1.26.2008

Visualize It!

March 22, 2009

The war is over. In honor of the Spring Solstice and in recognition that spring is the time when life begins anew, the new President elect of USA orders immediate transport of all troops to their homes. The UN passes a unanimous resolution to provide necessary food and medical aid to help rebuild war torn Iraq. The U.S. cancels all contracts with Halliburton and its subsidiaries. Cuba agrees to send doctors to the war torn country.

The new U.S. President signs into law the GI Recovery Act of 2009 mandating free, full, and prompt medical and dental coverage for all veterans for life. In addition Congress introduces a bill that will pay housing subsidies for all veterans to make home ownership affordable regardless of the soldier's financial situation or state of domicile. These benefits are retroactive to the beginning of the Iraq War. The President is expected to sign the bill.

The President issues a Declaration of Native American Sovereign Nation Recognition that recognizes the sovereign status of all American Indian Nations. He pledges to henceforth honor all treaties with American Indians, saying "We should never lose sight of the fact that America has an indigenous people, and everyone who settled here after them are immigrants. In cooperation with them we, as immigrants to this great country, can make it a better and stronger homeland for all of us."

Cindy Sheehan is appointed head of the newly established Department of Peace.

In partnership with Jobs With Justice and other national labor organizations, the President signs into law the New Millenium Sustainable Jobs Program. The new program will create jobs in Green Industries, including Green Construction, Sustainable Agriculture, Organic Farming, Bridge Building and Rehabbing, Building Trades, Windmill and Solar Panel Manufacturing Plants. The government further establishes an Office of Documentary Filmmaking, providing jobs and internships for those interetsed in those fields, and will provide funding for the establishment of independent community radio stations and newspapers. In addition, the government will fund studies on the uses and effects of Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine, Ayurvedic Medicine, acupuncture, and exercise and physical medicine in the treatment of a wide variety of illnesses and conditions.

This summer the President and the UN will send diplomats to the Middle East to broker a legally binding agreement that will result in the chartering of permanent homelands to both the Israeli and the Palestinian people. The borders of the new nations will establish once and for all the sovereignity and right to self determination of both the Israeli and Palestinian people.

The President establishes the Americans in National Service Initiative. Upon reaching age seventeen, and before reaching age fifty-one, every American will be required to devote a year to civilian service-- either in one's home state, or elsewhere in the country. Al Gore accepts his appointment as head of the Environmental Protection Agency for life.

The President appoints a formerly homeless couple, Juan and Cristina Rojas, as co secretaries of Housing and Urban Development. In his Inaugural Address the president declares that "From this day forward it shall be illegal to evict any citizen of the United States or any non citizen working in gainful employment in the United States, from his or her housing. He directs the governors of every state to appoint local mediation boards to settle landlord tenant disputes free of charge to the tenant.

July, 2009. The U.S. Government establishes universal health care. It will be paid for by a federal sales tax, abolishing state sales taxes. Property tax is abolished. The government establishes a federal Housing Insurance Bureau to issue insurance policies for property owners in all fifty states.

A new amendment to the Constitution permanently establishes the 2009 Federal Fair Wage, and replaces the minimum wage. The new wage is permanently tied to the combined costs of housing, energy, food, and transportation in a given region. Food Stamps are discontinued, as it is no longer necessary to supplement poverty wages.

The president outlaws all predatory businesses, including collection agencies, payday lenders, human trafficking, and poverty pimping. All of the above are upgraded to felonies. Marijuana is legalized, regulated by the FDA, standardized to purity, and taxed. It is sold only to those 18 and older with proof of age. Tax revenues raised from the legal sale of marijuana wipes out the federal debt by the end of 2009.

Hundreds of new federal judges are appointed, and in April 2009, the Social Security Administration announces it will immediately begin testing and hiring thousands of disability analysts in every state. Average wait time for approval of a disability claim drops to six weeks by the end of 2009. With the president's new UniverSal Health, Medicare and Medicaid become a non issue.

The government announced that by the end of the year 2009, it will hire 10,000 new USDA food inspectors. It will increase hiring and training of food inspectors every year until the food supply is 100% safe.

A worldwide boycott of the Olympics in solidarity with the people of Burma brought unprecedented economic devastation to the games. A world wide walkout of all workers on day one of the Olympics threatened to topple stock markets around the globe. The UN quickly passed a resolution declaring all war and exploitation to be hazardous to human health, and in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Thousands of unarmed Buddhist monks and supporters, including Hollywood stars, former Olympics gold medalists, Sylvester Stallone, a contingent of VietNam War veterans, and political leaders from around the world stormed the guarded compound where pro democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has been held under house arrest for fourteen years, and pushed down the barbed wire surrounding the freedom fighter's house. As the fence came down, Myanmar soldiers set their weapons on the ground, and stepped aside, saying: "We are tired of this unjust government." A teenager with a camera phone sent images of the liberation to news agencies around the world.

After the elections, Suu Kyi was reinstated as President of newly renamed Democratic Republic of Burma. Gen Than Shwe and his cohorts were assigned permanent duties in work camps rebuilding the long neglected country.

This is a work in progress. I'm still in the idealism stage. I don't have all the answers, or even most of them. I do know, like a lot of other Americans, that CHANGE is needed--and soon. If you have some answers, please comment. Like Bobby Kennedy, one of my childhood heroes, I visualize what could be, and ask: WHY NOT?

P.S. "You might think I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." (props to John Lennon)

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