Transparency

A new word in most vocabularies is the word “transparency.” The definition of transparency, according to Merriam-Webster, is “fine or sheer enough to be seen through.”

This new political jargon is being used very much in bringing to light much of the heretofore corrupt practices long hidden in government agencies. Even academia and corporations are being exposed by the light of transparency. Most politicians, when voted out of office, or retiring from active political life, are getting the big bucks (Dashiell, Clinton, etc.) by lobbying for these American institutions which have taken great pride in keeping their activities hidden. Try getting information from FTC, FCC, USJD, or any of these other large bureaucratic agencies and you will encounter such darkness that only the sunlight of transparency, often with Congressional influence, can be uncovered.

As long as it has taken for the disabled citizens to have an advocate in the Justice Department (Americans With Disabilities Act, 1990), you will never get any assistance, whatsoever, from this agency. Not in the darkest third-world countries, in which I have traveled and been exposed to tyrants and corruption from the time my passport was stamped until I left the country, is there more exploitation. In some African countries, I have had my luggage taken out of the vehicle, and out on the ground, the authorities in charge just rifled through everything in my luggage. Now this is not the type of transparency we desire. In an airport in Lagos, Nigeria, I was sitting next to the British Ambassador, when a female American Peace Corps worker, who had escaped from Liberia, came over to ask for my assistance. The girl was having a nervous breakdown from the treatment she had received in that nation while Charles Taylor was still in charge. She said that any man in uniform could strip her and search her at any time. This is not the transparency which we desire. The transparency we desire as American citizens is honesty and integrity in our government, in our education institutions, in corporations.

Mr. Erskine Bowles, Chief of Staff for President Clinton, now President of the University of North Carolina system, a member of the board of directors of General Motors Corporation, and a director of other corporations (like Governor Terry Sanford, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, and many other such well-known Americans, he probably makes more money as a director of corporations than he does as head of the University system). When he conveniently gave an $80,000 raise to the wife of the Ex-Governor Easley of NC for as far as I can tell doing absolutely nothing, except being the wife of the governor, I asked, “Why is General Motors in such bad condition with you as a director and why is the University system in such bad condition with you as President?” It seems to me that these influential politicians who fight to get to the top so they can be appointed to these high-priced jobs and directorships should know all about transparency and be able to teach we peons about the value of a dollar and right way to live our lives, which has made them so successful.

One of the most frustrating experiences of my life when it comes to transparency has been my dealing with the perhaps largest corporation in America, Ebay. Ebay has over two million active accounts. Millions of items, every description, are placed on Ebay every hour of every day all over the world. I have been a buyer and seller (mostly seller) on Ebay’s auction line for many years. I have employed, since I am totally blind, many people to work for me in this business. I kept about 4,000 items in the Ebay store at all times.

In eight round-the-world trips buying antiquities and historical artifacts, as well as a lifetime of collecting rare books and other collectibles, Ebay has been a good vehicle for my sales along with other online businesses, such as Amazon, AbeBooks, Ebid, and even Craigslist. Of course you pay a listing fee for anything you attempt to sell and since they own Paypal, Ebay has made a tremendous amount of money from my sales activities.

Yet, I challenge anyone to try to contact Ebay about any matter. They have completely isolated themselves from the public, from banks, from every federal and state agency I have contacted. At a reception at the South Korean consulate on Fiftieth Street in Manhattan, I met the ex-CEO Ms. Meg Whitman. She insulates herself completely from the public. It is that “big I, little you” attitude which persists throughout the corporation. No CEO, politician, pastor, or any other citizen should be so high and mighty that they can degrade a disabled or any other human being for skin color or anything else. There is not a government agency that will challenge this large corporation at all. FTC, FCC, EOOC, and even the Justice Department. I understand, they pay no attention to any attorney’s letterhead and lack so much transparency and are so isolated from legal and commercial practices that they consider themselves unapproachable.

When any corporation becomes this tyrannical the nation is in deep trouble. Life is too short for the citizens of a democratic republic to be inflicted by government, academic, corporate entities who can be completely nontransparent to a world depending on transparency.