What Shine was witnessing was the birth of the Corporation as its own nation in its nascent form. Having extended corporate leverage through the use of government to wage war, to realize profits through war and through income streams flowing into their pockets from Americans, Corporations were now looking at how to further their portfolios by clamping Americans into place forever. The means were the various Grids that had become the core of their holdings; Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Consumer & Retail, Energy & Power, Healthcare, Real Estate, Technology & Business Services, Telecommunications & Media, and Transportation,
The next step was to bolt in place those missing links to nationhood. Corporations, including those owned by Carlyle, have now begun to assert extraterritoriality, ignoring laws through manipulation, payoffs, and restructuring. American maritime law says that foreign ships cannot engage in commerce between two American ports; they corporations are now chipping away at this limitation. The rules exist only for others and where they augment profits. Sea Launch, a ship that puts satellites into space, harbors at Long Beach and has extraterritorial status. Corporations have become nations, with all the power and money and none of the accountability. Anyone who got in their way would be toasted.
In 2001, Lt. Shine filed a grievance in the hopes someone would finally listen. Again he was ignored. Then, he began writing letters to Congress and the reaction was swift. Shine was astonished to find himself detained charged with being 'depressed.' He had not been aware that even if he was depressed this could be deemed a cause for denying him medical benefits. For the CorporaState the rules are made anew every day as needed.
Why would Eric Shine persist? He could have gotten on the Corporate dole, accepted the lavish stipends offered from his probably intentional placement with the military industrial complex. That goes to who he is. The answers are in his origins.
Sally Shine, now 80, remembers her son, Eric, “as a good boy,” who, “made her proud.” “Eric,” she said, “was president of his graduating class in High School.” Eric Shine was poised to live a life of accomplishment when he graduated from King's Point, the Academy for the USS Merchant Marine in 1991. Life is full of surprises.
One of five children from a close-knit and loving Catholic family, he had attended St. Columba School in San Diego, moving on to what is now Cathedral Catholic High School while participating in the local scouting program with Troop 272. Shine was the first member of his troop in a long time, according to his mother, to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. His Court of Honor was held February 15, 1977. During the Court of Honor the Scout receiving his Eagle Badge renews the oath taken when he became a scout; that oath includes the promise that of, “Living honorably reflects credit on his home, his church, his troop, and his community.”
In the experience of those who know him best, Eric Shine takes life seriously. He did so when he chose as his Eagle Scout Project to organize donations of food and clothing for a poor village in Mexico and he did the same when, as newsletter editor at King's Point, he insisted on publishing an article that uncompromisingly told the truth, despite pressure to do otherwise.
Those were the values he had learned and then lived. Those values stayed with him when he went on to a career in the Merchant Marine. Career was another thing the Shine family took seriously.
Eric's father attended West Point, as many other family members, going on to a career with General Dynamics for 30 years. He retired as vice president of engineering and director of ethics. Hard work and doing the right thing were values strongly inculcated in the Shine home. Eric was sure that this whole thing could be cleared up if he just persisted.
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