Ruminations

Declaration of Independence Day – A Weekly Remembrance

Bryan Watson9 years ago01 mins

We designate one historic day each year to serve as our “Independence Day” holiday, but what about the rest of the year? Perhaps, in today’s America, we need to designate one day per week, not one day per year, as a day to reflect on and celebrate the origins of our country.

That day should be designated as “Declaration of Independence Day” – a day set aside to revisit the document that expresses why we assumed a “separate and equal station” among other nations.

One day each week to be a citizen-hero, to look carefully at what our government is doing and measure it against the ideals of those 56 heroes who dared be traitors so our rights were protected.

Good Government

The Next Generation, and the Next

Bryan Watson7 years ago02 mins

Everyone has something to contribute and everyone contributes more than their share. So many people talked about stepping outside their comfort zone, going one step further, trying something for the first time – and feeling exhilarated by it.

A Teaching Moment, Squandered

Bryan Watson8 years ago5 years ago02 mins

Give 30 minutes to walk out and return, then give an hour to study of these basic tenets of being a citizen in the US, their history, the difficulties of conflicts between rights and safety, how bills become law, and how protests change (or don’t change) law, how courts decide conflicts.

Basic civics education.

CHANNELLING Behavior : Rewards and Punishments through the Tax System

Bryan Watson9 years ago01 mins

Channelling is an important element of the tax system. We have no other way of rewarding – therefore, encouraging – good behavior. And we can’t punish – therefore, discourage – bad behavior except by making it illegal, and our Constitution and other rights often prevent us from doing that.

Winning Elections

Bryan Watson8 years ago02 mins

If you consider that an election is just marketing, then you would do what a marketer would do — look at who is gaining market share and copy what they are doing. Why? Because you are going after the same market, the same population of consumers. So, if McDonald’s introduces Filet-o-Fish with huge success, Burger…

THEIR own self-interest? Or ours?

Bryan Watson8 years ago02 mins

I think people always operate in their own self-interest. Always.

And I think we rarely know what someone else sees as their own self-interest. Instead, we impose on them what we believe they should be interested in.

Common But Not Normal

Bryan Watson8 years ago01 mins

In the wake of the most recent mass shooting – this time, in a Florida school – many commentators are noting, sadly, that tragedies like this have become the “new normal.” I disagree – tragedies like this have become “all too common“, but I reject the notion that this is “normal“, whether new or old….

Government should be optimistic

Bryan Watson6 years ago5 years ago02 mins

“The West Wing”, Season 3, Episode 12: “100,000 Airplanes” (January 16, 2002) SCENE: The team is gathered in the Oval Office. President Bartlett has told them that he wants to include something in his State of the Union speech to say that we will cure cancer. His advisers explain, one by one, why he can’t…

I Don’t Hate Trump

Bryan Watson9 years ago01 mins

Everybody on one side says everybody on the other side hates Donald Trump.

No, I don’t hate him.

To be most charitable, I don’t care about him enough to hate him. I know other people who are crude or selfish or conceited or overbearing or loud or crass or ignorant. I’ve responded by ignoring them.

No, I don’t hate Trump. But I do hate – wait, let me think… yes, I do hate what he has been doing.

Legacy – A Duty to Our Children

Bryan Watson6 years ago02 mins

This cannot be our legacy. Our children deserve better. Future generations must have time to invent, to innovate, and to thrive. We have a duty to uplift our children and our grandchildren. Our legacy to our children must be a fertile world that encourages exploration, shares discoveries, expands each other’s universe, and grows our democracy. We have a duty.

Declaration of Independence Day – A Weekly Remembrance

Review: ‘Gunfight, My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America’

Article III

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”

“Our Sacred Honour”

Es gilt viele Mauern abzubauen

Declaration of Independence Day – A Weekly Remembrance

The Next Generation, and the Next

A Teaching Moment, Squandered

CHANNELLING Behavior : Rewards and Punishments through the Tax System

Winning Elections

THEIR own self-interest? Or ours?

Common But Not Normal

Government should be optimistic

I Don’t Hate Trump

Legacy – A Duty to Our Children