Update:  So here it is to oh six ho 8 and such, and not much has changed.  I still have no idea where it is going to go.  I know what I would like for the property discussed below, but I also know that just because I want it doesn't make it so....nonetheless, i suggest you read this story with your hands near your chest.  Close to  your heart.  That is what I try to do......Ken, or Ben, or whatever has been.......its all the same to me, or at least it is in this story...... 

The Editors Speak: Please be aware.  This is a story.  It is only a story.  You can read it however you want to and interpret it however you want to.  So can others.

Prologue:

UPDATE 2:  9:00 am March 7, 2008:  So let me tell you.  Three houses have been torn down.  A bunch of stuff hauled off to the dump.  A bunch of mud moved around.  A wall has been put up.  But that is it.  No new houses yet, and let me say, I hope for these developers sake that they aren't too leveraged.  When it comes to stinking money, I sure wouldn't want to be too leveraged just now....debts are starting to be called in.  What comes around goes around and just remember - Karma does NOT forget.

UPDATE:  11:22  May 24, 2007:  Well the house discussed below has indeed been torn down.  Or at least it is now in shambles.  The little unfinished shed with pink siding remains. (Actually, now, six uno acht oh 7, the little shed is gone too, what you gonna do - not to worry though, better times are on the way......nov16_07 or at least so it seems....)

The events in this prologue transpired after the events from the rest of the story.  It (that is, the prologue) speaks to where the story could go.......

10:46 am  4/26/07

Just talked with a crew amongst which were several trucks from piedmont natural gas.  Presumably the crew was working for the gas company.  They were cutting a substantial chunk of Old Providence road in front of the house -- the one with the pool, immense concrete driveway, & recently "not-completed" shed that still had pink siding on it.  This same house is the one that is supposedly being torn down.

When I asked what they were doing, the apparent crew foreman (the one sitting up high, not doing any physical labor, and with a smirk on his face) responded that they were "cutting gas to the house".  I knew someone wanted to tear this house down, and they probably will, but why do you have to cut a big hole in the road to turn off the gas.  There ought to be a valve going into the house, or at least, there ought to be a better way.  Why not just turn the valve, or do something simple like that?  Why does a big hole need to be dug in the ground with a crew of about 10 that are sort of working, when all that is necessary is for one person to go shut off the valve and make sure whomever is going to tear the house down knows.  Simple.

Anyhow it should probably be apparent that something else is going on. 

10:51 a.m  4/26/07

Just after wrapping around the crew, I then encountered an Ecklenburg county inspector's truck.  The apparent inspector was within and I flagged him down.  He said he was looking for a house being torn down --- he was mainly checking for rats.  I said to him:  "I just want to know whats going on in my own neighborhood".  Obviously it affects me, so I got the RIGHT to know, or at least I ought to know.  I am going to learn as much as I can. 

I won't be LEFT behind.  Ya know?  I need to know.

Ken here live (or at one time it was so -- ?!!):  OK, the moment has arrived.  Ya know?  So here is where I see the story going.  Ah let me just say this..i do not know where "MI-RE" will go.  I have some ideas.  I have my sensibilities.  I have my intuitions.  It seems to me, we -  all of us - need to see the sea to shining sea & sense peacefully (& vice versa) --- then choose.  Choose Life. 

I just don't know.  If I did, whoa......I know this though, I want PEACE or at least, I want the military conflict to end.  Then, so much can happen and it can happen fast.......and you know what - this can happen all over the place......small, big, and all....

Second UPDATE:  9:22  May 31, 2007:  Well now they have torn down two houses.  The one with the pool is down and so is the one that they were going to burn.  At least they didn't burn it, but you know, it was still a useful house.  It could have been kept up.  Nonetheless, its gone, and only one remains.  I suspect its days are numbered (111607-indeed this is so as the third did also go down - the rubbish remains, but nothing to recover there, but i can say proudly my daughter and i did get a pine-cone from the home before it was torn down) .  If I remember correctly, the house they were going to burn had slate steps and a slate foyer.  I hope someone makes use of the slate.  You know ---- a clean slate.  Thats what we need.

Ken Here on six 1 seven Oh seven:  I got the slate.  The decent fella demolishing it all told me -- get what you want, its all going to the landfill anyhow.  Now I got some, not all mind you, but I got some and it is going to good use in my yard.  Peace everyone.  Peace with both hands.  Peace to all....

I'll admit one more thing TO.  Imagine these houses were like the houses in DC.  You know - the house of reps, the white house, and the courthouse.  They have been so disappointing lately.  So separated from the People. 

Maybe it is for the best that they have been torn down. 

Maybe we really do need a clean slate. 

Maybe.

Oh, by the way, please take all of the statements made by the editors seriously.  These editors are incredible, but if things get edited too many times, well then, makes ya wonder, doesn't it?

Story -- 3rd Entry

So this comes directly from the book "The Great Turning", by David Korten:

Starting @ Bottom of Page 327:  These are the values of the true political center most everywhere in the world.  That center is composed of people who, irrespective of party affiliation, want a politics based on principle, seek real solutions to real problems, and believe government should be accountable and serve the common good.

