fake consultant

Name:	fake consultant
Location:	North Bend, WA

My personal volunteering highlight:

I posted a series of stories in 2007 describing the efforts of a group of Chula Vista, California parents who were trying to end the serving of “Alternate Meals” to students whose parents owe the District money.

Long story short, the practice involves removing the option of the “regular” meal that all the other students get, and serving that child a cheese sandwich. This could involve literally removing the meal from the child’s hand in front of the other students for a debt as low as $7.50.

There are Districts throughout California and the Nation who practice this form of bill collection…but the parents informed me that first they succeeded in getting the practice banned by the State of California, and finally that Chula Vista’s School District had adopted the State’s new policy, meaning no more children have to be humiliated because their parents forgot to pay the bill.

More about my volunteering with DFA:

The principal focus of my activism has been to try to be a world-class source of news and insight, here and at other Progressive sites; the eventual goal being to become the New Media equivalent of a “syndicated columnist”.

At the beginning of the third year of posting stories, I began bringing the conversations to this site. As we enter the fourth year this summer the goal will be to provide coverage that reaches out to the subjects of the stories, when possible, so that they may provide their own perspectives on the stories of the moment.

More about my volunteering with progressive organizations:

I’m a member of Huffington Post’s “Off the Bus” citizen journalist group, which recently motivated me to attend a "tea party" event so as to provide a report for the rest of us as to what these folks might want and what their state of mind might be.

More about my work on current campaigns and issues:

I’ve done a little bit of work this year for Justice Works in Washington State, who seek to reform the State’s “three-strikes” law, including my first trip to Olympia to lobby my legislators, and I’ve been working off and on to motivate the State of Washington (and the larger Nation) to take MRSA infections more seriously.

What motivates me:

I do not trust my Government, plain and simple; and as a result I feel compelled to be active.

But beyond that, even in a world where Government is working for us, the only way to ensure it stays on the right track is to be politically active.

Finally, there is always the struggle to, on the one hand, protect the civil rights we have today, and on the other hand, to work to achieve equal rights for those who aren’t today subject to equal justice under the law.

How I try to motivate others:

I try to do it through my writing.

The majority of the stories you’ll find on my pages are intended to alert you to news that has not yet happened, to make you aware of the facts behind the political questions of the day, and to expose you to people who overcame tough odds themselves.

This combination of foresight, insight, and inspiration makes a more effective—and more motivated—activist; and as we learned in ’06 and ’08, the activists who have better foresight, insight, and inspiration…win.

Where I see myself in five years:

I want to be the “go-to” person when it comes time to explain complex challenges in “real world” terms.

I want to be somebody who is active in making Americans more aware of the world’s news; a project already begun through, among others, my “On The View From Egypt” series of stories.

I want to be somebody who brings new ideas to the table; and in the past 18 months those have taken the form of:

--An Examination of how we could convert the entire US automobile fleet to electric for the same cost as the Iraq War,
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--How the Air Force’s “2018 Bomber” could be purchased in the form of a multipurpose “bomber/freighter”,

--A proposal to create a new class of “corporate persons” that would have a mandate to consider the public good when conducting its affairs in exchange for greater Constitutional protections than an “only for profit” corporation.

My suggested bumper sticker slogan for the Stand with Dr. Dean campaign:

Only Sickos Hate Healthcare