Tag Archives: writing

Wondering Wednesdays, Baby Floors, Chapter 4: Section II, the later years of phase III

September 15, 12021books, Coop, Health Care4Freedoms, basicincome, books, mywritings, universalhealthcar, writingShiraDest

This post starts the rough draft of Chapter 4, the last section, for my non-fiction WiP, Baby Floors.

This section of chapter 4 has about 1000 words, (hopefully currently practicable words). Below, I will also include the outlines that I missed last week for Chapter 4.

And once again, by way of disclaimer, the overall goal is now to explain why we need both equ. + justice, & why in 4 phases. This chapter will show what Phases III could look like as part of a possible roadmap for a fully inclusive society for all of us. This vision is laid out in the hope that All HumanKind will eventually have each person’s basic needs met, without taking anything from anyone, and without violence, intimidation, nor coercion of any kind.

Chapter Four:

( Chapter 4’s section I was last week…)

Chapter 4, section II

II. (1915/1250 wds): Later years of Phase III -What it could look like:

II. A (359/250 wds).

In the middle to last years of this “Three Universals, Plus” stage of our project, nearly 45 years since the beginning of Phase I, at this point, the task of advocating for and helping to implement a Single Payer System of universal health care across the entire United States. Due to the work of building up the public health service, and improving access to information and education of the earlier phases of this project, there should now be less and less smoking and drug usage, coupled with more and more recognition of the fact that “your health = our health” and accordingly, there will be less and less public expenditure on preventable health maladies. This all results in an easier task of implementing universal health care. Dedicated volunteers will continue to show the public how free condoms and birth control increase public health statistics in several areas, with the Single Payer System of universal health care as a driver for ever improving public and individual health outcomes across the board. As continuously updated public health and financial law workshops remind us all how pandemics have been driven by all residents and visitors in an area, the natural conclusion will become continuously clearer. That conclusion is that all people need free access to health care in order to protect the public, and that protection works more effectively when all people have access to basic preventative health care upon arrival in a community. Studies, and volunteers opening up access to those studies, will continue to show how a Single Payer System lowers the costs of prescription medications over the long term, and improves quality of life for all members of society. By the end of this Phase, 45 years after the start of Phase I and the efforts to build up the public health service, every single person in this country should be able to walk into any clinic, hospital, doctor’s office, or store, and update his or her medical history, make a cost free appointment for medically necessary procedures, and get information and advising on needed medical concerns, all in a safe and comfortable environment via safe, clean, comfortable and efficient public transportation.

II. B(330/250).

By the end stages of Phase III, the work of advocacy and educating should have led to the implementation of a truly universal basic income for every citizen in the United States, if not also for every resident of the country. The work of Andrew Yang to popularize the concept of a UBI for every American adult must, by this point, have come to be understood as the possibility of hope for all of society. It must also have been updated to include access to that rightful income by children able to care for themselves, in cases where parents, guardians, or caretakers are not taking sufficient steps to ensure the care and protection of said children. The results of the 2020 Basic Income pilot in Stockton, CA will also have had time to be understood and updated, by this time, so that every person in our society understands how we all benefit from putting a floor on poverty, want, and fear, through the issuance of a UBI, and why it must be all three things: Universal, Basic, and an Income. Many other documents explain the details of a UBI, but suffice it to say here that such an income must go directly to every individual resident in the form of federal money accessible to that individual without an unwanted intermediary. It should provide enough money to be able to buy all of the basics needed to live simply, including basic nutritious foods like beans or lentils, rice, organic greens (and we hope that by this time, all food will be grown without toxic chemicals), basic essential clothing, and basic safe individual shelter. That it is an individual income means that it must go directly to every man, woman, and child, with that child being able to have full and exclusive spending and saving control over his or her own money after, perhaps, passing a simple basic budgeting test to show ability to safely manage that money independently for basic daily needs. The details of how we could get to a place in which we can safely make this happen for us all we be discussed in chapter 9.

II. C (425/250wds).

Returning to the importance of education across each phase of this project, the last years of Phase III should see the solidifying of a movement across the country in favor of free preschool through PhD or vocational technical education for every member of society. By the end of this phase, marking 45 years of work on the overall project, all child care should already be of high quality educational time, whether designated as childcare or day care, as preschool willl be, but more so. The public education system, starting with the public library system, will have been shored up to be able to reach the highest standards of quality, as is already the case in many OECD countries. Free vocational technical, trade school, arts training, and apprenticeships with on the job training should all be freely available to all residents, by this point in the project, with the support and understanding of the importance of such availability of all of society. Clearly, there must also be free preparation and tutoring, provided one on one by individuals, or also provided by organizations working in the public interest rather than for profit, to ensure that each and every person willing to work hard enough and dedicate the required persistence has the opportunity, like the wealthy, to obtain the best preparation for any educational entrance exam. In this way, society can ensure that time will not be wasted by those merely seeking to use the time in college as a diversion, and can also be assured that only those qualified to complete the training offered by society actually embark upon such educational opportunities, and do not waste them. The benefit of making free university training up through and including research degrees, such as the PhD, should be obvious, when viewed in the light of the number of missed opportunities each person who does not pursue such research represents as a loss to society, in knowledge and in new tools build for later use. Often, research and development in a variety of disciplines does not show its practical utility until later on, when the engineering science has finally caught up with the theory developed years earlier, as in theoretical mathematics. For this reason, and more, all education must be free of cost, but full of work, with discipline and a sense of commitment to the good of society. In the last years of this phase, new educational courses to provide free training for Citizen Jury and government service should also be developed and offered, in preparation for Phase IV.

II. D (335/250wd).

By the end of this third phase of our project, most of the country could be using old tools which have been updated to become modern tools, some with a US twist, in keeping with the needs of each particular community and region in this large and diverse nation. For a local means of complementing the federal money supply, communities may choose to add a community issued currency to the supply of money in circulation, thus adding options for spending on and incubating local businesses, and providing another way of rewarding local customer loyalty. Local currencies have also been shown to improve levels of trust and empowerment within communities (citeGreenMoneyCommunityEmpowermentPaper2010). In combination with other old friends, like Ranked Choice Voting, aka IRV, which should also at this point be in use in cities, counties, and states for elections across the nation, such tools meet the needs of today, adding resources and options in local communities. Participatory Budgeting is another tool already well known places like Porto Alegro and Paris, where they have been used before, but perhaps less known here in the US, but by the end of Phase III, understood and used across the country. Likewise, citizens’ juries could be in use in many parts of the country to help develop local and regional policy, based on the work done in earlier years by dedicated volunteers to educate the public regarding the benefits of using such juries in answering a variety of policy development questions in other countries. Finally, youth courts, also known as teen or peer courts, already known in much of the US, should certainly have greatly expanded use, nation wide, and greater funding and support from a now far more well-informed and thoughtful citizenry. Thus, at then end of Phase III, as old tools have been adapted for modern use, the stage will also have been set for the building and sharing of newer tools, by a new generation, to solve the unique, multiple, and extremely challenging problems that face this new generation.

