Date of last update: February 15, 2009

Welcome to the live pre-release of RegainAmerica.  We are building an open community dedicated to effecting positive change on the local, state and national levels.  This free collaborative environment will empower members to freely voice their concerns on issues that are important to them.  More importantly the goal of RegainAmerica is to provide a platform where people can not only freely exchange ideas and views, but work together to effect real change.

RegainAmerica began as a memory - of the way things used to be in America, and the belief that by working together we can regain the greatness that once was America.  Specifically, RegainAmerica is a new multi-functional community website that empowers all of us  working both individually and collectively - to change the present status quo and Regain America.    The changes in society have been contributing to the erosion of core family values and to the disintegration of the social and economic framework of the country. Specifically,  RegainAmerica is a new multi-functional community that empowers all of us working both individually and collectively - to change the present status quo and Regain America.

As we all know, there are many new issues that trouble America these days.   Issues that our parents did not have to deal with.   A few of these include (in no particular order):

• Family / Society Values [1]: It used to be common for communities to come together to help each other out and do things for the common good.  It is rare to find such a community in modern America.  Fifty years ago, people didn't bother to lock their doors at night.  Now people keep their doors locked both day and night - and with their windows barred as well.  Fifty years ago, people felt they were part of their community, and generally knew their neighbors.  In the America of today people still live in communities - but no longer feel they are part of it.  Neighbors no longer know neighbors.  In the America of today, people feel isolated and insular as never before.  It is no wonder why crime rates and other social problems continue to rise in this social pressure cooker.
• Education [2]: Graduation and literacy rates in America's High Schools continue to drop.  According to an article published by The Economist  in April, 2006 on the Los Angeles schools, graduation rates under 50% are common.  And of those that do end up graduating, the vast majority fail to meet the federal criterion for language and mathematics.  Additional social problems including crime, drugs, rampaging promiscuity and teenage pregnancy make it harder than ever for our youth to adequately prepare themselves for the competitive world ahead of them.  While the report focused on Los Angeles, similar results and problems have been documented across the country.  And the solutions offered are equally problematic - witness, for example, the dubious effectiveness of "Zero Tolerance" which has resulted both in many ludicrous situations and in lawsuits.
• Crime [3]:   An ever growing epidemic in contemporary America.  Huge portions of major cities continue to be, in effect, battlegrounds.  The "War on Drugs" continues - and there are many who say it has already been lost.  From the media emanates an endless stream of reportage on what seems to be the limitless amount of violent crime in America - gang violence, drive-by shootings, crimes against women, crimes against children, vandalism, assault, murder.  And looming always in the national consciousness is the grim spectre of 911 which of course changed the lives of all law abiding citzens and residents of America. . . . .forever.
• Racial,  Cultural, & Religious Diversity:  America became great in large part due to its diverse and multi-cultural character.  America flourished as the "Melting Pot" of the world by embracing its racial, religious, and cultural diversity.  But today, these diversities, rather than unifying the country, tend to segregrate communities and set them against each other.   Today numerous issues and tensions simmer uneasily among the communities that comprise America.  Forty-three years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, racially charged issues such as Affirmative Action and Reparations for Slavery still eddy and swirl about us.  California and Arizona are enmeshed in ongoing border disputes.  And the rhetoric of "Political Correctness" snakes like a growing cancer through every facet of American society.  In Florida, Political Correctness is responsible for an elementary school having to cancel its Christmas pageant.  In Denver, Political Correctness is responsible for Santa Claus being barred from the Christmas parade.  In Minnesota, Political Correctness causes problems in a store where the Muslim cashiers refuse to put the pork products bought by the store's customers into shopping bags.  In Oregon, Political Correctness allows an anti-war demonstration to burn both the American Flag AND an American Soldier in Effigy - while the liberal press looks, for the most part, the other way.  Indeed, in contemporary American society, the principles of Diversity and Tolerance upon which America was founded, now threaten to tear us apart.
• Legal System Abuses [4]: Long gone are the days when the focus of the legal system was that of a champion for justice.  Today, America is the most litigious society to be found.  The ongoing abuse of the legal system has caused numerous social and economic problems to rise in the form of prohibitively expensive insurance rates for homes and automobiles, in sand-bagged workers' compensation systems, and in the exploitation of the legal system for personal and/or political gain.
• Erosion of Civil Liberties [5]: The war on terror has been costly in terms of personal privacy and the ability to freely travel.  "Homeland Security" is an admirable concept - but American Life under the "protection" of Homeland Security has taken an ugly and ominous turn with Citizens, who are regularly spied on now by their own government.  The ability to travel without government interrogation is gone.  And the situation continues to get worse. 
• Taxation Abuses [6]: One of the tenets the United States was founded on was fair taxation.  You remember the imbroglio over the tax on tea - otherwise known as the Boston Tea Party!  But today, after Social Security, State, Federal, Local, Gasoline, Sales and other taxes are added up, the average middle class American is paying well over half of their income back to government.  A working middle class couple sends the equivalent of the entire earnings of one spouse to the government, effectively becoming a worker for the state.  And the main tax collection agency, the IRS, makes it crystal clear that any deviation from proper reporting and payment can and will result in forfeture of property and/or liberty.  Such compliance instilled fear is normally associated with foreign repressive autocratic government, not our own.
• Health Care [7]:   A disaster.  A disgrace.  An embarrassment.  Inflated medical costs.  Rising medical costs.  Prohibitively expensive insurance premiums.  Giant HMO's that dispense, administrate and approve (or disapprove) medical care and treatment for millions of people - with their eyes firmly on the bottom line.  In our parents' day, doctors made house calls, often extending credit, and forwarded their bills to the patient at a later time.  Nowadays people go to the doctor's office - that is, if they are fortunate enough to have medical insurance, have made an appointment weeks in advance, and have enough funds to make their co-payment at the time of treatment.  In the America of yesterday, most of the middle class citizens and residents of the US had access to adequate medical insurance.  In the America of today,  the majority of the middle class citizens and residents in the US are struggling to obtain and/or keep adequate medical insurance for themselves and their dependents.  Millions of families live day to day under threat of a medical crisis - of which only one can easily serve to bring them to bankruptcy and/or other financial ruin.
• Rights of Illegal Aliens: Many people enter the United States legally and go through the proper procedures for living and working in the United States.   And many do not.   And those that come in illegally are more often than not granted numerous rights and benefits, despite their status.  Often these rights and benefits are on a par with those given to US citizens and persons legally residing in the US.  Sometimes the rights and benefits even exceed those offered to US citizens and to persons legally residing in the US.
• Competitiveness: The United States has lost many low level manufacturing jobs to lower costs countries, such as China, India, the Philippines, and others.  While this is normal for evolving and maturing economies, the Unites States is now also losing higher level jobs such as engineering and software development to these same countries.  The widening differences between education levels in these developing countries suggest that hard times are ahead unless we learn to adapt quickly.

