (AWSC)  of at least a million Americans a year to:

 “Do unto the less fortunate as you would do unto me…  This is my commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you.”

 Our two non-profits, People’s Lobby Inc. and its Education Foundation (501c3) continued pushing their citizen-initiated legislative proposals that would enhance the effectiveness of all do-good organizations, help the needy, learn, and reduce the likelihood of future wars.  They’d deploy a lot more apostolic-like humans to try doing simple miracles on blue-green earth, rather than talk about such in classrooms, on bar stools, in pews, or during faux-news.

Congressman Joe Sestak ’s office (PA-D) gave strong indications that they were preparing to introduce People’s Lobby’s American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposals to field the peaceful AWSC army to help the less fortunate.  Then, the former Rear Admiral challenged US Senator Arlen Specter (R who switched to a D) for the Democratic US Senate nomination – and won. 

In the Senate race, thanks to non-disclosing Super PACS (Political Action Committees) empowered by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, Sestak was dramatically outspent.  The beneficiary and Senate winner was Republican Pat Toomey, whom Tea Party leader Dick Armey referred to as the earliest Tea Party candidate.  So, People’s Lobby’s (PLI) lost another charismatic, articulate, real world experienced, potential original AWSC Congressional Proposal sponsor.

Good ideas take a long time.  Unfortunately, great ideas sometimes take longer, even when grounded in simple common sense that starts with lessons learned in kindergarten.

Click here if interested in reviewing some print, audio, and video coverage of these topics and PLI’s work.

If implemented generations ago, PLI’s proposals would have saved us from falling into today’s crippling economic disaster, which stems from a dumbed-down public policy IQ that dumped a once strong and respected America into trumped-up, avoidable, and debilitating wars. 

How the world of news has changed.  Today, the closest we get to some accurate, investigative, and in-depth news, which was findable in the Cronkite era and when 60 Minutes had competition, is through laughing and crying over in-depth news coverage by guys like Stewart and Colbert.

In the meantime, you can help push the legislative sleigh uphill again by signing our new letter to Congress, which implores them to employ and deploy a million additional Americans annually in a 21^st century army that works to fix worldwide crises while building smarts, good will, and economies in the process.  Imagine having a million American elves a year spreading good cheer and health for at least the next 27 years…   

In October, I rewarded myself by rekindling some Habitat building habits while visiting a friend in New Orleans .  You can read and see a few pictures of Habitat New Orleans work at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Growing-Habitat-AmeriCorp-by-Dwayne-Hunn-101115-495.html.

 A chunk of the year was spent finishing a book that revolves around a burly guy who served as a Santa Claus to many of us, while we made and played with big tinker toy like objects at his ever rising and evolving Rubelian Castle of Recycled Junk.  If you’d like to learn more about a phun but thought provoking book that works for young, old, and those frolicking in between, click – Every Town Needs a Castle, Especially if Made of Recycled Junk and Spunk. 

As you’ve probably noticed in your meanderings, memorable memories are not made by breaths taken but by the moments that takes one’s breaths away, elicits laughter, etches zany stories, builds pride, or brings tears. 

And great teachers aren’t just found in classrooms or at the North Pole; they can even teach from and live in Californian junkyards.

Reading Every Town Needs a Castle, with its 90+ pictures and 87,000+ words, may rekindle some thoughts of those special moments in the lives of you and yours at the dawning of this New Year.

Thanks to Mafia Kingpin Tony Demarco and Peanutied Charlie Schultz, here’s a link that gives you the underlying message of this Old & New Year Letter and the Castling Book.

May you and yours have a Healthy and Happy New Year.

Dwayne

Ho, Ho, Ho!