Overwhelmed With The Details

As the six month process of recording "Going for Broke" entered it last few weeks, I began thinking about the other parts of the project that were now becoming very important. Everything related to this album was pretty much up to me to take care of, since I had no major-label recording contract, and no management deal...and as a result of that, there was no personnel or staff taking care of all the details. Aside from writing, publishing and recording all the music...I was also producing the album myself...and releasing it on my label, Golden Sun Records. That meant that the album design...including photography, graphics, lyric sleeves...virtually anything and everything that would determine what the final product would look like...became decisions I was responsible for making...and paying for. This was new territory for me...I had gone through this process on a much smaller scale when I had released Avalanche's first single...and even that was a lot of work...but doing an album required me to pay attention to many more crucial details that didn't even enter the picture with a single. Did I want color photography on the front and back of the album jacket? Would black and white photography on the back side of the album jacket reduce my chances of having the album being taken seriously? Did I want an album that opened like a book with lyrics printed directly onto the album itself, or should I have a standard single sleeve album jacket, with a high quality gloss paper inner sleeve with lyrics and liner notes printed on that? How many copies of the album should the initial pressing consist of? Should I spend extra money to have the album mastered by professional mastering companies in New York City? I have always believed that cutting corners is something that always diminishes the final result...and I was determined not to do that...but as I started to find out how expensive putting together an album that reflected all the things that I wanted in place on the finished product would actually cost...I realized just how appropriately I had inadvertantly named this album. It quickly became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to do everything I wanted to do with the packaging of this first record...and still be able to afford to press an initial five thousand copies...which was the minimum amount that made sense. To press less than that amount would nearly double the cost per record, and would pretty much make it impossible to make any money on record sales at all. If things worked out well for this record...I really believed I'd be able to resurrect the band...and as result of that, and with the income generated from performance and record sales, I thought I'd be able to improve on some areas of album design on the next record. On top of the thousands of dollars I already owed for all the studio time, the costs involved with making the decisions about all these other things...the photographer...the photo shoot...the layout of the lyric sleeve for the printer...the decision about mastering and manufacturing...it seemed as though every expense, in every area, had taken a quantum leap from what I had anticipated the cost would be when I started the project. That was definetely my own fault. I know I could have investigated the costs on many of these things before I got started...but getting started had seemed like the only priority that mattered, at the time. At any rate, it was too late to do anything about it by this time...I already had a small fortune and my entire future tied up in this project...and to not go ahead with these final details wasn't really an option...no matter what the cost. The pressure to generate large amounts of money quickly had never been greater...and it was pretty overwhelming to me because the stress that I was experiencing from my business was at an all-time high, too. I think I just attributed that to the increased need for cash, when the truth was...the business was really changing...and along with it...the people I was dealing with. I had always stayed very aware of what was happening with all of my customers and how they conducted their business...because if they got sloppy and had legal problems...it wouldn't be long before I would, too. Paying attention to all of those details had always kept me safe from legal problems for a very long time. But as I said earlier...I was now suffering from tunnel-vision...the completion of this album was really the only thing I was really paying attention to. With all of the decisions I was responsible for making...and all the financial pressures that were quickly mounting up as a result of them...only large amounts of money to finish this project...and re-establish momentum with the radio stations and rekindle the public's interest in seeing Avalanche in performance... would enable me to get that major label deal, or sign with Tony Oteda, or someone like him, so that finally I would be able to just write, record, and perform...and leave all of these business details to the people who were professionals at doing that...which was all I had ever really wanted anyway. The one thing that I was feeling very good about was the way the album had turned out. It was a very good first album...and once again I felt that Avalanche was breaking all the rules of the music business by doing independently, something that nearly always required the financial backing and support of a major record label. As Peter and I put the finishing touches on the mixes...and selected a song sequence for the album...I realized that once again...I had taken an impossible dream...and had turned it into something that was about to become...a reality. The record sounded very good, and as I thought ahead, I tried to envision what the actual album would look like...in finished form...and imagined seeing it on all the record store shelves. Once again, I was feeling pretty good about myself...and my ability to overcome impossible odds. But I should have known from all the times I had already experienced an incredible euphoria... followed by an incredibly fast demise...that "the other shoe" was about to drop. I have since learned something in my recovery that totally escaped me during most of my active addiction. It's a really simple, but important lesson. Good things always happen when I do the next right thing...because the Universe is ALWAYS paying attention...and when I don't do the next right thing, or my motives or methods are askew...well, the Universe is paying attention to that, too. Regardless of what I think...the energy I send out to the Universe...positive or negative...healing or harmful...always comes back to me ten-fold. Although I believe the music I had created was quite good...and for the most part, very positive and worthwhile...the methods that I was using to try to bring that music to the world were not. And another important lesson I have learned is...that anything really worthwhile takes time...and manifests in reality if it is supposed to...and on its own timetable...not mine. Trying to make something happen faster, because I think something is "overdue"...is still me being in conflict with a Universal Flow that is much more powerful than I am. And when I think I'm in control of events...and when I make rigid plans and timetables...believing that regardless of how faulty my logic, my thinking, or my actions may be, things will work out exactly how and when I think they should...well....God just laughs.

