We don't trust practically anything government touches anymore. Left, right, center, we don't see ourselves represented in the decisions government makes or the process they use to make them.
What if some significant decisions were put in the hands of well-informed citizens--call them 'everyday,' 'average,' 'common'-- people with no axe to grind and no self-interest beyond what every one of us has in good government and good community. Could they come up with better decisions, or at least decisions we could trust more? The Citizen Initiative Review process is a way to find out, and here's why I think it matters.
Although I doubt many of us "ordinary people" are free of bias toward what we already think, I do support citizen review panels. And I think even being in a panel gives power, which can be used for good or ill. But when you have a small group of citizens who can acknowledge their biases honestly, who can listen well to opposing views, and who have a genuine desire to use their individual heads for the good of the whole, you have democracy at its best!
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