So it begins...

After deciding to take on the daunting yet quite rewarding task of keeping up a weekly blog, I began to contemplate different possibilities for the subject of its very first post. Of course, something BIG and POLITICAL (such as the destruction of certain CIA tapes) could be substantial, entertaining, and perhaps even strike up conversation - one of the ultimate goals of "An Educated Mind Drifts." Following much thought however, I took into consideration the very nature of this blog, where events and their consequences will be reported with a certain regularity.

To distinguish this particular post, I needed something different. With that in mind, I am dedicating this entire first post to a little background information on me - specifically with regard to the series of events that led to the creation of this very blog you're reading. For those of you who know me relatively well, you know that I was constantly writing during my sophomore year of college, but I eventually burnt out on writing endless album reviews and getting the same mechanical interviews from the same-minded, money focused musicians. But now I am back and hopefully, I will shed some light here on why I feel a calling, more so than ever, to record my own thoughts and insights into the events of today that are undoubtedly shaping (and perhaps homogenizing) the world of tomorrow...

I suppose it's fairly simple really - it all started with a guitar. I found the 1962 Gibson Acoustic in my parent's closet one day, and refused to part with it for three days straight. Not long after, I started high school, and some friends of mine and I got together and started a band. Soaked in southern baptist Christianity and simple Praise and worship music at the time, I contributed the limited chords I knew and somehow we made it...work. As progress began to kick in though, the band, we as musicians, got good - really good (that is to say - we started writing our own music).

One afternoon in the fall of my junior year, I had this idea, a revelation really, that immediately lead to a shift in the way I thought about the world. Perhaps that sounds far too grand and pompous, but the point is - I stumbled upon the power, the importance, the sure effectiveness... of targeted marketing! It was fairly simple really, just consider my circumstances: I was playing guitar in a Christian band with my best friends called "Carry The Cross." Even the very name of our band itself surely indicated that our music and image was safe and friendly...for the entire family - and I knew I had to exhaust this to every person I publicized to (we'll get to the ethics of "monopolizing on morals" perhaps in another posting.) Regardless, at this point of time (roughly 2002), churches all across the country were finally capitalizing their entities by joining the online rush to get a website for themselves (a "short" 3 years behind the secular world and its dot com bubble).


To make a long story short, I began to research and then mass email youth pastors from churches all over North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia - literally. If any given church in these states had a website, an email was sure to be sent to its respective youth pastor about my band. It was so simple and EFFECTIVE - I honestly couldn't believe it. Within any particular day, I'd have 7-10 emails in my inbox from youth pastors wanting to book us for their next event, and willing to pay us upwards of $500 - and here I am, a 16 year old finally understanding the effectiveness of internet advertising. During those last two years of high school, the band played well over 100 shows, was on a Christian international television channel and had recorded several demos. In a roundabout way, it was at this point that I fell in love with the music industry. One particular recording engineer we worked with happened to clue me in about a university called BELMONT in Nashville that was known for its College of Music Business. Immediately, I knew it would be a perfect fit.


Being inquisitive in nature, making the move from a progressive, diverse, banking culture in my hometown of Charlotte to the much more industrial, southern, and incredibly segregated town of Nashville led me to initially resent the city. Recent reports from the Economic Policy Institute even indicate that Tennessee is the 3rd worst in the country when it comes to income inequality. This point becomes almost laughable considering the racial contrast near my residence in Belmont, where one street over you'll find the elitist, yuppie based, and white Hillsboro Village - yet go one street the other way and you're in the epicenter of public housing on 12th Avenue. Regardless, it was soon after the move to Belmont that I fell in love with music - and I don't mean this lightly. I had become obsessed with music, obsessed. With any given artist of almost any genre, I could tell you the artist's past discography and any future albums on the way, the city where that artist got their start, and other similar artists who relied on the same demographic.

