How Grassroots Dayton Can Build Democracy By Building Community

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Mike Bock

Grassroots Dayton is a not-for-profit 501C(3) organization with an inspired purpose: “to promote the development of citizen democracy in the Dayton region.” It has a great motto — “sowing the seeds of democracy” — that I discussed in this post.

At the heart of vital democracy is community and the fact that our democracy is in trouble is reflective of the reality that we sorely lack community. We think of community sometimes in an idealized way, for example, the small New England town where in town meetings everyone has a sense of shared and interconnected purpose, where discussions and ideas are freely exchanged and decisions are democratically determined. I can imagine that if Mr. Smith would go to Washington from such a New England town, Mr. Smith would be regularly accountable to the local community for his votes and actions and would regularly have meaningful interaction with the community about the issues and challenges facing the community.

As it is, in the small Ohio town, Kettering, where I live, Mr. Husted goes to Columbus and Mr. Turner goes to Washington and I’ve not once been invited to any type of meaningful community exchange with these representatives. I’ve not been invited, because, in Kettering no such New England type community group actually exists. There may be an isolated meeting now and then at clubs or churches where these representatives might appear, but certainly there is no established open group that elected officials report to or have accountability to. The lack of meaningful community has degraded our democracy. Without a community to hold them accountable, representatives have little to gain by honest efforts to explain themselves, little to gain by in-depth discussion. Politics has devolved simply into marketing.

Excluded from participation in any meaningful community, individual citizens have little chance to contribute to or to positively impact their democracy. For Grassroots Dayton to meet its mission — “to promote the development of citizen democracy in the Dayton region” — therefore, it must find a way to create community. I am convinced that there is a public, waiting for structure and leadership, that would welcome the opportunity to participate in meaningful community. In the 37th Ohio District, for example, out of the 70,000, or so, potential voters, I’m certain that there must exist a core public who, like me, if invited, would agree to be part of 37th Ohio District Citizen’s Council — particularly if, in such a council, participants would have the opportunity to work together democratically to better understand the issues facing the Ohio Assembly and to meaningfully communicate with their elected representative and with each other about these issues. And particularly, if such a council could be web-based and, therefore, convenient to participate in. If only a tiny fraction of these potential voters — say, .25% with 175 voters, or .05% with 35 voters — could actually congeal together as a 37th District Council, this tiny fraction, I believe, could have a big impact on 37th District democracy. (Maybe this approach to improving democracy could be called the .05% solution.)

Creating opportunity and structure for meaningful community to flourish, and increasing opportunity for meaningful understanding about issues impacting our democracy to increase, is at the core of what Grassroots Dayton must seek to accomplish. Listed here are some ideas that Grassroots Dayton is now discussing, and, everyone who is interested is invited to make comment and to share ideas. For businesses with physical locations, seo tools online aid in optimizing for local search, attracting nearby customers.

Grassroots Dayton Web-Site:

