Hold on, I need to catch my breath that Art Himmelmann watches The Daily Show - whheww - that brings the average age of their demographic down a few points!.
Just kidding Art, honest. I am responding to Arthur's request, but motivated by the comment made by Matthew Philip, to wit: "The real issue about all the bickering about little issues and lack of truly substantive debate is that there isn't much difference between the two candidates that they can debate. They agree on most things. So it then becomes about who you like more. Then each has to convince us that they do it better than the other. And that really is the problem." I could not disagree more. In governing, the devil (or angel) really is in the details, in what you actually do, think, believe, and are capable of. These are the kinds of things that the newsmedia simply does not want to get into. They believe that it is MYGO (My eyes glaze over) detail that is only interesting to the three real policy wonks in their subscriber base. This is even more true for the national issues, which makes John Stewarts request all the more important, and unlikely to be fulfilled. I will give an example from one of my areas of obsession - Education. Peter says he wants to work on improving education. He floated the idea of an "Education Cabinet" board to assist and "Provide real leadership for better schools from the Mayor's office" R.T on the other hand has restricted his import to the way Mayors have traditionally worked with the Board. On the various collaborative projects and as a supporter and lobbyist on issues that he/she cares about. Well this raises a number of questions, the foremost is, "Is this a preemptive attack on the independence of the Minneapolis School Board?" Does Peter believe that the Independence of the board is part of the problem. There are a number of cities where the Board, the Superintendent or both are appointed by the Mayor, in whole or in part. Is this better, worse. In Minneapolis' weak mayor system, the Mayor's "bully" pulpit is one of the major tools available, but what exactly does it mean to "Provide real leadership". There are a lot of important issues here. The reform movement over the last couple of decades has been moving in the other direction, towards less centralization. Charter Schools, neighborhood boards, more independence from partisan and entrenched interests and more (some would even say ultra and anti-intellectual) democratic. Is Peter calling for a change of course. Peter has labor endorsement, does he see the Teacher's Union playing a role in his "Educational Cabinet". What about the elected school board, the Archdiocese? I have only scratched the surface of the very real questions that are raised by only one of the issues facing the candidates, and I have not even given my personal answers to them. The purpose of this post is not to fully explore anything, only to say that to those people who really care about how our city government works, how children are served, then there are a lot of important issues between all of the candidates. It just requires people to think, and, at the risk of being called an elitist like John Stewart, most of the media believes their readers and watchers don't. REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
