Better Tomorrow Challenges

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Grave Shift: First branch of the US military to require all recreational facilities on all 24-hour

military bases to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This means all movie theaters never stop showing movies; all enlisted, non-commissioned officer ("sergeants"), and officer recreational centers never close; the base stores never close; and the base library never closes. [Grave-shift workers have miserable days off because everything closes down because day-shift workers are asleep. Even in major cities, there is little to do after 2 am in the morning as even bars and stripclubs are usually forced to shut down by their local governments then. This leaves little for the grave-shift worker to do and this forces many of them to try to adjust their sleeping patterns so they can enjoy more of their days off. But constantly shifting your sleeping schedule back and forth comes at a price and that is commonly sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation can causes a whole list of bad things, such as and not limited to cancer, diabetes, obesity, bipolar disorder, and depression. Thus why this challenge is in the Health Care category.

Jack Decker, BTC creator, suffered this while he was in the military and assigned to work a grave shift. Being a stupid 18-year-old, Jack would go to a Dunkin' Donuts off base at the end of his "Friday" graveyard shift and drink loads of strong tea and eat lots of sugary doughnuts instead of going to sleep. He would then "enjoy" the daytime of his "Saturday" and then sleep like dayshifters that night. Then on his "Sunday" night, he would hit the same Dunkin' Donuts for tea and doughnuts again and go into work on his "Monday". What Jack had just done was eliminate an entire night of sleep from every week. Eventually, he started experiencing sleep deprivation and as it intensified, it led to major problems which resulted in him being eventually medically discharged from the military. Sadly, his discharge could have been avoided but for another problem which the Psychiatric Ward Challenge will try to address. BUT if Jack's military base at that time (Charleston AFB) had 24-hour recreational facilities, he might not have felt the need to do what he did to enjoy his days off. And what Jack did isn't unheard of by people who do work a grave shift. This challenge hopefully gives them reason not to do that in whole or part and thus give them a more consistent sleep schedule which will be better for their health.

Why this original challenge is for the military is because with a single order from either the US President, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff (the US military's top ranking military officer), or Chief of Staff for one of the US military branches, the above changes can be instituted at all 24-hour US military bases around the world in that US military branch. It is conceivable that the US military may experiment doing this challenge with one of its branches before doing so for all if its branches. If only one US branch is initially done, the military branch picked will likely be the US Air Force due to its need to operate many of its airbases 24 hours a day to receive incoming flights from around the world which arrive at all times of the day and night. Once one branch shows the benefits of doing this challenge, other branches will likely be ordered to follow suit UNLESS they are close by a USAF base. If they are close to an USAF base, the US President or Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff might simply order the USAF to allow the members of the other branches to come onto its base during grave-shift hours so only one base needs to operate in the above 24-hour fashion.

And the above is to be an example for cities to follow. Every city has grave-shift workers who face the same depressing prospects of what to do after 2 am in their city on their days off. Every city expects to have police officers, private security guards, fire fighters, ambulance drivers, nurses, and doctors work the grave shift. The city road maintenance departments send out their street sweepers during the night shift and many cities try to do all road repair late at night when traffic is the lightest and before the morning rush hour. The vast majority of city hotels have clerks operate their front desks around the clock so you can rent a room from them no matter when you show up. Many restaurants operate 24 hours a day and thus have waitresses and cooks who do so as well. Many convenience stores sell gas 24/7. Major retail stores (e.g., Walmart) are open 24 hours a day and that is when their employees stock shelves since there are few shoppers during these hours. Many factories have assembly lines that never shut down and have hundreds (if not thousands) of workers work the night shift. Power companies have to have engineers manning the power plants which never shut down. Thus in EVERY city around the world, there is a sizable community of grave-shift workers who service their cities and yet their cities do little to service them during their days off. It is for this reason that grave-shift workers are The Forgotten Workforce. The goal of this challenge is to get cities to stop forgetting that they exist and do things that will make their days off not just bearable but enjoyable.]

Future Challenges:

1) Their main public library be open 24 hours a day.

2) At least one of their city's bars and one of their city's stripclubs be allowed to operate and serve alcoholic beverages 24 hours a day, if city ordinances had previously forced bars and/or stripclubs to stop serving alcohol after a certain hour and/or shut their doors.

3) At least one of their indoor public swimming pools operate 24 hours a day.

4) At least one of their outdoor public swimming pools operate 24 hours a day during its normal swimming pool season.

5) At least one of their public tennis courts (has to have at least four courts within it) operate 24 hours a day. The lights left on all through the night and not merely turned on when people play tennis there. This way people will feel safer approaching the courts at night and neighbors will be used to the lights always being on.

6) At least one of the city's public golf courses be equipped with lights to light up the entire course (including the roughs) well enough to be able to play golf on it and these lights left on all night long.

7) At least one mile of a public running path be thoroughly lit up all night long AND security cameras monitoring its entire length with their video feeds shown and monitored at the nearest 24-hour police station to the running path.

