THE SEARCH AND THE SECRET

A value-d Holiday Gift for the youngsters in your life…

THE SEARCH AND THE SECRET

By Dr. James M. Gifford
CEO, The Jesse Stuart Foundation

            How much do today’s young people know about traditional American values?  Don’t you wish they knew more? 

Well, here’s a chance to read them in on perhaps the most important thing they’ll ever learn.  Via a book that’s both a great story for teenagers and a ringing reaffirmation of the values that guided a great people in building a great nation.  I refer to…

            AMERICA: The Search and the Secret, by James N. Sites

            Here is an inspiring story about a young man called Sonny growing up in a Tom Sawyer-like setting along the Ohio River.  The location: The heartland area where Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia come together.  A 10-year-old refugee from Depression-devastated Pittsburgh, he discovers here a unique dedication to such grand values as hard work, strict raisin’, tough schooling, neighborliness, the “old time religion” and love of family, home and country.

These values prove a lifelong, indispensable guide for Sonny through the modern moral wilderness.  [As they can for ALL teenagers, now as then!]

            His guiding stars: The Bible, Boy Scout Handbook, McGuffey’s Fifth   Reader and his frayed American history text with its world-shaking documents on mankind in a free society.

At 16, Sonny also meets (and falls madly in love with) a very human guiding star – a beautiful neighbor who urges him to turn aside from commonplace goals and strive to become a “Four Dimensional Human.”  This is an intensively developed person with knowledge, cultural awareness, spiritual depth and an abiding concern for others.

            The book makes many other sharp points, too:

 

            …Beware of today’s Media/Entertainment Complex with its incessant emphasis on permissiveness, pornography, perversion and promiscuity.   America could well be committing cultural suicide.                                                                                                                          

            …Abandoning children to the modern media message madhouse  is  like throwing them to the wolves.

            …Unless you develop a strong inner world, you fall easy victim to the crass outer world, pushed around like a leaf in a hurricane.

            …Beware of politicians promising government help.  The bigger government gets, the smaller people become.

            During Sonny’s decade-long journey of discovery, he survives the Great (Ohio River) Flood, hunger and a bout with a rattlesnake, gets baptized in the river, wrestles with death and prepares for war.

            The “secret” in the book’s title?  The answer lies right in the title itself:  It’s SEARCHING.  Aided by his teachers and neighbors, Sonny finally comes to realize that as long as one keeps learning and seeking answers to life’s mysteries…and exploring  ways to grow and develop one’s capabilities and understanding to the utmost…life can become vital and fulfilling, regardless of age.

             About the author: Astute readers may already have concluded that Sonny’s story is the author’s own.  Indeed, this book is a true autobiographical novel.  Also, the beautiful neighbor Sonny falls in love with (Chapter 11) just happens to be modeled after the author’s wife, Inger – the heroine of Mr. Sites’ most recent book, INGER! A Modern-Day Viking Discovers America (also published by JSF Books).    

            The two books, taken together, provide unique insight into the lives of people who had their roots in the ebullient 1920s, who survived the hardships of the 1930s and the dangers of WWII, and who then participated directly in the immense changes that the postwar period brought to America.

            Publisher’s note: America: The Search and the Secret is published at $22. but is being offered at HALF-PRICE, or $11., as a special Holiday Gift for young readers.  Please add $6. for handling and shipping, for a total of $17.  Order from the Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1645 Winchester Avenue, Ashland, KY 41101.   Phone: 606/326-1667. Or go to JSF Books.com

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES, James N. Sites

 

James N. Sites was born in Pittsburgh, PA, on March 20, 1924 but left at age 10 because of the Great Depression, growing up thereafter in a Tom Sawyer­-like environment along the Ohio River. (This forms the background for his 1998 book on traditional American values: AMERICA: The Search and the Secret. ) He graduated from Chesapeake (Ohio) High School as c1ass valedictorean in 1940, then attended Marshall University for one year. He went on to serve 3 1/2 years in the US Merchant Marine during World War Il, mainly in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. He is a Journalism graduate of Detroit's Wayne State U. (1950) and member of the Wayne Honorary Society (Phi Beta Kappa).

Sites' varied career ranges from powerplant engineer to being a news reporter for The Chrysler Motors Magazine, Business Week Magazine and Whaley-Eaton News Service (the first Washington, DC newsletters ), editor-in-chief and publisher of The American Legion Magazine and editor of Wings of Gold (magazine of the Association of Naval Aviation). In 1961 he was named the USA's Eisenhower Exchange Fellow, which led to a year-long overseas search with wife Inger for clues to the transport future (reported in his 1963 book, QUEST FOR CRISIS).

Sites subsequently became communications executive for the Association of American Railroads, the Chemical Manufacturers Association and the National Association of Manufacturers, where he also served as president of NAM's foundation. From 1968 to 1974 he headed the Washington office of the leading US public relations consulting firm, Carl Byoir & Associates.

