Policing the World

We can’t afford, monetarily or morally, to be the world’s policemen. However, we must use our leverage in the U.N. and in various treaty organizations (NATO, SEATO, etc.) to prevent and correct human rights violations. Isolating thug regimes by blockades, as well as confiscating their monetary resources, when possible, along with continual harassment from the air, is much preferable to putting forces in harm’s way. However, there will be times when invasion is necessary.

Further, we must realize that the U.N. is currently a very corrupt organization run by third-world dictators who want to be superpowers. We must get more involvement from the Western Europeans in helping to oversee and reform the corruption—kicking out those in office who break the rules and holding governments accountable monetarily who back them up. In the end, however, if we can’t reform it, we need to leave it.

At the same time, we must stop trying to bring into NATO countries that have been traditionally aligned with Russia. This will only provoke Russia to invade those countries, as it did Georgia in 2008.

Crime & Punishment

Currently, someone who is caught with a stash of drugs to use for a month can spend longer in jail that a person who kills another person while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This is wrong!

We need a top-down review of all levels of crime and their punishments to assure more equitable penalties—more heinous crimes receive higher fines and longer sentences. Furthermore, we need to address payment to the victims for theft or property destruction.

The overturning of many death sentences lately by the use of DNA has shown the corruption present in some offices of prosecution. Prosecutors must be held criminally accountable for withholding information that could clear defendants. We should enact a moratorium on capital punishment until we can reform how it's used.

Healthcare & Insurance

My dad called the insurance industry the “Legalized Mafia.” Rather than helping people through tough times, they raise your rates any time you make a claim. How do we solve this? The entire insurance industry (health, life, and casualty) should be made non-profit, or should be forced to accept a certain percentage of people who can’t afford it. Those who can afford it should be required by law to buy at least a catastrophic care policy. The entire cost of healthcare and healthcare insurance should be equally tax deductible for everyone. I hate government oversight, but more oversight is necessary in this case.

Education and Training

The public education system is broken. We need to give back to teachers the ability to discipline the unruly kids or remove them from classes to keep order. Current trends are to require more years of English, science, and math. This is the wrong emphasis. We must restructure the system to provide more vocational training in high school and not insist that all students be readied for college.

In elementary and middle school, we must concentrate on the basics and make sure students really grasp the material before passing them to the next grade. We must go back to providing “real recess”—an unstructured play time at least twice a day to let kids work off their energy. This will significantly reduce the behavior problems in the classroom—especially from young boys. We must also quit forcing males to act like females in the classroom, expecting them to do "cutesy" busy-work projects that really have no bearing on the subject at hand.

Above all, we need to encourage competition in the school system. Vouchers for students in underperforming schools will provide this, as well as raises for administrators and teachers in higher-performing schools. However, supplying vouchers for all is not the way to go. It will only cause chaos, raise the cost of private education, and hurt the good public schools. No more than 10% of the students in a state should be supplied with vouchers.

Generally, a pay raise for teachers will attract experienced people who have proven themselves in industry and business to the educational arena. Control of public education must be returned to state and local government, abolishing the U.S. Department of Education. We must reduce the cost of bureaucracy in order to allow more of the money to be used to pay teachers.

Where charitable organizations cannot keep up, local and state government should provide training in new areas to people who are affected by industry downsizings, but only if no other jobs are available in that industry. Workers should be encouraged (through tax relief) to update their education when downsizing is foreseen.

Immigration

Today, it’s too hard to become a naturalized citizen of the U.S. The process needs to be streamlined so people don’t have to wait fifteen to twenty years in many cases. We also need to let in more people legally from all countries. In addition, we need to enforce existing laws against illegal aliens. This has nothing to do with racism—it has only to do with upholding our laws. I am not a racist. Notice that I have already said that we need to allow more people into the U.S. legally and make it easier for them to become citizens. Would a racist call for that?

Why do we need to allow more people in? Because our economy will not grow otherwise. We have been killing off much of our growth for the last forty years by allowing abortion on demand. The only way to make up for it is to allow more people into the country legally and give them opportunities they don’t have where they come from.

If we allow more people in legally and enforce laws against illegal aliens, our economy will benefit because much of the money that currently goes into the underground economy will be shifted to the legal side of the economy, supplying more true income for legitimate small business that will provide additional jobs and additional revenue for the government.

Affirmative Action

Affirmative action should be education and opportunity, not quotas. We should concentrate on training the historically disadvantaged and those who traditionally are absent from certain jobs and make them competent to compete in those areas. We should not promote incompetence just because of who a person is, including making loans to people or organizations that have no hope of paying them back. To me, Affirmative action is overcoming my own prejudices (because everybody has some) and accepting others for who they are.

Hate Crimes and Hate Speech

All crimes are “hate crimes.” It’s not the government’s business to punish motives, only actions and intent (i.e. premeditated, immediate, or negligent). If you punish a perpetrator based on who the victim is, that’s discrimination—unequal application of the law—and that’s against the Constitution of the United States.

What is hate speech? Hate speech IS NOT saying you disagree with someone. Neither is it pointing out scientifically established negative consequences. Hate speech IS calling for death or persecution of a group. Is it wrong? Definitely. Can we stop it or punish it? No. We are a “free speech” society, and no matter how abhorrent the opinion, to curtail it is unconstitutional. Besides, if we outlaw it, the perpetrators will just go underground. At least with free speech, we know who they are and can fight them with our words of truth and actions of love.

Race Relations

We’ve come a long way since the 60’s on improving the attitudes and situations. We now have minorities at all levels of the government and industry, including the President of the USA. Unfortunately, bigotry and hatred still exist on all sides. Furthermore, many minorities are disadvantaged due to where they live and their parents’ incomes. Some “whites” still hold to the mistaken belief that Europeans are superior—we may always have these brainless bigots with us. However, I hope they eventually die out. Also, as a result of the years of repression and prejudice, some persons in the minority have understandably developed a hatred of the “oppressors.”
So how do we overcome this? Education and enforcement.

First, we need to continually reinforce these major tenets in schools, in advertisements, and in continuing adult education:
1. “All people are created equal.” No one is inherently more important than anyone else. No one should be denied a job or membership in a civic group because of race, creed, color, or gender. No one should be denied advancement because of these characteristics. In the case of churches or religious institutions, they should never be allowed to discriminate in hiring or membership based on race, color, or gender. Obviously, a faith-based group should be able to assure that those that join it or work for it believe as the group does.
2. “Don’t disparage other races, or your own race for that matter, in your speech or writing.” Don’t use racial epithets, period. Don’t tell racist jokes. Tell those who do that you don’t appreciate hearing that type of language.
3. “Try to understand other points of view.” Learn about their culture, the situation they grew up in, where they live now, and how they’ve been treated. As long as it’s not about corrupt practices (like rampant bribery in some countries), embrace cultural differences.
4. “Listen to others’ concerns.” You don’t know how they feel and can’t address their problems unless you listen.
5. “Show respect to everyone, regardless of situation.” Remember, they have all the same rights you do.
6. “Love everyone and help those in need.” Need I say more?

Next, we must continue to hold employers, government workers, and accountable for following the law and for training their employees in diversity and tolerance. However, we must never use “affirmative action” or quotas. Dr. King said it best when he said that each person should be evaluated on their own merits rather than by the color of their skin.