“Insurance” is a misleading term. It implies that the individual who purchases an insurance policy is actually purchasing a form of security. The reality is that too often insurance is little more than an additional argument in a time of great need. I have long been convinced that if your initial impulse is to withhold information FROM rather than to INFORM the people that you pay to help you, then they are NOT helping you. Daily, I meet people who have insurance but drive mangled cars until they can pay for damages out of their pockets—simply because they can’t afford the rate increases. Many people risk living without car insurance because they can’t afford the mandatory minimums required by the states. Those same people live in constant fear of being charged with insurance fraud. How crazy is it that there are people who break their bones in accidents and choose to forego the hospital visit because they’re work doesn’t provide health insurance and they can’t afford the hospital bill, despite working full time? How crazy is it that numerous families choose the emergency room over a doctor’s visit because the emergency room will bill for the care they provide? Never mind the fact that their charges are often quadruple of what the doctor’s office would likely have charged. Katrina victims spend time in court fighting for compensation to no avail. Insurance companies deny renewal for people that are deemed “too healthy.” They also cancel long-standing policies for people diagnosed with fatal or medically intensive diseases. My family has been subjected to the absurd logic that medical insurance offers in place of doctor’s recommendations as an explanation for compensation and or approved medical procedures. Having insurance is not the saving grace it was intended to be. Though life is only remotely different for those of us who do not have health insurance, in the respect that we have NEVER felt secure. Myself, personally, I’ve not had the luxury of insurance for the majority of my adult life. I haven’t had a physical in ten years. Other expenses always take priority. In NY, an acquaintance was overcome by the flu for three weeks and couldn’t work. As a result, that person lost their apartment. She had no savings and she could not recover—another dream forfeited. One accident, one sickness, is all that separates myself and many Americans from absolute poverty. The false sense of security that insurance companies offer and the fact that many American’s cannot afford the rising costs of prescriptions and medical attention is simply unacceptable.

We must have national health care that includes and encourages preventative care while also accepting pre-existing conditions. Furthermore, national dental coverage would be a wonderful addition to this modern American society.

Increase the distance between congress and industry by raising the number of years that must pass once a congressperson no longer holds office before they can accept a job as a lobbyist. The revolving door between the world of Congress and the world of lobbyist is hurting the American public and must be controlled.

End the ability of Insurance companies to use credit ratings when determining customer policy rates.

Require Insurance Companies to accept a Doctor’s recommendation as the primary priority when assessing what is and isn’t necessary for each patient. We train doctors to protect the lives of our families and our workers. No one trains the pharmaceutical industry to protect life. Instead, they are hardwired to protect profit and profit alone. Human beings are not numbers and the Hippocratic Oath must mean something for doctors to hold any relevance in society.

American Insurance policy owners spend their hard-earned money to purchase protection for themselves and their families, it is high time that our lawmakers ensure that their money is not wasted and that their lives are protected.

For the sake of the people, promote the “Policyholders Bill of Rights” found at ican2000.com:

“Policyholders’ Bill of Rights

• ARTICLE ONE – - Right to Reasonable Underwriting

• ARTICLE TWO – - Right to Reasonable Premium

• ARTICLE THREE – - Right to Reasonable Recovery

• ARTICLE FOUR – - Right to Reasonable Enforcement

• ARTICLE FIVE – - Right to Insurer Accountability

Enact the “Insurance Industry Competition Act of 2007.” According to govtrack.us this legislation “Amends the McCarran-Ferguson Act to make the Federal Trade Commission Act, as it relates to areas other than unfair methods of competition, applicable to the business of insurance to the extent that such business is not regulated by state law.” AND “Authorizes the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue joint statements of their antitrust enforcement policies regarding joint activities in the business of insurance.” Power to the people or bust! Government must provide the oversight it was elected to provide.

As Americans we are surely guilty of one thing: We have allowed our precious ability to see “whole pictures” fade. Instead we see issue upon issue— one next to another. Even when we interact with one another we ask: “Are you for or against abortion?” “Democratic or Republican?” Are you for or against the wars?” Our world views break down into thousands of daily global and personal issues: War, laundry, economy, pick up John, economy, justice, health care, war, dinner, pay-check, tired… and on and on. We survive on sound bites but we do not thrive. It seems increasingly rarer that one would connect the issues, seeing them as ONE picture. This becomes hyper-relevant in times such as the ones we now live in. If we are unable to see how the war effects the economy which effects laundry, dinner and the gas to pick up John—which leaves us tired at the end of our day; then we are uninformed and ill-prepared to make effective decisions that better our daily lives and whole of the country.

The “War on Drugs” is similar. We legislate our laws based on whether or not we agree to condone the reality that people DO drugs. Moving forward, more like sideways, without acknowledging the role that other issues play in the evolution of American drug use. We move sideways without acknowledging the affects of our legal drugs on the American community. We move sideways without accepting that drug addiction (once achieved or inherited) becomes a medical issue that requires medical attention. We move sideways masking our own rampant drug use. Though we are not alone. The many drug scandals that have ripped through our elected officials are, at the very least, proof of that. We trust ourselves with secret freedoms but we don’t trust others to share those freedoms in the light. We move sideways refusing direct links between unemployment to self-worth to drug abuse, OR ill prepared and uneducated parents to children with drug habits OR unworthy parents to children craving escapism through drugs OR the lack of drug education in our schools and in our homes to children choosing drugs over their best interests. We move sideways spending taxpayers’ money to fill our prisons with non-violent offenders. We move sideways disregarding the fact that when you ARE homeless there is nothing better to do with your time than to forget that you ARE homeless. We move sideways ignoring the influence our pharmaceutical industry hold in our legislative solutions to these problems. We continue to move sideways knowing that economic class and drug abuse go hand in hand. We move sideways, finding ourselves in new places but we do not move forward. How do we manage to move FORWARD without considering the web of issues that will inevitably affect the solutions we chose?

I propose a different perspective that takes into account a larger “picture” of the conflicts inherent to the “War on Drugs.” Many of our children have prescriptions for drugs such as Ritalin. As well, many parents have personal prescriptions for mood elevators. As pharmaceutical regulations have relaxed, our community has seen an explosion of mood and energy management in the last ten years. Our abilities to manage conflict in our own minds and between one another are diminishing. Pharmaceutical commercials, which were once illegal, now play between our favorite shows and our nightly news. We ALL want drugs. Some of them are legal and some of them are illegal. Many Americans fear that they suffer from mood disorders or restless legs syndrome. Are we really that sick? Do you, our elected officials, really STILL believe that the pharmaceutical companies and the FDA currently hold our best interests above the interests of profit?

Every one of us has a family member that has ruined some part of their life from their use of drugs: failed marriages, lost jobs, child fatalities, car accidents, overdoses, domestic abuse, child abuse, cancer, emphysema, and on and on. The drug might have been cocaine, Oxy Contin, Methamphetamine, muscle relaxers, anti-depressants, alcohol, nicotine… etc, but many of the long term emotional or physical effects on the individual and their family are the same. I propose that ignorance, lack of moderation, and lack of judgment are larger factors in drug use—more so then the actual drug that is used. I further propose that through passing common sense legislation for selective drug legalization, taxation, and regulation we will begin to lessen these burdens, which have pained our society. I believe that, our road to success in this war on drugs requires us to stop spending money on incarcerating non-violent drug offenders and instead begin collecting money from drug users for investment in programs that keep our society healthy. Drugs are a part of this society and they will not go away. We DON’T have that type of power. It exists and it is not something that accepts our opinions on its validity. I believe that if we legislate laws that increase the quality of life for every American, inform our children about what drugs are and the many roles that drugs can play in their lives, encourage rehabilitation aggressively, refuse the hands of the pharmaceutical industry in protecting our children then, and only then, do we show true commitment to the war on drugs. We may not eradicate drug use in modern society but we can put an end to ignorant drug use by educating our citizens in the many ways to live functional lives—we can offer them priorities, support systems, and references to navigate their daily lives and, by default, become better society for having done so.

We must learn to work with our society rather than against it.

• Further restrict the number of lobbyist employed on behalf of industry in an attempt to humble the influence of industry in the politics of functional Democracy.

• Restore restrictions to the pharmaceutical industry. Return to the previous limits on when and where the pharmaceutical companies can advertise to our communities. Advertising to the public on pharmaceutical issues merely confuses the public and makes it more difficult for doctors to offer competent care. We are not doctors and we should not diagnose ourselves. Leave prescription choices to the doctors who have been trained to know the differences and affects of drugs prescribed.

• Implement stronger limits on what drug reps can offer to doctors. Our doctors should make decisions regarding our health matters based on the education they do and have received rather than the gifts and favors of sharply dressed people sporting scripts written by Pharmaceutical powers. We need to be able to trust our doctors.

• Accountability for Pharmaceutical companies. We are learning more and more that is not uncommon that companies intentionally mislead the public by offering and promoting products they know to be harmful. The pharmaceutical industry is no different. We have learned this through the experience of personal sorrows. Hephren and Vioxx are examples. The industry preys on people that need medications to survive. Because of their needs, it is easy to cast doubt in the mind of anyone who might see the connection between popular prescriptions and death or impairment. It is important to note that the people who have dedicated their lives to curing the diseases of the world are NOT the same people who sell the cures to the people. Greed often forces the hand of benevolence and the result is that human beings become: Numbers, Profits, and Acceptable losses. We deserve better.

• Re-negotiate the government’s right to haggle for the prices of prescriptions offered in Medicare drug program.

• List the alcohol content percentage on all beer bottles. If people know what they are drinking they can make choices accordingly.

• Continue to address Crack VS. Cocaine in criminal sentencing: The distinction, in sentencing guidelines, between crack cocaine and powder cocaine has needlessly populated our prisons along poverty lines. Recent legislation has opened the door to fairer sentencing in such criminal cases but there is much work yet to be done.

• Legalize hemp farming: We have the opportunity to create a brand new lucrative industry in America at a time when joblessness is rising and farmers are struggling. Why would we not allow this?

• Legalize Medical marijuana at the federal level: People are in pain and medical marijuana can help them. What types of “values” lend greater importance to prohibition over relieving the pains of disease?

• Address the growing trend in society of medicating our children: I have watched, year after year, more and more children being prescribed medications for what, some would say, is just simply a display of rambunctious nature. I’m not saying that children do not suffer from ailments that require mood altering medications but I am saying that I am increasingly suspicious of how prevalent these ailments have become in modern society and I can’t help but notice that these ailments followed the deregulation of advertising in the pharmaceutical industry. If our children are suffering from such ailments to such large degrees then WE, as a nation, are ignoring an epidemic of huge and devastating proportions.

• Address the modern culture of Anti-depressants: I suspect that the adult usage of mood altering prescriptions has trickled down to our children. I’ve known many people who use anti-depressants and many of those people had difficulties that warranted those prescriptions—many seemed to enjoy the attention that came with needing that prescription more than they actually needed the prescription. Mood altering prescriptions are a new phenomenon in modern society. Obviously, I’m not a doctor but again I must say that IF we are this sick, as a society, then WHY is no one addressing this epidemic on a national level?

Gross neglect on the part of our government is rampant. I read stories about corporations that hurt the people in our communities and walk away with no accountability or are granted immunity by our very own government. In the neighborhood where I work, people are afraid to eat food grown in the soil because of an oil spill that took place years ago and was never properly cleaned. This same neighborhood houses one of the highest cancer rates in the country. Increasingly, we fear the food we eat and the medications that are prescribed to us by the same doctors who have sworn to uphold the Hippocratic Oath. How is this a country “For the people, by the people”?

• I would like to see the entirety of the 9/11 Commission report suggestions implemented. It seems that since September 11, 2001 the policies that have been implemented for our safety have very little to do with safety and much more to do with insuring an environment of fear and saving face—a veil that allows the greedy factions of the current administration to erode the rights afforded to us by the constitution. In an airport, I now remove more clothes in a line of strangers than I would on a first date. It’s clear to most of us, that IF our safety were the primary concern THEN safety precautions would have been implemented much differently. The bottom line is this: If a culture of fear is not the most evident motivation for these precautions, then neglect and incompetence are the only other explanations available. Assuming that “the powers that be” have our best interests at heart, then one other explanation exists; our governments desire to make people feel safer by implementing procedures that are not helpful or necessary but are very visible, just so that people feel tended to—government sponsored acts equivalent to placebos replacing actual, less obvious, safety procedures. Who needs that?

• Require any and all financial institutions that requests government assistance to provide complete transparency of all records, assets, and holdings before granting their requests so that we may determine precisely how the failure of these institutions came to fruition. Grant their requests only after you have fully assessed the exact needs and causes. Do not allow the solutions to such vital issues to be made up of wild numbers that estimate what might fix the problem. Before a bank will grant a loan they require business plans and specific solutions to marketing issues. They assess the viability of return on their investment. They make sure that they will profit. Do not give loans to financial institutions that they would not grant themselves. “We the people” have paid too much for the mistakes of deregulation and government neglect. The attributes of deception that have ruled the financial market indicates criminal behavior and those responsible must be held accountable. I have never witnessed such gross incompetence or such immense failure in my life time, so I have nothing to compare such events to. I can say that our long standing relationship of trust with our financial institutions has now come to an abrupt end. Many of us did not see it coming. Many of YOU ignored its existence. Yet here we are, our relationship is in shambles and we are faced with decisions we don’t even fully understand. I can only say that the worst decisions I have made were made in haste without proper understanding. We can do better and we should.

• Protect our Ports. It’s amazing to me that, with all the talk of our endangered safety, our seaports are no more protected in 2008 than they were in 2001. How is this acceptable? We do not need the “United Arab Emirates” to protect our ports for us. We are capable. This is our country. We want to help. Let this be one of the many ways we offer every American the chance to “Be all you can be.”

• Protect the cargo that enters the country by plane. Again, we disrobe in public airports yet there are no precautions taken to insure that the cargo being shipped by foreign companies and individuals other than those listed on the flight is indeed safe. How is that acceptable?

• Assign Homeland Security funds to areas that are High-risk territories for acts of terrorism. As a resident of New York City, I am awed by the distribution of security funds. These funds should be re-accessed and re-assigned to more appropriately “at risk” regions and specific targets. The current allocation of these funds leaves many known terrorist targets vulnerable. How is that acceptable?

• Implement an agenda that sets forth a clear plan for addressing the every day and long term needs of New Orleans residents and all affected by the circumstances of Katrina. One storm devastated an American city and took with it many smaller southern towns. That was 2005. It is now 2008 and we still have no clear indication of what will come of these areas. How is that acceptable?

• The EPA and it’s failures: In both the aftermath of September 11th and Katrina, the EPA assured residents that they would be safe to breathe the air left following these tragedies. They were wrong. People now suffer long-term illnesses and live limited lives as a result of the incompetence of the EPA. First responders to 9/11 are now struggling to breathe. Short breath and sleepless nights are how we have rewarded them. Long-term illness ends in death. How is that acceptable?

