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The politicians are essentially employees of King Coal.
It's hard for them to turn it down campaign payments, because they know that if they lose their seat in the West Virginia Legislature, they'd lose the steady pay and benefits they receive as a government employee. Our senators and representatives have house payments and college tuition bills to pay. In the back of their minds, they know it would be difficult to make those payments if they had to work at McDonalds like other citizens.
Despite flowery words from the left and right—any efforts to stop Mountaintop Removal or our other societal illnesses will really be of little avail...
...until West Virginia becomes a Tri-Sector State.
What is a Tri-Sector State?
Instead of there being one State Government, there are three different Administrations:
1) An Economic Sector, whose only purpose is to develop the economy and make jobs.
2) A Political Sector, whose only purpose is to articulate and ensure human Rights.
3) A Cultural Sector, whose only purpose is to cultivate a free, diverse atmosphere for the unfolding of individual human capacities and values.
Each has their own "governor" and executive, "legislature", capital city, and flag. Territorially, they completely overlap.
What makes up the three sectors?
The Economic Administration is made of all the For-Profit Businesses, Industry Associations, and Chambers of Commerce in the state, along with the Labor Unions, Banks, and Consumer Federations.
The Political Administration is a continuation of the present-day Government.
The Cultural Administration is made of all the Civil Society Organizations (Non-Profit/Non-Governmental Organizations) in the state. It might be pictured as a vast, comprehensive version of the United Way.
The individual in the three sectors
Each individual in the state is a member of all three:
1) As a worker, employee, employer, entrepreneur, and consumer in the Business sector.
2) As a citizen in the Political sector.
3) As a participant in, and patron of, whichever Non-Profit Organizations (if any) the person freely wishes to support in Cultural sector.
The three legislatures
1) The Economic Forum, made of representatives from all the businesses, labor unions, and other economic corporations.
2) The Rights Legislature. A continuation of the present-day State Legislature. It is directly elected by the citizens.
3) The Cultural Council, made of representatives of the non-profit organizations.
The three executive administrations
1) The Economic Forum selects an Economic Manager to form an Economic Executive team. The Economic Manager is the human face of the economy of West Virginia.
2) The Political Governor continues to be directly elected.
3) The Cultural Council selects a Cultural Leader to form a Cultural Executive team. The Cultural Leader is the human face of the Civil Society sector of West Virginia.
The three capitals
1) We suggest Wheeling as the Economic Capital
2) The Political Capital would remain in Charleston
3) Perhaps Bluefield as the Cultural Capital
Beautiful facilities would be built to house the two new administrations. Neither the Economic nor the Cultural projects would use Government money though. The Economic headquarters campus would be funded entirely by Businesses and Industry. The Cultural Council campus would be funded by freely-given gift money from individuals, civil society organizations, churches, and private foundations.
Three flags
The Mountain design on the Economic flag is the present-day official West Virginia brand logo. The Political flag's bisected colors show that Governance is founded on Equality—equality before the law. The Cultural flag incorporates the "Appalachian Star" logo of the Tamarack cultural center..
Individuals would be welcome to fly any and all three flags on their private property, since as Individuals, they are participants in all three sectors. But as far as institutions, only Government facilities would fly the Political flag, Businesses would fly the Economic flag, and Non-Profit/Non-Governmental Organizations would be free to fly the Cultural flag.
Divesting powers
All the Economic functions of the present-day State Government are transferred to the Business administration, including the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, and Transportation.
All the Cultural functions of the Government are transferred to a newly-incorporated Non-Profit/Non-Governmental Organization called "The People of West Virginia". This is the palpable, concrete legal embodiment of the West Virginian cultural identity. The People of West Virginia are a branch of the American national culture. The ownership of the entire public school system, the state university system, and the state park system are divested to this Organization. It isn't a Business—it is a Cultural Organization.
The People of West Virginia would keep the present-day state flag as its symbol:
The People of West Virginia
Besides individuals, only cultural initiatives which are owned by the People of West Virginia would fly this flag. (I don't know why anyone else would want to fly such a homely flag that only a mother could love!)
The Appalachian Folk of Vandalia. The guitar is from the Vandalia Gathering music festival. The colors are from the offered Appalachian cultural flag.
