Archive
Jimmy Carter – National Day of Rememberance
Jimmy Carter lived a life of service. Coming on the heels of Watergate he prized honesty and integrity above all. He put the needs of the nation ahead of his own reelection. He had hard conversations with the American people about addressing our unsustainable energy consumption. He asked for sacrifice and the American people chose the comforting lies of a Morning in America built on debt and inequality.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Jimmy Carter had caught a break and there was no Reagan Revolution we would be living on a cooler planet with far less disasters with a much smaller national debt.
He was not a strict liberal. He ushered in an era of deregulation for good and Ill. Enjoy a craft beer, thank you Jimmy Carter. I thought of JC when I had a local brew last night.
His deregulation of the trucking industry combined with the rise of OPEC led to the financial ruin of my owner operator truck driver father. I might have shared the bitterness and blame if Jimmy Carter hasn’t spent most of his post-presidency building houses for poor people.
Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center are why President Carter is widely seen as the greatest ex-President in American history. His tireless work for peace from his modest home in Plains Georgia was simply amazing.
The New American Community is compiling a virtual thank you and condolence for his family. Please consider sharing your personal thoughts with the Carter family here: https://zfrmz.com/ljHvjD51SP8hZnF4QSJq
Ann Peters Localist Hero
During my first campaign for Columbia City Council I was encouraged by my consultants to reach out to Ann Peters. She could be difficult but could be a real workhorse if you could work with her. I found Ann to be delightful. Straightforward and gruff with strong opinions but she was my most reliable campaign volunteer.
She would drive while I knocked on doors which would double my numbers. I won that race primarily on my door knocking. While we drove around we’d talk policy and life, and became good friends.
I remember going to this bombed out trailer which didn’t even have a complete roof. Ann saw a light on and insisted I go talk to him appealing to me as a social worker. It was this totally obscure conspiracy theorist who told me about his documentary on a pedophile ring in Iowa. He neither needed help nor could vote for me as he was relocating.
Ann and I went out to Waffle House after my watch party. She was a good friend and was active as a Columbia Planning and Zoning Commissioner. She fought developers and pushed for the tree protection ordinance, storm water reform, and other sustainability changes. She also rejected NIMBYism and has a keen appreciation for infill projects.
She also was big in the No Kill movement and did some proselytizing on me to address the issue. We had our first falling out over her lack of faith in Health and Human Services oversight over the Humane Society. She called me “dangerously naive” and hung up on me when I wouldn’t demand animal control records on a Friday afternoon, certain the Director would forge numbers over the weekend.
I didn’t get any help in my next two campaigns. I did help her on her County Commission race. I was skeptical but felt I owed her the help. As I saw her run I saw her largely rise to the occasion and I became convinced enough to choose her in the privacy of the ballot box.
I felt though Ann could be rash and difficult ahe would be a bulldog for progressive change. She was smart but had a reading disability. I would have liked to have seen Boone County staff rise to the challenge of having her in leadership. She came in a respectable third I believe and didn’t embarrass herself.
She endorsed the Republican after the winner of the Democratic primary had done some negative campaigning. I had endorsed him myself over a complicated matter of a County law suit over late Tax Increment Financing reports, so I might have encouraged this.
Ann left public affairs for a quiet life in a farm she owned with her sister Betsy. She gave me some heirloom tomatoes and peppers when we visited over the 4th of July. She had developed a quiet solidity isolated on the farm through COVID and beyond. She seemed at peace.
She loves the land and loved Columbia. She left a lasting legacy with her successful work in electing progressive City Council Members, including myself, important work on the spay and neuter clinic and her 5 years on Planning and Zoning.
We were sideways again when she died. I wish I would have been more supportive in the situation that led up to our last tiff.
January 6th
It’s January 6th which means I have to get political. I prefer to tell stories, document an interesting day, share a life hack or pro trip or brag about my travels. Not today.
Today is about organizing. The New American Community formed on July 4th, 2024 to revitalize rural America and other forgotten areas through fostering local activism. Our mission is to identify, train, and support an organ in every county in America.