• The FDA and its failures: Be it incompetence, or pre-meditated neglect the FDA has failed us in recent years. They refuse farmers the right to test all cows for mad cow disease. They have allowed flawed pharmaceuticals such as Hefren and Vioxx to enter the public mainstream at the cost of public health. The FDA officially supports the genetic engineering of seeds with very little research despite growing skepticism regarding the quality of foods yielded from these seeds. In addition they do not allow foods, which are not genetically engineered, to label themselves as such. The FDA is now responsible for making our decisions for us and the decisions they have chosen are questionable. Regulation standards have not been enforced bringing forth a whole new host of food precautions. It seems that every month there are new warnings about common foods making people sick: cantaloupe, sprouts, spinach, and tomatoes are a few that come to mind. How is that acceptable?

• Trading treaties should be re-negotiated to account for child labor, harmful ingredients and environmental impact: As we move forth, we begin to negotiate new treaties such as the Columbian Free Trade Agreement. Already we take part in NAFTA, and CAFTA. Trade is good for communities but it can also be bad for communities. In part our job, as a country, is to engage in treaties that encourage the welfare of all communities involved. Accountability is a vital part of any contract. Trade treaties should be no different. The Federal Trade Commission should understand this and act accordingly. Deadly toys from china invade the safety of our homes and the vulnerability of our children’s health. Our pets fall prey to pet food that causes their death, sent to us from China. If I bought an imperfect item from an American store I would simply take it back. I do not have this option where China is concerned. It is the responsibility of government to implement trading standards with our trading partners. Those standards should address the practices involved in bringing about the products that are sold to us. We claim to be leaders though our recent history shows that we have yet to lead.

• Let us, once again, return to a time when the division between individual and corporation was defined clearly in the court system. Corporations do not deserve the protections of the Fifth Amendment. Corporations are not human beings and they do not suffer the same personal repercussions that American citizens do. The growing power of corporations is daunting. The average individual does not have the means to fight against a corporation that has harmed them. If we continue to protect corporations in the law the way that we would a human life, we will lose our ability to prosecute the manipulations and incursions of big business into our daily lives.

• Accountability for the labor practices used in the building of the US Embassy in Iraq. Nicola Smith, in an article titled “’Kidnapped’ Filipinos build US embassy,” gave this account of the building practices use to build the American embassy in Iraq: “An American civilian contractor has described scenes of panic and hysteria last year as Filipino construction workers were told that they were on a plane bound for Baghdad rather than Dubai. Passengers jumped out of their seats screaming in protest until a gun-toting air steward ordered them to sit down, claimed Rory Mayberry, an emergency medical technician traveling on the same flight. Mayberry said the men were “kidnapped” to build America’s luxurious new embassy in Baghdad’s green zone. He gave his account to a congressional committee investigating allegations of fraud.” Since when are America structures built with slave labor?

• Address the epidemic of unchecked emergency spending that is now dominating the funds supplied to the Iraqi Liberation/ Occupation/ War. Jason Leopold writes in his article “Iraq War Costs Skyrocketing, But Congress Unable To Scrutinize Spending” posted at countercurrents.org: “Nearly all of the $516 billion allocated by Congress to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has come in the form of emergency spending requests, a method the White House has abused, depriving Congress the ability to scrutinize how the Pentagon spends money in the so-called global war on terror. The use of emergency supplemental bills to fund the wars has likely resulted in the waste of billions of taxpayer dollars, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office.” He further explains, “Over 90% of [the Department of Defense] funds were provided as emergency funds in supplemental or additional appropriations; the remainder were provided in regular defense bills or in transfers from regular appropriations,” the report said. “Emergency funding is exempt from ceilings applying to discretionary spending in Congress’s annual budget resolutions.” This is unacceptable. How can we maintain checks and balances if our congress has such little say in how our country spends its money?

• Re-instate the original filibuster. According to Dick Durbin, Senator from Illinois, when speaking of the Senate minority he stated “the Republicans of the US Senate have performed 77 filibusters during the current session. This count breaks the previous record of 58 filibusters previously held by the 1999-2002 Senate terms.” In addition, a report put out by Campaign for America’s Future details the many bills thwarted amongst these 77 filibusters. The report highlights several bills that could have been beneficial to our current state of affairs:

“About $18 billion in tax credits would been provided to improve energy efficiency and produce renewable energy, paid for by the repeal of tax subsidies going to oil companies at a time they are earning record profits. Seniors would pay lower prices for prescription drugs, as Medicare would have been empowered to negotiate bulk discounts with pharmaceutical companies

A “cap-and-trade” process would be in place that would begin to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and would raise billions of dollars that could have helped defray the rising cost of gas for working people, while aiding in the development and deployment of green energy alternatives

Victims of pay discrimination would be able to pursue corrective action against discrimination, even if they didn’t discover the bias until later.”

If we continue to offer this option as a tool for congress to play politics, then it is our responsibility to discourage its abuse and it is your responsibility to implement those safeguards. It should be mandatory that the filibuster be launched and maintained in person before any further senate business is allowed to take place. If you feel compelled to impede congress then you should be present for the process and its affect on your peers should be equally compellin

• The following suggestions are offered by legislativeaccountability.org for fighting the lack of transparency and accountability in Government:

“No member of Congress may vote, either yes or no, on a particular bill without submitting a signed declaration that he or she has read the bill in its entirety and understands it.” For myself, I list this suggestion because I grow tired of the increasing number of congress people who offer excuses for having supported legislation. Many of those excuses are simply derivatives of “ Have you seen those bills. They’re so big. Who has time to read all that stuff?” It might be time to enlist new technologies that will facilitate better understanding of the bills you pass. Perhaps the media department could make audio files of each bill and load customized iPods for each member of congress. I don’t know what the solution is for you to be better at your job but I cannot see how you can defend the country if you do not take time to read the bills that you sign into law

“The first paragraph of each law passed by Congress, up to a maximum of one hundred words, shall state the purpose of the law.” If a bill clearly expresses its intent at the time it is published, then it will be that much easier to decipher intent when necessary for current and future generations to review the laws we have built our communities upon

“No bill may be voted on by the legislature until a copy of said bill has been made available to all citizens within the United States for a minimum of 48 hours. Such access must not require nor collect any personally identifiable information from citizens.” How could this do anything but make Democracy stronger

“Bills shall be known and recorded by numerical identifier only. No titles may be used.” Much to my dismay, a recent trend in government is the rampant use of misleading titles for bills. Names such as “the clean air act” have offered a false sense of public security by sounding as though our legislators are mindful of our needs and safety—when in fact some of these bills have done the very opposite of what their name implied. It is with this in mind that I support regulations that encourage the abuse of language and propaganda used to mislead the public

“Congress shall pass no law which exceeds in length two 8.5” x 11” pages of Courier 10-point font.” If reading the bills is too time-consuming for our public officials then perhaps this suggestion will lessen their burden

“No Court having jurisdiction within the United States may interpret any portion of the law to contravene the express purpose of the law as stated in its first paragraph.” Clarity in law making is long overdue.

• The first page of every bill should have a bulleted summary that lists any and all bundled portions of the bill as well as any earmarks added to the bill. Congress members should be required to submit that bulleted summary to public record indicating which parts of the bill are supported by that congressperson. For too long, government officials have taken refuge in their ability to hide legislation within legislation leaving the American public unaware and uninformed. The mere existence of this ability encourages dishonesty, corruption, and greed. The public cannot protest what they do not know. I want neither side to use this cloaking ability to deceive the public any further.

• Accountability for participants in unnecessary police brutality cases. Our police need to understand that we know their job is difficult. Our police need to understand that we know they risk their lives to protect us for minimal pay. Our police need to know that the responsibility they choose to uphold in American communities is immense. Our police need to know that IF they fail to protect the community by unleashing undue harm on our citizens there WILL be consequences.

• Legalize prostitution. When will we publicly admit that this is the oldest profession in existence and that it will continue until the end of human race? It’s true; I would not want my own child to choose this profession but my judgment, nor your judgment, has any relevance when discussing the safety of a fellow American. The same way that it does not make it acceptable for America to treat those who do make this choice as less than human. The benefits to legalization are numerous. AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases are a constant factor in a profession such as this. With regulation, we can begin to put an end to this unnecessary aspect. The abuse of those who work in this industry can likely be eradicated. Rape and incest are constants in our modern society. Though it would not end rape or incest, it would provide an outlet for otherwise non-violent offenders. The reality of history proves that people will continue to buy sex be it, legal or illegal. We can continue to act like this is not true but we are harming ourselves.

Our children are deprived of fair, informative, and unbiased education. Teachers struggle to be little more than baby sitter’s and go home broken-hearted because the government doesn’t give them the latitude and support they need to be effective in their jobs. Teachers and parents bring lawyers to conferences to clarify their sides in the event of any future news coverage. Autism and asthma have skyrocketed in recent years. We feed our children prescriptions that render them more easily manageable at the cost of their childhood. Our trade agreements accept tainted toys that damage our children and tainted food that kills our children’s pets. Every year the school system subtracts more from the daily curriculum and replaces it with standardized test preparation. The religious right contests Science, in our schools. Our teachers are afraid to touch our children for fear of harsh consequences. The history that we teach is more similar to the tales of Chris Kringle or that of the Easter Bunny. A quick investigation of the history books we provide to our children, clearly shows that those books not only empower a positive view of America’s future but also deny any trace of the negatives in our past. How can we learn from our past if we do not know it exists? We are currently raising the next generation of leaders. Shouldn’t we offer them more?

The American public is deceived with sound bites and biased distribution of information. Quotas and bad press dictate our police force and our police don’t like that fact anymore than we do. Our children learn test answers instead of substantive knowledge. The media dictates which information the public considers important based on entertainment standards. Our responsibilities have been marginalized. We are now assembly workers–each one of us focusing on our tiny part, assuming that protections protect us, rarely questioning the intent or source that delivers demands. Our abilities to think for ourselves and make decisions within context are eroding. Knowledge is invaluable. Let us not forget that strong minds make for a strong country.

• A nationwide campaign to boost the standards of education— inclusive of special needs applicants, and adequate teacher pay.

• Quality, Free and/or affordable College for the lower and middle income Americans.

• Re-introduce civics as a standard in high school education. Understanding the constitution is fundamental to enforcing the constitution.

• Re-introduce physical education requirements and extracurricular activities in our schools. Children need to learn about their bodies and test their bodies to maintain healthy lifestyles. We owe them guidance so that they may learn to balance the video game activities or American idol, or reading with good old-fashion heartbeats racing, teamwork, and challenges. Keep our children strong–make our future stronger.

• Conduct a formal and in depth public study into the rise and causes of autism, ADHD, ADD and asthma in our children, as well as the limitations and costs of and for services available to children with such diagnoses. Our children are suffering from an epidemic proportion of new asthma and autism cases. According to a synopsis for the book “Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies” written by Stauth, Cameron, Bock, and Kenneth: “Autism.. has spiked 1,500 percent in the last twenty years. ADHD, asthma and allergies have also skyrocketed over the same time period. One of these conditions now strikes one in every three children in America.” It is clear that something in our environment has changed and is affecting our children. It’s time that we pay national attention to this new reality so that we may learn from our mistakes and put an end to the frequency with which our children are diagnosed with these diseases.

• An end to the government sponsored abstinence education to be replaced by an introduction of age appropriate sex education. 1-4 teenagers have a sexually transmitted disease. Studies show that Teens now turn to oral and anal sex in an attempt to save their virginity. AIDS still exists. The longer we keep our children in the dark about their bodies, the longer these facts will continue to be true. The longer we endanger the very children we seek to protect. Sex WILL happen. As adults our own histories have proven that. It is wrong to expect more from our children than we could from ourselves. We can, however, help them to understand the consequences and beauties of the decisions they choose to make. I do NOT imply that sex education will solve the world’s problems. I DO mean to imply that when teenagers understand the gravity of what they possess and all of its dangers they will make decisions that are more adult in nature. Sex is an adult decision. I agree. I also agree that the decision to not have sex is also an adult decision. Informing our youth is part of helping them grow. We cripple them with fear tactics, when we could instead empower them to live safe, responsible lives.

• Implement early child development programs. According to the World Health organization “Among all the social determinants of health, ECD is the easiest for societies’ economic leaders to understand because improved ECD not only means better health, but a more productive labor force, reduced criminal justice costs, and reductions in other strains on the social safety net. National and international fiscal and monetary institutions need to recognize that spending on early child development is an investment and incorporate it into policy accordingly.” The American dream is to pass on a better life to your children then the life you had growing up. Show our children the support they can thrive on.

• Universal pre-kindergarten is needed to insure the stable development of our children.

• We need more afterschool programs. Afterschool Programs are disappearing across the country due to lack of funding. Parents work day and night to provide for their children and still have no savings. In this economy, time is THE commodity in the lives of working class families. Afterschool programs keep children safe and engaged while the parents earn their living. Can there be anything more important?

• Intelligent design is a theory disproven by science. The current trend in our society to fear science is tragic. Science is what has taught us to love and cherish the beauty we are surrounded by, rather than fear it. Science is what keeps us healthy. Science is what has taught us to better care for our children. Science has protected us against disease and extreme weather. Science has provided leverage for international negotiations. The existence of science does not invalidate the existence of God. Science is vital to our standing in the global community. We cannot allow our schools to replace the verified science of evolution with theories of creationism and intelligent design. While we must encourage tolerance for diversity, we cannot allow theory unsupported by facts to replace science that has already proven to be true. We must honor our children by teaching them the difference between fact and theory. The knowledge that we impart to this generation of children is the same knowledge that will be recycled in the future, as they raise their own children. As members of the older generations, this imparting of knowledge is our responsibility.

• Child violence is an obvious icon of a sick society. These days teenagers and college students are known to shoot their classmates from time to time. Sometimes their rage spills out across an entire campus and leaves nothing but bodies in its wake. Bully’s now travel in packs and inflict life-altering damage motivated by schoolyard politics. Fathers and mothers have willingly watched their child die due to their neglect. In some cases parent and child have teamed together in acts of murder. Mothers suffer from such deep depression that they drown their children. Children have difficulty being children because they have mirrored the lifestyle choices of their parents and those choices have left them overweight and lethargic. The air pollution we inflict on children leaves behind damage beyond repair. Landlords allow rodents, toxic paint, and bad water to live amongst the less fortunate of children. Children, of all ages, are taken from their parents because of incest. Numerous children are re-admitted for health care time and time again with injuries clearly inflicted by their parents. Children accidentally fire handguns and occasionally their bullets take the life of another child. Children are often used as pay checks to foster homes. In Florida, we lost a child in the foster care system and didn’t even remember she was gone until after she had died. An epidemic exists of family touching family in wrong ways. In the south, where I grew up, what happens in your yard is what happens in your yard and what happens in my yard is what happens in my yard. This unspoken law governs all acts including child abuse and incest. We don’t stop there. Alcoholic fathers and mothers rob their children of their childhood by being inadequate, and by default, requiring their children to be more adult than they are. Drug addict mothers infect their children with more painful desire than any child should have to endure. Fetal alcohol syndrome is one more example of unnecessary painful desire. Of course we have children in America who know nothing of these experiences and parents who offer those children positive living but those are the inspired mass not the uninspired minority. Be they mass or minority they are our children—our responsibility. Together, with the Iraqi Liberation/Occupation/War, we have publicly condoned hitting first. Our Commander in Chief has passed along language that fostered a community void of communication. As a country, we have made war our priority. Our children, our quality of life, and our diplomacy have taken a back seat to politics that promote war above all things. Our children are watching. We are setting examples by contradicting the lessons we traditionally teach our children. Thus far, throughout this conflict, we have expected our children to do as we say and not what we do. Child violence in America has many sources. Our conduct in war is merely one contribution. Though I would go so far to say that the effect of this war and our conduct on our children has yet to truly manifest. We ARE educating our children at all times and this does not exclude times of war. We are nothing without our children. They will build the future we live in and they will foster new generation upon new generation. If we do not protect them we have failed ourselves and we have failed them.

