Lines
Simplistic as a mark by a pencil on a piece of paper is the subject of this effort. We all are familiar with lines since pre-school when teachers insisted we stay within the lines when coloring. Lines invade our daily lives, just drive down a road and think what keeps us on one side of road and an opposing car on the opposite side, isn't it the line painted in the middle of the road that, by enlarge, keeps the two vehicles from running into each other.
Pin a map of North America on the wall and look toward the top half you'll observe a line running east and west separating the USA from Canada then look down and see a similar line separating us from Mexico. How powerful is a simple line marked by printer's ink on a paper's surface universally understood by most who view it as defining individual countries.
Pick any game or sport and try to play it without lines, impossible. An accountant draws a line across the end of a list of numbers, you've heard the statement, " a line drawn in the sand ", or heard "take an 8 by11 lined sheet of paper".
I bet you can think of numerous other examples of lines since lines are a fact of daily life for everyone.
I'm not necessarily fixated on lines but I am amazed at the raw power of a line painted on a roadway in this the age of the automobile. Hey, keep in the lines.
Ronald C. Downie
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
When Tough Questions Needed
When Tough Questions Needed
When an initiative needs positive promotion for public exposure where should it turn? Creative activists must explore every avenue for help by asking penetrating questions.
Should the tax paying public expect a public asset created through a legal agreement be used as the intent of that document set forth ? Well, if the public doesn't care to be bothered, if the Borough management sees this and acquiesces, or, if the present group of activists just doesn't know maybe it's the time to light the fire under you who care.
I'll lay out what I understand about an asset, PCTV, but you must also do your own investigating by asking questions from those in authority, but don't let them stonewall you, which has been their modus operandi in the past.
Cable television came to Pottstown when Comcast (or its predecessor) sought to exercise its right under the federal government's Cable Commission Act. They requested the Borough of Pottstown allow them to bring cable television here under a franchise agreement and Borough Council voted yes.
The Cable Act stipulated each franchisee was granted three channels for their patron's informational use. One, for education ; second, for government ; third, for local programing. Pottstown contracted with a management company to operate these three channels which continues on into today.
Comcast collects through its billing program a fee or tax placed on each bill and transfers these funds to the Borough. These transfers are commonly referred to as fees the franchiser pays from its own coffers but, as I understand it, are really just customer charges going from you to the Borough through Comcast.
Two things you should know : all the assets of PCTV are owned by the Pottstown Borough ; such as, all hardware - cameras and their accessories, set decor,
electronics, furnishings, computers, taping needs, etc. Also, all the vehicles as they're equipped, plus all the archives are Boro owned.
Secondly, under the original management agreement with, I believe, Maplewood Productions, and a parallel agreement with The Pottstown School District to lease space at the High School, PCTV was to provide lessons in television communication for high school students. If this was so, there should be numerous young adults more than able to help community activists in production and transmitting cable ready public interest shows. If not, why not !
Put the pieces together. The public owns the right to televise over three channels, the public owns the means to televise programing, the cable commission
federal act designates the three public interest areas, the borough controls what happens. One aside, as I questioned over the years, is the borough on solid legal ground when it allows our three public channels to carry advertisements for profit ?
I continue to believe our three TV channels should be used as designated by the government for the general public's interest rather than to be a means of the borough to sell advertising. For the benefit of the public, I suggest some organization interested in using this public access start asking tough questions.
Ronald C. Downie
When an initiative needs positive promotion for public exposure where should it turn? Creative activists must explore every avenue for help by asking penetrating questions.
Should the tax paying public expect a public asset created through a legal agreement be used as the intent of that document set forth ? Well, if the public doesn't care to be bothered, if the Borough management sees this and acquiesces, or, if the present group of activists just doesn't know maybe it's the time to light the fire under you who care.
I'll lay out what I understand about an asset, PCTV, but you must also do your own investigating by asking questions from those in authority, but don't let them stonewall you, which has been their modus operandi in the past.
Cable television came to Pottstown when Comcast (or its predecessor) sought to exercise its right under the federal government's Cable Commission Act. They requested the Borough of Pottstown allow them to bring cable television here under a franchise agreement and Borough Council voted yes.
The Cable Act stipulated each franchisee was granted three channels for their patron's informational use. One, for education ; second, for government ; third, for local programing. Pottstown contracted with a management company to operate these three channels which continues on into today.
Comcast collects through its billing program a fee or tax placed on each bill and transfers these funds to the Borough. These transfers are commonly referred to as fees the franchiser pays from its own coffers but, as I understand it, are really just customer charges going from you to the Borough through Comcast.
