AMERICA'S COLLECTIVE NATIONAL TRIP

I never thought I would get the chance to do this article but there is no doubt that truth changes here in America and it is about time we take another look at the facts. The subject is marijuana use in America and the facts are this; over 100 million Americans have tried marijuana and 14.8 million use it monthly. Over 40% of all high school age kids have tried it.

Now for comparison purposes, there are three recreational drugs in America, alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs including marajuana.

Results from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Office of Applied Studies (OAS)

Alcohol
Slightly more than half of Americans aged 12 or older reported being current drinkers of alcohol in the 2007 survey (51.1 percent). This translates to an estimated 126.8 million people, which was similar to the 2006 estimate of 125.3 million people (50.9 percent).





More than one fifth (23.3 percent) of persons aged 12 or older participated in binge drinking (having five or more drinks on the same occasion on at least 1 day in the 30 days prior to the survey) in 2007. This translates to about 57.8 million people, similar to the estimate in 2006.

In 2007, heavy drinking was reported by 6.9 percent of the population aged 12 or older, or 17.0 million people. This rate was the same as the rate of heavy drinking in 2006. Heavy drinking is defined as binge drinking on at least 5 days in the past 30 days.

In 2007, among young adults aged 18 to 25, the rate of binge drinking was 41.8 percent, and the rate of heavy drinking was 14.7 percent. These rates were similar to the rates in 2006.

The rate of current alcohol use among youths aged 12 to 17 was 15.9 percent in 2007. Youth binge and heavy drinking rates were 9.7 and 2.3 percent, respectively. These rates were essentially the same as the 2006 rates.

Tobacco
In 2007, an estimated 70.9 million Americans aged 12 or older were current (past month) users of a tobacco product. This represents 28.6 percent of the population in that age range. In addition, 60.1 million persons (24.2 percent of the population) were current cigarette smokers; 13.3 million (5.4 percent) smoked cigars; 8.1 million (3.2 percent) used smokeless tobacco; and 2.0 million (0.8 percent) smoked tobacco in pipes.

The rate of current use of any tobacco product among persons aged 12 or older decreased from 29.6 percent in 2006 to 28.6 percent in 2007, but the rates of current use of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, and pipe tobacco did not change significantly over that period.





Between 2002 and 2007, past month use of any tobacco product decreased from 30.4 to 28.6 percent, and past month cigarette use declined from 26.0 to 24.2 percent. Rates of past month use of cigars, smokeless tobacco, and pipe tobacco were similar in 2002 and 2007.

The rate of past month cigarette use among 12 to 17 year olds declined from 13.0 percent in 2002 to 9.8 percent in 2007. However, past month smokeless tobacco use was higher in 2007 (2.4 percent) than in 2002 (2.0 percent).

Illegal Drugs
In 2007, an estimated 19.9 million Americans aged 12 or older were current (past month) illicit drug users, meaning they had used an illicit drug during the month prior to the survey interview. This estimate represents 8.0 percent of the population aged 12 years old or older. Illicit drugs include marijuana/hashish, cocaine (including crack), heroin, hallucinogens, inhalants, or prescription-type psychotherapeutics used nonmedically.

The rate of current illicit drug use among persons aged 12 or older in 2007 (8.0 percent) was similar to the rate in 2006 (8.3 percent).




Marijuana was the most commonly used illicit drug (14.4 million past month users). Among persons aged 12 or older, the rate of past month marijuana use in 2007 (5.8 percent) was similar to the rate in 2006 (6.0 percent).

In 2007, there were 2.1 million current cocaine users aged 12 or older, comprising 0.8 percent of the population. These estimates were similar to the number and rate in 2006 (2.4 million or 1.0 percent).

Hallucinogens were used in the past month by 1.0 million persons (0.4 percent) aged 12 or older in 2007, including 503,000 (0.2 percent) who had used Ecstasy. These estimates were similar to the corresponding estimates for 2006.

There were 6.9 million (2.8 percent) persons aged 12 or older who used prescription-type psychotherapeutic drugs nonmedically in the past month. Of these, 5.2 million used pain relievers, the same as the number in 2006.