To All Readers of My Journal

Hi Everyone...

I've just been notified that my Journal is a Featured Screen again on AOL Music Talk. I'm very honored and flattered. I refer everyone who is here for the first time, to my June 8, 2004 entry...which gives some background about the journal... and instructions on how to read it from the beginning (which I believe makes it much more enjoyable...to do otherwise is like trying to make sense out of a movie that you walked into an hour late. Many readers have contacted me over the past six months to tell me how compelling the story is...and there have been nearly 6000 hits on the site since I started it in October, 2003. (nearly 2500 hits since I changed the site address a few months ago) The  journal chronologically documents my life, which has been rather exciting, and at times, pretty dark...and my musical journey...which is ongoing.  It includes my gigs with bands like AC/DC, Buddy Guy, Rick Derringer, and many, many others. Thanks again to everyone at AOL Entertainment for selecting my Journal...and for anyone who chooses to read it...I hope you enjoy it...All comments are welcomed.

                                  Thanks....Michael/Navlanch

    Note: A few entries back...I strayed from the chronolgical story of my life to add a few entries reflecting my politics...and some of my spiritual beliefs, as well. This being an election year, and what I believe is probably the most important election in my lifetime...I felt compelled to write outside of the normal format of this journal...and so I encourage all readers who may be interested to check those four entries out. Please keep in mind that these four consecutive entries are vastly different than the rest of this journal. The entries in question begin with the June 30, 2004 entry..."New Risks...As the World Turns". If anyone prefers to bypass these entries...you now know on which date they begin. These entries are just my opinions...they are, however, still based largely on my life experience.

