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The
PTTN Founding Members Agreement
As one of the 50 founding members of Proof Through the
Night, and to help create an informed, critically-thinking and
active American electorate, I agree to do the following within six
months:
1. I will register to vote
if I haven’t.
2. I will vote in as many
elections as I can.
3. I will begin to take in
quality political news from at least three different points on the
political spectrum for at least one hour a week. I will make this a
habit. (For instance,
liberal news, conservative news, and alternative or international
news.—Many news websites can be found on our Political Knowledge
webpage at ProofThroughTheNight.Org)
4. I will refresh my
knowledge of the basics of the political process, if I’ve forgotten
the basics, or never learned them. I
will attempt to pass the online PTTN Basics of Politics Test [The
test isn’t created yet, but will be broken down into quizzes that
shouldn’t take longer than 15-20 minutes to do. The quizzes will also
be set up to teach you and help you retain the knowledge from the
questions you missed. We also already have our own Politics 101
materials online.]
5. I will refresh my
knowledge of the basics of critical thinking.
[For instance, learning the way to analyze an argument, and the
way to spot distortion and deception techniques, such as logical
fallacies and emotionally manipulative imagery.]
I will attempt to pass the online PTTN Basics of Critical
Thinking Test. [Again,
the test hasn’t been created yet, but I expect it will be ready within
two months. Again, we will have instructional materials on critical
thinking on the ProofThroughTheNight.Org website.]
6. Before each election, I
will make a systematic effort to spend 1-2 hours reviewing the
candidates and the issues. [One
PTTN strategy is to invite a few family or friends to an informal
“Study and Party” event. This
just means having some food and drinks, and discussing and reviewing
candidates together. Besides making it something of a pre-election
ritual and habit, another advantage of the Party and Study event is that
it can pave the way for inviting them to become PTTN participants.]
7. If I haven’t already
plugged into some advocacy groups that match my key interests and
values, I will do so, in order to get timely email action updates
that will remind me to do advocacy.
(The great majority of advocacy groups will put you on their list
for free.)
8. I will agree to do at
least two hours of advocacy a month on issues of great concern to me.
When my representatives are on vacation, I will spend the two
hours doing background study on issues.
9. As part of my two hours a
month, I will do some advocacy on at least one structural issue.
(Structural issues affect the efficiency of the political process
itself. Examples are
campaign finance reform, and assuring that voting machine results cannot
be corrupted. If people
don’t spend some time on structural issues, it’s likely the
political process will remain inefficient and be wasteful of our tax
money.)
10. I will make at least one
membership contribution to Proof Through the Night. (PTTN
is a project of World Peace One, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit
organization.) We are asking
$30. If need be, give it in
three installments. [One of
the first things that the money will do is pay for the programming
needed to create the self-teaching online politic and critical-thinking
tests.]
11. Once I have established
these new political habits (regular
quality news intake, regular advocacy, and critical thinking)—and
assuming I find my PTTN involvement worthwhile—I will make a concerted
effort to invite and support at least two people to become members.
[In other words, if you don’t think that your involvement has
made a significant difference, then you can consider this agreement
nonbinding.] I will
attempt to invite these two or more people as soon as possible, knowing
that if the amount of participation doubles every six months, we will
reach two-thirds of the electorate within one decade.
[Thus your participation may help produce a turning point in
American history: a regularly informed, critically-thinking and active
American electorate!]
12. Twice a year, I will
respond to a survey by email regarding my level of participation.
I know that if I am a serious participant that my efforts,
combined with the efforts of others, will help inspire people.
13. I will read the PTTN
Strategy Document (or watch the PTTN Strategy videos) to learn of
the more than 40 high-leverage strategies we have to help create an
upgraded American electorate. (This
will help you feel confident that your participation will make a real
difference!)
___________________________________
____/____/____
Signature
Date
_________________________________
__________________________
Print name
Street Address
_________________________________ ___________________________
Your email address (or phone number)
City, State and Zip Code
Please send a copy, along with your membership contribution, payable to World
Peace One, to PTTN, 5135 Dearborn St.
,
Pittsburgh
PA
15224
.
“Freedom
is not free.”—attributed to Martin Luther King,
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