In 2007, there were an estimated 529,000 current users of methamphetamine aged 12 or older (0.2 percent of the population). These estimates were not significantly different from the estimates for 2006 (731,000 or 0.3 percent).

Among youths aged 12 to 17, the current illicit drug use rate remained stable from 2006 (9.8 percent) to 2007 (9.5 percent). Between 2002 and 2007, youth rates declined significantly for illicit drugs in general (from 11.6 to 9.5 percent) and for marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogens, LSD, Ecstasy, prescription-type drugs used nonmedically, pain relievers, stimulants, methamphetamine, and the use of illicit drugs other than marijuana.

Did you really check out the statistics? Alcohol was used by 126.8 million people 12 and over, tobacco was used by 70.9 million people 12 and over, and illegal drugs were used by 19.9 million Americans 12 and over. Of the latter 14.4 million used marijuana. Over time 100 million people have used marijuana.

The cost of illegal marijuana is staggering with a study by Jon Gettman, Ph.D. indicating that Americans spend nearly $113 billion annually on the drug. We also spend $10.7 billion in law enforcement to control the drug before the stimulus and new drug enforcements efforts by the Obama Administration. In other words our government loses nearly $31.1 billion in lost tax revenue to illegal marijuana and spends $10.7 billion trying to stop it, about $42 billion a year.

That is only the beginning of the cost however. The majority of the drug is grown in South America and Asia and smuggled into the states. Along the Mexican border over 6,000 Mexicans have been murdered in drug wars in the past year alone. Tens of thousands of people in other countries have been murdered over the years supplying the US with pot.

Yet the effects of marijuana are nearly insignificant compared to the physical and psychological damage inflicted on us from legal drugs sanctioned in America, alcohol and tobacco. If you threw in the abuses in the prescription drug use here you would find billions more in wasted money. We know all these legal drugs kill and cost us billions of dollars in medical costs.




So why not legalize marijuana? The benefits now substantially outweigh the risk. Marijuana is the only natural drug of the three sold in a natural state. Where it has been legalized in places like the Netherlands, the use by the public has dropped significantly below the rate in America. In fact in Columbia where it is grown the drug use is a fraction of the American use.

Not only would legalization eliminate the $10.7 billion in law enforcement costs, money that could be better used chasing the criminals in suits whose actions cost us trillions of dollars in losses, but the $31.1 billion in lost tax revenues could pay for a lot of deficits in states and a lot of new initiatives nationally.

Marijuana could be grown in America putting tens of thousands of acres into productive, tax generating use, land currently sitting idle and generating no property tax revenue. States that lost significant property taxes with the loss of tobacco crops would have a way to recover the losses. Thousands of lives in Mexico would be saved every year by eliminating the drug smuggling and drug wars involved in distribution.




When we tried to prohibit the sale of alcohol in America it backfired and we should have learned our lesson. We allow the sale of tobacco which has hundreds of chemicals added to it to make us addicted to it and the government still can't stop 126.8 million people from using it. The last three presidents of the United States have all admitted to using marijuana. There would be a great sigh of relief from all the countries trying to stop the flow of marijuana into America and we would be saving thousands of lives a year. How about we use common sense and finally legalize it and put billions of dollars to work for us?

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Robert E. Lee, the Greatest American War Hero

Immediately across the Potomac River from Coltons Point three prominent figures in American history were born, George Washington, John Adams and Robert E. Lee. Two have been well recognized for their contributions to the nation, Presidents Washington and Adams, but Robert E. Lee, because of the Civil War, has never got his just acknowledgment. It is time to correct this oversight by naming a national holiday for Robert E. Lee. Perhaps Memorial Day or Veterans Day could be named Robert E. Lee day in recognition of the military that has served all of America.

Today the Coltons Point Times is calling for this honor. Though the idol of the South to this day, Lee’s contributions were of benefit to both sides of the conflict. Lee was the son of a Revolutionary War hero Harry Lee and he finished at the top of his class at West Point. He fought, was wounded and received honors for the United States in the Mexican War and became Superintendent of West Point in 1852. He rejoined the 2nd Calvary in 1855 and served in Texas. In 1859 he was called upon to lead the marines in putting an end to John Brown’s Harpers Ferry raid. He returned to serve in Texas until summoned to Washington in 1861.

