Tuesday, September 30, 2008

October 6, 2008 - Rethinking Money Show with Mike Nickerson













Listen 8:00- 10:00 pm (PST) to the WeThePeopleRadioNetwork.com and to our guest- Mike Nickerson.

Mike Nickerson is the author of Life, Money & Illusion- Living on Earth as if we want to stay. He first encountered "sustainability" as a co-director of the Institute for the Study of Cultural Evolution. The organization's study of the aspirations and concerns of citizens' groups culminated in 1974 with the point form summary, now known as the Guideposts for a Sustainable Future. The background detail of the study was published in 1977 under the title Change the World I Want to Stay On. In 1990 Mr. Nickerson completed production of the Guideposts for a Sustainable Future video along with an accompanying workshop kit. In 1993 his second book- Planning for Seven Generations was published in paperback.

Currently Mike coordinates the Sustainability Project and an initiative to establish a Genuine Progress Index for Canada. He lives near the village of Lanark, Ontario and supports his interest in cultural evolution doing custom woodwork. He would like to spend more time growing things.

Recently he wrote:

A Silver Lining to the Economic Downturn


    An alternative to panicking when GDP stops growing is to view it as a sign of maturity.

    Human activity cannot expand forever on our finite planet. An economy growing at 3% a year doubles its size every 24 years. Centuries of such growth have brought us to a mature size. As with individual maturity, there comes a time for societies to stop growing and to take responsibly for their strength and impacts on others.

    As a mature species, we have two responsibilities to Earth and ultimately, to ourselves. The first is to live within the availability of natural resources. Global production of oil has stalled for three years at about 85 million barrels a day, yet demand continues to increase. This results in rising prices. The increased cost is reminding us all about how dependent we are on this particular resource.

    While fossil fuels are a well-known resource issue, there is also cause for concern with fresh water, forests, fish, soil fertility and other resources.

    Our second responsibility is to keep our waste within tolerable bounds. Climate change is a direct result of human activity having grown to where our C02 emissions are overwhelming the ability of oceans and forests to absorb it, leaving it to accumulate in the atmosphere. What is the logic of policies aimed at doubling our size, when current activities, at the present population level, have already brought us to the edge of climate chaos?

    Climate change is not the only issue related to tolerance. Respiratory problems, many cancers and other illnesses, which result from the accumulation of manufactured toxins, are also wake up calls.

    The sub-prime mortgage crisis rivals the price of fuel and climate change in terms of public concern. It too can be linked to confrontation with planetary limits.

    Over the centuries, the expansion of our growth-dependent type of monetary system has inflated it to gargantuan proportions. In North America, to accomplish 3% growth, over four hundred billion dollars in new business has to take place in the present year. This is over and above the fifteen trillion dollars worth of transactions already taking place. Large amounts of new money has to be loaned into existence to accommodate this expansion.

    Before humans filled the Earth, there were areas of untapped natural resources, from which we could produce things of tangible value that people were willing and able to pay for - businesses, houses, tools, food and the like - to back up an exponentially expanding money supply. By the 1980s, it was becoming increasingly difficult to produce enough real wealth to do the job. Following "junk bonds," and the DotCom bubble, bidding up real estate became a primary means for expanding the money supply. When that bubble threatened to burst after 9/11, interest rates were dropped to almost nothing and mortgages were offered to people with no down payments and little credit worthiness. At hundreds of thousands of dollars each, great quantities of money were loaned into circulation. It appeared to work, until energy driven inflation prompted interest rate increases that many sub-prime mortgage holders were unable to pay.

    These problems indicate that the time has come for a fundamental change. Fuel prices, climate change and the sub-prime mortgage crisis are all symptoms of one cause. They will not effectively be resolved until the fact that human activity has grown to stretch planetary limits is addressed. We cannot grow out of problems that result from our size.

    When we stopped growing as individuals, it was not the end of the world. Indeed, for most of us, life had scarcely begun before physical maturity. Even as physical growth ended, we became better informed, more comfortable in ourselves and we developed the skills and relationships that define our lives. The same can be true for civilization.

    Among the first things societies can do, as we acknowledge our maturity, is to shift investment into education and health care. Unlike cars and expanding highway networks, which are resource and waste intensive, education and health care (particularly care at the preventative level) consist almost entirely of knowledge and good will.