On a Mission: Suffering From Tunnel Vision

As the process of recording and mixing "Going For Broke" went on...the weeks turned into months...and the only thing I was really thinking about was just finishing the album. It was as though I was in a trance...operating on "automatic pilot" ...and I was doing whatever was necessary to accomplish that mission. I had always been very careful about how I conducted my business...and about who I allowed into my inner circle, and especially, who I had business relationships with...but I was so tired of the whole dealing thing, and I so desperately wanted to change my focus back to the one area of my life that I thought would provide me the opportunity to leave the drug business behind forever...my music...that I think for the first time in my life, I just wasn't paying attention to the changes that were happening all around me. I had been dealing for nearly twelve years by this time, and the business I had set up over all those years seemed to almost run by itself...like a well-oiled machine. In many ways, it had become a routine and a comfort-zone that had become very dangerous to me, because although my method of doing business hadn't really changed in years because it had always been so efficient and had kept me safe from consequences...the world I lived in HAD changed...and had I been paying more attention to those changes, instead of being so focused on the album...I would have recognized the need for me to make adjustments in many areas in order to remain safe. It was as if there were times when I totally forgot that what I was doing was against the law. With all the changes that were happening to the political climate in this country at that period...and the disintegration of the Counterculture mentality that had made everything in my life seem so natural and comfortable for so long...I really should have been paying more attention to what I was doing...not less. Complacency and arrogance had steadily crept into my business and my attitude...and my judgment began to suffer because I was always high, too. I failed to see the clear truth that my business was becoming more dangerous...and more difficult to maintain. For years, I had enjoyed a very steady and reliable group of customers who had never strayed...because our relationship was based on friendship and trust...as well as on the fact that I had consistently had the quality of product that they wanted...and those factors had always kept my market very secure. But as cocaine flooded the streets of America, and became the new drug of choice for many of my customers, I was suddenly faced with competition from many different places, and from many different people...including many of my old customers...who were now suddenly dealing on a much larger scale themselves...motivated by addiction and greed to cash in on the huge profits that were being generated by the explosion of cocaine's popularity. And most of my friends and customers knew each other...over many years they had met at parties I had thrown, or gigs that I had played. In the past, that had never been a problem...they had always respected my boundaries...but the changes in the marketplace...and their new addictions...had changed all of that. I started to lose my market as my customers started to deal with each other...bypassing me entirely as they all tried to increase their own profit margins. That had always been a totally unacceptable business practice...and something all of my people knew I wouldn't tolerate from them...and as long as I had been an exclusive source of quality product for them...it was a line that had never been crossed. Now that high-quality product was  available to most of my customers from many different sources...customer loyalty seemed to take a backseat to expediency. Price, and a willingness to extend credit had suddenly become the two most important factors to most of my customers...and the vast amounts of cocaine that were showing up everywhere meant that dealers seemed to be coming out of the woodwork...and were able to offer products to my customers at prices that even I couldn't compete with...even though I was much more established in the business than many of my new competitors. Extending credit became a necessity to staying in business, and extending credit for cocaine was a totally different game than it had been when marijuana had been the big seller. Somebody could easily find themselves unable to pay thousands of dollars that they owed for cocaine...because it was easy to blow thousands of dollars worth of cocaine with one bad business decision, or one party that got out of control. It often became a lot easier for people to find a new connection...than it was for them to pay off an unexpected drug debt that they were responsible for creating...and it wasn't long before the large amounts of money that were at stake began affecting close friendships and working relationships I had with people that I had known for years. I found myself under pressure to pay my suppliers for product I had fronted to very good friends and customers...but who had suddenly become unreliable...or who found themselves with serious drug problems and unable to pay...and that required me to exert real pressure on friends who weren't used to pressure...and who didn't like it very much. And I didn't like exerting it very much either...it had never been necessary in the past...and it felt very foreign to me. It quickly became apparent to me that with thousands of dollars at stake...people who had always been trustworthy and who had always kept their promises and their word...were suddenly strangers I couldn't count on to honor their promises anymore...and who had become experts at becoming unavailable when payments were due. Years of  friendship and cooperation turned to shit in the wake of full blown drug addiction. And shit always runs downhill. Many of my sources became less tolerant with me...because my tardiness began to affect their credibility, their credit lines, and their opportunities. It seemed to me that in a very short period of time...everything had changed...and the whole business was suddenly about the money. My payment schedules got much stricter, my credit lines got smaller, my opportunities diminished, and my market began to shrink...and what had once been a fairly routine exercise started to become really tedious, dangerous, and unpleasant work. And while all this was happening...my need for funding for the album was requiring me to maintain, if not increase, my earnings. As my obsession to finish the album started to get in the way of my better judgment, I found myself extending credit to people who I shouldn't have, and dealing with new people to make up for the old reliable customers who were no longer functioning with the integrity and efficiency I had come to expect from them. I was ignoring my own rules...and changing my own standards. I believed that I would only have to do that for a short period of time...because the album was almost finished. And in the process, I guess I forgot the fact that I had always been a prime target for the police...and that I had frustrated the authorities for years with my strict rules and operating procedures. Now, I was failing to pay attention to those very rules. People that at one time, I would have  chosen to not bring into my inner circle, because they operated with a different set of rules and standards than I did...standards which I considered unsafe and unacceptable...were now becoming necessary to my economic survival, and the album's completion. And I failed to notice the political climate in the country changing, too. I failed to notice the Nancy Reagan "Just Say No" policy was a reflection of a new zero-tolerance attitude about anything drug-related that was happening in America. The laws and standards for "probable cause" for police searches had switched dramatically...from the rights of the individual being paramount...to greater and greater freedom being given to the police to operate with impunity. New surveillance technologies and wiretap capabilities were developed at an unbelievable fast rate...and something was definetely changing in America. I couldn't identify it...but I could feel it. And yet, my own strict rules had relaxed greatly...at a time when they really needed to be tighter, if I was going to avoid legal consequences. I was just totally distracted with the album...and with my own drug problems clouding my judgment... I was also suffering from tunnel-vision...and an obsession to finish the album at all costs. I was about to find out that the cost would be very high...and that just because I had avoided getting arrested in the past...even though much of my life was totally illegal...did not mean that I was immune to that possibility...or that I was above the law. 