Today we launched our County Party Organizing Project (CPOP). We have assembled a data base of County Party leadership and I have been calling State Party leadership to see about coordinating our efforts. I have had promising early conversations in Kansas and Missouri and had planned to move forward here to mark this day.
Mother Nature had other plans. Some ice and sleet and literally a foot of snow kept at me to shovel sidewalks, porches, and decks. I also had to shovel out the van. I’d already shoveled it out once to get it in a side street since we’re a snow emergency route. I parked it on a hill and ran it out of gas. I have to shovel out the alley now to get the Yaris out with a gas can.
While I was warming up though, I did some research in Texas, where there’s not a blizzard, and reached out by phone and email. I’ve got more leads to chase down tomorrow, if you pile up messages someone is going to call you back. Most people are going to want to do something if you make it meaningful and easy. So that’s what we’re doing.
We’ve also been emailing our contacts and following up with interested activists. It feels like we are at the beginning of great things. We are calling it localism. Empowering local organizers to address hyper local issues and rack up wins through community organizing, direct action, and mutual aid instead of just trying to win elections every 2 years.
We’re also asking questions and listening. We have a draft of a survey we’re shopping around to stakeholders. We’re completing our data bases and getting our nascent social media up and running. And shoveling snow.
If you want to get involved sign up on our website: https://newamerican.community.
Report from Blizzard Country
I had planned to write about stoic virtue and what it means for the good life today but shoveling snow and a long walk in the snow took it out of me.
If you’ve been reading you know I just moved into a new house. I had been pushing to get everything moved before the snow but that didn’t happen. We did get all the big things moved and I managed to get the canoe moved right as it started to spit yesterday afternoon.
Our piece of Snowmageddon began as sleet and freezing rain and everything was covered in ice by dark. It made for an exciting last load of stuff. I went to pick up the 18 yo at work and stopped by the hardware store for a dryer vent. A big dually was side ways on the hill leading the hardware and I ended up turning around and going to Home Despot.
We made it home on the ice and I made Swiss steaks that came out well. It was cold enough that when it switched to snow it absorbed with the ice and there doesn’t seem to be a coat of ice below the snow.
I walked to the old house to let the water drip as the temps drop but forgot the key. A four mile walk through the snow was still an adventure. Tomorrow it drops to single digits with negatives in the forecast. Our 10″ of snow is blowing. I might shovel the van out again to take the 18 yo to work or on an errand.
Hopefully I’ll get some work done and write a more substantive blog post. Until tomorrow faithful readers.
#FreeKevinBromwell part 2
I have been working to win the freedom of Kevin Bromwell for over six years. Kevin is 65 years old and has served over 35 years for a crime he may not have committed.
I was recently contacted by a falsely convicted by Josh Kezer who served 16 years for a crime he did not commit. Since being freed through the efforts of citizen activism he has spent his time volunteering with the attorney who freed him and a law professor who leads a class in freeing the innocent.
I turned over Kevin’s voluminous files to be scanned and digitized and reviewed to see if there is a case for Kevin’s claims of innocence. The team is reviewing five other cases besides Kevin and will litigate one or two.
Even if Kevin is chosen it will be a long road to dike an appeal and see it through the court process. As a senior, a Geriatric Offender Release Bill would be the quickest path for Kevin’s release. Ex-Offenders over the age of 60 have less than a 1% recidivism rate, they are expensive to house and pose little risk to the community.
SB-438 would only apply to offenders who have served over 30 years. At the end of the post I’ll have suggestions on who to reach out to move SB-438 forward as well as Kevin’s contact information should you write him a letter. Before that I’ll review the facts of Kevin’s claims.
On May 16th, 1988 a terrible crime occurred. A woman was murdered, and her apartment set ablaze during a burglary. Later that night Kevin Bromwell was arrested on an unrelated charge. Kevin had been heavily drinking in the company of numerous witnesses. Three participants in the crime were arrested and they identified Kevin as the murderer, two of them testifying in his trial. All received minimal sentences and served less than five years.