    Another step will be to revive local, small-scale agriculture. Food produced in this way requires less fuel and other natural resources and has been shown to produce more food per acre, of a higher nutritional quality, than industrial scale farming.

    Investing in education, health care and local food security makes sense, if what we want is a healthy, well fed, educated population. With the present commitment to make money grow, however, such goals appear self-serving. Our advanced size requires that all our efforts be focused on monetary expansion.

    Do we want to grow money or food? As long as our goal is defined as making the GDP grow, efficiency will be measured entirely in terms of what makes the most money. Even though industrial agriculture produces less food per acre, than small-scale local framing, it does produce a greater crop of investment capital. Money borrowed for heavy equipment, fuel, pesticides and fertilizer earns interest and, driven by payment schedules, stimulates efforts to maximize financial return. Local farming, on the other hand, contributes relatively little to the immediate need of expanding capital. It tends to put money into the pockets of farmers who, rather than investing it, are more likely to buy food, shelter and education for their children.

    When industrialization began, it was recognized that mechanized, mass production could provide products at a fraction of the cost of hand-made goods. The main obstacle to applying the industrial process to all manner of goods was a shortage of capital. Because it costs a lot of up-front money to build an industry, our system of mutual provision (the economy) was designed to encourage the expansion of capital. However, now that the world is awash in so much capital that, a continuous stream of speculative bubbles is necessary to give it places to invest, it is time for another goal.

    As we mature as a society, the things that indicate well-being change. Measuring how much a baby grows is a good measure of its health; it is not an effective way to measure the well-being of an adult. If we want to resolve today's multiple crises, we need more detailed information.

    At present, if there is a natural disaster, toxic spill or a health epidemic, the costs of dealing with the problems are added to the GDP, giving the false impression that we are better off. While more money might be flowing, life is degraded by such things. If we were to measure social and environmental factors of well-being with the same authority and enthusiasm with which we measure GDP, much of the confusion would be avoided. A Genuine Progress Index (GPI) would provide a broader spectrum of information, enabling the costs and benefits of different activities to be assessed with greater accuracy. Along with the traditional economic indicators, accounts about air quality and health issues, for example, would reveal that the hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually on medicine to relieve respiratory suffering is more a sign of distress than of economic progress.

    A legitimized indicator that shows whether social and environmental factors are improving or deteriorating would create the awareness needed to stimulate serious actions toward solving the problems.

    By identifying resource draw-down, pollution, and disruptions to communities, with a GPI, external factors would enter the picture. Presently externalized costs are not included in the price of goods. When such costs are added to production costs, those goods that are socially and environmentally friendly would be less expensive and those that cause problems would cost more. Both consumers and producers would then be inclined toward responsible products.

    Taking the additional step of shifting the skill, ingenuity and persuasive effort that is presently applied toward engineering obsolescence, and, instead, using it to design durable, easily repaired goods, and to reclaim pride in objects that have long served us, could cut up to 50% off of our material and energy consumption and consequent impacts.

    One final shift - from looking for fulfillment in material goods, to seeking it in friendships, knowledge, appreciation, service, music, art, sport and adventure - would complete the transformation. Coupled with environmentally responsible agriculture, such a change could reduce our impacts to practically nothing. That is, the real costs of maintaining well-being for humans, in terms of the ability of Earth to sustain life over time, would be negligible.

    By finding satisfaction in the richness of being human, we could change the image of our species from that of a potentially terminal blight on the Earth, to something much more suiting to our position amidst the life of this planet. As a mature species, we could reward three billion years of evolution by adding laughter, love, awe and wonder to a deep appreciation for the incredible accomplishments by which life has brought us to this point.

    While arguments persist about oil supplies, climate change and the possibility of perpetual economic expansion, we are well advised to acknowledge the ultimate finiteness of Earth and accept responsibility. Policies intent on expanding until the last possible moment will almost certainly be followed by disaster.

    Human ingenuity is more than sufficient to provide food, shelter and other necessities without having to double the total of all our activities every 24 years. It is a Question of Direction. We need to choose between the goal of perpetual growth and that of long-term well-being.

    We celebrate when our children grow. If an adult continues to grow like a child, however, it is cause for serious concern. Developing a healthy steady-state economy is no more frightening than the prospect of becoming adult is for a teenager. The silver lining to this economic downturn is the opportunity it offers to grow up and take responsibility for our impacts. It can be done.


With the financial system in crisis, it is not time to panic, but to realize that we need to recognize the systemic problems that we face and redesign that system so that it serves rather than threatens life.