• Foreign languages should be an integral part of American education. The United States is one of the few countries that do not encourage multiple languages for students. In Germany, most students speak a minimum of three languages, which provides them more opportunities as well as more understanding of the world they live in. If we spend the time to teach our children several languages when they are young, we better prepare them to compete in the global job market. In doing so, we fortify the foundation of our own country. Education is our future.

• Conduct an independent public study, by state and county, that documents existing threats to our air quality, and water quality. Please include in this study a broad explanation of suspected and documented health factors elevated by current toxicity levels.

• Conduct an independent public study into what civil liberties have been manipulated or revoked in the last 10 years. Follow this report with a published Agenda of actions that will restore those liberties to their original state.

• Conduct a public study of the military as a whole in the context of what benefits our soldiers and their families have lost since the year 1990. This report should also include the ways in which we have increased our soldier’s responsibilities. Recently congress passed a New GI Bill that addresses some of the needs of our proud military through the education they have earned while serving our country. We must continue these traditions. Whether or not service is to be voluntary or mandatory in the future, understanding the need to make service beneficial to every participant is imperative.

• Conduct a public study of the positive and negative effects of NAFTA / CAFTA: These trade agreements must be re-negotiated. Local communities have seen the failures and successes of these agreements and we now have an arsenal of experience and are well-equipped to re-negotiate new trade agreements that will benefit our working class rather than dismantling them little by little.

• We must address the growing trends of unnecessary police brutality in our communities. This issue falls under the category of education because it seems clear that even those fatalities that seem to be racially motivated are inspired, above all, by a lack of education. We need our police force to be trustworthy. Police officers are intended to aid public interests in justice and safety. The public does not feel safe. Large portions of the country fear the police. Justice and safety for all Americans is the priority. Our Police will benefit from fostering this attitude throughout the country and begin to repair their relationship with the public before they lose authority in the communities they serve to protect.

• Conduct an independent comprehensive public study of the allies we, the United States, align ourselves with—not excluding Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. This study must include American assets acquired, as well as, human rights abuses. This study should give a brief summary of each country’s enemies and allies. This report should also include a brief history of how both enemies and allies were acquired. This report should be updated annually.

• Conduct an independent comprehensive public study, which lays out the full history and endeavors of the U.S. into Middle Eastern affairs, inclusive of our current and former allies. So that we might afford the entire country a more broad understanding of what brought us to this point in history. So that we may learn from our mistakes and better navigate the current conflicts.

• An independent comprehensive public study that explores the relevance of the electoral college in today’s society that includes recommendations and is followed by a public debate in Congress regarding the validity and relevance of the “Electoral College.” I am not convinced that this part of the election process has any relevance in today’s society. It seems to me that provisions such as this, inserted into how WE choose OUR government, merely serve to obscure the true voice of the people. ONE person, ONE vote does not exist so long as impediments to Democracy are perpetuated. Our country is no longer the vast unpopulated territory that it once was. The threat of secession is all but gone. Do we really need the “Electoral College?”

• An independent comprehensive public study of the current text books distributed in our school system that compares the history taught to our children to the actual history of our country. We must know our history so that we do not continue to make the same mistakes ans so that we fully appreciate the life our fore fathers struggled to provide for us. It is our responsibility to give our children the knowledge and skills they will need to make the world better and to set an example worth following.

Freedom, Science, Immigration, Discrimination,

Retaliation, Racism, Equality, Opportunity, Morality, and Hate:

Part of growing up is the process of “un-learning.” In order to manifest functional, happy human beings, it is necessary to evolve past what we were taught to believe. Taking with us the best of who we were to become someone better. We experience this at every “first” through our first day at pre-school, our first bully, our first apartment, our first loss, our first car, our first day at college, our first job, our first wedding, our first divorce, our first love, our first Democratic President, our first Republican President, etc… Everywhere I look I see people robbed of one or many of their “firsts.” Discrimination, racism, hate and lack of opportunity and equality are evidence that there is much un-learning to be had in America. As a nation, for too long, we have treated these acts of aggression with vague interest—as if each case is a fluke and rarely happens. We have allowed fear sickness, retaliation, inequality and death to rule the outcomes for the minorities of America. As a nation we must step forward, and together, to shed what is to be un-learned—to become a better more mature society.

By implementing and enforcing laws that reflect tolerance for homosexuals, women and minorities we create equal opportunity for all. Opportunity is a direct derivative of equality. Let’s get it out of the way. We have spent too much time forming opposition against that which, history dictates, is inevitable. The ERA should be finalized. Women should hold emphatic ownership over their bodies. Gay couples deserve the good and bad of marriage. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” is a schoolyard solution to an adult reality, and minorities should not have inferior government protections. In 2002 The American government fired 6 Arabic translators because they were gay. Perhaps we could spend our time more wisely. In a world that is increasingly more hostile, it would be a shame to shut out any mind that could offer solutions.

• Systematically restore civil liberties and the US Constitution: Our government has absconded with our liberties and the protections provided by the constitution. They must be restored so that Democracy survives.

• Ratify the ERA amendment: The United States of America boasts about our “Land of Opportunity.” It is our tag line. We utilize the clout that we have derived from this perception of who we are. We allow the honor of this perception to open doors and seal deals across the globe. We take it upon ourselves to spread Democracy throughout the world. Though, here at home, women are still members of the thwarted club. Women are paid less than men for equal work. Women are trusted with less authority than their male counterparts in equivalent positions. Women ARE still the “lesser” beings in this society. They have taken on jobs, joined the military, achieved executive positions, and gained scholarly recognition. Yet a quiet divide still exists between women and men. That divide is fostered by the conduct you, our legislators, which have not yet ratified the ERA proposal as the 28th amendment to the United States Constitution. This proposal is intended to guarantee equal rights under the law for Americans regardless of sex. This amendment seems logical for a country that has earned its clout through the perception of equal distribution of opportunity. I propose taking that sentiment further by adding the phrase “race or sexual orientation” to the amendment. “Equal rights under the law for Americans regardless of sex, race, or sexual orientation.” THAT is a country that has shed it’s “un-learning” and is ready to move forward. According to Wikipedia.org, “35 ratifications from state legislatures during the 1970s remain valid” The remaining state legislatures and Congress must defend the reputation of America by ratifying and celebrating the ERA amendment. The ERA amendment will not change the landscape of women’s issues overnight but, in the face of inequality, it will afford them the constitutional foundation to mount their defense upon—a luxury that is priceless.

• Defend life in America. Roe VS. Wade is subject to constant debate. Often when justifying pro-life stances, the example of “Partial-Birth Abortion” is a worst case scenario cited to horrify any person that might consider a woman’s body to be her own property. The truth is that Partial-Birth Abortions rarely take place and when they do, that decision is painstakingly deliberated by both doctor and parent or parents. In the end the decision is made to ensure the safety of the mother from obvious complications brought about by the birth of her child. The day that this country demands that a woman carry a child to term at the cost of her own life is indeed a sad day. Then there are those who believe that ending a pregnancy is not an option even in the face of rape or incest. Rape and incest are so prevalent in American society that confessions of pain and shame are a simply part of getting to know women. The women who haven’t been touched by sexual greed are a minority. According to the Rape, Abuse &Incest national Network “1 in 6 women will be sexually assaulted in her life time. College age women are 4 times more likely t be sexually assaulted. In 2006, there were 272,350 victims of sexual assault. 60% of sexual assaults are not reported to the police. Approximately 73% of rape victims know their assailants. Only 6% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail” In fact, Rep. Jane Harman told CNN in August of 2008 that she was horrified to learn “41 percent of the female veterans seen there say they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military.” For any person who has known a rape or incest victim, it is apparent that the wounds left behind are deeply internal and eternal. If a woman chooses to end a pregnancy because she cannot live with a constant reminder of her pain then allow her the freedom to heal in whatever way she sees fit to do so. Women by the nature of their own bodies, carry most of the burden for birthing and raising children in America. Yet, the more conservative factions of American society impede the avenues of knowledge that inform women of their physical bodies, contraception methods, and of their unique abilities as mothers when enlightened age and timing coincide to offer the opportunity of a lifetime. As these avenues disappear to be replaced by abstinence programs and the contraception hush we begin to see an increase in the number of abortions taking place. These methods have proven themselves ineffective and detrimental to the goals of the more conservative movements. Like the more conservative movements, though for different reasons, I too would like to see the number of abortions decrease drastically. Accessible information, age appropriate sex education, and contraception have proven themselves to be most effective in reducing the number of abortions. If we continue to employ ineffective solutions for the reality that we live in then we, in effect, say to the world and to our children that we DO NOT CARE by encouraging the abortion rates in our country. Women never choose abortion because its fun. It isn’t fun and it is never forgotten. Terminating a pregnancy is a highly personal decision made for very personal reasons. Decisions made with such weight will not be deterred by bans or restrictive legislation. This is a reality we cannot escape. To try and address this reality with anything other than education would be to condemn scores of women to brutal deaths. I want fewer abortions. What do you want?

• Fund a national campaign that Educates against Racism & Sexism: The primary race for the 2008 Presidential election shined light into the darkest corners of America. I was not a Hillary supporter. I consider myself a woman of specific principals. My hope is that when I use my vote to elect the first woman, to the highest office in this nation, I will choose a woman that represents my view of feminism. She is not that woman. She is a good woman but she is not that woman. With that said, I was not surprised by the news coverage of her campaign, the demeaning novelty items sold in the name of commerce, the hateful radio commentary, news commentators, vacuous and disrespectful statements made by strangers, and the in-artful statements made by some members of Congress. In a society that publicly demeans women, it is no surprise that OUR magazines demean OUR women. It is no surprise that violence against women is common and rape hides in our alleyways, military barracks, and family homes. The quiet hush that sweeps through our communities is the lingering residue of generation upon generation of repressed womanhood. Despite women having taken on new responsibilities in the household, workforce, and military, many in our society still expect that these responsibilities will take place in addition to the traditional roles that women have held in the past. It is high time that “we the people” fund a national campaign that educates families in ways of supporting one another through equality and respect. Sexism is an institution in this free nation of ours. We have learned it from our mothers and our fathers, generation after generation. It is engrained in the way that we live our lives. Racism is no different. As Barack Obama inches forward as the first “Black” Presidential nominee in American history, there are many indications that our country is at war with it’s self. People are afraid of change and they are willing to vote against their best interests to insure that we do not change as a country. Instead of reveling at how far we have come as a country—in this most historic moment, we bicker back and forth using subversive language. Words riddled with harsh implications. We hear people on TV, in places like Virginia, saying that they “just want to vote for someone more like them—“they” are white. Those words quickly followed by similar statements that confirm: “color” IS still a factor that impedes the decisions made by these voters. Again, I’m NOT surprised. I am from the south and while I am aware that both sexism and racism exist through out the country—I am also keenly aware that, in the South, these attributes are showcased in their raw forms. In the article ”The Hidden Casualties of America’s War on Crime” Marlene martin explains that “Among African American men over 18, one in 15 are in prison–between the ages of 20 and 34, fully one in nine Black men are behind bars. When those on parole, probation or otherwise involved in the criminal justice system are included, that statistic rises to one in three.” People of color ARE the primary population in our prisons. Again that is no surprise. “They” are passed over for promotions, opportunities are withheld, and “they” live amongst constant reminders that America is not the home of their inherited soul. The difficulty with resolving racism and sexism is that most people are unaware that their beliefs, language, and or behavior foster sexism or racism. In the south, a man taunts a woman on the street because he wants to make her feel good about herself. Similarly in the south, many believe “blacks” and “whites” should have equal rights, but those SAME people just aren’t convinced that equal rights will matter because “they” aren’t that smart. The reality is deafening and the results are ugly. I have often correlated the persistence of racism to the prevalence of landmass in a community: In places where fewer people live on larger divisions of land, racism is more apparent. I have no statistics to explain what my experience has taught me. I can only say that it seems logical to me that when people have more space belonging to them: they interact less with people they do not identify with. The result being that they are challenged less to see the world differently. Time moves slower in those places. Direction is beneficial. I say this to you because we elect you to lead us toward a better future. How can we thrive as a nation divided? Our legislators must step forward NOW. The inability of our “law-makers” to, thus far, light the way to equality is more than disappointing—it is devastating.

• Morality in America must be put in check. I am done. I’m tired. For years I have listened to everyday people and politicians brand morality so that it could be their final selling point to the mass public for whatever philosophy, religion, legislation, or product they happened to be peddling at the time. All the while, behind closed doors, these same people contradict their own definitions of morality. I say this to you now, with great sincerity. STOP. If you are a politician and you are gay, simply tell us. If you hold the public eye and have had an affair, admit it and move on. If you have a drug problem, get help. If you know of people who are engaged in acts of sexual misconduct with minors, tell someone. Don’t keep it to yourself or cover it up because it might hurt your affiliations. When given the opportunity to shave or impede the livelihood of others, choose not to or pay the consequences. When your friends abuse the law and are sentenced by judge and jury, don’t pardon their abuses. Don’t pass laws condemning the very same lifestyle that you lead secretly. If you make a mistake, apologize and promise to know better next time, if you don’t know the answers, don’t guess—ask someone. Be adults. Come to terms with who you are and do your best to create a positive role for yourself in this society. Every time you put aside your values to make a buck, we pay the price for your lack of forethought. Collectively, an entire system of elected officials putting their values aside this time or that time is the public equivalent of supporting a crack addict. You chose to represent the public in this Democracy. With that choice comes immense responsibility. Understand that SOONER rather than LATER and stop saying you’re sorry. Our world is festering with ominous narratives. The last thing we need are pseudo-adults peddling their false sense of morality to divide the people causing us to be less strong at a time when strength is so vital to our future. STOP NOW.

• Pharmacists and hospitals must provide medications and healthcare to all people and cannot be allowed to dictate their services along moral judgments. Birth control is a symbol of responsible sexual interaction. The “ morning after” pill offers help to those who were failed by their methods of contraception or who were brutally attacked by sexual greed. If health care providers and pharmacists wish to only provide services to those they can agree with then they are in the wrong profession and Congress should make this clear.

• Allow the terminally ill the honor of passing as they choose. Families huddle together across the country struggling with life and death decisions for their loved ones. The opinions of Congress have no business in these painfully personal decisions. Teri Schivo was a perfect example of Congress “acting on behalf of the public” when they should have stayed home. If a dying family member makes a psychologically sound decision to end their pain then they should be allowed to pass as they please. If doctors have done all that they can do for an unresponsive patient and enough time has passed for a miracle to have happened then it is understandable and humane that a family might choose to shut down the machines that push breath through lungs that no longer live. Know your place as members of Congress; we know our place as citizens.

• Stem cell research has the potential to save countless lives and to provide profound advancements in the knowledge and understanding of the human body. If you are of the camp that is uncomfortable with the applications of this knowledge then let me suggest that you focus your attentions on oversight but do not impede the hopes of millions of Americans by refusing to let this science advance—that would be a great disservice to this country and to the people who have to survive here.

