1 January 9, 2016

1. Happy New Year
   I feel that 2016 will be the year that A Civic People of the United States flourishes in civic influence. This feeling comes because of increasing interest in the representative blog and online debates, both local and national. Also, I see much synergy in concerns in the quarterly, National Affairs.
   Below are a few updates and impressions that I want to share:
2. We plan a meeting on February 21 to have our first collaboration on physics-based ethics using the topic, “abortion.” Although not intended for those purposes, it turns out to be of general interest in Louisiana politics as well as for the 2016 presidential election. I hope the public will be attracted. I am excited by the material being prepared. If anyone would like to collaborate on the presentation in any way--a phone review and comments or more--just email or call.
3. We will also conduct the annual ratification day and constitution day meetings to celebrate a civic people.
4. What began as my desire to influence Americans to use the literal preamble to coordinate civic needs, turned in Fall 2013 into a proposal to influence the integrity of Baton Rouge in the face of the St. George proposal. Collaboration by a few people at the library and private meetings, blossomed into a theory for establishing civic morality using physics-based ethics.
5. The collaboration led to something far beyond my vision. My interests continue in a direction I like, but not necessarily in the optimal path for the collaboration.
6. Therefore, I would like to ask a core group to meet monthly to sustain the collaborative effort, independent of me. We now have authorization to meet twelve times at EBRP libraries, and have above three meetings in mind. However, I feel that the library would authorize us to have a regularly scheduled meeting. If not, and you are agreeable, my home would be adequate for up to twelve people. The den is good for presentations, and the dining room can accommodate twelve at the table. Some people might like to meet at LSU, and that could probably be arranged. Please volunteer to meet regularly; email philrbeaver@gmail.com.
7. Anna Fogle told me to write a book, and I want to but have lots of work going on. I have written an article, which I plan to submit to National Affairs soon. If you would be so kind as to critique it, I would be very grateful. It is about 7000 word, eleven pages, and dense. It is annotated to make it convenient to confirm bases for unconventional viewpoints, such as the idea that opinion-based law is responsible for the USA’s dysfunction.
8.  I campaigned for Jay Dardenne for governor and continue to have keen interest in civic issues, especially child abuse, education, government pay at multiples for equivalent private functions, elitism, and especially Chapter XI Machiavellianism, for example civic prayer.
9. I have searched for an equivalent interest in physics-based ethics and have not found it. The Bristol online physics and ethics site, PEEP, seems turned off. I re-read two David Hume books and it is not there. I read Sam Harris’ The Moral Landscape. No. Struggling in discussions about Einstein, I came to the realization that he never got past the public debates on science and religion to personally realize that science is only the study of physics, and I feel boastful to write about it. If anyone knows that physics-based ethics as we use the phrase is not novel, please share the information. Google searches do not help me.
10. In an online search--I don’t recall whether it was a phrase regarding the preamble or perhaps “personal liberty”--I stumbled upon www.libertylawsite.org  and thought just one of its writers might collaborate to establish A Civic People of the United States. Since early August, I have written many essays there, and they can be found by searching on the site with “Phil Beaver.” Several of the writers want to "send Phil Beaver to Coventry." That’s British slang for ostracize someone. I think those conservative law professors are afraid of physics-based ethics and have not given up on them; so far, they have not kicked me out. No matter what happens, I have learned so much in such a short time! The most important part is that both opinion-based law and governance under theism, both inherited from England and both of which the signers of the draft constitution for the USA tried to end in favor of governance under a civic people, cannot be the bedrock of civic morality. The people will never accept either political opinion or religious opinion as bedrock. In 1787, the free people were 100% factional Christian and 6% could vote: today, the free people are 70% factional Christian and 100% may vote. The USA is in transition from Blackstone and theism to physics for collaborating to establish civic morality.
11. I attended a conference on discipline in schools that one official turned into propaganda about funding day-care for ages 0-3 from the Department of Education’s funds. Another official suggested, I recall, “Conversations for Possibilities.” I googled the phrase and discovered Fernando Flores and decided to read his book of 1980 essays, Conversations for Action . . .”, 2012. Here is a sentence for our work, borrowing from his daughter’s words: Collaborating to produce civic value is very different from communicating to maximize the self-interest of each party involved. I have the book ten more days and will try to capture other important ideas. I have no idea where the discipline in schools discussion will go but so far have heard nothing.
12. As always, the holiday season was a very busy and happy time, with increasing simplicities and complexities. I hope yours’ was happy, too.
13. I am a bit confused—overwhelmed--about the list of valuable resources and hope a monthly meeting might help with that worthy endeavor. I’m skipping that feature this month.

3 December 9, 2015

Here are four Online sources of current interest.   One point that seems missing in Trump’s Muslim hold is legitimate concern about civics rather than religion or race. Apparently, some Muslims take for granted that private pursuits--such as hopes 1) that you have a soul, 2) that your soul will survive the death of your body, mind and person, and 3) then your soul will reside in heaven—are a civic concern. Thus, private life and civic life are the same. I have not found a source that would counter this point. The daily news reports Muslims arguing that the Islam they pursue is peaceful, but none of them claim appreciation for, trust in, and commitment to the preamble to the constitution for the USA. I do not want to impose on anyone but encourage volunteers to choose the preamble to coordinate civic morality and use physics-based ethics to collaborate for personal liberty with civic well-being. One source in the news as biased against the Islamic State but avows acceptance of civic Muslims (my phrase after a meeting, with one of their representatives as speaker) is at www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/about-us/staff/ . The speaker said: Make no mistake, we are conservative Americans, and I think he meant far-right Christians. (He made the mistake of asking me my religion. Afterwards, I did not feel accepted by the crowd.) If you are interested in learning about a non-profit before giving money, one source is www.guidestar.org/ . Actual financial data is available with sign up, and other information is accessible without sign up. I don’t know if it costs to sign up and was too busy to try. One alternative to paid online news is at www.publicintegrity.org/ . Anyone with an opinion about this source, please share. Reply to me, and I'll share next month. Speech on college campuses seems out of control for some. A liberal resource is www.thefire.org . It rates LSU low in freedom of speech and lists incidents. My knowledge of at least one case tells me that merely addressing an issue can be deemed as restricting speech. I oppose that attitude. For example, I think we should talk openly about racism as a thing of the past, based on mtDNA informing us that everyone alive is kin. Knowing we are kin, we may focus on civic morality instead of racism. Happy goodwill season, everyone.