About me,

  When I was about 6, mom and dad split. The classic catholic vs protestant dilemma. Too many pressures for too long I suppose. Anyway after helping my mom do great by us. A car wreck soon after (no more car), sears came and got all the furniture and appliances and we, mom, myself and my two younger brothers were out on our asses. First thing she did was call welfare to see if they could help us get a place, the government welfare worker wanted her to have sex with him if she wanted the place, I was standing right there. What a way to learn about government power.

  We left and soon ended up at an apartment our uncle had. Well about 5 years later (1967), I had won a newspaper contest and was feeling all full of myself. I decided I wanted to do something as great as my mom did, building us a life through it all. So I decided to write a book for the USA about the USA.

  Wow what an adventure that would be. I needed two things to start my planning, some writers and their wisdom. I was lucky because we lived near a place called Camp Chesterfield. Writers and artists from all over the world used to pass through there. Staying sometimes 2 weeks or two years.

  I went there and talked to many people. Came to the conclusion that people would much rather read a book that was written by the ship builder themselves than someone that just sat a watched the shipbuilder. So my destiny was set. It would be via traveling all across the USA, living and working with all kinds of people.

  All I had to do was make it through junior high and high school then I would be off finding America. In the mean time, in order to meet as many people as possible I sold stuff door to door, mostly Watkins Vanilla Extract, and offered my yard services etc. Everything went great till I was about 16.

  We had riots at our high school. A newspaper story said that a group from Chicago came down provoked and ignited them. Then the police sicked attack dogs loose on us at a rock concert.

  My brothers are TV people, my mom was always busy with General Motors so I was soon gone.

  My friends and family said I was goofy and naive, but it worked. I knew that there was a balance of nature and since I didn't have money to trade I traveled and sought out old people for wisdom. I would trade them anything they wanted, yard work, friendship, run errands, handiman work, if they would answer questions for me. All up and down the east coast. Wow, that was where I learned how rich the USA really is.

  Then I went to Florida and was hired by a retired federal judge to help around the house and with the kids. Met Senators, Congresspeople, CEO's etc. at all of his parties. Also learned to build tract houses, we built 200 in one summer.

  After that a stint in the military, end of Vietnam, and then it was off to see the rest of the USA. The interesting part is the facts that started coming out as I was traveling.

  What you will find in this book are lots of juicy secrets and things you may have already heard but didn't believe. Like how rich we would all have been if our government wasn't so mis-managed. Or like almost everyone in Washington are people that never did anything but read books. The kind that know it all as a result of regurgitating other peoples data.

  Lots of interesting tidbits, like the difference between the people that start a business and the people that inherit a business. People that start and grow businesses learn very quickly that cooperation is the key to happiness and success. Once you start forcing people into a corner or cutting corners yourself. The web never ends and you can end up with a lifetime in the abyss of bullcrap, lies and deceit.

  Anyway, we are all hoping the pendulum will swing back so we can recover some of the wealth that was stolen from us. We are a great nation and need some real leadership back in our public offices. Leadership that respects who the USA is, where we came from and the dues that were paid by millions of people. Only time will tell us why some misfits were allowed to cheat an entire nation and why some of our leaders were accomplices.

  Basically, I just fell into all of this, hmmmm what to do?????

  May God help you have the best of lives here on earth. And, remember this, God is the only one that can claim ownership of you, so be sure and do whatever you want to do with the time God gave you here with all the rest of us. Your life really is the result of your choices.

  Michael Banker