Government!

[Yuki]

I'm pretty impressed by mine, through sheer knowledge of my own theoretical inclusion. I'm not going to speak on it as a whole, because that would muddy our positive vibes!

I recently realized how floored I am by the idea of writing my own bill-- which may and probably won't pass, but would then start a chain of events.

Writing and submitting it at all would garner attention to the issue it addresses, which influences people, which causes them to think on it more, which provokes the urge to speak on it.

And then the idea grows, more facts, opinions, and ideas crawl together to give it more motion, and eventually, maybe even generations later, the attitude of a portion of the ENTIRE COUNTRY has changed, all through your own action.

I think that's really rad.

So today, while in government, I clicked "Contact us!" on whitehouse.org and submitted the following "Comment".

A question, rather than a comment, but I'm afraid the school
computer I'm using isn't as easy to navigate as the one in my last class. My
name is [Karma] and I am 18, and plan on graduating high school this year.

I am very impassioned by the idea of involving myself
directly with government. The idea that I can write a bill and it could
potentially be signed into law, impacting the whole of the country, and
influencing many of them, is an idea of platonically romantic undertones I
simply can't express in under 2,500 characters.

My question is this: Were I to write a bill, find a
politician who would sponsor it and help to garner a foothold in this whole
process, what would I need to know?

Though it is by no means an accurate comparison, I was the
only one in my class to pass committee, congress, and "president"
with my Smarter Sex Initiative act-- which I won't go into much detail of aside
from saying that through educated opinion, facts, and my own ardent enthusiasm,
was nearly un-debatable.

I'd very much like to involve myself with government, though
I don't care for things like volunteer work, as to my knowledge there are no
large volunteering agencies that are at an even enough parallel to my own ideas and agenda in my area.

If you would please give me any sort of expositionary advice, I would appreciate it deeply.

Thank you for reading, and of course, for your time.

(The Honorable) [Karma] (The Third*).

*First

Are any of you guys some manner of geeky like myself on the topic? Curious minds want to know~

[Maelstrom]

Me, I'm usually keen on the idea but not usually so driven.

So tell me Sr. Hark, what is this Smarter Sex Initiative? I wanna hear. *Puts on his monocle*

[Neo]

I'm not studying law to become a disability lawyer that has cheap advertisements on the local news channels. I did it exclusively, to go into a career in politics. (I know the thought of me with any sort of power beyond being able to choose what I eat for lunch and what I watch on tv is terrifying to some people) However, I've always been interested in working as a voice for the people. I remember a few years back, I got to eat lunch with a local senator (Eliot Shapleigh), and I felt like such a nosy little brat afterward for asking him all manner of questions. "Senator, I'd like to know, how could you possibly endorse something like the Patriot Act? Playing on post 9/11 paranoia to increase federal power etc. etc. rambling etc."

The response I got made me angrier than I've ever been in my entire life:

"Sometimes we have to give up privacy and freedoms for security."

I fucking spit my macaroni out.

"Senator, have you ever heard of the quote: Those who give up liberty for security deserve neither?

"It's a matter that you won't understand until you're older"

From that day forth, I vowed that I'd do whatever it took to make sure asshats like that aren't allowed to run this country.

</story>

But yeah, I've always kinda been a geek for government and politics. It's kinda been something that's always interested me, even when I swore that I'd end up as a theoretical physicist or aeronautical engineer.

The rush that I'd get out of policy debate was just amazing. I was a fucking debating machine, I even managed to make it to state one year. The topic was "Should the United States government increase its investment in transportation infrastructure". My affirmative case was water tight. Granted, it was fallacious as fuck, but what argument that tries to get the masses to agree isn't?

[Summer]

"Sometimes we have to give up privacy and freedoms for security."

Can't say I disagree with this, but I won't agree either.

Also, why are you having Macoroni for lunch? I'll like to think it as a dinner kind of food.

[Yuki]

I'll post it if there's any interest, but in summary, the bill was aimed at doing away with abstinence or abstinence-plus education, replacing it with CSE- comprehensive sexual education.

While it'd still be stressed that abstinence is the only surefire way to stay safe from pregnancy, STIs, related emotional trauma, the approach would not be what it is now-- shaming, scaring, and sometimes skewing facts to keep people away from sex.\

Studies show that areas with abstinence-only education have a SIGNIFICANTLY higher teen pregnancy rate... because they were never taught how to protect themselves.

While I can't speak for all of Virginia's schools, I was lucky to be born in an abstinence-plus area... but they still tried all the old scare tactics, told girls they don't want to be like "that", and only spent ONE WEEK out of an ENTIRE QUARTER on contraceptives... Throw some scary anecdotal information this way and that, then barely touch on how to protect yourself from it?

Mind you our weekly schedule goes odd/even/odd/even/odd, even/odd/even/odd/even... that one week was a grand total 2 days. An hour and a half of class. 3 hours out of the entire course dedicated to contraceptives.

So with this knowledge, I did some research which, obviously, completely demolished the idea behind abstinence education, and many of the myths-- ("if we teach kids what sex is, they'll want to have it!"... they're obviously doing it anyways, and shouldn't they be prepared?) and my bill ended up doing very well C:

[Neo]

Now you really have my attention. Post it. c:

[Yuki]

lied about the funding, but that helped it pass congress/the prez <<