• Address the realistic needs of homosexuals and non-homosexuals in the military: Don’t ask, don’t tell is ineffective and prevents a portion of our military from thriving in their development as soldiers. A minute amount of research will show you that “gayness” is inherent to genetics NOT will OR choice. These men and women risk their lives for our freedom and yet we still think that it’s okay when we ask them to accept shame for a reality that is beyond their control. Our military is filled with intelligent individuals; if there are issues that complicate the fruition of equality in the military then I feel confident that our best and brightest will be able to resolve these issues with great success. “Be all you can be.” —that slogan summoned the best of our country and now I challenge our military to “Be all you can be.”

• Gay Marriage: Let them be gay. Let them fulfill their hopes and their dreams. Be who you are and demand that no one bar you from doing so. We live in the land of equality or that is what we are told. While the founding fathers may not have imagined the prevalence of the modern day gay society, they most certainly believed that all Americans deserve the protections of the constitution. Marriage is a commitment to love, cherish and respect. How does anyone have the right to tell any citizen that they are not worthy of such a commitment?

• Gay adoption: As it stands, according to wikipedia.org: Florida still refuses to allow gay adoption. In addition, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Ohio, have not clarified their positions on the rights of homosexuals to adopt. In Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, and Utah gay couples are specifically forbidden to adopt. 26 states offer “no explicit prohibition” against gay couples adopting and 7 states remain “unclear” while in New Hampshire it is legal “in some jurisdictions.” In 39 states, it is unclear, illegal, or legal only in some jurisdictions. For same sex partners who petition to adopt a partner’s child the answer is unclear, not clarified, or no in 34 states. Keep in mind that within these numbers are children living in orphanages and foster homes. People are born gay. It isn’t a disease. You can’t catch it. It isn’t contagious. People are people despite whether or not they were born gay. We owe our children the opportunity to be loved by all benevolent souls. Adoption is no walk in the park. People don’t wake up one day and adopt a child the way you pick out a puppy—they deliberate, calculate, wish, and plan for the occasion. If you question the character of those who are gay, let me remind you that being gay in this free society is not easy either. For most homosexuals, they live a life ostracized from mainstream society, family members, and friends. Solely, for being the person they were born to be. They find themselves forced to form new families made up of like-minded souls and new friends. They experience long chapters of self-hate, and extreme loneliness and they rise above it to become members of society that not only function but are also happy. Like the phoenix from its ashes, they emerge able to STILL love others. I can’t think of many things that test the soul more. Can you? As equal members of society, gay singles and couples deserve the right to offer stability to a child cared for by the government. Love is not hindered by sexual orientation. Yet our children, labeled wards of state, have needs that are hindered by mandates of intolerance. In the end, children deprived of love and stability often grow up to be mal-adjusted adults. It is entirely possible that the hardships of being born gay and rising above the intolerance with love intact, has made these Americans uniquely suited to adopt unwanted children who have been abandoned by love. If we truly want the best for all of our children, we will rectify this intolerance to offer every option available to them.

• Enact strong “Hate Crimes” legislation: Matthew Shepard was beaten with a handgun, burned, and left to die while strapped to fence in the middle of nowhere. His legacy is the spotlight on the need for stronger hate crimes legislation. Do not let him die in vain. Wikipedia.org summarizes hate crime and its legislation in the United States as such: “Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have statutes criminalizing various types of hate crimes. Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have statutes creating a civil cause of action in addition to the criminal penalty for similar acts. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have statutes requiring the state to collect hate crime statistics. According to the FBI Hate Crime Statistics report for 2006, hate crimes increased nearly 8 percent nationwide, with a total of 7,722 incidents and 9,080 offenses reported by participating law enforcement agencies. Of the 5,449 crimes against persons, 46 percent were classified as intimidation and 31.9 percent as simple assaults. 81 percent of the 3,593 crimes against property were acts of vandalism or destruction. 58.6 percent of the 7,330 known offenders were white and 20.6 black. More than half, 52 percent, of the 9,652 victims identified were targeted because of racial group.” That is the reality of hate crime. According to the American Psychological Association, in a 1998 press release, research has concluded:” that “hate crimes are not necessarily random, uncontrollable, or inevitable occurrences. There is overwhelming evidence that society can intervene to reduce or prevent many forms of violence, especially among young people, including the hate-induced violence that threatens and intimidates entire categories of people.” When prosecuting the loss, or disablement, of life at the hands of hate, the life affected or ceased is of equal value to all other human lives. Though, I believe, it is appropriate to measure the calculation with which that assault on life came to fruition. Similarly, in the history of sentencing, the charges of conspiracy and pre-meditation are common charges because those charges indicate degrees of threat to our society. Passing hate crimes legislation would indicate that the person prosecuted poses not only a general threat to society but also a more specific threat to targeted members of society. Making society safer should be the goal of any sentencing process. Begin the task of strengthening “HateCrimes” legislation by passing the Matthew Shepard Act. Allow this law to embolden existing federal hate crime laws in three ways:

Expand the law to authorize the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute certain bias-motivated crimes based on the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. Current law only includes race, color, religion or national origin.

Eliminate a serious limitation on federal involvement under existing law which requires that a victim of a bias-motivated crime was attacked because he/she was engaged in a specified federally-protected activity such as voting, serving on a jury or attending school.

Add “gender” and “gender identity” to the Hate Crimes Statistics Act

• Enact legislation that protects “whistle blowers”: Across the nation secrets are being guarded by everyday citizens. People employed to monitor our drinking water, research our environment, mediate our commerce, gather foreign intelligence, guard our ports, review our taxes, instruct our children, welcome our veterans, invent our cures…so on and so forth. They are the closest monitors we have to regulate genuine safety in society. When they speak out, we should listen. When their claims are proven to be true, we should thank them by ensuring protection from the many forms of retaliation that inevitably manifest when defending Americans from negative motivations. These “whistleblowers” speak out because they see harm being done, not because they look forward to risking the future of their families. Unfortunately, for these brave people, retaliation outweighs thanks received. For those who speak out in defense of our nation, citizens and employees must have the freedom to protect society.

• Grant reparations for slavery. The long-term results of slavery are that African-Americans do not live equal lives in our American society. We refer to this dynamic as the “achievement gap” In some areas of the country, I would say, community members merely tolerate Black America—like you tolerated that kid your mother made you play with. You agreed to do so because you thought you would get in trouble, but you never liked it. We, as a nation, have impeded the evolution of Black America. By doing so, we have impeded the evolution of America. I don’t think that individual handouts are the solution but reparations should be made. I propose that we support our own evolution by promoting the evolution of Black America— as a functional, satisfied, happy faction of the American community. Maybe the answer lies in designating Government funds to be specifically invested in pre-schools, high schools, and middle schools that reside in areas with high numbers of African American students, or programs that target these same children with more focused success training. I’m not sure what the answer should be but I know we are not doing enough now. I would be willing to bet that ensuring opportunity and accessibility to education and job training are a very good step in the right direction.

• Protect the internet. I am aware that the world wide web offers such drastically new forms of communication that it lends itself easily to fear and phobia. There are obvious drawbacks to the freedoms that are inherent to this new communication. The internet HAS the power to connect the world in ways we could not have imagined in years past. It is possibly the most blatant example of Democracy in action. If we must limit the freedoms of the internet to protect our children, then we must find a way to do so that preserves the true spirit of unedited communication, self expression, and accessibility to all.

Immigration:

Interestingly enough, living in New York, daily I see symbols of immigration policy failures on every corner. I meet legal and illegal immigrants in my home, at my work, on my street, in my neighborhood, across the city, in the cabs, on the train, and in the parks. I am not afraid. I listen to immigration stories that are astounding in their gravity and in their absurdity. Though lately, the stories have changed. I hear them saying: they might go home. I hear them saying: they work too hard, they miss their families, they don’t feel welcome, they don’t feel free, they never have vacations, they work three jobs, they live family upon family in tiny dirty dwellings, they are disappointed, America isn’t what they thought it would be, the dollar is weak, it isn’t worth it anymore. I think to myself their stories don’t really sound that different than the stories I hear from American citizens. The difference is that, as the dollar loses value, they have fewer reasons to be here. They can be poor at home. On the streets of NYC I see an immigration “problem” disappearing. Soon there will be no need for the wall.

On the news I see American children separated from their immigrant parents without notice or preparation. I see illegal immigrants, who work hard while idolizing this country, living in constant fear of speaking to the wrong person. The possibility that someone might ask them for their identification is too big a risk. I see those same immigrants work long hard hours for pay, that isn’t American, for employers that threaten their security while issuing impossible demands on their time and abilities. I see women staying with men who hurt them because in this country they don’t have choices until their green card is granted. Doctors and engineers drive taxicabs until they obtain American credentials or while they live in dingy apartments because they keep only what they need and send the rest home to support their family. Immigrants in America cry when their parents pass away beyond the borders of this country because they cannot leave this country without risking permanent separation from the family they have here. In my experience, Homeland Security treats average foreign tourists and legal immigrants with a disheartening amount of disrespect. The green card process is long, confusing, and expensive. Questioning the process raises suspicion. Mistakes in this process are expensive. If the government takes too long to process an application due to enormous backlogs then the immigrant must pay fees to continue to work during this prolonged process. Most people who cross our borders do so because they want a better life for themselves and for their families. Most people, who choose America, mean us no harm—they just want a better life then they can have back home. They are just people like each of us compelled by their desires and by their needs and sometimes by their dreams. There has to be a compromise that enforces our borders while taking into account the people who are already here and the children of those families born here as Americans. Above all, we must be humane.

• Enact Senator Dick Durbin’s DREAM Act of 2007. (Development, relief, and education for Alien minors) Do NOT make children pay the price for crimes they could not prevent.

• FAIRUS.org offers these suggestions for deterring illegal immigration:

“Increase interior enforcement. Finding, apprehending and removing illegal aliens who are already in the interior of the country is a critical component to reducing the illegal population. Congress has authorized 7,000 agents to be dedicated to interior immigration enforcement. Like any other type of lawbreaker, immigration law violators must be aware that there is a chance the law will be enforced.” Suggestions like these, in my view, can only be applied after a clean slate has been achieved. Once we have dealt with the existing illegal immigrants then we can begin to enforce immigration with greater accuracy and clarity but not until then. Perhaps a grandfather clause should be an integral part of any new immigration legislation that is passed and implemented

“Increase cooperation with local law enforcement. In 1996, Congress passed and President Clinton signed a law authorizing training for local police in the area of immigration law enforcement. Wide implementation of this program would exponentially increase the ability of federal immigration authorities to find and remove illegal aliens.” This suggestion seems harmless enough, though I am suspicious of how this suggestion—when brought to fruition, would play out. Police have long argued that they do not want to intimidate illegal immigrants who live in their communities by making them fear the justice process. Illegal immigrants in low-income areas have proven to be valuable resources for police officers, when solving crimes. If immigrants are afraid to speak out, for fear of deportation, then we loose some the few voices willing to speak on behalf of the victimized in our communities. That doesn’t sound good for America

“Implement an electronic employment verification system. A secure, verifiable work authorization system was called for in the 1986 immigration law and reinforced by legislation in 1996. While Congress did not specify a precise verification system, they have already twice authorized that one be developed. If credit card companies, banks and countless other private enterprises can run millions of verifications every single day from anywhere on the planet, there is no technological reason why we cannot have a system in place that verifies the eligibility of a much small number of people who get hired on any given day.” Re-focus the immigration enforcement efforts so that the companies that hire illegal immigrants are prosecuted

“Fully implement the entry/exit system. A sizeable percentage of illegal aliens in the U.S. did not illegally sneak across the border. They arrived on valid visas and overstayed. In order to know who has overstayed a visa, we must have some record of who has left the country. Congress has already established a requirement that data be collected on people who enter the country and then matched with data as people leave the country. Congress can and must exercise oversight to ensure this program is fully and rapidly implemented.” Much of the immigration debate seems to focus on Latin America, when in fact, a great deal of illegal immigrants flood this country from all over the world. People around the globe flock to this country with a better life for themselves and their families in mind. I would not imply that we should just open the borders of our country and let anyone live here. Although, I am mindful that this country is a nation of immigrants who came here looking for the very same comforts that immigrants seek today. We must strike a balance that allows us to benefit from our immigration policies while upholding the true spirit of this country. When we focus our attentions, in this debate, on immigrants from Latin America while ignoring the flood of immigrants from every other country in the world, we merely portray ourselves as racists. As a whole, we are not racists. Individually, we don’t have to be racists. There are always better ways to deal with our fears and with our problems. At least, that IS what we teach our children.

• Abolish Immigrant Detention. The New York Times summarizes immigration detention when they write: “On any given day, about 31,000 people who are not American citizens are held in detention in a patchwork of county jails, privately run prisons and federal facilities while the government decides whether to deport them. Getting details about those who die in custody is a difficult undertaking left to family members, advocacy groups and lawyers.” In fact, Jane Guskin writes in her article “Immigration Detention: The Case for Abolition” “In 1994, there were an average of 6,785 people in immigration detention…in 2008, that number is around 32,000 and growing. That’s an increase of more than 470% in less than 15 years.” She further asks: “Do you feel safer, knowing that 32,000 people are behind bars today for the sole reason that they were not born in this country and have been deemed “removable”? Are you satisfied to spend over $1.2 billion a year of your tax dollars keeping immigrants locked up while the prison industry’s profits soar? On July 26, 2007 U.S. District Court Judge Margaret M. Morrow ruled that substantial evidence showed “a significant number of violations of critical provisions of the injunction dealing with detainees’ access to legal materials, telephone use and attorney visits.” People come here to because they cannot achieve a better life in their homeland. Let us NOT add to their misery by detaining them indefinitely with inadequate medical attention, and unreliable access to rights taken for granted by Americans. Let us be the country we say we are—live up to our own ideals. Treat these people fairly and humanely while enforcing our own safety and security. In the words of Ranjana Natarajan, ACLU/SC staff attorney: “What’s happening to immigrants in detention should disturb all of us…People seeking America’s protection from torture and persecution deserve a fair hearing and respect for their basic rights.”

• Encourage English but do not mandate English. Providing access to services that teach English would be far more effective than setting English mandates. We are proud of our language, but we should not fear the disappearance of English. The world has recognized the importance of English in the global community. Mandating English in America seems more like insecurity than strength.

• Pass immigration reform that will allow immigrants that are already here to earn a green card without having to return to their native country. In part, it was our neglect that allowed them to build lives here in the US. We allowed them to work while we looked the other way. We benefitted from their desperate needs, imposed by their illegal status. We chose not to enforce the laws that govern our immigration policies. We must share the responsibility for finding humane solutions to our immigration issues while recognizing the positive roles that immigrants, legal and illegal, have played in our economy and our communities.

• The wall between the US and Mexico is an inefficient use of American capital and resources. Peter Elstrom summarizes this when he states in Business Week that “The wall with Mexico can cost between $1 million and $10 million a mile, and it would cost billions to cover a reasonable chunk of the border. And yet immigrants from Mexico and other parts of Latin America continue to slip through.” There are better solutions among the many great minds in this great nation. We must be willing to explore those ideas to provide a better future for ourselves as well as the immigrants who love our country as much as we do.