I wrote Reinventing Money, Restoring the Earth, Reweaving the Web of Life over a dozen years ago, and have many ideas about how we can change the system on the local, regional, national, global level.

Mike and I will be discussing the current crisis, but also the need for a "vision of a destination if we are to have hope of getting there."

Last weekend the American Monetary Institute held their annual conference and soundly condemned the 700 billion dollar bailout for those who orchestrated the financial crisis.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

September 29, 2008 - 9/11 Truth Show with Nicholas Levis and Anthony J. Hall
















Listen 8:00- 9:00 pm (PST) to the WeThePeopleRadioNetwork.com and to our guest- Nicholas Levis.

Listen 9:00- 10:00 pm (PST) to the WeThePeopleRadioNetwork.com and to our guest- Anthony J. Hall.

(Because September 29, 2008 is my son's birthday, this show will be a repeat of last week's show)

Nicholas Levis one of the earliest 9/11 Truth pioneers, Nicholas organized the first major 9/11 Truth Conferences in Berlin, and was a founder and webmaster of one of the first 9/11 Truth websites.

He moved to New York and was involved with the New York group, and flew out to California to help with the San Francisco International Inquiry into 9/11 and then back to New York to help organize the New York Confronting The Evidence: 9/11 and the Search for Truth September 11th 2004 event. He also worked on the film- Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime with John Albanese.


Nicholas has been working as a translator (German to English), editor, reporter, researcher, copywriter, project manager, interpreter, language teacher and consultant for clients in publishing, media, business, industry, finance, government, academia, health care and the arts. His invaluable, unpaid contributions to the movement have rarely been publicly acknowledged.


Nicholas and I will be looking at the 9/11 Truth Movement and its evolution over the years, the missed chances, botched opportunities, surprising successes, growth, where we are now, and strategically what we can do, now, at this moment in time, where the focus, message might have the most impact and bear the most fruit.


Anthony J. Hall is the author of The American Empire and the Fourth World, winner of the Alberta Book Award for the best work of non-fiction by an Alberta author in 2004. Volume 2 of the project, The Bowl With One Spoon, is to be published soon by McGill-Queen's University Press. He recently spoke at the Edmonton Questions 9/11: Convention and Film and delivered an oustanding speech entitled The Lies and Crimes of 911: A Canadian View of the War on Terror's Origins the print version is posted at www.edmonton911truth.com/edmontonquestioned.html.


Professor Hall is the founding coordinator and associate professor, globalization studies, University of Lethbridge. Perhaps a brief glimpse of his work can be garnered from this short description of his upcoming book-

Earth Into Property: Aboriginal History and the Making of Global Capitalism
by Anthony J. Hall

    Earth into Property explores more than five centuries of imperial and anti-imperial globalization, culminating in the lies and crimes permeating the so-called War on Terror. In describing the genesis of global capitalism, Anthony J. Hall emphasizes the connections linking the genocidal Indian wars in the Americas with Europe's colonization of Indigenous peoples throughout Africa and Asia. The global operations of the military-industrial complex and the national security state emerged from the ongoing appropriation and corporate privatization of Aboriginal lands and resources on capitalism's moving frontiers. This network of US-based corporations and government agencies continues to draw heavily on the fascist heritage of Nazi anti-Communism in its drive to universalize and police a single worldwide regime of unjust property relations.

    Hall contrasts the militaristic monoculture of global capitalism with the realm where many political economies thrive in the biocultural diversity of the Fourth World. Hall finds the inspirational sources of this ongoing movement for global decolonization in the liberation struggles of Tecumseh, Toussaint L'Overature, Sitting Bull, Annie Besant, Gandhi, W.E.B. Du Bois, Che Guevara, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Rigoberta Menchu, and Hugo Chavez ­ to mention only a few. In his sweeping and original interpretation, Halls weaves together a narrative of hope extending from the Royal Proclamation of 1763 to the Atlantic Charter of 1941 to the founding at Bandung Indonesia of the Non-Aligned Movement. Hall advances a conception of Aboriginal history that gives all-important historical context to the extensions of the Indian wars in the global resource grabs currently conducted in the name of the bogus War on Terror.

    Anthony J. Hall's Earth into Property picks up where Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine leaves off. As Hall demonstrates, the spread of "disaster capitalism" has been going on for centuries, not mere decades, on those resource frontiers where Indigenous peoples have been exterminated, dispossessed, and subjugated in the name of earlier versions of the War on Terror.

