Your quote sounds like part of a thought I would have expressed - be nice
if you tied it back to: Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:43:34 -0500
My real question then was what label you would be willing to use for what
many of us call "campaigning", since you seem to use a different meaning
for that word.
On Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:23:56 -0500 Fred Gohlke wrote:
Good Morning, David
re: "Suppose I take an interest in becoming mayor of Owego.
This will require my neighbors learning this, and something
of what I might do as mayor."
The essence of democracy is not what you want, it is what the people of
Owego want.
If the people of Owego are to get into the business of deciding what they
want, they better get more into understanding this task than many of them
realize. Their mayor will inherit attending to:
Normal interaction with county and state governments - this much
should be guessable.
Village charter - perhaps a dozen NY villages have this complication.
Evergreen Cemetery - not every village has responsibility for owning
an active cemetery (churches are more likely sponsors of such).
Fire department - another detail that would be independent in many
villages.
Fire protection outside the village - something that needs doing well
since it is an obvious task here.
County courthouse is in a park in the village. Surprise - village
manages the park since they only gave the county enough space to hold the
building.
The only way we can find out who the people of Owego want to be their
mayor is to ask them. Our present electoral methods do not ask the
people who they want, they tell the people what choices they have.
Campaigning is not asking, it is telling.
Again, what word can we get together on as to offering?
The failure of our political system is that it is not an asking
mechanism, it is a telling mechanism. In spite of the advances in
transportation, communication and data processing over the past 200-odd
years, we have not yet devised a means of asking the people to make
their own political decisions. We have the means, but not the method.
My purpose is to devise a practical method of asking the people of Owego
who they want as their mayor.
My first step, perhaps with help of some friends, would be to get a
petition signed by enough voters to qualify myself as a candidate. I would
call the next step campaigning in preparation for voting.
In the last election the mayor wanted reelection - and lost due to
what the people thought of his work.
New York perhaps deserves more copying. Here a person can run for governor
via petition. Then 50,000 votes will give this new party a line on the
ballot for 4 years (continues so long as party candidate gets at least
50,000 votes for governor each time). Party committees will get elected at
Primary election by those who sign up as party members.
Fred Gohlke
--
[email protected] people.clarityconnect.com/webpages3/davek
Dave Ketchum 108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY 13827-1708 607-687-5026
Do to no one what you would not want done to you.
If you want peace, work for justice.
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