The Mixing Progresses

For the next few months, I spent most of my time in the studio mixing the album with Peter. As the process became more familiar to me, it also became more comfortable...and I realized I was actually starting to know what I was doing as a producer. I not only knew what I wanted to hear, but as I got more experience in working with the tools that were available to me at the studio...I found that it was getting progressively easier for me to "dial up" the sound I wanted. Getting drum mixes to sound right had originally required up to sixteen hours of fine-tuning and experimentation. By the time I was into the mixes on the fourth song of "Going For Broke" the time involved for drum mixes was down to three or four hours...and the end result sounded better than the inital mixes of the first few recordings had. It had gotten to the point that experimentation wasn't even necessary...we had found the "formula" that worked...and so essentially, we were able to just set the dials and move on to the next instrument in the mix. By the time the album was completed, the time involved to get the drum mix right was under two hours. The same thing seemed to be happening with all the instruments...knowing what had sounded good on a song...and duplicating that process on the next one. But there were always variables. Different combinations of instruments from song to song created new challenges in seperating those instruments in the mixes, and making sure that all parts were clearly heard at all times could still be quite a daunting task. Because there were many different guitars, and guitar parts (at times up to five guitar tracks could be found on certain songs...both acoustic and electric), and because I was trying to create the illusion that there had been two different guitar players on all the songs, just as there had been in the original band...that part of the process was very time-consuming and painstaking. It isn't that easy to take one guitar, two Marshall Stack amplifiers, and one guitarist...and make the parts sound different enough to create that illusion. One of the biggest problems that I had doing that was...I had to ignore what I was used to hearing as "my sound" (which I had spent a great deal of time and money over many years to get "just right") and intentionally use the studio's many different processing tools to create a different sound on some of the parts I was now playing, but that Mark had originally played on when the original group had been together. Any guitar player who is distinctive will tell you that tone is a huge part of a guitarist's "style"...and Mark, like me, had spent a great many years getting his guitar sound the way he liked it...and once he had what he wanted, it was very easy for him to get that sound...because he used different guitars, and had different playing techniques than I did. Most of what is involved...is simply knowing what you want to hear. But now, since he wasn't there...I had to try to duplicate what I remembered as his sound from memory...and with totally different tools than he had used to get "his" sound. I don't think I ever really pulled it off...but I knew going in...that this record would be different from the Avalanche I had grown accustomed to hearing when we were a real band. Since I had one guitar that was my favorite...and that I felt more comfortable with...I decided not to use any of the other guitars I owned to create a different sound. I thought playing the parts to the best of my ability was the most important thing to accomplish...everything else was negotiable. When the playing is precise...the mixing becomes much easier, because I wasn't spending a lot of time trying to correct playing mistakes through the manipulation of sound in the mixing process. But mixing that many guitar tracks was still quite challenging. It became quite common to spend two or three weeks mixing just one song...because I wouldn't consider a mix finished on any of these songs until I believed it was as good as I could possibly get it to sound...from the recordings I had to work with. It was the one lesson I had learned very well after the final mixes of the first Avalanche single had been such a disappointment to me. Cutting corners just wasn't an option. There was too much riding on this project. But having that attitude was starting to become a very expensive standard to maintain. Although I had already decided that money was not going to be a reason to settle for a mediocre end result...the truth was that the cost was rapidly becoming thousands of dollars per song...and that was for a studio that was relatively inexpensive, compared to what a state-of-the-art studio would have cost for me to record in. My life had become a whirlwind of dealing to make the money for the album...and three or four eight-hour  nights every week in the studio mixing. And I found that although I was making a lot of money...I was spending it as quickly as it came in. Because I was so caught up in the momentum of the project...I think I failed to notice that the face of the drug business was rapidly changing...and that the flood of cocaine onto the streets of America was creating an entirely new marketplace...a new set of circumstances...and a whole lot of competition that I had never had to worry about before...not to mention a whole new set of customers...and with them...a new set of rules and a new set of risks. 

Are We Paying Attention Yet?

In my last three journal entries, I have strayed from the telling of my life story in chronolgical order...because over the years, I have learned that when the creative juices are flowing, and the muses are speaking to me, I need to write down what I'm feeling...even if I'm doing something else at the time...or I very often lose the idea forever, because it can leave as quickly as it came. Although I am anxious to get back to the story of my life...the  events that are happening all around us at this time have provided clear examples to substantiate a lot of the observations I wrote about in those last entries.

