Rebuilding Trust in Our Government
By YJ Draiman
city hall by yd
Today, as we confront a crisis that has shaken confidence in our financial system and economy, we have an opportunity to restore public trust and confidence in the legitimate role of government. Indeed, to effectively tackle our economic challenges and to implement the reforms we need in our healthcare, education, energy, and environmental policies, our government will need to garner strong public support.
However, rebuilding public trust will not happen in the face of a pervasive perception that government is not transparent and accountable, cronyism is rampant, and public officials are more interested in helping themselves than in serving the public good.
Taking strong, swift, and decisive action to address abuses and begin to rebuild public trust should be the first priority for our city, state and federal government in the new legislative session.
Create a Task Force on Public Integrity with a mission to develop a comprehensive proposal for ethics and lobbying reform in our city and state. Which addresses reforms in three areas: (1) strengthening enforcement of ethics, campaign finance, and lobbying laws; (2) strengthening civil and criminal penalties for abuses; and (3) improving awareness and education for public officials.
Reinforce honesty, integrity and transparency by government officials as the core requirement to be and stay in office, any violations of these core tenets will cause the removal of the public official and the loss of "all benefits" retroactive. I think we should consider putting public official on a base salary plus commission based on performance.
While the many of our elected officials and government employees are honest, dedicated public servants, the actions of a few create a dark cloud over all.
Taking strong, swift, and decisive action to address these abuses and begin to rebuild public trust should be the first priority for our city, state and federal government in the new legislative session.
Compiled by: YJ Draiman
PS
We need honest government with integrity.
"Good leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion"
Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.
As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end.
Change is inevitable. Change for the better is a full-time job.
Action speaks louder than words.
Trust in government: Trust in government
ReplyDeleteThe ability of governments and the global community to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, ensure security, and promote adherence to basic standards of human rights depends on people's trust in their government. However, public trust in government and political institutions has been declining in both developing and developed countries in the new millennium. One of the challenges in promoting trust in government is to engage citizens, especially the marginalized groups and the poor, into the policy process to ensure that governance is truly representative, participatory, and benefits all members of society. Where governance processes are exclusionary and basic services are not accessible, intrastate conflicts and violence within the country can negatively impact national and global security and peace. Weak systems and processes of governance tend to erode trust in government. Within this context, the issue of how to build trust in government and trust between socio-economic actors has emerged as an increasingly important issue in both developed and developing economies.
YJ Draiman for City Council 7 points Statement:
ReplyDeleteYJ Draiman for City Council 7 points Statement
YJ Draiman for City Council Statement
In my humble opinion the biggest problem I see is the Pensions.
It takes a major portion of the City Budget and keeps on growing. This is a problem many Cities and States are facing. A solution has to be found.
The second problem is the Unions.
They are no longer an asset to the public, but a hindrance in solving the budget crisis and very inefficient in work performance and very costly.
The Third item is the need to cut the City staff, reduce spending, eliminate redundancy, consolidate departments, increase efficiency and reward performance.
The Fourth item needing to be addressed is Mayor should appoint one neighborhood council member to each of the city's boards of commissioners including the proprietary departments as well, either through a charter amendment, ordinance or by policy directive.
The Fifth item is to make the city more business friendly to attract businesses, not chase them away and reduce revenues. This takes a multitude of actions. Appoint LADWP ratepayer advocate.
The Sixth item is to improve education and reduce the top heavy LAUSD administration. We need to make our schools an education icon, not a warehousing of students.
The seventh item is to improve public transportation.
People today are concerned about a roof over their head and a Job " this is top priority.