History has documented the rise and fall of many great civilizations (Rome, Greece, Egypt, Maya, Khmer, just to name a few).  While the reasons for the decline of these vary, one widely held belief is that the fall of the American empire resembles that of Rome in many ways, including the disintegration of society.  Another theory is that many great civilizations peak after approximately 200 years.   This is about where we are, and indeed we have started to observe a steady decline.

But America has tools at its disposal that no other society has ever had.   Dispite growing problems in education, we understand the failings of past civilizations better than our predecessors.   In addition, the ability of past societies to communicate amongst themselves and coordinate to effect change was severely limited.  We indeed have the ability to recognize and change more than any other society in the history of mankind.

By working together, we have the ability to foster a return to sanity, civility, propserity, and a wholesome way of life.

The first pre-release of RegainAmerica is basically a blogging site for selected authors.  We are currently working on testing and securing the open version of the site, which integrates new authoring workflow and publishing software.  While the membership is not yet fully open, we are actively looking for passionate authors we can work with to create the initial RegainAmerica content. If you are interested in contributing, please contact pre-release@regainamerica.com [8].

The first pre-release will include several public mailing lists, covering topics of interest to the members.  If you don't see the topic of interest, let us know and as long as it conforms to the spirit of RegainAmerica, we are happy to add such lists to the community. 

The first public release (Phase I) of RegainAmerica, tentatively scheduled for early July, will incorporate a fully free and open membership.  Members will be able to create articles and blogs on the site, as well as commenting on other content.  The site will also support public forums, open to all members. Subsequent releases, scheduled for late 2009, will incorporate more community, special interest, and collaborative features.

The intent is to get as many individuals (age 16 and over) to sign up and to commence “dialogues” on topics of interest and/or where change is warranted.  It is RegainAmerica’s hope to get approximately 20 authors involved in the pre-release and a subsequent 2,000 participants involved in Phase I of RegainAmerica.

In Phase II, scheduled to begin in lat 2009, RegainAmerican plans to bring the World Wide Web to the NEXT LEVEL by enabling entire communities to WORK TOGETHER IN CONCERT to achieve mutual goals. Such goals might include the enactment of a desired ordinance (local community level), the recall of an aberrant judge (state level), or the passage of a constitutional amendment (national level).

RegainAmerica users will be able to join multiple communities, based upon geographic, political, economic, or social interests. The geographic based communities can be at the national, state, county, or city level. Each of these sub-communities will have their own communication channels for members to use, as well as community bulletin boards, coordination rooms, and links to community specific resources (government officials, information websites specific to the group, or whatever else is applicable).

The addition of scheduling, community bulletin boards and coordination rooms, and basic social networking facilities is envisioned for follow-up releases starting in late 2009.