II. E (403/250wds).

Finally, at the end of Phase III, we finish advocating for and building some new tools in preparation for new policy crafting, and a new paradigm, coming forward in the next and final phase of this project. By this point, 45 years into our 60 year project, the DoE may be able to begin doing on a nation-wide level what many states may have been doing for some years, already: rotating teachers all around the US, as new teachers are rotated in many European countries already. The World Youth Parliament, like the Belgian Youth Parliament before it, could have, by this time, paved the way for experienced veterans of such bodies to take part in transforming the United Nations into a sort of world parliament, modeled, perhaps, on the European Parliament, with nation-states looking to the EU as one possible model for world wide cooperation. Here at home, the movement for a Constitutional Convention could suggest several updates for the needs of the coming centuries based on an educated population that did not exist in 1787, including the use of proportional representation as Denmark has, at least in the House of Representatives, and removing the Electoral College as no longer in keeping with an educated and engaged citizenry, and making health, education, housing, and basic food a human right, as several European constitutions also do. Provisions could also be added for frequent referrenda, as is done in Switzerland, as the start of a move toward greater levels of direct democracy, now that we have the technology to permit this process to work. Building on the work of the Adulthood Challenge rite of passage, this would be the time to begin working actively for all Adults to be placed into a jury pool for a variety of difficult responsibilities, including national policing and defense services, somewhat like that of the Swiss model. This pool of Adults could also be used to build the lottery for Sortition into the House of Representatives, once proper training in good governance and policy craft is assured (although much of that work, in reality, is done by Congressional staffers, rather than the elected lawmakers themselves). By the close of the final year of Phase III, the infrastructure, cultural, and policy tool preparation for a paradigm shift should now be in place, allowing the work of looking forward to the next and final stage of this project, Phase IV, to begin.

— (Next Wednesday: Chapter 5, Introductory section… )

I’m considering this Rough Draft as the block of clay from which my book will eventually emerge, obviously, and some ideas for phases III and IV are still becoming more fixed in my mind as I write, so the final version will likely look pretty different from this Rough Draft, and will need updating once I get to the very end.

And once again, yeayyy( !!)with regard to audience, I may have at least a couple of comps: Walden Two meets The War on Poverty: A Civilian Perspective (by Dr.s Jean and Edgar Cahn, 1964). I know that lots of people consider Skinner’s writing to be stilted, but I like the tilt of most reviewers, in that the idea is that a community should keep trying policies that members agree upon until they find what works for all of them.

As for genre, I’m still wondering: clearly part of Non-fiction.

Many thanks to Dr. Garland for suggesting Philosophy!

Maybe also: System Change, Causes, maybe even Inspirational, but I doubt it.

Action Items:

1.) Consider some ideas you may have on how our society can solve homelessness, starting right now,

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please, and

3.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure & #StopSmoking at LEAST for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write,

Vote, Teach and Learn (PDF Lesson Plans Offline),

and

my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction,

and

a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: for a kinder world…

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil

our year 2021 CE = 12021 HE

(Day 1 Lesson plan…)

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free copies at: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Please leave a review, if you can, on the GoodReads page, and please do let us know here that you’ve reviewed it there! 🙂

Chapter 4

outlines.

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Wondering Wednesdays, Baby Floors, Chapter 4: Section I, the early years of phase III

September 8, 12021books, Coop4Freedoms, basicincome, mywritings, universalhealthcar, writingShiraDest

This post starts the rough draft of Chapter 4, the first section, for my non-fiction WiP, Baby Floors.

This section of chapter 4 has about 1000 words, (hopefully currently practicable words). Below, I will also include the outlines that I missed last week for chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 4’s outlines will come in next week’s posts.

And once again, by way of disclaimer, the overall goal is now to explain why we need both equ. + justice, & why in 4 phases. This chapter will transition to a chapter (2-5) for each phase, showing what Phases I-IV could look like as part of a possible roadmap for a fully inclusive society for all of us. This vision is laid out in the hope that All HumanKind will eventually have each person’s basic needs met, without taking anything from anyone, and without violence, intimidation, nor coercion of any kind.

Chapter Four:

( Chapter 4’s introductory section was last week…)

Chapter 4, section I

I. (1250 wds) : What Phase III could look like in the early years:

I. A (340/250 wds).

The starting year of Phase III will be 31 years into the full project. These prior thirty years will have been spent building up both physical public infrastructure and cultural infrastructure, so that by this point, libraries will be hosting regular public health workshops, perhaps given by doctors and nurses sent from local neighborhood health clinics on a rotating basis. The new cadre ofAdults who began building their cohort 15 years prior will also now be available to give free workshops telling of their own personal emotional and financial self-defense learning, which ties in directly to the emotional health of the entire community, as they give referral information to local health clinics even while sharing tools, like Tai Chi in the libraries or parks. As local health clinics provide and push for the ability to provide more and longer preventative and mental health care tools, like nutrition classes, or podiatry services, or various types of therapy, they can also continue to offer updating education classes regularly in library conference rooms. Each of these sets of workshops can be opportunities to show the benefits of a dignified and fully accessible system of essential basic health services fully available to all residents, and how such a system, properly funded and prepared, can act to prevent the spread of public health emergencies, such as Hepatitis A, or Covid-19 outbreaks. Multi-media, arts, pamphlets and other forms of popular communication can be used, during this period, to start a “doing your part to keep yourself healthy helps us all” campaign, similar to and connected with the American Lung Association’s stop smoking campaigns, with links to the connection between individual responsibility and action, and better outcomes for all of society’s public health situationsNeedBetterWordHere. As we start to move into the later stages of this third phase, a strong public education and media campaign should be well under way to end the demand for all smoked products, whether tobacco or other particulate-producing items, and to show alternatives to and the benefits for moving away from all mood-altering chemicals, prescription or otherwise. .

I. B(400/250).

The same time period, 30 years after the initial opening of this project, should see the opening introductions and arguments on a wider level in favor of a universal basic income, as we educate ourselves on the benefits of seeing that the basic needs of every resident are met so that each of us can contribute fully to society. Building on earlier campaigns by those like A. Yang, and others, a fuller examination of what it means to provide a universal benefit to all members of society, without means testing or questioning, and how this saves much time and effort on the part of every level of government, individuals, and communities, can begin. That such provided benefit would be basic is already clear, given the propensity that we all have, as Americans, toward austerity. Any universal benefit would be given at a level which is basic enough to be minimal, and allow subsistence, but not so much as to be a burden upon society’s resources. For comparison, studies should be cited which have determined minimum levels of expenditures necessary to maintain a basic living arrangement, such as a studio apartment, with enough funds to purchase an adequate level of nutritious food, and to pay for basic clothing and public transportation, which, by this point, will have had 30 years of development into a system used by all classes of society, including the middle and upper classes, on a daily basis. That this is an income means that it is neither a tax credit, nor a loan, nor a grant, nor a benefit, but an income given to each individual as a human right. Additional income aside, those who do not need this income should, upon their honor, choose to use that surplus to help others attain their worthy goals, in the service of humanity. Examples of a limited experiment in basic income, such as that of Stockton, CA in 2020, and others which have been conducted around the world, like Finland and other places, can be used as a starting point for developing this concept, and making it work in the context of all 50 states. As we move from the early stages into the later stages of Phase III, the universal basic income will become known, discussed, and decided upon within each community, nationwide. Specific ways in which this can happen will be discussed in further detail in chapter 9.

I. C (350/250wds).

The third Universal, universal free education, builds on the existing public education system already in place. In 2021, President Biden began to build support for his proposal for free education from preschool through Community College, or at least the Associate’s Degree, for all Americans. This start will be added to, in Phase III, by advocating and educating for a fully free public education system, from preschool through and including the PhD level for research education, and vocational or trade school education for the manual or craft trades and arts. Finland and other countries offer entirely free education to their citizens as a Human Right, according to Diane Ravitch, and if they can, so ought the United States be able to do for American society. Starting from an ‘Each One Teach One’ level of one on one tutoring and tool sharing, every person can help every other person find and triage information, going back through the third, second, and first hand sources to verify information and judge data and statistical conclusions based on that data. From these vital citizenship skills, individuals can decide whether a college preparatory path, or a vocational technical trade, or even an apprenticeship in a trade or art is most apt for that person, which also helps society. Likewise, the newAdults recognized in Phase II can now help to find, build, and share new tools based in the VAK mode, widening out to sharing tools based on all of the multiple learning styles. Other tools like Project Gutenberg, LibriVox.org, The Archive, and more new tools will certainly be developed to help propagate access to free information in the public domain. As we move into the later stages of Phase III, this movement for independent and shared learning can expand, showing us how all students can get help with their preparation for SAT, or GRE, or LSAT and other entrance exams via free test preparation tools, the Open Textbook movement, and people willing to share their time and expertise to help each individual realize the human potential that also helps all of society to successfully move forward.

