Every little bit counts

I've made my meager (possibly financially unwise, but hopefully sound) contributions to two of the politicians in my state who are fighting the reprehensible HB 2625, and trying to put forth anti-bullying legislation to actually help children. I'm not rich, and that's not likely to change any time soon, but damn it, the only part of the country I have any ounce of ability to change is the one I live in.

So I've decided to do what I can. Not just voting-- though that's important too-- but putting my money where my mouth is.

Yesterday, we completed the module for ModuleMonday, and killed the mighty Orcus. Next week, I'll be running Steampunk London; just have to decide what system it's in. It sounded like neither Emma nor Melissa could make it otherwise, though I might check with Emma one last time. (Melissa definitely can't.)

Should find out today whether to be panicking or get back to my life. So that's something!

Aeon Flux predicted this, anyway.

In case you ever wondered if the USA is Bregna from Aeon Flux, have a gander at this report.

The long and short of it is: through research, it's been recently pointed out that not one state in the USA is properly policed by ethics committees. Active effort is made to obfuscate the truth of government spending, to hide the fact that many, many government officials accept bribes and 'gifts' from lobbyists (often unregistered), and to exploit loopholes in state laws to keep ethics organizations from holding the offenders accountable.

While my state is at the top of the bottom half of the country, rank-wise (a pleasant, though not unexpected surprise; as one might expect, states with recent or frequent scandal actually enact more reform more genuinely than states without, and we once had the disreputable Fife Symington as our governor), the rank means very little, I think. I had trouble finding the above report and had to google and sift to get to it; most news outlets are part of the problem. The story was presented not as "FIND YOUR STATE, AND FIX IT", but "see if your state is one of the best or worst". The attitude inherent in such presentation is, "At least you're not in the bottom eight!"

It doesn't lend to citizen action, or effort to rectify this serious problem. It doesn't even lend to action in the 'bottom eight' ranked states, really, but I still was annoyed by the subtle manipulation evident in the doctoring of the report by most online news outlets that came up first in google's searches.

I do give a damn about the corruption of the government, but I often feel powerless to effect even minor change. How can you make the place you live a better place to live when most of the people who live there with you are racist, or close-minded, scary fanatics, or way into gun ownership? What this report suggests is accountability for us as a nation, and that's something I'd desperately like to see. Trouble is, even in places that claim to value transparency, or to be working towards providing information in full for the public to view at our leisure-- something we have a right to do, something from which we should not be obstructed-- those that DO offer the information try to spin it, or only show some, not all. To filter what the public sees, and continue to do whatever it is that they're doing that probably counts as 'illegal'.

But back to Bregna. That's the whole point of Trevor Goodchild's hostile takeover in the first speaking episode of Aeon Flux, isn't it? To sensationalize the idol of 'openness' and to pretend that he is revealing everything, that he is completely comfortable with having no secrets. Now, if a cartoon from the early 90's could presuppose that any effort to do so would really only lead to blackmailing, or more elaborate subterfuge, I really just wonder why it comes as a surprise to anyone that states that claim to provide the information asked of them are still attempting to conceal other information behind their pretense of transparency.

Anyway, my grousing aside, the link is valuable, and if you're in the USA and politically active in your own community, it's worth looking into what your state's currently scoring poorly on. Knowing is half the battle, right?