Citizenship?

Governance With RCS:It seems that there is a lot to learn about this citizenship business; for US it is active citizenship and self governance.

If someone asks me how I use my school district I might say, "I don't go to school? That ask me how other people use it and I might answer, "Your guess is as good as mine."

If that same bothersome person asks me if I'm interested in water, I might say that I sometimes drink it and often bathe bathe in it. The person may ask me where my water comes from. I might answer, "doesn't come from the lake? He might ask me how I use my water district and I may say, "What's a water district?

If that same person ask me if I vote, I might say yes. If he asks me how I use my electoral district, I might say, "Huh?"

If I ask you what your favorite planks are, how would you answer me?

Are we good citizens? What kind of citizenship are we practicing? What's citizenship?

Does our electoral district do things with our votes?

Who's in charge here?

RCS

Test Questions:

1. What's the difference between a salamander and a gerrymander?

2. What is it that is being gerrymandered?

3.What is the purpose of an electoral district?

4. What is proportional voting?

5. What is semi-proportional voting?

Place answers, additional info, questions related to content in the "comments" section below.

Work is Changing for the Better: and it seems to be doing so faster. Call it a shift change

Governance With RCS: Participatory management and ownership leads to a democratic workplace or business.

Shift Change. There are companies, industries, banks, in which workers share ownership. There are co-ops too. They say it leads to a better working atmosphere and more worker security. Its been going on for a long time and now interest is rising again. Some are looking to Basque Country for inspiration. An important purpose of worker owned companies seems to be stable work and jobs.

RCS

A New Farm Bill. We are All Eaters.

Governance With RCS: We are responsible for feeding ourselves. We Are Many; We Need Not Govern Alone

Federal bills may seem boring, incomprehensible, and unimportant. They do not have to be that and many are important. Some of them very important to us personally.

Federal bills become national laws which we must live with, or work to change. We need to co-operate to get early information about bills and the changing of bills. Changing them may be more difficult than passing them.

               A new farm bill comes along every five years or so and I am yet to witness a national dialogue or debate on it. It not only affects our national debt, but also what we eat and how much our food costs. It may determine the price of rice in Vietnam and the price of corn in Mexico. It is our main strategy for feeding ourselves. We, as a people, have never taken the time to talk about it.

               Most of us, including our legislators, consider it boring, incomprehensible, and unimportant.

               We don't have to be this way. We can educate ourselves. We can create bills that are much easier to understand and we can talk over the issues and our policy. When e find the bills easier to understand we may find them more interesting. We may find ourselves giving our children a better chance of eating well.

               The farm bill is important. It is our farm bill. We could probably benefit by putting our agricultural policy in better alignment with our public health needs and our environmental needs. If we cared enough we could make it easier to feed our children fresh food. W could make sure that farmers, got fair prices and not distorting subsidies.

               When we are willing to talk with one another we can get the issues on the table where we can look them over.

               Among people who are not slaves, it seems important to expand the circle of citizens who decide how we shall get the food we need and want.

                "How am I," you ask, "to take care of our food supply?" You already know the answer to that question. The answer is, of course, that you cannot. We need to organize to do things for ourselves. We. we need to co-operate, to organize and to do the work that needs doing.

We all need to eat.

RCS

Abdication is Not Delegation

Governance With RCS: You have delegated the responsibility of educating your children to your local school board. You are responsible for the workings of your school board. That school board employs the teachers educating your children

Have you any questions? In case not, here are a few.
+ What does "abdication" mean?
+ How do you make sure that your school board is properly equipping your instructors and schools?
+ What do you consider proper?
+ How is your school board allocating your money?
+ How are the men and women on that board having teachers treat your children?
+ How are they treating those teachers?
+ What kind of school district auditing program are you running?
+ Who reviews your audits?
+ Who is watching that hen house?
+ What level of transparency does your school board practice?
+ Who attends to school district accountability?
+ How is your board handling pensions? Lots of money there.
+ How do you get your information about your local school board?
+ Who informs you about school board doings.
+ Do the men and women of your board tend to use rubber stamps given them by others?

You can post your answers in the "comments" widow just below the bottom of this post.

by Richard Sheehan

Governace and Economics & NEW SOCIALISM

Governance With RCS: We don't know about the old socialism. What are we supposed to do with new socialism.

New Socialism. After 60 years of repression we have new socialism. Its old,but its new. It has been all around our world, but has been repressed in the United States. We have some new doings and some old doings to learn about. One Old curious set of doings is Worker Co-operatives. It is possible to interpret and to analyze an economic system, even micro-economic systems. Socialism has been alive and well even in the U.S.

RCS