The 2004 Democratic National Convention just ended last week, and by the time it had concluded, I knew why I proudly consider myself a Democrat. The convention was the most positive, upbeat, optimistic, hopeful, and idealistic display of American values and patriotism in action that I have witnessed in the American political process in a very long time. I had forgotten what it was like to hear intelligent, compassionate, and thoughtful speeches in their entirety. For a very long time now, we have all been subjected to the 20 second "out of context" soundbyte...which colors what we believe we are hearing because we only get the part of the story...the part that is deemed..." what we need to hear". However, it is a completely different experience when we get to see and hear the entire story. But there are very dark forces still at work in this country...that don't want us to see and hear these things, because clarity is the last thing they want us to have...and so I feel compelled to ask a few important questions.

Is it only me...or does anyone else in this country think that it is strange that with the most important election in our lifetime only three months away, and with the very future of not only our country, but much of the world, very likely to be affected by its outcome...that the convention...and with it, the opportunity to see and hear the candidates and party leaders who could very well be crucial in determining how all of our lives might change...for better or for worse...was not even covered by the three major networks...and was reduced to being less important than the next installment of "Who Wants To Marry My Dad?" Who made the decision to reduce the American people's right to hear what a potential president thinks...down to a soundbyte...or worse, to a commentator telling us what that candidate said...or even worst of all...what that candidate meant? When I was growing up, we all knew that the conventions were incredibly important...because for four days...that was the only choice that was offered to the American people on television. Because all the networks carried the conventions, and because they got the same attention as the elections do today...the message was crystal clear...nothing on TV mattered as much as what was happening at those conventions...and so we all knew how important they were (and still are). There was no Bonanza, no Gilligan's Island, no Mary Tyler Moore on convention nights. And the conventions went on until the wee hours of the morning...and people stayed up to watch them...because everyone knew that the choices they made at election time would determine what the quality of their lives would be, as a result of those choices. It was understood that elections were crucial...and knowing as much as possible about the candidates in elections is the only way to make an informed and intelligent choice. Just because the American public has more choices today as to whether they will watch or not...due to cable and satellite television...doesn't mean that it should be assumed that they are not interested and wouldn't watch...if given the opportunity. I decided to watch the entire convention on a cable news network...but for people who don't have those optional viewing choices on their television sets...the choice was made for them...they just couldn't watch. Today, the American people are expected to make choices about the men who will shape their entire future from whatever information they can glean from the first ten minutes of the evening news...even though the world we live in is far too complex...and a much more dangerous place than it was back then...and so the choices we make are much more serious and profound. Most of the information we are given today to make our decisions for this election comes in an abbreviated glossed-over form. It is second-hand information...and with a definite bias towards editting and soundbytes. Is it just me...or does something seem really wrong with that? What I want to know is...when did all of that change? And who decided for us...to make that change? And isn't the reason why this is happening...blatantly obvious?

Is it just me...or did anyone else notice that almost from the minute each speaker at the DNC concluded his or her speech...the spinmasters were already twisting what had been said, and were already attacking people who had clearly stated  an appreciation for the values that have long been honored as the values on which this great country was founded? When did those values stop being American values?  When did the patriots who embrace them all become "liberals"...a term which has no real meaning today...but has been so demonized by the media that it immediately throws a negative slant on the person it describes? When did championing fairness for all people in this country become something that the media wants to make us feel ashamed of? When did demanding truth and accountability from our leaders become an unpatriotic activity? When did doing the right thing go out of style? Why is the word "conservative" made to sound like a "good American thing" in the media...when the conservative point of view today is really nothing more than the religious and corporate agenda of the extreme right. When did  fairness, and equal opportunity for all, the ending of corporate tax loopholes, affordable health care for all, not just the wealthy...and war only as a last resort...become vilified as unpatriotic, left-wing liberalism, or treasonous...which any way you say it...sounds like a pretty bad thing? When did "Under God" and "Justice for All" become the property and exclusive doctrine of the G.O.P.? (Government of Priviledge). I thought it was my flag, too. And I still do. It is OUR flag...and no single political view or agenda can be wrapped in it. And this is our country. Our diversity has always been our strength. E Pluribus Unum. Out of many...One. Isn't that our National Motto? Aren't we supposed to be the UNITED States?