I think this is good for starters. (There are many more items)
Thank you
YJ Draiman for Los Angeles City Council 2011
PS. The key is for everyone to work together without any hidden agenda. The only concern should be the current City budget crises and the residents of the community. Everything must be above board and transparent.
http://www.draimanforcouncil.org
Honor, Honesty and Integrity these are not just words: Honor, Honesty and Integrity these are not just words At times we feel maybe justified in violating a part of our own integrity. We don't measure the effect that by doing so, the amount of damage that it does to others as well as to our own soul. We speak of justice; we speak of honesty and doing the right things in life. We are sometimes confronted not so much by the violation of these principles but by the impact they have on our own spirit. Feeling betrayed by those you trust, who have in some way acted in a manner that you may never understand, will have an impact on your life. This may only be for a moment or maybe a lifetime; each person has their own emotional point of tolerance to transgressions that may have been committed by even the most trusted among you. These words are what make's us civilized. They are the fundamentals of our own character. We can not be responsible for someone else's behavior but we are in total control of our own. Our behavior in any setting should be guided by these words. We can forgive others, but it is not easy for us to forgive ourselves when it is our actions that bring forth circumstances that no one wants. I have felt recently that betrayal, that dishonest act that just hurts and saddens the soul. Of course, that does not make that person bad or evil. It is an act that does not help for the survival of a group. I believe in the biblical statement that vengeance is the Lord's it is not mine to give. When dealing with anyone in any capacity honesty is the guide. Integrity is the path to take. Honor is yours to own. Weep as you may for an infraction of another upon you; forgive as that transgression will also corrupt your soul to a deeper distrust of all. For the transgressor it will be easy to do that which they may feel is right, though the action violates all honor or self respect which creates havoc and chaos on others. Maybe to be honest will allow one to sleep at night. My heart pains, for those who have chosen the path of least resistance, which is the path to destruction. Integrity doesn't mean that you become some cold, stoic person, and vacant of all emotion. Integrity just means to flow with your honest feelings and actions ensuring that they are in alignment with propriety. If you don't like what you are doing then honor yourself by doing the best job anyway. You can always change careers.
ReplyDeleteCorporate capital dominates our government and prevents the:
ReplyDeleteCorporate capital dominates our government and prevents the changes urgently needed
The power of concentrated corporate capital was on display in Washington last week, as it has been all year. The incoming Chair of the Congressional committee responsible for banking regulation, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) says "my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks." And, President Obama sat down with the CEOs of 20 large corporations to talk about how he could help Big Business increase their already record profits. And, in the Supreme Court, 13 of 16 business cases were ruled in favor of business interests.
Corporate capital dominates our government and prevents the changes urgently needed in so many crisis issues for the nation and the world.
In the last year, Prosperity Agenda worked on many of these critical issues including the impact of corporate power on elections, providing health care to all Americans, restructuring finance regulation to prevent another economic collapse and reigning in spending on weapons and war. In all of these areas we had some impact, but in 2011 and beyond, much more will be needed.
Shifting power from concentrated corporate interests to the people is no easy task. It has taken years of work by those interests to gain the power that they have. It will take years of work to weaken the corporate stranglehold. The growing crises remind us of the urgency of our work and the need for a commitment to sustain and increase our efforts.
In preparing this letter I looked back at a memo written by Lewis Powell two months before he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Nixon. The memo was written in 1971 at a time when the business community felt it was rapidly losing power and that the capitalist system was under severe attack. Powell, a lawyer for the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, described as "the fundamental premise" of his paper that "business and the enterprise system are in deep trouble, and the hour is late." They saw attacks coming in the colleges, in the media, on the streets, in bookstores and from politicians. Everywhere they looked they were under attack and on the verge of total defeat " the end of free markets and crony capitalism.
The purpose of the Powell memo, written to the head of the Chamber of Commerce, was to lay out a plan to restore and build corporate power. Powell laid out a plan that is instructive for those of us who want to shift power from concentrated capital to the people, who want to see a democratized economy in which people have greater control of their economic lives and are more represented in both the economy and government.