General Robert E Lee exemplified the idea of an American Southern gentleman, being intelligent, loyal, chivalrous, noble, humble and kind. He idolized George Washington who so represented the American Revolution. While he was stationed at Fort Monroe, he married Mary Anna Randolph Custis (1808–1873), the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, at Arlington House, her parents' home just across from Washington, D.C. The 3rd U.S. Artillery served as honor guard at the marriage. They eventually had seven children, three boys and four girls.

Lee ended up symbolizing the Confederate war effort in the American Civil War, and becoming an icon for not only his gentlemanly attitude but also his clever tactics and intelligence in military matters. He was a man who loved the US Constitution and the Union, and neither particularly liked, nor deplored slavery. Nevertheless, Lee served in the Confederacy, as he was loyal to his friends and family in Virginia. In fact, the land where Arlington National Cemetery, where many Union men are buried, now is, belonged to Lee. His property was seized by the Union early in the war to protect Washington, DC.

What a cruel thing is war...to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world.

--Robert E. Lee

"But perhaps his greatest moments came after the war, when he worked very hard to reconcile a country that was still deeply divided after a bitter internal conflict," said S. Waite Rawls III.

In early 1861 Lee opposed the formation of the Confederacy and considered acceptance of an offer from newly elected President Abraham Lincoln for a senior command in the U.S. Army. However, when Virginia seceded from the Union in April he chose to remain loyal to his home state. After guiding the South through several years of brilliant military strategy and nearly defeating the North Lee was named Commander in Chief of the Confederate Army on January 23, 1865 and his defense of Richmond and Petersburg against Grant before surrendering at Appomattox to the North were legendary defensive campaigns.

Lee returned to Richmond as a paroled prisoner of war, and submitted with the utmost composure to an altered destiny. He devoted the rest of his life to setting an example of conduct for other thousands of ex-Confederates. He refused a number of offers which would have secured substantial means for his family. Instead, he assumed the presidency of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia, and his reputation revitalized the school after the war.

Lee's enormous wartime prestige, both in the North and South, and the devotion inspired by his unconscious symbolism of the "Lost Cause" made his a legendary figure even before his death. He died on October 12 1870, of heart disease which had plagued him since the spring of 1863, at Lexington, Va. and is buried there. Somehow, his application for restoration of citizenship was mislaid, and it was not until the 1970's that it was found and granted.

Honored for his service to both the North and South, offered the command of both the North and South, and later President of Washington and Lee University, Robert E. Lee was a soldiers soldier. He was the epitome of the American military hero.

We Are Not Alone!!!

To those of you who may doubt the existence of life outside of our planet I think you should be a little open minded on the subject. Thousands of years ago in ancient days drawings were made of strange ships, people wearing space helmets and other objects that defy time. These people had just discovered fire and civilizations were in their infancy. The drawings showed things that did not exist for thousands of more years.

Many Indian folk tales, legends and ancient teachings tell of the Blue people, the Star people, and the fire balls visitors rode to earth. I have seen the grave of an alien who had befriended a tribe in the Southwest and taught them for years before finally dying. This grave has been guarded 24 hours a day for centuries.

Throughout time there have been reports of visitors, landings, abductions, and many other strange things that seemed to indicate some extra-terrestrial life forms. NASA astronauts have reported sighting along with military pilots, commercial airline pilots and many others. People from all walks of life have seen UFOs.

Our government, after the Roswell incident in 1947, went through the motions of investigating it and in time set up Project Blue Book under the Air Force to file a detailed report. It was a white wash. Things were happening at Hanger 18 at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio where the wreckage from Roswell was taken. More reports came from Area 51 in Nevada where top secret work was underway.

