Things the USA needs to fix

Creating an economic system that works for all

You have a right to ask why millions (or globally speaking, billions!) of people who are willing and able to work are not able to support themselves and/or their families!

 

We must have an economic system that meets the needs of all; where people can do the kind of work they were ‘born to do’ - and where every single person who is willing to work or otherwise contribute to the well-being of the community will receive livable compensation!

And you – and I, and especially the young people of the world - have a right to study the origins and realities of this problem and to work on finding Solutions to fix it!

Transforming Education

We need a total turn-around in our schools!  We need a school system that educators, parents, and students feel good about; where joy and holistic learning abound, where educators and students alike ‘can’t wait’ to get to school, and where our young people become healthier and more confident, resourceful, empowered, and hopeful; and where students and staff are allowed and encouraged to search for the truth about themselves and the world they and we are living in.

Every person enjoys certain specific areas of high interest and natural ability.  We must let our students find their interests, learn about them, and partake in them; instead of creating barriers so that our students cannot engage in and sometimes cannot even see their special gifts.

We must allow, encourage, and support each and every one of our young people - in becoming the happiest, most empowered, and most fulfilled people they can become!

We must help them learn how to live as safely and happily as possible in today’s world, while simultaneously acquiring the tools to, and working to, make tomorrow’s world a better place!

For example:

What is the truth about - and what should be done about - our waters, our air, our foods, etc., becoming more and more polluted?  How will this affect our children?

What is the truth about the effects of various actions and policies of governments and large corporations on many plants and animals around the world?  What percentage of the world’s forests are still thriving?  How many species of plants and animals are now or may soon be extinct because of “man’s” actions?  Is it true that indigenous communities have been destroyed by governments and corporations who want the natural resources in their environs?  If so, how many and which ones?  What has been the effect on the peoples and values of these communities, and what other consequences have subsequently followed?  Are there other communities in danger of being taken over in the near future?  Should the people of the world do anything to try to stop these takeovers?

What is the truth about, and what if anything should be done about, global warming? Is it for real or a myth?  Politicians and the mainstream media give us mixed messages.  Except for some individual teachers or extracurricular groups, our schools pretty much ignore the topic.  The world’s people – and especially our young people – deserve the opportunity to discover the truth!  It may very well be a matter of life and death!

Our schools must be places where Truth is respected, and where all parties are fully free to search for it!

We have to change the curriculum in our schools so our students can learn about all kinds of things, both positive and negative, that are happening in their communities and throughout our world.  If our mainstream schools continue to refuse to allow an honest search for truth, then we must set up as many Learning Centers or Homeschool Resource Centers as possible, and encourage parents and students to leave regular school behind.  We will have to educate people to the fact that students who leave the mainstream education system and instead do some form of homeschooling or unschooling actually improve their college acceptance chances!

I’ll offer more specifics on this as soon as I can get around to it; meanwhile ‘google’ getting into college without a high school diploma and see what comes up!

Election System:  What are all the reasons why Americans end up being forced to choose between “the lesser of two evils” when choosing our President and most state governors and members of Congress? 

How can we change this election system to allow us to choose ALL our elected officials  from among pools of well-qualified candidates who have integrity, are open-minded, and are concerned about the common good?

Legal System:

We must have a fair and just legal system.  No bias; no favoritism; no buying your way to victory, and no more losing your case because you can’t afford a good lawyer!

We must take the money variable completely out of the legal system’s equation, so that every suspect will have excellent legal representation, and thus tens of thousands of suspects will not have to plead guilty to something they didn’t do – just so they can get out of jail in one year instead of 3; or in ten years instead of 30!*

And then end up with an unjustified criminal record, even greater difficulty finding work, the inability to vote in most states, and quite likely a shattered family - with lifelong damage to themselves, their parents, their spouses, and their children!*

*I want to share something with you; tell you something that never would have occurred to me, and which I’m sure that most of you are totally unaware of also:

Back when I was a college student in New York City I joined the Citizenship Council.  As a member I was invited to go to Rikers Island Prison (which actually is a jail, not a prison) in order to tutor teenaged inmates.  I had a group of seven teens whom I met with regularly.  After we built a pretty fair amount of trust the guys opened up to me about some aspects of their lives.  One night they told me about Jose, one of the seven.  The six others all acknowledged that they were guilty of what they were charged with, but all seven of them said that Jose was innocent.  BUT, even though he was innocent, he was going to plead guilty.  What?!  Why?!

There were a couple of things here that I had never thought about.  Firstly, when a poor person is arrested and awaiting trial, he or she – whether guilty or innocent - almost always has to go to jail for several months until the trial date comes up.  Because their family cannot afford the bail!

