IntenseDebate Notification <DIV>I would not qualify as an expert in matters related to "volunteerism". But I would be happy to discuss my thoughts just the same. I am sort of retired from an IT career. I worked as a developer of complex and inovative systems since 1966. I was one of the developers of a computer system that converted Newspapers from hot type to cold type. I also was the lead consultant on a project to privatize a Canadian Agency - The Government Printing Service. Currently I am running a small ISP doing dial-up and website hosting.</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">
On Saturday I attended a "change is comming house meeting". There were 31 motivated people there. Each of us with our own priorities for the new President and his Cabinet. There are more of these meetings today. Please attend one. All Americans should get their priorities listed. Barack is the President of all Americans. You are not alone - believe me.
There are millions of Americans - young and old - that are ready to participate in the rebuilding of America. We need organized projects and leaders. I worked as a volunteer on the campaign and that seems to me to be the beginning of a model for the volunteer organization.
As the organization grows, training the volunteers to be leaders will be important. The success of every organization, business, family is leadership. This is a skill that is frequently not learned at school. In the past, we taught leadership only in the armed forces and a select numer of Universities.
This is an opportunity and I am ready to volunteer.
This document seemed to be vague and tilted towards the suppliers, especially when I started looking at the slides - which contain statistics. The figures seem to be expressing a strong image of what we are doing is the best and the rest of the world is on the wrong track. Before I would follow any recommendations of this group, I would look for an independent view of what should be done and how it could be done in a method that would make the systems available, affordable and user friendly enough to be used by all Americans.
Water should never belong to an individual or other entity. Water belongs to everyone of us equally. When the water is given to someone, they are being given wealth and control. Hawaii is an example of the problems presented. The battles on the islands - I live on Molokai - over water never end. The govenrment - as representatives should own and control the usage of water - all water other than catchment. The development of water policy is the responsibility of the government.
I am glad the Western Governors see that change is needed. I do not see anyone suggesting nuclear power. Everyone seems to like the electric car, but PG&E really prices electricity in a manner where the more you use, the higher the rate. This will be an impediment to the electric car.
What is an American? I would like to see the definition be inclusive and not exclusive. I think that the definitions of American, Patriot, Rich and Poor should not be used to divide the country, but to unite the people. What does this have to this discussion? It seems like each post uses a definition of these terms to leverage a particular point of view.
I am very supportive ot the transparency and openness proposed in this article. I am absolutely blown away with the website change.gov. What a great beginning. I hope all people will participate in this great beginning. This is the best idea I have seen for using the internet. Thank you.
I am 64. We own a small ISP. We have owned it for 12 years. However, it is getting smaller every month as the large guys continue to take larger market share. One year ago my wife and I put our retirement plans into motion. Our plan was to sell our house, buy a condo, sell our busiess and live off the equity in our house and our retirement funds. We put our house on the market and purchased a condo. we had owned our house for 18 years, so there was a lot of equity in it. So far, we have not been able to sell the house, and the stock market decline has reduced our retirement nest egg significantly. It is probably not possible to get a job at our age that would pay our two mortgages and our IRA's are being rapidly depleted. Probably the best thing that could happen for us would be the establishment of a real estate market - at any level. To me, this means people have to have confidence that when they purchase a house, it is going to maintain it's value and increase at a predictable rate - maybe a little better than inflation. I do not know the best way to accomplish this, but I think it would go a long way to solving a lot of problems.
Healthcare should be available for everyone.The debate should focus on the best way to deliver the services. I was wondering about the posibility of training many more doctors, urses, EMTs and other professionals as part of the mix.
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