Kevin has maintained his innocence for the 32 years he has served after being convicted and sentenced for 30 years to be served consecutively for Second-Degree Murder, First-Degree Burglary and First-Degree Arson. Kevin Bromwell (#181047) who is now 60 will not be eligible for parole for another 62 years.
Kevin’s attorney refused to call exculpatory witnesses and conceded his presence at the crime scene against Kevin’s expressed wishes. She did not challenge the serious issues with evidence tampering and police brutality. Kevin lost his appeal regarding ineffective assistance of trial counsel when his attorney at the time presented no evidence. Kevin has been filing habeas corpus petitions pro se which have all been dismissed without prejudice.
There are six key facts that demonstrate there is not reasonable confidence in Kevin Bromwell’s conviction:
- A new witness proves Kevin Bromwell is innocent. The enclosed affidavit of Lewis Watkins, who as a boy witnessed the crime, swears that Kevin was not there. This affidavit is new evidence.
- Kevin’s clothing was taken by police back to the crime scene. When initially arrested, no blood of any consequence was noted on his clothing except a small amount on his right shoe from a fight earlier in the day. Subsequently the clothing was taken back to the crime scene by the police and then later when trial counsel examined the clothing it was covered in blood.
- Kevin had no stolen items on his person when arrested. As substantiated by police reports, there were no stolen items on Kevin’s person on the first police report when he was arrested. However, subsequent police reports mention stolen items that were on his person when arrested. The items mysteriously appear as part of the State’s case.
- Kevin was in no shape to commit the crime. Kevin had received an SSI check that day and had no need to commit burglary. As many witnesses will testify, Kevin was so intoxicated that night that he was staggering drunk and could barely walk much less commit a crime.
- The victim’s door was not kicked in as testified by witnesses against Kevin. Two of the individuals involved in the crime knew the victim and Kevin did not. The Fire Marshall’s report stated the door was in the unlocked position and not kicked in.
- Kevin had an alibi which trial counsel refused to use. Trial counsel’s strategy was to admit guilt and go for a conviction on a lesser charge then first-degree murder. Kevin wanted to maintain his innocence and go for a not guilty verdict at his trial. Trial counsel refused to do so.
If you live in Missouri you can find out who your Representative is at this link: https://house.mo.gov/FrontPageMobile.aspx Write them and ask them to sponsor SB-438 to save tax payer dollars by releasing those over 65 who have served at least 30 years. You can also write your Senator: https://www.senate.mo.gov/LegisLookup/Default
Folks anywhere can reach out to the Senate Majority Leader and request SB-238 be given a hearing: https://www.senate.mo.gov/Senators/Member/18
To write Kevin:
Kevin Bromwell #181047
3D-266
South Central Correctional Center
255 West Highway 32Licking, MO 65542
A long day and a nice meal
Hello constant reader. It’s been a long day so I’m going to go concrete. I baked the New Year’s ham a day late and with a bit of a rush job. I was pinched for time on New Year day so sliced off some steaks and pan fried them to speed along dinner.
I had a honey glazed ham which was half the price per pound as ham hocks. The invisible hand is pretty funny sometimes. I did the package directions but had already eaten most of the slices so it wasn’t as sugary which is a good thing. A little goes a long way.
I note the glaze is sugar, brown sugar, and dried honey so I’ll use the rest next time we run out of sugar at least.
For a side I took some pinto beans I’d made for chili and mashed them up with a red pepper and a sweet onion with cumin, ranch seasoning, crushed red pepper, a few drips ghost pepper sauce and after I added the beans I added a pack of taco sauce. I mashed them some and they were pretty good.
I had made cranberry salad yesterday out of a can of the jelled and some smashed blackberries and was pleased the 15 y/o smashed them who always mocks canned cranberries.
I finished it with a simple salad of mixed greens and yellow pepper. For a dressing I did a red wine vinaigrette with red wine, a nice olive oil, apple cider vinegar, apple butter, a shit ton of basil and cilantro, white pepper, and garlic powder. It was excellent.
Mostly though it felt good to be loved and all of us are still giddy about the wonderful new home. Shae said it’s like being in love again where you have to stop and just be in awe about how great life is.