I worked for three Congressmen, a couple of US Senators, two governors and a couple of presidents and there was always an undercurrent of interest in the truth about Roswell and UFOs. So I interviewed many people in the Air Force, Navy and involved in the bases mentioned. Needless to say they signed agreements to never discuss what they did. If they talked they could be charged with treason. A pretty severe punishment for talking about something the government said didn't exist.

In pursuit of information, actually truth, I even went to Russia and got into secret archives and there was a wealth of reports, confirmations, photos and videos of alien encounters. In Russia the existence of aliens was accepted, even taken for granted. Why could the Soviets and then Russians accept something that our government denied? Because they saw no reason to lie about the truth.

Many Navy people I interviewed said they never understood why UFO investigators always talked to the Air Force but seldom the Navy when the Navy had the best UFO records. Now that got my attention. So they explained there are more UFO's identified in the water than the air because the Navy tracks them with both sonar and radar.

Videos and photos had been seen by them of saucer type ships hovering over the back deck of ships at sea before diving into the ocean. It seems the water mass has little effect on the ability of the alien ships to maneuver. I even talked to people on the ships where saucers had followed them for miles although none ever reported a hostile action.

In fact a Soviet general was the only one who talked of hostile action when he described a UFO that hovered over an ICBM intercontinental missile site in Siberia. It was there so long a Soviet film crew was able to fly to the site and film it. But when it left it activated the missile launch controls triggering a launch sequence aimed at America. The general said he felt they were teaching them a lesson that nuclear weapons could not be protected from aliens. Fortunately the Soviets were able to abort the launch.

After years of compiling information I got a call and was told to go to a location in another state and to bring a camera. When I got there and entered the room everyone there left the room I was alone. On a desk was a Top Secret folder with a white envelope sitting on top of the folder, not in it. I walked over and picked up the envelope and pulled out a photo, the photo you see on this page.

I took my camera and shot it then replaced it on top of the folder. When the people returned to the room they smiled at me and one walked over to the folder, grabbed the envelope and stuffed it in the file. Later I was told the alien pictured was being interviewed by US defense officials. In fact a series of interviews over a number of years had been going on.

The alien was not captured nor being held. It came and went as it pleased. It did not leave by space ship but simply altered it's own frequency and disappeared. It explained that it did not need a vehicle because other dimensions were like parallel universes along with ours. It simply stepped through the frequency barrier into another world. It returned when it wanted.

This photo shows the reflection of faces and people in the eyes of the alien captured by the camera. I was told if the photo is enhanced the people talking to the alien can be identified. This alien has been visiting trying to help our government plan and prepare for a major change in the world on a magnitude such as the earth has never experienced. I was told there are several races of aliens, some good and some not so good. They are converging on earth to watch or try to influence the events that are about to take place.

The mysterious Top Secret Photo...

In many sessions with the spiritual leaders of Indian nations such as the Hopi, Algonquin and Lakota I have learned of the period of time the earth has entered called the Purification when humankind is given the chance to be part of the transition to a new world or to remain trapped in the existing density of the third dimension.

I was at the fulfillment of ancient prophecies of the Hopi telling them this cycle of civilization is coming to an end. We watched as a prophecy that said the Eagle and the Condor would come together was fulfilled in the Arizona desert The North and South American birds landed in the same tree. When the seventh fire of the ancient Algonquin prophecy was lit I was there, the end of over 300 years of steps to reach the end times.

What does it all mean? Let your intuition tell you if the alien in the photo is real. Mine tells me it could not be a doctored photo, especially with the reflection of humans in the eyes. I really think we are ready for the truth. I also think the truth will help bring the human race together. Maybe we would be less inclined to kill each other if we knew more powerful alien forces were out there. Maybe it will help us think of the human race as one as the Indian prophecies say must happen.

Now how can you discover more? Ask people in a position to know. Only don't ask them questions that can make them violate any confidentially agreement and thus be subject to prosecution. Until the government decides the people deserve the truth, you must ask questions not about their work. For example, instead of asking if they had seen aliens or spaceships ask them if they believe they exist. They are just giving their opinion which is fine. Be clever in asking and you will discover far more truth is already here. And please let me know if one drops in for dinner.

