I’m sorry to read that Jefferey at Daytonology is calling it quits. I posted this comment.
Jefferey, Sorry to hear that you are closing up shop at Daytonology. You’ve put together a lot of great articles. I’ve been proud that your web-site has been syndicated at DaytonOS. Thanks.
I think it is a wonderful idea that you organize your material into book form. Just for the fun of it I put together a little book from some of my articles and used a web-site called Lulu.
I like the name you chose for your site — Daytonology — the study of Dayton. One thing is for certain, there’s a lot about the Dayton area to study, a lot to understand. One topic that I think deserves a lot of attention, in order to gain understanding about Dayton, is the state of democracy in Dayton.
My basic premise is that the stronger the democracy, the better the society and the weaker the democracy, the worse the society. I believe the reason our society is in trouble is because our democracy is weak.
The theme of democracy, I believe, deserves a lot of attention, but yet it is a theme rarely dealt with in mainstream media in any educative way. The pillars of our democracy are crumbling, yet no one seems to think the startling evidence of such crumbling is very newsworthy. If vitalizing our democracy was somehow in the interest of corporations and the powerful, it would be important to the media as well. The fact is, many powerful interests feel it is in their interest to suppress democracy.
You are an experienced researcher. I would interested to know what research you might propose be done, in order to answer the question: How strong is Dayton’s democracy?
I just go with gut feelings I am not a researcher I start with the fact that love is the strongest force on earth and that is what I care most about I love dayton I lived her my whole life . I even went to Huffman school a thousand years ago . I would like to see Dayton survive and thrive during our hard economic times
But we are getting taxed a lot.I don’t have a solution for all of our woows but I would like to help if I can?
To bad we don’t live in a democracy. In reality, this country is more a republic.
I wish our country was more a republic. In reality, we are more like an oligarchy.
We have direct democracy in Ohio via the tax levy referenda. This puts the power of the purse directly in the hands of the citizenry. And the consequences of democracy are quickly evident in that cuts or increases in service/government become evident when levys are passed or defeated.
This is a potentially powerful tool and I think it really makes for more accountable government since the various forms of local governemnt here must make the case for the various types of levys for various things.