To work hard and come home to someone who loves you and is excited to show you what she arranged during her kick back time it’s pretty special.
Blessed New Years
I was blessed to ring in the new year with my fiance in our new home. We closed Thanksgiving week but it’s her busy time at work and we traveled to Michigan/Ohio for the holidays so we didn’t get to move in in earnest until December 30th.
It was a lot of work with us and the two teenagers but we pulled together nicely and got it done in time to kick back a little and enjoy the new year coming in. It was nice to only have to get out of bed two minutes before the new year for my sparkling juice toast and sweet kiss and I was back in bed before 12:02 when I got a Happy New Year text.
Moving and setting up house in a new relationship brings a lot of changes. One of the things that brought my partner and I together was a commitment to sustainability as part of our values.
Shae was a single mom but still really on it as far as recycling. Her oldest is into cooking and has done a lot of research on nutrition and learning to make healthy food versus ultra processed stuff. Being able to support and build on all that has complemented my long interests in what I would call right living, using moral reasoning to choose the best course of life considering sustainability, justice, and neighborliness.
Writing The Practical Guide this year has sharpened my interests in areas I’ve lagged in like personal health. Having a chapter on lifestyle as an instrument of change means you have to eat and exercise to optimize for health and avoid medical intervention. So I’ve done that to good effect.
With helping my partner through a difficulty, house hunting and then moving, starting a political action committee and completing a manuscript and seeing it through publishing has been a lot. Through it I’ve recycled, minimized my food waste, made real food at home for the family, and all the other right living tasks I could reasonably pull off.
When I’ve had to I’ve grabbed the fast food, skipped the gym, or made some other compromise with my overall values to have a smooth flow of life. You don’t have to mail it every time to get a comparable impact but not stressing over that last 10% that would take effort beyond my abilities.
I elevated for a couple days to get the move done and worked harder than I should. I cut a few corners though to make it a bit easier. My brother John says “Most moral choices are between the right thing and the easy thing.”
I want to work hard for a better world and for my family but I also want to take the time for self care, companionship, kindness, and especially whimsy when it can be found.
What are you doing to be happier, healthier, or more sustainable in 2025? I’ll be blogging everyday through Bloguary. Look for an update on #freeKevinBromwell and as January 6th approaches I’ll be talking about the County Party Initiative for the New American Community. Stay warm constant reader.
Resolutions ABCs
Hello readers. As 2024 comes to a close it seems like a good time to talk about New Year’s Resolutions. I have been a student of the change process for nearly 40 years and when I decided to write the The Practical Guide to Building a Better World I started the outline on January 1. The timeframe worked out and I liked the symbolism.
I laid out my schedule for the year and got it to the publisher a month early. My success this past year was built in many failed resolutions in the past. The resolution articles I have seen this year have been based on SMART goal planning, mostly recommending being realistic and measurable.
This sound advice is easily found and self explanatory so I am taking a different tack. Most folks fail at resolutions because behavior change is hard. We are driven by historical inertia, habit, and static social structures that ensure that today looks a lot like yesterday and tomorrow won’t be much different.
As a student of the change process I recommend developing a plan that involves, small steps, data tracking, and rewards for progress. I also believe the most meaningful change is through developing moral character. Most moral choices are between the easy thing and the right thing.
Being a good person is a great life aspiration but an inadequate goal because it lacks specificity. It would be better to work on what a good person would do or say. I was called out for taking a sharp time with a young person when I was just frustrated in general.
As I look to address this an old school behaviorism technique immediately came to mind – ABC Sheets. Antecedent, Behavior, and Consequence tracking are a great way to generate data to fuel a behavior change agenda.
First, just tracking negative behavior reduces its occurrence. Knowing you are going to be accountable brings instant improvement.
Antecedents are the factors that come before the target behavior. Knowing the circumstances can help point to patterns and consequently levers where work can be applied to make change.
For me some reflections identified the fact that we were moving houses, we had just returned from holiday travel, and there was a lot of work to be done to be ready. This underlying situational stress definitely played a role as did some personal dynamics that I’m not going into in this format.
