Re: [atlarge-discuss] Re: WG-DNS name protection

[espresso@e-scape.net]

At 12:52 -0700 2002/10/18, Jeff Williams wrote:
>  Where might such a place like you mention, be Judyth?  I would like to >move there if it actually exists!  But of course this is just BS isn't it?  
>Nice try Judyth, no cigar though...

Try heading north of the 49th parallel. Lots of your fellow-Americans do!
No BS -- "peace, order, and (sorta) good government" if you disregard the graft that politicians do everywhere. Low crime, public schools hurting for money don't need to spend it on armed guards and security cameras, and you can walk anywhere but a handful of streets in the whole country at any hour of day or night. (Heck, we even know how to count ballots!) 

Yes, taxes *are* higher here but we get well-lighted streets, decent education, and better, more accessible health care for it. Yes, our social safety net is rather strained thanks to incessant pressure from south of the border. But no, we haven't exchanged the rule of law for the "right" to settle our differences with bullets, and we don't intend to.

>Good citizenship requires good healthy knowledge of the truth, not 
>wishful thinking.  This is of course not ever to say that
>wishful thinking is not useful as part of good citizenship, it is. 
>But dealing with reality is a far more important element of good >citizenship...

Indeed it is. Democracy functions well only when the citizenry is well-informed and can vote rationally on the issues. That's one reason it's important that all citizens be as well-educated, as aware of their civic responsibilities, and as able to access information as possible. It's also one reason we Canadians place such emphasis on issues like Internet access for all, citizen participation in public hearings and online consultations, involvement in intergovernmental bodies, and the pursuit of social justice at home and abroad.

Maintaining democracy is *hard work*, as the signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence knew. It's not just hard on elected representatives and appointees but also on the citizenry which must be vigilant to keep them honest and responsive. 

Different states seem to foster this approach to different degrees. I apologize for the cheap shot at Texas -- Lord knows it applies every bit as much to Florida (where I have family, too) and other states -- but you can consider us up here in Canada as a sort of extra-large, extra-snowy version of Vermont [;-)] where there never were any gunslingers and there's a strong tradition of rational argument in and out of the courts.

Maybe that's why I tend to grow impatient when people make ill-informed comments or try to reduce democracy to mudslinging in environments like this.

Regards,

Judyth

===

Extract from a review of Michael Moore's film "Bowling for Columbine"
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
<http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/>

>[snip]
>In one scene, Moore, a lifetime member of the National Rifle
>Association, goes to door to door in Toronto, Canada, doesn't knock, and
>just walks in.
>
>Apparently, in Canada, many people don't lock their doors.
>
>This in a country, Canada, where there are 7 million guns for a
>population of 33 million.
>
>But in Canada there are fewer than 400 gun deaths a year.
>
>In the United States, we hit 400 in two weeks -- that's 11,000 gun
>deaths a year.
>
>In the U.S., eight children under the age of 18 are killed by guns in
>America every day.
>
>Moore raises a disturbing question: if it's just the guns, stupid, then
>how come Canadians are not slaughtering themselves the way we are
>slaughtering ourselves?
>[snip]



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Judyth Mermelstein     "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
Montreal, QC           <espresso@e-scape.net>
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"A word to the wise is sufficient. For others, use more."
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