"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, a people who mean to be
their
own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives."
--
James
Madison (4th President of the U.S.)
What should be the nature of the duty of an elected official regarding
their
public service?
What background and training ought to be required for higher office?
Should Senators and Congressmen, as well as the Vice President and
President
be required to establish, to the Community Heart, their capacities of
thought
and
understanding of the deeper aspects of:
a) governance
b) economics
c) law
d) psychology
e) history
f) the U. S. Constitution etc. etc. etc.?
Should the Community Heart rightly expect our national leaders, and our
Governors
of the individual States to be able to speak spontaneously on matters
of
wisdom and human understanding, rather than
just be able to hide behind canned speeches and clever sound bites?
What do we need to know to be responsible citizens?
Should we read and study the Constitution? Together?
How do we have groups where the discussion of politics does not
degenerate
into conflict?
What is the role of religion in political discussions?
What are some books we can study together?
How do we learn from those whose views we normally dislike?
How do we find common ground, so as to work together?
What are the most basic questions a responsible citizen needs to
consider?
How do we find wisdom and marry that to practical politics?
What can we learn by carefully examining politics, as it is practiced?
Do politicians lie when they make promises about what they will do in
office?
How can such promises not be a lie? Who can predict the future?
Why do we believe what they say?
What's the difference between a politician and a statesman?
Do we need to know more than politicians know?
How can we judge their capacities if we don't know more?
Maybe it's not more we need to know, but something different -
if
so what?
How do we free our politics from the abuses of wealth?
Or, are there really abuses by wealth?
What could that mean?
Isn't it natural for wealth to dominate?
How do we know what the true role of wealth is in a polity?
If we could construct our society from scratch, what essential
qualities
should it have?
What are the basic human needs?
Should a good society provide for basic human needs, or must people
provide
for themselves these things?
How does a society account for human evil?
What is a just society?
Should everyone get to vote?
If not everyone, by what standard should we be allowed to vote?
Are the standards now in place the right ones?
Does a citizen's responsibility begin and end with the vote?
Or is there more that a citizen needs to do?
How informed should they be?
If they aren't informed, should they have the right to vote?
Science and religion seem antagonistic to each other - does
that
really make sense, given that they are both human activities, and
spring from the same heart?
The United States is frequently being asked to go to this place and
that to
right some kind of wrong. But never is there a really fundamental
debate
about whether we should or should not be the world's policeman.
What
general principles should we have regarding these questions?
Does there need to be some international organization, whose membership
we
should seek out, and to whose wisdom we should bow?
How independent do we have a right to be?
What are our leadership by example responsibilities here?
It is clearly not possible to right all wrongs, and since this is the
case
by what criteria do we choose one over another?
always,
always
under 
construction