Is it only me...or has anyone else noticed that the minute some clear questions are asked...and some real solutions are offered as answers to disastrous foreign and domestic policies that clearly cannot be justified when exposed under the light of close scrutiny...an embarrased and undefendable administration uses its control of government agencies to employ the practice of immediately raising the fear level in this country with a "new" terror alert. Does anyone else notice that this is a pattern that has appeared repeatedly over the past three years...and now it rears its ugly head yet again? Is it just me...or isn't it really obvious that this is all that this current administration can do to deflect attention away from the source of their embarassment...A STRONG DOSE OF TRUTH...and the absence of good old American values in its policies? In lieu of an alternative, is distracting the American public from everything they just witnessed and digested last week...a plan to restore America's core values...the only course of action left available to them? When the facts, and this administration's record...clearly speak for themselves...why is it a radical idea to try to fix what is broken? Are we really so arrogant and inflexible as a nation that we can no longer admit to being human, or that we might be on the wrong course, or that we might be in error? Is that now considered an unpatriotic thing to do? I don't believe for a second that is what the American people think. It has, however, been the attitude and the Standard Operating Procedure for this administration. The current leaders of this country have forgotten that most Americans know their history, and that we have always honored truth, fairness, justice, and sincere, civil dialogue to create our policies as a nation...and just because the power elite doesn't think we remember it...doesn't make that true. 

Is it only me...or has anyone else noticed that when an Oscar-winning director and a patriot...makes a documentary film that clearly shows the deceptions, the blatant dishonesty, and the callous disregard for the well-being and safety of Americans by a president with an agenda...an agenda that wants to strip all of us except for the very rich and powerful...of our most powerful ideals, rights, and values...especially the truth...then that man is attacked, vilified, and crucified in the press as a radical and even as a traitor...even though the action he took is exactly what Americans who love their country...what patriots... are supposed to do?  

I don't believe for a second that it is only me that sees these things. There are millions of Americans out there that want their country back. That is why this election is the most important one in our lifetime. It is time for the sleeping giant to awaken. It is time to really get involved. It is time to say and do whatever is necessary to regain our values as a nation. If we want change...WE HAVE TO CREATE IT. It is time to stop talking and start doing. Whatever my political beliefs are...they are meaningless without real action. I have made my decision, and I am actively involved with the "regime change" that I believe is necessary if this country is to survive in a form that resembles the America that I have always loved...and the America that has always been the beacon of hope for the whole world. When I think of the word "democracy"...it is the word that best describes for me the values that created this great country. It is the word that best describes our freedom...and our way of life. Government policy and the quality of life determined by the will of the people. The thing I value the most about living in a free society, is the fact that I have the freedom and the right to make my own choices. Every day, as I pay attention to what is happening in this country, it becomes increasingly evident that I have fewer and fewer choices...and very often decisions I used to be able to make for myself...are now being made for me. And that reminds me of how life is in other places in this world...but it shouldn't be happening here, in America. When I think of the word "republic"...the only example that currently comes to mind is The People's Republic of China...a place where the people are told what they should think and what they want, and what they are going to be allowed to do. I know where I want to live...and it isn't in a place like that. Division, Fear, Power, and Arrogance...the tactics that are currently employed by the leaders elected to serve us...will NEVER equate to Unity, Courage, Strength,  Hope, and Wisdom...the principles that are the bedrock and foundation of everything that has made our country the example that it has been for all people who value freedom above all else...everywhere in the world. And real wisdom is simply...paying attention to the truth that constantly reveals itself all around us...ALL THE TIME...if we only look for it. For me, the truth is...I'd much rather live in a democracy than a republic. I guess that is why I'm a Democrat...and not a Republican. But whatever our politics might be...if we allow others to make all of our decisions and choices for us...it means we have surrendered all control of our lives and our destiny to apathy...and we will have to live in the house that we built. 

 So where do we want to be? What kind of an America do we really want to live in? The road we are currently on is a road well travelled througout history. And it has always been a dead-end. From the Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations...to the Feudal Systems of early European times...to Monarchies and Dynasties throughout the world in all eras of human history...to Facism and Communism...that well-travelled road has never brought us anywhere...except back to Square One. That is why democracy has been called "The Great Experiment". It is an idea that recognized the failures of the past. And in a democracy...it is the people who are supposed to rule. To quote Mr. Spock from Star Trek..."the needs of the many...outweigh the needs of the few...or the one." So the question that I keep asking myself over and over again, as if my life depended on it, is...are we going to allow history to repeat itself, yet again? Are we going to sit back...and let "The Great Experiment" become just another meaningless dream? As our control of our government steadily becomes...US BEING CONTROLLED BY OUR GOVERNMENT...I keep wondering....Are we paying attention yet?