We are also striving for a culturally independent Appalachian Identity, distinct from the American Nation, so that individuals in West Virginia will be free to consider themselves both culturally Appalachian and culturally American, or to identify as only Appalachian, or to not identify with the Appalachian culture at all. The local branch of the Appalachian Folk (as a non-governmental, free cultural organization) would be called "The Appalachian State of Vandalia". In this context, "State" is only a cultural service area of the Appalachian Folk Council, like how the United Methodist Church has state-level cultural service areas called "Conferences". The service areas of the economic Forum of West Virginia, the political Governance of West Virginia, and the American cultural People (or State) of West Virginia, will freely overlap with the Appalachian cultural State of Vandalia. Regardless of their relationship to the West Virginian and Vandalian cultural identities, all individuals will remain as citizens of the Governance of West Virginia.
These two "National-Cultural Organizations"—The (American) People of West Virginia and the Appalachian Folk of Vandalia—would be represented on the wider Cultural Council alongside the many other non-profit organizations in West Virginia, such as the Red Cross, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, United Way, the fraternal organizations, and also whichever religious organizations wish to participate. Since the Cultural Administration is not a Government body, and is made of freely-associated organizations, it is not a violation of the Separation of Church and State for religious non-profit organizations to participate in this sector. In fact, the Cultural Sector is the appropriate sphere for practical co-operation between religious organizations and non-religious cultural initiatives.
What do they do?
The Economic Administration isn't a Governmental body—it is an Association of Associations. Its business is business. It is responsible for our prosperity. The Businesses run the Economy without Government interference.
Likewise, the Cultural Administration is an non-governmental Organization of Organizations. It fosters vibrance in West Virginian education, arts, science, health-care, media, and other cultural branches. Its most important responsibility is to cultivate a free, organic educational environment where our delicately burgeoning wildwood flowers may take root, branch out, and bloom without the desolating intrusion of political and economic interests into our schools—our child gardens.
The Political Administration retains the Police, Jails, and other purely legal-political powers. The Government is drastically streamlined. The only role of the Political Administration is to enact and ensure human rights and safety. Besides law enforcement, this includes legislating what "benefits" the Business Corporations and their Associations must provide to workers and dependents as a basic dignified livelihood. Rights also include workplace safety and environmental quality of life.
A free educational organism
There'd be no more Government (Public) Schools, but a fundamental right in a Tri-Sector State is the right of school choice. Instead of funneling tax money into a System that turns our teachers into bureaucrats and our children into tools, the same money would be issued directly to the parents as an Educational Voucher—a $12,000 check per child per year to every family in West Virginia that they may spend at any school they choose.
We would be the first place in the world to have an independent pedagogical organism with an array of school systems in friendly competition throughout the state, extending even into the little communities—West Virginian community schools (the former public schools), Christian and other religious schools, ethnic or foreign-language schools (such as Italian-language kindergartens or Cherokee and Shawnee immersion schools), and alternative schools such as Montessori and Waldorf-Steiner schools. The Separation of Religion and State remains intact—to say that parents can't use their Educational Voucher for a Religious School is like saying a retiree can't use his Social Security funds to donate to a Church.
How would the Tri-Sector Idea handle Mountaintop Removal?
In the Tri-Sector State, the Business Corporations such as the Coal Companies, have their own legitimate sphere of action. They have their own "legislature" and executive where they may do what they do best: develop the Economy.
Since the Political Governance no longer has any Economic policy-forming powers, and also no longer owns any Economic enterprises, there will be no "feeding trough" attracting Industry Lobbyists. The Industry Associations will be directly running the Economy over in the Economic Forum in Wheeling. They won't need to interfere in the Political Legislature in Charleston.
And so, our Citizen Servants (what our Politicians are meant to be) will have clear idea of what their role is. It's not their primary purpose to keep businesses happy. Business is an important part of life, but there's more to life than Business. To say that Economic Work is everything is like saying that a plant is only Roots, without Stem and Flower, or that human beings are only a Belly, without a Heart and Mind. Each of the three parts of life has its own place.
The Political Servants will be enacting laws that make West Virginia into a garden where we may work and live in dignity and beauty—like this land was meant to be, and still could be, and will be.
Where to go from here?
The legal basis of the Tri-Sector State will be fulfilled by Amendments 18, 19, and 20 to the Constitution of West Virginia:
Amendment 18: The Separation of Economy and State
Amendment 19: The Separation of Culture and State
Amendment 20: The Separation of Economy and Culture
But the legal enactment is only a small part.
We may need something to get us moving—an event (will it take another Great Depression?) that sparks our will to say "Enough!". But once Mountaineers are set on making a change, there will be no stopping us. Even some of our Coal Industry friends will see that the Tri-Sector State is good business. If King Coal would remove his crown, step down from the throne, and take his rightful seat, he'd be welcome to contribute. We would not spurn Coal's friendship, but the Tri-Sector Idea is foremost a Friend of Man.
★★★
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