We've been invited to input our ideas to CHANGE.GOV. Does anyone have concrete evidence their advice was taken? Is it just a scam to move our email addresses?
We Want Your Input
If you have been a loyal Obama supporter from before Iowa, you may have felt included by the campaign during the primaries and elections. With the announcement of CHANGE.GOV, we were told that they wanted to hear our voices.
My first suggestion was to create a structure that could truly handle our massive input and put it in a usable form--through Wiki White House. Dan Froomkin posted his article about Wiki White House in Huffington Post about the same time.
I suggested that the Obama staff create the entries by topic, going through all email and postings. They might even enlist the public to do the grunt work and they could approve. Pros and cons of each issue that had been submitted by the public would be included in the entry.
There would be a comment period before decisions were made so that everyone could get their points included. Also, links would be included so that synergy of topics such as Agriculture policy that related to Energy, the Economy, Security and Education would be immediately accessible.
In order to know if your idea had been received, you could do easy searches on the Wiki pages.
What is on change.gov are some documents submitted by groups like the ACLU--which are very useful. But the entries are (1) not easy to create and (2) certainly not representative of the whole country (3) impossible to search easily.
Why CHANGE.GOV?
The fact is that the giant 13M+ database the Obama campaign had assembled during the campaign can not by law be used to solicit supporters once he's in office (only .gov sites can be). It began to make sense. They can't just transfer the database. We have to go out to change.gov to re-enter the data.
And how to induce us to do that? Ask for our input. Who doesn't want to be included? The HOPE factor was off the charts and we all believed it was going to happen.
When Was Your Idea Reflected on CHANGE.GOV?
If you're like me, you've submitted many ideas to change.gov. Id like to know how many of your ideas have been either reflected on the site or in the decisions that were made.
Other Ideas Ignored
Here are just a few of the issues offered and ignored that have lead me to this point:
FISA::
Still a candidate, Obama ignored the 20,000 on his website who opposed his support of the FISA Amendments Act of July 2007. He read a few entries, posted a comment and ignored all the input. His posted "statement" but didn't explain WHY he would support such a travesty of public trust when it was not required. This was my first loss of faith in "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN."
Agriculture Secretary:
This was not a topic I had thought much about (like not at all) until I saw Michael Pollan on Bill Moyers' Journal. It was a revelation to me.
Here are the basics:
Our agriculture has become five Commodity Crops (corn, wheat, oats, soy and cotton). These Commodity Crops deplete the soil, causing the use of petroleum-based fertilizers. The nitrogen in the fertilizers causes overgrowth of algae in the ocean and lakes and streams. It pollutes our groundwaters. These single crops attract pests because we have put a huge banquet in one place. Pesticides are used--more pollution.
With these crops, we have subsidized the fast food industry, to the exclusion of other foods. The corn is used to feed the cattle (at a cost of 10 calories in to 1 calorie out). The corn makes corn fructose, which sweetens our soft drinks, making them more affordable than any fruit or fruit juice. The soy makes the oils that almost all fast food is fried in.
Michael Pollan suggests that if $1 per lunch were given to school children, with the requirement that it be spent on produce within 100 miles, that alone would create a market for locally-grown produce. It can create markets for community gardens and "victory gardens" in the inner city where grocery stores selling produce have left. Food stamps are accepted at farmers markets. Making them redeamable for only locally-grown produce would further create a market.
Agri-business subsidies and subsidies to multimillionaire farmers have created these Commodity Crops and will not be pushed out by Ag Secretaries like Tom Vilsack.
Support for corn ethanol has single-handedly starved thousands around the world and caused price increases in milk, meat, flours--virtually everything we eat. It created shortages around the world, and Tom Vilsack has been a staunch proponent.
Was any of this included in the Obama Transition Team's decision? NO-BECAUSE NONE OF OUR COMMENTS GET THROUGH.
Pastor Rick Warren
This is the most recent example of the throwaway chatter from all of us. Barack called it "noisy, opinionated" and proceeded to ignore all input. His coolness comes across as patronizing amusement at our over-wrought reactions. That response is now becoming all too familiar.
The fact that all of you went back to BarackObama.com to register your complaints is further proof that you all feel UNHEARD on Change.gov. You are right to feel it.
This is not change--it is a scam.
What Should We Do Now?
I welcome input about how we can gain real power again.
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