  1. Members log into the site by password.
  2. Map of Montgomery County indicates where members live and indicate which members are logged in.
  3. Each Montgomery County member is identified by the governmental regions where he or she lives. For example, since I live in Kettering, 45429, I am represented by the following six government groups: the 37th Ohio House District, the 6th Ohio Senate District, 3rd U.S. House District, The Kettering City Council, The Kettering School Board, the Montgomery County Commissioners.
  4. Each governmental group in Montgomery County, therefore, has a potential Grassroots Dayton constituency group that would parallel the official government group. In my example for Kettering 45429, there could be six Grassroots Dayton groups to parallel the six government groups I identified above.
  5. Each Grassroots Dayton member may choose to actively participate in whatever specific groups appropriate for his or her location — all or part. So, there would be, for example, a 37th Ohio House Citizen Council made up of all Grassroots Dayton members living in the 37th District who choose to participate. The 37th Ohio House Citizen Council would follow the actions of the 37th Ohio House representative, enter into regular dialogue with the elected representative for the 37th District, etc.
  6. Leadership of the Grassroots Dayton Citizen Council that parallels a specific government group would come from the initiative of the participants — maybe a point system similar to the point system used by Barack Obama’s web-site may be developed.
  7. Some potential Citizen Council groups will remain idle until Grassroots Dayton has members living within the zip code for that specific council and until Grassroots Dayton members living in that zip code choose to activate that specific group.
  8. Nonresidents of Montgomery County will be welcome to become members of Grassroots Dayton, and to observe the actions of Dayton Grassroots Citizen Councils, but may not be voting members of such councils. Nonresidents of Montgomery County will be welcome to participate in all other aspects of Grassroots Dayton.
  9. All members of Grassroots Dayton will be part of the Grassroots Dayton Council, regardless of their geographic location, and will have a chance to participate in directing some Grassroots Dayton budget and program decisions.
  10. In addition to the activation of citizen councils, Grassroots Dayton, via the actions of its members, will research and regularly update issues and decisions facing each level of governmental action. Visitors, including non-members, may use the Grassroots Dayton site to find information concerning recent actions by a specific government group, or other details about that group. For example, someone wanting information about the Ohio Assembly, how his or her represented voted, analysis of issues facing the Assembly, etc., could find that information on the Grassroots Dayton web-site.
  11. Dayton Grassroots members will be able to update and revise information about government groups or about specific elected officials in the same manner that Wikepedia updates its information.
  12. “Democracy Clubs” in local high schools may agree to become expert on a specific governmental agency and regularly add to reports about that agency. For example, a high school group may target their local city council, school board, township trustee, county commissioners, Ohio House, Ohio Senate, U.S. congress or U.S. Senate for in-depth attention. Such high school groups’ reports may include video of meetings, interviews and written reports and graphs. (And hopefully high school government teachers will use this opportunity and award their students academic credit for projects they complete and post on Grassroots Dayton.)
  13. Summarizing these local reports, each week one club will agree to produce a short news program — 15 minutes — stored on you-tube and catalogued for access on the web-site.
  14. Grassroots Dayton will establish a downloadable video library of video clips, pictures, graphic presentations related to specific topics or specific questions. This video library will be catalogued for easy referencing and, regularly, new material will be added to the library by Dayton Grassroots members. In addition to the video library, written material will also be catalogued pertaining to specific topics, a library of links to other internet sources will be continually added to the library.
  15. The Grassroots Dayton downloadable library will be a source of information for video makers, and video makers will be encouraged via contests and promotions to produce short videos using information contained in the downloadable library.
  16. Several topics that I’m thinking might be part of the downloadable Grassroots Dayton video library are: 1) The Iraq War 2) The federal budget — tax policy, deficit, etc. 3) Health care / health insurance 4) Dayton — challenges to its future 5) Ohio — challenges to its future. 6) Public education — how to improve, etc. 7) The state of our democracy. (The development of these topics will require, of course, interest and leadership from a Grassroots Dayton member.)
  17. Each year, these libraries will grow because of additions provided by Grassroots Dayton members and also because material will be generated during public seminars that Grassroots Dayton will organize and sponsor. Such seminars will generate a lot of information and will feature local experts as well as outside experts. For example, Grassroots Dayton could sponsor a seminar on the Iraq War that would involve panels of participants with expert knowledge about Iraq, visuals and data. The seminar could revolve around the participation of some high profile invited guests. For example, for a seminar on the Iraq War, I would love to see Lawrence Korb have a prominent role. Information from the seminar would be posted in the Grassroots Dayton library — videos, graphics, written reports — catalogued for easy reference.
  18. Each year, Grassroots Dayton will organize the production of a DVD that will summarize an analysis of one or more important question. For example, Grassroots Dayton could organize a video on “Understanding the Iraq War” that would be divided into ten three minute segments, each segment developing a phase of understanding that through a DVD could be referenced individually, or could simply be shown together as a 30 minute video. Each 3 minute segment would represent a mini-topic and each could be produced by a different individual or team. There could be different versions of each mini-topic and the version chosen could be determined by contest. Alternate versions could then be indexed as part of the overall DVD. These DVD’s would be available for use in schools, and would be used as premium giveaways to attract new members to Grassroots Dayton.
  19. How can we understand our world? I’m wondering if high school “Democracy Clubs,” indicated above, could combine with other groups such as Junior Council of World Affairs (JCOWA) or Kids Voting.
  20. In addition to video production centered on specific topics (see #16 above), Grassroots Dayton will encourage the production of short videos advocating the election of specific candidates. For example in the 37th Ohio House District contest, Grassroots Dayton will encourage the creation of political videos advocating the election of the Democrat candidate, Andi Eveslage, and the creation of videos advocating the election of the Republican candidate, Peggy Lehner.
  21. To encourage the production of videos whether the purpose is education of issues (see #16 above) or candidate advocacy, Grassroots Dayton will do the following: create a library of downloadable material for use by video producers, post completed videos, give expert advice on how to create videos by showing step by step how a sample video is produced, conduct contests that will involve prizes, and host video festivals.
  22. A video festival will be held annually (and eventually, depending on its success, more frequently). At such festivals videos producers and video enthusiasts will gather to watch and discuss each other’s videos and award prizes, etc.
  23. Every two-year election cycle, Grassroots Dayton will organize and promote Neighborhood Meetings, where neighbors may come together for a social event and where they can meet and talk with persons running for political office.

