9/11 – Broken hearts – Rekindled Spirits

The morning of September 11th was an ordinary wake up with the normal routine as I readied myself to go to work that day and take the 75 daily commute in stride as I have done for the past many years working in a prison so far away. Living in a small rural town of Los Lunas New Mexico, I started the car and turned the radio on my favorite station that gave me virtual company on my way to work as I have done many times before. Traveling this poorly kept road was a rigorous task as the road was narrow and barely traveled but often besieged in the early morning by speeding 10 wheelers taking a short cut to the interstate as they avoided the heavy morning traffic of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Concentrating on the twisting road was a must to remain on the poorly maintained tarmac road. About 15 minutes into the commute, the sounds of rock and roll kept my head focused on the road ahead as the morning sun was creeping over the small mounds of the black lava rocks hiding places where volcanoes once spewed out their once molten rocks during an eruption once million years ago.

Taking the winding and sharp turns of the narrow highway with the window down to feel the fresh morning air, I heard a newsbreak that caught my awareness quickly as it mentioned an airplane crashed into a high rise building in New York City. I quickly rolled up the window to hear the message but no information was available yet and the announcer calmly explained the story had to be confirmed further. Moments later, there was another break I the music as the announcer, now exhibiting a serious tremble in his voice, tried to describe what he referred to as a horrific accident in the sky with two aircrafts crashing into the high rise structure identified as the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Breathlessly and at the same time, fervently filled with tremor and bewilderment the announcer told the story in a different tone and with much seriousness that way too dramatic to ignore.

Sensing pandemonium in his voice, I dialed my cell phone and called work to verify the information I had heard on the radio but was unable to reach anyone as I was in a no service zone. Speeding up to get out of the dead zone, my mind was racing with horrific images of what I had heard. The vision of was now announced as two airplanes, identified to be commercial type, crashing into a towering building occupied by thousands of innocent people was too much to bear and comprehend as I continued to race beyond the speed limit to get to a signal for my call. Once out of the dead zone and already worked up by the radio announcer, my heart had beat so fast and sunk so low I could hardly breathe as I thought of all those people who were hurt or died in what was being described as a fiery flaming inferno by witnesses being interviewed on the spot.

Helplessly trapped inside my car on a desolate highway I prayed for the welfare of those innocent trapped victims and first responders, as I listened closely as news became bleaker and depressing that this was indeed a deliberate act by a group of unknowns and the impact so far was horrendous and beyond comprehension. Sweat flowing from my forehead as well as my hands on the wheel, as my mind was picturing images of death and horror I experienced while a medic in Vietnam and with this reality of pain setting in, my emotions revealed the bitterness and hate that had been lurking inside me for the past several decades. Slowly my senses could pick up the smell of smoke and fire as I could feel the heat from the burning inferno thousands of miles away. Reconnecting with the sanities of war, I could feel my pulse racing with adrenaline filled energy that created a hyper awareness of the tragedy unfolding as the news kept bringing details of the outrageous event now becoming more suspicious as time unfolded more facts and tragedies.

Parking the car some 50 minutes later, I ran as fast as I could I inside to get where there was a TV set. Already on, I stood there with others in disbelieve as the pictures shown were implausible and histrionic to say the least but nevertheless, real. Shaking my head in doubt and confusion, I looked at the pale faces of my coworkers and sensed we were all in a severe state of shock as the news revealed more facts that indicated an attack on our country by a terrorist group unknown at this stage.

As the subversion unfolded and more details were coming in throughout the day, there was no doubt in my mind that America had been attacked. The beasts flying those planes into the Twin Towers struck a preempted blow to our nation’s security systems and like Pearl Harbor; I felt we had been victimized by an act of war. More and more specifics came into the light as news of other terrorist type of activities were reported indicating more acts that took blameless victims that day. As a veteran of a foreign war it was the first time I felt we had taken a direct blow to our freedom, our individual safety and our national security and was enraged that this was allowed to have happened. Immediately, I was looking for someone to blame.
The TV showed first responders working frantically to save or rescue these victims caused me to become even angrier as these scenes triggered a fighting mechanism that had been hidden for so many years. As the day went on, my emotions were out of control and my hate had reached maximum stages that blinded my sense of fairness and justice as I wished death to many of those that supported such terrorist act that took the lives of so many Americans caught unaware between the politics of the world and the religious beliefs’ of radicals. Those around me sensed my fury and kept quiet as I raged away at the TV set shouting obscenities every few seconds in total disbelieve that this tragedy has really happened. Nobody I knew or watched that day could do any work worthwhile to mention as we all zombied out for the entire workday. At the end of the day, exhausted, and somewhat parched with comprehension, I stayed close to the TV. In fact, trembling and glued in my chair, I shook my head so many times as it was revealed that a multiple attacks were reported that day with an impact of terror in so many different places that included the Pentagon and the events of flight # 93.

