Environmental Stewardship & Justice
How might we sustain a planet that accommodates our survival and direct benefits from making that happen to those who are bearing the costs?
Goals
- Stewardship - What matters is collaborating to forestall environmental catastrophe.
- Justice - What matters is compensating those that are disproportionately suffering from environmental spoilage or sacrificing for environmental stewardship.
Cap & Trade is a victory for stewardship. We've yet to achieve a victory for justice. A simple start might be a program provides an emissions reduction dividend to those who sacrifice the most or who are most at risk.
Likewise, a gasoline tax by itself will weigh heavier on already vulnerable communities. A people-oriented policy design will be like a gas tax that directly funds a subsidy for the emissions free transportation options favored by the vulnerable communities to give them a chance to avoid the gas tax entirely.
Growing Voter Power
How might we empower voters to effectively oversee what the government does?
Goals
- Growing - What matters is that more and more people identify as voters.
- Voter - What matters is the experience of being a voter is informing, relevant, empowering, and simple.
- Power - What matters is that voters can exercise oversight of the parts of the government with the most leverage & consequence, and can measure the impact of what they oversee.
For instance to satisfy the first goal of "Growing", we must provide both traditional polling places and new ways to vote. The proposed SB 450 fails this goal because it presents a false choice between polling places and vote centers. It's like a teacher telling a class that because some students prefer turning in homework by email, then email is the only way to turn in homework. The teacher who wants to maximize the number of students turning in homework will accept it both by email and in class. Similarly we need more ways to vote, so more people can vote.
Quality Education for Every Student
How might we provide a high quality education for every student no matter their choices?
Goals
- Quality Education - What matters is the student experience of learning how to learn and reference knowledge for observing the world around them.
- Every Student - What matters is that a student does not need to make a choice in order to receive a quality education.
Health Security For All For Life
How might we meet our health needs throughout our lives in a simple way?
Goals
- Security - What matters is being able to count on coverage for our basic health needs, even when life throws us a curveball.
- For All - What matters is improving the health outcomes of each and every one of us.
- For Life - What matters is living healthy lives.
A simple solution to Security is to design so a person can independently claim coverage, like social security. To design for coverage For All we can adapt the most effective models in the world to the circumstances of Californians. To design For Life, we will look at the most effective solutions for good health in the childhood, throughout our careers, when we are at risk of catastrophe, and providing comfort at the end of life.
More Houses In Our Price Range
How might we build more healthy places to live that are close to the workplaces of people who can afford them?
Goals
- More Houses - What matters is there are enough healthy places to live that are near work and school.
- In Our Price Range - What matters is that cost of the new houses match the income of the people who work near them and send their kids to school near them.
Chicken Curry
Cooking a meal is how I first learned what it meant to serve other people. Cooking can be hard work and every bit of that work can make it better for the people you are cooking for. That's my approach in government too: work hard and always focus on the well-being of the people I serve.
My grandmother taught me how to make chicken curry without a recipe and I make it in much the same way. When I made it for my child's birthday last year, I finally wrote it down. Here's my recipe.
Ingredients
Marinated Chicken
- 4 pounds or less of whole chicken cut into pieces
- 1/4 cup yogurt
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon pressed garlic
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
Sauce
- 3 chopped onions, salted (2 teaspoons) and crispy caramelized
- 36 curry leaves. If you can't get curry leaves, just use 5 bay leaves instead.
- 1 teaspoon fennel
- 1 star anise
- 6 cardamom pods, outside shells removed
- 2 inches cinnamon stick
- 12 pepper corns
- 12 cloves
- 5 tablespoons coriander
- 3 tablespoons cumin
(If you are using powdered versions of any ingredient, look for special instructions below)
- 1 tablespoon ginger
- 1 tablespoon garlic
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
Preparation
- In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients for marinated chicken, cover and set aside.
- While the chicken marinates, start making the crispy caramelized onions in a large pot. This takes a while and the trick is to use as little oil as possible and leave the pot uncovered. Heat the oil in the pot with a few chopped onions. When the test onions start to sizzle, add the rest of the onions and adjust the heat so the onions are just sizzling. Let the onions sizzle, stirring occasionally, until they start to brown.
- When the onions start to brown, add the salt and stir constantly until the edges of the onions are dark brown and then add half the curry leaves and the next eight ingredients (fennel, star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, peppercorns, cloves, coriander & cumin) and stir until toasted. If you are using powdered versions of any of these ingredients, add it after the whole ingredients finish toasting.
- Add garlic and fry the mixture for 30 seconds (count to 30).
- Add the ginger and fry for 30 seconds more.
- Add a little water and mash everything in the pot into a paste. Alternatively, turn off the heat, scoop everything from the pot into a grinder, grind it, return it to the pot & turn on the heat again.
- Add the rest of the curry leaves (or all the bay leaves)
- Add the marinated chicken (leaving excess marinade behind) and stir.
- Add just enough water to cover the chicken and bring the pot to a simmer.
- Cover the pot and poach the chicken until done (about 30 minutes).
- Optional: remove the chicken and increase heat to thicken sauce, then return chicken
- Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice, naan, or chapati.
Yum! That's my family recipe. Please feel free to share this recipe with anyone!
