I'm looking forward to the publication of "Crunchy Cons" in February. The book is written by Rod Dreher, a writer and editor at the Dallas Morning News, and a conservative journalist who has worked for National Review, the New York Post, and the Washington Times.

According to the web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400050642&)...

"At a time when the Republican party, and the conservative movement in general, is bitterly divided over what it means to be a conservative, Dreher introduces us to people who are pioneering a way back to the future by reclaiming what’s best in conservativism—people who believe that being a truly committed conservative today means protecting the environment, standing against the depredations of big business, returning to traditional religion, and living out conservative godfather Russell Kirk’s teaching that the family is the institution most necessary to preserve."

The web site features this Crunchy Con Manifesto:

1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.

2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.

3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.

4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.

5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative.

6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.

7. Beauty is more important than efficiency.

8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.

9. We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.”

KEEP KIDS ALIVE DRIVE 25® PUBLIC SAFETY UPDATE – BREAKING NEWS!

I realize that you have heard from us frequently as of late. However, the following information is too important to let wait.

Safe Kids Worldwide (http://www.safekids.org/index.html) has released their report on the safest cities for pedestrians with 1 million or more people.

The top five include:

· Austin, Texas

· Seattle, Washington

· Portland, Oregon

· San Francisco, California

· Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The most dangerous include:

· Memphis, Tennessee

· St. Louis, Missouri

· Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

· San Antonio, Texas

· Houston, Texas

Furthermore, Safe Kids makes the following recommendations to help make streets safer for pedestrians.

Education and Empowerment

Urge parents to participate with their children in school-based pedestrian safety activities like International Walk to School Day.

Encourage parents to walk or bike with their children to school, if possible, to decrease traffic congestion and increase safety.

Create public information campaigns that promote the importance of supervising children crossing the street until the age of 10.

Remind parents that they are also drivers who should obey traffic laws.

Provide schools with resources to teach children about pedestrian safety.

Teach children pedestrian safety tips.

Begin Walking School Bus programs or others that provide adult supervision along school routes, and encourage parents and neighbors to keep areas surrounding schools safe for child pedestrians.

Keep Kids Alive Drive 25® works directly with cities, neighborhoods, schools, businesses, and civic organization to support traffic safety education through all our initiatives, including SEAT BELTS-FASTENATING® and STOP! TAKE 3 TO SEE®. Contact 402-334-1391 or e-mail kkad25@cox.net to find out how your community can integrate these educational campaigns into your efforts to educate and engage residents in safe pedestrian/driving practices.

In addition, education must work in concert with engineering and enforcement to create the 3Es – a comprehensive and balanced approach to creating safe streets for the benefit of everyone. If we are to take the information seriously, then we must move to comprehensive planning and action to make a difference in each of our hometowns. What follows are Safe Kids recommendations for engineering and enforcement efforts to complement ongoing education.

Engineering and Environment

Encourage an assessment of pedestrian conditions in residential areas.

Provide school administrators with resources to evaluate school grounds and surrounding areas for pedestrian-related dangers.

Join SAFE KIDS coalitions and other advocacy groups working to improve pedestrian environments through traffic calming.

Alert local/state transportation and public works departments of environmental dangers to child pedestrians, such as broken sidewalks and crossing signals.

Advocate for lower speed limits in school zones and residential areas.

Designate more funds dedicated to improving pedestrian environments.

Enactment and Enforcement

Advocate for Safe Routes to School funding in the 2003 reauthorization of the Transportation Enhancement Act of the 21st Century. (Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 campaigns can be supported through Safe Routes to School Funding. Contact your state Dept. of Transportation for information. If you need a state contact, please e-mail me at kkad25@cox.net.)

Establish and enforce lower motor vehicle speed limits, especially in residential areas and near schools where children are pedestrians. (Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 has been an integral part of supporting enacting such laws, such as House Bill 87 in Texas – 2005 Legislative Year.)

Promote and enforce existing pedestrian right-of-way and jaywalking laws.

Know that Keep Kids Alive Drive 25® stands ready to support your local efforts to create safer roadways and neighborhoods for the benefit of everyone in your community as we enter 2006. We welcome your calls and e-mails for information about how to integrate our campaigns into your efforts.

All the best!

In safety,

Tom Everson

Founder/Executive Director
Keep Kids Alive Drive 25® - A Non-Profit Organization 501(c)(3)
(402) 334-1391
kkad25@cox.net

www.KeepKidsAliveDrive25.org

TROY POLICE DEPARTMENT
Charles T. Craft, Chief of Police
500 W. Big Beaver, Troy, Michigan 48084
(248) 524-3443

Community Services ...   more »

The agenda can be found at...

http://www.ci.troy.mi.us/council/AgendaPacketDetail.asp?dir=PublicAgenda%2020051205

I recently requested information from the Troy City Manager on providing closed captioning for City Council meetings on the municipal cable TV channel (WTRY).

Here is the response I received...

November 30, 2005

TO: John Szerlag, City Manager

FROM: John M. Lamerato, Assistant City Manager/Finance & Administration
Cindy Stewart, Community Affairs Director

SUBJECT: AGENDA ITEM: Closed Captioning for Cable Channel

Councilman Lambert brought up the topic of offering closed captioning for our cable
channel, WTRY. We researched this last year after receiving a resident inquiry related
to closed captioning services. Research through the National Association of
Telecommunications Officers and Advisors – Michigan Chapter shows that only two
cities in Michigan (Clinton Township and Grand Rapids) provide Closed Captioning for
their government access channels. They both have three-year contracts for closed
captioning services and said that their companies provide about a 95% accuracy rate in
the captioning.

There are some California and Arizona cities, as well as some State Senate hearings
that offer limited closed captioning services and the State of Michigan offers closed
captioning only for the annual Governor’s State of the State address.
Companies we found that offer closed captioning are Communication Works for the
Deaf in Farmington Hills, Closed Captioning Services in Grand Rapids and Rapidtext,
Inc. in Newport Beach, California. We would need to purchase a Link Electronics
Encoder/Decoder ($3,000 – 6,000 depending on the company) for our cable office and
have a telephone interface and two dedicated phone lines – one to receive the audio
and one to send back to us to include on the tape. A translator would listen to our
meetings via a phone line, type the conversations and route it back to our television
screen. It would be live with a one – two second delay. We would also be able to tape
the captioning for meeting playbacks.

The cost for the Realtime Captioning ranges from $125 - 135 per hour. If we provided
closed captioning for all City Council Meetings (minimum 31 meetings x approx. 5 hours
per meeting), cost would be approximately $19,375 - 20,925 per year. This would not
include any Study Sessions or other meetings.

Current Services for the Hearing Impaired: We have installed a hearing assistance
device in the Council Chambers. To date no one has asked to use this equipment. We
provide audio and videotapes, which are available at the Library. We also have an
interpreter resource, Deaf Can! which provides sign language interpreters for meetings
at $34 per hour (minimum two hours) plus mileage for the interpreter. We offer this
service of a sign language translator at meetings when requested in advance by a
resident. We had a request for this service only twice in the past six years.

If you have an opinion on this (either "pro" or "con"), send me an email at dave@lambert.net .