Real Democracy = Ordinary People Make the Laws: Volunteer: Help Put Question X on the Ballot

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Volunteer: Help Put Question X on the Ballot

QUESTION X is the following single-sentence question for voters to vote YES or N0:

"Shall the state representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of a proposal to amend the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to replace the state Legislature with 100 randomly selected adult residents of the Commonwealth, each serving a one year term, to be called the Commonwealth Jury and to have all the legislative and other powers of the current Legislature?"

Question X will appear as Question #5 in the 25th Middlesex (Somerville) state representative district in the November 2008 election.

MORE DETAILS ABOUT THIS PROPOSAL

Please contact me at spritzler@comcast.net if you would like to help campaign for this question (it is Question #4 in Somerville in the November 2008 election) or get Question X on the 2010 ballot in YOUR state representative district. It takes only 200 signatures to make it happen.

Thank you!

John Spritzler
spritzler@comcast.net
8 Chiswick Rd. #5
Brighton, MA 02135

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: I think this is a great idea and would like to help collect signatures to put Question X on the ballot. James ryan5@mac.com; October 3, 2007 at 12:13 PM

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What Will Question X Really Accomplish?

Even if Question X wins a majority of votes, the politicians will most likely not implement it. So what good does it do to put the question on the ballot? The answer is that it will strengthen the forces who want democracy and help them eventually win it, by whatever means are required.

Placing Question X on the ballot will enable everybody to see in the voting results that lots and lots of people agree with them that our current system of "representative democracy" is not really democratic, and that we need a fundamental change to get real democracy. It will create a widespread public awareness of the fact that we--who know we don't have real democracy today and who want to get it-- are the majority. This is a necessary condition for building a movement that can do whatever it actually takes to win real democracy. Here's why.

Most people know that we don't have real democracy in our state or country. They know that a wealthy elite holds the real power, no matter who we vote for. But most people also feel powerless to do anything about it, and therefore don't even try, because they feel that they are pretty much alone in thinking the forbidden thought: that the big problem in our society is that it isn't really a democracy. It is natural to feel alone on this issue when we never see anybody on TV or hear anybody on the radio express the forbidden thought, and when our friends and neighbors and co-workers never express it either because it is taboo to do so.

The first step towards making our state and country truly democratic is to create a public awareness that it isn't just a tiny minority who think that we don't have democracy and that we need to get it, but that the great majority of us feel that way. When we know we're not alone, we will have the confidence to take the kind of concrete steps that are required to win the fight for democracy--whatever we decide those steps may be. Placing Question X on the ballot can help create this confidence.

Real Democracy = Ordinary People Make the Laws

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Volunteer: Help Put Question X on the Ballot

1 comment:

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