|
|
A few months ago, I heard that members of the U.S. Congress had made a
decision
requiring that in government buildings, French fries must henceforth be
called "Freedom Fries". The first thought that crossed my mind
was, "This is what my country's elected officials are spending their
time on?!! This is what they consider important to the wellbeing
and future of the country?!!" To learn a little more about this,
go here: http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/11/freedom.fries/.
I had hoped that citizens of
Whyville would have more sense than the U.S. Congress on what matters
are important to vote on and what are not. If the state of our
currents polls and petitions is any indication, we don't. In
fact, we are not voting on anything at all.
One of the greatest things about Whyville, in my opinion, is the
ability of citizens to change and improve it by creating petitions that
other citizens can vote on. If a petition gets 125 votes in
10 days or less, it is made into a poll. If the poll gets 300
votes or more in 21 days, then Whyville management will seriously
consider it.
Lately, this great democratic system is falling to pieces. Why? No one
is voting. Dozens of petitions go up every day,
but none are being promoted to polls. On a recent Tuesday
afternoon, I went to City Hall and cruised through the petitions, which
included everything from senator platforms to requests for French
restaurants to suggestions for additional contests and games. None of
these petitions had received more than 79 votes -- a long shot
from the 125 needed. Granted, many of these petitions were unworthy of
votes, such as "Say Swear Words" "Kill Grandma" or
"Fddddddddddddrrrrrrr". But there were lots of petitions that
did have very solid and worthy ideas. For example, Zebra10
suggested that those citizens who can't chat should have some alternate
way to Geodig. Mckenzie proposed a weekly story contest. Realycute
wished people could chat in the waiting room. And
several citizens wondered why there was no link in City Records to a
person's store(s). These are only a few samples of all the great
ideas floating around in City Hall, all of which are getting dumped in
the trash because not enough people are voting!
I went to the Polls to see if any petitions were actually getting
promoted. The answer? A whopping 15 petitions had made it
that far, none of them more recently than June 30. And the
subjects of these petitions? All but three (the senator
platforms) were complaints about expiring face parts or requests for
1000 clams each day. Come on, people! The decision about
face parts is long over, and we will never get 1000 clams each
day. Let's start focusing on the thoughtful, realistic petitions
and we will begin to see positive changes in Whyville.
JasmineK, signing off
|
