With the impending elections this year, I have decided that I am going to focus on the issues that matter the most to me, and the candidates will have to address these issues in order to obtain my vote. I am going to remain firm in my resolve NOT to be distracted by issues that only surface during election time only to hide out for another two to four years, and I will not listen to any negative attacks from either side.

These are the issues that I expect to be addressed by an incoming hopeful:

1. National Healthcare. I expect to hear a plan that does not attempt to re-invent the wheel. There are many countries, hundreds, in fact, with a national healthcare system. Let’s check out the best ones, find out what’s good and what’s bad from every angle and adapt it to our country. People are suffering in this country. We will increase productivity and reduce stress related health issues if people don’t have to go bankrupt trying to care for themselves and their families. It is ridiculous that businesses have to bear this burden. Why do they have to carry this load? And tying insurance to work is the biggest idiocy. When you get ill, you end up losing your job and your insurance. Reducing this incredible capital outlay for businesses will free up a lot of cash for number 2.
2. Increase the minimum wage. And when I say increase it, I mean, INCREASE it. Not by a penny, not by a dollar. But by five, at least. No one can live on five dollars an hour, but ten is a viable number. Congress has managed to give itself a raise almost every time the opportunity arises. The people, especially those known as the working poor, deserve to be able to support their family and themselves. Couple this with national health insurance and our population will not only be healthier they will be happier.
3. Education. Our educational system needs fixing. A complete overhaul. Most people don’t like change. I have found this out repeatedly in my efforts to have the schools in my area adapt for the needs of boys. It is mostly fear, I believe. Because the crap you are living with is a lot better to most people than the crap that you don’t know anything about. I want to hear a comprehensive plan.
4. Take the lead on global warming. No more denial. Acknowledge the truth and be strong enough to make sweeping changes to our current approach. The environment has got to be a top priority. I will expect to hear a lot from candidates about their very real plans for change.
5. Become energy independent within the next five years. Do you remember when we made it to the moon before Russia? What a time of national pride! But we’ve been beaten. Beaten by Brazil! Brazil! When have they ever beaten us in anything besides the number of colored ruffles on a shirt? When? We should be ashamed. But there are a lot more countries that are trying to be second. Can we do it? Yes we can! I want to hear a plan.
6. Raise Minimum Gas Mileage for all automotive vehicles on the road until we have affordable alternatives to gasoline in place. We need to “iPod” our technology in the vehicular arena. This means, we need to apply all the ingenuity that goes into making an iPod obsolete within six months of its introduction to the market, to all automotives.
7. Take the lead in ending word hunger and poverty. Sounds so farfetched. But it’s not. It will help with everything from immigration to wars to disease.
8. Foreign Policy: when a virus is in the water, it doesn’t matter how good that water appears – the water will be contaminated. We are contaminating the Middle East. We are not wanted there. It doesn’t matter what our intentions are. We need to get the people who live there all the time to come together and work out a plan so that the region does not erupt into an all out war. I know we think we are over there doing good, but how receptive are you to others imposing their will on you and yours? We will never be respected until we respect. We will never be taken seriously until we listen and understand. We will never have peace while we are being aggressive. Every parent knows that you can approach parenting with a firm, militant, unyielding hand or a reasonable, flexible, open one. I have chosen the latter. I get a lot of respect. I get a lot done without having to pitch a fit. Sure, this is the Middle East and not a bunch of kids. But don’t all people want to be respected? Don’t all people want to be treated with dignity? There has been this continuous low frequency commentary about how Middle Easterners don’t understand anything but force and power. What a load of nonsense. There goes that broad sweeping generalization brush again. My biggest problem right now is this might makes right mentality. It doesn’t. It makes a mess. We need grownups dealing with these issues. Grownups without a personal, financial interest in the outcome. Grownups who care about all sides.
9. I want a social safety net in place that helps people with a hand up not a hand out. Like I said before, most people want to live their lives with respect and dignity. It is probably the single most difficult thing to do in this world – to live with any kind of dignity when you are impoverished. We all fall. Our country is strong and good enough to lend a hand.
10. Federally mandated and funded DNA testing for every incarcerated person to which that procedure applies. This can be funded with the royalties the oil companies have been allowed to not pay for the past, what? Ten years? Twenty years? Should work out nicely.
11. Federal grants and “rewards” for state and locally based community actions that are innovative. For instance: Programs that help seniors become more involved in the elementary and secondary school system. Successful tree planting, community clean up and composting programs that significantly reduce lawn waste in our landfills, conscientious social change on the grassroots level.
12. The absolute separation of church and state. I want you to think of it this way – as farfetched as it might seem right now – imagine a candidate that gets elected president that turns out to be a voodoo priest. No one knew, and now he is in office for four years. How important would it be to you then that religion and the state were kept in opposite corners? We want the different faiths in this country to operate, again, with the reassurance that they will be treated with dignity and respect. If you want to give to the church of your choice, that is your prerogative. But I don’t want my tax dollars going to some priestess that makes concoctions from the eye of newt and beetle-juice to relieve inflation.
13. Remove FEMA from Homeland Security. What a monster that agency has become. Time to streamline.
14. Immigration. Give me something here. Something that is viable. Something that keeps families together, something that treats these guys as the strong contributors to our society that they are. Enough demonizing. Work with the people involved on this one. Then work out a real border monitoring system. On both sides of the country. Darned Canadians.
15. Iraq. I only put this in because I know it’s a hot button issue. I consider this to be part of the foreign policy plan. I believe we can get the heck out of there if we a) give their economy back to them (i.e. remove all foreign workers and put locals in their place) and b) bring every nation in the region in to calm things down and work out a plan. Without us intrinsically involved. I have recently heard that all the money that went in to the “reconstruction” effort is drying up with little to nothing to show for it. This, to me, is a direct reflection of the pathetic oversight this administration has administered in the region. The embassy in Baghdad, however, the one the size of Vatican City with its own water and electricity supply is nearing completion. I’m sure this does wonders for the average Iraqi’s morale. What a mess. Someone come up with a plan. Biden has some good insight.

