Wisdom Councils for deliberately dumbed down citizens

I love how the new training centers label themselves as somehow "wiser" than the rest of us. In my neighborhood we have a consortium of groups (including HAARP) that call themselves W.I.S.E. If the goal of WISE groups is to teach us and our children the values of sustainable and managed communities, then what is the goal of groups like the ACL, who teach us and our children not to trust groups that claim to be collectively wise, charitable, and more moral?

It is Christmas morning so I have a lot of other things I should be doing right now, but I was over at truthforum.ca for a quick minute and found a post Paul Barnes made about Consensus Building. He linked to a chart called Choice-Creating, on a website called wisedemocracy.org. So I couldn't help checking them out a bit more, and I found this:

http://www.wisedemocracy.org/PTWC-HS/PortTownsendWC.html

My friend Betsy H. moved to Pt. Townsend the same time we moved to Seattle. She came and stayed at our house in the city while she took a TOFEL class at UW. Her attitude toward my ACL work in Seattle was typical of most of my friends back in 1999... they scoffed at the notion there was any kind of a "plan" to change America into a communitarian region under a centralized global government. She assumed she could move back to Pt.Townsend and that would get her out of any plans made for Seattle. She insisted (like many did) that my devotion to the ACL was too extreme and she didn't "care what the government does." My steadfast argument that the plans were global and that we had to do whatever we could to stop it were met with stoney silence, confusion, or open hostility. I've never heard from Betsy since she went back to Pt. Townsend in 2001 to have her baby with Aki. I'd love to see their baby, and I'd sure like to know what she thinks about the Port Townsend Wisdom Council, or if she's even noticed they exist (I didn't see her picture so I don't think she was selected to serve yet):

"The Port Townsend Wisdom Council aims to have the following impact:

• Create a bottom-up or grassroots vision for the community
• Create a stronger sense of community and involvement that is intergenerational
• Improve the quality of talking and thinking about important issues facing the community
• Transform the community from an adversarial, crisis-driven culture to a thoughtful, creative and collaborative culture
• Empower students to be active, concerned and creative members of their community
• Create a model for other communities in youth-led civic engagement in partnership with adults
• Have students learn how to dynamically facilitate meetings and convene Wisdom Councils

Our experiments with the Wisdom Council in the public sector are proving that it works! A few of us can revitalize (and maybe reinvent) democracy by involving citizens in a wise and responsible voice of "We the People.""

I sure miss all the people we knew in the Seattle area ... I spent many a Christmas there with my family... turkey and piano at moms, seafood extravaganza at dads... all my sisters and my brother and our friends going bowling and to the movies... visting Patty Wacky Dos and hanging out with all the kids and cousins.. yeah.. we had a lot fun years before we knew anything about the big stupid plan. But then again, we've met some wonderful folks as a result of knowing.

Merry Christmas to dad, mom, all the Friedrichs, Raapanas, Flanarys, Bormans and Woodlands, our generous benefactors in Montana, New Hampshire, Washington and Canada, Old Dog, Jason M. (special thanks for the amazing pkg!!) my ACL buddies: Pete R., Nancy Levant, Chris Gerner, Darren Weeks, Paul Barnes, Michael and JoAnn Shaw, and Bobby Garner, and then the old N.E. 65th Street gang: Betsy H., Jeri D., Michele F., James P., Todd A., Suzanne, the Randall man, Abby, Dave, Byron, Shelly, John, Nancy Rising, Hugh(???) and especially sister Susan... wherever you all are today you can be sure we're having a fond memory of a time spent with you. In this remote, quiet place we call home, it's easy to sit and conjure up images. No TV or traffic noise around here to distract from my ability to recall audio, visuals, laughter, specific feelings, looks, glances, smiles, smells, and tastes. As a 51 year old free American, I have a generous supply of wonderful past experiences in this lifetime. That's why it doesn't matter much to me that I don't have a "normal" life. I have a lot to be thankful for that can never be measured. And as an all time bonus, I have a daughter and a grandson here who will keep me singing Christmas carols all day long. It's all good here, thanks to so many for thinking of us too.

The ISBNs are here!!!! 2020 books coming asap! Thanks Montana!!!!