I. D (330/250wd).

One of the most important tasks in the beginning years of this phase of our project will be to tell of old tools, and show their importance in solving the problems for which they were developed, as well as their utility, once updated, for solving the problems confronted by the current generation. During the Great Depression, as many will still remember from their studies, FDR formed the CCC, often known as “Roosevelt’s Tree Army,” which served a variety of functions, including job training, travel, and infrastructure cleaning. What many may not have heard of from that same era are local or community currencies, like the 1930‘s Stamp Scrip described by Loren Gatch (citeGreenMoneyTalkGrtrWashExchange29june2010). The many such locally issued currencies, thriving especially during the March 1933dlbChkYr Bank Holiday, were based heavily on community trust, and hence, partly also on empathy. A modern form of these local currencies, like Ithaca Hours, is an example of such an update to an old tool, just as a modern version of Roosevelt’s CCC will be shown to be a potentially valuable tool. Some other existing tools, like IRV or RCV, as adopted in Maine via the November 2020 general election, are already in use around the country and around the world, but will need further elucidation. More tools, like Participatory Budgeting, used in places as different as Puerto Alegro and Paris, should be discussed and updated to enhance citizen voice in local decision-making, while Citizen Juries, also used around the world, should be explained all across the United States, particularly by the cohort of newAdults recognized during Phase II, and now ready to take the lead in educating the public on these tools. Similarly, Youth Courts,like the DC Youth Court started by Edgar Cahn, also known as Teen or Peer Courts, are another tool used in parts of the US that have proven to be effective, when supported by local judicial and funding processes. They should also be given much more exposure, and adapted, where necessary, for current needs in each locality.

I. E (475/250wds).

By the beginning of Phase III, 30 years, half of the sixty years of this project, will have passed. Both the infrastructure improvements of Phase I, and the cultural innovations of Phase II, by this point, will have had time to make a good start in introducing and educating in favor of a paradigm shift: from that of blaming to that of solving, and from that of crushing critiques to that of creating tools. This new paradigm, over the next 15 years, could introduce some tools that seem new for the US, such as rotating teachers, first for example, within each state, as countries like Greece and France do, but are standard practice in many EU member states. Other tools, like a World Youth Parliament, already in use in places like Belgium, where the Belgian Youth Parliament issues serious resolutions, are quite familiar to many Americans in the form of a model UN. But such a new body could be designed to hold some level of actual responsibility and increasing authority in part or all of many communities, depending on the preparation and decisions of the entire community, from area to area. Such experience can also build education and generate new ideas for a proposed Constitutional Convention, allowing for the invitation of all citizens to submit proposals and vote, as other republics like France and Spain have done, on an updating of our primary national document to frame a system of laws, as in 1787, which can be more faithful to our ideals of the security and freedom of life, liberty, and equitable chance at the pursuit of happiness for all members of an equal US society. Such a set of proposals might include more processes involving Direct Democracy, including old tools like polling, and newer tools like instant minute referenda at the library, or pop-up votes in the park, to give more breadth to the random samples used by pollsters, and more say to all citizens. As this third phase moves into the middle and later years, from 30 toward 45 years of the project’s overall life span, education for direct democratic tools can also lead into a start for educating about the possibility of using, at least in lower chambers of state and even the Federal House of Representatives, a system of sortition, aka demarchy, first written of in the democracy of ancient Athens. To get there will require a fully equitable education system, excellent public transportation, a culture of active sharing of problem solving tools, and a tradition, which begins to be built right here, of civic engagement as a responsibility of honorable elevation of all members of society together. Such a cultural paradigm can progress through the work of the later stages of Phase III, the “Three Universals, Plus” phase of our vision for a kinder, safer, and fully equitable world for all.

— (Next Wednesday: Chapter 4, section II, on the later stages. )

As for genre, I’m still wondering: clearly part of Non-fiction.

Many thanks to Dr. Garland for suggesting Philosophy!

Maybe also: System Change, Causes, maybe even Inspirational, but I doubt it.

Last week’s installment of this series…

Action Items:

1.) Consider some ideas you may have on how our society can solve homelessness, starting right now,

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please, and

3.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Vote, Teach and Learn (PDF Lesson Plans Offline),

and

my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction,

and

a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: for a kinder world…

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil

our year 2021 CE = 12021 HE

(Day 1 … Day 5)

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Please leave a review, if you can, on the GoodReads page, and please do let us know here that you’ve reviewed it there! 🙂

Chapter 2 ch2dtld outlines, chapter 3 chptr3Outlines outlines, but chapter 4 outlines will be with next week’s post.

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Wondering Wednesdays, Baby Acres, Chapter 4 introduction

September 1, 12021books, Coop4Freedoms, basicincome, mywritings, universalhealthcar, writingShiraDest

This post shows the introduction of the rough draft of Chapter 4, of my non-fiction WiP, Baby Acres.

Since this is a rough draft, and I am very keen to hear suggestions if they improve the ideas presented here, as they are still in flux, please do share your thoughts per the Action Items at the bottom of this post.

Chapter Four:

Chapter 4: (abt 3000 wds) What Phase III could look like, sooner, and later

Chpter 4 Introduction: Phase III earlier, and then later stages

A (330/250).

In the early stages of the “Three Universals, Plus” phase, 30 years or so will have passed, from the start of Phase I, through the end of Phase II, marking the beginning of this phase, Phase III. After thirty years of working on this project, many of those involved in the earliest years will have handed off their roles to those now beginning to lead the charge forward in to this third stage of this vision. Perhaps the most urgent need, in the United States, is for fully accessible health care by all of those who find themselves within our borders. Thus, this is the time when the arguments and the education on behalf of a Single Payer System for universal health care should take on full vitality. At the same time, continuing and extending the introduction to and argument for a universal basic income will need to start with educating everyone around the concepts of the Citizen’s Income, which Dr. King first called for in 1968, and how that differs from a UBI or a Federal Jobs Guarantee which may also be needed alongside a UBI. Similarly, in these early years, some idea of why free pre-school to PhD or trade and vocational school education must also be made, undoubtedly pointing to the examples of nations who already implement that policy. The task, at the same time, of re-introducing old friends such as the CCC, aka Roosevelt’s Tree Army, and other tools which served our country and allies well during the difficult days of the Great Depression and Second World War, falls to those brave souls who will be working to show everyone what those tools did for us in past times, and how they must be updated for current needs. Finally, this core group of courageous volunteers will also have the challenge of introducing and educating all of us for the new ideas and paradigm shift by teaching via known quantities and examples, and extending those examples into new processes and systems.

B (254/250 wds).

In the later stages of this “Three Universals, Plus” phase, the core group of dedicated volunteers should have managed to educate enough of the public that a critical mass has built a consensus in favor of implementing a fully accessible Single Payer System of universal health care nationwide. Likewise, such a consensus should then be close, if not already accomplished, in favor of a UBI, or at the very least, a Citizen’s Income, possibly also in conjunction with a Federal Jobs Guarantee should that be deemed necessary by the majority of citizens, at that time. From this point, given the number of countries which already have this, advocating for the completion of adopting a nationwide universal free pre-school to phd or vo-tech and trade school education should be essentially fully accomplished and in the end stages of implementation. The task of updating old friends and explaining the utility and implementation of counterpart tools for the current generation should likewise be nearing its completion, as the levels of education at both individual and community and society-wide levels continue to be augmented. This should have allowed, by the end of Phase III, enough time for the development and implementation of new tools for new kinds of governance, with more equitable access, and demonstrably better outcomes for all residents. The details of those first years of Phase III and the new policy and governance tools that those years will enable via, as always, education and empathy, will be discussed in part one of this chapter, coming next.

