Review White House Petitions Site

CHANGE THE SYSTEM. HERD MENTALITY. THINK "OUT OF THE BOX"
WWI's TRENCH WARFARE, NO MAN'S LAND, where anyone daring to venture into the middle ran the risk of being regarded as an enemy by bbth sides

If you scroll down to the petition, you'll see that its author (me) is encouraging public high school students in Alachua County, FL. to create a 21st Century Democracy Club. You'll also see that I'm offering to transfer my ownership of a number of relevant domain names to you for free after certain conditions are met. It's my hope that these new clubs will become so popular that they will inspire the creation of a network of democracy clubs all across our country. I know it won't be easy, but I'm confident that you and your fellow students are more than up to the task.

Following this general introduction, the rest of the background section will be devoted to describing how I envision these domain names being used. Bear in mind that these are only suggestions, but I hope you will give them serious consideration—if for no other reason than out of respect for the 50+ years I've spent studying, financially supporting, and taking part in a wide variety of grass roots political activities.

As to my motive for purchasing domain names, and why I'm offering many of them to you now, the answer is not very complicated. My primary focus has always been on finding new ways of making our ongoing American experiment in democracy more representative of the will of the people. especially by harnessing the power of our ever-improving communications technology, And when the price of personal computers dropped enough to enable middle class folks like myself to purchase them, it became obvious to me that e-democracy was the wave of the future.

After I learned through research that easy-to-remember, highly descriptive domain names were proving themselves to be a key factor in attracting online traffic, I began to purchase some myself. And over the years, I've been surprised at how many potentially impactful domain names I've been able to acquire before speculators gobbled them up. [Due to the fact that purchasing a single domain name from someone who already owns it can sometimes cost $millions, and the average price "is in the thousands," you can see why speculators have been buying them up ever since the first one was registered in 1985. And because there are now approximately 340 million registered domain names, good ones are getting harder and harder to come by at a price that most of us can afford.]

My intention all along has been to hold on to these domain names until I could find citizen groups that I felt had proven themselves capable of using them effectively. Perhaps I set my standards too high, but the upshot is that I have failed in my quest thus far—in spite of spending a great of time and energy since I purchased my first domain name 16 years ago. And I see no reason to believe that I will be any more successful in the future.

The primary reason is because of the

The video deals with a bill in Congress that (like those calling for stricter gun control) has appeared to be impossible to pass, no matter how many times its sponsors have submitted versions of it in the Senate (2007, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015, and 2017) and the House of Representatives (2014, 2015, and 2017). And this has been true in spite of the fact that reputable polls have shown that a majority of Americans support campaign finance reform legislation (NYTimes/CBS, Pew Research Center).

The reason I'm telling you all of this now, is that pressuring Congress into passing it is one of several major projects that I will be encouraging you to undertake this year. As you can see (House, Senate), there are lots of members of congress and highly respected citizen groups that are supporting this legislation, The main thing that has been preventing its passage is that the leadership of the House and Senate have prevented it from being debated and voted on. And that's where you come in.

Because, as then-candidate Obama explained 11 years ago, "If we're really going to have significant change at the federal level, it's not going to be enough for me as president to say we need to do this." And further on in the video, he explained why: "It's important that the public say we are outraged! We are tired of how campaigns are bought, and we want to change it!"

To give you a better idea of how electing members of the House and Senate with public financing could make Congress much more responsive to the needs and wishes of the American people, take a look at this video of the lady who used public funding to become "the first woman of color ever to win city-wide office in New York."

1. "Florida leads the way in civics education, thanks to a realization that its citizens were inadequately informed. Other states are considering changes as well, at a time when student involvement in current events is on the rise."

"The Parkland students were thrust into the spotlight, but they had preparation for this moment. Thanks to state law, they have benefited from a civic education that many Americans have gone without – one that has taught them how to politically mobilize, articulate their opinions, and understand complex legislative processes. Now they are using their education to lead their peers across the country.

“Parkland really shows the potential of public civic education,” says Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. “The goal is to make every student like that – not afraid to discuss difficult issues,” and with the skills to express a viewpoint.

Current high schoolers’ interest in politics did not happen overnight, says John Rogers, director of the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access at the University of California, Los Angeles. They have come of age in the shadows of the Black Lives Matter movement, LGBTQ advocacy, and Dreamers legislation – all societal issues that are relatively easy to understand and spread quickly on social media. Young Americans, he says, have been waiting for their moment to jump into the ring.

“We see a reemergence of commitment among young people to look past themselves and see themselves as agents that can affect change,” says Dr. Rogers. “The walk-outs [last week] were about gun control, but it was also about young people wanting to have a voice.”

According to the study, more than 90 percent of Florida civics teachers discuss current events in the classroom, two-thirds of them doing so weekly, and a majority of them use teaching simulations such as debates or mock trials.

https://www.csmonitor.com/EqualEd/2018/0323/Teens-take-the-national-stage-armed-with-civics-lessons

2. "Until the 1960s, it was common for American high school students to have three separate courses in civics and government. But civics offerings were slashed as the curriculum narrowed over the ensuing decades, and lost further ground to “core subjects” under the NCLB-era standardized testing regime.

