This topic, which is getting even less attention than the overturning of Miranda v. AZ ’66, may be nearly as important, over the long run (since the horrific state of affairs recently codified will be continued over the next generations by these rulings not being discussed as much):
“We have never previously held what the court holds today, namely that a state must use state funds” to finance private religious schools.
And I keep trying to work, remembering Toni Morrison’s admonition that this is the time when the artist goes to work, and not to succumb to this world’s malevolence.
I look forward to your impressions, Thoughtful Readers.
A prompt from old chapter 7, with the old chapter 10 tie-ins that require a world-class library system in every neighborhood:
“I just gave a free debt law workshop at my local library as part of #ProjectDoBetter!”
How many folks recall that Mr. Kamkwamba, the 14 year old boy in the film The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, build that wind turbine thanks to having a library with books that helped him figure out how to build it (Ejiofor, 2019)? More about this in Phase IV…
Since more investment in mass transit may entail less investment in car related infrastructure, it is to be reminded that true freedom is not the ability to pollute and speed at will, but the ability to have real input in where one’s tax dollars are spent, to travel peaceably and affordably across any span of continent in order to walk in clean spaces with fresh air, and to do so while enjoying civil, or better still, harmonious relations with one’s fellow human beings. T
I’ve removed chapter 6, but this line will have to stay in the book, somewhere, I hope (and I wish I’d seen the above featured image from Wikimedia Commons back when I was teaching essay writing, as I think my students would have liked it…):
Suffice it to say, here, that transportation is a matter of both sustenance and sustainability, and thus is a key component of societal infrastructure for many reasons, which must be supported robustly, through funding and through usage by all citizens.
How many bus stops do you have in your part of town, and how far a walk is the most convenient one for you?
Volunteering can be most difficult in health settings. This is part of what Phase II will help build, starting about 15-20 years from now as Phase I draws to a close, by building a cadre of Serving Adults (and here is the comment I removed):
A timeline for building support for a robust public health system could run as long as the generation currently in charge of funding the system, but that is time we do not have.
So, I continue to work on draft #6 Project Do Better’s manifesto,
now re-writing Part II. I Just found and added Austria’s new train service, which is how Phase I helps get us to Phase II, on page 110!!
I look forward to hearing your opinions, Thoughtful Readers.
We can really Do Better.
-Shira
Action Prompts:
Share your thoughts on how to build buy-in create a more equal, or at least less inequitable, society, please. Guest posts are always welcome. Writing, by the way, is my personal contribution to Project Do Better.
Volunteering can take many forms, whether by helping, as the CCC did (and does, in California), with nature and infrastructure maintenance, or by helping to keep others safe, as this new organization is doing in response to recent hate crimes. This is part of what Phase II will work toward on a larger scale, starting about 15-20 years from now as Phase I draws to a close, by building a cadre of Serving Adults:
“…700 people of all races and backgrounds have volunteered to work with Compassion in Oakland.“
So, I continue to work on Project Do Better’s manifesto, now re-writing Part II.
I look forward to hearing your opinions, Thoughtful Readers.
We can really Do Better.
-Shira
Action Prompts:
Share your thoughts on how to build buy-in create a more equal, or at least less inequitable, society, please. Guest posts are always welcome. Writing, by the way, is my personal contribution to Project Do Better.
Here is a question I’ve had for a while that may partially explain the lack of empathy today. Back in the 1980s, in DC, folks used to block off either end of the street, and share food and smiles for a few hours with all of the neighbors. Is that common, still?
Here is another paragraph that was redundant, repeated in Part II. This paragraph comes from Part I describing the end of Phase III. Just a reminder: Phase III should start somewhere between 45 and 60 years from now, so the end of Phase III runs about 60 (or 80) years from now:
Some connected responsibilities might include volunteering to serve, as many Europeans do, in hospitals, nursing homes, or schools. A commitment to serve a rotation in some form of public service such as local or regional government, for example, could also be a Serving Adult responsibility. Each Serving Adult should be prepared to rotate, if called upon, into a limited time term of either Jury Duty, city, state, or federal level government duty as a local/state or federal Representative or Senator, Governor, or cabinet member. A system of sortition could gradually replace elections for the House of Representatives and state assembly lower chambers, followed by the upper chambers and executive level elected positions via IRV/Ranked Choice Voting, so that all interested citizens can serve, as the national educational system evens up in quality across the country.
This suggestion is mentioned again, later, so it seems unnecessary to list here. These Serving Adults could be part of the cadre that actually gets started via new CCC initiatives like that of California. (I loved their old slogan: ‘Long hours, low pay, miserable conditions -Join Now!’ )