—

As for genre, I’m still wondering: Non-fiction, System Change, Causes, maybe even Inspirational, but I doubt it.

Last week’s installment of this series…

Action Items:

1.) Consider some ideas you may have on whether our society could use certain universals,

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please, and

3.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Vote, Teach and Learn (PDF Lesson Plans offline)

and

my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction,

and

a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: for a kinder world…

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil

our year 2021 CE = 12021 HE

(Lesson plans: Day 1 … Day 5)

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Please leave a review, if you can, on the GoodReads page.

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

But By the Grace Of…

August 29, 12021Health Caredepression, HandH, health, justice, mywritings, writingShiraDest

So, this was how it felt.

Normal.

Really?

It had taken long enough.

This year, when the doctor had asked those simple questions, it had been less easy to bluff. This one had actually been watching. That ready answer, flat and so used to snow balling these people, had actually been caught, called out, and paid attention to. For once. The doctor had ignored his answer, asked if he had a plan. Silly question. Of course he had a plan. Since when had he not had one, was the real question. Enduring the pain was a normal part of life for him. Ignoring it until it became the annoying wet streaks on his face, shaking his body and tying his guts more tightly than his useless shoe laces. This didn’t happen too much, anymore. Mostly going past those tent towns they called encampments these days, feeling the despair of those human beings now denominated by a noun which, a decade ago, had still been an adjective.

Homeless.

No longer called homeless people, now, they were just called homeless. Not people, merely things. Things to be avoided, things that had wanted this fate. Things that were “in their comfort zones.”

Right.

The doctor had been a sharp one, this time. She had insisted. As if she’d really wanted to know. What was his plan, and did he have the tools at hand, ready to carry it out? He’d been ‘there’ enough to know that this time, he’d better answer with ‘sincerity’ if he wanted to stay out of a pewter cage. He couldn’t afford a gilded one. He’d pretended to perk up, injecting some notes into the song he gave her about merely thinking about it, once in a while. He admitted to the sadness, but who wouldn’t be sad in a world like this? Happiness was a pill he couldn’t afford.

She’d put him on the pill, alright. That bit of paper, to keep away the other bit of paper that would ensure his useful longevity. Useful to those who liked working in funny farms, that is. But by the grace of God and Mr. Spock, there go I. So he took her paper, and he even filled the Rx. Now, weeks later, the happy pills had begun to do the job she and her brother medics in the ‘healing’ professions had intended.

He no longer felt sad.

And now, he could even walk past the homeless people without crying, just like everyone else.

But it didn’t make the pain go away.

–

Stay safe,

and I hope we all find love, and good Health Care. -Shira Destinie

Action Items:

1.) Share your thoughts on the importance of empathy. <– /wp:paragraph –> <– wp:paragraph –> 2.) Share your thoughts on how we Human Beings might start to build a more fully inclusive society for all of us, and how we can start to give a damn about each other. <– wp:paragraph –> 3.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses these thoughts. <– wp:paragraph –> Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? <– wp:paragraph –> Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure & #StopSmoking for COVID-19: 1. #PublicLibraries, 2. #ProBono legal aid and Education, 3. #UniversalHealthCare, and 4. good #publictransport Read, Write, Vote, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans offline) <– wp:paragraph –> And my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction, and a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: Baby Acres/Floors for a kinder world… <– wp:paragraph –> Shira Destinie A. Jones, BsC, MAT, MPhil <– /wp:paragraph –> our year 2021 CE = 12021 HE <– wp:paragraph –> (GED lesson plans: Day 1 … Day 5) Stayed on Freedom’s Call (free copies at: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…) includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city. Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically. -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via GoodReads. Please leave a review, if you can make a bit of time, on the GoodReads page.

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Continue reading →

Wondering Wednesdays, Baby Acres, Chapter 3 section II

August 25, 12021books, Coop4Freedoms, AdulthoodChallengeProjectGrids, adulthoodriteofpassage, mywritings, writingShiraDest

This post shows section II of the rough draft of Chapter 3, of my non-fiction WiP, Baby Acres, completing chapter 3.

Chapter Three:

Chapter 3:

II. (1500 wds): Later years of Phase II -What The Adulthood Challenge could look like:

II. A (430/300 wds).

We should be able to begin the later years or stages of Phase II with a sense of a more maturely developed Rite of Passage, and a small core group of dedicated volunteers helping to shape the Adulthood Challenge. That group can work to enlarge our definition of the word “community” as the adulthood rite of passage challenge prerequisites sharpen and become more consistent across communities and regions. There is also a danger that the process, from prerequisites to finish, may become entrenched or difficult to change. Coming to see all people as human beings, and thus worthy and part of our own in-group or tribe, by enlarging our way of looking at community, is a step in the direction of preventing such fossilization of this new system. Another key part of keeping the rite of passage system adaptable is the question of who is allowed or encouraged to suggest additions, changes, or even removal to the set of Challenge prerequisites. It is important to know who gets to help set the agenda, and to be sure that each and every member of society has a real voice in setting that agenda, and in getting to help decide who actually does decide, and what gets decided on, as a truly consensual group. Such widening of access may initially complicate the process, but by the end of Phase II, most people should be accustomed to the process of good faith questioning and negotiation of this new idea, and thus the widened access should help prevent stagnation of the process, over the long term. A wider set of eyes on the process, and on those undergoing the process, should also help ensuring that a set of rigorous standards forAdulthood is proven to be met consistently, across regions, time periods, and groups of people, such that all can have confidence in the Challenge as a useful addition to our culture. Finally, the questions of where and when any ceremonies or rituals to signal acceptance of that proof that all the needed requirements have been met, and to bestow the status ofAdult upon the candidate(s) must also be decided with the input not only of all those to be involved in such ceremonies or rituals, but also with full buy-in from the people who live in or near the region where such finales will take place. Such needs as swimming, statistics, navigation, emotional, physical and financial self-defense will take time to flesh out, but the end goal of those initial specifications is to ensure the safety, respect, and well-being of all communities and people.

II. B(415/300).

By the end stages of Phase II, the process of declaring candidate intention to attempt the Adulthood Challenge should be fully fleshed out, and stabilized across communities and regions. A person of 50 years old, for example, should be able to declare a firm intention to meet the Challenge, presuming that the community in which the candidate wishes to qualify forAdulthood allows it, in any manner from an online forum to an in-person community Assembly. Such community assemblies of committee Adulthood Challenge volunteers (who could, in fact, actually be paid for their service in a locally issued community-based complementary currency) would likely find it in the best interests of the community to examine the good faith declaration of the potential candidate, assuming that every member of the committee is a person who has taken the pledge to do such work for the long term benefit of all of humankind. Much like the Pledge to stand up for Human Rights, circulated by the UN HCHR in May, 2021, such a pledge would be rooted in the honor system, and rely upon the trust of fellow committee members in the sense of honor of each participating fellow member. The full community assembly may wish to meet with the prospective candidate to discuss the benefits, risk, consequences of passing or of failure, and the desired and expected outcomes with the potential candidate, before accepting a declaration of intent to undergo the Adulthood Challenge by a candidate. Some communities may even find it more appropriate to refer potential candidates to other more apt communities. Initially, there may exist risks that could seem to outweigh the benefits, even at the close of Phase II, as preparation begins to start building the new governance tools and policy proposals of Phase III, but it is, above all, the intention of candidates, committee members, and community assemblies to embark upon a journey of change for the good of all, that matters most. Hence, questions in the minds of community members like how has the potential candidate served in the past, or would the proposed candidate serve both willingly and gladly now, for the well-being of all, are important questions to ask. Prior accomplishment, of course, of some set of prerequisite learning and actions would constitute an initial proof of serious intent on the part of the potential candidate, to undergo the Challenge, for the right to help build progress in the most serious matters of the community, and to take on the greatest responsibilities in the future.