Powell's plan was a long-term one built primarily on education and organization. In response to a "broadly based and consistently pursued" attack on corporate power, Powell wrote "independent and uncoordinated activity by individual corporations, as important as this is, will not be sufficient. Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations." He urged action in universities, with speaker's bureaus, in publishing, influencing the media and working in the courts, as well as in electoral politics.
ReplyDeleteWe also have a long term plan to educate, organize and unite our efforts:
1. We've used education in writing, media and video. We strive for but do not rely on the corporate media, which is also part of the problem, to cover our work. We also recognize that too often they are part of the problem. We make our own media and work with the independent media.
2. We've reached out to allied organizations and allied movements in order to help develop consistent and coordinated actions. And we've asked you to take actions in unison so our voices are multiplied.
3. We've used the courts and instruments of government to challenge the illegal actions of the Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove's American Crossroads seeking investigation and prosecution of their abuses in the 2010 elections. We've done the same when we seek corporate responsibility for companies like Massey Energy and their CEO Don Blankenship when 29 miners were killed in West Virginia.
While education and organization are critical ingredients to bringing change, this is a slow process and many of the issues the nation faces are urgent. This is why we also pursue acts of protest and resistance. We did this in the health care debate and most recently in the anti-war movement. Resistance has always been an ingredient for bringing change whether it was people sitting in at segregated lunch counters, or blacks sitting in the white section of the bus, or Cindy Sheehan camping outside of George Bush's ranch. In the next year we will see a growing culture of resistance in the United States.
Other acts of resistance are seen around the release of documents by WikiLeaks. The reaction demonstrated corporations and the government working together to block the American people from knowing what is being done in our name. VISA, Mastercard, PayPal, Amazon and various financial institutions stopped processing funds for WikiLeaks at the request of the government. But we now know what the government is doing in our name and must take action to stop it. Knowing the truth and not acting is complicity. More and more Americans are acting. We see resistance in the more than 1,000 mirror sites of WikiLeaks, in the more than 100,000 people who downloaded the WikiLeaks "insurance policy" and were prepared to release documents if Julian Assange were harmed. It is seen in Americans organizing for their right to know, and to reaffirm Freedom of the Press. We are organizing under the banner WikiLeaksIsDemocracy.org, with a petition signed by notables and now by thousands. Join us and urge others to as well.
There is a growing movement for real paradigm shifting change. It is a slow process that is accelerating and 2011 promises to be a milestone year.
No institution ranks lower in the public's esteem than Congr:
ReplyDeleteNo institution ranks lower in the public's esteem than Congress, and nothing could better begin to rebuild trust than having our elected officials deny themselves lifetime employment. Polls show that 78% of Americans favor term limits. Moreover, support for terms limits is bipartisan, with 84% of Republicans, and 74% of both Democrats and independents approving the notion.
Many candidates ran in this cycle promising to serve a limited number of terms " and such pledges were warmly received. There is no doubt: time in office is highly correlated with corruption. This is a measure that could damp the self-serving practices of Congress and show voters that all those lofty speeches actually meant something.
The Greedy Corporations and the Profit Hungry Shareholders
ReplyDelete"Honesty and integrity went out the window " anything goes".
Corporate greed and the insatiable thirst to make a profit, to satiate shareholders share- holders' profit expectations have changed American values, where anything is justified in order to derive enormous corporate profit and satisfy the expectations of the share-holders; maintain the image of profitable corporate America. It is a vicious cycle that feeds itself to ultimate disaster.
These attitudes have brought corporate executives to exercise the drive and mentality that anything goes, no holes barred.
Inflating earnings, hiding debts and liabilities, outright fraud and deception. Theft by executives, theft of corporate assets, graft, bribery, illegal contributions to politicians, trips, gifts and favors to politicians, crooked lobbying organizations.
Where and when does it all stop? When are Americans going to wake-up and realize they are on the path of disaster of magnitude proportions that will bring our downfall?
We still have honest ethical hard working people in America. Let us all rise and protest these money hungry actions and methods, before it is too late.
