Text 8867, 75 rader
Skriven 2009-01-23 15:26:28 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
   Kommentar till text 8848 av Dan Ceppa (1:138/666.0)
Ärende: Unitary government
==========================
HI DAn,

On Thu 2037-Jan-22 12:19, Dan Ceppa (1:138/666) wrote to Richard Webb:

 DC> Democracy works when people work at it.  Too many have become 
 DC> disillusioned by the quagmire that is Washington.  

 RW> WHy wouldn't they be?  YEt, they fail to find anything but
 RW> disillusionment because they didn't spend any time actually
 RW> paying attention during civics class.  THey forget that when it really
 RW> comes down to it they have the power.  tHey can organize, yes starting
 RW> at the community and neighborhood level and tlel the monied interests

DC> The problem, though, is getting one's voice heard.  Most people get 
DC> their news via tv and it's a one-way street.  At least thge internet
DC> is changing that somewhat.  

eVen on a more basic level they don't see how they can make
any difference because they're not willing to think about
what they learned.  Hard to think about what you learned
when you didn't actually pick up on it, or didn't have to
take a civics class at all in school.

An anecdote from around 2004.  WE managed apartment
buildings in inner city NEw Orleans.  THe management company had been switched
around.  YEs, my lady got a pretty big
screwing by new management company.  NO vacation bennies,
health insurance bennies gone, our high quality maintenance
man let go in favor of a flunky janitor with no maintenance
and repair skills.

tEnants were growing quite unhappy.  I started talking to a
few behind the scenes.  AS a spouse of management I could
not get publicly involved, but I suggested to more than one
of the tenants that they organize, get their grievances down in writing,
present them to the folks who regulate this
affordable housing junk as well as the bank that held the
paper, etc.

AS I"m talking to one of the tenants, a fairly well educated lady in comparison
to many of the others btw, I told her she could be a leader in a tenant's
organization.  sHE had the
intellect, the ability to communicate, etc.  HER response.
"WHy would I want to organize with those people?"

wHy indeed?  FOrcing those with hands on purse strings to
fix the sewage problems, to do proper maintenace, including
preventive maintenance.  WHy organize with your neighbors?
Better living conditions might result.  But, "those people'
have nothing in common with her.


 RW> who buy our politicians no thanks, but as long as they continue to
 RW> march along because whichever major party they choose to serve says
 RW> march this way they're going to get more of the same.

DC> It's re-election mode from day one in office.  

OF course it is, aided and abetted by apathy.

 RW> way to bring the troops home quickly from Iraq it will all
 RW> be forgotten and another footnote in history.  WAr crimes,
 RW> we didn't see no war crimes.

DC> We can always send W on an overseas junket....  

WOuld be nice.  BUt, in the long run, we didn't see any war
crimes.  What war crimes?  WHat corruption.  Just a bunch of arrogant fat cats
who made the Harding administration look
like a walk in the park.

Regards,
           Richard
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Radio REscue net operations BBS       (1:116/901)