II. C (358/300wds).

Returning to the question of why would a new adulthood rite of passage be helpful for building new tools to improve governance processes and policy crafting, we must look at the question from both an individual and a communal point of view. To be frank, in the first years of Phase II, and even in the first years of Phase III, quite likely, there will be little tangle benefit, from a material perspective, for the individualAdulthood candidate who succeeds in passing the Adulthood Challenge. Even up through much of Phase IV, it is likely that those passing the Challenge will need to be focused on bringing a new world into view, which other members of society can see will be beneficial to all of humankind, and pull together to make that happen. Thus, the building of a core group of Adults who have proven their intellectual flexibility and long term commitment to building a new cultural paradigm that will drive the well-being of all people is paramount. This dedicated group of people, committed to moving the world forward though new governance tools, must be able to create those tools, share them, and teach others both the utility of the new tools, and how to use them. Hence the importance of learning how to learn, and learning how to teach, and eventually, learning how to teach others to learn and teach, in their own turn. Through this new rite of passage, such a dedicated core group will have shown their ability to set goals, take risks, share, cooperate, teach, and most of all, to build empathy, personally and in others. Those abilities will be key to developing new governance tools and processes, and then sharing and teaching the use of those new tools, as well, most importantly, of mentoring other people who will continue to build on that work into the future, with the benefit of all humankind constantly in mind. This commitment to training the next generation of innovative cooperators has the potential to lead us all to greater global well-being, given the necessary cultural changes, which this new rite of passage has the potential to encourage.

II. D (418/300wd).

Looking at the ritual itself, by the later stages of Phase II, there should be a better practical understanding of how this updated rite of passage into adulthood can be handled among communities and regions. the objective of this process, it should always be kept in mind, is the formation of modernAdults equipped to take a leading role in remaking our world into one in which each and every human being can safely reach the full creative potential that contributes to all of humankind. If the Teaching Terror remains a part of this process, then that year to two-year long period of one-on-one teaching would be the first part of the Adulthood Challenge process, apart from any prerequisites that communities might require of potential candidates before admitting them to the Challenge, of course. The second part of the AC process should be some sort of physical challenge, set up to demonstrate both mastery of the needs of the modern world, and also to show the candidate’s ability to pass on essential skills to other people. A physical object that can also act as a keepsake would be even better suited to this process. Looking at rituals from around the world, initiation rituals always involve some sort of physical challenge, generally with an intellectual or learning demonstration component. From vision quests, to walkabout, to hunting or sewing enough quilts to fill a Hope Chest, Viva Voce thesis defense, the creation of some physical and useful item, whether by building, or walking and finding some key item, climbing to discover a symbol, or even copying or completing a major work of literature or art representative of some key facet of both that individual’s personal story, combined with the story that moves that community forward, some physical act has always been part of initiating a new person into a new stage of life or or the community. Today’s equivalents might be building a Tiny House, a Ropes Course type crossing, or even hand-copying a manuscript of the Constitution, or the UN Declaration of Human Rights. One possibility for ritual completion is that the candidate could present the person whom that candidate taught the crucial life skill, and then present the object which the candidate found or made, with appropriate explanations and answers to questions or objections from members of the community. The end goal remains to show newAdults committed to and capable of leading the way to building a safer, kinder world together with and for all human beings.

II. E (412/300wds).

Finally, in the last years of Phase II, recognition of the new status ofAdult in this context should begin to have more solidity and meaning beyond the core group of people working on the new Rite of Passage. Each community of committed volunteers should then have set tester and testing criteria and even training for the testers, centered around empathetic and innovative forms of teaching, and around cooperation. After completing the one to two year Teaching Terror process, or whatever form a given community chooses to have the candidate demonstrate those same skill sets, the testing committee can choose to add requirements as needed, suited to the various circumstances of that particular community’s needs in a leader. Since these later years should now allow for expanded ability to travel for all, given the improvements in public transportation made during Phase I, this part of Phase II could also include a travel requirement similar to the Gap Year widely practiced in Europe, but with a stronger learning component, alongside the Teaching Terror or other tool-teaching requirement of the Adulthood Challenge, as it is fitted for the particular community. As we prepare to move into Phase III, with the passage of the final physical requirement by the candidate, the community giving recognition may designate a specific location for the ritual of recognition, which should be accessible by all members of the community, as well as all others allowed by the community to attend the ritual, via public transportation. Assuming that a friendly examination of the person whom the candidate taught is done first, this may require a two-stage ceremony, or a change of locations. One suggested ritual phrase to encapsulate the prior two years of the Challenge could be expressed by one or more (a chorus?) of the testers: “Oh, candidate for Adulthood, what did you teach, and what did you learn in the teaching of your student?” A similar phrase, should communities find it appropriate, might be the touchstone of the recognition ritual, as the candidate shows how all requirements have been met, and receives the new status of Adult in the community, leaving it up to other communities and regions to decide whether to accept the decision of any particular community for itself as well. In the last year of Phase II, we should thus have a dedicated core group of leaders committed to creating tools and teaching other people how to build and use new governance tools and policies for phase III, which we come to now.

—

As for genre, I’m still wondering: Non-fiction, System Change, Causes, maybe even Inspirational, but I doubt it.

Last week’s installment of this series…

Action Items:

1.) Consider some ideas you may have on whether our society could use a new rite of passage,

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please, and

3.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Vote, Teach and Learn (PDF Lesson Plans offline)

and

my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction,

and

a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: for a kinder world…

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil

our year 2021 CE = 12021 HE

(Lesson plans: Day 1 … Day 5)

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Please leave a review, if you can, on the GoodReads page.

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Minbari Mondays, Mora’dum, and Cursing Names

August 23, 12021Babylon 5, Coop, show reviewsB5, babylon5, HandH, mywritings, writingShiraDest

There is another interruption in the sending of our fictional letter (reviewing each film and episode of Babylon 5) that I receive each week from Ranger Mayann.

Hopefully, reports from The Great Machine on Epsilon 3 will resume soon. Meanwhile, here is a short, based on the Ranger training use of terror, as it could be applied here on earth:

–

The punishment will be worth it.

If any technology sufficiently advanced appeared to be magic, so much the better for this human, harming others of his kind with no thought even for himself. The Mora‘dum would be perfect, to set an example.

As the flame met the paper, the man’s hands began to burn. His screams were muffled by the bands that began to wind more tightly around his face. That had been a gift from a passing TechnoMage, insulted by this human’s refusal to wear a mask for the safety of his fellow human beings during a plague. These two pieces of “magic” would serve well with this group of humans, enthralled as they were by their theories of magic everywhere. Let them speculate on the magic behind this punishment. Let them learn.

The screams grew louder as the cigarette tore through the man’s arm, leaving a track of raw flesh where a hand and wrist had been.

Good, the wound was being cauterized.

Efficient.

Now, the only remaining task was to stop the human girl who was standing on her balcony, wheezing in pain from the earlier cigarette smoked by this man, from throwing herself off.

–

I hope that this is interesting, at least, and please, dear Readers, accept my apologies for the lack of polish. I’m not feeling well, and not resting well, so am not up to par.

Stay safe,

-Shira Destinie

Action Items:

1.) Share your thoughts on the importance of empathy.

2.) Share your thoughts on how we Human Beings might start to build a more fully inclusive society for all of us, and how we can start to give a damn about each other.