          During the Ford Administration (1975-6), Sites was appointed Director of Public Affairs for the US Treasury Department and special assistant to Secretary William E. Simon, legendary champion of the competitive enterprise system.

          Sites is married to the former Inger Marie Krogh, of Oslo, Norway, daughter of the noted Norwegian opera singer, Erling Krogh,  She is also the heroine of his 2006 book, INGER! A Modern-Day Viking Discovers America.* The two make their home in Oslo and Rehoboth Beach, DE. They have two sons, James Philip Sites, of Billings, MT, and Erik Krogh Sites, of Oslo.
 

* INGER! is published {at $25) by the Jesse Stuart Foundation.

WHO's Getting YOUR VOTE? By James N. Sites

As the Presidential candidates sluggedd it out in the Big Debates and the race headed toward the finish-line (finally!), wife Inger turned to me and said, “Okay, Jim, you’ve now heard from both sides...in spades.  So who’s getting your vote?” My reply was that I couldn’t answer until I had checked again with the Sites Scorecard on where the candidates stand on major issues. And here’s the result:

* Neither Barack Obama [BO] nor Mitt Romney [MR] nor the many Congressional candidates have said much of anything about the radical recent changes in America that fairly clamor for new and more effective public policy approaches, particularly in taxation. Among these:
  --The out-sourcing of US production plants to foreign countries and the dry-up of high-paying US manufacturing jobs.
  --Runaway executive compensation at US business firms. 
  --The decline of US labor unions.
  --Reduction of the top marginal income tax rate from 91% in the Truman-Eisenhower-Kennedy years to the current 35%.
  --The near-doubling of the share of national wealth going to 1% of the population.

* This concentration of wealth in the hands of the top few may well be the biggest single problem facing our economy, not to mention our democracy. A mass-production economy cannot function without massive buying power among the masses of consumers. BO recognizes this in warning of the consequences of the Great Divide between those living in luxury and "the other 99%". MR and the GOP ignore the subject. However, they at least nod to this reality in urging policies to create more jobs, which would provide not only more massed buying power but also more tax revenue.

*MR’s most revealing comment during the campaign has come in his proudly proclaimed statement that he has paid “no less than 13%” of his multi-million-dollar annual income in taxes in each of the past 10 years. But why not 35%? The contrasting rates underscore what a mess our tax system is -- how it’s loaded with loopholes, accounting tricks and special rates for special income flows…that allow the wealthy to get away with massive tax avoidance. Can voters possibly count on MR to attack this mess and increase the taxes paid by the wealthy, including himself?

* Is ANYONE really concerned about cutting government waste and streamlining the vast Federal bureaucracy? The Simpson-Bowles commission recommended scores of ways to do this—all of which were totally ignored by BO. Why? One suspects it’s because the government workers union, which opposes any action that might reduce Federal jobs (and union membership), is a strong political supporter of BO and the Democrats. With his management background, MR should be able to do a better job in this area. Meanwhile, no one is talking about runaway pay and benefits for longterm civil servants – a major “sleeper” issue.

* And where have the Tea Party and TP members of Congress gone on the waste issue? They talk a lot…but do what? They seem, rather, to have settled for being Abominable NO Men on anything resembling a tax hike. Meanwhile, the Occupy Wall Street/Washington movement seems to have fizzled out. No one stepped forward to articulate its concerns about our rich-poor society or to channel these into political-action goals…such as making the wealthy contribute more to the country that makes their wealth possible.

* WHO is talking about our horrendous Federal budget deficits or the national debt? The candidates are understandably more concerned with ways to get the economy moving again…BUT they could at least express their ideas on how to deal with these twin bombs that could one day wreck the economy. Something like this no-nonsense equation: Minus 6%=Balance + 5%. This means that when unemployment drops below 6%, the government would be COMPELLED to balance its operating budget AND apply an extra 5% to paying down the debt. Anyone listening?

* Our deficit/debt quandary underscores why the Bush tax cuts of 2001-2003 must rank as the biggest US economic policy blunder of modern times. As military spending for Iraq and, later, Afghanistan soared, these cuts led to a decade, still continuing, of massive deficits and pyramiding national debt. Worse, when our political leaders came to understand they had made a mistake, they did nothing to remedy it. BO favors returning to the pre-Bush tax rates. MR and the GOP violently oppose this, urging instead a “broadening of the tax base”--which is probably politically impossible--and still lower rates for the wealthy.

* MR and the GOP talk big about supporting a strong national defense…BUT when it comes to footing the bill through higher taxes, they fall strangely silent.

* As for foreign affairs, voters have to ask who can best deal with our complex tie-ins with worldwide economic problems, the Mideast uproar and the coming crisis with Iran over its nuclear-weapons drive. His four years of experience in this treacherous area would seem to favor BO.

* Congressman Paul Ryan has brought some refreshing insights into his run for the GOP vice president’s job. Yet his views seem to reflect those of Washington conservative “think tanks,” which are supported by donations from wealthy individuals and businesses…which are not known for supporting study results that, however objective sounding, clash with donor self interest.

