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| 58077 |
If you were President of the United States...
What are the firt 10 things you would do?
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Language pair: English; German
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| 58201 |
Re:If you were President of the United States...
Here is my first guess. What I have written, the sequence can be misleading. For example, I consider gay marriage and capital punishment to be much more important than their positions on my list may suggest. But since I cannot put all ten items in positions 1, 2, and 3, something’s got to sit down at the bottom. If I were really a president (not that I would ever in a googol years want to be president), I would in reality be working many of these projects in parallel, over-lapping, and so forth, so that there actually would be several items sharing priority 1, 2, and 3.
Also, I rush to point out that there are a jillion critical issues not appearing on this list: abortion, gun control, election reform, energy policy, fiscal policy, equal opportunity, physician-assisted suicide—the list would go for miles. I just wrote down the first ten things I thought of, rather than trying to figure out which would be the first ten things I’d act on.
I look forward to seeing other people’s answers.
1 education Establish a commission to fund research into national education programs in order to determine the most effective, most feasible changes we can make to our educational system in order to reestablish the level of excellence we once enjoyed. We need to find ways to ensure that money in the educational system is getting the best possible mileage in terms of student educational results per dollar spent. We need to examine how we will have to re-model our expectations of student achievement in the context of our culturally complex, post-modern society. We need to establish means of bridging the gaps between schools in wealthy communities and those in poor ones. We need to find ways to ensure that when we say “no child left behind”, that we can actually accomplish that, rather than simply hiding the children who are not getting what they need under the established system of education. We need to develop new models of education that will address, not only mainstream students, but those of the vast spectrum of special needs represented in our communities, whether they be those of students learning English as s second language, having some sort of cultural, religious, or ethnic differences, differences of gender, sexual orientation, physical/intellectual/emotional capacity, social, geographic, or class status, etc. Education must be freely available AND ACESSIBLE to all.
See part 2 of 4
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Language pair: English; All
This is a reply to message # 58077
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| 58202 |
Re:If you were President of the United States...
part 2 of 4
2 Unemployment Establish a commission to do the research and present a proposal to re-design welfare. We need to create a system that is aware of changing trends in the job market, able to provide career counseling that will help workers find jobs that suit their skills and talents, training, when necessary, to help them transition into careers that can employ them when their current careers no longer can. We need, during worker transition periods, to ensure that workers have access to health care, subsistence needs, transportation, and guidance. The program must provide workers with the means to find new employment without disempowering people by ignoring barriers to work, rewarding those who don’t seek employment and punishing those who do. The welfare system will do its job effectively only when it looks at unemployment as a complex social problem, addressing the real causes and challenges, rather than trying to gloss over symptoms and ignoring causes.
3 medical care Medical care: We need to implement the health care program suggested by the commission headed up by Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her program is outstanding. It addresses all of the major problems of the existing health care system at a minimal cost to the tax payers by revising our philosophy of health care so that we spend reasonable amounts of money on prevention in order to save billions on corrective medicine. It ensures that all Americans have free access to health insurance at all times, that we are free to consult the physicians we choose to see, and that doctors, not accountants, have the power to make critical decisions regarding patient treatment.
4 criminal justice system Establish a commission to reform the criminal justice system. We must examine justice, not in terms of punishment, but in terms of rehabilitation. Our current system channels offenders into a revolving-door hell. First-time offenders are often reformed by the prison system, not into functional citizens, but into career criminals. We need a system that examines the factors that encourage offenders to commit crimes. WE as a society need to take responsibility for certain social conditions that make criminal lifestyles more accessible to many than a constructive role as a contributing member of our society. Results of this commission’s study would likely inform research being done by the commissions on education and on welfare, as would the work done by those commissions be very useful to this one. These commissions must work in concert because the work of each will have direct impacts on the challenges of the others.
See part 3 of 4
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Language pair: English; All
This is a reply to message # 58077
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| 58203 |
Re:If you were President of the United States...
Part 3 of 4
5 foreign policy Foreign policy: The United States of America needs to change it’s international role. It is not our obligation nor our right to be an international police officer. It is neither our right nor our obligation to tell the world how to be good democracies and good free-enterprise economies. We need to enter into a much more egalitarian relationship with international organizations that recognize and honor the sovereignty of other free nations just as much as we expect other nations to honor the sovereignty of the U.S. Just as individual states of our nation surrender certain powers to the federal government in order to provide greater freedom and opportunity to each individual state, so will it be necessary for the united states, among other nations of the free world, to cede certain powers to an international administrative body, in order to exalt and enhance the sovereignty of all free nations. This is not a surrender of sovereignty, but an expansion of it. Americans will have to understand this, and we will see its power when it comes to pass, just as will member states of the new EU, once they are able to establish the terms of their own union.
6 Environment reverse damage Bush has done to the environment
7 capital punishment I would begin a nation-wide campaign to educate voters about the facts regarding capital punishment. I cannot end this crime without the consent of the population, but I can be a leader and show the country how unfair, how ineffective, how dangerous, and how immoral capital punishment is.