Now, I don't know about that "believe" word (I prefer "recognize"), but the rest of it makes a lot of sense to me.  Who could be against it, and if someone was, why, I mean why?  What could you possibly get that is better?  Not only for everyone, but even for yourself.  At least it seems this way to me, but what do I know.  I suppose it all starts depending on definitions, and there is nothing wrong with that, but we don't need the lawyers to tell us how to define.  It almost seems like a conflict of interest to me.

Well OK, I'm interested, no in fact, I want to help foster the "common good".  So, in my neighborhood where it seems lately nobody was talking to any of their neighbors  -- nobody talking to anybody not even any body -- I figured, I'm going to try to change this for my own sake.  I'd like to live somewhere where we don't all necessarily agree, but at least we talk, or even lesser, at least we are all aware of each other and recognize that we all live in the same neighborhood.  You know what I mean.  It seemed that way when I was a kid living in Buffalo, NY.  I miss it.

Anyhow in my neighborhood there are many different types of folks.  But I'd bet ya that just about all of us would choose life.  So I get a bit annoyed when I hear this argument that supposedly is between the RIGHT to choose and the RIGHT to life.  Excuse me, but these two things are inexticably linked -- they are like the roots of a tree below and the branches of a tree above.  You got to have both to even have the tree.  Does this make any sense?  Anyhow, its a goofy argument because no one is going to be able to convince the other.  I think the argument only continues because a bunch of individuals like to preach more than they care about life or about choice. 

Now I admit sometimes I suppose it seems like I'm preaching, but I recognize that we need both life and choice.  I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I CHOOSE LIFE, and let me also say i sense life all around and all about.   

5th Entry - The burning plan.

OK, I said this story was going to be about the neighborhood, and I meant it.  Most of the houses in the neighborhood including the one I live in were built ~40 years ago.  These houses aren't like the new ones popping up all over the place.  No, these houses are stout.

In the southeast corner of the neighborhood two adjacent homes had been on the market for some time.  The one on the corner had already had its property subdivided into four lots each of which was presumably for sale.  The other one next to it (I'll call this the "2nd house") as you head north on Old Providence road had a for sale sign that said "acreage".  You know what this means don't you.  They were selling it assuming that whoever bought it was going to tear down the house and put in some "new development".  Remember this neighborhood is in Sholottaka, NC and let me tell you in Sholottaka they are tearing it down and developing just about everything.  There is MONEY to be made.

Anyhow, these two good old houses were each on a lots over 1 acre, and both were set down from the road with a deep gully running along thier front.  When it rained hard, this gully drained a substantial part of the whole neighborhhod. 

Rumor has it that the folks who owned these two houses talked about selling them and the associated property (as defined on the legal books) together.  But, as often happens, they couldn't come to terms, and so each was on the market individually. 

Well, one day about a year or so ago my dog Chester and I are walking around the block.  The for sale sign at the 2nd house (the one that said "acreage") had been taken down for awhile and so I knew something had changed.  It turns out that on this day there was a big pickup truck in the 2nd house's driveway, and I saw the fellow there and figured I'd find out if he knew anything.  So I walk up to him and ask "do you know what is going on with this house".  He told me and I couldn't believe it.  I thought to myself, the rest of the neighborhood needs to know about this.....

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

(Continuation......OK, so what he said is that they are going to burn the house down in two days or something like that.  He might of said more, but I suppose I wasn't really paying attention because I was looking at the house and thinking to myself "where will the smoke go when this burns?".  Of course it depends on the weather (or "meteorological conditions" if you prefer), but there were some other factors:

1.  The house was essentially in the middle of a forest that included many other houses (like the one me and my family live in for instance).

2.  Remember what I said before -- gully in the front yard -- well, this house was partially in the gully.  It was at a low elevation with respect to the surrounding terrain.  What this means is, if this house was burning given the "right" conditions the smoke could go up and then disperse down to the ground relatively close by.  Or in other words, the stinking smoke could land right in the neighborhood.  You know.

3.  Why wasn't the neigborhood informed about this well in advance.  This just didn't seem fair to me. 

On top of all that, the planned burn day was a school holiday - the kids were going to be all around the neighborhood.

So this is why I thought my neighbors ought to know.  I mean this was a serious amount of smoke - even if most of it didn't land in the neighborhood, I can just about guarantee you that some would, or at least it would sure smell like it.  Its not like someone was smoking a cigarette - no, somebody wanted to burn down a whole freakin house sitting in a gully in the middle of a forested neighborhood without telling anyone.  Holy Moly!

Oh yeah, I just remembered who he said was going to burn the house down.  It was the city fire department for heaven's sake.  Didn't the city fire department employees know that this wasn't a good house to burn?  They should of.  Now I suppose the fire department didn't OWN the house, but they were sure willling to burn it.

Anyhow, I sent out an e-mail to folks in the neighborhood.

 6th Entry - The neighborhood my house resides in.....