FIXING AMERICA IN 500 WORDS OR LESS: a free online book with interactive songs and videos

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WHAT IF YOU WERE IN CHARGE?

It is much easier to criticize political leaders than to truly have a better idea.   Regardless of political party or agenda, what would you do if you were in charge, to help regain public confidence in our long since vanished, dream of a democratic process?

Since a political leader should know what he or she is talking about without referring to notes, would you announce there will be no teleprompter allowed when you make speeches and hold press conferences?   Would you declare every speech you give will be drafted by you personally?

Would you take questions from press conference reporters impartially by drawing numbers from a hat, regardless of how recognizable their name is or what media they represent?

Would you hold publicly televised townhall events monthly in different cities, where ten members of the public with no press or organizational credentials, were selected by lot and allowed to ask direct unscreened questions?   Would you answer them while the cameras roll without cue cards and if necessary, conduct research and include anything not answered at the next event?

Would you clearly detail your current agenda for the nation at these townhall meetings, demonstrating that regardless of political fallout, there will be no secrecy, vagueness or uncertainty about the specific goals of your administration?

Would you cancel White House social events, annual Christmas and New Year festivities, elite “black-tie” gatherings and similar, until every American willing and able to work has a job that pays enough to afford basic necessities?   Would you promise you and your staff won’t eat better food on the taxpayer’s dime than average working-class families can afford?  Would you forbid your staff to fly on corporate jets and indulge in dinners, events and vacations paid for by someone else?

Although you could not control what members of Congress chose to do, would you put public pressure on all congressional leaders to set the same standards for themselves and their staff?

Would you prevent all lobbyists from being allowed access to either you or your staff, other than those representing individual taxpayers with specific individual needs not related to corporate interests?   Would you especially put intense and unrelenting public pressure on all Congressional leaders to do the same?

Would you require members of your cabinet to hold at least two scholarly degrees in their area of expertise, while insuring none of them are former lobbyists or, a member or former member of any financial institution?

To remain impartial, would you refuse to appear on media programs primarily devoted to politics and rather if invited, appear on popular shows like Oprah, Leno and Letterman, where you could freely communicate to the American people your concerns and goals, without being rudely interrupted by talking-point pundits with a private agenda not in the best interests of our nation?

Would you insist that neither you nor any member of your staff earn a wage higher than the median American wage?

If you were in charge, what would you do?   You decide.

Link to footnotes and documentation for this article

IS THERE REALLY LIFE IN THE FUTURE?

When I was a young boy growing up in Southern California, all of us kids had trouble breathing on summer days that were exceptionally smoggy.  We experienced chest pains, shortness of breath and burning pain in our lungs, whether or not we had asthma or other problems not attributable to the smog.

 

It is a very well-documented and accepted medical fact that human-induced pollution is significantly harmful to people, especially young children.  This fact alone is plenty more than enough reason to get rid of as much pollution as possible, as quickly as possible.

 

Our ever-myopic U.S. media, as usual, is focusing on the wrong thing.  Whether or not human-induced pollution is causing global warming is irrelevant to the larger issue of increased lung disease, cancer, liver disease and heart problems that result from it.  Pollution is also very bad for plant and animal food sources that we depend upon to survive, ending up in the water we share with them and the ground where our crops grow.

 

Air and water pollution have been increasing at an alarming rate due to accelerated economic growth in China and India.  And not surprisingly, significant health problems are documented to have dramatically increased well beyond mere population growth in both nations over the past ten years.

 

There is no legitimate argument that can be made against curbing and eliminating human-induced pollution as quickly as possible.  And Al Gore is absolutely right that human pollution is causing significant harm to our planet and every living thing on it, whether or not he is correct in every detail. 

 

The actual science is highly complex, involving both global warming and global dimming processes.  Global warming is the stronger of the two and thus, the net result is our planet is indisputably warming up.  Vast quantities of ice have disappeared in the past few years in South America and Greenland and at both poles, leaving large areas of bare surface where thick ice recently dominated the landscape.  Point Barrow, Alaska and entire islands are literally vanishing into the sea.

 

And meanwhile, corrupt bought-and-paid-for scientists, politicians and right-wing media hacks routinely rip known science way out of context and otherwise, completely ignore overwhelming evidence they don’t like.

 

Time is running out for ourselves and may well have run past the point of no return for our children and their children.  Is there really life in the future?  You decide.

Link to footnotes and documentation for this article:  
http://www.freedomtracks.com/500/pollution.html