8 gay marriage Gay marriage: It is not up to the government, at the state or federal level, to tell individual Americans whom they can or cannot marry. Naturally, there are certain reasonable concerns of agency and consent that the government can and must establish. Beyond this, however, the government must not go. We cannot discriminate among couples based on sexual orientation, denying same-sex couples rights of inheritance, kinship status for medical purposes. It is not possible for heterosexual individuals to judge whether a homosexual lives the way she does because she was born that way or chooses to be so. We can only respect that that is the way she is, and give her all of the same rights and privileges we demand for ourselves. If calling the domestic union of two consenting adults of the same sex “domestic partnership” will make the process of its establishment move more smoothly, then we can certainly call it that. But eventually, we will have to recognize that a marriage is a marriage, regardless of whether the partners are of opposite or of like genders.
See part 4 of 4
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Language pair: English; All
This is a reply to message # 58077
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| 58204 |
Re:If you were President of the United States...
Part 4 of 4
9 medical marijuana Establish a medical marijuana program that ensures that patients with a valid medical need have ready access to the drug. The program will implement practical, effective controls to ensure that the drug is not freely accessible to abusers.
10 Corporate welfare Set up a plan to phase out corporate welfare programs—not pull the plug on them immediately, but let companies know that handouts are over, and they have about five years to transition off of it.
(End of 4-part message)
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This is a reply to message # 58077
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| 58336 |
Re:Re:If you were President of the United States...
Okay, so you don't want to be president. But would you like to run for congress? I'd vote for you! You back up all your opinions, and explained
everything.
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Language pair: English; German
This is a reply to message # 58204
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| 58386 |
Re:Re:Re:If you were President of the United States...
Dwyn 081205 presidency
Dwyn, you’re so sweet.
You better not keep this up, or my head will swell so I won’t be able to get out the front door. I’ll lose my job and flunk all my classes, and then what kind of congressman would I be?
But seriously, I’d never make it in congress. Too much politics. I have to tell the truth as I see it and do what I think is right, and congress eats folks like me with their afternoon tea. I don’t have the killer instinct.
I think I’m doing exactly what I need to do. Grab young people like you and sit ‘em down and teach ‘em how to think for themselves, how not to buy the cock and bull everyone wants to hand them. When people stop buying it, Hollywood and congress and Wall Street and Standard Oil and GMC, and everyone else will be forced to stop trying to pass it off. Perhaps in a couple of hundred years we’ll have a congress we can be proud of. I’m willing to wait if that’s what it takes.
Meanwhile, keep studying, keep asking the hard questions, and don’t buy any of their pretty castles in the sky.
# 58336
Re:Re:If you were President of the United States... Dwyn Hart
Okay, so you don't want to be president. But would you like to run for congress? I'd vote for you! You back up all your opinions, and explained
everything.
This is a reply to message # 58204
Language pair: English; German
Category: Opinions
Post date: August 11, 2005
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Language pair: English; German
This is a reply to message # 58336
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| 58463 |
Re:Re:Re:Re:If you were President of the United States...
Well, then, I'll take your advise, if you take mine. If you continue, being the role model you are "Grab young people and sit ‘em down and teach ‘em how to think for themselves" and "tell the truth as you see it and do what you think is right" Then you will have a bigger impact on the future than any president or congress will ever have.
dwyn
P.S- Fun vocab:
Politician= opinionated person
+Politics= opinions
-------------------------
=every person on the planet :)
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Language pair: English; German
This is a reply to message # 58386
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| 58889 |
Re:If you were President of the United States...
If I were President of the USA, I would first try to be regarded as a sane and intelligent person, not as a fool.
I would listen to my advisors, without always bending over their views.
More concretely, I would rise income taxes so that the Federation could have money to spend.
Then I would change the state expenditure. I would lessen military spendings( and ending up with the war...), but increase education, environmental and social ones.
I would not be unilateral anymore, but regard my allies as equal countries.
I would be more involved in crucial topics such as global warming, nuclear threat, drought and the lack of water.
I would not mix religion and politics, I will not support a certain group of the population, I will not deny the truth in behalf of money... I would be an honest president( how paradoxical is this phrase!)
I would take care of obesity before the whole America looks like a fat amount.
I would try to favour another type of culture, not summing it up into the single Hollywood production and Universal music one.
And if I could do another thing, I would say more often to the voters that they are not the only people on the Earth and that they should glance at what surrounds them.
Could I be elected President of the USA... I doubted it!
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Language pair: French; English
This is a reply to message # 58077
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| 58936 |
President Arnaud
Hey Arnaud, mon ami! welcome back!
I agree with you completely. One of the things that most disturbs me about America is that it seems that the people who truly have the most lofty vision for the country and the most noble ideals are always the least likely to succeed in our political system.
Look at Jimmy Carter. He was the most noble and forthright president we've had in my lifetime, but he was never able to accomplish anything because Congress refused to work with a president who was unwilling to play their political games with them.