We'll be looking at 9/11, as one facet of a much larger struggle, and the truth movement's potential to turn the tide.

[During the show, Anthony J. Hall incorrectly credited me with coming up with the "9/11 Truth" term, but I did not. I did, however, coin the phrase "9/11 Truth Movement." Carol Brouillet]

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

September 22, 2008 - 9/11 Truth Show with Nicholas Levis and Anthony J. Hall
















Listen 8:00- 9:00 pm (PST) to the WeThePeopleRadioNetwork.com and to our guest- Nicholas Levis.

Listen 9:00- 10:00 pm (PST) to the WeThePeopleRadioNetwork.com and to our guest- Anthony J. Hall.

Nicholas Levis one of the earliest 9/11 Truth pioneers, Nicholas organized the first major 9/11 Truth Conferences in Berlin, and was a founder and webmaster of one of the first 9/11 Truth websites.

He moved to New York and was involved with the New York group, and flew out to California to help with the San Francisco International Inquiry into 9/11 and then back to New York to help organize the New York Confronting The Evidence: 9/11 and the Search for Truth September 11th 2004 event. He also worked on the film- Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime with John Albanese.


Nicholas has been working as a translator (German to English), editor, reporter, researcher, copywriter, project manager, interpreter, language teacher and consultant for clients in publishing, media, business, industry, finance, government, academia, health care and the arts. His invaluable, unpaid contributions to the movement have rarely been publicly acknowledged.


Nicholas and I will be looking at the 9/11 Truth Movement and its evolution over the years, the missed chances, botched opportunities, surprising successes, growth, where we are now, and strategically what we can do, now, at this moment in time, where the focus, message might have the most impact and bear the most fruit.


Anthony J. Hall is the author of The American Empire and the Fourth World, winner of the Alberta Book Award for the best work of non-fiction by an Alberta author in 2004. Volume 2 of the project, The Bowl With One Spoon, is to be published soon by McGill-Queen's University Press. He recently spoke at the Edmonton Questions 9/11: Convention and Film and delivered an oustanding speech entitled The Lies and Crimes of 911: A Canadian View of the War on Terror's Origins the print version is posted at www.edmonton911truth.com/edmontonquestioned.html.


Professor Hall is the founding coordinator and associate professor, globalization studies, University of Lethbridge. Perhaps a brief glimpse of his work can be garnered from this short description of his upcoming book-

Earth Into Property: Aboriginal History and the Making of Global Capitalism
by Anthony J. Hall

    Earth into Property explores more than five centuries of imperial and anti-imperial globalization, culminating in the lies and crimes permeating the so-called War on Terror. In describing the genesis of global capitalism, Anthony J. Hall emphasizes the connections linking the genocidal Indian wars in the Americas with Europe's colonization of Indigenous peoples throughout Africa and Asia. The global operations of the military-industrial complex and the national security state emerged from the ongoing appropriation and corporate privatization of Aboriginal lands and resources on capitalism's moving frontiers. This network of US-based corporations and government agencies continues to draw heavily on the fascist heritage of Nazi anti-Communism in its drive to universalize and police a single worldwide regime of unjust property relations.

    Hall contrasts the militaristic monoculture of global capitalism with the realm where many political economies thrive in the biocultural diversity of the Fourth World. Hall finds the inspirational sources of this ongoing movement for global decolonization in the liberation struggles of Tecumseh, Toussaint L'Overature, Sitting Bull, Annie Besant, Gandhi, W.E.B. Du Bois, Che Guevara, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Rigoberta Menchu, and Hugo Chavez ­ to mention only a few. In his sweeping and original interpretation, Halls weaves together a narrative of hope extending from the Royal Proclamation of 1763 to the Atlantic Charter of 1941 to the founding at Bandung Indonesia of the Non-Aligned Movement. Hall advances a conception of Aboriginal history that gives all-important historical context to the extensions of the Indian wars in the global resource grabs currently conducted in the name of the bogus War on Terror.

    Anthony J. Hall's Earth into Property picks up where Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine leaves off. As Hall demonstrates, the spread of "disaster capitalism" has been going on for centuries, not mere decades, on those resource frontiers where Indigenous peoples have been exterminated, dispossessed, and subjugated in the name of earlier versions of the War on Terror.

