Category Archives: Uncategorized

Representative democracy is in crisis. Legislatures do not accurately reflect all sectors of society. Ordinary citizens should have more say than merely pulling a ballot lever once every few years. A government that is merely ‘for’ the people is not … Continue reading →

NEXT STEP FOR DEMOCRACY (a short comedic educational stage play) Marisa, Alma, Sami, and Ali live in a city embroiled in conflict and violence — the Regime, the Opposition, the Opposition to the Opposition. When the fighting stops, they ask … Continue reading →

DEMOCRACY AT RANDOM (road trip screenplay) Two citizens are chosen as representatives to the first randomly-selected legislature. One is angry, black, male, privileged and crippled. The other is naïve, white, poor, female and lively. This odd couple embarks on a … Continue reading →

RANDOM TAKES OFF (political action screenplay) What if we selected representatives the way the first democracy did? The way we choose juries? In this screenplay one of the five hundred chosen for the first Citizen Legislature is a farm boy, … Continue reading →

Ethnically shape-shifting Stride and his ragtag bunch of Peace Parasites nonviolently fight against the moneyed powers-that-be to make democracy real. It takes a solar-powered blimp, time travel, levitation, a soulful blues band on a river barge, and a passel of … Continue reading →

The Fight for Random – wild magical realist screenplay Random Takes Off – political action drama screenplay Democracy at Random – road trip screenplay Random Takes Baltimore – municipal version of “Takes Off” screenplay Next Step for Democracy – a … Continue reading →

I am publishing four screenplays, a short stage play, a long essay, a novella and a novel – all envisioning the pros and cons of using sortition (random selection) to ensure more accurately representative legislatures. The genres run from wild … Continue reading →

On the Citizen House: A Disquisitive Fiction is a novella of ideas in the form of socratic dialogue wrapped up in a road trip. Formatted as a proto-screenplay, description is sparse, characterization thin. Dialogue and visuals dominate. The Citizen House … Continue reading →

In December 2015 I attended “Democracy in the 21st Century”, an international conference at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina —the library on the site of the iconic ancient one of Alexandria, Egypt. The challenges facing our planet require that the practice of … Continue reading →

The Irish vote for marriage equality started at a constitutional convention. The convention was selected by sortition — by random selection … ensuring dispassionate, informed deliberation by statistically-representative citizenry.