That’s it for now. But you get the idea.

Now a couple of thoughts:

Rumsfilled: When you are working for someone, as most of us who have worked for a living know, you cannot voice your dissent in regards to your higher ups because you will undoubtedly lose your job. However, when you leave that position and those “bosses” can’t affect your life anymore, you are more likely to be honest about the competence and ability of those guys. That’s kind of a no-brainer. Saying these ex-generals have political aspirations or citing examples of when they spoke out for Rum is clouding the truth. But bush was right. He is the “decision maker” and he “makes the final decisions”. I just have a sneaking suspicion that those words will come back to haunt him.

I want to know why it’s ok to hang out and buddy up to China, which last time I checked is a communist nation yet we still have a trade embargo and a general hatred of Cuba. Is it the uniform? What? Are some communist better than others?

A quick point about immigration and the fear of a “Tijuana” nation. Although this is HIGHLY unlikely, I want you to think back about, oh, ten years ago to India. My image of India was the enormous number of people, the unfathomable poverty, dirty water and loads of cattle wandering the street. Now we outsource our work to them and they are instructed that the average thirty-year-old American caller needing help has the mental capacity of a six year old. Things turn around.

I want to know why the legal aspects have become such a point of contention for so many in regards to immigration yet the illegality of bush’s warrantless wiretapping and leaking of classified information is treated like a non-issue.

Treating minors as adults: this to me is a sign of a broken society, when we even consider that a child should have the maturity, mental, psychological, and emotion capacity of an adult. I know that some kids do really horrible things. But I see the equivalent being child soldiers. These kids don’t want to be involved in killing people but they are threatened with death or maiming if they don’t participate. The drive to survive is extremely strong. Kids that take “adult” actions have serious problems and they need help. Incarcerate, sure, but probe for the origins of this behavior – it will give insight as to warning signs in the future and it will help the kid. The news recently revealed a rash of attempted child abductions in my area. The cool thing is how education has been a huge redeeming feature for these kids because they all seem to know what to do should something like this happen. It was also reported that a ten-year-old boy had told police that someone had tried to snatch him off the street. It turned out to be a fabrication. The alarmists started screaming about false reports, criminal charges, etc.

Sigh.

He’s ten.

10.

Barely double digits. Who know what’s going on in this kid’s life, but doesn’t it seem likely that this kid is just that desperate for attention? Address the issues this kid is having, don’t drag him through the criminal system. Geez.

And finally…
I have to say that I have noticed that extremes grab the headlines, but it is the truly unusual GRACE that stays in my mind. People who wage war, destroy things and lives, hurt others, well, they might get attention but the people who truly impact me are those that embody the truth in Christianity. With this whole court case with that Moussaui (shows how much I have been watching I have no idea how to spell his name!) guy, there has been a lot of emotional testimony and details about his involvement with 911. But it was the people that came out yesterday, those who had lost loved ones because of the terrorist attack that will stay with me forever. They all spoke of not getting caught up in the rage and sorrow, in their own way. They all expressed that their faith in God had deepened, and one even said that we are children of God and broken people.

I heard that and thought about the court case I watched with the woman who sat in the witness box with half of her face blown off, after her boyfriend had shot her from point blank range. I remember being so struck by her tone and composure. And her message of forgiveness. Can you imagine? Forgiving someone who has destroyed your calling card to the world? Given all the options of how to react and respond to this man – and you know that she had the most impact on the jury – she fell back into God’s arms and behaved as he wanted her to. That is what Christianity is all about.

Several years ago it was all the rage to have WWJD on a wrist band, a shirt, on a sticker on your car. What would Jesus do? Would Jesus be involved in protecting our economic interests? Our political interests? Our military prowess? What would Jesus do? If he were here now, would he allow the BILLIONS of animals to be incarcerated, tortured and destroyed in the horrendous conditions of factory farming? Would he take into account the corporations need for a profit? Would he back harsh immigration controls, treating people as criminals? Would he say nuke Iran? Would he nod approvingly at lobbyists who want to destroy forests, lakes, oceans, vast wetlands and beachfronts for capital gain? Would he shake his head in disapproval at the idea of national healthcare and a five dollar hike in the minimum wage? We know the answers to all this. God will deal with the suicide bombers, with those who plot and plan the demise and destruction of other people in ways that boggle our imagination. We are meant to love.

Love!

That’s all.

And that’s enough.

Because that’s hard enough. I don’t want to have to judge people, too. Loving people who get on my nerves, who think the exact opposite of me, who cut me off in traffic, who threaten me, who hurt my children, it is hard enough. We need to get back to basics. To simplicity. It’s not a hippie, way out liberal way of thinking – as much as the neo-cons would have everyone believe - it is BIBLICAL. Imagine! Hippie, liberals being closer to disciples of Jesus than those who others would consider to be much more pious. But think about it. That’s the one thing Jesus said was the most important thing. Love. Are our decisions based in love? Are they? Love for all, not just your buddies.

I have to say, I do believe Jesus was a liberal.