Join the new world

It has been almost three weeks since I last wrote anything, and I feel like there is a lot I have to unload from my chest (don’t worry boys, it’s not the twins).

Congress
After winning the congress race in Alaska, I have been diligently working to represent this nation. As one of the extremely active members of congress, I am consistently giving input on the various proposals being discussed on a daily basis (i.e. constructions, taxes). While I feel that there has been some good legislation passed in congress this term, I have been thoroughly unimpressed with the new congressional system.

First and foremost, there are far too many representatives in congress. Getting us 48 regional senators organized and having a productive discussion about anything has become a logistical nightmare...and only a fraction of our congress is actually active on the forums discussing legislation. That is why I am one of the few individuals who actively support the position of Speaker of the House. We need a leader who will keep us on task and hopefully help moderate the childish name calling and bickering that has begun to plague us.

Secondly, we as regional representatives actually have no power over the regions we are representing and are free to move about the country as we please while in office. To me, this negates the point of having regional representatives. We are realistically just national representatives. While the argument could be made that we are here to try to better the regions we are representing, any congressman or congresswoman with any tact will realize that putting any regional/personal concerns above more pressing issues is a terrible idea. For instance, I have not pushed for a high quality defense system in Alaska (NOTE: I have discussed the possibility for a low quality one) because there are FAR more important areas to secure for national security, but I have pushed for a Q2 hospital because we are a border region and have the largest population of the remaining areas that are without medical care. If I would have pushed for anything else it would have only reflected poorly upon the state of Alaska and myself as a congresswoman. Which brings me to my third area of concern: congresspersons who are interested in furthering their own business interests.

Lately, there have been some rather heated discussions held in regard to taxes. There has been a rift in the congressional community in which some business owners are worried about what will happen to their businesses in the event of raised income taxes, while other representatives (who may or may not be business owners) are adamantly concerned about the nation as a whole instead of their personal industry interests. While we may rely on our own reputations to get elected into office, the last I checked, our job as members of congress is to legislate for the good of the populous, not ourselves.

Media
Being a regional representative has been a difficult task. There is no effective way for me to reach out to my constituency. I have two choices: write an article in the media that they may or may not see (because of the lack of regional media) or spam their inbox with PMs (which, under the constraints of inbox space, could be irritating to them, as well as it is time consuming for me). This brings me to the point of the need for regional media. If we are going to have people represent a defined region, not only do we need to have some sort of regional powers, but we need to be able to communicate with the population that elects us. Without these two tools, we are in effect running our congressional races in the dark and have an uninformed voter base. It would be much easier to campaign for congress on the national level...since the rest of the nation is exactly the population that congressional hopefuls have to battle in the media.

Press Releases
A major help in both regional and party politics would be the reinstatement of press releases. As of right now, there is no way for a party president or a congressional representative to contact the people they are representing en masse. To me, removing this feature upon the release of V1 was a major mistake on the part of the administration. I have tried to muster up support for the press releases in the past, but I was never able to drum up much support amongst my peers. However, I will try it again. I have once again placed a topic in the Erepublik forums: http://www.erepublik.com/en/forum/topic/82978/bring-back-press-releases/1.

In Other News...
I have discovered an interesting endeavor that I think we citizens of the eUSA, in the spirit of internationalism, good will, and peace should participate. Around the globe, nations are beginning to sign up for the holiday gifting plan:

1. Buy a Gift, Food, Weapon, or House.
2. Donate it to a random stranger on December 24 or 25 (earlier if you are going on vacation).
3. Smile at the warm satisfaction that you did a good deed.

This idea was originally created by Antonio Salgado, citizen and congressman of Thailand. (I found out about it from a citizen and congresswoman of Austria, QJ Lincoln.) You can read the original message here: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/-christmas-a-message-of-love-from-ethailand--708108/1.