We'll be looking at 9/11, as one facet of a much larger struggle, and the truth movement's potential to turn the tide.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

September 15, 2008 - 9/11 Truth Show with Lt. Col. Robert M. Bowman, Ph.D. , USAF, ret. and Michael Maxwell





Listen 8:00- 10:00 pm (PST) to the WeThePeopleRadioNetwork.com and to our guests- Lt. Col. Robert M. Bowman, Ph.D. , USAF, ret and Michael Maxwell.

Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret. is President of the Institute for Space and Security Studies, Executive Vice President of Millennium III Corporation, and retired Presiding Archbishop of the United Catholic Church. The recipient of the Eisenhower Medal, the George F. Kennan Peace Prize, the President's Medal of Veterans for Peace, the Republic Aviation Airpower Award, the Society of American Military Engineers' ROTC Medal of Merit (twice), the Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters, the Meritorious Service Medal, and numerous other awards, he is one of the country's foremost authorities on national security.


Colonel Bowman flew 101 combat missions as a fighter pilot in Vietnam and directed all the DoD “Star Wars” programs under presidents Ford and Carter. He has been an executive in both government and industry, and has chaired 8 major international conferences. Professor Bowman taught at 5 colleges and universities, serving as Department Head and Assistant Dean. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. He has lectured at the National War College, the United Nations, Congressional Caucuses, the Academies of Science of six nations, and the House of Lords.


Dr. Bob Bowman ran for President in the Reform Party in 2000 and was the Democratic candidate for the US Congress from the 15th Congressional District of Florida in 2006. Bob and his wife of 51 years, Maggie, have 7 children and 21 grandchildren. He is currently on tour. Information about his organization- The Patriots and his schedule are posted on his website. He is in California, now and just spoke at a gathering with people from the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance, Santa Cruz and Paul Zarembka.


Michael Maxwell has had many experiences as a Senior Military Officer at the Pentagon Headquarters, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, at the White House, at top-secret laboratories, in combat crew training, NATO activities in Europe, the US Congress, and elsewhere doing strategic decision-making analysis, technology forecasting, corporate marketing.

He has also worked with public interest groups [eg. Nader's Raiders] seeking to improve the integrity, efficient performance, and eco-wisdom future planning of Government and other institutions. He writes Screenplays, Novels, and a Column for smart, caring, brave, and intelligently fully informed readers and fellow citizens.

He is a founder of The REALLY SMART THINKING Foundation and Projects --- to significantly improve the USA's National Dialogues and some Global consensus items before it is too late.


Both men have had experience within the military which allow them to see 9/11 critically, and see through the cover story.

We will be discussing 9/11 and given their unique perspective into the functioning of the White House and the military, how the operation could have been carried out, the challenges of the moment, and where do we go from here.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

September 8, 2008 - 9/11 Truth Show with Janice Matthews, Mike Berger, Erik Lawyer and Richard Gage, AIA
























Listen 8:00- 9:00 pm (PST) to the WeThePeopleRadioNetwork.com and to our guests- Janice Matthews and Mike Berger.

Listen 9:00- 10:00 pm (PST) to the WeThePeopleRadioNetwork.com and to our guests- Erik Lawyer and Richard Gage, AIA

Janice Matthews is the Executive Director of 911Truth.org. Janice was their outreach coordinator until September, 2005 when she became executive director. She is also co-founder of the now-archived 9/11 Visibility Project, and focuses on facilitating activism and encouraging ordinary people to become participants and leaders in their own lives and communities. She has a B.A. from the University of Kansas, half a masters in social welfare and extensive training in direct-entry midwifery. She is a mother of six, a Kansas City native and radical Christian, and is working now to create a more self-sufficient/interdependent lifestyle. Janice is outraged about issues facing military troops and veterans-- abuse/rape, 'depleted' uranium, 'immunizations,' lack of care and support received--resulting in suicides and hundreds of thousands of homeless veterans, the horrifying 'non-lethal' weaponry used by the US, and our current mainstream media (please, "become the media"!)and believes decentralized people's movements are our hope for successful, nonviolent change in America, as has so often been the case around the world.


