Choosing representatives for federal positions

It's been an exciting few days in the national spotlight if you are (1) a democratic strategist who says that women who are stay-at-home moms can't possibly understand the trials of working women, (2) you are a community organizer who has never held a private job, or (3) work for the Secret Service. There are other examples that come to mind. Would you want to be part of GSA or the Department of Energy? Scandal runs rampant in Washington DC. We, the American taxpayer and voter, need a new perspective on filling those positions needed to run our nation in a fiscally conservative way.

Have we lost all perspective?

People who go to Washington are public servants. We expect them to act like it.

Constitutional changes needed.

So how best to change the Constitution to send people to Washington in the three branches of government. Perhaps they should be chosen from the voter list by lottery, doing away with election for the Executive, Legislative, and and appointments to the Judicial  Branches at the Federal level. For example, every four years the voter lists would be randomly used to select a President. It might be Ms. Sally Jones. Could Ms. Jones do a worse job than our community organizer? Probably not. Let's replace our Vice President by lottery each four years. Get rid of the professional politician. For members of Congress, select by lottery from the voter list of the state so represented for a four-year term. For senators, select from state voter list for six years. For judges of the Supreme Court, Appeals Courts, and other federal courts of record from the voter list for the District for a four year term.

Term limits.

Term limits should be imposed. Once you have served a single term, selected by lottery from the appropriate lists, the incumbents would be forever barred from serving again.

Compensation package, benefits, and living arrangements.

Payments should be at the rate of $40,000 per year of term for each incumbent in whatever branch they serve. No retirement and other benefits would be provided by the public. Congress would be in session only 40 calendar days per year unless called into special session by the President for matters of national emergency. Living arrangements would be made in a dormitory setting with cafeteria meals.

Staffing.

Staff would be limited to 1 person for each member of Congress or Senate. The presidential cabinet would serve as staff for the President. Judges in any federal court would provide their own law clerks at no expense to the public.

Radical you say. Maybe so, but we need to overcome the idea that you can live at the public trough forever and spend our money anyway you like in Washington DC.

Do you have a better idea?

Nonprofit CEO's get big raises

CEO pay for nonprofits going up. How does high pay for charitable organization CEOs set with you? Is nearly a 3/4 million dollar pay check for the head of the American Cancer Society a good or bad thing? Does it effect the way you look at charities?

In the CEO line, does "what you pay for your get" apply?

Check out Dacula's web site.

The Buffet Rule and You

Today, the President hosted a Google hang out to discuss the Buffett Rule. You know, the fact that Warren Buffet doesn't pay income tax at the same rate as his secretary. And therefore, Buffett says he should be taxed more.

Well having prepared taxes for over 40 years, I can say that most people don't pay the same effective rate on their incomes as anyone else. That's not unusual. However, it should be pointed out that for the same income, deductions, and exemptions, each American pays the same nominal rate--15%, 28% or 35% depending on the amount taxable income. The President and Mr. Buffett each know that. Each American pays the same effect capital gain rate--15%. The President and Mr. Buffett each know that.

So what can we say about the dissembling that the President and Mr. Buffet. They are spinning a class war. What they have said is untrue. Put more bluntly, at best they are spinning this idea for political gain--at worst, they lied for financial gain..

Ask Mr. Buffett how much he personally gained in the bailout of Goldman Sachs. I'm sure he would not have invested heavily in Goldman Sachs unless he had inside information that the federal government was going to ride to the rescue with many millions of mine and your money.

Mr. Buffett, if he thinks he is under taxed, can donate any amount he want to the IRS. For me, I plan to pay the minimum income tax required under law.

How about you? You want to pay more than what the law requires? Or would you rather see the President changed in November? You want to keep an Administration that throws away you money on GSA parites?

Wow! Not me!

Check out the city's web site.

The Place and Value of Urban Parks

Parks connect a community from where it has come from to where it is going. Parks may be defined by green spaces, or they may not even be carefully delineated. Parks may be more of an idea than a place. As such, do downtown parks have value for community?
A traditional view of parks may be related to recreational programs such as baseball, cheerleading, basketball, soccer, or football. Spaces (parks) for such programs are usually embraced by the public (even members of the public who do not use these spaces personally) because there is an obvious value in opportunities for the community’s children. Additionally, studies all across the United States tie higher property values to properties near traditional park space. A Boulder, Colorado study indicated that residential property values decreased by over $4 for every foot farther away from an urban green space.
The importance of meeting places helping define a community was aptly indicated in a letter to the editor of the News Herald in 1907 by Mr. W. O. Smith. “If you could, Mr. Editor, be out on the streets on days that it is too wet to work and on Saturdays and see the many people go in and out doing a great deal of trading and you would say that Dacula is a busy little place.”
In 1907, the urban park for Dacula was downtown Dacula and particularly that portion near the train depot. Unfortunately, the depot no longer exists and small-scale farming is only remembered, but Historic Downtown Dacula remains much the same.
As we jump forward over a century, life in Dacula is certainly different. The desires and needs of our residents remain. We want the best we can provide for our children. We want to have a good job, have a safe place to live, work, and play. Traditional parks help in those areas, but a newer view of urban parks points to the broader contributions they can make to the vitality of communities and their residents. For example, not everyone wants to participate in a sports program at a park. Those individuals might desire a less crowded and quieter environment.
In providing less conventional urban park space, a city broadens opportunities for residents including those which might connect current residents to those who labored for the same values and ideas in years past. Other meeting places from past years included area churches and the Dacula School.
Did you realize that there once was the Dacula Coronet Band made up entirely of eligible young Dacula gentlemen? I suspect that any performance of the Coronet Band was well attended by young Dacula ladies and by members of the public as well, and the concert was in essence an unconventional urban meeting place—a park.
How about a Suffragette Convention and a play, Laugh and the World Laughs With You, Weep and You Weep Alone? The right of women to vote was granted by the 19th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution in 1920. The Convention and play were held in Dacula in 1915 at the Dacula School Auditorium. The cast of the play was made up of the Grande dames of the city and the young ladies. Community meetings and community activism occurred all across the U. S. and right here in Dacula—sometimes in unconventional meeting spaces—urban parks.
Let’s not leave out the men of the community. How about a 3-day Horse Swapper’s Convention? We had one back in 1918. Where this Horse Convention was held is lost in the mysteries of time, but you can bet it drew a crowd—an unconventional park setting.
Our new downtown urban park connects us to the past. It helps recall those public areas that were used in the past and are now gone and brings to the future opportunities to mingle, meet, greet, argue, engage in world-changing activities, and, sometimes, to just get away from the work-a-day world. The yet-to-be-named park reminds us of our past and the folks who went about their daily lives and helped make the Dacula of the past into the Dacula which will be our future.
Dacula in 2012 is not that little place that W. O. Smith wrote about, but we strive to keep that feel. The music that the Coronet Band played might not be a modern sound, but I bet the tunes would still inspire. A play by the women folk about getting the right-to-vote might seem quaint, but activities held here helped change American society into what it is today.
That is the major value of our new urban park. It will help us understand where we came from and points us on our way to the future.
The to-be-named park helps us respect Dacula’s past and look forward to Dacula’s future.
To make a suggestion about an appropriate name for the park in Historic Downtown Dacula, please send me suggestions at mayordacula@att.net.