The 1952 Washington D.C. UFO Incident

A few minutes before midnight on Saturday, July 19, 1952, an air traffic controller at National Airport in Washington, D.C., noticed some odd blips on his radar screen. Knowing that no aircraft were flying in that area --15 miles to the southwest of the capital -- he rushed to inform his boss, Harry G. Barnes. Barnes recalled a few days later, "We knew immediately that a very strange situation existed. . . . [T]heir movements were completely radical compared to those of ordinary aircraft." They moved with such sudden bursts of intense speed that radar could not track them continuously.

Soon, National Airport's other radar, Tower Central (set on short-range detection, unlike Barnes' Airway Traffic Control Central [ARTC]), was tracking unknowns. At Andrews AFB, ten miles to the east, Air Force personnel gaped incredulously as bright orange objects in the southern sky circled, stopped abruptly, and then streaked off at blinding speeds. Radar at Andrews AFB also picked up the strange phenomena.

Intercontinental U.F.O. Galactic Spacecraft Research and Analytic Network Archives
The Washington sightings led one imaginative theorist to outline the command structure of the "intergalactic task force" allegedly responsible. The scare attracted President Truman's personal attention. During the time of the sightings, all intelligence channels into and out of the capital were jammed, leaving the city defenseless if an Earth-bound adversary had chosen to attack.

The sighting­s and radar tracking continued until 3 A.M. By then witnesses on the ground and in the air had observed the UFOs, and at times all three radar sets had tracked them simultaneously.

Exciting and scary as all this had been, it was just the beginning of an incredible episode. The next evening radar tracked UFOs as they performed extraordinary "gyrations and reversals," in the words of one Air Force weather observer. Moving at more than 900 miles per hour, the objects gave off radar echoes exactly like those of aircraft or other solid targets. Sightings and trackings occurred intermittently during the week and then erupted into a frenzy over the following weekend.

At one point, as an F-94 moved on targets ten miles away, the UFOs turned the tables and darted en masse toward the interceptor, surrounding it in seconds. The badly shaken pilot, Lt. William Patterson, radioed Andrews AFB to ask if he should open fire. The answer, according to Albert M. Chop, a civilian working as a press spokesperson for the Air Force who was present, was "stunned silence. . . . After a tense moment, the UFOs pulled away and left the scene."

As papers, politicians, and public clamored for answers, the Air Force hosted the biggest press conference in history. A transcript shows that the spokesperson engaged in what amounted to double-talk, but the reporters, desperate for something to show their editors, picked up on Capt. Roy James' off-the-cuff suggestion that temperature inversions had caused the radar blips. James, a UFO skeptic, had arrived in Washington only that morning and had not participated in the ongoing investigation.

Nonetheless, headlines across the country echoed the sentiments expressed in the Washington Daily News: "SAUCER" ALARM DISCOUNTED BY PENTAGON; RADAR OBJECTS LAID TO COLD AIR FORMATIONS. This "explanation" got absolutely no support from those who had seen the objects either in the air or on the radar screens, and the U.S. Weather Bureau, in a little-noted statement, rejected the theory. In fact, the official Air Force position, which it had successfully obscured, was that the objects were "unknowns."

Scenes from Coltons Point

The Truth Is Out There - Now It Is Here.

Now listen, we have been battered by the economy, Wall Street, our nation's capitol, the media, preachers and pretenders recently not to mention Mother Nature and just plain old bad luck. What if there is a reason for all this chaos and catastrophe, confusion and cynicism? I mean just look at what the weather man does to you with wrong reports about half the time. Is that evidence of the evolution of our cultural, scientific and educational achievement levels? No wonder the rest of the world is kicking our butts.

Well you deserve the truth so let's start with one of the most controversial subjects of our history, the premise that we are not alone. Recently I was watching the sky one day in Southern Maryland and photographing cloud formations over the Potomac River. Suddenly the most curious circle appeared low on the horizon and I shot a photo record of what happened. The cloud formation was huge. You can see in the pictures in this story.