Two things you should know : all the assets of PCTV are owned by the Pottstown Borough ; such as, all hardware - cameras and their accessories, set decor,
electronics, furnishings, computers, taping needs, etc. Also, all the vehicles as they're equipped, plus all the archives are Boro owned.
Secondly, under the original management agreement with, I believe, Maplewood Productions, and a parallel agreement with The Pottstown School District to lease space at the High School, PCTV was to provide lessons in television communication for high school students. If this was so, there should be numerous young adults more than able to help community activists in production and transmitting cable ready public interest shows. If not, why not !
Put the pieces together. The public owns the right to televise over three channels, the public owns the means to televise programing, the cable commission
federal act designates the three public interest areas, the borough controls what happens. One aside, as I questioned over the years, is the borough on solid legal ground when it allows our three public channels to carry advertisements for profit ?
I continue to believe our three TV channels should be used as designated by the government for the general public's interest rather than to be a means of the borough to sell advertising. For the benefit of the public, I suggest some organization interested in using this public access start asking tough questions.
Ronald C. Downie
Monday, February 27, 2012
Past Is Knowledge ; Future , Wisdom
Past Is Knowledge ; Future, Wisdom
Water, like thought, calms when slowed
Into deep pools at cool quiet depths
Where mud and murk bottom settles
To clear the liquid for it's final trip .
Thought, if not allowed to calm
And settle out busy nonessential
Clutter that keeps the mental stream
Clean, finds no clear ideas will surface .
As water makes it's long journey
To the sea, it encounters swiftly
Moving rapids and falls that roar
Before it again pools and calms .
So too, the mind's mental travel path
Must shoot the turbulences of doubt,
Navigate trouble, and evil, and fear,
Each cascading down until calm calms.
Ever since the early dawning of time
When water appeared on the earth,
It adapted to Earth's Natural Laws :
Repeat, repeat, over and over, repeat.
In his time, upright man found a force
Far beyond his physical prowess, when
The vast utter strength of his mental
Ability raised him above common beasts.
The sun, the moon, stars, earth, water,
The air, the eagle, fire, wind, and rain -
Man would experience and then worship.
But, as with water, strong storms disturb,
Alters flows, and interrupts water's calm;
Quite common with Nature's Earthly way.
But thinking man dreams about the future
Thus he soon becomes uncertainty's victim.
The past is knowledge, the future, wisdom.
And through time knowledge accumulates,
But wisdom is fickle, and the needed spark
Not timely, so wisdom has to be nurtured.
Water flows everywhere to the very
Same Laws Of Gravity, while thought,
Not contained within our physical world,
Flows in a stream we all seek to posses.
Ronald C . Downie
Water, like thought, calms when slowed
Into deep pools at cool quiet depths
Where mud and murk bottom settles
To clear the liquid for it's final trip .
Thought, if not allowed to calm
And settle out busy nonessential
Clutter that keeps the mental stream
Clean, finds no clear ideas will surface .
As water makes it's long journey
To the sea, it encounters swiftly
Moving rapids and falls that roar
Before it again pools and calms .
So too, the mind's mental travel path
Must shoot the turbulences of doubt,
Navigate trouble, and evil, and fear,
Each cascading down until calm calms.
Ever since the early dawning of time
When water appeared on the earth,
It adapted to Earth's Natural Laws :
Repeat, repeat, over and over, repeat.
In his time, upright man found a force
Far beyond his physical prowess, when
The vast utter strength of his mental
Ability raised him above common beasts.
The sun, the moon, stars, earth, water,
The air, the eagle, fire, wind, and rain -
Man would experience and then worship.
But, as with water, strong storms disturb,
Alters flows, and interrupts water's calm;
Quite common with Nature's Earthly way.
But thinking man dreams about the future
Thus he soon becomes uncertainty's victim.
The past is knowledge, the future, wisdom.
And through time knowledge accumulates,
But wisdom is fickle, and the needed spark
Not timely, so wisdom has to be nurtured.
Water flows everywhere to the very
Same Laws Of Gravity, while thought,
Not contained within our physical world,
Flows in a stream we all seek to posses.
Ronald C . Downie
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Professional Staff
Professional Staff
If this is, as you, Evan Brandt, wrote in your article about the new director of Paid, " ... the Urban Land institute recommended, among other things, that economic development be taken out of the hands of politicians and put into the hands of a professional staff." the most intelligent way of inspiring economic growth in Pottstown, wouldn't it follow that promoting educational excellence would be best accomplished by putting it in the hands of a truly professional staff ?