I know people, who know people, that have died in 9/11, Katrina. Afghanistan, and Iraq. We all know someone. In Florida, I was told that signs requesting amputee’s to remove their prosthetics before boarding rides are now common postings in theme parks. How many amputees in a theme park warrant the making of a sign? Its heart wrenching. Soldiers come home and have babies that are born with birth defects caused by the depleted uranium in their parents systems. You, our concerned government, have sent our soldiers back to war 3 and 4 times over. Our soldiers then come home broken and in need of help. Our response, your response, is to tell them that they will be fine. Our reservists are deployed out of country, for indefinite periods of service and we refuse to offer them the same benefits that our full-time soldiers receive. Returning vets have been subject to the lacking care of such veterans facilities as Walter Reed. If we claim to love and support our soldiers, if we continue to ask them to risk their lives, then can we not offer them comfort for their basic needs?

We cannot maintain a volunteer military if we cannot stand behind the promises we offer in the contracts we provide. Nor can we maintain a volunteer military if we do not care for the well being of the soldiers before, during, and after war.

• Provide psych support for veterans and current military. In the Article: VA Confirms 18 Afghanistan, Iraq Veterans Commit Suicide Everyday, Jason Leopold writes that the VA “In a stunning admission, top officials at the Veterans Health Administration confirmed that the agency’s own statistics show that an average of 126 veterans per week — 6,552 veterans per year — commit suicide, according to an internal email distributed to several VA officials.” WE send men and women into horrifying circumstances and ask them to do unspeakable acts in our name, for our country. We call this “WAR.” In war, we EXPECT that there will be casualties, and we EXPECT there will be death. What most people DON’T expect is that the men and women we send to serve in our name will be broken even if they do make it home. Human beings are affected by their actions. We cannot expect our military to be anything other than human, nor would we wish that. Yet we continue to treat mental instability as both imaginary and permanent. When veterans ask for help because they don’t feel whole, because they can’t control their actions, because they cannot shed their war logic, and because they are haunted—out loud, we tell them that time will heal their wounds. Quietly, we view them as fragile and weak, forever. We rarely encourage treatment. When we do offer treatment, the very act of accepting treatment comes with social consequences. Mental strife and instability are expected human reactions to what soldiers see on a daily basis. As a country, and in government, it is in our best interest that we encourage and support the mental health of our military. The government casts war soldiers into the streets of our country with no transition period or attention paid to themselves or the needs of their families. A great many veterans are homeless and suffer from mental illness. Many of our veterans have life changing injuries. Most veterans don’t relate to their families or civilian life after war. The active duty military shy away from treatment for fear of repercussions. Vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are plagued with thoughts of suicide and or PTSD. Alcoholism is war’s least effect on our soldiers, yet it is probably the most common. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will send soldiers home for good— eventually. They are good people with guns, power tactics, and the knowledge to use them. They are our cousins, brothers, sisters, husbands and wives. We should want them to be healthy

• Restore the structure and integrity of our military. When Donald Rumsfeld took on the daunting task of restructuring the military for cost efficiency he intentionally made the military dependent on third party contractors—both on the field and at home. Corporations like Haliburton stepped in to bare the burden of America’s military responsibilities which led to mass over-charging, tainted water, ill prepared food and confusion in the field. It is unclear to me whether or not we have saved money in the long term but I DO know that this restructuring of our military has hurt the ones who love us most—our soldiers. They deserve better.

• Halfway houses for returning veterans: Is it possible to create a transition environment for those retuning from conflict areas such as Iraq? Many husbands and wives are all too aware of the difficulty veterans have adjusting to civilian life after war. While veterans need access to their families following the conditions of war, it is not always beneficial to the family that they be immediately re-introduced to family life. Domestic abuse, alcoholism, and suicide are common following war. If we CAN change this WE should.

• Adequate protective equipment for soldiers that serve in war zones. How can we justify asking soldiers to risk their lives for our country if WE, the country, don’t do everything possible to protect them while they are in harms way?

• Restore the traditional enlistment requirements by which we have judged those fit to serve in the military. Since the Iraqi Liberation/ Occupation/ War began, the military has steadily watered down the requirements for applicants joining the military. Our selection process no longer embodies the phrase “Be all you can be.” In 2004, our military adopted new “Moral Waiver” policies, which allowed more enlistees who are violent ex-convicts and people known to have made terrorist threats to serve in our military. In addition they now offer “alcohol and illegal drug waivers.” Also new to enlistment standards are gang tattoos. In Iraq, there is now evidence of American gang graffiti. We now accept skinheads and Neo-Nazis as sufficient candidates for enlistment. We now accept older applicants as well as applicants suffering from medical conditions that our military once considered unacceptable. Our military is supposed to be our best face to the rest of the world, as we lower our recruitment standards we also lower our ability to affect the world around us in a positive manner. These policies will make us less safe.

• Employ More Translators/ Communication Specialists. Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times tells us “The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s backlog of untranslated terrorism intelligence doubled last year, and the time it takes the bureau to hire translators has grown longer, officials said …” If we insist on fighting wars in foreign territory then it only makes sense that we employ the people who can translate those environments. We teach our children to be prepared so that they will find success in their lives, yet we run headfirst into unwarranted wars without the necessary preparation. Communication is the basis for any positive resolution. Without the ability to communicate we are wasting time and we are wasting lives.

• The tour extensions that have taken place are unacceptable. The stop-loss clauses in the military contracts have been abused and this should be addressed sooner rather than later. Suicide amongst veterans returning from Iraq has reached levels of which this country has never seen. Yet we continue to “support our troops” by expecting them to serve tour after tour with no end in sight. Human being are not built like that. Wars are not won like that.

• Provide comprehensive support for the families of war. How is it that we allow the families of our soldiers to crumble under the pressures of house foreclosures, predatory lending, and perpetual distance due to stop-loss?

• Reservist serving in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve the same benefits awarded to full-time soldiers for themselves and their families.

• Upon exiting the military every soldier must be given formal notice in writing, using clearly spoken language, a detailed synopsis of their medical benefits and be assigned a case worker, with a manageable work-load, that can easily navigate the bureaucracy required to obtain those benefits. We have too many sick veterans. We have too many homeless veterans. They have waited too long for the respect that they deserve. Don’t let them become just another loophole exploited by the greed of the powerful few.

• VA Closures: Across the country VA facilities are shutting down, leaving veterans with fewer and fewer options to address their needs. Many veterans now must travel unacceptable distances to receive the care we have promised them. If we cannot provide more hospitals then can we not implement procedures that allow these veterans the luxury of seeing a local doctor when the distance is too great?

• VA Hospital Reform: As a country we were shocked to learn of the conditions that existed at the Walter Reed VA facility. It turns out that these conditions are not shocking at all. Veterans who depend on these services tell story upon story of the inadequate care, un-kept hospitals, struggles to qualify for care, and endless paper work that impedes care. We owe them more.

• State equipment must be returned. State reservists are deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq and their military equipment goes with them. This equipment is not returned nor is it replaced. This fact leaves our State governments vulnerable to natural disasters. While we continue to “fight them over there,” we do this at the neglect of our domestic needs. This must change.

• Soldier’s funeral attendance by the White House. The current administration refuses to honor our fallen soldiers adequately—a true American tragedy. This must change. Our soldiers need to know that not only have we not forgotten them but that we honor the risks and sacrifices made by them on our behalf.

• Signing bonuses for enlistment should not be revoked due to injuries beyond the control of the soldiers who risk their lives to save ours. A rash of wounded soldiers are coming home with life-changing injuries only to find that the government now expects them to re-pay their signing bonus because they were injured too early in their service. How is this supporting our troops?

• We must address the effects of depleted uranium on our military families as well as Iraqi natives by publicly acknowledging it’s existence and offering support to those affected.

• Vote to ensure that veterans suffering from exposure to Agent Orange are fully covered by their VA benefits. This must include veteran’s deployed soldiers in bordering countries to where Agent Orange was used, all veterans deployed in countries that Agent Orange was transported through, and any veterans affected by military tests of Agent Orange. As a nation, we continue to leave behind those who have given us their all and that is reprehensible.

In a presidential election, the media holds our “ability to choose” hostage by their lack of even coverage to all candidates. In the 2008 election many candidates were pushed aside or outright ignored by the media. In one instance, the media did not include an active presidential candidate in an official presidential debate. In fact, I would go further to say that the media holds hostage our ability to make informed decisions by inundating the public with poorly sourced and often times misleading information. News is a word that is tossed around frequently in this new media age. With the advent and popularity of the Internet, news is everywhere. Broadcast news has been a part of the profit sector for some time now. As a result we have seen a steady decline in the quality of news. The purpose of “News” has changed drastically. Coverage of daily and world events now includes cliffhangers and bold text meant to entertain the public. News no longer informs the public.

The river of misinformation that educates the public, cleverly disguised as news, fosters division amongst the people of this nation causing the American audience to believe they are on separate sides of issues already proven to be common ground, thus pushing many Americans toward voting against their own best interests. Overt bias has all but ended our expectations for an objective press. The standards that governed the ownership of media have weakened and information monopolies are beginning to bud. The corporations who own media are more aggressive than ever. The FCC seems to look the other way, so long as nudity or foul language aren’t involved. The culture of media has relinquished the high road. In the last six years, news scandals have included Brit Hume and Armstrong Williams who were caught passing government paid propaganda as bona fide news. The government paid high-ranking retired military officials as well, to offer positive press for the endeavors of war. The media accepted this information without question. It is still illegal to use government propaganda against the American public. Employees of FOX News sued FOX for requiring them to cover news they knew to be false. Our very own courts condoned the lies because FOX is a for profit company and these press members were it’s employees. Jeff Gannon, a male prostitute with no journalism credentials or experience, was mysteriously granted a much-coveted seat in the White House Press Core. As a whole, the media chose not to uphold their responsibilities to the people in the lead-up to the Iraq Liberation/Occupation/War and by doing so allowed and encouraged our government to run head first in to two wars. One, of which, was unprovoked against a country that posed no valid threat to our nation. Too many questions were not asked. Too few facts were verified. The “fourth house of the government” no longer holds the government accountable for it’s indiscretions.

Much like the FCC, it is more likely that the press will pay attention if there is nudity or betrayal involved. The failures of the pharmaceutical companies, the EPA, the FDA, and Congress do not interest the corporate media. As a result, we are less safe as a country. The world has been busy. Americans have been preoccupied. The majority of the public hasn’t even noticed that news no longer offers truth. Most Americans don’t have time to fact check. Instead they believe what they hear. They assume that the media has their best interest at heart. In the past, this might have been true. The media has always been a primary component of the checks and balances that the founding fathers intended when they insured the right to a free press and the right to free speech. Now that the media rests in the profit sector, too much time has passed unnoticed and unchecked. The press is no longer free—in the grand American spirit of the word. We are inundated by entertainment. Our deepest need is not entertainment. We need to be informed. The time has come. We need a press that cares for the people it was hired to inform. We need a press that is noble and unflinching in its pursuit of truth.

• Truth Standards: the FCC should issue New Network Licenses. These licenses should delineate the lines between entertainment, opinion, and News. Once in place, these standards should be reviewed as strictly and as passionately as the separation of Church and State.

News credentials should be awarded to establishments that can stand behind the facts in their articles or broadcasts

Opinion credentials should be awarded to news sources that are biased in their coverage but still adhere to fact checking standards

Entertainment Credentials should be awarded to those establishments whose content is not dependent on fact for it’s effectiveness.

• Address Media Consolidation: As there are fewer owners distributing information to the masses there is, and will be, less diversity in the information that is distributed. “Freedom of the press” was originally instituted with the direct purpose of protecting the people from the “powers that be” by giving voice to their grievances and triumphs. Support “Freedom of the Press” by controlling the rapid consolidation of media that threatens the education and evolution of the American people.

• Enforce “Freedom of the press”: I am disheartened by the recent evolution of the American free press. If our Democracy can no longer point to our free press as a symbol of what freedom can offer, then we have failed.

• News for profit: News as a part of the profit sector is, in my opinion, a disaster. For quest of knowledge we view our nightly news. Instead of knowledge we find fear, disinformation, propaganda, and catchy graphics. Facts are rarely checked and bias is evident. This is not news. This is entertainment. It seems the news has been cancelled. It is in the interest of Democracy to return “news” to its original values when media fought to inform rather than distract the public.

• The ban, which outlaws photographs of war coffins, must end. The National Security Archive offers this historical account “The ban on media coverage of returning casualties was imposed by Defense Secretary Cheney after an embarrassing incident in which three television networks broadcast live, split-screen images in December, 1989, as the first U.S. casualties were returning from an American assault on Panama. In that incident, President Bush was seen on television joking at a White House news conference while somber images of flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base moved across viewers’ screens. The ban on war casualty images was continued during the Clinton administration, which made several exceptions to allow publication and broadcast upon the return of victims of attacks against U.S. personnel abroad, including the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000. President George W. Bush continued the ban following the start of the Afghanistan war in October 2001 and the Iraq invasion in March 2003. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Henry Shelton, coined the phrase “the Dover Test” to describe the impact of images of flag-draped coffins returning from a battlefield to the military mortuary at Dover, potentially affecting public support for a war.” There must be a public apology to the families, the American people, and to the press. We cannot understand the reality of war if we cannot see its effects.

• C-span viewers should be allowed to view the entire chamber so that roll call is visually apparent and so that speeches carry their appropriate context. According to the Washington Times, shortly before Christmas of 2006 Congress rejected “C-Span’s request to use its own cameras and operators to televise House proceedings.’ As a result “C-SPAN viewers will continue to be shortchanged. Their view of Democracy in action inside the People’s House would remain strictly confined to the podium.” The people could use a little “electronic sunshine” in these dark times. I think it’s the least you can do.

We are governed by a greedy system of loopholes that chip away at our income and our freedom. Poor people are paying more to live a lesser life and rich people are paying less to live a richer life. Across the country I have witnessed poor people giving up percentages of their paychecks to check-cashing facilities because they don’t qualify for bank accounts. Those same check-cashing venues offer small loans and provide terms only a desperate person would accept. Some of those people choose to pay their rent week to week because they can’t save enough to afford deposits for monthly rent even though it would be cheaper but is it really accurate to call that a choice. Some of those people rent furniture monthly because they can’t afford to buy a couch or a dinner table or maybe they just aren’t certain that they will be able to maintain the income required for their current living situation. My previous roommate used to collect cans and bottles to help pay his rent. He worked full time. On my way to work, I see others collecting cans and bottles for dimes. I even see them arguing with the people who accept the cans and bottles because they do not accept all cans and bottles. I know people who grew up in neighborhoods they can no longer afford to live in. In my neighborhood, a family of 11 shares an apartment the same size as my two-bedroom apartment that I feel is too small. Friends of mine have lost their apartments because their employers laid them off. I have friends who have been laid-off repeatedly because in every state business is downsizing or simply moving abroad. All around me, the daily expense total increases but the living wage does not. More often than not, I see people who don’t have time, for their families, friends, or for themselves because they work ALL the time. My neighbor’s mailboxes fill with free offers that bait them into contracts that are rarely as beneficial as they were represented to be. Not so long ago I lived in a neighborhood where numerous neighbors lived without running water, electricity, insurance, or heat. Some of those same neighbors had houses that held their balconies up with 2×4’s because that type of repair was too expensive even, if they were lucky enough to own their own home. In the neighborhood I grew up in it is common to cover a leaky rooftop with tarps until repair becomes affordable—if it ever does become affordable. Insurance companies now determine our yearly rates based upon our credit ratings. If your credit rating is bad but your driving record is good your insurance rate will still be high. Across the board, poor people have bad credit ratings. The ill-advantaged scrape and save to pay their bills late or to pay partial amounts. You don’t get good credit ratings by paying partial amounts. Large segments of the United States population are poor and we still tout that we are one of the richest nations. How do we justify that?