During this same fall of 2006, I realized that I still had a deep passion for the written word. In the bigger picture, I always have been fascinated by the art of communication, especially with regard to the ways in which technology has shaped and molded its delivery, even in the past ten years. (I write this at a Starbucks in Charlotte, and many of you will read it at your own computers in cities all across the country - that alone is remarkable.) I decided to unite three passions of mine that fall - music, journalism, and my determined spirit to get published in as many outlets as possible. Indeed, that was the case, as my freelance writings were sold and published by the Tennessean, the Country Music Association, Lifeway, The Vanderbilt Hustler, The Belmont VISION, and InsideVandy.com - and by the end of that sophomore year, I was burnt out.

This past summer and fall, I'd put down the pen for several reasons. Mostly, I was fed up. In my studying of media conglomerates and their practices in this country, I began to realize how beauracratic and monopolistic control was becoming over media outlets. This puzzled me - within any given week, any given multi-national corporation, we'll say NewsCorp, could "freely" prance around and purchase companies in film, television, newspapers, magazines, etc. A logical person looks at this situation and says - WAIT! If only ONE company has so much control over what we see and hear and consequentially know, does that not extremely limit the diversity of the news reported and hurt the credibility of these respective news sources? And even further yet, are there not LAWS or some sort of Federal agency that should be REGULATING the practices of such powerful companies?

Well the answer to all the above questions is a matter of fact yes! In fact, there is even an agency originally designed to check such blatant corporatlistic power - the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC. (It is at this point that I could go on a lengthy rabbit trail of criticism towards the completely useless FCC, but I'll restrain myself for future posts.) Either way, it was in the course of my journalistic efforts that I became fascinated on the TIES between BUSINESS and LAW. The two affect every aspect of life so much that we often don't even take them into consideration.

For example, right now I sit in a Starbucks and according to law, if on my walk to the bathroom I slip and fall and break my wrist, Starbucks is liable for expenses related to the wrist (given that it wasn't my gross negligence that led to the fall). This is simply the (LAW). The company risks this liability because ultimately it needs business (customers). In response though, many businesses will purchase a commercial liability insurance policy to protect them in the case that a customer does fall and needs medical attention. This leads to the (BUSINESS) of insurance companies, who gladly issue as many policies as possible to maximize their own profits.

So that leads to me the place where I am now, two weeks before beginning the 1st of 3 semesters left in my college career. The more I inquire into the corporations that are homogenizing this country by lining every street in America (and most of the world) with McDonald's, Burger Kings, Wendy's, Taco Bells, Starbucks, and Subways, the more fascinated I become by those millions of Americans who are employed by the "McJobs" these companies provide. The term "McJob," which was controversially just added to Webster's dictionary, refers to any job that: pays low wages, requires little to no skill, and provides little or no advancement opportunity. This phenomenon of the rapid expansion of the service industry sector of our economy leads to many other questions on the minds of Americans today: the employment of illegal immigrants, the ever increasing gap between the rich and poor, and the rapidly dissipating middle class. With each passing generation, Bob Dylan's famous line never seems to lose its relevance, "Oh the times, they are a changin'."

With three semesters left in my college career, and a somewhat newly found passion for constantly increasing my knowledge about laws, business, the free-market, and how the three intersect, I have decided to pursue law school post graduation. At this point, I have just begun to crack open one of the many LSAT prep books, with hopes particularly of conquering the dreaded analytical reasoning or "logic games" section. More importantly though with 2008 near in sight, I have begun to roll up my sleeves and really embrace the daunting task of analyzing our country's government and to the many politicians and public officials who are supposed to be representing me, the citizen - the TAXPAYER.

This past week, I took advantage of an opportunity to travel to Davenport, Iowa, and campaign for presidential hopeful Dr. Ron Paul. In the next post, I will breakdown some of Dr. Paul's views and the many many reasons why I feel he is the only sensible and fiscal conservative congressman in Washington. Perhaps even a bigger issue, I will discuss the current conditions of the Federal Reserve Bank and how it's leadership is dragging the value of the American dollar farther and farther down the tubes.

That basically sums up the events that have led me here, to starting this blog. My hope is that this blog will only be seen as a starting point, a guide, towards more conversation and thinking regarding the issues affecting America today (particularly my generation, the Millennials). As a side note, feel free to leave any comments, questions, or concerns about posts you would like to see. Express your opinion!