Non-partisan reform working group

[Flip Molinar]

Since I have been away for a long time and have just returned within the last 3 days or so, I was wondering if we could form a nonpartisan working group to talk about issues of political, cultural, and linguistic concern. I think a lot of the division that I see now and have seen for years throughout the kingdom could be solved by face to face dialogue and I'm glad that I see a lot of that happening right now with various new media outlets popping up regularly the last two or three years. I think that's healthy and I think if we all commit to actually meeting with each other once a week or once a month and having a previously agreed topic or set up agenda items to discuss, we could prepare our thoughts and truly communicate with one another and in that way, get away from the anonymity that a simple post like this affords us. Just as an example, I have met with a couple members of the Kingdom over the past almost 17 years that I've been a Talossan citizen and a common theme that I realize pops up every time is that people are nicer to each other in person or when they can see them and hear them directly instead of merely reading their words typed out on a digital device of one kind or another.

So with all that being said, I would be glad to set up recurring zoom meetings at times that are convenient for everyone and I would also be glad to help with agenda and logistics and whatever else I can assist with. It certainly doesn't always have to be political in nature, but that's part of it. I think if we add cultural and linguistic discussions into the mix, that will temper some of the political animosity and iron out the issues of only seeing each other in one dimension. Seeing each other face to face and actually hearing each other's voices in real time will allow us to see the whole person behind viewpoints that we either agree with or disagree with and that's something that's been missing for my entire involvement in the Kingdom. It's something that I think is sorely needed and many of the problems of the past two or three decades could have been avoided or at least largely mitigated if there had been more direct, visual and verbal communication instead of nearly reading each other's words without any other context or emotion behind them. Sorry to be long-winded, but I dictate so this tends to happen despite my attempts to edit myself afterwards. Thanks for your consideration.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Since I have been away for a long time and have just returned within the last 3 days or so, I was wondering if we could form a nonpartisan working group to talk about issues of political, cultural, and linguistic concern. I think a lot of the division that I see now and have seen for years throughout the kingdom could be solved by face to face dialogue and I'm glad that I see a lot of that happening right now with various new media outlets popping up regularly the last two or three years. I think that's healthy and I think if we all commit to actually meeting with each other once a week or once a month and having a previously agreed topic or set up agenda items to discuss, we could prepare our thoughts and truly communicate with one another and in that way, get away from the anonymity that a simple post like this affords us. Just as an example, I have met with a couple members of the Kingdom over the past almost 17 years that I've been a Talossan citizen and a common theme that I realize pops up every time is that people are nicer to each other in person or when they can see them and hear them directly instead of merely reading their words typed out on a digital device of one kind or another.

So with all that being said, I would be glad to set up recurring zoom meetings at times that are convenient for everyone and I would also be glad to help with agenda and logistics and whatever else I can assist with. It certainly doesn't always have to be political in nature, but that's part of it. I think if we add cultural and linguistic discussions into the mix, that will temper some of the political animosity and iron out the issues of only seeing each other in one dimension. Seeing each other face to face and actually hearing each other's voices in real time will allow us to see the whole person behind viewpoints that we either agree with or disagree with and that's something that's been missing for my entire involvement in the Kingdom. It's something that I think is sorely needed and many of the problems of the past two or three decades could have been avoided or at least largely mitigated if there had been more direct, visual and verbal communication instead of nearly reading each other's words without any other context or emotion behind them. Sorry to be long-winded, but I dictate so this tends to happen despite my attempts to edit myself afterwards. Thanks for your consideration.

I am definitely interested in participating. And I agree with you on how direct, visual communication could make it less easy to demonize and make people into caricatures. This is why I put my picture on my profile and was a reason for the Talossa Talks initiative.

[Flip Molinar]

Wonderful!

[Barclamïu da Miéletz]

Would be great material for my channel.

[Flip Molinar]

Would be great material for my channel.

The discussions could definitely be featured on various media outlets depending on the topics 

[Barclamïu da Miéletz]

Would be great material for my channel.

The discussions could definitely be featured on various media outlets depending on the topics 

Especially mine which I founded yesterday.

[Flip Molinar]

Would be great material for my channel.

The discussions could definitely be featured on various media outlets depending on the topics 

Especially mine which I founded yesterday.

I would be honored to play a part in the first steps of your channel.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Would be great material for my channel.

