1/25/2006 10:59:00 PM|||Jonthon|||

Tonight I attended the PBS issues forum. There should be many more of these; indeed, they said Missouri is under-represented in their series. I believe we had sixteen people, seated in a horseshow. There were boom mics, but the cameras were pretty noninvasive. The issue at hand was how to bring people back into civic life. They supplied us with readings for three separate approaches, and we spent twenty-five minutes talking about each. The first approach focused on the need for moral virtue, the second was a Putnam-ish call for increased civic organizations, and the last was to move toward a more local, involved, and direct democracy. Obviously, I fall in the last category, but each of them do have some good points. And indeed, that is what our conversation illuminated. And the conversation...was amazing. There was an Iranian woman and her son, who is an MU freshman. A social worker. A former political staffer in Michigan. An urban planning associate. A soul rapper. A divorced mom who lived with her mom. Two teachers. A library staffer. A state representative. Two drug law reform progressives. And a few others. Of course, these people were all much more than that, but I've picked the details to show the range. But it was civil, deliberative, and purposeful. It will be aired for our senators and representatives to give them added perspective on the public mind. And PBS should be GIVEN MORE MONEY to perform more of them.

Review the source materials here.

|||113825238670969213|||PBS Issues Forum