Flight # 93 was described as a most heroic act where other victims, true American patriots, unwilling to allow their hostage takers to impact their wrath on others, took control of the flight and unselfishly and deliberately with the inspiration of an American revolution, crashed the airplane into the ground to avoid further acts of terrorism to occur that day as it was already described as a day from hell.
September 11, 2001 rekindled my patriotism, my love for my country I have served faithfully and in a most dutiful manner. Unfortunately, it also failed to control my internal mechanisms to dampen my resentment of violence, my rage and scorned and ill feelings towards other humans in this world not of this country’s nationality. I wanted revenge. This day of broken spirits and multiple sorrows was the day it reconstituted my undivided and devoted pride to my country, my flag and its freedoms. Stored away deep inside of me since my society-imposed shameful return from the Vietnam war years ago, I wanted to lift up the flag higher than before and shout" I am American” out loud in public like never before.

It reaffirmed my allegiance to the oath of an American citizen. An oath as a serviceman in war and post-war, I swore that no foreign power will ever destroy our way of life. The moment I had heard we had been attacked, I knew that the reality of living in a world of hate and anger had come true again and struck home like nothing ever before. It was without any doubt, the worse day of my life since Vietnam days as I felt helpless to render aid or comfort to those thousands of innocent victims struck by the evil of less than human beings that undertook this task to strike terror into the heartland of America and those who believed in love, dignity, humanity and fair-mindedness for all in the world and who have often fought, defended or protected those rights to co-exist in this world.

Private Prisons Raping Arizona's Natural Resources

Arizona Wastes Water Supply on Prisons
By Carl ToersBijns

Back in January, 2005, the Arizona Republic article titled Farms swallowing most of Arizona's water written by Shaun McKinnon shed some interesting facts on how Arizona farmers consume their ground water. Writing "The arid conditions are obvious - Phoenix receives less rain in a year than some American cities get in a month, there's only one natural lake of any size and few rivers even flow year-round. But we use water sometimes as if the supply were endless. In an average year, Arizonans go through about 7.25 million acre-feet, or nearly 2.4 trillion gallons. Put a different way, that amount of water could support a residential population of nearly 30 million people."

The article goes on to read "In Greater Phoenix, farms now use about 46 percent of the supply, down from two-thirds or more just 30 years ago. Industry - mostly power plants, sand and gravel operations, and golf courses - uses about 6 percent. The rest is residential, business and government - everything from Arizona State University's 50,000-student Tempe campus to your back yard." Farmers have also served as an important buffer for the state's water supply, in effect holding on to a reserve that could be used in dry times or converted to residential use. But as farms give way to subdivisions, the reserve is shrinking and water once used in fields is now claimed by homes and businesses. That change in demand is forcing water providers to watch more carefully the way water is used and look for ways to better manage it as the supply tightens."

In a clever plan to expand prisons inside Arizona through the means already established by private prison lobbyist with close ties to the governor's office, citizens and taxpayers alike are totally unaware of the consequences of building more prisons inside the state. Not one politician has stood up during any hearings related to prison expansion how these new beds provided by Corrections Corporations of America, the GEO group and others who have bid on recent contracts impact our natural resources and ground water. Perhaps they all share the same view that the water supply in Arizona is endless and to tap into the precious commodity is nothing to worry about. After all, who worries about running out of water in a desert state such as the Grand Canyon state?

Because of the recent contract bidding, there will be a series of six town halls in AZ where locals will attend presentations from for-profits seeking to site there to respond to which will impact our state's resource hugely. For example, does the average citizen realize that for every 1,000-bed prison in the desert uses about 150 gallons per prisoner per day, so we're talking about 55 million gallons of water annually? That's 170 acre-feet. Multiply this by the amount of beds requested in the current expansion and that's a lot of water taken out of the ground to accommodate every new prisoner brought into the state for either detention or incarceration purposes.

One must wonder how much of a drain this state can take for such a purpose as incarceration and how this will impact future development of our communities as the water is abused in the manner proposed.

Last February, the city of Eloy held a meeting where CCA has a conglomerate interest in prisons and the construction of more. During this meeting many issues were discussed yet none were challenged by the council or the mayor [who has demonstrated a very strong possibility of a conflict of interest]. The utility manager made a presentation where water and water waste treatment facilities were discussed and illustrated the drain on the local water resource for so many prisoners denying the citizens of the town any main share of the water rights as they are now used solely to support the prisons built there on surrounding lands. One must ask the same question again and inquire how much water and how much waste will be generated out of these prisons if expanded by 3,000 prisoners and the answer was a head shaking, shoulder shrugging duh I don't know attitude by the council who is only interested in the wealth that is produced by these prisons for profit organizations. Doing the math on the expansion, Arizona landowners, taxpayers and law biding citizens will be giving up over 274 million gallons of water for such purposes in addition to the costs of building the infrastructure that is required to provide such services to the prison complex. Blind folded and ears plugged, the council quickly approved the CCA request unanimously, with only one member asking a question.

