Anyway, I was at founding member Janet's facebook page and read this amazing conversation she had with her friends about temperature settings at their home. Part of what I find amazing is how difficult this conversation would have been before social networking sites, especially when contrasted with how easy it is now. When I reconnected with a Middle School buddy of mine, George, (http://faithfool.wordpress.com), he commented that "finally fb becomes useful," which he said because he and I never should have lost touch, being kindred spirits, and then boom - here we both appear, and can reconnect easily. In any other historical era of humanity, this wouldn't have been nearly as likely or even possible for two people whose paths diverged so long ago. Also, I read Joseph Campbell and learn that stories create our very identities; I see TV being replaced by individuals writing their own stories with peer-networks; I see politics completely failing because of money and television; then I see a post like this where my friend Janet gets useful, socially constructed truths, on a simple fundamental subject which happens to be near and dear to all Alaskan's hearts this time of year: how hot should a house be?
Here is the copy of her conversation, shamefully stolen without permission because the internet is free-wheelin' like that:
Planks:
-- Sustainability through Simplicity.
-- Fair Trade (we'll no longer import anything made by childrens hands nor by adults hands who aren't paid enough to meet basic needs)... See More
-- Removing multinational corporation influence from trade, aid, and military policies.
-- Overhaul of government with reference too: corporate taxes and oversight (this part will have a long laundry list of all the shit that went down like in Roger & Me and offshore accounts sheltering money from taxes, and all that good stuff), commodities markets, finance industry practices, and of course foreign policy.
-- Instant run-off voting, paper mail-in ballots (several options on this would be best, voting machines for those few that need them, poll booths for those places that have always done it that way - but everyone should have the right to vote from their own home through the mail, so there is a paper copy and a postal record to verify by - all ballots have a stub that the voters are legally obligated to keep in the event of a recount).
-- Public financing of elections and outlaw of private financing of elections, though private donations will be accepted to enter the pool of public campaign finance money
- oh and the restructured FCC will be requiring that all media outlets carry public election information, in order to disseminate the fact sheets, resumes and position statements, debates, and all other related stuff, to the public whose airwaves it is.
-- Complete decentralization of public education - I say allow charter schools to some level or percentage because that's a great place for innovation, but I say get the Federal government out of public education, and let each State decide what is best to do. This will not only allow innovation such as we only get from charter schools and special public schools, but it will also let each State cater it's education to the success of it's population. Let all the Californians learn Spanish if they want to; let Alaska not put bush natives through the same curriculum and tests required for midwesterners, though maybe such a thing would be fine in Anchorage; let rural farm towns take more summer off, and go to school longer in the winter when there isn't as much farming to do; let city kids go year-round and choose which semester to take as 'summer' break - meanwhile class sizes go down, teachers can take other months off and get maternity leave any time of the year - and those kids that can't keep up or aren't working hard enough can get punished/fixed by going year-round till they figure it out or graduate and move on to working year round like the rest of us do; let religious towns have a religious school (alternative-type magnet school), but if they ever put Creationism on a standardized Science test I'll be putting sicking an anger-picket brigade on them; let city kids go experience the country with outdoor school programs, and let the country kids exchange with them to learn about life in the city; teach young kids foreign languages while they can absorb them like water, and save all the abstractions of math for when their brains have all gotten there; and for god's sake, get civics back in the classroom so we can make some informed voters and citizens willing and able to participate in our participatory democracy - it doesn't make sense to me that the educational leadership of this country haven't already sat down and said: " you know, we all, every United Statesian, have a deep and vested interest in making sure the voting populace is capable of picking good leaders, and being involved in populace, IN FACT considering our JOB is to make policies that will help this nation prosper and remain just and stable, we should in fact getting every kid registered, connected to one of the many political parties out there, and making sure that the national voter turnout numbers go up every single year - we could get em while they're young and have national school-wide mock-elections where every kid ten and older has to make a selection of various laws, candidates, and learn about what the public ended up choosing and why - where possible, and locally too of course." But our leadership hasn't said that. I wonder why? Why would anyone say, "no, that isn't a good idea." What motivation could a government higher up have for ignoring such an obvious thing?; let kids have a desktop computer that lasts their whole education, made cheaply en masse with cheap interchangable, upgradable, and accesible components, and the teachers can skype in for part of the day, and students can go to the teachers' class rooms for part of the day - but every kid is obligated to take an hour and fifteen minute lunch, eating the school provided meal, whose funding will come from 1% of the general school budget in every school, except where more than 1% will be required to provide kids with wholesome, real food for breakfasts and lunches (in fact, one of my recent business ideas, that could go to help pay for this, would be to allow any chef willing to pay the administration/inspection costs, the free use of a school kitchen in the evening times as a commercial site for a start-up business, like a catering operation or a food delivery service, and giving a large percentage of the profits to the school breakfast and lunch program - student workers could get jobs, or have a work for dinner program for the poor kids, like a work study job.) A free, standard, expertly written national standard textbook and curriculum will be created and available every ten years or so - maybe ten subjects, one per year.
-- The Freedom of Information Act will be expanded and made into an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
-- We will end the war on drugs, poverty, and all those others. We'll just try and solve the problems instead of fighting them.
-- Recycling processing centers have got to be built in many many more areas (also provides raw materials for increased domestic manufacturing) to prevent them from getting flown, trucked and barged everywhere in an effort to save the environment.
-- Trade tariffs and taxes will be raised slightly, even if it pisses a few bankers off.
-- Bankers will be pissed off intentionally in every other way we can think of - their profits are hardly earned, aren't productive to the society, and slow down the transfer of wealth. These days they even charge us to print the cash, store the cash, use the cash (though they charge us for cards too), and even just to get cash these days, you have to pay (granted you can now get cash almost anywhere 24/7 and that's prety damned convenient).
Rules:
-- Party members will only drive on Sundays on a regular, normal basis (gas will be saved for roadtrips to battleground states and political protests, and the occasional camping trip).
-- Party members will drive fuel efficient vehicles.
-- Party members will post weekly in mail or online networks regarding their status and any political information examinations made during the week. Party members may opt to post a new recipe instead.
-- Party members will be required to find one new party member per year who will become actively involved, otherwise, next year, you owe us two new people.
-- Party members are required to tithe a minimum of 1% of their income to a local low-overhead charity that cares for the poor.
-- Party members must spend less at corporate box stores and chain/franchise stores this year than they did last year.
-- Party members must have victory gardens and are in fact expected to not have any types of lawn grass growing unless they can already grow the vast majority of their own food - then knock yourself out, but don't use any fertilizer and your lawn mower better be solar, mulching, and last many years.