Some of the least equipped politicians are those first time school board members many of whom where elected on single issue platforms. With very little training they took their seats with an idea to make their single issue the dominant theme of the new year. By enlarge, they're not the professionals the education system sorely needs. How many years have been wasted on board member bickering over the arcane idea of walkable schools. Walkable schools were mandatory for most students a century ago when one roomers were centered in small but more highly populated areas. This is the 21st Century quite different from earlier times. How many tax dollars have been spent on dusty, shelved architect studies ? I bet you can't guess !
School districts hire professionals to be educational superintendents, and principals, and teachers, and administrative managers but not to be therapists hired for immature school board members. Districts should be regionalized as already accomplished by The Intermediate Unit concept, something like twenty seven regions dividing up the state. Then existing school properties could be organized into a more efficient use of the public's assets. Taxes, however levied, would be broad based and used much more equitably for every student. Teacher's salary packages would be broadened out to the regions average, which in our Intermediate Unit area would be the whole of Montgomery Country.
Educational professionals are not to be confused with systems professionals. Each effective in their own field but are of different values to their bosses, the tax payers. Just as economical development is different from governance, so is running a school district's business different from teaching students. Until we accept these differences and climb out of the box titled, "We've Always Done It This Way", we will never change the system rooted in the thinking it still serves an agrarian era and imitates the structures of an industrial time.
Ronald C. Downie
If this is, as you, Evan Brandt, wrote in your article about the new director of Paid, " ... the Urban Land institute recommended, among other things, that economic development be taken out of the hands of politicians and put into the hands of a professional staff." the most intelligent way of inspiring economic growth in Pottstown, wouldn't it follow that promoting educational excellence would be best accomplished by putting it in the hands of a truly professional staff ?
Some of the least equipped politicians are those first time school board members many of whom where elected on single issue platforms. With very little training they took their seats with an idea to make their single issue the dominant theme of the new year. By enlarge, they're not the professionals the education system sorely needs. How many years have been wasted on board member bickering over the arcane idea of walkable schools. Walkable schools were mandatory for most students a century ago when one roomers were centered in small but more highly populated areas. This is the 21st Century quite different from earlier times. How many tax dollars have been spent on dusty, shelved architect studies ? I bet you can't guess !
School districts hire professionals to be educational superintendents, and principals, and teachers, and administrative managers but not to be therapists hired for immature school board members. Districts should be regionalized as already accomplished by The Intermediate Unit concept, something like twenty seven regions dividing up the state. Then existing school properties could be organized into a more efficient use of the public's assets. Taxes, however levied, would be broad based and used much more equitably for every student. Teacher's salary packages would be broadened out to the regions average, which in our Intermediate Unit area would be the whole of Montgomery Country.
Educational professionals are not to be confused with systems professionals. Each effective in their own field but are of different values to their bosses, the tax payers. Just as economical development is different from governance, so is running a school district's business different from teaching students. Until we accept these differences and climb out of the box titled, "We've Always Done It This Way", we will never change the system rooted in the thinking it still serves an agrarian era and imitates the structures of an industrial time.
Ronald C. Downie
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Re-localization
Re-localization
The new buzz word, re-localization, was dominant as a theme during a recent program on H2 called The Prophets Of Doom. The panel discussed the most pressing issues of our time which, if not shortly addressed, will begin to cripple our way of life that we're used to. Re-localization is the effort to bring as many life sustaining processes back into local proximity.
One was, primarily, producing food as locally as possible realizing presently the average evening meal travels, it is calculated, 1200 miles before making it to the dinner table. Future transportation costs will prohibit this in upcoming years. Personal and public gardens will proliferate as well as the raising of animals for food. Urban areas will have to rework their ordinances to accommodate gardens and animal husbandry within their legal jurisdictions.
Similarly, for wage employment jobs, factories and commercial type businesses must begin to be relocated closer to the more densely populated urban areas. Household items of disposable nature, those things purchased frequently, will more and more adhere to principals of re-localization just to keep their costs within reason.
Energy will have to take on a local appeal by maximizing the renewals commonly called wind and solar. Natural gas produced for us near here in Pennsylvania may be a bridge energy for gaining time until some other renewable is developed.
The panel also discussed other prospects of doom :
-The fragility of the World wide financial system,
-The reduced availability of potable water to quench
the thirst of the World's burgeoning population,
-A nuclear winter,
-the array of natural disasters, earth quakes,
volcanoes, tsunamis, comets
Re-localization is doable if we as a society don't get in its way before it establishes itself.
Ronald C. Downie
The new buzz word, re-localization, was dominant as a theme during a recent program on H2 called The Prophets Of Doom. The panel discussed the most pressing issues of our time which, if not shortly addressed, will begin to cripple our way of life that we're used to. Re-localization is the effort to bring as many life sustaining processes back into local proximity.