Secondly, they cannot afford to hire their own lawyer, so most impoverished members of society have to be represented by public defenders.  From what I know many public defenders are good people and good – though usually inexperienced – lawyers.  Problem, though, is that they are overloaded with clients and thus cannot devote the time – nor do they have the resources – to allow their clients an adequate defense.  They are simply overmatched when going up against the D.A. (District Attorney)’s office and all their connections and resources.  So most poor people, whether innocent or not, plead guilty! (When you plead guilty your sentence is about a third of what it would be if you pled Not Guilty, went to trial, and lost.)

Jose had a family; he explained that he “has a girlfriend and a child, and they need him home.”  He had already been locked up for about eight months, so when his trial would come up he would plead guilty, likely be sentenced to one year, and he would probably be released almost immediately; since he would have around nine months of time already served, and he had been a model prisoner. 

He will go home having a prison record that he didn’t deserve, but at least he will be home and back with his family.  If he were to plead Not Guilty, he would lose the case, be sentenced to three years and thus sent away to prison, and when he got out he would still have a record that he didn’t deserve!  Plus he would have had more time from his life taken away from him, two more years away from his girlfriend and child; and they would have two more years to struggle without him!

It sure didn’t seem right, but it was no longer surprising to me when I discovered things that didn’t seem right.  Ever since I left my sheltered Long Island community and moved into the city to go to college, I had been discovering that there are many unfair things going on in the world! I wasn’t learning these things in the college classroom, but the city and the world had become my classrooms, and that’s where I was learning all this crazy and sickening nonsense!

I asked Jose and the guys what percentage of their fellow Rikers inmates did they figure were innocent.  The lowest estimate was five percent!  By the way, in 1970 I worked in ‘The Tombs’ – aka the Manhattan House of Detention For Men - for almost a year, and I asked the guys there the same question.  And again when I worked as a head teacher and counselor at Rikers in 1999 and 2000.  The estimates ranged from 20% to 5%, but all three times the lowest estimate was five percent!  Now, think about that.  Rikers Island Prison has between 20,000 and 24,000 inmates.  Therefore, right at this moment, right now while you are reading this, there are (at least) between one thousand and twelve hundred Rikers inmates locked up for something they didn’t do, away from their families, spending time in a less than desirable location, and with un-deserved prison records attached to their names! 

And think about it nationally!  Two million in prison.  Five percent of that is one hundred thousand!!  One hundred thousand innocent people locked up who, when they are ‘lucky’ enough to get out, will be treated like Shit by most of society!

(And that’s not to mention that – though this is another conversation for another time - many prisoners who are in fact guilty are basically good people who, had they grown up under different circumstances, may very likely have led positive and jail-free lives!)   

And let’s look at the competitive and non-collaborative system of lawyering we currently have, i.e. where both sides are intent on winning the case for their clients* whether they are innocent or guilty...without regard for finding out what actually happened, and why it happened!

*Actually the victory is usually NOT for their clients but for the lawyers themselves!

Anyway, in the same way that we need a search for truth in our schools, we also need a search for truth in our courtrooms.  We don’t need one side trying to better the other side via legal maneuvers, loopholes, lawyers’ antics, etc.  We need a group of people – a diverse group of left-wingers, right-wingers, and middle-wingers from different ethnicities, religions, cultures, generations, etc., fervently and honestly working to find out the truth.  And the truth is not just the action, the possible crime, that the suspect did or did not do…It IS that, but it is more than that!  We need to look at the situation from every conceivable angle, trying to discover and then understand all the root causes – both foundational to society and unique to the particular situation – that may have led to the incident. 

If guilty, the perpetrator must be held accountable!  But so must society! 

Did our economic system play a part?  The legal system?  The educational system?  Politics?  Society at large?  Prejudice and discrimination?

The community must learn from the situation and figure out, and then work on fixing, whatever root causes we can recognize.

A Healthy and Just Foreign Policy:

Wars and USA occupations or incursions:  Right now the U.S. military is operating in more than 150 countries around the world!  Why?  In how many of these instances is our presence legal, moral, and justified?  And wanted by the regular, everyday people?  What are the physical, emotional, and psychological effects on the people, including both those from the occupied lands and Americans too, when the U.S. encroaches on another country?  What are the environmental consequences? 

How healthy and just are the foreign policies of other nations around the world?  Which ones might the United States try to emulate?  Which ones need to change?  What is the truth about the nations and groups that we hear horrendous things about?  We know politicians and mainstream media people often lie or distort the truth; how and where can we look in order to get some balance?  Where can we find the most objective reporting?