"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Preamble, Constitution
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.10th Amendment, Constitution
"that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Lincoln
Disclaimer: I have no political affiliation with any party or ideology. The following are simply ideas to ponder for overall improvement.
Now is the time to return to the principles of the constitution and make them work for an advanced technological society, because senators and representatives no longer vote the wishes of constituents, but of political parties and corporations.
Now is the time for a computer program--with computers in every district--that would allow for direct citizens' input in government decisions, assuring that senators and representatives clearly know what the people want.
We could pay for these computers, programs, and computer monitors by cutting the salaries and perks of senators and representatives. Their jobs will be made easier, since their votes will be made clear by the people.
President Harding's "Return to Normalcy" Program included the following, which worked:
- Adhering to a national budget
- Reducing the national debt
- Reducing taxes
- Protecting American industries and farms
- Restricting immigration to protect American jobs
The Federalist, No. 45
James Madison: the powers of a federal government are "few and defined" and extend "principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce," whereas the powers reserved to the states are "numerous and indefinite" and "extend to all objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."
<< George Washington's Farewell Address:
- Advocates Unity among Americans
- Warns against the party system
- Highlights the importance of morality and religious principles
- Warns against the accumulation of national debt
- Advocates free trade but Neutrality in foreign affairs
Steps to Normalcy:
- Downsizing the Federal Government
- Returning Control of Public Welfare to the States: Health Care, Education, Welfare, Social Security
- Reducing Federal Taxes
- Creating a Fair Tax System
- Returning to a Neutrality Policy in Foreign Affairs
- Restricting National Borrowing
- Enforcing a Strict Federal Budget
- Doing Away with Fed Bank Control-returning financial control to our government, according to Article 1, Section 8 of our Constitution
- Establishing Political Campaign Reform
- Restricting Corporate Monopolies
- Reducing Political Influence from Special Interest Groups and Corporations
- Solving the Immigration Problem
- Removing Restrictions on Business Ventures, such as Hemp Growing, to Create Jobs
- Decriminalizing Minor Drugs, like Marijuana
- Finding Better, less expensive, Ways to Handle Our Major Drug Problem
- Offering Relief and Incentives to American Farmers
- Returning Sovereignty to American Indian Tribes for Less Dependence on Govt.
- Making sure Religious Institutions Exempt from Taxes Contribute to the Poor and Needy in their Communities-or pay taxes
HORACE MANN: PROVIDE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR EDUCATION, NOT AN EQUAL EDUCATION
GEORGE WASHINGTON: EDUCATE YOUTH TO THE LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY OF THE DAY, FOR JOB PREPARATION
WHAT PSYCHOLOGISTS SAY: CONSTANT GRATIFICATION RESULTS IN DISINTEREST-THE MORE WE WORK FOR SOMETHING, THE MORE WE APPRECIATE IT-THE REASON LEARNING IS NOT "COOL"
THE PROBLEM:
- America was once NUMBER 1 in Education. Now we are on the bottom.
- Placing responsibility on teachers has fostered lazy students and fewer teachers.
- Throwing tax dollars at new education plans has yielded mediocrity.
- American businesses lack skilled technicians for manufacturing jobs.
- Americans think their kids are entitled to a college education, whether or not they possess the aptitude.
THE SOLUTION:
- Allow educators, not politicians or business people, to educate students.
- Return responsibility for each child's education to students and parents.
- Prepare students for work OR college, instead of spending tax dollars on endless reviews and tests toward an elusive "equal" education.
- Push students to perform and learn within an adequate time frame, instead of spending tax dollars on extended day care.
- Try what works in other countries-give a free basic education by puberty, then place students in a work or college track based on skills.
- Give students second chances toward college but also a choice for work.
- Stop the free ride through secondary school by requiring students to repay through community service, as we do with college grants.
In short, return to Mann's and Washington's practical, cost effective approach to education that places responsibility on students and prepares the majority of youths to succeed in the work place, as well as provides skilled workers for a strong manufacturing economy.
