So John Kerry won in Iowa. I'm sure we all know that by now. I'm still waiting for someone to seriously fill out my questionnaire. The most recent poster was about to, but then he skirted my references questions by calling me lazy. Yes, I know it was partially in jest, but that's missing the point. I'm backing up my case, I'm doing my research, but dang it, I want to see someone back up their case as well. I haven't seen anybody do that yet, and it's only making me trust the Democrats less. For instance, I was watching
Meet the Press on Sunday, and Tim Russert said that the oft repeated complaint from the Democrats that health care is in shambles in this country is actually false. Did you know that
85% of this nation's population is covered by health insurance? How can that possibly be called a bad thing? Only 15% are not currently covered by health care; that is a ridiculously small percentage, especially when you factor in margin for error, the homeless, those unable to receive benefits because of minimum wage jobs, etc. That's one concrete example of using pure, baseless rhetoric to simply enrage a misinformed public. They're spreading lies - lies they know full-well to be dishonest - to get votes. That's downright wrong. Quit lying to me, dang it, just tell me what you're going to do. If they honestly believe that a percentage of 15% of the nation without health care is such a travesty, then tell me what you're going to do about it. Gephardt said his plan was to raise taxes by $1,000 to $2,500 for the middle class in order to cover that 15%. Is that what we really want? I certainly don't want that. But Dick Gephardt didn't even have the guts to give the math, or even defend his plan when Tim Russert called him on it, explaining the exact figures, and using analysis to back up his questions. Instead, Dick Gephardt just kept calling it "fuzzy math", without even rebutting the issue or backing up his policy. I'm very glad that man is dropping out of the race, but I can't say I'm all together pleased with the ones still remaining. John Edwards is the only one thus far that I've yet to see lie in such a way, but I haven't done as much research on him yet. I'm still holding out hope that perhaps he's a gentleman and a true statesman after all, because so far I've lost faith in the others.
And by the way, everything I just said about Dick Gephardt can be found at the link I provided above. If you didn't see it, here's the URL directly:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3979910/
That took me maybe two minutes to produce that link to back up my statements. Why won't people do this for my questionnaire? It's not that hard; do your research, people. It's so important. I'm doing mine, but all I want is to see yours, because maybe you've seen something I haven't. But I want it backed up, I want it referenced. Give me a place to start, that's all I want.
I'm glad the candidates are finally being whittled down. It's about time.
I got a lot of work done today on my proposal for the expansion of the Daily Prophet. I mostly focused on finishing up the tail ends of the research that I needed to pull together. You wouldn't believe some of the statistics I found about illiteracy in this nation and throughout the world. It's just frightening. For instance, at least 50% of the unemployed are functionally illiterate. It is estimated that $5 billion a year in taxes goes to support people receiving public assistance who are unemployable due to illiteracy. Among adults with low literacy skills, 43% live in poverty. Among adults with strong literacy skills, less than 5% live in poverty. 75% of unemployed adults are illiterate. The estimated cost of illiteracy to taxpayers and businesses is $20 billion per year. 75% of Fortune 500 companies provide some level of remedial training for an estimated 8 million workers at an estimated cost of $300 million per year. Low literacy is strongly related to crime. 70% of prisoners fall into the lowest two levels of reading proficiency. 75% of today’s jobs require at least a ninth-grade reading level, and yet, 50% of American adults cannot read an eighth-grade level book. And finally, Over one million children drop out of school each year, costing the nation over $240 billion in lost earnings, forgone tax revenues, and expenditures for social services.
Sad, isn't it? And that's not even everything I found today. Certainly took me long enough, though. I now believe I have enough statistical back-up to fully prove my case for why the Daily Prophet helps children - and adults - so much. I even have the assistance of Mr. Henry Jenkins, an amazing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He founded their Media Studies Program. Cool, eh? He interviewed me back in October for a book he's writing on fandom and pop culture, but he decided to also write an article about me, the Daily Prophet, and other online writing forums for children, for his monthly article in MIT's Technology Review online magazine. He's promised to help in any way he can with developing the Daily Prophet. Honestly, his article is going to provide so much back-up, I'm not sure what else I could ask from him at this point. I mean, even the title of the article is great: "Why Heather CAN Write." Isn't that amazing? I'm so glad I actually subscribe to that magazine already. :) I may ask him for a direct letter of recommendation, though, to include in my proposal packet. I think that would really push it over the top, don't you? To have the support of a highly respected professor from MIT *in writing*, that's definitely something.