The discussions could definitely be featured on various media outlets depending on the topics 

Yes, Fora Talossa would also welcome the chance to broadcast these ventures.

[Flip Molinar]

Would be great material for my channel.

The discussions could definitely be featured on various media outlets depending on the topics 

Yes, Fora Talossa would also welcome the chance to broadcast these ventures.

Much appreciated!

[Barclamïu da Miéletz]

Would be great material for my channel.

The discussions could definitely be featured on various media outlets depending on the topics 

Especially mine which I founded yesterday.

Feel free to check out its wiki page in my signature.

[Flip Molinar]

I like it and the logo looks good.

[Barclamïu da Miéletz]

[...] the logo looks good.

Innit? Nice, simple, nothing too fancy. And features the bicoloreu!

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Flip, did you get any responses in private to your outreach? I am guessing election season explains the muted response to this thread.

[Flip Molinar]

Flip, did you get any responses in private to your outreach? I am guessing election season explains the muted response to this thread.

I have only received one response so far but I think you are right about the election. I'm more than happy to wait until August when the Ziu is in session.

I will try to sum up where the discussion is at. It was pointed out to me that participation in the census counts as participation for the purposes of not losing your citizenship. It was also suggested that we need a way to be able to remove citizens that have died from the list of citizens.

As such, I sympathize with these two points but I would still argue that keeping people on as citizens is more important than dealing with the minor inconvenience of sending out election ballots and census forms to people that may or may not be deceased. I could see one work around solution to this problem being a system where we look for obituaries if a citizen has not voted or responded to a census within the past three or five or seven or ten years, whatever we decide.

An alternative solution could be to make it so that if a citizen hasn't voted in three consecutive elections, they are no longer eligible to vote and would have to re-register to vote in order to be able to vote again. This would allow the Secretary of State to not have to mail or email every single citizen a ballot when there is a good chance that some citizens are either not interested in voting, just inactive, forgot about the nation entirely, or have passed away. This would also eliminate the need to verify that someone is still living.

I think the second solution is much more workable than the first one both logistically and in terms of our compassion for our fellow citizens. I would like to see this implemented in conjunction with the designation of Honor for deceased citizens that Ian has suggested elsewhere. The exact terms and mechanisms for that new practice could be developed separately but I think it's a great idea to go along with the automatic and immediate reinstatement of all former citizens of the kingdom of Talossa (with a blacklist of citizens who are permanently disqualified from holding a political,state, or royal office as a result of judgements for a criminal offense) as well as the elimination of all activity related removals of citizenship such as not voting for a certain amount of time or not responding to a census for another amount of time.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Flip, did you get any responses in private to your outreach? I am guessing election season explains the muted response to this thread.

I have only received one response so far but I think you are right about the election. I'm more than happy to wait until August when the Ziu is in session.

I will try to sum up where the discussion is at. It was pointed out to me that participation in the census counts as participation for the purposes of not losing your citizenship. It was also suggested that we need a way to be able to remove citizens that have died from the list of citizens.

As such, I sympathize with these two points but I would still argue that keeping people on as citizens is more important than dealing with the minor inconvenience of sending out election ballots and census forms to people that may or may not be deceased. I could see one work around solution to this problem being a system where we look for obituaries if a citizen has not voted or responded to a census within the past three or five or seven or ten years, whatever we decide.

An alternative solution could be to make it so that if a citizen hasn't voted in three consecutive elections, they are no longer eligible to vote and would have to re-register to vote in order to be able to vote again. This would allow the Secretary of State to not have to mail or email every single citizen a ballot when there is a good chance that some citizens are either not interested in voting, just inactive, forgot about the nation entirely, or have passed away. This would also eliminate the need to verify that someone is still living.

I think the second solution is much more workable than the first one both logistically and in terms of our compassion for our fellow citizens. I would like to see this implemented in conjunction with the designation of Honor for deceased citizens that Ian has suggested elsewhere. The exact terms and mechanisms for that new practice could be developed separately but I think it's a great idea to go along with the automatic and immediate reinstatement of all former citizens of the kingdom of Talossa (with a blacklist of citizens who are permanently disqualified from holding a political,state, or royal office as a result of judgements for a criminal offense) as well as the elimination of all activity related removals of citizenship such as not voting for a certain amount of time or not responding to a census for another amount of time.

Understandable. I hope that after the election that more than one will take up your offer, Flip.