4 ms·

No, the only way you can truly fight these issues is running for local office, getting on school boards, townships, and development boards and actually pushing

No, the only way you can truly fight these issues is running for local office, getting on school boards, townships, and development boards and actually pushing for this. Just giving up and doing your own thing is a complete antithesis to democracy and modern society. You act like these institutions are set in stone when it doesn't make much force to enact local change at all. We're talking about positions of power that get decided in an election of maybe 300-600 voters.

zamfi 4y ago
No, the only way you can truly fight these issues is by convincing parents not only that these issues matter, but that the conventional thinking is wrong. You won't be able to do that from a school or township board. Get on a school board, try to push for whole milk in schools, and you'll see how quickly ill-informed parents and vested interests fight back. School starts early because most adults work, and their kids can't leave home after they do. It's easy to think that each of these issues continues to be an issue because someone "doesn't care", but the reality in many cases is the much more challenging "someone cares a lot, but has the opposite opinion."
- azemetre 4y ago
  There's always challenges for everything in life, and wanting to give up at the slightest bit of hardship is so odd. I've done zero research on this, but I have to assume societal movements have a much much shorter shelf life since the advent of modern social media. But hey it's okay, by not caring about these local institutions or political races just means people that don't agree with do care and are actively showing up and making changes.
  - zamfi 4y ago
    O...kay? No one's saying to "give up" here -- I'm just saying a local leadership post is not typically the position of influence you're implying: an elected representative who is consistently pushing an agenda that's unsupported by constituents isn't going to last very long, and is certainly not going to change many minds. Frankly you'd have better luck as an "influencer"...
giantg2 4y ago
Just an FYI, this wouldn't work for their example of USDA regulations. Some states have laws about start times, or maybe it was just recently proposed. There is a massive amount of state and federal regulation on most school issues. There's still a lot that can be done at the local level, but there's not as much autonomy as most people initially think.

zamfi 4y ago

No, the only way you can truly fight these issues is by convincing parents not only that these issues matter, but that the conventional thinking is wrong. You won't be able to do that from a school or township board. Get on a school board, try to push for whole milk in schools, and you'll see how quickly ill-informed parents and vested interests fight back. School starts early because most adults work, and their kids can't leave home after they do. It's easy to think that each of these issues continues to be an issue because someone "doesn't care", but the reality in many cases is the much more challenging "someone cares a lot, but has the opposite opinion."

azemetre 4y ago
There's always challenges for everything in life, and wanting to give up at the slightest bit of hardship is so odd. I've done zero research on this, but I have to assume societal movements have a much much shorter shelf life since the advent of modern social media. But hey it's okay, by not caring about these local institutions or political races just means people that don't agree with do care and are actively showing up and making changes.
- zamfi 4y ago
  O...kay? No one's saying to "give up" here -- I'm just saying a local leadership post is not typically the position of influence you're implying: an elected representative who is consistently pushing an agenda that's unsupported by constituents isn't going to last very long, and is certainly not going to change many minds. Frankly you'd have better luck as an "influencer"...

giantg2 4y ago

Just an FYI, this wouldn't work for their example of USDA regulations. Some states have laws about start times, or maybe it was just recently proposed. There is a massive amount of state and federal regulation on most school issues. There's still a lot that can be done at the local level, but there's not as much autonomy as most people initially think.