The Cost of Paradise Part 1: Aretha. Gentrification, Renters Bill of Rights & more.

Part 1; Beginning of a Press Monkey Series by Dustin Micheli about Luxury gentrification in the lap of deluxe estate economies and in America.

Segments covering the recent passing of music Icon and civic activist Aretha Franklin. A frank discussion about rent control, price gouging and the artificially high real estate market and how we might go about challenging it all by the formation of mass movements.

Price of Paradise-Glenwood Post Independent

The Evolutionary Necessity of Free Speech.

The original draft of this was published to Press Monkey Medias Facebook page then again on our site in August of 2017. The final draft was published to Justinform.com in June 2018 beginning the launch of that platform. I felt considering recent events it merited republication.

The Evolutionary Necessity of Free Speech.
by Dustin Micheli Editor and Chief of Press Monkey Media

Our right to speak out is probably our most sacrosanct right. Not just granted to us via our respective constitutions and charters , but codified by our willingness to exercise, assert and continuously fight for that right. Only by refusing to be silenced can we “enforce” our legal right to free speech.

By asserting the right to speak our truth to power, demanding accountability and transparency, challenging cultural and conventional wisdoms, we can grow, evolve and adapt to the changing political and environmental tides that are washing up on our shore and flooding our lives.

The parameters of freedom of expression extend endlessly and necessarily will encompass the peripheral and profane, as well as the most malicious and puerile intentions.

Only through this spectrum of expression , discussion, self discovery, examination and analysis can we get gradually closer to finding the truth of ourselves, and understand the complexity and preciousness of our existence- ultimately, that we are a free expression of our evolution on this earth and our place in the universe.

We still have much to say about how that story will be written. Whether or not we get closer to the truth of ourselves might be dependent upon the spectrum of perspectives we can consider or tolerate.

We cannot possibly get closer to the right answers if we cannot bear to entertain or acknowledge the wrong ones. Our potential for becoming gradually less wrong increases with every wrong answer we discover and allow to be expressed.

Keep on swinging.
Peace, Truth, Activism and Bananas.
Dustin Micheli