All posts by Zachary

Participatory Culture, Politics

Nonpartisan Primary Elections Limit Ballot Access

Alaska’s Nonpartisan Pick One Primary Election may seem like a good idea on the surface, but when held up to the light for further examination, one begins to see the anti-democratic underpinning of this novel idea.

In Alaska’s Division of Elections FAQ, they make it clear:

Can a candidate with no party affiliation still run in the general election by petition?

No. Under the new law, the nominating petition process no longer allows for candidates to run in the general election using the nominating petition process. If a candidate did not appear on the primary election ballot or was not successful in advancing to the general election, they may run as an official write-in candidate as long as they file a letter of intent at least 5 days prior to the general election.

Why would Alaska want to limit ballot access to four individuals? Especially during today’s electoral political climate and increased interest in the general public.

With today’s voting technology, a ballot with many choices is read, submitted, and processed. There is no excuse to limit the choices on the ballot.

And sadly, this idea is gaining a foothold in other States as well.

Ideas, Participatory Culture, Politics

Community Currencies

When I think about making a community more robust, inevitably the discourse includes the idea of currency. Money, time, talent, skill. Some facet of power.

I was surfing around for something to read and came across Stephanie Kelton’s The Deficit Myth.

As is a strategy of mine, I searched for interviews, discussions, and debates with Kelton regarding their book. I started with this one on YouTube: Stephanie Kelton: Debunking the Deficit Myth | Town Hall Seattle

Skipping around to get a flavor of the material, Kelton began discussing the users of a currency (individuals, families, businesses, local and State governments) and the issuers (the Federal Government) of the currency.

This reminded me of the earlier pandemic discussion of alternative, community currencies:

Thankfully, as Wikipedians usually do, there is a great list of community currencies available in the United States and the world. There is also this article about Complementary Currencies.

And, as with most things in Indiana, Bloomington has a system of timebanking known as hOUR. Timebanking is one methodology for creating an alternative, local currency.

Does anyone know if there have been previous attempts in Greater Lafayette to create alternative local currencies? Does anyone have experience with hOUR? What are your thoughts?

Ideas, Politics

Hospital Diversions

2021-06-09: IU was under full diversion.

When listening to the radio, occasionally we hear that the two hospitals in the Greater Lafayette area, Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health and Indiana University Health Arnett, are on some class (e.g. partial, full, etc.) of diversion.

We had two such events in the last two days.

This made me wonder how this information is documented and disseminated. And now that journey begins.

As a reference:

A hospital may notify the EMS system of a temporary inability to provide care in the emergency department (ED) and request ambulances divert patients to an alternate hospital facility.

A request to divert to another facility may be honored by EMS providers when patient condition and EMS system status allow.

A diversion request does not mean the hospital ED is closed, but usually means the current emergency patient load exceeds the Emergency Department’s ability to treat additional patients promptly.

If the patient’s condition is unstable and the hospital requesting diversion is the closest appropriate hospital, ambulance service personnel should notify the hospital of the patient’s condition and to expect the patient’s arrival. This procedure should also be followed when a patient demands transport to a facility on diversion.

A hospital declaring diversionary status for EMS patients is simply a request for EMS to consider an alternate hospital destination. The hospital may not refuse care for a patient presented to their facility and is subject to EMTALA rules and regulations.Now the journey begins to see what we can find out.

Indiana Department of Homeland Security: Guidance for Hospitals and EMS for Ambulance Diversion Requests