To get them to operate 24 hours a day, first US city (50,000 population or more) to offer meaningful city tax reduction incentives to:

8) Local movie theaters. To win this future challenge, the city must only offer this tax reduction incentive to movie theaters whose majority of their GRAVE SHIFT movies are not currently being run by any other grave-shift movie theater(s) in their city that already has received the tax reduction incentive to operate 24 hours a day. If more than one movie theater wants to be the first movie theater to get this incentive, the multiplex movie theater with the most theaters is the one granted the first tax reduction incentive. [Multiplex movie theaters will want to be the first one granted such a tax reduction incentive since they can show then any movie they like and still get the tax reduction incentive. All the other theaters must ensure a majority of their shown grave-shift movies are not being shown by any other grave-shift movie theater in the city.]

9) One bowling alley. If more than one wishes to get the tax incentive, the bowling alley with the most lanes gets the incentive.

10) One gaming store. When more than one gaming store wishes to receive the tax reduction incentive, the one with the most private gaming rooms that can seat around a good-size table at least seven players wins the incentive.

11) One roller skating rink. When more than one roller skating rink wants the incentive, the one with the largest rink wins it.

12) One of its ice skating rinks. When more than one ice skating rink wants the incentive, the one with the largest rink wins it.

Doing all of the above future challenges, first city of a population of less than:

13) Million.

14) Million and in the USA.

15) Half a million.

16) Half a million and in the USA.

17) 250,000.

18) 250,000 and in the USA.

19) 100,000.

20) 100,000 and in the USA.

21) 50,000.

22) 50,000 and in the USA.

23) 25,000.

24) 25,000 and in the USA.

25) 10,000.

26) 10,000 and in the USA.

First grave-shift radio DJ or talk show host to champion this challenge (and Future Challenges #1 - #12) to get:

27) Her/his listeners to sign a We the People online petition to the US President to do the original challenge for the US military. To win this future challenge, they have to mention the petition and encourage their grave-shift listeners to sign it at least once nightly on their show for at least 100 days or until the petition gets the necessary 25,000 signatures.

28) A US House Representative or US Senator who represents the city the radio show airs in (or one of the cities that radio show airs in if the show is syndicated) and sits on a congressional committee or sub-committee that has oversight of the US military (such as the US Senate Committee on Armed Services) to appear live on her/his show and encourages them to get the military to do the original challenge. To win this future challenge, the congressperson has to be on the show for at least a half hour and only talk about the original challenge while on it.

29) The chair or vice chair of a congressional committee or sub-committee that has oversight of the US military to appear live on her/his show and encourage them to get the military to do the original challenge. To win this future challenge, the (vice) chair has to be on the show for at least a half hour and only talk about the original challenge while on it.

30) The Chief of Staff for one of the US military branches (the highest ranking officer of a branch of the US military) to appear live on her/his show and encourages them to get their military branch to do the original challenge. To win this future challenge, the Chief of Staff has to be on the show for at least a half hour and only talk about the original challenge while on it.

31) The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the US military (the highest ranking officer in the US military) to appear live on her/his show and encourages him to get the US military to do the original challenge. To win this future challenge, the Chairman has to be on the show for at least a half hour and only talk about the original challenge while on it.

32) The US President to appear live on her/his show and encourages him to order the US military to do the original challenge. To win this future challenge, the US President has to be on the show for at least fifteen minutes and only talk about the original challenge while on it.

33) The US President to appear live on her/his show where the US President makes the first official announcement that he is ordering the US military to do the original challenge.

The following future challenges can be for any city in the world.

34) The mayor of a city with at least a million population to appear live on her/his show and encourages the mayor to have their city do FC #1-12. To win this future challenge, the mayor has to be on the show for at least a half hour and only talk about the challenges while on it.

35) The entire city council of a city with at least a million population to appear live on her/his show and encourages them to have their city do FC #1-12. To win this future challenge, the entire city council has to be on the show for at least a half hour and only talk about the challenges while on it.

36) The mayor of a city with at least a million population to appear live on her/his show and the mayor officially announces for the first time that their city will do FC #1-12.

37) Mayors of ten cities with at least a million population to individually appear live on her/his show and each of the mayors officially announces for the first time that their city will do FC #1-12.

38) Mayors of 25 cities with at least a half million population to individually appear live on her/his show and each of the mayors officially announces for the first time that their city will do FC #1-12.

39) Mayors of 50 cities with at least a population of 250,000 to individually appear live on her/his show and each of the mayors officially announces for the first time that their city will do FC #1-12.

40) Mayors of 100 cities with at least a population of 100,000 to individually appear live on her/his show and each of the mayors officially announces for the first time that their city will do FC #1-12.

41) The mayor of a city with a population of UNDER 10,000 to appear live on her/his show and the mayor officially announces for the first time that their city will do FC #1-12.

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