I know people who had money that don’t have money now. According to Sam Davis and Daniel J. Weiss, in an article entitled “A Better Solution for Gas Prices“ As of May 1, 2008: “during the Bush administration’s tenure, family income has slumped. Median family income was $61,000 when Bush took office in January 2001. Today, median family income has actually fallen to $60,500.” The country is now full of middle class citizens that once owned homes and now are homeless. For them, adjusting to this emerging economy has not come easily. The people, that I know, who still have wealth and have always lived with money experience discounts and free offers everywhere they go. Their companies send them to far away places and they reap the rewards of air miles. They travel. Those same friends enjoy free merchandise and are often paid to pay attention to new products. Athletes and movie stars make more money than any doctor, teacher, fireman, or police officer could ever imagine. According to James Parks of the AFL-CIO “The 20 highest-paid CEOs of U.S. public companies were paid an average of $36.4 million last year, three times more than the 20 highest-paid European CEOs, 38 times more than the 20 highest-paid leaders at U.S. nonprofit organizations and 204 times more than the 20 highest-paid generals in the U.S. military.“ Upside down might just be an understatement. You, our government, continue to grant tax cuts to the rich while increasing the burdens carried by the middle class. I can only assess that our priorities are upside down. There has to be a better way to live. President Bush told a woman on national TV that her reality of working three jobs to support her children was a “uniquely American” ideal and I thought “Aren’t we lucky?”

• Revoke the George W. Bush tax cuts for the top 1 %. The notion that giving the owners of the companies more money so that it will eventually trickle down to the common people is absurd. People WITH money HAVE money because they know how to KEEP money.

• Respond to the rising costs of oil by releasing measured portions of the strategic oil reserve.

• Implement public financial programs that advocate, mediate and educate on behalf of the American middle class so that the less fortunate can protect themselves from greed.

• Mandate a “Living Wage.” The minimum wage, in the US, is more equivalent to a poverty wage. Congress has begun the move toward a higher minimum wage and I commend this move. In saying this, I think it is also important to note that raising the minimum wage is not enough. While reading the UFE’s 14th Annual CEO Compensation Survey I found that “Workers at the bottom rung of the U.S. economy have just received the first federal minimum wage increase in a decade. But the new minimum wage of $5.85 still stands 7 percent below where the minimum wage stood a decade ago in real terms. CEO pay, over that same decade, has increased by roughly 45 percent.” In addition, Robert Longley writes “Congress has now voted itself a total of $16,700 in raises over the last six years. Since 1990, congressional pay has increased from $98,400 to $154,700 in 2003.” It seems that in the current economy the middle class is seeing less distribution of wealth while the upper class and congress maintain or exceed they’re previous standards of living. Congress must consider the minimum wage for the people in context of geography as well as fluctuations in cost for necessary items and inflation. How better to begin providing a fair chance to all Americans?

• Impose a moratorium on housing foreclosures until those mortgages can be renegotiated to more appropriately represent the economy we now live in. In 2008 alone, our economy shifted drastically when we saw the failing of numerous financial institutions such as: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Sterns, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Washington Mutual. In an article titled: “How to Remedy the Subprime Catastrophe” John Atlas, Peter Drier, and Gregory D. Squires highlight that “In 2007, 405,000 households lost their homes, an increase of 51 percent in 2006. CRL projects that two million families are likely to lose their homes in the next few years. More than 80 mostly subprime mortgage lenders went bankrupt by the end of 2007. Regulators anticipate that between 100 and 200 banks will fail over the next two years.” All the while YOU continually assured the American public that the fundamentals of the economy continued to be strong. AGAIN, you were wrong and AGAIN we pay the price for your neglect. The newest amount of 700 billion dollars of tax payers money is proposed to bail out the very institutions that have misrepresented themselves by the government who told us that the economy was fine in the name of the tax payers who are loosing their homes. As of September 305,291,731 people now live in the United States. Why not give them each one million dollars to stimulate the economy OR if that doesn’t work for you, find a way to help Americans keep their homes and stop making them pay for your mistakes.
• Congress must take more responsibility for regulating the states usury laws. According to Wikipedia, usury laws are defined as “state laws that specify the maximum legal interest rate at which loans can be made.” In further explanation they also offer this tid-bit : “Congress has opted not to regulate interest rates on purely private transactions, although it arguably has the power to do so under the interstate commerce clause of Article I of the Constitution.” At a time when our economy is in a state of crisis it seems logical that regulation of interest rates is necessary.

• Regulation VS. Deregulation: I would like to take this moment to say that I have had enough of deregulation. I would like to take this moment to say that I have had enough of deregulation. We could discuss my cable bill, my electric bill, my gas bill, or my phone bill, what I see on TV, what I put in my gas tank, the quality of the water that I drink, the air that I breathe, or the banks that I entrust my money to and the sentiment of the conversation would be the same. What I, and many others, have learned from deregulation is that I can expect to be charged but not served. Above all, I no longer expect to be safeguarded. Water, communications, gas, and electricity— these are necessities, not luxuries. The government has the power to regulate this national anxiety so that people have less complex, healthier lives. You, my government, have the power to soothe the people and you must use it.

• Corporate greed must be held accountable. In the wake of federal bailouts for the US Airline Industry, AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac there has been much public disapproval and distrust. I personally feel that if our government is willing to nationalize the debt of a private company in times of hardship then our government should also be willing to nationalize the profits of that company in more lucrative times. I don’t suggest that the government should start running around seizing corporations and nationalizing their profits at will. I do suggest that if nationalizing debt is a habit we intend to allow then the American people should profit as well. As these companies defer their debt to “we the people,” these bailouts come at a high cost. We, the taxpayers, now witness the passing of a dying corporation, as we are the recipients of their last will and testament. They breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their debt is now in good hands: “We the people,” the same taxpayers that find it more and more difficult to file for bankruptcy when we need a bailout in our own lives. What can be done? I found the following suggestions at legislativeaccountability.org in a posting titled “Handouts should come with strings attached” with a note that stipulated that these same criteria would apply to any corporation filing for bankruptcy protections:

“Any corporation receiving either direct monetary assistance or loan guarantees from the Federal Government shall be subject to the following restrictions

No employee’s total annual compensation package, including any deferred compensation accruing, may exceed the salary of the President of the United States

All “golden parachute” clauses in the contracts with current or former employees are immediately declared null and void

The corporation may not loan money to employees or directors

The corporation is forbidden to engage in any lobbying activities at any level of government, nor may it contribute financially to any organization that engages in lobbying

…Corporate welfare is not the free market at work, and We the People have a right to expect something in return for our tax dollars, and the right to demand that no corporate executive claim to be worth more than our executive.

• For the sake of the American Public Enact Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights:

“Cardholders deserve protections against arbitrary interest rate increases

Cardholders who pay on time should not be penalized

Cardholders should be protected from due date gimmicks

Cardholders should be protected from misleading terms

Cardholders deserve the right to put limits on their credit

Card companies should fairly credit and allocate payments

Card companies should not impose excessive fees on cardholders

Vulnerable consumers should be protected from fee-heavy sub-prime credit cards

Congress should provide better oversight of the credit card industry.”

• I would further propose that the above guidelines or the spirit of these guidelines be applied to the banking industry as well.

• Cap the income of CEO’s by maintaining a minimum ratio of “CEO pay rate” to “Employee pay rate.” For instance an example might be, that no employee, contractor or otherwise, will receive pay no more than say 60% higher than the lowest paid employee—or some well thought out version of that. The Annual CEO Compensation Survey, that I mentioned earlier, noted in it’s findings that “CEOs of large U.S. companies last year made as much money from just one day on the job as average workers made over the entire year. These top executives averaged $10.8 million in total compensation, over 364 times the pay of the average American worker, a calculation based on data from an Associated Press survey of 386 Fortune 500 companies. “ The economy is top heavy. We must restore balance.

• Predatory lending is out of control. Loan centers and credit card companies target low-income individuals whose needs often outweigh their education. As law-makers, you have not only chosen against providing accessible assistance to those who desperately need it, but you have shown a further lack of consideration by refusing to acknowledge the effects of your decisions on the circumstances of the less fortunate. Jeanette Bradley and Peter Skillern discuss these practices in an article titled “Predatory Lending. Subprime lenders trick homeowners into expensive loans” In this article, they point out that “studies by Freddie Mac and Standard & Poor’s indicate that 63 percent of subprime borrowers would have qualified for conventional “A” or “A-” quality loans.” As a nation, we have failed to protect the needy from the incessant pursuit of companies who KNOW better. Our soldiers, minorities, their families and our college graduates are targeted just as easily and as often—if not more. Who is protecting them?

• Promote housing solutions that expand the opportunities and accessibility to decent, moderately priced, conveniently located housing for every American. Brookings.edu notes “With one-third of Americans in renter households, more families cannot find apartments or homes that they can reasonably afford. The nation’s housing challenges undermine other top domestic priorities: making work pay, leaving no child behind, growing the economy and protecting the environment.” We must be committed, as a nation to providing stability so that we may move forward together.

• Incentives for companies that do not “Outsource.” Outsourcing has affected homes throughout the country. Companies are paying cheaper labor costs and making more profits at the expense of American families. Even Haliburton now resides in DuBai. Entire towns have folded up their sidewalks and closed their doors following the trend of factories that have shut down and relocated to other countries. “Made in America” used to be a sign of pride, now we just assume it was made somewhere else.

• Reduce Public Debt. As of 04/03/08 the “total public debt outstanding” totals 9,454,715,220,812.19. Our country has extended its credit limits beyond the acceptable boundaries. We cannot help others, if we cannot help ourselves. Any basic financial seminar will discourage using money that you do NOT have, to pay for what you WANT but do NOT need. America now employs this approach as standard practice in its fiscal goal setting. As a country, we are not as rich as we once were. We sell off bits and pieces of our economy to foreign entities more and more every day. In fact, the Chrysler building was just sold for a pretty penny. If this continues, our country will no longer belong to us. Where will we be then?

• Bankruptcy reform: The most recent reform to the bankruptcy guidelines seemingly enabled corporate greed while it disabled the last resort survival tactics of the average citizen. Bankruptcy is often the inevitable aftermath of predatory lending, and or overwhelming unpaid medical expenses. This option offers salvation to many good American families or, perhaps more appropriate, it did. Future bankruptcy reform is necessary. As it stands, bankruptcy is not written for the relief of the common people. All future reforms must prioritize the citizen’s needs and the environment that brought that citizen to those needs. This reform must also clarify whether or not a corporation deserves the same rights as a human being. When corporations lose what they own to bankruptcy, they walk away bruised but not beaten. When an individual loses their belongings to bankruptcy, they just keep walking because they no longer have a home. How is that the same?

People, who don’t vote, often choose not to vote because they don’t believe that voting is relevant to the live they lead. They feel powerless to change the constant mode of survival they exist within. Perhaps the most memorable example of votes being rendered irrelevant is the election year of 2000. This infamous year was the first time in American history that a President was chosen by verdict of the Supreme Court. Although, today it is common to see elections being contested in the courts. A precedent has now been set. Furthermore, recent truths of caging lists, voter registration fraud, voter intimidation, voter suppression, and voter intimidation have taught us all too well that the American voting process is tainted. It is you, the politicians, who have tainted this process. Election fades into election as corporate interests invade and privatize our Democracy. The results mostly come at the expense of taxpayers. It is not enough that propaganda is inserted into our news cycle. It is not enough that we are searched at random while taing the subway to work. It is not enough that “Habeas Corpus” is fading. It is not enough that for the first time in 100 years, the military plans to deploy an Army brigade on home soil so that they might be called upon to help with crowd and traffic control, It is not enough that freedom of speech is relegated to cages and designated zones. It is not enough that the government now reads our mail at will. It is not enough that we disrobe in public for airport security. It is not enough that wire taps and searches barely require warrants anymore. It is not enough that prankster kids get tasered for asking questions and citizens are thrown out of political rallies for wearing the wrong t-shirt and yet it still isn’t enough that librarians are compelled to share our personal information and the NSA listens when they feel like it. These are the rights we’ve lost. Voting is a right we never had. Our right to vote isn’t even guaranteed by the constitution. I feel this fact best showcases our government’s lack of sincerity. Each year that passes we, the citizens of America, lose more rights. Each year, simultaneously, the rights of corporations are emboldened. Without these rights our society is stripped of its ability to stand up and defend it’s self. We have taken for granted the notion that you, who govern us, cherish and encourage our votes. Voting is now a power struggle between the two dominant parties in government but this is not what voting was intended to be. Voting was intended by the founding fathers to be the voice of the people. Any government official who chooses not to defend the voice of the people is, by default, choosing not to do their job. Despite the discouraging recent history in Ohio, Florida and numerous other states, voting matters to the people. Voting IS the power of the people. Democracy cannot exist without their voices. It’s time that you, our elected officials, make it clear that voting matters to government by ensuring that the votes of citizens CAN dictate change.

• Guarantee our “right to vote” plainly in writing for all to see. The right to vote should not be a loophole that exists solely to be exploited by greed. We, as Americans, deserve the right to vote and YOU should make sure we have it. One person—one vote, what could be more American?

• Campaign reforms: The time for public financing is upon us. In addition to the air of corruption that corporate money breathes into the democratic process, our government officials and their votes are held hostage by the interests of the oil, pharmaceutical, and insurance industries. Until we remove the financial contributions of corporate interests, the American public will not be safe nor will they thrive

• Federal Voting Holiday: The backbone of our constitution is that we vote; yet voting is implemented in such a way that makes it difficult for people from every class to be a part of that vote. It seems more sensible to me that voting should take place over the course of two days and one of those days should be a weekend day. Perhaps even one of those days should be considered a paid government holiday acknowledged by employers? If voting is what enables our constitution, why is it that we make no official space for it in the conscience of our society? How long will we continue to treat voting as a trivial matter? If our own government does not deem voting important then why would the people see it any differently? Make voting a priority for yourselves and for the people.

• If we continue to allow media outlets to host Presidential Debates then we must require that they give equal time to each candidate and provide a larger pool of top candidates —including third party candidates. The job of the media is to inform. It is not their place to choose our candidates for us.

