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Idea Swap

Earth Harmony News and Views

Every Weekend Idea Swap Is updated with news and views about what is happening in our world. Check out what our folks have to say about Revolutions Abroad and at home... Check out Karen LaMantia's Facebook Page daily, for updates.

Earth Neighbors Speak Out- How Can Revolution Bring Positive Change

Solomon Turner- News Guru and ShoeShine Expert follow world news and is his community's go to guy for oppinion on what's really happening around the world. Here's his take on the protests and government change in the Middle East and elsewere.

How Can Government Meet the Needs of Its People?

"When people focus on the perpetrator of corrupt, violent and at times even senseless acts of a government or administration, there is plenty to fiind fault with, in almost any country in the world. What can help turn a government like Egypt, or for that matter any government, around? What can create a system of social and political interaction that helps people to realize their best self? How can government support right action for itself and its citizens?

People of what we now know as Tanzania had a way of deciding what good government did and used this system to decide who would be king, to rule them all. They asked two questions of any decision the government made: ' Does it help the land or does it hurt the land?' They looked for another behavior in their ruler, because they were people of a land as dry as Egypt. " Does the King bring water, does he make it rain?" If what the ruler does helps the land and provides water for people to do their own work, he stayed in power. If not, he went.

There was another, important rule the King played, to make sure that people had enough food. It was his job to look after people whose land was not enough to feed all their family. Those who could not be supported by the land were taken care of by the King. He found them work and a way to survive until they could support themselves.

Call on any system of government by any name you wish to call it, if those in power do these simple things; heal their lands and keep them safe, provide people with what they need to work for their own support and help those who need it, in times of need to become productive again, that government will remain in power."

Earth Neighbors Speak Out- Healing Our Economy- Let's Get To Work

T.Willy Wheelright is a homeless guy who knows how to survive and has some things to say that will help our economy and our world. If you have any doubt about the options for full empolyment check out his list of what needs to be done. He's got together a group of experts on how to organize and who can pay for all that...

"Some say there's unemployment and underemployment and I say there's plenty to do. I'm out here everyday, seeing what needs to be done in our cities and here's a list of what can put the US of A back to full employment and serve the rest of the world as an example. I may not know how to do all this but I do know folks who have pretty good ideas in how to get things accomplished. One or more of them will share ideas for ways we can meet these needs, with a little bit of money and a whole lot of community.

Take note you billioniares who want to give away half your money. Here's what you could buy with your bucks:

1. There's children to be taugh and watched over by resources in their community to ensure each has a positive part to play in our common future.

2. There's people of all ages to get healthy and keep healthy, so each can realize their best potential.

3. There's soil to be tended, polluted stops to be healed, water to be harvested and husbanded for the dry times.

4.There's air that needs cleaning and climate that needs to be stabalized to save out Planet for all that lives here now.

5. There's swamps and wetlands, creeks and bayous, shorelines and riverfronts that need restoring and oceans that need protecting to benfit all locally and globally

6. There's houses and shops that need restoring, weatherizing and energizing with clean, renewable energy.

7. There's food production systems that need to be developed for healthy food supplies for all people, locally and globally.

Earth Neighbors Speak Out- Healing Our Economy-

Remaking Our Education System - Part 1

Here's some good ideas on how to spend a billionaire's money to heal our schools. These simple solutions comes from Betsy Ross Jackson who was the head of the Board of Education in Tiger Country, before her lands were decimated by a chemical spill.

Problem 1- There are children to be educated and watched over by resources in our community to ensure that each has a positive part to play in our common future.

Solution 1: Hire one extra teacher for every classroom in the USA to make sure every child learns what they need to know in their classroom and identifies their unique gifts. I'll call these folks our children's community advocate - they speak for the child's needs inside and outside the classroom. Let that corps of teachers organize after-school programs to meet each child's learning and fitness needs and help them to identify their gifts and skills. Let that one teacher help each child to identify where in their community they can begin to develope thier gifts, now, and in the future. Let that one help each child to know what skill and training they will need in the future to realize their dreams and identify how they will get those needs met. Let those teachers be in charge of passing that information along to parents, community members and their next year's classroom teachers, to continue to support that child's progress.

Solution 2: Let each child's community advocate set up situations in the community where kids can learn and explore, to help them develope their unique gifts. Tap dancing to production line organization, farm research to astrophysics, no matter what the gift, these days, there are ways people can begin to skill build and learn, with a bit of help and direction. The hands-on learning may come from somewhere else in the community or on line. The teachers will most likely NOT be someone that is their classroom teacher - they may even be another kid! Teaching and learning within an entire community is how we learned, as a species, for millions of years. Why stop now?

Solution 3: Open access to the minds and experiences of our scientists and engineers, medical leaders, agronomists and politicans, community administrators and experts of all kinds to our youth, when they are in high school and college. According to the training and background they have had, coming up through years of working with their classroom advocates and local community experts, they will be well prepaired to contribute to the growth and development of any endeavor - fashion marketing to cold fusion- that lets them contribute, as they continue to learn in high school and college. Youth who are not fully enguaged by such learning options will be few to none. There will be little time or enegy wasted on creating problems in a system that respects you enough to meet your needs as a growing, learning individual.

Solution 4: Open our reseach facilities, workshops, media production studios, factories and academic fieldwork projects to students in high schools and colleges. Let them work with teams identifying and problem solving how each industry or facility can help to heal our Planet. Military machine to marshmellow manufacturing, we need solutions that youth can carry with them into their future. Let them come up with them and teach us all how to create a better world. This is the skill set, above all others, that will allow them to survive, What more do they need to know?

. Find out more about Betsy on the website, at EcoFiction where you can read and download The Gods Played Here, for free.