Mike Berger is the Media Coordinator for 911Truth.org. Mike earned a degree in Sociology with a focus on human motivation, currently calls St. Louis home, is married, and owns a plastic recycling company and video production company. Born and raised in New York about 20 minutes from Manhattan, he enjoyed visiting Manhattan to watch the building of the World Trade Center complex. On September 11th, with family living and working in lower Manhattan, his cousin actually saw the first plane fly over his head while walking his dog. More than 14 months passed before Mike began to question the official story. Denial turned into curiosity after reading about significant purchases of put options on American and United airlines and several companies that occupied large portions of the WTC Towers, implying that identifiable parties may have profited from foreknowledge of the attacks. He began researching the critical issues surrounding the failure of government officials to perform their sworn duties and defend us from attack. After all, according to George Tenet, "the system was blinking red." What went wrong? Why were we so unprepared for the attacks in light of numerous, documented, specific warnings? Why have we not held a single person accountable at any level, considering the magnitude of these failures? More than two years of investigation resulted in a series of documentaries currently in production. The first, Improbable Collapse: The Demolition of Our Republic, examines how three steel-framed buildings collapsed on 9/11 when no steel framed building had ever collapsed from fire previously. Ever.


Erik Lawyeris the founding member of FirefightersFor911Truth.org. He is currently a full time firefighter, assigned to 3 Truck in the City of Seattle for the last 12 years. Before that he was with the City of Sacramento as a Firefighter Paramedic. He first began working in Emergency Services in 1988 in the Sacramento area with a 911 private paramedic ambulance company. He has 20 years experience in Emergency Services. He earned my pilot's license in 1987, and have been recreationally flying since. He graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics from the University of California at Davis in 1993, with 2 years of elective Engineering courses, and a Minor in Psychology.


Erik wrote a moving account of his own shift in consciousness regarding 9/11 which prompted him to start Fire Fighters For 9/11 Truth entitled MAYDAY...MAYDAY...MAYDAY. Here's an excerpt:


    I, like most Americans, remember exactly where I was when I saw the attacks and had the overwhelming urge to take action. I was shocked, outraged, scared and confused. I called my Battalion Chief and asked if Seattle would be sending any teams to help. I was a member of the MMST, and figured we would be needed and I wanted to know where to report. Due to the nature of the incident we were not called up, and instead USAR teams, including Seattle's, were sent.

    I first visited Ground Zero in October of 2001 with several firefighters from Seattle. We went to pay our respect and show support. We raised money for our brother firehouses and attended the funerals of our fallen Brothers. I was deeply moved and humbled by the community support, the sheer enormity of the tragedy along with the courage and compassion of the FDNY "Brotherhood." Even though I listened to their stories for days, I cannot even begin to imagine the pain and tragedy they suffered on that day and the years to come. I vividly remember the anger I felt, the intense desire for vengeance, and the feelings of helplessness. I was relieved when the government identified the terrorists and satisfied that we were going to have a swift deliverance of "justice."

    I've been a conservative my entire life; a registered Republican since I could vote. I am a self proclaimed Patriot with George Washington as one of my all time heroes. So when conspiracy theories quickly surfaced, and "Liberals" cried foul on the erosion of civil liberties, I chalked it up to their political beliefs and bitterness towards the Republican President. I read many debunking articles - including Popular Mechanics - and watched many debunking videos including, Farenhype 9/11. I was convinced that these "Liberals" were misinformed and were grasping at straws to discredit the "official" story. Like most people with strong opinions, instead of looking at all the facts, I was specifically looking for anything that supported my own beliefs. As soon as I discovered any inaccuracy in a conspiracy claim, I wrote it off. My father, a big city cop and Korean War veteran, loved to say, "don't confuse me with the facts, I have my mind made up!" Well, I had my mind made up. I told conspiracy theorists like my own Truck Officer, Lt. Earl Emerson, that they were insane if they thought anyone other than the terrorists did this. Heck, we have ID cards, security camera videos, Bin Laden confession tapes - how much clearer did they need it? The years went on and I was satisfied in my beliefs. I even believed these "Wackos" that doubted the "official" story were distracting our country from focusing on the real threat of terrorism...

    Fast forward to March of 2008. A great friend of mine with a Business degree from West Point, as conservative and non-conspiratorial as they get, came over one night to talk about what he saw happening in the economy. He provided some disconcerting evidence that we as a nation are at risk of entering into another depression; he pointed out historical parallels where other countries, such as Germany, suffered economic collapse. THAT was my eye opener. I became obsessed researching things such as economies, who is in control of currencies, what causes depressions, who profits during war, etc. So many things kept pointing to 9/11. Another one of my dad's favorite quotes was, "believe half of what you see and none of what you hear." So, I looked at both sides and quickly noticed a pattern. On one side, the general media ignores some of the most compelling evidence that contradicts the "official" story...