One was, primarily, producing food as locally as possible realizing presently the average evening meal travels, it is calculated, 1200 miles before making it to the dinner table. Future transportation costs will prohibit this in upcoming years. Personal and public gardens will proliferate as well as the raising of animals for food. Urban areas will have to rework their ordinances to accommodate gardens and animal husbandry within their legal jurisdictions.
Similarly, for wage employment jobs, factories and commercial type businesses must begin to be relocated closer to the more densely populated urban areas. Household items of disposable nature, those things purchased frequently, will more and more adhere to principals of re-localization just to keep their costs within reason.
Energy will have to take on a local appeal by maximizing the renewals commonly called wind and solar. Natural gas produced for us near here in Pennsylvania may be a bridge energy for gaining time until some other renewable is developed.
The panel also discussed other prospects of doom :
-The fragility of the World wide financial system,
-The reduced availability of potable water to quench
the thirst of the World's burgeoning population,
-A nuclear winter,
-the array of natural disasters, earth quakes,
volcanoes, tsunamis, comets
Re-localization is doable if we as a society don't get in its way before it establishes itself.
Ronald C. Downie
Friday, February 24, 2012
Haiku 76
Haiku 76
Haikus sounding an alarm for the unsuspecting :
Was poor, caught cancer;
Both came alone, unfriendly -
Each silent, snuck up.
The poor, moneyless,
Without hope, without help, starve -
The rich eat lobster.
Do as Jesus did :
Feed the poor, care for the sick -
Lead revolutions.
The strong become weak
When challenged to accept change -
How else does Man grow ?
Forget me not, not
Because you are so special -
But, that you're honest.
Into the daylight,
Out from dark of ignorance -
March wisdom seekers.
Ronald C. Downie
Haikus sounding an alarm for the unsuspecting :
Was poor, caught cancer;
Both came alone, unfriendly -
Each silent, snuck up.
The poor, moneyless,
Without hope, without help, starve -
The rich eat lobster.
Do as Jesus did :
Feed the poor, care for the sick -
Lead revolutions.
The strong become weak
When challenged to accept change -
How else does Man grow ?
Forget me not, not
Because you are so special -
But, that you're honest.
Into the daylight,
Out from dark of ignorance -
March wisdom seekers.
Ronald C. Downie
Thursday, February 23, 2012
It All Depends
It All Depends
It all depends :
Upon your dreams
Behind closed eyes,
Drifting in and out,
Nodding off and on
Until total emersion.
Subliminal are images
Beyond the conscious
Activities of the day.
Retreat, or to attack,
Go far away or return,
Be of a party, or not.
Immersed in reality,
Tempered by hot fire,
Clothed for deep cold,
Hair finely brushed,
Bathed in redemption,
Lost in a wilderness.
Finding one's own self
Throwing off shackles,
Demanding of a mental
Strength deeply internal,
You gather up yourself
For life's universal battle.
You ask, "Who am I ?"
And, "Why am I here ?"
Paging your remembrances :
Being in and out of faith,
Does science make its case,
Who pulls Heaven's strings ?
You think the unthinkable :
Do we pass only once through
This conscious state of life ?
No beginning, so there's no end ?
What is my next form to be ?
Am I bound up in this body ?
How these questions are answered
Before an Endpoint of active life
May make a tremendous difference
To those you lovingly leave behind.
But, my friend, to you, the dismissed,
Heaven awaits your elements' arrival.
Ronald. C. Downie
It all depends :
Upon your dreams
Behind closed eyes,
Drifting in and out,
Nodding off and on
Until total emersion.
Subliminal are images
Beyond the conscious
Activities of the day.
Retreat, or to attack,
Go far away or return,
Be of a party, or not.
Immersed in reality,
Tempered by hot fire,
Clothed for deep cold,
Hair finely brushed,
Bathed in redemption,
Lost in a wilderness.
Finding one's own self
Throwing off shackles,
Demanding of a mental
Strength deeply internal,
You gather up yourself
For life's universal battle.
You ask, "Who am I ?"
And, "Why am I here ?"
Paging your remembrances :
Being in and out of faith,
Does science make its case,
Who pulls Heaven's strings ?
You think the unthinkable :
Do we pass only once through
This conscious state of life ?
No beginning, so there's no end ?
What is my next form to be ?
Am I bound up in this body ?
How these questions are answered
Before an Endpoint of active life
May make a tremendous difference
To those you lovingly leave behind.
But, my friend, to you, the dismissed,
Heaven awaits your elements' arrival.
Ronald. C. Downie
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