3.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses these thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure & #StopSmoking for COVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Vote, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans offline)

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa. and my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction, and a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: Baby Acres/Floors for a kinder world…

Shira Destinie A. Jones, BsC, MAT, MPhil

our year 2021 CE = 12021 HE

(GED lesson plans: Day 1 … Day 5)

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

-one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via GoodReads. Please leave a review, if you can make a bit of time, on the GoodReads page.

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Continue reading Minbari Mondays, Mora’dum, and Cursing Names →

Wondering Wednesdays, Baby Acres, Chapter 3 section I

August 18, 12021books, Coop4Freedoms, AdulthoodChallengeProjectGrids, adulthoodriteofpassage, mywritings, writingShiraDest

This post starts section I of the rough draft of Chapter 3, of my non-fiction WiP, Baby Acres.

Chapter Three:

Chapter 3:

I. (1500 wds): What Adulthood Challenge prerequisites could look like in the early years of the second phase of this project:

I. A (425/300 wds).

The set of prerequisites required, if any are in fact required finally, before admission to attempt the Adulthood Challenge, the core of the Adulthood Rite of Passage, may be in a great deal of flux, at the start of Phase II. This second phase of our vision for a safer and kinder world for all of us must never lose site of the ultimate end goal, toward which all of the four phases must move us: a world in which each and every human being benefits fully from the Four Freedoms outlined by president FDR. Building on the work just completed, but never entirely finished, of Phase I, library conference rooms could be set aside on certain days, should the community decide so, for Adulthood prerequisite confirmation work. Aside from the most obvious work of meeting to decide whether a given candidate has met the designated prerequisites, such days can also be used for local Adulthood Challenge volunteer committees to meet and decide on issues such as how to make decisions on what prerequisites are appropriate for that particular community, and how to add, remove, or change their regional or community prerequisites, and how those requirements are defined, or whether they are even codified as guidelines or suggestions. Local committees may also decide to move the meeting of such requirements to the beginning of a longer process, or deffer them to the end of the Challenge, depending on the needs of the local area. Local volunteers should define both when various prerequisites should be met, and why those requirements are made mandatory, or as guidelines, taking into account local geography, etc, and the needs and abilities of the candidate in question, as well. Adjustments to the process could even go so far as to decide whether any candidate should be asked to meet a set of prerequisites. Given that every culture in human history has had some form of initiation timing, before which only the business of being a child is required, it seems reasonable to put some sort of qualifier upon the ability to attempt the Adulthood Challenge rite of passage tests. Since needs and conditions differ from location to location, those criteria, and the reasons for them, should be clearly noted someplace where all prospective candidates or committee volunteers can easily access and offer constructive comment on them. The question of exactly/precisely who makes these decisions leads us to a set of key questions that will only be clarified with the passing of a bit of time, and trial and error, to be addressed shortly.

I. B(325/300).

The next step of concern for the volunteer committee handling this new rite of passage would likely be knowing who is earnestly interested in attempting the process. A declaration of intent to attempt the Challenge would probably be a useful thing, with several steps along the way. First, a set of guidelines or questions could be created, suggesting how a candidate might decide whether to venture a try, outlining details of the process in the specific community where the candidate would like to test, along with notes of interest, contact information for the person or persons needing the declaration of intent, and probably also a set of risks, benefits, expectations or responsibilities, and expected outcomes for both the individual and for the wider community resulting from this declaration of candidacy. Local committees can designate any manner of ways, as well as either a point person, contact subcommittee, or even the entire community, if desired, for the candidate to declare an intention to take up The Challenge. Whether by private message, published newspaper banns, or smoke-signals and carrier pigeons, the committee must justify the need and manner of declaration of intent, and even perhaps show why one might wish to undergo public initiation, rather than some variety of self initiation, if such could be an option in a local community. Committees should also take care to detail whether an examination of the candidate’s declaration of intent may be requested, and if so, whether some type of justification, from an essay to an object, could be included to show firmness of intention, with the initial contact information sent by the candidate. This is meant to ensure transparency in the widest possible way, again, should a local community decide that an examination of intent by the candidate to accept the Adulthood Challenge in good faith, and for the benefit of all of humankind, is even necessary for the given community in which that volunteer committee is handling candidates.

I. C (518/300wds).

One can certainly ask ‘why bother’ with this work of a new rite of passage, especially before Phase IV, when more of the updated infrastructure and governance systems will be in place, allowing for newly recognized Adults to take part in more meaningful roles, as our governance systems open up to and need more participation from ordinary citizens -the answer is that without the cultural changes facilitated though a new manner of recognizing adults as both capable, because they have been thoroughly educated and prepared for a changing world, and responsible for taking an active hand in shaping our changing world for the better, those governance system updates may very well not actually take place. While the initial “benefits” of Adulthood may seem to be more troublesome than they are useful, especially in the early years of Phase II, it will be necessary for an intrepid group of volunteers to lead the way in showing the importance of having a cadre of willing workers on our future (yes, a new form of WWOOFing!!) who are prepared to educate themselves and others with creativity, compassion, and the later generations of humanity in mind. While it is true that, in the first few years of this project, the consequences of failure to pass the Adulthood Challenge could include a relatively major loss of face and time, with little material reason to make the attempt at all, that fairly high level of risk with little to nothing to gain may be the best argument in favor of making the attempt. Only a fully committed group of volunteers will have the will and the stamina to keep finding solutions to seemingly intractable problems, and to turn those solutions into tools that can then be shared with a wider public, who must then learn both the value of those tools, and how to use them. One example is RCV/IRV, which has been passed in NYC, but slowly implemented due to objections regarding education of populations unused to anything other than first-past-the-post style voting.Adulthood as a commitment to all of humanity, and an agreement that our skills, talents, and even our very lives, are to be laid at the feet of service to Humankind, is the purpose of this new rite of passage, especially in the beginning of Phase II. Forming a core group willing to make this commitment may be vastly facilitated by The Challenge, at the start, and in later stages, spreading a commitment to new ways of educating all of us may take the innovative sorts of thinking that The Challenge is intended to inspire. Thus, Adulthood is both a commitment to long term thinking, teaching, and tool-building for all of humanity, regardless of personal cost. This type of commitment will be needed, especially during the early stages of Phase II, but will also benefit toward the end of Phase II, with the formation of a core group of Adults pledged to the cause of Humanity, and learned enough to help create and share new tools for building a more equitable, just, safe, and kind world for all of us.

I. D (321/300wd).

Moving to some details of the Rite of Passage ritual itself, the first steps, in the early years of Phase II, may have multiple iterations of trial and error. Creating a new rite of passage into adulthood that provides a simultaneously satisfying and useful initiation for our modern society is not likely to be either an easy, nor an immediate process. The so-called “Teaching Terror” test first envisioned back in 2011 involved teaching a difficult, significant, and absolutely needed life skill to a person from scratch. This idea was intended to build both empathy and problem-solving skills with creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Some local communities, however, may not find this a useful means of attaining that objective, and so may choose to dispense with or update the Teaching part of the Adulthood Challenge, in favor of some other way of meeting those objectives. Any task, or set of tasks, involving challenge, daring, perseverance, empathy, and at least a little bit of courage, while demonstrating the skills needed by every adult in modern society, could be substituted for the first part of the Challenge. Local communities may also decide that a second part of the challenge may or may not be appropriate, depending on specific situations. As long as some proof of ability to learn and teach cooperation, empathy, critical thinking, and long term planning can be shown by a given candidate, along with the ability to navigate all of the obstacles the modern world may throw at one, a local committee could decide to award recognition of Adulthood, at community discretion. What is certain and immutable is the need to show that any person being recognized as an Adult has proven the ability and will to build innovative solutions as tools, to share those tools and teach others how to use them, and to share the talents and skills that person has in the service of Humanity, with honor and empathy.

