After a long hiatus from blogging for a better, safer, America I’m back at it and hoping to hear from you! There is a lot to catch you up on.

Hopi Indian elders have a saying, “We are the One’s we’ve been waiting for.” Like our Founding Fathers did when they created our Constitution, the charter drafters of the nonprofit, nonpartisan “DayLight” movement described below and throughout the DayLight Forum will likely be drawn from the people who read this and then decide to do something about the challenges before us.

“A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American.” Woodrow Wilson

 Shortly after September 11, 2001, what we commonly call “911,” I started speaking and corresponding with a vast and diverse cross-section of Americans about what went wrong, how to prevent another 911, and, in a more global sense, how to improve our government in a practical and realistic manner.  That effort resulted in the 2007 publication of a book titled, “ResoNation,” a compilation of literally hundreds of thoughts, opinions and facts contributed by these caring citizens. 

“ResoNation” led to creation of the DayLight Forum whose goal is to provide all of us with a strong voice, at all levels of government; one that can largely eliminate the voter apathy that has caused us to cede our personal and national destinies to an “oligarchy” of Big Money and Special Interests.  I thought the “Internet heavens” would open and the world would flock to the Forum.  I now know that nothing really good comes easily. 

Leap of Faith: Personal financial constraints hampered me from launching my vision of what the DayLightForum should be like and look like. I wanted it to be perfect before I shared it with you.  I intermittently worked on the DayLight site while struggling to keep bread on the table but never took that proverbial “leap of faith.”  Watching our nation continue a slow “death spiral” that has bankrupted our national and individual treasuries; put 1 out of 5 of us out of work; alienated us with the rest of the world (we are now perceived as a “rogue nation,” a term usually reserved for third-world countries); and observing the birth of noble but partisan entities like the Tea Party, I said to myself, “Screw it.  This is only going to work if I step out in faith.”

I cannot tell you how liberating it is to take such a leap. I may end up homeless but my feeling is that something this good will take on a life of its own whether I exist or not – but only if you join in.  A talented group of civic-minded souls have contributed a multitude of talents and the initial money needed to minimally make this first phase of the Forum real.

Our Collective Voice: Perhaps the most important attributes of the DayLight Forum are its issues-related HeatMaps where you can vote on any topic of concern to you and do it in a visually powerful manner that our civic and governmental leaders will not be able to ignore (and if they do it will be at their peril come the next election), and a special Analytic Engine that can harvest our HeatMap votes and “Why I Voted” reasons for our votes in a manner that will make that information valuable to us and to those same civic and governmental leaders – from national issues right down to zip code issues.

In other words, the DayLight Forum is no longer just a concept and some nice words. We have the first phase, the vote collection aspect, of our Analytic Engine completed so that, very shortly, we can intelligently and reliably display our votes on our issues-related HeatMaps.  The second part of our Engine will permit us to harvest our votes and our “Why I Voted” reasons; transforming them into meaningful data for civic and governmental improvements and our collective betterment. 

In the coming weeks you will be able to see our Analytic Engine and HeatMaps grow and refine. For now we are starting on Facebook where hopefully you will spread the word and help us grow something great for all of us. 

It's Up to You: Encourage your friends and loved ones – regardless of their social, religious or political persuasion – to visit www.daylightforum.org; click on the little gold map on the upper right-hand corner and watch the humble little 14-minute presentation.  As we grow we can improve both it and our chances for a better, safer, life.  It all starts with an e-mail, from each of us, to our e-mail list. 

Please keep in mind that the Forum is still a Beta site. Not all aspects work but they will soon. In the meantime let's have a dialogue and create some "buzz" with our exchanges here.  

I look forward to hearing from you here, in the “Comment” section; on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/DayLight-Forum/338988733361?v=wall&ref=ts); and eventually back here on the DayLight Forum!