"Only 25 percent of U.S. students reach the “proficient” standard on the NAEP Civics Assessment. White, wealthy students are four to six times as likely as Black and Hispanic students from low-income households to exceed that level. Here’s why: Students in wealthier public school districts are far more likely to receive high-quality civics education than students in low-income and majority-minority schools.

"All 50 states require some form of instruction in civics and/or government, and nearly 90 percent of students take at least one civics class. But too often, factual book learning is not reinforced with experience-based learning opportunities like community service, guided debates, critical discussion of current events, and simulations of democratic processes."

http://neatoday.org/2017/03/16/civics-education-public-schools/

3. What I regard as the most pernicious result has been the political defeatism and cynicism this has engendered among many of your elders, as they've witnessed (and sometimes participated in) one failed grass roots movement after another—including ones that reputable polls showed were supported by a solid majority of their fellow citizens. (USE FAILED 2008 & 2012 INDEPENDENT PRESIDENTIAL EFFORTS)
Unity 08 o
goals on wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity08#Goals
Americans Elect Web Site Still Up - https://www.americanselect.org/
and here is a 1-minute video from 2011 explaining ow the process was supposed to work:

May 2012 Article about failure:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/15/americans-elect-abandons-campaign

4. SEND A MESSAGE : Perot:
At least one author has concluded was as influential a vote as has ever been cast in an American election: "For voters who placed a high priority on deficit reduction in 1992 and 1996, a vote cast for H. Ross Perot was as influential a vote as has ever been cast in
an American election. Rather than being “wasted,” as Duverger’s Law would
suggest, votes cast for Perot in 1992 and 1996 had a profound effect on the direc-
tion of American politics, and, ultimately, on policies adopted by both major parties."

Annual federal deficits or surpluses in billions of inflation-adjusted dollars (1960-Present): deficits started dropping after the 1992 election, leading to four years of surpluses (1998-2001). And with no Perot in the 2000 election and his Reform Party in disarray, the surplus fell in 2001 and has been followed by annual deficits ever since.
Also, forecasters in early 2001 failed to anticipate the bursting of the 1990s dot-com stock bubble, 9-1-1 and the subsequent costs of our "war on terror" Much of this, of course, happened after the United States was attacked on September 11, 2001. The U.S. thereafter conducted major military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and also increased expenditures on homeland security.

LINK TO MY YAHOO ENTRY ON REFORM PARTY ELECTION TURNOUT:
https://mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.src=ym&%3Bamp%3Breason=myc#8245795852

5. CIVIC MISSION OF SCHOOLS VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvAdivt2Kqo

6. Video on WHY THE CONSTITUTION IS SO HARD TO CHANGE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=FwREAW4SlVY

7. Gun Control: GALLUP'S 28-YEAR HISTORY:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1645/guns.aspx

8. Gun Control SUCCESS IN FLORIDA:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/florida-legislature-backs-new-gun-restrictions-after-parkland-school-shooting/2018/03/07/f97057ea-2229-11e8-badd-7c9f29a55815_story.html?utm_term=.6844a1e91fdc

9. POPVOX - https://blog.popvox.com/about/

10. TURBO VOTE - https://turbovote.org/index.html

11. VOTE SMART Home Page (https://votesmart.org/), which includes the following video from 2012:

12 "electoral college" search of current congressional legislation:

https://www.congress.gov/search?q=%7B%22congress%22%3A%22115%22%2C%22source%22%3A%22legislation%22%2C%22search%22%3A%22%5C%22electoral%20college%5C%22%22%7D&searchResultViewType=expanded

"Over the history of our country, there have been at least 700 proposed amendments to modify or abolish the Electoral College - more than any other subject of Constitutional reform."
https://www.fairvote.org/past_attempts_at_reform

2016 Analysis by the Parliament of Victoria, Australia, of E-Petitions Systems
Around the World - https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/publications/research-papers/download/36-research-papers/13765-e-petition-research-paper-august2016

Beginning of the Conclusion to an Article from the University of Central Florida's Undergraduate Research Journal:
"CONCLUSION
The Scottish Parliament’s efforts to be a modern
institution that can concurrently provide public access,
participation, transparency, accountability, and power
sharing to its citizens has been advanced by its e-petition
system. The world’s first e-petition system delivers the
key values of the Parliament to the populace in a
technologically innovative democratic structure. The
e-petition system uses the Internet to allow for a new
type of public participation in policy making, which has
been fruitful in providing a method for citizens to
formulate policy with their government. As the data
analysis and case studies demonstrate, Scots have
successfully used e-petitions to participate in policy
formulation with the Parliament. During three sessions
of Parliament from 1999-2011, 385 e-petitions were
filed with the Scottish Parliament. 12.7% of e-petitions
had the issues raised implemented. Moreover, 84.9% of
e-petitions that fell under the Scottish Parliament’s
powers were reviewed by government committees,
bodies, or outside organizations, and entered into the
political discussion. The case studies added context to the
e-petition process, giving concrete examples of petitions
filed with the Public Petitions Committee, and their
outcomes. "
https://www.urj.ucf.edu/docs/cotton.pdf

1-minute video of Estonia's e-proposal/petition system:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=27lN6HmwuY4

D-CENT is a Europe-wide project creating open, secure and privacy-aware tools for direct democracy and economic empowerment.
http://tools.dcentproject.eu/