From the November 1998 Idaho Observer:

The Social Control Solution

There is no reason for people to debate the definitions of decency and morality. It is the shifting sands of decency and morality as repeatedly redefined by attorneys that have allowed us to sink to the definitions that we use today. We all know, in our hearts, exactly what it means to be decent and moral because we know, in our hearts, exactly when we are behaving indecently and immorally. If you want definitions, now you know where to look to find the real ones.

by Don Harkins

The only reason that anybody ever commits a crime is because they are certain that the rewards outweigh the risks. If the rewards do not outweigh the risks, crimes do not get committed. It is not a very complicated concept.

History has shown us that the only true deterrant to crime is social control. It is obvious that our current system of punishing criminals is not a deterrant to crime because, according to U.S. News and World Report, the U.S currently incarcerates one in every 265 Americans.

Social control is the mechanism whereby we as the citizens of a community can influence the behavior of the people around us by demanding, as a community, that people behave themselves in a specified manner.

We do that by making sure that everybody in the community knows when a certain person or persons are behaving inappropriately.

In the latter part of the 20th century, we face a tremendous challenge because all of the government and media entities that we have been conditioned to depend upon as social control mechanisms are they themselves guilty of engaging in behaviors that are simply not acceptable to honest, decent and hardworking Americans.

If we are predominantly a decent and moral people, then we deserve to live in a decent and moral society. If we are a predominantly decent and moral people, then we deserve to be represented in government by decent and moral representatives.

If we are a predominantly decent and moral people, we should tolerate nothing less than to live in a decent and moral society. It is quite obvious that we do not live in a decent and moral society. Since it is also quite obvious that we cannot expect "our" government and its fourth branch of government, the dominant media, to lead the charge for a return to decency and morality in our culture because they themselves are too busy profiting off of indecency and immorality, then it is the moral and decent members of a community who must create and enforce the social control solution.

Are you ready? Are you yourself moral and decent? Are your friends and family moral and decent? Are most of the members of your community moral and decent? Then what are you waiting for--it is time that you demand to live in a moral and decent community.

The Idaho Observer and The Oregon Observer have invested (wasted?) a lot of time and a lot of money over the last five years in our mission to find the most effective manner in which to do battle with corrupt politicians, lawyers, judges and other powerful entities who have gained their wealth, power and influence by using the system to unethically, illegally and immorally victimize innocent people.

Go ahead--Write to your congressman. Spend thousands of dollars to promote an initiative or referendum. Hire an attorney and spend thousands of dollars per motion and watch the legal litigation racket eat your resources for a decade while you attempt to prove your innocence. Call the cops. Present your case to the district attorney. Storm City Hall. Testify before the city council and the county commission. Write letters to the editor or try to get a dominant media reporter to print the truth about something important, like your life, that is being destroyed by corrupt conspiracies of power.

Once you find that those systems are designed to protect "them" so that "they" can abuse "us" with impugnity, then you will realize that "we" need to make something work ourselves.

The opposition newspaper works. It is comparatively inexpensive and, if the stories are written right and the allegations can be backed up with documentation, you can turn a strutting peacock of a judge or attorney into a frightened rabbit in a matter of days.

Social control. The only reason "they" have been able to get away with what "they" have done to "us" is because it has been accomplished in relative secrecy. If the dominant media reported every lie, every corrupt deal and every abuse of power to the community that is affected by those activities, "they" would not be able to get away with their crimes, would "they?" If everybody in the community knew that the county judge was a cocaine-snorting, philandering and wife-abusing drunk who protected his drug-running buddies through his courtroom (a true story from Jefferson County, Oregon) then he would not be getting away with his crimes, would he?

Social control works because we are all human. We like to go to the movies and we like to go to resuraunts. As a function of our lives, we must go to the store, go to the bank and we often belong to community organizations.

Most of the corrupt judges, attorneys and politicians are used to being the envy of the community because they have the very nice house, the very nice wife, the very nice kids and the very nice car. People naturally respect them because of their power, influence and success.

When, suddenly, everybody in the community sees that all of their very nice things were bought from the blood of innocent victims, and suddenly, they are pointing at them angrily at the store or talking about them at the bank and the town's gossip involves their treacherous activities, you have begun the process of bringing decency and morality back into your community.

So far, we have only been effective at the city and county level in smaller communities because people still perversely prefer to support the dominant media publications that are helping to persecute them.

Regaining the moral and decent highground even in a small community is not without its risks because the corrupt will generally stop at nothing to maintain their power base.

Although each situation is different, we have refined journalistic models that will accomplish the following in nearly every case: We can defeat any bad ordinance and any bad bond for any bad public works project. We can get rid of (or make behave) any bad attorney, judge or politician or other public servant. In short, a group of intelligent, dedicated, moral and decent people can gather the information necessary to print and distribute the truth.

The beauty of it all is that is does not cost that much money and it does not take all that much time.

After working exhaustively over the last five years to find something that works, it is my suggestion that every American who has a home in a county in a state stop worrying about state politics and stop worrying about national and international politics. If you cannot control the activities of your most junior city council person, then what on earth can you do to favorably influence matters on a state, national or international level?

If we begin to positively return decency and morality to our communities through social control that is administered by the predominantly decent and moral people who live in our community, then we will be able to promote and develop the machinery necessary to restore decency and morality to larger metropolises and to state governments.

Americans: This is your only hope. If we are still a predominantly decent and moral people then we have no choice but to create and enforce the social control mechanisms that will produce the decent and moral communities that we deserve to live in.

You can contact me at The Idaho Observer by calling (208) 687-9441 with a specific concern and I will sketch out a plan that, if applied properly, will accomplish the desired end.

Good luck to all of us.