There's been a lot of confusion and dismay in the last few weeks about the Seattle Monorail Project. It's been discussed in office hallways, in email and in coffeehouses all over the city and we've all been wrestling with the same question: What do we do next?

I would like to introduce a new group that we hope will be the answer to that question. We call ourselves 2045 Seattle. There are many of us here, myself included, and we can be found at http://2045seattle.org.

We believe that younger voices are underrepresented in the current debate regarding the Seattle monorail project, but as a group we will be responsible for most of the costs as well as the fact that we will have to answer to the next generation.

We also believe that in January, if construction has not begun, the state legislature will destroy the people's dream so that they can use the motor vehicle tax for their own purposes. As such, we support the current monorail contract on the table and propose additional avenues of funding in order to finance it responsibly.

Proposal 1: Offer Monorail Bonds

I was recently surprised to discover that the US government still offers war bonds under the name 'patriot bonds'. If the US treasury can offer bonds to buy guns and bombs, then Seattle can offer monorail bonds that pay for clean and healthy communities. Offer us bonds at good rates that preserve our hard-earned savings and we'll waive the first three years of interest as our investment in our city.

Savings bonds used to be a traditional baby gift to invest in a child's future. Perhaps once again we can bring back this tradition. We can buy monorail bonds to invest not only in a child's future, but in a child's future community as well.

Proposal 2: Let Communities Buy Their Stations Brick by Brick

Our second proposal comes from Seattle's past. Twenty years ago, Pike Place Market needed help. Financially, it was in trouble. I'm sure there were private interests at the time that demanded it be shut down.

Instead, the leaders at the time confronted this problem. They decided they would try selling bricks and tiles to anyone who wanted to show their support. I'm sure they were nervous and were unsure if it would work, but in the end they sold 46,500 bricks and tiles in just a few years and an incredible feature of our city was preserved.

2045 Seattle is asking the board to create a program so that communities can invest in their own stations brick by brick and feature by feature.

With these two proposals, I'm asking you to find the solution in the people who started it all. Give us a way to invest in the project, to invest in our community and to tell the state legislature: hands off our monorail.

In the long term, 2045 Seattle seeks to break Seattle's reputation of politely standing still, of not dealing with our problems head on, transit or otherwise, while the rest of the world builds around us.

The new Seattle Public Library, which only took one public vote, gave us a taste of a new future, an inspiring future for Seattle and, quite frankly, we want much more.

More importantly, we're willing to work for it and fight for it, because we know we have to build something the future of this city will be proud of.

2045 Seattle asks anyone who believes in investing in the future to join us. We will no longer stand by while nothing is done. We will find solutions to our problems. We will write to our city council. We will certainly vote this November and We Will Build Our Monorail.

Christian Gloddy