Thursday, November 29, 2012

The Experiment is Over

That's right - CD (Clearly Derby) is done with government. When CD was started 1 year ago our purpose was to test the following hypothesis: If citizens are provided with easier access to local government then they will participate more in local government.

My answer to the above question is NO. Granted CD was small and we only did this for a year but I still failed to see any correlation between availability and interest. There were a few flickers, here and there, but not enough to warrant another year of testing IMO.

However, I do see a lot of interest on the part of Derbyites, and others in the Valley, to socialize and help each other out. I love doing my facebook page, and I've grown very fond of all the peeps, so I am going to convert Clearly Derby, using the same name, into something different. I've looked at everything else out there and feel that there is already plenty of coverage for the news and general social interactions such as charity events and parades. We also have many talented photographers that provide us with beautiful images of our Valley, all the time.

So, I'm picking people! I'm going to model CD after People magazine and I will thoroughly 'examine' the people of Derby - all of them - the good and the bad, old and young, native and newcomer, alive and dead, Italian, Polish, Irish, and Latino.

This will be generally fact-based but I will be throwing in some innuendo and a little gossip here and there too.

Oh, and we'll still have our games and our prizes. In fact, I'm going to be adding some new ones too.

From now until January 1st I'm going to be a slouch. I'll do the contest on Monday and do the occasional post - but not the whole enchilada yet. I need a break!

Love you all!

5 comments:

  1. I think you're doing a great job however you do it. Political or social or whatever. Thank you for all your hard work and effort!

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  2. May I suggest that the political and the social are much closer than you may think, and that involvement in local government might be happening in ways that you don't realize. After all, government is part of the social contract.

    I'd also suggest that sometimes, things aren't always what they seem. For a great example of this, find some time to watch "Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

    In one section, Randy says, "OK, and so one of the expressions I learned at Electronic Arts, which I love, which pertains to this, is experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And I think that’s absolutely lovely. And the other thing about football is we send our kids out to play football or soccer or swimming or whatever it is, and it’s the first example of what I’m going to call a head fake, or indirect learning. We actually don’t want our kids to learn football. I mean, yeah, it’s really nice that I have a wonderful three-point stance and that I know how to do a chop block and all this kind of stuff. But we send our kids out to learn much more important things. Teamwork, sportsmanship, perseverance, etcetera, etcetera. And these kinds of head fake learning are absolutely important. And you should keep your eye out for them because they’re everywhere."

    Be sure to watch the video to get how really important that is....

    It ties back to my campaign for State Representative in the 114th. While Rep. Klarides was re-elected, I have been explaining that I also won. I won by making sure the seat was not uncontested. I won by getting a chance to talk about the issues. I won by getting others involved.

    So, good luck with whatever the next step is for you....

    Aldon

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Aldon. I totally agree that every candidate wins. It is so important to give people choices and a chance to hear both sides. Yes, you were also a winner. I'll check out the video tomorrow.

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  3. If you promise to stop using "peeps" ad nauseum, I'm sure more would participate :P

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