But this is not about clouds, it is about extra terrestrial visitors to our planet and the seemingly large increase in the number of sightings. Here on the fringes of our nation's capitol and in the belt of known and unknown top secret military operations and bases there have always been a high rate of activity in terms of UFO reports and as a result many residents are up-to-date on UFO activity. Well here is the new stuff.

While filming the sky circle I decided to zoom in on the planes that had to have made the circle. A couple were in the vicinity of the drifting circles so I zoomed in on them. The first shot showed something at the head of the contrail but not clearly a jet. I zoomed once and then twice and finally a ball shaped object appeared at the head of the vapor trail in the sky and certainly this was no jet known to humans. Another shot of a jet making contrails is also shown. Note the details of the jet.

The digital camera taking the shots had a stroke and the electronics virtually broke down shortly after the shooting but not before the file was downloaded and the memory chip with the original shots was preserved. What you see is what was in the sky that day cutting through and around the strange circle.

This is the second confirmed definitive sighting by this author, the other happening while driving in Kentucky a few years back. It was early evening and dusk was just settling in. Too light to need headlights, one could clearly see with natural daylight. This was a more oblong glowing object that was much larger than any jet. It was very near the ground and when first sighted several miles away it was still really big. For nearly 30 minutes myself and several other witnesses watched it lazily move along a mountain ridge in Eastern Kentucky before disappearing. During that time the path it traveled brought it toward us as if we were going to intersect.

Aliens always fascinated me and I have studied everything about them from government cover-ups to their spiritual roles in our evolution. I interviewed a number of people involved in Operation Blue Book, the official cover-up report on aliens and I interviewed participants in top secret missions that always seemed to draw a crowd of alien observers.

When I went to Russia and got into some Soviet archives there was a wealth of information on UFOs and aliens as it seems the Soviets always knew they existed. But here on the Potomac River about 60 miles downriver from Washington, DC the sky is abuzz with visitors. One of the biggest UFO clusters ever reported was here in the DC area during 1952 when numerous UFOs were being sighted, one of the largest concentrations of sightings in American history.

Now that it appears some of the contrails we see every day that we thought were from jets are really from the aliens. The exact same description of a "ball trailing a tail" is what appeared in my photo and the words came from an officer at Andrews AFB back in 1952.

There is some reason they are coming here in seemingly larger numbers as if they want to be here to witness something extraordinary that might be about to happen. Perhaps we should all look to the skies a little more as we ponder just what is going to happen that is causing aliens to come here for the show?

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St. Clements Manor Economic Stimulus Program

Dear Honorable Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader

This is an appeal to you, most powerful Congressman, from your very own Congressional District voters, to help us, the forgotten side of St. Mary's County, the lower 7th District, get federal stimulus funds for our own St. Clements Manor Economic Development, Environmental, Ecological and Historical Stimulus Preservation and Rehabilitation Program (SLMEDEEHSPRD for short). You could take credit for the most innovative jobs creation program in history as we could guarantee you a 300% increase in Coltons Point jobs the first month we get the big bucks and the jobs should double every two years thereafter.

This birthplace of civilization in the Mary Land territory included the Washington, DC, and Philadelphia areas, which were part of the 1633 Mary Land grant to Lord Baltimore from King Charles II of England. We believe George, Cecil and Leonard Calvert and Father Andrew White, the visionaries, organizers and settlers in this incredible dream are due more proper recognition in American history. We also believe Father White should be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church and as a result he would become the first saint in the new world. In addition our St. Clements Manor, the oldest in America, desires to regain our rightful heritage and recognition for our forefathers with this wonderful program.

As you know, Coltons Point, the site of St. Clements Manor House, has somewhere between 250-500 people. Not bad for a non-existent village founded 375 years ago. We currently have about 6 employees working in the village confines, 3 in non-profit service, 1 1/2 in federal service and 1 in the private sector. I'm not sure what happened to the last one half a person but strange things are normal in the 7th District. Our employment base has grown about 2 people per century for the last four centuries. We can demonstrate a massive instant increase in that jobs base and assure the money gets spent real fast with this program.