I. E (378/300wds).

Finally, the most visible part of any rite of passage is the recognition, usually in some form of a public ceremony, of the newly granted status, in this case, of being an Adult by the standards of a new society, which does not yet exist, but which these new Adults can, in great measure, help to bring into existence. The first years of Phase II may see few volunteers or Adults to grant recognition to new Adults, so by necessity, Adulthood Challenge committees will be made up of some who are not yet recognized as adults in our new sense of this word. Nevertheless, volunteers should come to such committees from all walks of life, in this author’s opinion, in order, in later years and epochs, to prevent Adulthood from becoming another elite, chosen only be themselves. Every member of society, if given a voice in the process of this new rite of passage, and allowed to see the workings of the process, as transparency should always allow, must have buy-in, and be able to choose to opt-in, to opt-out, and to also be able to help shape a process that may one day have a great effect on shaping our society. Thus it can be argued that Adulthood Challenge committees should always have members, perhaps even a majority of members, who are not recognized as Adults, and perhaps do not even aspire to be. Every committee member must serve the community in good faith, intending only to help recognize Adults fully committed to serving humanity in empathy, non-violence, and cooperative problem-solving, but not every committee member needs to have passed the rigorous requirements of the rite of passage Challenge. Committees will define both “community,” whether geographical, community of interest, or other form of community, and the test criteria for testing eachAdulthood candidate. What remains immutable is the commitment to serving humankind for the long term equitable good of all of us. Other details can be updated to suit the needs of the time, area, and/or persons involved, as circumstances require. We can now move on to look at what a new rite of passage could look like in later stages of Phase II, as trial and error transitions into a more mature set of processes.

—

As for genre, I’m still wondering: Non-fiction, System Change, Causes, maybe even Inspirational, but I doubt it.

Last week’s installment of this series…

Action Items:

1.) Consider some ideas you may have on whether our society could use a new rite of passage,

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please, and

3.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Vote, Teach and Learn (PDF Lesson Plans offline)

and

my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction,

and

a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: for a kinder world…

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil

our year 2021 CE = 12021 HE

(Lesson plans: Day 1 … Day 5)

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Please leave a review, if you can, on the GoodReads page.

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Wondering Wednesdays, Baby Acres, Chapter 3 introduction

August 11, 12021books, Coop4Freedoms, AdulthoodChallengeProjectGrids, adulthoodriteofpassage, mywritings, writingShiraDest

This post starts the rough draft of Chapter 3, of my non-fiction WiP, Baby Acres.

Note that I’m sharing my outlines for JYP,

(chapter 3 outlines… )

as this is a rough draft, and I am very keen to hear suggestions if they improve the ideas presented here, as they are still in flux.

Chapter Three:

Chapter 3: (abt 3500 wds) What Phase II looks like, sooner, and later

Chpter 3 Introduction (abt 630/500 wds): How Phase II helps win 3 of the 4 Freedoms

A(320/250).

As Phase I’s pro-bono legal and financial continuous learning helps increase freedom of speech, by making space for room to breathe for the most vulnerable among us, new rituals may help us transition, as a society, to a world potentially more free to associate, free to worship, and free from fear. But, why do we need a new rite of passage for that, and who decides, if, what kind, and how? Should there be a set of pre-requisites to meet before one is allowed to attempt such a rite of passage, and what would be the added benefits of such pre-requisites? Would some sort of formal, or informal, notification be a good idea before or during the rite, and who ought to be notified, beyond those taking direct part in the rite, such as family of the candidate, community members not directly affected, local residents, other interested parties, local government officials? What are the benefits and risks of such a new rite of passage, and would it really, as proposed, facilitate an ever-widening culture of critical thinking and tool creation and sharing that paves the way for innovation in governance and policy practices/crafting/procedures/creation? If not, then the cultural change needed to prepare for the next phase may not be answered by such a new rite of passage. But, if the Each One Teach One paradigm can be expanded into a culture of Teach For All By All, such that our culture does begin to measurably open up, broadening into a culture of problem-solving and tool sharing at all levels, then this new rite will provide passage not only for individuals into Adulthood, but also for our whole society into a place of preparedness for more. It will then remain to find some means of recognition, at a visceral if not formal level, by the community, of the status of newly minted Adults, and for such recognition processes to evolve as needed.

B (295/250 wds).

Before any sort of recognition, informal or otherwise, can be given, a working definition of “community” must be forged by those volunteers willing to take on the task of shaping a rite of passage in an evolving cultural milieu with ambiguous benefits, to start off with, in the earliest years especially. Those initial intrepid candidates willing to risk failure in an endeavor that has not yet even begun to prove itself, one way or the other, must probably find ways and those to whom, even, to declare their intention, once firm, of embarking upon the challenge that may lead to completing a new adulthood rite of passage, even as it changes during their journey. And as the rite of passage evolves in response to emerging and discovered needs of community and society, so will the benefits, risks, and even the objectives, of the new rite of passage, thus requiring adaptation and flexibility of all parties involved in the process. While we begin this process with a set form of “Each one Teach one,” adding a Teach plus Travel requirement for completion of the Challenge before the final ordeal of this new rite of passage can be created to confirm completion and then affirm the attainment ofAdulthood, changes will undoubtedly be made along the way. As it should be. Then the final questions will remain of who gives recognition of the new status, or failure in the attempt to gain status, of anAdult, how that recognition is granted, both procedurally and in symbolic representation via some form of ritual, ceremony, document or other tangible form of acknowledgment, and how these questions will be answered in updated form be successive generations as the needs of each generation change, decade by decade and on into the farther future.

—

As for genre, I’m still wondering: Non-fiction, System Change, Causes, maybe even Inspirational, but I doubt it.

Last week’s installment of this series…

Action Items:

1.) Consider some ideas you may have on whether our society could use a new rite of passage,

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please, and

3.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Vote, Teach and Learn (PDF Lesson Plans offline)

and

my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction,

and

a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: for a kinder world…

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil

our year 2021 CE = 12021 HE

(Lesson plans: Day 1 … Day 5)

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Please leave a review, if you can, on the GoodReads page.

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Wondering Wednesdays, Baby Acres, Chapter 2: Phase I, part 2

August 4, 12021books, Coop4Freedoms, mywritings, PublicDomainInfrastructure, writingShiraDest

This post starts the rough draft of Chapter 2, section II. of my non-fiction WiP, Baby Acres.

This section of chapter 2 has another 1000 words, (hopefully currently practicable words).

Chapter Two:

( Chapter 2’s section I was last week…)

Chapter 2, section II. :

Chapter 2: section II. What Phase I looks like, near and by the end of this 1st stage

II. A.

We, here in the United States, can take a look at countries like France, Germany, New Zealand, and even Mexico, to see examples of a public health service that serves all residents, with many basic needs, like tetanus vaccines, entirely free of charge (I may not have even yet had my FM3, at that point…). A first step would be to see acceptance of the ACA medicaid expansion in all states of the Union. Although this has already happened in many states, some states may need another 14 or 15 years to catch up in understanding of the benefits being offered by the Federal government via the ACA. A fully equipped public health clinic, perhaps like that of the La Maestra, or better, still, like the Family Health Center of San Diego, with dental, optometrist, OB/Gyn, therapy, and family practitioners in one complex served by an intersection of public transportation services, including rail and bus, in every neighborhood, is a second basic and necessary step. Having a nurse, either a Registered Nurse, or a LNP, in every school, community college, continuing education facility, library, shopping center, and apartment building, paid by Medicaid, or supplemented privately, as with the “Minit Clinics” in the CVS pharmacies, would provide a needed complement to the EMS and Fire department rescue services, lowering the burden on the 911 system as well. A much needed expansion of the medicaid long-term mental health services availability would include more therapists trained in extreme and early childhood trauma of various kinds, and an extension of freely available long-term trauma therapy, with or without medications, especially for survivors of CSA and patients living with PTSD, of any level of severity. Finally, nurses and childhood trauma-trained therapists staffing battered persons and homeless shelters 24 hours per day in every neighborhood would both lower the burden on police calls, and provide needed assistance in all locations, even in “nice” areas where no one wants to believe that bad things happen.