Here are some thoughts about neighborhood meetings.

  1. The goal is that in a defined geographic region, for example, Kettering, block parties, community parties are planned for a specific Saturday or Sunday.
  2. Possibly ten events are planned for the one day, within that specific geographic region, with each event including 50 to 125 people.
  3. At these events a program will be presented that might include entertainment such as a magician, down-home music, etc., and food — possible centered on a pig roast. Neighbors might bring food to share, along with tables and chairs.
  4. The location of such neighborhood gatherings might be on a central neighborhood street and be advertised as a block party.
  5. These neighborhood events will have a theme, maybe, “Celebrate Democracy,” and will be advertised as an opportunity to meet and fellowship with neighbors, and also an opportunity to meet local candidates.
  6. The events will be scheduled so that candidates and entertainment can make it to each event.
  7. A “community organizer” for each event will be solicited and will be appointed — if more than one “organizer” comes forward, there may be a neighborhood committee formed with one person acting as committee chairperson.
  8. The community organizer will agree to solicit neighbors within a specific region to attend and to contribute money to help sponsor the event. To pay for a pig roast or ox roast, to buy beverages, etc., a budget for each gathering may involve raising $500 – $1000.
  9. The community organizer may agree to raise money by heading a fund raiser that might involve selling a fund raising item and, as a motivation to become involved in this fund raiser, the organizer may make some income from his or her efforts as well.
  10. Grassroots Dayton will assist the “community organizer” by helping to find music and other entertainment to appear at these neighborhood parties; finding sound equipment, etc. But organizers may have their own sources for entertainment and needed equipment.
  11. At each neighborhood party, a 30 minute to 45 minute program will allow each candidate the time to introduce himself or herself and explain his or her candidacy, distribute literature, ask for volunteers, answer questions, etc. And at each party, each candidate will have the opportunity to meet informally with attendees. It is feasible, if the parties are coordinated, that, by attending 10 or 12 parties in one day, a candidate might have contact with 1000 voters.
Posted in Special Reports | 4 Comments

Barack Obama’s “Go To The Moon” Challenge For Our Time Should Be: Transform Public Education

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Mike Bock

Barack Obama proclaimed what could be a defining goal for public education, in his speech the other day, when he said that U.S. citizens should be guaranteed “an education for your children that will allow them to fulfill their God-given potential.” This phrase might just be rhetoric, but, if not, it indicates a truly stunning goal. A system of public education centered on understanding and fulfilling individual potential would require a revolution in our system of public education.

Obama’s youth and idealism is sometimes compared to John Kennedy’s. Kennedy inspired his generation with a big goal: go to the moon before the end of the decade. I’m wondering, if elected president, Obama might similarly seek to inspire this generation with a big goal. I think a good “go to the moon” goal for Obama, that could define a lot of his presidency, should center on education. Obama’s stunning and inspirational goal for this generation could be this: transform our educational system so that every child has the opportunity to understand and fulfill his or her potential.