• “Require media to provide free air time for informing the public of the positions of candidates as a condition of receiving a lease of bandwidth.” This suggestion is provided by smartcampaigns.com and speaks to the ever-growing need to exorcise the immense waste of money that campaigns pay each election cycle just to make contact with the people. The airwaves belong to the people and are leased to corporations with the understanding that they will be used to perpetuate the best interests of the public. EVERY lease has stipulations. We are within our rights to require the use of these airwaves to benefit our communities and our Democracy. Throughout the course of every election, I take note of the immense amount of money paid out by campaigns for advertising and various other expenses. It seems like such a waste. I see the homeless on our streets and I read stories about illiterate Americans and hungry American children. Couldn’t the money be better spent

• “Impose a gag rule on polls, dishonest or misleading characterization of candidates’ positions and records, and partisan punditry during the primary election season” Smartcampaigns.com makes this suggestion in an effort to achieve fairer elections. As it stands, the control of the media in the selection of our president is discouraging. If a gag rule jepardizes freedom of the press then at the very least campaign propaganda and news coverage should be required to undergo stringent fact checking processes. Choosing a President is more than an important decision. It is electing a way of life. This decision is heavily influenced by the news cycle. The news offers more opinion than it does fact, leaving voters uninformed and often manipulated by political drama. They, who provide news, must be held accountable in some manner. Balance must be restored.

• Mandate Federal uniform voting standards: To say that changes need to be made to our current voting process would be an understatement. At the very least we should guarantee that election returns have a paper trail that can be referenced and verified in times of doubt. The most important decisions made in our country are made by the people through their vote. The uncertainty that surrounds the casting of votes is unacceptable.

• Mandate Federal uniform voter registration standards: Voting is how citizens contribute to the law-making process. Why confuse the country with various requirements for registration? This confusion lays the groundwork for massive abuse on the part of insincere interests. Warren Slocum, San Mateo’s Chief Elections Officer, offers the following advise when considering election reform:

Allow voter registration at the polls on Election Day

• Require secretaries of state and registrars of voters – both of which are elected positions – to hold nonpartisan office

• Stop using voter files to create jury pools, which deters people from registering to vote.

• Improve mandatory poll worker training, as most Election Day mistakes are made at the precincts by poll workers who have inadequate preparation.

• Create an election administration profession. Elections are so sophisticated these days that to run them requires specialized education and training.

• Strengthen post-election audits, as there is great disparity among states as to what constitutes a reliable election audit. California has a manual count law.

• Create a national open-source software voting system (such as that advocated for by the Open Voting Consortium), with incentives for states and counties to migrate to it.

• Mandate the extension of poll closing times, in a national uniform way so that we may begin to alleviate the disparity between the different time zones and offer the public more latitude in casting their votes. With these new closing times in place media should be asked to collectively agree that news guestimations of election outcomes will begin only after the last vote is cast. With the emerging modern day 24-hour news cycle it is imperative that voters not be discouraged from voting by the notion that their candidate has already lost. Ensure that the American public not only is afforded the ability to vote but also the clarity required to make such important decisions

• Standardize the verification of tabulations made by electronic voting systems against the paper trail of votes cast. Fair voting is, or should be, our highest priority. The importance of “getting it right” when it comes to counting our votes cannot be more crucial to the stability of Democracy. We have seen that the electronic voting systems are flawed and we have seen that they make mistakes. It can only benefit Democracy to compare the results for any blatant discrepancies.

• Say NO to voters ID legislation: The statistics on voter fraud indicate that the incidents of people abusing their vote are few. The recent trend in some states toward requiring voters to present identification before voting is discouraging. Poverty and age are factors in obtaining official identification. The elderly don’t drive anymore and have difficulty traveling to and from voting facilities. The impoverished often can’t afford the minimal fees required to obtain identification. The elderly and the impoverished are a healthy portion of society. Until we offer more stability and opportunity, we cannot require photo id prior to voting.

• Voter intimidation and suppression must be stopped. In the wake of Ohio and Florida we are now hyper-aware of just how vulnerable American voters are. Voter suppression is a nation-wide epidemic. It takes on many forms and has many participants. Participants have included our government officials, our police force, and political campaign operatives. Voters have been purposely purged as the direct result of caging lists. Seemingly official letters have targeted unwanted voters with misinformation and/or intimidation. Rules have been changed which invalidated the registration of numerous voters. Felon lists have robbed innocent citizens with similar names of their ability to cast votes. The list goes on and on and every addition to the list is unacceptable. This is not a Democratic, Independent, or Republican problem. This is an American problem and it deserves an American solution.

• Voting by mail can work. I would like to see every state implement a vote by mail system in addition to their standard voting process. In addition, I would like to see the existing programs reformed to secure the process further by enforcing similar the safeguard measures put in place by Oregon’s Secretary of State, Bill Bradbury. Our government has the ability to negotiate with corporations such as: Fed Ex and UPS to ensure that our votes end up in the right place at the right time. Furthermore, it makes sense to limit the window of time, in which, these “vote by mail” votes are accepted. Voting too early in an election can leave a voter feeling regretful at the end of an election process when so much takes place in the last few weeks of an election.

• Once Absentee ballots have been received, the government should provide confirmation notices to alert each voter that their vote has been received.

• Reform the Primary elections system by implementing “instant run off voting” thereby encouraging more participation by moderate and independent voters.

• Conduct a comprehensive public review of all congressional districting and make official determinations as to how fair the current districts are when evaluated by the Supreme Court’s basic principals for congressional redistricting: 1. One person-one vote, 2. Protection for minorities and 3. Observance of traditional political boundaries where these do not interfere with the first two principals. When conducting this review, consider one principal further: The impact of competitive elections or the lack thereof. Fair and competitive elections bring out the best in our country while earning the respect of the world around us.

• Ban Black Box / Electronic/ Touch screen voting until tests prove that this method is reliable and secure. Time and time again, tests have proven that voting machines such as the ones manufactured by Diebold (who have since changed their name to “Premiere Election Solutions”) are unreliable. There is a great need to implement standards for such companies to meet and follow. If these companies cannot meet those standards then they cannot be a part of the voting process. Privatizing Democracy is tricky business. Care must be taken to fully understand these new elements we have thrust upon the process. Trust is a vital part of the American voting experience. If we cannot guarantee the validity of the voting process then we do not deserve title of “Democracy.”

As someone who votes, In order to better represent the society that we are, I officially request the following issues in American domestic policy be addressed:

The American Public, in my view, is crippled by fear. For me, nothing is more telling than this fact: While writing this letter, I shared my many drafts with numerous others that I encountered. Many supported the sentiment and activism of this letter but even those who supported my efforts made sure to warn me that I will end up on some secret government watch list as a result of having written this letter. They made jokes about my future flight plans and laughed about me disappearing into the darkness one night, never to be seen again. I laughed too. I laughed because I still believe in America and I have great hope that a letter, as benign as mine, has its place in this Democracy. Perhaps they warned me correctly and perhaps my future flight travels will be more complicated now. Time will tell. What I find most compelling is that many people believe that the government retaliates against acts of Democracy. A community that lives with this type of silent fear cannot thrive. If we do not thrive, we cease to be “the best and the brightest” and we lose our place in the global community. The common thread in American discourse is the relentless series of disappointments the current administration as well as previous administrations have subjected us to. Today, the majority of Americans fall into two categories of trust: Those who believe nothing the government says and those that believe the government lies to us for our own good. We don’t know whom to believe. Its time you, our elected government, extend an olive branch to the people—a show of faith: Give the people a reason to believe that government can be a force of good in this harsh reality we now live in.

It is with this in mind, that I request the following:

• Revoke executive confidentiality for all previous and current presidential records. Release those records into public domain. It’s time we have fewer questions and more answers from our government. With the release of this information epic speculation can be put to rest and as a country we can begin to come to terms with the truths that have been obscured by bureaucracy and misguided government protection.

• Re-define the war powers act of 1973: America has not officially declared war since 1942 when World War II first began. If Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq are not considered official wars then I feel certain that clearer definitions for “what is war” and “who has the power to declare war” are long overdue.

• Address the validity of signing statements on public record and determine a precedent our children will accept from their president. The most damaging aspects of the current administration are the precedents they have set for our future. Precedent is not a mere word. Precedent dictates the future our children will inhabit and is of the utmost importance to a functioning Democracy. We use these standards to communicate with future generations. Signing statements effectively ignore what we know to be Democracy. As such, they are an abuse of presidential power and this should be documented and denounced for all future generations to come.

• It is time our congress address executive privilege and national security claims. If we must grant such luxuries to our president elect then it is fair for us to determine a precedent that is acceptable to a functional government. We must also determine how much of this luxury we extend to previous presidents and cabinet members.

• Abolish the color-coded terror threat alert system. If government employs honesty to best inform the people then by default the people will understand the threats they face as a country. Casting blanket alerts into the daily lives of all Americans forces them to adapt so that they may handle the reality of constant fear. In this environment, even our best days are still “green.” In effect our government is guilty of “crying wolf.” The public no longer registers appropriate fear. Most of the public lives with constant anxiety or have become numb to the existence of fear. Neither of those emotions manifests as a healthy society.

• File an executive order, which re-sends all of George W. Bush’s executive orders. The current administration has abused our constitution by exploiting loopholes in places the founding fathers assumed to be sacred. This abuse led to the vast expansion of presidential powers and leaves the government unbalanced. We must restore the checks and balances that Democracy is supposed to be built upon.

• Restore “Habeas Corpus.” Without this can we truly call ourselves Americans? Recently the Supreme Court upheld the right to “Habeas Corpus” for enemy combatants being held in Guantanamo Bay. While I feel compelled to commend the court for once again aligning the country as a whole with it’s founding principals, I am mindful that the language used by the court in this decision questioned the relevance of this principal. I must simply say that in America “Habeas Corpus” will always be relevant.

• Abolish the term “enemy combatants.” Thus far this term has been used to unlawfully strip the citizens of this world of their rights. The application of this term has, thus far, destroyed lives and broken the system of justice this country employs.

• Defend the Military, FBI, CIA, and the Federal and State government by providing computer systems that are current and powerful. I understand that this endeavor would be costly but, in 2008, efficiency and accuracy is defined by how relevant the computer systems that you employ actually are. Today, the world movement is happening in cyber space. If you cannot keep up, this fact will come at the cost of your purpose. We have long been told of the cutting edge technologies that are employed throughout every branch of the American defense system. The computer systems that I am referring to are the systems that process the information—that is the glue holding our country together. Lower level computers process every in-between step in government data collections, justice proceedings, civilian services, and military operations. The information collected by Homeland Security, the DMV, the FBI, the highway patrol, the police, and the CIA are cross referenced through information input to a massive web of computers. How accurate those correlations are made–how fast that transfer of information happens—how safely that information is displayed, travels or is stored is dependent on the computer system that processes the information. On a civilian level, I can say that people who need government help, pay the price for that help by standing countless hours in long lines, gathering their personal documents, proving themselves to strangers, showing up to appointments with three hour waits, searching for records, and listening to employee after employee tell them that they are denied of one service or another while having just finished a 3 to 4 month waiting process. Government is full of excuses, and so many of those excuses seem to be computer related. “OOops!” isn’t good enough anymore. Give these employees of government what they need to keep us safe, train them well, enforce fairness, and then get out of their way. We need to be better at making government more efficient and making our people less afflicted with unnecessary anxiety—sooner rather than later.

• Defend the “Separation of Church and State.” I would not mislead you by implying that I am religious, even though religious affiliation is not a requirement for citizenship in America. I suspect that the founding fathers understood best that religious freedom is imperative to a functional Democracy even if it requires defending the absence of religion in some cases. As a country we are comprised of every religion. We ARE the melting pot. This dynamic is part of America’s unique beauty. Within every religion there lies a faction of fanaticism. This small minority believes that they are implementing God’s will by enforcing religion as a subtle and, at times, aggressive mandate. The constitution and the bill of rights, as they are written, protect the rights of the fanatics, the devout, the Easter and Christmas congregation, and those who do not choose religion. Defend these rights. They are part of what makes this country great.

• Defend Americans’ rights to unionize. Had the government been more stringent in their protections of unions we might not have seen the fatalities and injuries in America’s mines that we have seen in recent years. When we protect the rights to unionize, we ensure higher “quality of life” standards and promote the independence of America’s work force. The more independent the work force—the smaller the price tag of government support. Unions make America strong.

• Mandate the swearing in of all Congressional testimony. It is my belief that any and all testimony before congress should be fully sworn and be subject to the same laws that govern perjury. When congress requests testimony it should be conducted in a manner that validates the importance and authority that is afforded this branch of government by the constitution. I see no benefit in doing it any other way.

• Enforce Congress’ powers of “inherent contempt” against Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, Joshua Bolten and Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff David Addington for refusing Congressional subpoenas. The power of Congress to inquire is imperative to “checks and balances” and must be protected.

• Has the time come for Congress to be drug tested? I am not a proponent of drug testing but insurance companies drug test applicants and corporations determine workers compensation benefits only following the results of mandatory drug tests. If this is the standard the average citizen is subjected to then perhaps it is time that Congress aspires to these same standards. Drug and sex scandals have become commonplace in Congress and what I find offensive is not the drugs or the sex. Instead I am offended that in each case we learn that those officials were adamantly pushing through legislation, which condemned the average citizen for the very same acts. We have trusted you. You have disappointed us. Perhaps now Congress should self-impose these measures as an act of atonement.

• No more profit from war. We continue to live in a society where war is pushed further and further, in the name of Democracy, for the sake of making more money. Corporations such as Haliburton, The Carlyle Group, and Blackwater have seen record growth in this time of war. Lives are lost or ruined while record profits are recorded by the war industry and it’s participants. This is unacceptable. Removing the motivation to pursue war will, by default, remove any ill intentioned agendas by war supporters. We must place the lives we have brought into this world above profit.

• Reasonable gun reform. Let me begin by saying I’m from the South and am all too aware of people’s love for their guns. I agree with the Supreme Court’s recent decision that the 2nd amendment guarantees the right to own firearms. However, I do not agree that society does not have the right to impose legal obligations to those rights. I have no desire to see government disturb the basic rights of American citizens to own guns. I am also aware that guns do not shoot people and that it is people who shoot people. I agree that this belief holds true. If this is the case then why have we not dealt with this inherent problem? People who own guns should be required to pass competency exams that speak to their ability to use a gun correctly as well as their ability to comprehend right from wrong. Young gun owners should be required to complete a competency exam and have the permission of their parents to own a gun. Parents, at least in part, should be legally responsible for the actions their children take when wielding a firearm. I believe in safety mechanisms because I think that we are not perfect people. The unfortunate truth is that mistakes that involve guns often cost lives. I also believe in background checks because I understand that people buy guns for many reasons: some buy for recreation, some buy for admiration, some buy for the sake of history, some buy for sport, and some buy because they have too much pain and their last resort is to share their pain or end their pain. Last but not least, I believe people who choose semi-automatic guns cause more harm then the average gun owner. We don’t need guns on the street that are more powerful than the guns we provide our police force. It just doesn’t make sense. Reasonable gun reform acknowledges that we are not all good people and that ignorance often leads to the misuse of guns. Reasonable gun reform serves the interests and rights of all the people.

• Enforce the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Monopolies, mergers and acquisitions are a constant in modern American society, often resulting in less competition that allows corporations to dictate to the masses what they will buy, as opposed to allowing the market dictate to the corporations what will be sold. A free market requires competition so that it may also be fair. If the market does cease to benefit society, the market will lose its value to the people. What is the worth of a market, if the people can no longer participate? Honor the free market—allow it to thrive by enforcing fairness, regulation, and competition so that the market and the people share success together.