It appears that the locals in Eloy and all those other communities considering building private prisons on their local lands have forgotten just how precious the water supply is in this state. Where does the water come from when it runs out and Arizona is dry? What is the future of our state if the development continues and the prisons suck the water out of the ground for commercial purposes of incarceration? Will our children benefit from our water supply or will they suffer? The answer is in water management techniques already established to be effective but ignored in Arizona for the sake of building prisons. One must ask why Arizona politicians are willing to sacrifice our ecological and environmental future for the sake of prisons when there are so many other better reasons for water conservation and water use in this state.

Sources:
http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special26/articles/0103conserve-main03.html?&wired
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/07/11/20110711arizona-new-private-prison-contracts.html
Frank Smith

Arizona Treading on Water Use and sucking out residential water supply

Politicians, business leaders and economic professionals who promote the construction of new businesses, housing developments and private prisons often do not discuss or dwell into the subject of water conservation or water shortages for obvious reasons. The fear of discovering the facts that Arizona is in danger of losing its ability to sustain the mega growth is haunting the very same people who say there is enough water for our state for all future growth and planning. Surely running out of water is no one’s fear right now although studies show that we are treading on dangerous grounds in the area of water supply in our state.

Private prisons sustain large populations that are concentrated in size and can exhaust or consume the daily water consumption at an enormous rate that has never been planned or calculated in the planning or construction stages of such mega structures. Taking the three most active counties in the state, Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties, there are some things that have to be revealed in order to understand the complete consequences of building new prisons and housing associated with this venture. Factors have been added to give more credit to the speculation that a water shortage is imminent and they are being ignored by our state leaders. One fact is our region is the one of the most threatened regions in the United States because of its limited rainfall and yearly accumulations. Global warming, whether you believe in it or not, could impact our water availability thus should be taken into serious consideration as part of the impact statement. Thirdly, this region of these tri-counties is connected by a water corridor explained in a Morrison Institute report as the odds of this water phenomenon connect us to the very root of the resource anticipated to be overloaded in the near future.

In the Morrison Institute report titled “Watering the Sun Corridor” the answers appear to show a degree of certainty that this regions is dramatically being drained from existing water supplies as it is “pumped, dammed, moved, hoarded litigated away and fought over “ because of its precious value to the land and its people. These counties already mentioned are bound together by the Central Arizona Project and the limitations of the Groundwater Management Act. Never in the past did the economists, state leaders or other speculators of business calculate the heavy drain of prison populations in these times of worry about having sufficient supplies for our major metro cities that are interconnected to the water pipe. Gambling that the water supply is sufficient to support such a substantial load of multitudes of thousands and thousands of prisoners can be the fatal mistake in the overall plan. The reports will address several issues such as: are population projections for this corridor still meaningful in light of the current economic downturn? How many people can be supported by the corridor’s water supplies? What happens if the conventional assumptions about water availability prove inaccurate? How should the impact of climate change be assessed? How would lifestyles have to change by dramatically decreased water use? Does more efficient water reuse stretch existing supply? What water supplies are available for the future?

Population projections are running interference of the plans to build prisons as this tri-county area is project to have much more of a burden that anticipated ever before. The Morrison Institute commissioned Marshall Vest, director of the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management to do population projections. In its report it states that it is projecting “approximately 10.1 million residents in 2040 with a “low” projection of 8.9 million. Reading the report it becomes rather positive in content as it assures the residents won’t run out of water if water is managed and conserved. It does caution residents that abuse or excessive uses of water can impact their availability thus water must be used wisely and restricted to more agricultural or commercial uses in the future.

The main area of concern for residents wanted instant access to water is the use of underground water. As of 2006, 45% of the three-county supply still comes from groundwater pumping. Arizona continues to be a most an active partner in groundwater management. One important requirement is that new developments demonstrate secure physical, legal, and continuous access to a 100-year assured water supply. This is a stricter standard than California’s, which requires a 20-year access (and only for large subdivisions). The 100-year supply in Arizona should generally come from surface water, preserving groundwater for when surface water is not available. It is strongly suggested that before any new prisons are built to accommodate the state’s prison growth plans, there are sound methods in place to evaluate the usage and the availability of such water supply for inmates to brush their teeth, use the toilet and shower daily at the cost of taxpayers unaware that these resources are being stolen right from under their noses with no resistance from state leaders or politicians.

Source:

http://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/publications-reports/2011-watering-the-sun-corridor-managing-choices-in-arizonas-megapolitan-area