Full Version: Initiative 101
Jeff Peckman, the author of Denver's upcoming "Safety Through Peace" initiative, says his program could save the city millions of dollars per year by reducing stress. The initiative will be on Denver’s November ballot.
The initiative:
''Shall the voters for the City and County of Denver adopt an Initiated Ordinance to require the city to help ensure public safety by increasing peacefulness--that is, by defusing political, religious and ethnic tensions, both locally and globally--through the identification and implementation of any systematic, stress-reducing techniques or programs, whether mental, physical, etc.
http://www.safetythroughpeace.org/initiative.asp
Some examples of stress relief Peckman believes the city should implement are:
Improving the quality of school food has been shown to significantly reduce violent and aggressive behavior, and increase academic performance. That influence could be expected to carry over into families and the community—translating into a lower crime rate citywide.
Music and sound technologies are other areas. Some kinds of peace-promoting music can be played even when no one is around to hear it and that also reduces societal stress. The proper use of sound has been shown to reverse cancer cell growth, alleviate hundreds of long standing chronic health disorders, and make house plants and food crops flourish. No particular style of music or technology of sound is mandated by Initiative 101 and no one will be required to listen to a style of music they do not like.
Meditation by trained experts has demonstrated the ability to reduce violent crime by over 18% in only six weeks. This was predicted in advance and subsequently documented by scientific research in Washington D.C. during 1993, the same summer that Denver was experiencing its summer of violence. Denver's murder rate in the spring of 2003 was already up 50% for the year.
Health problems and chronic disorders create a great deal of suffering and therefor stress. Many proven, cost-effective health care solutions are available from the field of complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM). A survey of the 15-20 regional CAM centers, already funded with tens of millions of tax dollars from the National Institutes of Health, would be sufficient to identify such cost-effective services that are highly effective but underutilized in health care. If health institutions were to utilize these more effective and cost-effective healthcare solutions, that could also translate into a reduction of crime and violence too, not to mention less suffering and premature death of citizens, by offering more effective and affordable healthcare.
Implementation and Enforcement. By the effective date, as set forth below, the City and County of Denver shall adopt all measures necessary for the proper and effective implementation and enforcement of the provisions of this article.
I’m interested in how AD members feel about this initiative.
Do you think mandating stress relief is a good or bad idea? How would this be enforced? Should government buildings and other businesses be required to play soothing music or offer their employees transcendental meditation meetings?
The initiative:
''Shall the voters for the City and County of Denver adopt an Initiated Ordinance to require the city to help ensure public safety by increasing peacefulness--that is, by defusing political, religious and ethnic tensions, both locally and globally--through the identification and implementation of any systematic, stress-reducing techniques or programs, whether mental, physical, etc.
http://www.safetythroughpeace.org/initiative.asp
Some examples of stress relief Peckman believes the city should implement are:
Improving the quality of school food has been shown to significantly reduce violent and aggressive behavior, and increase academic performance. That influence could be expected to carry over into families and the community—translating into a lower crime rate citywide.
Music and sound technologies are other areas. Some kinds of peace-promoting music can be played even when no one is around to hear it and that also reduces societal stress. The proper use of sound has been shown to reverse cancer cell growth, alleviate hundreds of long standing chronic health disorders, and make house plants and food crops flourish. No particular style of music or technology of sound is mandated by Initiative 101 and no one will be required to listen to a style of music they do not like.
Meditation by trained experts has demonstrated the ability to reduce violent crime by over 18% in only six weeks. This was predicted in advance and subsequently documented by scientific research in Washington D.C. during 1993, the same summer that Denver was experiencing its summer of violence. Denver's murder rate in the spring of 2003 was already up 50% for the year.
Health problems and chronic disorders create a great deal of suffering and therefor stress. Many proven, cost-effective health care solutions are available from the field of complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM). A survey of the 15-20 regional CAM centers, already funded with tens of millions of tax dollars from the National Institutes of Health, would be sufficient to identify such cost-effective services that are highly effective but underutilized in health care. If health institutions were to utilize these more effective and cost-effective healthcare solutions, that could also translate into a reduction of crime and violence too, not to mention less suffering and premature death of citizens, by offering more effective and affordable healthcare.
Implementation and Enforcement. By the effective date, as set forth below, the City and County of Denver shall adopt all measures necessary for the proper and effective implementation and enforcement of the provisions of this article.
I’m interested in how AD members feel about this initiative.
Do you think mandating stress relief is a good or bad idea? How would this be enforced? Should government buildings and other businesses be required to play soothing music or offer their employees transcendental meditation meetings?
QUOTE(Beladonna @ Nov 1 2003, 09:06 AM)
Do you think mandating stress relief is a good or bad idea? How would this be enforced? Should government buildings and other businesses be required to play soothing music or offer their employees transcendental meditation meetings?
This is a joke, right?
I can just see the city wiring up all those speakers that look like rocks and frogs and playing "It's a Small World After All" over and over and over. It's enough to make you want to kill someone.
Amazed that they didn't first try it in Boulder. Or in Colorado Springs with all those military installations.
QUOTE
Implementation and Enforcement. By the effective date, as set forth below, the City and County of Denver shall adopt all measures necessary for the proper and effective implementation and enforcement of the provisions of this article.
I’m interested in how AD members feel about this initiative.
Do you think mandating stress relief is a good or bad idea? How would this be enforced? Should government buildings and other businesses be required to play soothing music or offer their employees transcendental meditation meetings?
I’m interested in how AD members feel about this initiative.
Do you think mandating stress relief is a good or bad idea? How would this be enforced? Should government buildings and other businesses be required to play soothing music or offer their employees transcendental meditation meetings?
I think mandatory stress relief would step on a constitutional freedom or two. How would the government actually enforce relaxation?
I'm with amf on this....it's very hard to take seriously. Most of my stress is generated from my kids, shouldn't the government offer 'free' childcare to all parents to eleviate their stress? How about a 35 hour maximum work-week for all?I believe there would be a lot of benefits to meditation, especially if practiced by society at large. I simply see no way to logically enforce it in a free society. We might encourage it, though...The sentence, "City and County of Denver shall adopt all measures necessary for the proper and effective implementation and enforcement of the provisions of this article" is something out of a Farside comic strip. You WILL relax, darnit! Mandatory play for everyone or else!!!!!
Americans passionately abhor being told what to do even if by complying with this "enforcement" could be the cure for AIDS itself.
The idea of such an initiative sounds great and just might be very beneficial. I certainly wouldn't have a problem with something that could soothe the savage beasts ... but the word "enforcement" would no doubt send some into "POLICE STATE" spazz attacks.
It would be an exciting experiment though.
The idea of such an initiative sounds great and just might be very beneficial. I certainly wouldn't have a problem with something that could soothe the savage beasts ... but the word "enforcement" would no doubt send some into "POLICE STATE" spazz attacks.
It would be an exciting experiment though.
QUOTE
''Shall the voters for the City and County of Denver adopt an Initiated Ordinance to require the city to help ensure public safety by increasing peacefulness--that is, by defusing political, religious and ethnic tensions, both locally and globally--through the identification and implementation of any systematic, stress-reducing techniques or programs, whether mental, physical, etc.
Was this dreamed up by some Miss America contestant in the early 1970s? It is also reminiscent of the idea of spraying the populace with soma, which was in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, right in there with genetic engineering for the ultimate classism (!).
It sounds like a grand idea, if not workable. How are they going to come up with the money to implement it?
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