II. B.

By the end of Phase I, in terms of public transportation options, we again look to examples from Europe, and also from Japan. The RER/Metro options in the large cities, and the EuroStar and high speed trains provide a model that Americans, who invented the train, can be proud to see adopted far and wide. But automated light metro systems like the VAL in Rennes, the world’s smallest city with a Metro system, can also be implemented here in the United States. A light rail system connecting with stops in all airports, secondary schools, hospitals or doctors’ offices, banks and stores would revolutionize the way Americans travel and live. Protected cycling paths, as recently upgraded in Montreal, could also be laid as new rail lines are laid. A rail or sheltered bus stop within less than a mile of each person’s home and workplace is easily possible, with planning such as is already done in northern Europe. Options for facilitating the transportation of the elderly and persons with disabilities should be especially carefully taken into consideration and respected. Finally, those rail and protected cycling lanes could even be paneled to all transit centers within and between cities, and with energy production mechanisms like kinetic pavements and other forms of footfall generation, already used in many places. Thus, by the end of this first stage, public transit options can easily be greatly expanded for a safer, much more enjoyable, and even energy generating travel experience all across the United States.

II. C.

In like manner, by the end of this first stage, the public library system could easily be much strengthened. The British library system give one example to look at, at least in terms of its robust ILL system, which was able to automatically request and obtain a copy of a book from the US, apparently unavailable in the UK due to being out of print, back in 2007! Our public library system should likewise be able to borrow, transparently to the library patron, all across the world, and free of charge. In addition, by the end of this stage, there could easily be additions of more individual and group study rooms to all branch and main library locations, with power outlets and better wifi, which is a continual problems in libraries these days (although access to gaming and such sites could be throttled to save bandwidth for learning activities and research…). In northern France (2015), highway rest stops have self-cleaning restrooms, automatically sanitized after each use. There seems to be nothing preventing us from installing similar washrooms in or next to public library branches for the added comfort of patrons and local residents near the branches. This would alleviate many problems faced by local branch librarians in more vulnerable neighborhoods, as well as providing slightly more humane access to wash facilities for those people currently experiencing homelessness. Given the central role that libraries exercise in the life of any local community, it seems a given that all branches should be open from at least 7am to 11pm every day of the week, all year round, including summers and holidays, which are the most difficult times for many children and even adults from abusive families, or without families. Finally, all lending in all media, film, electronic and also paper, should be available at all branches, with at least one, preferably two, dedicated Reference librarians (who hold at least an MLS), available all day long at every branch library. Obviously there will need to be more at the main library in any city, so many more librarians will need to be hired, as well as various staff to support them in the crucial work that they do for the public, and for our democracy.

II. D.

Finally, and closely connected to the public library system, yet still a separate set of needs, we can and must, by the end of Phase I, have a robust system of rotations for continually updated finance law workshops. This system of free continuous financial legal learning could be partly based out of the public library system, which should have a conference room in each branch dedicated to free nightly lectures on consumer law. This ties all four parts of our public domain social and physical infrastructure together at the end of this first stage to start a continuously self-reinforcing virtuous cycle of learning and upgrading all parts of the Commons. Good public transportation used by the upper and middle classes to get to libraries for daily finance and consumer law lectures not only helps prevent medical debt and other consumer maladies from clogging the court systems, but also directly benefits public health. By increasing learning and lowering stress, these lectures also benefit public health in myriad manners. These common goods help to pave the way for the next stage of this project, Phase II, which begins fifteen years after the start of Phase I. With fifteen years to build a robust public library system, public transportation system, public health care system, and public system of free continuous education for all residents on local consumer law and policy, the stage will have been set for success in continuing the cultural change needed to complement those infrastructure upgrades, and move us closer to obtaining access to the Four Freedoms which President FDR outlined, for all of us.

— (Next Wednesday: Chapter 3. )

As for genre, I’m still wondering: Non-fiction, System Change, Causes, maybe even Inspirational, but I doubt it.

Last week’s installment of this series…

Action Items:

1.) Consider some ideas you may have on how our society can solve the problem infrastructure upgrades starting right now,

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please, and

3.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Vote, Teach and Learn (PDF Lesson Plan Book)!

and

my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction,

and

a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: for a kinder world…

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil

our year 2021 CE = 12021 HE

(Day 1 … Day 5)

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Please leave a review, if you can, on the GoodReads page.

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Bad Fairy, Good Fairy?

July 31, 12021Uncategorizedchildabuse, HandH, mywritings, writingShiraDest

This is not working as I’d hoped, but does explain why we need more visions of a kinder world:

“

-May the pain you cause my fe rebound thrice or more unto thee, and may you understand why, just before you die.

A malicious laughter tinkled across the canyon, startling Ametis out of a focus that suddenly became embarrasing. Wheeling around with a sharp curve of a wing, the source of the cackle now revealed itself. Perhaps taking the form of a peregrine falcon, rather than a starling, would be a good idea right now? A short pip called the other starlings into formation around Ametis, who was grateful that they had accepted the call of a non-physical. Ametis, armed with support, heard the laughter became a cough.

-Ahem. Calling down mortal curses now, are we, good little fairy?

-Protecting my human, you stain on our kind. And do not refer to me with that term, or I may have to forget myself.

A swirl of dust on the canyon floor began to kick up, just at the source of the sound below. The air was a better place to call upon Fate, but it was not as safe as being grounded.

-I am no stain, you hypocrite. I merely encourage the expression of their instincts.

-Encourage the inflicting of pain, you mean.

-That is merely a side effect, and even a beneficial one, over time. Where would these humans be, without their motivation?

-Not killing each other, for starters, perhaps? Besides, you have no interest in their well-being, only in watching them suffer.

-Suffer, not suffer, there is no difference. They will all suffer at some time, and they will all die, having suffered, in any case. Nothing changes them.

The dust devil on the canyon below became a sand storm, but then an image arose, painted in the ether around Ametis. Her fe was moving into this plane, again. The human paid by her fe’s cord-carrier had again put the fe into that place where she was afraid. If Ametis had had a physical body, that human would have paid dearly, but as it was, all Ametis could do was feel her fe’s fear, pain, and shame. Feel what her fe was feeling, and promise that this other human, older, stronger, and less fragile, but still mortal, would one day pay for what he was doing to her fe, a mere child of 6.

The sand storm in the canyon below closed in on a small cave.

On that day, the pain will be one, and its name will be one. And none shall mourn them. This human, and those who encouraged his evil acts, will understand, and they will regret.

The sand storm finally engulfed the cave, sweeping away all within it.

-Ok, I apologize! You are…

All of them will regret. Starting with this one. “

Action Items:

1.) Search for two different sources to learn about your local foster system’s funding,

2.) Please tell us where your information comes from, and how you know that the sources you found are reliable,

3.) Write a book, story, blog post or tweet that uses your findings, and then, please tell us about it! If you write a book, once it is published please consider donating a copy to your local public library.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure & for heavens sake: please #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19 (or even for good!)!:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GoodReads button: ,

Vote, Teach and Learn (PDF Lesson Plans Offline)

and

my Babylon 5 review posts, if you like Science Fiction,

and

a proposed Vision on Wondering Wednesdays: for a kinder world…

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil

our year 2021 CE = 12021 HE

(Day 1 … Day 5)

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Please leave a review, if you can, on the GoodReads page.

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Critical thinking for Human Community

Critical thinking for Human Community via #PublicDomainInfrastructure: Public Transit, Public Libraries, Public Education, and Public Health Care

Tag Archives: writing

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