The goal in 2008 to transform public education, at first glance, might seem far from stunning — particularly when compared to the 1961 goal to go to the moon. A vision of a transformed educational system is hard to imagine; it is a much murkier idea than the vision of astronauts on the moon. What, really, would it mean to pursue such a goal? Kennedy’s vision of going to the moon was easy to envision, therefore it was a vision of instant inspiration. But, we’ve already been worn out by political talk about school reform — A Nation At Risk, No Child Left Behind — we’ve already been worn out by a lot of political speech about education.

Our collective imaginations have been dulled as to what, at best, we could hope that public education might ever accomplish. The issue of public education has been framed in terms of curriculum, test scores, college admissions, technical training. By common agreement, and through the efficacy of relentless propaganda, we think we know what a first class education amounts to. But our common agreement is wrong.

Compared to education, say, in 2060, our current view of education will seem primitive and limiting. Certainly, if human progress continues, future generations will react with both horror and amusement to today’s understanding of what constitutes quality education. When machines will mimic, and convincingly outdo, all human cognition, what will human education consist of? What, in that future time, will be the goals of human education? What will be the role of human teachers? Obama’s insight that education should center on understanding and developing individual human potential is an insight that anticipates the future.

For Kennedy, the urgency to go to the moon, in part, was the urgency of meeting the Soviet challenge. The Soviet threat was the transcendent challenge in 1961, and, Kennedy’s moon goal condensed that challenge into an inspirational response. For our time, the urgency of now is not to meet an outside threat, it is to meet our internal threat.

I’ve been thinking about John McCain’s great phrase: “transcendent challenge.” According to McCain, as I wrote in this post, “the transcendent challenge of the 21st century is radical Islamic extremists.” But, the transcendent challenge for our nation today, unlike the Soviet threat in 1961, is not that Islamic terrorism will annihilate us, the biggest threat to our future is that our citizenry will be degraded to the point that our democracy will disintegrate, our ideals will disappear. Our chance to enjoy a prosperous, expanding, vital and peaceful future, our chance to fulfill the potential of our democracy, rests in the desires, thinking, attitudes, values, and the capabilities of our citizenry. Our nation’s chance for a good future rests on the quality, capacity and preparedness of our citizenry.

Obama should engage McCain in a comprehensive discussion of what strategy makes most sense to best deal with the Islamic extremist threat, and Obama should articulate his own plan for dealing with the Islamic extremist threat. Our democracy needs mature discussion on real topics.

But Obama should not allow McCain to frame the issue; Obama should present his own view of what constitutes the biggest challenge to our future, and, like Kennedy, he should offer an inspirational response. He should argue, I believe, that the biggest challenge to our future originates from within our country, not from outside of our country. The challenge of our future is that as a nation we grow into our potential, that we fulfill our ideals. We are still the city set on a hill, we are still the hope of much of the world. Meeting the challenge of our potential will require that greater and greater numbers of citizens reach new levels of their individual potentials, new depths of their humanity. Meeting this challenge will require a transformation of all levels of education.

At the core of the infrastructure of our country is our educational system. This infrastructure is badly in need of improvement. Popular culture, media, TV, churches, neighborhoods, families are all aspects of the educational infrastructure. These are often negative and destructive in their educational impact, and to a great degree outside of the influence of public policy. Often the public have given up on the possibility that public education can really make much positive impact. But public education is still a big part of the overall educational infrastructure and public education has a huge untapped potential.

Here is a thought, here is a goal: Via public education, the insight that has guided the development of children in the most loving homes of the wisest parents, the wisdom that has guided the development of children in the most inspired and prepared schools, should be available to all children. I’m sure the overwhelming response to such a thought is emphatic: Impossible.

But is this dream of what is possible in education more absurd in 2008 than the idea of walking on the moon seemed in 1961? Isn’t this idea of transforming public education into unheard of levels of quality doable, even as Kennedy’s moon idea was doable, isn’t the question one of whether or not there is sufficient political will to make it happen? I’m thinking that, if Obama becomes President, he will seek to inspire major improvements in our nation. He will seek to lead, not simply manage. If elected, I think Obama might present to the nation a “go to the moon” challenge — one that looks to the future. What better challenge could he offer than the challenge to transform public education?