There are five initial demonstration projects. First is the restoration of St. Clements Island which consists of two parts. There is the restoration of the island lands and the restoration of the island culture which made it one of the top resorts on the east coast in the 19th century in addition to being the site of the first landing of Catholics and Jesuits in the 17th century in the original colonies. This also includes a bridge from shore to the island along with electric service to the island. Figure about $12 million including the cost of the 19th century island hotel.

We would acquire a dredge, build a sea wall at the new island perimeter and start dredging all the immediate bays, creeks, and other tributaries of the Potomac River and then pumping the river bottom inside the island sea wall to fill in the eroded land. About 300 acres will be added to the existing 60 acres making it about the size when the first colonists landed in 1634. By making the river and creeks deeper we will be aiding the Global Warming Crisis (also an Obama Administration favorite) by making more room for the melting icebergs and glaciers. Boaters and fishermen will benefit from the dredging while the oyster, crab and clam communities will be very pleased with the new river bottom.

To some extent this is a payback to the island by the federal government who spent years bombing it when the Navy owned it and used it for target practice. Some treatment of a priceless national treasure. Still we have the technology to undo all the things that happened to this birthplace so we will turn back the clock to the glorious years.

The second project is the rebuilding of the historic St. Clements Manor House on the water front at Coltons Point overlooking St. Clements Island. We need to move about six cramped houses to restore the Manor House and Gerard graveyard at the Point and the Chapel at St. Patrick's Creek. Thirteen acres need to be acquired for the complex which will provide a second small hotel to complement the island hotel. It will be the 3rd restoration of the Manor House in 375 years at the exact location. Sea walls will be extended and reinforced with a new pier to accommodate the restoration of the entertainment pavilion. This should cost about $15 million.

The third project is the St. Clements Riverfront Park in which the road between the museum and river will be removed and replaced by a boardwalk overlooking the restored beaches facing St. Clements Island once again making the Point a favorite place for history, romance, water sports and religion. River access for day visitors boats will be added. Throw in $2 million for this.

Our fourth project takes place on undeveloped land along St. Patrick's Creek where an 18th century riverfront fishing village will be recreated to house an artist's colony along with an organic market and restaurants. Real commercial establishments found in such villages will be incorporated along with the artist studios and living quarters. Upwards of $3.5 million could be invested in this commercial and educational effort.

The fifth and final project is funding the St. Clements Manor Property Foundation that will use assets to acquire, renovate, own, rent, manage or resell property in the St. Clements Manor District. It will secure property in order to thoroughly inspect, repair, and incorporate environmental and energy efficient improvements through the innovative Green Machine Pilot Program.




Most older property being offered for sale has historic value but needs new environmentally friendly and energy efficient improvements. This foundation will make certain properties for sale in the area will exceed building codes and meet the St. Clements Green code. It will be a service to current residents, many of whom are elderly, by allowing them to sell their home without the expense of making improvements in order to sell the house. The foundation will insure houses are in great condition for new owners, help the people selling the property, and be able to assure exterior construction reflects the nature of the area.

Designed to become self-sufficient after the initial grants and private donations, this foundation will be crucial in guiding the character of the improvements in Coltons Point, will assure the Green Code is used for all existing homes that are for sale, will encourage home sellers and buyers to feel confidence in the quality of the real estate and will help increase the value of real estate in this exclusive market. A grant of $2.5 million from the stimulus will be combined with matching private sector donations.



The total stimulus grant needed for all five innovative programs is $35 million. A significant number of construction jobs will result and completion of the projects will result in a significant number of permanent service and trade jobs. Beyond the monetary cost the benefits will be substantial and offer exceptional future evolvement.

The most environmentally friendly and energy efficient standards achieved through the Green Code and the foundation mechanism used to protect housing and commercial stock are obvious benefits. The reduction in pollutants into the Chesapeake Bay helps meet new environmental goals. Homes recycled through the real estate foundation will exceed all state and national building standards. Compatibility with the historic nature and character of the area will be guaranteed.

Thank you for your consideration Majority Leader Hoyer from the constituents that keep sending you back to represent us, the citizens of the 375 year old St. Clements Manor area and the 7th District..