America, let’s be honest, you have some self-improvements that are long overdue. Today is as good as any to start. Here are six resolutions this country should adopt:
1. Stop being so scared. Muslims aren’t going to kill you. Gays aren’t going to corrupt your children. ISIS isn’t going to bomb the heartland. Illegal immigrants aren’t going to force you to learn Spanish. Stop being afraid of everything. Fear will destroy this country far sooner than any of the above.
2. Put the war machine on a diet. We spend too much on a fattened military industrial complex when our own infrastructure and educational system is starving. America could still defend itself on, oh, half the military budget we have.
3. Vote. Duh. But not just for Bernie this election year, but every election, every time. Engage our school boards, our state legislatures, our city councils, even your park and port district.
4.Fossil fuels. It’s not just the climate change debate, but the oil-by-rail dominance that is killing our ability to move other cargo on the rails (not to mention the danger of oil trains). Defeating Keystone XL just moved all that oil from a pipeline to the railways.
5. So called Democrats supporting corporate giveaways in trade agreements and charter schools (among other things). It’s bad enough we have to fight the Republicans and their billionaire backers, but if you can’t see that things like the TPP is nothing but a corporate handout and that charter schools are nothing but someone trying to make a buck out of something that should be free, then either switch parties or get out of politics.
6. Divorce ourselves from guns. My wife says I have too many fishing rods, but an 8-weight flyrod can’t be used in a mass killing of human beings. I can see why a hunter would want a few for different hunting experiences. I can see the justification for protecting one’s family (which really a baseball bat and time at the gym could suffice). But seriously, why do we need so many guns? So many guns that aren’t used for hunting or home protection, but the sole use is for war? It’s a culture that needs to change.
Anyway, a book could be written about any of these six and frankly, we don’t need stats or examples to show why these resolves are needed. This is an obese man looking in the mirror and recognizing that those rolls are fat, not muscles, and haven’t been for a long, long time.
Some are going to be difficult. Some won’t happen this year or this decade as there has to be a considerable shift in culture, politics and/or economics. But if America wants to improve itself, be the best damn country it can be, then here is a start.
Happy New Year.