Posted in M Bock, Opinion | 23 Comments

Obama Opposes McCain-Clinton Proposal To Suspend Federal Gas Tax This Summer

Posted on May 1, 2008 by Mike Bock

Barack Obama is drawing praise from environmentalists and economists for opposing the McCain-Clinton proposal to suspend the 18.5 cent per gallon federal gas tax for the summer.

“It’s a gimmick,” Obama told voters in North Carolina. “This isn’t an idea designed to get you through the summer, it’s designed to get them through an election.

Obama has said the tax holiday would save a typical American motorist no more than $28, and likely less according to economists because cheaper gas would increase demand and push up the price, putting more profit into the coffers of the oil companies. “What working families need right now (is) not more of the same Washington gimmicks that are out of touch with the struggles of working Americans, but real change that will make a real difference in their lives,” Obama said.

Harvard professor Gregory Mankiw, who has written a best-selling textbook on economics, said what he teaches is different from what Clinton and McCain are saying about gasoline taxes. “What you learn in Economics 101 is that if producers can’t produce much more, when you cut the tax on that good the tax is kept . . . by the suppliers and is not passed on to consumers,” he said.

House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, has announced his opposition to the summer gas tax suspension. “A suspension of the tax would not be positive,” Hoyer said. “The oil companies would just raise their prices.”
House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer

In a column entitled, “Political Pandering,” Jonathan Alter of Newsweek writes, “Hillary Clinton has now joined John McCain in proposing the most irresponsible policy idea of the year—an idea that actually could aid the terrorists. What’s worse, both of them know that suspending the federal gas tax this summer is a terrible pander, and yet they’re pushing it anyway for crass political advantage.”

Alter adds: “Clinton and McCain have learned a destructive lesson from the Bush era: as Bill Clinton said in 2002, it’s better politically to be ‘strong and wrong’ than thoughtful and right. The goal is to depict Barack Obama as an out-of-touch elitist. By any means necessary.”

Alter lists these ways that this “gas pander” is bad:

  1. It’s a direct transfer of money from motorists to oil companies, which are getting ready this week to again report record obscene profits. If the federal excise tax were lifted, oil companies would simply raise prices and pocket most of the difference. Clinton’s proposal to recover the money with a windfall profits tax on oil companies sounds nice but won’t happen. That tax was easily blocked by the Senate in December and would likely be blocked again.
  2. It offers taxpayers only peanuts. The Congressional Budget Office says the average savings to motorists this summer would be a total of $30.
  3. It sends more hard-earned money to the Middle East, which is terrible for our national security.
  4. It worsens global warming by encouraging gasoline consumption.
  5. It makes it more likely you’ll have a car accident or will waste even more time in traffic. The proceeds from the gas tax go for highway construction and upgrades. Because the tax (24.4 cents a gallon on diesel fuel) was last raised 15 years ago, our infrastructure is a mess, with potholes and dangerous crossings practically everywhere. Thousands of repair projects will be further delayed.
  6. It will cost 300,000 construction jobs, according to the Department of Transportation.
  7. It will cost the U.S. Treasury at least $8.5 billion and probably much more, according to state highway officials.

Obama voted three times for a tax holiday when he was in the Illinois legislature. Legislators were responding in 2000 to gas reaching $2 a gallon in the Chicago area.

The version that ended up becoming law required a six-month suspension of the state’s share of the sales tax on gasoline, a 5 percent tax paid directly by consumers rather than gas stations. It also required gas stations to post signs on their pumps saying that the Illinois General Assembly had lowered taxes and the price should reflect that cut. The impact of the tax holiday was never clear. Many lawmakers said their constituents didn’t seem to have benefited, and they also worried the tax break was pushing the state budget out of balance.

Obama’s presidential campaign claims the lessons of that Illinois tax holiday influenced his decision to oppose a national tax holiday.

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