* One frequently heard contention of spokesmen for the wealthy is that the top 1% of taxpayers pay 40% of income taxes. This may be true but it is also incomplete and misleading. What about income? If more than 40% of the nation’s personal income goes to 1% of the population, then this 1% should be paying more than 40% of the taxes, not less.

*

     So now you know, dear Inger, how to score the candidates on the issues. Who should be getting my vote?   I still don’t know. The trouble is that neither candidate has made a convincing case that HE is the one to lead our nation in these trying times. So I’m waiting for more evidence. You, too?

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TAX OVERHAUL: KEY TO A STUNNING NEW AMERICA

By James N. Sites

The President has now told us about the state of the union (grim) and submitted his latest budget plan (grimmer, with red ink everywhere). And the state of the economy? Grimmest -- despite the recent flurry of upticks.

He also made some telling points about the grave consequences of the Great Divide between the minus-1% of the US population living in luxury and the 99% struggling to hold on or falling by the wayside. His "Jobs Bill" will provide some short-term relief. But more Federal spending (and budgets deficits and borrowing and deficits and borrowing won't move us an inch toward reducing the Divide.

What the President did NOT say is also crucial. He failed to propose anything resembling a coherent, inspiring, truly effective plan that would jump-start the stalled economy, send the unemployed back to work, launch a new era of national expansion and prosperity, regain our tattered standing in the world…and, not so incidentally, assure his re-election.

People also missed a clarity of vision, a sense of urgency. Perhaps governmental problems have become too multifaceted, too detailed, too overwhelming for basic, commonsense analysis. But try, we must. For present approaches are NOT working. And the American downslide is too severe, and the need too great, for anything but drastic counter-action.

Here are some things that need to be done:

TAX FACTS: The President talks much about need for the wealthy to begin bearing their fair share of the national tax burden…but he needs to DOCUMENT his case. The White House or Treasury should issue a FACT MEMO detailing the tax loopholes, accounting tricks and special rates for special income flows that allow the wealthy to get away with what amounts to grand larceny when it comes to avoiding taxes. He needs, then, to show the corrective changes he would make.

3-TIER FLAT TAX: The present US income tax system is a horrific, backfiring, self-defeating mess, and should be scrapped…then replaced by a 3-Tier Flat Tax. The one size-fits-all flat tax presently proposed, whether 18% or 20% or whatever, would simply continue to give a relatively free ride to the wealthy on the backs of other taxpayers. A 3-TIER FLAT TAX, however, could achieve both simplicity and fairness. Thus, a 10% flat tax could be leveled on taxable annual incomes of under $100,000, a flat tax of 20% on incomes between that figure and $1 million, and a 35% flat tax (the present maximum) on incomes of more than $1 million.

BREAKTHROUGH: The present 35% corporation profits tax should also be scrapped…BUT ONLY ON CONDITION that advocates of this step agree to the above-mentioned 35% flat tax on the main beneficiaries – the investors, CEOs, Wall Streeters and other Big Money people making more than $1 million a year. This would allow recapture of the lost $2.3 billion now produced by the corporation tax. In short, those demanding an end to this tax should get a chance to PAY for its end.

Tne impact of this move would be AWESOME. The huge profits now being stashed abroad by global US firms could be returned to the USA, providing funds for new investment in expanded and modernized plant, creating more US JOBS; US firms would stop or reverse their shutting down of US factories, keeping production and JOBS here at home; exporters could cut prices sharply, spurring sales abroad and JOBS in the USA and finally moving America toward a favorable trade balance; firms all over the world would want to set up and expand operations within the USA, creating more US JOBS; the fiercely competitive US retail industry would cut prices, spurring consumer buying and follow-up output and more JOBS; increased economic activity would increase US Treasury tax receipts, opening the way toward finally balancing the Federal budget and paring down our mountainous national debt.

A potential political GRAND BARGAIN could lead to these grand results. The question is whether Big Money will accept it. Will Big Money interests go along with higher taxes on their own incomes in order to get rid of the much-despised corporation tax? Or will they dig in behind the Anti-Tax Stonewallers in Congress and kill off these basic tax changes that could lead to a stunning revival of America here at home and around the world?

Especially since the strange recent Supreme Court decision unleashing a flood of new money into politics, , Big Money stalks the streets, corridors, offices and homes of Washington as never before,, threatening political oblivion to anyone who refuses to do its bidding. Big Money dictates the terms of the pallid Republican primary campaigns; what candidate dares say one word that might offend it? And Big Money will surely call the shots on this Fall’s campaign for the Presidency.

So is this what American democracy has now come to? With every official and would-be official kowtowing to the demands of Big Money? No, thank heavens…not necessarily. We, the voters, will have our turn at bat in November. And we’re mad as hell at the whole Washington esaablishment! So what? Well, if I were an incumbent office-holder up for re- election, I would be very, very nervous about the future.
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