Fred Gohlke

I was born in a farmhouse in Alexander, New York on April 12, 1929. My perceptions of "right" and "wrong" have been strong motivating forces in my life (whether or not those perceptions were correct). My formative years were spent on a dairy farm, hence close to nature, which influences my views.

After several years in a one-room schoolhouse in Western New York State, I attended and graduated from the local high school and spent 5 years in the U. S. Air Force. My career has been in transportation, first as a transcontinental truck driver (which was conducive to solitary thought), later as a business owner, and still later as a computer system developer for a ship line.  My political experience is limited to one summer of lobbying against The Transportation Act of 1958.

I lived in Okinawa for three years in the early 1950's and did some work in Antwerp, Belgium during the 1990's in connection with the computer system I developed. Aside from that and aside from a tendency to question arbitrary assertions, my education, knowledge and experience are limited.

I've been married to a native of Okinawa since 1952. We have seven children. Except for my younger brother and, to a limited extent, members of my immediate family, my circle of acquaintances has not constituted a beehive of intellectual discourse.

My concern with the inadequacy of our political system took root in the late 1950's and the attempt to conceive an electoral process that would correct the abuses I've seen has been a continuing mental exercise since that time.

Among my regrets is that I used an alias (Koikaze) when I signed up on Participedia.  I now wish I'd used my proper name (Fred L. Gohlke), but have no idea how to change it. Ah, well, such is life in the era of anonymous internet posting.

My greatest hope is that, by expressing my thoughts, I will inspire someone to challenge them. Only then can we begin the slow process of evolving a more democratic political system for the humans among us.

Participants should know that Koikaze authors a very fine blog: "Practical Democracy" whither-democracy.blogspot.com --BenTremblay 18:57, 4 March 2010 (UTC)