If we all had the health insurance that presidents and congress-persons enjoy, we might have no complaint. However, since Obama Care was introduced, insurances companies have capitalized on the hope that all Americans might have to pay them money for coverage-by paying less and less for actual health care.
EXAMPLE: The Public Employee Insurance Agency (PEIA) of West Virginia has now dropped their coverage of any medicines that have no generics. What's worse, PEIA has now taken it upon themselves to TAKE MEDICINES AWAY FROM PATIENTS AND/OR CHANGE DOCTORS' PRESCRIPTIONS to drugs they prefer, whether or not the preferred drugs are the right drugs for the patients or not, whether the patients can tolerate the drugs or not. PEIA now by-passes doctors, calling the pharmacies directly. If a patient and/or doctor insists on the original medicine prescribed by the doctor, the patient must pay the full cost. Tests and surgical procedures receive the same scrutiny and routine denial. In other words, doctors and patients are no longer in charge of their medical care.
Cancer patients in this country who have health insurance comparable to the above are routinely given the cheapest chemotherapy, whether their type of cancer responds to chemotherapy or not, instead of a cancer drug proven to work for that particular cancer. In other words, patients are literally given drugs that will hasten their deaths, simply because insurance companies refuse to pay for the drugs that could save their lives. These patients have no recourse for obtaining better drugs.
The Obama Administration recently pushed for health insurance companies to pay for birth control. It would be nice to think that insurance companies would pay for any and all medicines deemed necessary by doctor and patient. However, it was very "out of touch" for this administration to push for such a measure when the insurance companies do not even pay for medicines needed by the sick! Our news media totally missed the true story behind this controversy.
The Supreme Court, meanwhile, entertains the idea of "rights" associated with Obama Care. Here, again, our powers-that-be are out of touch with what is happening in this country. In trying to obtain health care for all Americans, they may not only force us to buy a product, but, more importantly, they may force us to buy a product that is becoming "substandard" because of its very enforcement.
- Most Native receive nothing from gaming
- 40% live below the poverty line
- 90,000 are homeless or under-housed
- 30% of housing is overcrowded (up to 25 in one two-bedroom house)
- 50% housing has no sewer
- Most elders receive no pension
- Life expectancy for Natives is 55
- Rates of deadly disorders relative to the rest of Americans:
- 48.7% more likely to have heart disease
- 173% more likely to have diabetes
- Half as much money goes to Native health care compared to the same number of other Americans
- Native teens have some of the highest suicide rates in the U.S.
- Many have no transportation to work, the store, or health care
The Rosebud Reservation-- One of the poorest reservations
- 69% below the poverty line
- Median income is $2,600
- Lowest per capita income in the U.S.
- 29% are homeless
- 59% live in substandard housing
With every expansion across North America, explorers and settlers negotiated treaties with the Native Americans. As civilization in new territory continued, the indigenous were forced from their homelands. The Native American tribes were forced to embark on the Trail of Tears and, eventually, confinement to Reservations, which secluded them in places far from what they originally knew as the white people overtook what was their territory. Such force is in violation of the eleventh constitutional amendment, stating "The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State."
In 2009, our government settled a 47 billion-dollar class-action lawsuit, representing 300,000 American Indians, for failure to keep an 1800s treaty, forcing Indians off their lands and onto Reservations. However, the settlement was for only $1.4 billion, which was called a victory for Indians, but is obviously only a small token compared to the amount of the lawsuit and will in no way compensate Indians for their losses or supply their needs.
Between 1974 and 2008, the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act, intended to settle land disagreements among the Navajo, Hopi, and coal companies in the area, forced the displacement of some 10,000 American Indians. In 2008, Senate bill 1003 proposed amendment of the settlement act which would have caused more displacement if it had passed.
In 2012, the UN announced an investigation that will examine the status and rights of indigenous peoples of the Americas. On one hand, why has it taken this long for the world to consider the rights of The First Americans? On the other hand, why should we need to do this in the Twenty-First Century, given that First Americans ARE Americans? Why are they still treated as anything other than Americans?
