Thanks for all the Political Threads (Political - What Else)

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This may sound a bit bizzare, but my daughter would like to thank everyone who has thrown their hat in the ring with all the political posts concerning the election. She has printed them and taken them to her high school Government class. You all remember U.S. Government class, don't you? The one that most of us slept through because it was such a crashing bore? .

Well, not anymore. The debate is raging in her high school about how this election was handled and what can be changed to make it better. These kids realize that they will be the next generation of voters and they certainly don't want to do it the way their parents did :) The Countryside Forum Posters (CFP) have put a human face on the debate with opinions and positions from all over the country. And, I must admit, with passion, respect and humor. .

So, on behalf of my daughter, Cecilia Ann Miller, junior at Cardinal High School in Middlefield Ohio, thank you one and all for an outstanding real-life honest-to-gosh lesson in Government 101. .

Kindest Regards, Craig & Cecilia Ann Miller

-- Craig Miller (CMiller@ssd.com), November 20, 2000

Answers

Craig and Cecilia, it's nice to know all our "debating" can be of use to help explain how our goverment works, and how feedback from the commonman helps change the course of events (hopefully!). My father- in-law's family is of the Miller's in Middlefield, they're Amish. Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), November 20, 2000.

And I was thinking how divisive all the argueing seemed.Now I can look at it in a different light.Thanks for sharing this with us.Agreed with your political postings, as well!

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 20, 2000.

I too have enjoyed the education that I've received from the postings.

If your daughter's class comes up with solutions to what they preceive as problems, why not post them and let us pick them apart so that we can endorse them or give our reasons why they wouldn't work.

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), November 20, 2000.


Far from being divisive, Sharon, these posts are exciting and entertaining. In typical teen irreverence, certain outspoken posters here have been given the character names in last summer's hit "Survivor". And they have something of a "cult" following. .

Meanwhile, my daughter's class is busy badgering the Ohio election officials to find out what percentage of Ohio votes were "dumped" for irregularities and why. What are the rules for recounts, etc. This is exciting stuff to young adults who have suddenly realized that their next vote CAN make a difference. No textbook could possibly capture the feeling of history-in-the-making. .

P.S. Can you guess who got pegged as "Rudy"? :) .

(:raig

-- Craig Miller (CMiller@ssd.com), November 20, 2000.


Rudy? was he the cranky old fart? I have to admit to being one of three people in america who did not watch survivors. wait, I take that back. I did see one episode when I was back home.They had kicked off the handy guy, and I thought they were all totally out of their gourds for getting rid of the best fixer- upper,and they could just ship him over here to help out, any day. After that,I lost ALL respect for them.I guess I'm just too intolerant.

So,boy,I'd have to vote hubbie as the cranky old fart, bless his heart.Hope he doesn't read this! ha!

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 20, 2000.



Sharon, I was the second person who didn't watch the show! Who's number three?

Craig, whatever helps these young folk realize the importance of civics is fine in my book! (Hey, how come I LOVED the subject when I was in school?!)

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), November 20, 2000.


I never saw it either....who were they and what were the major character points so that those of us who choose to forego programming can make guesses? I do know that the guy named Richard won, but that's it.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), November 20, 2000.

I never saw the "Survivor" show either, someone fill us in, please. Sheepish, you're not alone, I loved high school civics class, really enjoyed arguing key points with the teachers. Of course, I was a true geek, on the Debate team, Thespians, if only I had realized the importance of the future of computers, oh well.... :-) Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), November 20, 2000.

I stand corrected .We are the five people in america that did not watch.Hubbie is fifth.I read something abt. Richard being the one that walked around necked.What do you expect of people that got rid of the guy who could make cool stuff out of about nothing.Not our kind of people,I'd expect.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 21, 2000.

BWT craig-fess up. Did your daughter saddle you with the Rudy handle?

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 21, 2000.


Okay, for you 40 and over crowd, here's a gist of what "Survivor" was last summer. A group of people were stranded on a Pacific Island and they had to survive by their wits. The twist was that every few days, the group voted one of their own off the island and the last person left got $1 million dollars. If it hadn't been for the money incentive it would have been a nice story of people working togehter for the coomon good. Instead, raw greed was the order of the day and it got downright nasty. .

The high school students couldn't help but draw parallels between "Survivor" and the presidential election. What started out as an election for the common good has degenerated into a dog-eat-dog fight to the finish. Here's a link to the the T.V. show. .

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/ .

So, who's Rudy here on Countryside? A certain self-proclaimed anarchist with a big heart. :) .

P.S. to Notforprint - I've given your suggestion to my daughter's class and they'll have recommendations after Thanksgiving break. .

(:raig

-- Craig (CMiller@ssd.com), November 21, 2000.


I never saw Survivor and never really wanted to (six and counting). I have been watching BBC's 'Castaways' tho, which throws the folks out onto an island in the Outer Hebrides (maps out, folks) in January of 2000 and they will be there for 15 months. There is NO cash incentive on this one (other than what they'll be able to cash in on from entertainment industries after the fact, which shouldn't be bad at all) -- and before it ever gets onto the island, the people are squabbling and fighting about you name it. They are ostensibly doing the homesteading bit, with sheep, cows, chickens,pigs, and one horse to the lot of them. They can't even settle kitchen chores without it dissolving into a fist fight, in my opinion because they picked people who were not used to any kind of cooperation (and they had already weeded out the worst offenders in the first go-round before they ever even saw the island -- their 'fix-it guy' is the one most ready with the fisticuffs). They are ostensibly there to form a 'new community' and it will be interesting to see if they ever get their sh--act together and pull in one direction. And I'm very grateful that I'm not one of them.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), November 23, 2000.

I never watched Survivor either, so add me to the list of (happily) ignorant ones!! Craig and Cecilia Ann, I've been getting quite an education from the political threads here, too -- I've been pretty out of the main flow of information for years, since we don't have TV -- and it has been really interesting to read through them. I've learned a few things, and changed my views on some things, and I think others have, too. It's good to know that, even though we may be the 'over-forty crowd' we can still learn!

Julie, did you mean January of 2001? Sounds like a mess in the making. But you know, in the past when new communities were formed from scratch, usually it was a group doing it -- whether a family or 'clan', or a group with similar beliefs or politics, they at least had something in common, were able to acknowledge a common rule of law, and usually had a leader of some kind. The only parallel I can think of to what you describe is the penal colonies, when England was sending her criminals to isolated colonies in the Americas and Australia. And even there, there was some rule of law, until the prisoners escaped and formed their own communities beyond the reach of her majesties soldiers. Does it make you think of an adult version of Lord of the Flies?!?

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), November 23, 2000.


Number 8 here. Julie is taping the episodes of that Castaway show for me (I don't get that "channel"). It's January of 2000 -- they were filming/taping back then, and now it's being shown on the tube. I guess they must still be there (and probably heartily sick of it by now). I gotta start watching the episodes she's already given me . . .

You're right, Kathleen, about how usually it would've been some sort of a homogenous group in most homesteading situations, but I guess "castaway" says it best in this case. Like they were shipwreck victims or something. The island was previously inhabited, but no one has lived there for years. If you do a web search on BBC America, you can probably find it and read the web updates.

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), November 23, 2000.


Hey! I am not yet over 40, just don't have a teevee anymore.Please don't make me older than I am, Craig. Time is moving quickly enough, thank you.

I would expect a fair amount of violence from the folks in the hebrides. It's rainy and overcast there quite a bit. Tends to agitate a lot of people. But then again, these are Brits, right? I think they tend to be more civil than the rest of the English speaking world, unless of course there is a soccer match involved!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), November 26, 2000.



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