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Happy Year 2!
by Ken Krayeske
Hartford, CT
A
nd so begins the second year of the 40 Year Plan.
Year One consisted of breaking news, visioning and observations from afar.
Year Two will focus more strongly on building a network of concerned citizens, on creating dialogue, on more focused visioning and goal setting.
In Year Two, the 40-Year Plan opens with new website www.the40yearplan.com. While it is not quite finished with its construction stages, it is mostly done. All weekly columns starting now will be posted and archived there. Email them to your friends and family. In deference to the Hartford News, the 40-Year Plan columns wonāt be posted until Wednesday afternoons, when the Hartford News hits the streets.
Hopefully by June, the web site will have ideas contributed by other voices. Specifically, the 40-Year Plan wants help from young people, high school and college students not only from Connecticut, but all over the country, to generate ideas about the future they would like to see and work towards. I am accepting submissions, and if you know anyone who should write for us, tell them about it.
Year Two will see the 40-Year Plan hosting at least one community forum. We are still in the planning phase, and I suspect that this might not happen until late spring at the soonest. I hope to hold this discussion panel at La Paloma Sabanera, the great coffee shop on Capital Avenue I wrote about in Year One. We will invite community leaders of all ages and try to pack the place to capacity to establish the first of what hope to be many gatherings.
For the first part of Year Two, I will be writing my stories from afar, as I am making home base in West Palm Beach for a spell. I am working a book about the 2004 presidential campaign, warts and all. A windy spot on the water, in shorts and a t-shirt, is a great way for me to focus on such an undertaking. I plan on having my book become a best seller and Iāll make millions and really get the 40-Year Plan kicking into gear. But, I am also aware that the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.
A more attainable goal, though, is that I have created a massive chart, six feet tall, that has 40 blank lines for 40 years, from 2004 to 2044. Within those spaces, I hope to fill in by the end of the year legitimate timeframes for our goals?
And what do we want to accomplish in the next 40 years? A third-party U.S. Senator in 6 years? Instant Runoff Voting in 10 years? A liberal majority in Congress in 16 years? Universal healthcare in 20 years? Legal Marijuana in 40 years?
My job will be to research such questions, and try to write about why I think such quests will take such amounts of time.
As always, your feedback is welcome. We have a Feedback page on the website, or email me at ken@the40yearplan.com.
Peace.
1/5/05
Wishing you a happpy new year!