More concretely I was also shouting from another room which means I started out yelling. I also realized I was nursing some resentment. The fact I was also bustling around, thinking about tasks, and drinking coffee which are possible factors that could be significant if I tracked the behavior over time.
Reflecting on the specifics of the behavior I would like at my sharp tone and unkind words out of proportion for what I was yelling about. More details can help understand the behavior and ways to shape it into more helpful and friendly communication.
The Consequence is what comes after. Understanding negative consequences can help us remember not to do certain things. We can also identify hidden rewards from the behavior. If I take a sharp tone and people do what I yell about I get rewarded. It’s hard to stop negative behaviors we use to get what we want.
In this case the consequence was I got checked, I apologized and noted my behavior. I tried, not with total success, to be mindful of my tone through the stressful move. I also was able to give a little advance warning of where I was at emotionally, which some found helpful.
Understanding the costs of our behavior or how it is rewarded by getting our needs met can be helpful to identify ways to change those reward systems to better live out our values and be the best version of ourselves.
The biggest issue with behavior change is folks think they can make a big choice and lots of things will be different. Really our life is made up of many many choices we make everyday. Real change is making more and more of those choices that improve our lives and those we share a life with.
Holiday Letter 2024
What a year it’s been. The New Year found me in San Diego celebrating with my friend Steve from grad school. I always feel like, if I haven’t seen you for a long time when I do we’ll pick up where we left off and we did.
The La Brea Tar Pits have been on my list of things to do since I was a kid and they did not disappoint. I traveled on to the Bay Area where I stayed on another friend’s boat in the Berkeley Marina and also visited friends in Concord.
I was traveling in a Dodge Grand Caravan that had been given to me to support my homelessness work. During this phase of travel I started to work on my book The Practical Guide to Building a Better World. I began with an outline of each chapter and finished that in the first two weeks of the year.
After visiting friends I went back to travel, dispersed camping, hiking, seeing the sights and finding time to write. I had memorable visits to Death Valley and the surrounding area before heading East.
Chapter 1 was written as I more or less drive across highway 40 across Arizona and New Mexico. I stopped at a lot of ancient sites and took a deep dive into Petroglyph National Monument. I stayed a few days in Gallup which I’ve always liked and spent a day in Canyon de Celle which had also been on my list for a long time.
I stayed in more motels then usually because it was fairly cold for van sleeping. Between completing 28 days of stoic philosophical exercises and building in a routine of exercise and writing I accomplished what I wanted to on the trip.
Coming back through Kansas I visited Shae who I’d been talking to during my trip after starting dating before I left Leavenworth for an epic road trip last November. It went well and I returned for a Valentine’s Day date and she and the kids visited me in Columbia as well.
I had left my job to travel and write but I did some homeless outreach work and related case management in Columbia in the Spring for a couple of months with 4-A-Change. My brother John has taken over the business since I left Columbia but as he was between case managers I helped out until he could hire someone and I helped train them.
It was timely as I wrote my chapter on social service delivery doing the work. I had some modest successes and showed I could still do it. I also did training on case management for volunteers with CoMo Mobile Aid and Loaves and Fishes and later for the Flourish Initiative while I was steeped in the local resources.
Mostly though I was struck by the increase in homelessness and the difficulties at finding housing. I also noted a lot more seniors out there. It’s getting tougher and meaner every day with services increasingly strained.
My romance with Shae continued to blossom and we took a romantic weekend to Excelsior Springs. Our spending time together led me to staying over more until in retrospect we were living together.
Adjusting to family life was a nice transition and being a writer is a good lifestyle to relocate for your relationship. I kept on pace with the book and over the summer I found my voice for the book and began telling more stories versus technical details on building positive change.
We started to look for a property to buy but we struck out on finding the right live/work space for her photography studio. We did find a great historic home and we closed on it just before Thanksgiving.
I finished my manuscript and began to edit. A month or more of that and it was off to the publisher. We’re through the copy edit and initial cover design. We should be having presales together shortly after the holidays and should have books in the spring.