The article itself will be published some time in February. I'll post a link as soon as it's up. The article really is fantastic; Mr. Jenkins discusses how writing anonymously online, receiving feedback from mentors, editors, and friends, and even how writing using fantasy is of supreme importance to children and teenagers. His biggest point, from what I gathered, is that teenagers are actually excited about writing when given access to such online communities; their skills flourish, their grades improve, and it shows an active interest on the part of the child to develop their education on their own, outside of traditional schooling. That's exactly what the educational system has been lacking, in my opinion; they never seem to instill a love of learning in the child. They try so hard to teach to the test, to ram facts into children's heads, that they forget to teach them the tools to teach themselves. Like that old addage, give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day; teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime. Same thing applies to learning, and I think that's exactly what the school systems need to realize. Hopefully the new Daily Prophet program can help them do that.
After finishing up my research, I tried desperately to actually write the meat of the proposal, but I had horrible writer's block all day today. I just tried again since I can't sleep, but I just can't do it. I think the horrible headache I've had all day might have something to do with it. :) I just took some medication to help my head, so hopefully it'll be gone tomorrow so I can get some writing done. I'm still perfectly on schedule, though, and I still aim to have it finished by the weekend, all ready to be sent out to potential supporters by next week. I found addresses for Oprah's Angel Network, The AOL Foundation, as well as a few local organizations that might like to help out, including - but not limited to - BMW of Sterling and Ferrari of Washington. They know me really well there now, and BMW at least said that their owner was extremely interested in causes such as this. Plus, they know me so well there now that they even let me take cars out for test drives on my own, which is practically unheard of (mostly for insurance reasons, and the fact that I'm 18.) As for the Ferrari dealership, they're national racing champions, and their owner thinks I'm cute. He's a charming Scotsman from Glasgow; I just met him for the first time on Saturday and we had a cute little chat about the heather of the highlands. So, I'm building up a relationship with him, which is good. With either company, I'd be pleased with any kind of support, be it money, in-kind sponsorship, or help in organizing local fund-raising events. How cool would it be to have a benefit Ferrari racing day? They put on shows all the time, so I don't think it would be that much of a stretch.
Plus, the slogans could be great - Literacy with 320 horsepower, or Literacy; 50% to 100% in 4.2 seconds. Hehe.
As for Oprah's Angel Network and The AOL Foundation, I'm hoping that's where most of my operating funds will come from. They're both really big into educational initiatives, especially international programs for children. Heck, The AOL Foundation's main focus is literacy, and apparently they've already expressed an interest. It also helps to have a highly respected AOL employee on the DP's board of directors. :) I also really respect both organizations - they do a *lot* of good in the world, and most of the time - especially in the case of AOL - don't get much credit for their work. I'd like to bring more attention to all of their efforts, not just if they decided to help the DP.
Oh, I also spent a great deal of time researching local law firms today, because I seriously need help with my 501(c)3 IRS forms. Any of you nice people out there wouldn't happen to have any experience with those, would you? I'm so afraid of doing something wrong that I can't stomach the idea of sending them in. A few months ago I actually got them almost all the way filled out, but I just can't do it by myself, I don't want to mess it up. Anywho, in searching for a law firm, I found one only a few miles away that - according to their website - frequently does pro bono work to help local non-profit charities establish themselves, particularly when it comes to filing forms with the IRS. I've heard it shouldn't take an experienced person too long to look over my forms and help me out, so I'm hoping they'll be willing to do just that. As soon as I get the proposal done, I'll be sending it to them as well, asking for their support. Let's hope they go for it, because that's a very important step in this whole process.
Tomorrow will be lots of writing. I'm really hoping I get over this writer's block, it was bad today. Also, I need to stop by the DMV to switch over my license so I can get all ready to vote and stuff. Other than that, I think that's my plan for tomorrow. And now, the medication is kicking in so I think I'll go to bed while my head is behaving. One last funny thing before I go, did you know I took over CNN? Hehehe. Just kidding of course: mix provided by Mixmaster. That is the funniest thing ever... :) Check out the caption under the picture of John Kerry, it just kills me. And apparently, my archives won the Iowa caucuses. :) Huzzah!