Work hard to better America, institute honesty and integrity.
It starts at the top " the politicians, the legal system, corporate America and progresses to the masses..
The media is not exempt. Honest reporting is a must, the public expects no less.
Exercising - Sincerity, honesty and integrity is a good beginning.
If you work hard, perform your duties sincerely and honestly, you will be able to earn a better profit/living. You will not have to worry about covering up for your wrongdoing and you will be able to sleep better at night, look at yourself in the mirror.
Powell's plan was a long-term one built primarily on education and organization. In response to a "broadly based and consistently pursued" attack on corporate power, Powell wrote "independent and uncoordinated activity by individual corporations, as important as this is, will not be sufficient. Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations." He urged action in universities, with speaker's bureaus, in publishing, influencing the media and working in the courts, as well as in electoral politics.
ReplyDeleteWe also have a long term plan to educate, organize and unite our efforts:
1. We've used education in writing, media and video. We strive for but do not rely on the corporate media, which is also part of the problem, to cover our work. We also recognize that too often they are part of the problem. We make our own media and work with the independent media.
2. We've reached out to allied organizations and allied movements in order to help develop consistent and coordinated actions. And we've asked you to take actions in unison so our voices are multiplied.
3. We've used the courts and instruments of government to challenge the illegal actions of the Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove's American Crossroads seeking investigation and prosecution of their abuses in the 2010 elections. We've done the same when we seek corporate responsibility for companies like Massey Energy and their CEO Don Blankenship when 29 miners were killed in West Virginia.
While education and organization are critical ingredients to bringing change, this is a slow process and many of the issues the nation faces are urgent. This is why we also pursue acts of protest and resistance. We did this in the health care debate and most recently in the anti-war movement. Resistance has always been an ingredient for bringing change whether it was people sitting in at segregated lunch counters, or blacks sitting in the white section of the bus, or Cindy Sheehan camping outside of George Bush's ranch. In the next year we will see a growing culture of resistance in the United States.
Other acts of resistance are seen around the release of documents by WikiLeaks. The reaction demonstrated corporations and the government working together to block the American people from knowing what is being done in our name. VISA, Mastercard, PayPal, Amazon and various financial institutions stopped processing funds for WikiLeaks at the request of the government. But we now know what the government is doing in our name and must take action to stop it. Knowing the truth and not acting is complicity. More and more Americans are acting. We see resistance in the more than 1,000 mirror sites of WikiLeaks, in the more than 100,000 people who downloaded the WikiLeaks "insurance policy" and were prepared to release documents if Julian Assange were harmed. It is seen in Americans organizing for their right to know, and to reaffirm Freedom of the Press. We are organizing under the banner WikiLeaksIsDemocracy.org, with a petition signed by notables and now by thousands. Join us and urge others to as well.
There is a growing movement for real paradigm shifting change. It is a slow process that is accelerating and 2011 promises to be a milestone year.
Corporate capital dominates our government and prevents the:
ReplyDeleteCorporate capital dominates our government and prevents the changes urgently needed
The power of concentrated corporate capital was on display in Washington last week, as it has been all year. The incoming Chair of the Congressional committee responsible for banking regulation, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) says "my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks." And, President Obama sat down with the CEOs of 20 large corporations to talk about how he could help Big Business increase their already record profits. And, in the Supreme Court, 13 of 16 business cases were ruled in favor of business interests.
Corporate capital dominates our government and prevents the changes urgently needed in so many crisis issues for the nation and the world.
In the last year, Prosperity Agenda worked on many of these critical issues including the impact of corporate power on elections, providing health care to all Americans, restructuring finance regulation to prevent another economic collapse and reigning in spending on weapons and war. In all of these areas we had some impact, but in 2011 and beyond, much more will be needed.
Shifting power from concentrated corporate interests to the people is no easy task. It has taken years of work by those interests to gain the power that they have. It will take years of work to weaken the corporate stranglehold. The growing crises remind us of the urgency of our work and the need for a commitment to sustain and increase our efforts.