    When I voiced my new opinion and concerns most of my friends listened. I think because they were shocked that a staunch Conservative could have such a major shift, or because they thought I had lost my mind and wanted to diagnose the cause. Curiously, some became angry at my new questions and actually thought I was supporting Terrorists with my concerns. Being a part of that same mindset myself only a few weeks ago, and then having a major shift in consciousness, really shook me to the core. What has happened to our collective consciousness that we believe anyone who doubts the "official" story or what the government tells us is an enemy? Anyone who asks for the Truth is labeled a "Wacko" or "Terrorist Sympathizer?" What has happened to us? Are we not founded on Freedom of Speech and taught to check our Government?...

    To be honest, I was asleep at the wheel, and relied on what I was being told by mainstream media. The same media whose parent corporations, are some of the largest suppliers of weapons in this war. Before this "awakening" I had no idea the extent of our civil liberties that had been eroded in the name of Terrorism. I had never really wrapped my brain around what legalized torture means. I had always claimed America was noble. Just look at how we treated POW's during WWII and Vietnam compared to our enemies. That separated us. We were setting the example of Human Rights to the rest of the world. Sure, you'll always have individuals that will take things too far, but Government sponsored torture? What has happened to our country? What kind of example are we setting for our children, and the world? You would be interested to learn how many of our own rights have been stripped away recently. Look up the Military Commissions Act of 2006, John Warner Defense Authorization Act, Homegrown Terrorism Act, Presidential Directive 51. It is amazing the rights we have all lost in the past couple of years and very little is covered by the U.S. media.

    After discovering this, I applied the "common sense" test that my Grandfather always said wasn't so common. Why would a government so aggressively suppress truth and blatantly destroy evidence if there was nothing to hide? Why has every testimony from sworn government and military officials that points to "prior knowledge" been stricken from the 9/11 Commission Report? How did paper business cards, cloth bandanas, and plastic ID's that implicate the terrorists survive so neatly through jet fueled fireballs hot enough to destroy titanium and steel? I've seen bodies burned beyond recognition, yet I have never found one that was wearing unburned clothing. These questions alone are enough to make me risk everything for a real investigation and accounting...

    When I truly realized the enormity of the effect 9/11 has had on our Rights, our Economy, our Beliefs, our Fears, our Intolerances and our Government - I felt fear, then anger, then the need to take action. Bill Chickering said it best, "Anger is a very appropriate and necessary response to an injustice. But stand back now; the truth, clearly spoken, is always your best weapon. Calmly spoken, it can burn a hole through the hardest heart." When I realized the extent of the force and attitudes working to silence those who peacefully ask questions, demand answers, and seek truth, it became clear to me that our Country is in serious trouble and I must now stand alongside those Patriots who seek Truth and Constitutional Restoration.

Richard Gage, AIA is the founding member of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth (ae911Truth.org). He has been a practicing Architect for 20 years and has worked on most types of building construction including numerous fire-proofed steel-framed buildings. He is employed with a San Francisco Bay Area architecture firm and has most recently performed Construction Administration services for a new $120M High School campus including a $10M steel-framed Gymnasium. Currently he is working on the Design Development for a very large mixed use urban project with 1.2M sq.ft. of retail and 320K sq.ft. of mid-rise office space — altogether about 1,200 tons of steel framing.

He has been one of the most tireless speakers on the issue of 9/11 truth, and more specifically on challenging the official narrative of the disintegration of the 3 major skyscrapers in the World Trade Center complex that took place on September 11th. He has been lecturing widely across the US and in Canada. Those who see his presentation rarely walk away still thinking that fires alone could have brought down the buildings.

When NIST came out with a report recently that fires were responsible for the destruction of WTC7, Richard and Architects and Engineers were quick to challenge that report. (See NY Times quotes Richard Gage on WTC7 "collapse"). Gage will be speaking at the 7th Annual 9/11 Truth Rally/March in San Francisco, September 6th and at the 4th Annual 9/11 Film Festival in Oakland, September 11th and at the Now or Never 2008 9/11 First Responders Benefit in NYC September 12th.

We will be discussing the 9/11 Truth Movement, the Media, the current organizing that they are doing, and upcoming events on the 7th anniversary of the attacks.