We’ve been packing and getting ready to move early in the next year. It’s very exciting.
I also reconnected with some old campaign staff and organizers who were excited about the book. Together we launched a political action committee called the New American Community to support my organizing and to promote localism. We’re claiming July 4th, 2024 as our born on date.
We supported some house candidates with fundraising assistance and built a digital fundraising operation. We have been preparing materials as well as doing some election advertising around the overall disappointing national election. Mostly though we’re building for the long haul.
Our goal is to identify, train, and support an organizer in every county in America, all 3,153 of them. We’re starting with the hard ones first. Our big campaign for 2025 will be to outreach and organize with county parties.
We believe that especially in very Republican areas organizing to win an election every 2 years is not the best strategy. We would like to see county parties organized as community benefit organizations working to meet the needs of their residents whatever that may be.
Think Nationally, Act Locally is our motto so we’re starting in Kansas where we received a promising welcome from the state party. We’re also talking to Missouri leadership and have been well received where we’ve been able to make contact.
Tomorrow Shae and I fly into Detroit to spend the holidays with my family and friends. New Years will find us in our new home celebrating a late Christmas with the boys.
On a personal note I’m down 62 pounds since my 2023 high. After returning to Leavenworth I joined a gym and hired a trainer to work on my posture and gait. I have been discharged from treatment for my liver and my sports medicine doctor who was addressing my knees.
Life is good and I’m excited to see what adventures 2025 brings. The move, the PAC organizing and book tour promise another year of consequence and travel. I hope this year your holidays are safe and bright. I will close with an important message from Batman.
Its not been a great year for blogging…so far
Hello faithful reader,
It’s been a long time since my last post. Sorry to leave you hanging. A lot has happened since my last post and I’ll use my time to try to get you up to speed. I was pretty new on the book writing project when I was still blogging in January. Today the book is being copy edited through my publisher Bread and Roses Press. Its a great feeling of accomplishment to have faced the blank page and been able to bring a concept to completion.
It’s taken a toll on my blogging for sure though, but for everything there is a season. As I turn from writing to editing and then on to marketing and promotion the blog is going to grow in importance. Every long absence from posting brings a commitment to post on the regular moving forward, but I am confident I mean it this time.
When I fell off on blogging I had turned Cookie Monster, the faithful minivan and short term housing vehicle towards point east. I ducked up behind the Sierras to get out of the way of another atmospheric river and ended up heading back to Death Valley. I had planned on camping just outside of the entrance after learning there is no more free campground camping there. I ended up just camping at a roadside park and then making my way into Nevada. After checking out the sites near Beatty I think I realized all the passes east were snow covered did I accept I had go back into Death Valley to get back home.
Once I got back on my journey to the east in a way that I could actually go I made a decision and found myself on 40. The blue highway stuff was too much at this point. I ended up traveling across 40 and mostly staying in hotels. There was a lot to see and I needed to make miles so that’s where I fell off on the blog.
Through my travels I had been talking to someone I was sweet on and dropped in for a visit on my way back through. Visits, turned to romantic weekends away, turned into living together and last week we closed on a house in Leavenworth.
In addition to writing The Practical Guide to Building a Better World I also formed a Federal political action committee called the New American Community to support my national organizing. The NAC’s mission is to identify, support, and train an organizer in every County in America, all 3,153 of them.
We believe in localism, pragmatism, pluralism, and the empowerment of every citizen to understand and improve their community. We believe that County parties can be multi-focal organizing hubs improving the lives of citizens everyday and not just knocking on a few doors every couple of years.
We have been raising money and building infrastructure as well as our work to impact the November elections. You can follow along at https://newamericancommunity.org
My goal for the blog is to be more substantive and idea focused but continue to be fresh and unfiltered. I plan to blog twice a week focusing on change strategies identified in the Practical Guide. These include lifestyle, organizing, politics, policy, the arts, mutual aid, social entrepreneurship, social services, and more.
Thank you faithful readers and new folks to the blog. Please comment, follow, and share when I put up something that grabs you.
Multiconstruct 
Recent Comments