In preparing this letter I looked back at a memo written by Lewis Powell two months before he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Nixon. The memo was written in 1971 at a time when the business community felt it was rapidly losing power and that the capitalist system was under severe attack. Powell, a lawyer for the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, described as "the fundamental premise" of his paper that "business and the enterprise system are in deep trouble, and the hour is late." They saw attacks coming in the colleges, in the media, on the streets, in bookstores and from politicians. Everywhere they looked they were under attack and on the verge of total defeat " the end of free markets and crony capitalism.
The purpose of the Powell memo, written to the head of the Chamber of Commerce, was to lay out a plan to restore and build corporate power. Powell laid out a plan that is instructive for those of us who want to shift power from concentrated capital to the people, who want to see a democratized economy in which people have greater control of their economic lives and are more represented in both the economy and government.
Corporate capital dominates our government and prevents the:
ReplyDeleteCorporate capital dominates our government and prevents the changes urgently needed
The power of concentrated corporate capital was on display in Washington last week, as it has been all year. The incoming Chair of the Congressional committee responsible for banking regulation, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) says "my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks." And, President Obama sat down with the CEOs of 20 large corporations to talk about how he could help Big Business increase their already record profits. And, in the Supreme Court, 13 of 16 business cases were ruled in favor of business interests.
Corporate capital dominates our government and prevents the changes urgently needed in so many crisis issues for the nation and the world.
In the last year, Prosperity Agenda worked on many of these critical issues including the impact of corporate power on elections, providing health care to all Americans, restructuring finance regulation to prevent another economic collapse and reigning in spending on weapons and war. In all of these areas we had some impact, but in 2011 and beyond, much more will be needed.
Shifting power from concentrated corporate interests to the people is no easy task. It has taken years of work by those interests to gain the power that they have. It will take years of work to weaken the corporate stranglehold. The growing crises remind us of the urgency of our work and the need for a commitment to sustain and increase our efforts.
In preparing this letter I looked back at a memo written by Lewis Powell two months before he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Nixon. The memo was written in 1971 at a time when the business community felt it was rapidly losing power and that the capitalist system was under severe attack. Powell, a lawyer for the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, described as "the fundamental premise" of his paper that "business and the enterprise system are in deep trouble, and the hour is late." They saw attacks coming in the colleges, in the media, on the streets, in bookstores and from politicians. Everywhere they looked they were under attack and on the verge of total defeat " the end of free markets and crony capitalism.
The purpose of the Powell memo, written to the head of the Chamber of Commerce, was to lay out a plan to restore and build corporate power. Powell laid out a plan that is instructive for those of us who want to shift power from concentrated capital to the people, who want to see a democratized economy in which people have greater control of their economic lives and are more represented in both the economy and government.
Powell's plan was a long-term one built primarily on education and organization. In response to a "broadly based and consistently pursued" attack on corporate power, Powell wrote "independent and uncoordinated activity by individual corporations, as important as this is, will not be sufficient. Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations." He urged action in universities, with speaker's bureaus, in publishing, influencing the media and working in the courts, as well as in electoral politics.
ReplyDeleteWe also have a long term plan to educate, organize and unite our efforts:
1. We've used education in writing, media and video. We strive for but do not rely on the corporate media, which is also part of the problem, to cover our work. We also recognize that too often they are part of the problem. We make our own media and work with the independent media.
2. We've reached out to allied organizations and allied movements in order to help develop consistent and coordinated actions. And we've asked you to take actions in unison so our voices are multiplied.
3. We've used the courts and instruments of government to challenge the illegal actions of the Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove's American Crossroads seeking investigation and prosecution of their abuses in the 2010 elections. We've done the same when we seek corporate responsibility for companies like Massey Energy and their CEO Don Blankenship when 29 miners were killed in West Virginia.