• A new plan for mandatory service for every American. It’s time that we instill pride and knowledge in the generations to come. Mandatory Service for the “honor of service”—to foster more life and less death. There is no need that service positions be limited to military positions. In addition to the opportunities provided by Americorp and the Peacecorp, this program of compulsory service should provide opportunities in all fields including: Science, Economics, Relief missions, Humanitarian missions, Domestic poverty assistance, government archives, libraries, colleges, infrastructure maintenance, government departments, relief missions, as well as Research and Development. Fostering genuine patriotism in the generations to come will insure the strength of our union.

• American Infrastructure is failing. The ASCE estimates that “$1.6 trillion is needed over a five-year period to bring the nation’s infrastructure to a good condition.” To be clear, American Infrastructure includes: aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, parks and recreation, roads, railways, transit, schools, security, solid waste, wastewater, and energy. It’s the glue that holds us together. Problems with infrastructure manifest as dirty water, falling bridges, weak dams, stifled commutes, worn roadways, delayed flights, and black-outs. A healthy infrastructure not only ensures convenience but also has the original intent of keeping us safe and healthy. If our nation is allowed to evolve crippled and not strong then what ARE the ideals that we fight to uphold?

• I formally request that the next president and those responsible for making laws sign public statements agreeing to work MORE and vacation LESS. If the American economy, education system, environment, military, and foreign relations didn’t seem to be spiraling out of control at such an alarming rate, I might not be so offended that Congress considers a five day work week to be an advancement in their commitment to Democracy. I probably wouldn’t be so offended that the last congress felt that three workdays per week was enough to validate their love for our country. I would even be less offended that our most current president spent 879 days to date on vacation over the course of 8 years. Yet, I am offended. America has seen a steady decline on every front and you, those we pay to lead us, have felt all too comfortable with planning your vacations and parties for raising money. Most average American workers can’t even identify with the notion of vacation. It is beyond their means and opportunity. I am offended but more I am disappointed. The world at large continues to be stressed by our neglect and our absence in our own affairs and world affairs. You must rectify this by working harder than you have ever worked. You must go to the people and declare your intensions to be better than you have been for the sake of Democracy.

In 2008 this country will elect a new president. We Americans make this enormous decision during a time in which we begin to acknowledge economic recession, our government leads us to record high national debt. The US Dollar is steadily plummeting, mass housing foreclosures are taking place, policies of torture are encouraged, banks are failing at an alarming rate, our president has taken a record breaking 879 days of vacation and visited another record breaking 143 foreign countries in just short of 8 years, facts offer resounding proof that the planet is ill, two separate wars continue to send home the bodies of brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, cousins, and friends, the seeds of nuclear proliferation are prevalent, poverty runs rampant in the streets of America, tension in the Middle East festers, Our 109th congress spent three days a week at work while our 110th congress graces us with 5 work days and takes lengthy vacations, we stand by idly while icebergs melt, increasing costs and decreasing wages make four dollars per gallon of gas particularly painful, we have willingly relinquished the protections of civil rights, available employment has been reduced to service industries and low level positions, bankruptcy is no longer the option it once was, health insurance benefits and pension plans are fading, our government suffers from a lack of accountability, simply forgetting identification can land an individual on the federal terrorism watch list with a staggering 1 million other names, our public representatives allow the Insurance Industry to wield more anxiety then it does comfort, negative sentiments toward American culture are increasing rather than decreasing and lastly, but not least, the average CEO makes 364 times what the average worker makes in one day. We make this decision from homes that are tired, and grief-stricken. We make this decision from homes that are filled with fear and uncertainty. In 2008 this country will elect a direction that will affect our future as individuals but will inevitably affect the planet as a whole.

Currently the United States is engaged in two wars and publicly flirts with the notion of a third war. The country is fatigued by the constant fluctuation between truth and fiction regarding the intent, causes, and future of the wars we have chosen. More than 70% of the country no longer believes that war is worth the cost in blood or economic debt. 70% of Iraqis no longer want our presence in Iraq. Yet the United States continues to forge ahead in its lusty and immature quest for victory. Teenagers often exhibit the same sense of fractured urgency. If America had parents, the attributes of discipline, accountability, humility, and respect would have been discussed and addressed long ago. During these years of war, we have lost sight of what the founding fathers intended this country to be and that is simply unacceptable. The bid for the Presidency of 2008 has become the race to see who can offer the best war strategy that brings our families home sooner rather than later. I, too, want war to end. Yet the wounds of this war far surpass the war itself. During this time of war we have seen our civil liberties dissipate, we have given up our families for the country we believe in, we have seen the end of an American city, we have felt the sorrows of homes flooding, bridges collapsing, and neighborhoods burning. We have watched as the standards by which we judge our education system diminish, we have learned that our government did not trust us with the truth; we have endured photos of tortured souls, stories of war profits, and the loss of taxpayers’ money and weapons to unknown foreign entities. I write this letter to remind you that I have not forgotten. War is my concern but it is not my only concern.

I still believe that America is the home of the Free but we must continue to be brave.

Traditionally, American Democracy has been thought of as innovative because the founding principles of this union of states laid the foundation and security that birthed a unique middle class and insured it’s existence. The decline of that middle class America in 2008 takes hold in every walk of life. As desperation takes its toll, it manifests in ways that create the context our society now lives in. In my 35 years I’ve witnessed a vast cross-section of life. In 2008, what I see mostly is despair. The middle class is all but gone and most people are too preoccupied with survival to notice. We are no longer considered innovative.

While noticing the disappearance of the American middle class, I have casually recorded the evolution of the “Self Help” industry and with it’s ever increasing success I can’t help but notice how lost the average individual feels. I’ve watched my mother fall prey to 800 numbers, wild diets and credit card corporations. People who survive on credit surround me. They can barely afford their monthly minimums. Credit card companies punish them by raising their interest rates so high that the average person with a credit card will never pay off their debt. These same corporations intentionally seduce college students, the families of soldiers, and the soldiers themselves. College graduates are living paycheck to paycheck, working in fields unrelated to their education, unable to pay student loans because the only jobs available are service or trade oriented. Most of my friends don’t answer their phone because there is always someone who wants what they don’t have. The mentally ill roam our streets and populate our prisons while their needs go unnoticed but their crimes meet quotas. On TV, I see women waiting for their husbands to come home from their third and fourth tours of war and men who wait for their women as well. In every walk of life, I see people existing—not thriving. The state of our union is in crisis. The current structure of our society, rather than providing foundation, seems to be stealing pieces of our foundation little by little. Without stability we will continue to feel lost.

I have long thought of America in terms of adolescence. When compared to the lengthy history of other cultures, America is still a teenager. Like many young adults, we value instant gratification over viable long term solutions, we view ourselves at the center of every world situation, we believe that we are invincible, we act out when we don’t get our way, and we lie so that we may represent ourselves as something other than who we are rather than embracing our true selves. Our incessant need, as a society, to be what we are not invades even that which we know as leisure. Every sport Americans have raised to a pedestal has fallen hard because the people involved could not meet American ideals without enhancements. As Americans, we are no longer taller. We no longer live longer. We maintain our extraordinary divorce rates. We host unmatched teenage pregnancy rates. We are no longer responsible for the leading scientific advances in this world. Racism keeps a portion of the population from accepting minorities as full-fledged human beings. Rape and poverty are still prevalent in our society. Some Americans pay for sex. Some Americans sell sex. AIDS still exists in our own country and around the world. As a country, unprovoked we pre-emptively invaded a country that posed no valid threat to our nation. We are now the occupiers of that country. Our country has shed the blood of indigenous peoples of our land and countless other cultures in the name of progress. We owe our title as a super power in this world to our humanitarian missions, and to the blood we have shed. We are homeless veterans and unemployed college graduates. In a Global Warming report released by Hinkle Charitable Foundation, it is revealed that as a nation: “The US comprises about 4% of the earth’s population, but emits about 25% of the total global greenhouse gases” .Our literacy rates are discouraging. We are consumers. We do love our children. We also hurt our children. We are criminals and law-abiding citizens. We do drugs. We self-medicate. We like our prescriptions and we like what we buy in secret places and dark alleys. We are good people who have bad days. We are human beings. We are people who fall in love, marry, and live happily ever after. We are people who choose not to marry. We are people who are not allowed to marry. The front line of our military and all of those who stand behind that line are no longer only male or heterosexual and it’s likely that they never were. Mental illness continues to be neglected and ignored by our military, by our medical institutions, by our insurance companies. We Americans, often, prefer to sue one another rather than communicate. We like sex, before and after marriage and sometimes before puberty. Incest survives generation to generation. Our children are not protected from the sexual greed that surrounds them at every crucial age. We are strong and we are weak. We are White, Black, Brown, Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, European, and Other. We come from everywhere. We are gay, straight, and bi. We are cross-dressers and people who just like to be spanked. We are fat and skinny. We are every size in between. We are Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Catholic, Atheist, and Agnostic. We are greedy, kind, glutinous, and compassionate, and we live together. We live together.

My wish for America is that we will transcend this chapter in our evolution and strive to mature as a country—by doing so we will earn the renewed respect of the world we live in. To do that, we must consider our past, present and future with open eyes. We must begin the arduous process of evaluating who we have become as a society and then we must decide who we want to be so that we may move forward together as a nation unified.

In order to better care for our society—in order to make positive changes in our society, we must accept our society. The sooner we make room for who we are, rather than who we wish ourselves to be, the sooner we can move forward showcasing the true American potential. Fences and walls do not divide our multi-cultural society. No other country has the potential to map the ways in which we “live with each other” rather than “against each other.” We, the voters, are adults and should be treated as such. Our government, to date, has insulted our abilities to cope with reality by telling made up stories such as that of Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman. They believed hoaxes like these would lull society out of chaos. They were wrong. We are better than this. We deserve more from the people whom we’ve hired to represent our best interests. How shameful it is to see our current government embrace, perpetuate, and represent a society that we are not. It’s time we turn the page to begin a new chapter in American Democracy by recognizing who we are NOW, then adjusting our lives and our laws to better represent the best version of who we are—so that we may present that image to the rest of the world and maintain that image so that we are consistently who we say we are from this day forward. The world must trust us once again. Our future is dependent upon it.

Perhaps, I should be writing about the good things in America. The problem is that the good things don’t need to be fixed and the bad things are out of hand. Bad things need to be said sometimes. Even if the only reason is to let powers that be know that you have not forgotten what you have seen and that you expect that their intent is to make the future better, rather than worse. One day, I may write a letter that points out the good things in this country, because I love this country, but right now is not that time.

In the following pages I will ask for numerous programs to be created and or reformed. As the daughter of a single mother, I am aware that money does not grow on trees. Times are hard for the majority of Americans. The thought of new taxes ignites fear in a large population of the people. Given the lack of benefits that people receive for the taxes they already pay, I can certainly understand why they would fear more taxes. Simply put, I believe that the constituents of this country deserve more for their money. Perhaps if the taxpayers were awarded a stable foundation in return for their hard-earned money they pay to the government, the phobia regarding new taxes would subside. Instead, Americans struggle while holding down numerous jobs, missing the first steps of their children, and cat-napping between responsibilities—all while watching their dreams become a distant memory. The American Dream no longer provides a tall measure of happiness. Instead it provides fatigue in healthy portions. In order to better understand my perspective you must also understand that I believe our government’s priorities no longer include the safety of American constituents. I advocate for a return to the intensions of the founding fathers. As such, these recommendations are meant to be implemented as part of a larger restructuring in the governmental financial distribution agenda. I am not for “bigger government.” I am not for “smaller government.” I am for “better government.” Money doesn’t grow on trees. This is true. My mother drilled this knowledge into my conscience at an early age. Though, in America, good ideas are just that plentiful. I propose that we use those good ideas to re-build our nation—make the founding fathers proud. Our people are our most precious resource of all. The founding fathers drafted our constitution to provide protections FOR the people. Again, it is your job to protect the constitution and the people of America. The programs and or the reforms I discuss in this letter are suggestions for how you might begin to light the way toward a better life for ALL of America.

I cannot write to you on behalf of “we the people.” I am one-person -one small vessel in the many of “we.” I write to you now, in this tumultuous time, because my future cannot forego the price of looking the other way.

On behalf of myself, the ones that I love, and any person in my future that might look to me for explanations: I write this letter to address any and all candidates vying for the presidency of 2008, to all current state and federal officials elected or appointed, to all state and federal officials to be elected or appointed, and to all current and future members of Congress.

My name is Diane. Who I am is irrelevant. I don’t have money, no one knows me, and I can’t offer space or favors. I am a U.S. citizen. I write to you because I love my country. I write this letter because I’ve not met one person who thought this letter could make a difference—not one person who still believes that we live in a society where individual voices dictate change. I write this letter not as a Republican or a Democrat. I write this letter as an American. My bias lies solely in the lap of Democracy. I was raised to believe that America upholds Democracy—a Democracy that elevates the lives of its constituents by distributing equal opportunities amongst the masses—a Democracy that works for the people rather than against the people. I was raised to believe that America upholds a value system that inspires and encourages the human spirit to thrive. What I see today contradicts the values of the founding fathers. I believe that it is my responsibility as an American citizen to give voice to what I see because I see Democracy failing.

I write to you because I see a new version of Democracy emerging that has forgotten the people and that is NOT acceptable. In the 2008 Presidential election, I hear the word “change” being tossed around like a political football from one candidate to another. I don’t want “change.” I NEED restoration. I love our constitution and I would like to see you, who we have elected, do your job. You were hired by the people to protect that, which the founding fathers considered sacred—the United States Constitution. I don’t need any of you to be right or wrong about how we got here. I NEED a plan for how best to implement the restoration of our constitution. Restore the checks and balances that made our country the leading world power that it is. Partisan politics are no longer acceptable. The American people hire government officials to advocate on their behalf and, above all, for their benefit. I write this letter to let you know that I expect every one of you to do your job. Consider this letter a job review as well as an official notice that we might just have to let you go.

The Following letter is the result of roughly 8 or 9 months of writing and editing. In the beginning I simply couldn’t bare the weight of my DIScontent any longer. Writing it out allowed me to breathe easily again. What began as a small project, aimed at catharsis, has evolved into something much larger than I ever imagined it would be. My friends have jokingly referred to it as my manifesto—or not so jokingly, but THAT word didn’t work for me. Instead, It seemed to conjure images of crazy people and I am NOT crazy… just a little frustrated with the state of Democracy.

My expectation in posting this letter, for all to see, is not that every person will agree with me but that after reading my letter each person will have an opinion as to whether they agree or disagree. The issues at stake in the upcoming election are matters of life and death for many people in the US. We should all know what we have given up thus far and to whom we have given—before we elect to give any further. My hope is that this letter will speak to the people and, in turn, inspire them to speak to other people and to their elected officials.

In the coming weeks I plan to seed the entire letter with supporting links and information but that will take time. Please be patient. I will get there. I am obsessive in that sense. I posted my letter now because the 2008 Presidential Election is moving swiftIy and, because of that, I fear that soon it will hold no relevance.

I plan to send copies of my letter to newspapers, campaign headquarters, Congress members, blogs, and all other relevant media outlets. If you have a suggestion for further destinations or would like to post a link or excerpt please contact me at warismyconcern@gmail.com.

* Re-posting is allowed so long as you notify me that you plan to do so and credit is clearly indicated. (please include a URL with your notification so that I can view the final result.) I maintain my right to refuse this courtesy for any reason if i feel compelled to do so.

YAY!!!!!!

Thanks for taking the time to share my frustrations,

Diane Dacruz-DiDonato