The 4-Minute |
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A novel concept
from A.C.Katz, founder of CreatingAFuture.org 
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| Find
your Congressional Representatives! Read the 4 Minute Democracy In the News and On the Stage |
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| "Creating Hope When Politics Are Hopeless." |
| The 4-Minute Democracy |
| An novel concept from A.C.Katz, founder of CreatingAFuture.org |
| If the US is going to bring Democracy to the world, we need to be
one here first.
Our democracy is based on electing representatives every 4 years, but all the decisions about how the country is run are made DURING those four years. The job of our Representatives is to represent us, but if we don’t tell them how to vote, then they can vote however they want. And who do they represent? The businesses and special interests that donate money to their campaigns and tell them how THEY think the rep should vote. Why would our reps listen to us? Because they want to get re-elected! If we tell them how to vote, but they vote differently, then we can kick them out at the next election. To see how your reps voted, go to http://www.voterpunch.org/. Does your one voice matter? Congress knows that every phone call, letter, email, or fax they receive represents a MILLION people who didn’t take the time, or know how to contact them! What happens when you phone? An intern will take the call, ask your name and address, and ask for your opinion. That’s it! It takes less than a minute! Do they get the message? My Rep, David Wu, always writes me a letter back explaining why he agrees with me, or if he doesn’t, he tells me why. What’s the 4-Minute Democracy? It’s easy! PUT YOUR REPS IN YOUR SPEED DIAL! Then, any time something in the news is important to you, makes you angry, or inspires you, dial: Speed-6: Your first senator It takes 1 minute per phone call, 4 minutes altogether, and IT WORKS! Get the numbers at: Congress Merge |
| What You Can Do : |
The hilarious and brilliant yourcongress.com has every resource we wish we could have on this website
but don't have the resources to implement. So, go there! |
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| This website has several wonderful
features: *Action alerts. They’ll tell you what votes are coming up in Congress and give you a link to instantly let you contact your reps via email. *Media blitzes. Moveon.org raises money for tv commercials and short videos to reach citizens who don’t have internet access. |
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| The website from Ben Cohen from
Ben & Jerry’s ice cream: *Action alerts. They’ll send you an email before Congressional votes with a link that will instantly fax your reps. *The ComputerAte My Vote is mobilizing people to stop electronic voting booths that don’t have a paper trail. It’s not a democracy if your vote is hacked. |
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| Sends alerts on Congressional votes about environmental issues. |
| RESOURCES: |
| Elections aren't decided by the voters, they're decided by the people who count the votes.
We have a great list of resources tracking the problems with electronic voting booths. |
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| Project Vote Smart covers your candidates and elected officials in five basic categories: biographical information, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances and interest group ratings. |
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*VoterPunch.org keeps track of how your reps vote on progressive issues. *Dieoff.org discusses the timeline for oil extraction – we’re
going to run out of petroleum sooner than you think, and unless we
plan for it now we’re heading for a new dark ages. |