I value greatly the opportunity to participate in the DailyKos community, and I look forward to visiting with fellow Kossacks at the NetRootsNation Conference in Pittsburgh in August.
Since retiring two years ago as a supervising prosecutor for the State Bar of California, I have written a number of articles, primarily on peace and justice issues.
Based upon my training and inclination, I analyzed political issues and tried to arrive at alternative, or outside-the-box, solutions.
Most of these efforts are collected at Voters Evolt! which is dedicated to promoting a "Peaceful Political Evolution." The evolt, rather than a revolt, suggests that the presidential election be conducted using a national paper ballot listing the 12 most critical policy issues facing the country every four years allowing voters to make their own political policy by answering yes or no to the questions. In addition, voters are urged to exercise their independence by writing in their selections for president and vice-president, even though the names are listed on the ballot.
Other suggestions call for national registration of eligible voters and that the election be held over a two-day, paid national holiday. Essentially, voting must become a sacrament in our national political religion, otherwise all will be lost to the corporations and the ruling class.
My intention was to reach the largest audience possible regarding matters of common concern.
Initially, I posted my articles on Indymedia and other open sites, such as OpEdNews. Other magazine sites, including Online Journal and Media Monitors began to publish my articles and I began to notice that they were, in turn, picked up and republished on yet more sites. I included these sites on my mailing list. As interest and editorial confidence increased, my work was published on some of the major sites, including Consortium News, Information Clearing House, Global Research and Counterpunch.
Today, depending upon the subject, I can offer my articles to a variety of sites, whose visitors will likely share the common concern addressed by the article, and I can expect that the article will be read by thousands, if not millions of readers, worldwide.
Which brings me to the first element mentioned in the title. It is because of our shared ability and freedom to widely publish alternative political commentary that the Internet has truly become the Fifth Estate. Thank God!
If democracy in this country and in other countries around the world is to be preserved, it will because of the free flow of ideas on the Internet through the various online magazines and blog sites, such as DailyKos.
Like the other two to four million people who visit DailyKos every day, I often browse the articles and diaries posted there. Several months ago, I posted an article about freedom of choice as a diary on Daily Kos and was pleased to see that it attracted a number of comments, mostly favorable as I recall.
So, with the intention of reaching a larger progressive reading audience regarding matters of common concern, I posted a couple more articles.
Which brings me to the other two elements in the title.
Last month as I flew into my local airport on an Airbus A320, the pilot could not land the plane and, after the biggest bounce I’ve ever experienced, we had to go around and try again. The second time, we landed but used up the entire runway before stopping.
Two weeks ago, as I was flying back from the America’s Future Conference in Washington, D.C., we were stuck on the tarmac at Dulles in an Airbus for a couple of hours waiting for a thunderstorm to move out of our path.
As I reflected upon these experiences in light of the crash of Air France Flight 447, I decided to research and write an article about the future of commercial aviation as it makes use of technological innovations such as computerized control and composite materials.
Global Research published From the Airbus to the Spaceplane: The Future of Commercial Aviation, and the article prompted more email than any previous endeavor, including encouragement from several commercial pilots. I also posted it in a DailyKos diary.
As I worked on the article, it appeared to me that the use of composite materials in primary commercial aircraft structures, such as the rudder and vertical tail fin, might be a basic design error. The reason being that these elements simply cannot fail without extensive loss of life. My intended short article grew into a 15-page legal brief with 76 footnotes.
The essence of the article lies in these two paragraphs:
MIT Professor James Wilson says "Airbus's extensive design and testing programs for the A300-600 composite vertical stabilizer may be currently deficient if they were based on outmoded or flawed engineering assumptions or an inadequate certification process. No amount of analysis can overcome faulty assumptions or insufficient requirements."
And NASA's Mark Shuart believes it may be useful and prudent to do a "hard scrub," or thorough review, of the design loads used by Airbus in the design of critical structures in its aircraft. He is of the opinion that "failures are more likely a design, rather than a composite problem."
I interviewed Dr. Wilson and Mark Shuart in preparing the article.
Once I had completed the article, I submitted it those sites whose visitors might share an interest in a common, world-wide issue. I did not submit it to most of political sites that often publish my articles because their visitors should be able to find the article at other sites if they were interested in the issue.
The article was published on Friday and again generated a great deal of interest and mail.
Yesterday, the thought occurred to me that DailyKos visitors and members might find the article to be of some interest and value and I decided to post it as a diary.
Well, the diary did receive more comments than any previous posting: 70 at last count.
I very much appreciated the wide-ranging discussion in the comments on the issues, but I was concerned by some comments that I may have violated some rules or protocols by either "cross-posting" the article or "Google-bombing" it.
I reread the DailyKos FAQ and was reassured to find that: (1) "Cross-posting from your own blog is welcome," and (2) "What makes for a good diary: Anything which showcases original research or original analysis. ...News (plus analysis) on interesting/relevant topics that are not widely discussed."
Wikipedia told me that "Crossposting is usually practiced when material is relevant and of interest to the readers of more than one newsgroup."
All of this has been a long way to say, "I am sorry if I offended anyone by posting an article that had already be published elsewhere. I meant no disrespect."
BTW: The article was not intended as a "hit piece" and I was not paid by Boeing to write it. In fact, Boeing declined to be interviewed for the article. The story pointed out that Boeing has composite tails on its 777 and new 787 and suggested that they be included in any inspection program.
I value greatly the opportunity to participate in the DailyKos community, and I look forward to visiting with fellow Kossacks at the NetRootsNation Conference in Pittsburgh in August. I will be flying Airbuses to and from the conference. I’m not cancelling or rescheduling my flights, but I am considering buying flight insurance for the first time in 40 years. My wife agrees.
Keep up the great work! Democracy depends upon you and your participation in the Fifth Estate. The Democrats depend upon your enthusiasm for progressive ideas and ideals.
Thanks Kos.
Best Wishes,
William John Cox