My name is Jason Goray. I've been a resident of Northeast Minneapolis since 2000 and a resident of Minnesota since 1995. I work in downtown Minneapolis as a web developer for a great brand identity/design firm.
I'm a member of the MNPolitics and the Minneapolis MNForum lists, although I do not post very often. I have a heavy interest in local, state, national, and international issues, but I feel the most important place to be involved is locally because it is where a person can be most effective. I have so many burning issues that I'm turning into a charred crisp, but some of the more locally relevant ones are: - Exposing and ending hidden costs. These often take the form of corporate welfare or government cleanup after a business leaves a mess. - Addressing police misconduct and the poor relationship between law enforcement and the community. Aggressively prosecuting police who have committed crimes and getting rid of the sense that the police are above the law. - Promoting full extension of the 10th amendment. Moving federal control to the states, moving state control to the municipalities and municipal control to the citizens. - Working for Global Justice, and I do feel this topic often needs to be dealt with at the local level. - Addressing environmental concerns. Your rights end where mine begin, and I feel I have the right to breath clean air and drink clean water. Personally, I dig bicycling, but you have a right to drive your car - I just want you to pay for all the costs associated with driving that car through it's entire lifecycle. Back to the hidden costs agenda. - Removal of parentalistic laws. The only role the government should have in my life is ensuring that my rights don't get trampled, I don't trample the rights of others, and basic civil services are maintained. - Move the government from a service provider to a service regulator and watchdog wherever possible. (Btw, I don't quite mean regulator in the current sense, what I want is to have someone with teeth ensuring that businesses are doing what they say they are doing. I've got a lot of ideas on this, but haven't figured out how to express them concisely) - Get rid of the two-party system we're saddled with (although in Minneapolis, it's more like a one party and "others" system so it's a bit different). - Installing Instant Runoff Voting. - Finding a way for citizens to have access to true and accurate information. Part of this is overcoming media bias and spin. Here's a question, if a reporter knowingly misrepresents something and presents it as true news, is it an erosion of 1st amendment rights to press charges? (There's also the promoting our frivolous lawsuit culture concern). - Ending corporate influence and corruption over our political representatives and appointed civil servants. - Protecting Civil Liberties. One step may be joining the other cities who have decided not to cooperate with certain provisions in the PATRIOT act. - Encouraging all communities to be aware of and involved in local politics. That's the tip of the iceberg, but there's so much more where that came from. A lot of my ideas are in flux, so forums like this are very valuable for me to test a concept and find where it is weak. I'd be great to find a political party to support, but I haven't yet. I grew up thinking of myself as a Democrat, then I realized a lot of my ideas were Libertarian, then I saw that the Greens had a lot of good ideas, and I started seeing points made by the Anarchist, Independence, and Constitutional folks that made a lot of sense. I've even been seeing a lot of points where I agree with the Republicans (if only they could get over their dirty business with Business and leave religion out of politics). I know what I believe in, and it seems like every party has some pretty good ideas that support but those ideas are combined with a bunch of political *** that messes it all up. I've mentioned a lot of "buzz" concepts, but don't assume that just because I support an idea that I support every other idea commonly associated with it. - Jason Goray Northeast Minneapolis (Oh yeah, I tend to be verbose) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Twin Cities Metropolitan Issues Forum http://www.e-democracy.org/tcmetro Rules: Sign posts with real name. You may not post more than twice a day.