Look again at the comparison between Clinton and George W. Clinton, who may have failed in his personal life and not been the most heroic figure we've had, was nonetheless an excellent president who ran a very successful administration that worked for the greater interests of the nation. Yet Clinton was impeached. Bush, on the other hand is domonstrably operating for his own personal insterests and those of his own economic friends. He is a war criminal, an unethical man, and an incompetent. And yet somehow, nobody's talking about impeaching him, who really demands it far more than Clinton ever did.
I'm really thinking of moving to Canada. I'm not so sure I belong in this crazy country.
Mark
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Language pair: English; All
This is a reply to message # 58889
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| 59034 |
Re:President Arnaud
My last message was just an attempt to get an answer, just something to shock people and cause several reactions... I was hoping a more energic answer from an American very proud of himself and supporting the whole J.W Bush's policy.
I have read recently in Courrier International that ExxonMobil funds some think tanks so that they look for arguments to turn global warming into a hoax. What strikes me most is that true scientists belong to those organisations paid by the oil company, denying what they have studied and what the whole scientific community agrees.
I read another article in Alter Eco that pointed out another trend on the topic. It was said that several American states, among them California and most North-Easter ones, have decided to fight against green house effect by passing more stringent laws about fumes. They allegedly sue an American organisation that should control and fight pollution but was not playing its role due to Bush's administration.
In the end, I really wonder if more and more Americans are becoming aware of pollution and hazards that loom round the Earth or if those articles only highlighted marginal phenomenons.
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Language pair: French; English
This is a reply to message # 58936
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| 59112 |
Re:If you were President of the United States...
I do not know what the first 10 things I would do. Here are some of the things I would support/not support.
1. Abortion: I do belive that abortion is a bad thing, however, it cannot be abolished entirely.
2. The goverment needs to be smaller, have less control. What is ok for the west coast may not be right for the east.
3. Corperations need to loose their grip on the goverment.
4. Do not invoke wars. to most things (Not earthquakes) there can be a diplomatic solusion.
5. Outsorcing should not be aloud.
6. Reconfig rules of immigration. Everyone in america came as immigrates, so why shouldn't people be alowd to come in today. (Stuff like Terroist and Drugs I understand)
7. We have other sorces of fuel, so why not use them. Oh yeah, I forgot, oil componys own america.
8. A goverment for the people by the people should not be ran just by the rich.
That is all I can think of for now.
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Language pair: English; German
This is a reply to message # 58077
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| 59166 |
Answer, part 1
I have several answers to make to your assertions.
First, you would like to abolish the right to abort. Abortion in itself is not a bad thing, but it depends on the way people use it. Thus, would you like to abolish abortion, and then what kind of solution would you bring to women who have been raped and find themselves pregnant? Keep this baby would be painful both for the mother who could not put aside her rape story and for the baby who would grow wihtout love and care.
It occurs many accidents in a woman's life and preventing them from aborting in some cases can prove cruel.
Indeed, we are not allowed to play with life and to throw away foetus in behalf of a would-be defect in any part of his body. Abortion must not become an excuse to forget contraceptives.
Concerning religion, I think it has nothing to do with abortion and medicine in general. Claiming that God rejects abortion because He must be the only person who can provide or deprive of life is nonsense, I think. God is a personal business and must not intervene in legislation, that is to say laws that everybody has to abide by.
I would like to answer you back about outsourcing too. Outsourcing is not a mere business. Thus, you should know that it is not as negative for your country as you could think. Moreover, I can say that it brings better profits to American companies, which is positive, isn't it? It works out simply: American companies look for low-cost countries and produce there to import to the USA to sell the products. It is good for consumers since products are less expensive( provided firms lower prices).
On the other hand, several problems remain. First, outsourcing destroys jobs in the USA. True, and this is a crucial point. On a social point of view, it can prove bad because creating unemployment. Nonetheless, both low-skilled and low-paid jobs are destroyed, which makes Americans looking for better skilled and paid jobs, which is better for everybody. I am aware that it is easier to write it than to do it. I think the unemployed should be helped to find again work, by increasing their training and their skills. In our harshly competitive world, developped countries have to work in highly technologic fields, which requires a highly skilled work force, whereas developping countries specialize themselves into undertechnologic products. Another problem emerges, on a large-scaled economic point of view. In fact, the more American firms outsource, the more they import to the USA, which broadens the trade deficit, which is already very large.
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Language pair: French; English
This is a reply to message # 59112
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| 59167 |
Answer, part 2
Indeed, I do not have the solution to offshoring, but, according to me, banning it is not a good thing. In France, some politicians would like to prevent French firms from offshoring. However, they forget that many French jobs depend on foreign companies that have outsourced to France! And the same occurs in the American case. Besides, several firms which have outsourced end by relocating to the country they belong to because wages have rised in developped countries, or because productivity is too low in those countries.
In the end, it seems really difficult to become President of the USA...
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Language pair: French; English
This is a reply to message # 59112
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| 59268 |
Re:Answer, part 1
> God is a personal business and must not intervene in legislation, that is to say laws that everybody has to abide by.
Non-religious people might come to the conclusion that disconnecting religion from other things is a neutral solution and best for all. However, religious people follow a very different paradigm. To them culture is part of religion rather than religion part of culture. This means that religion is necessarily involved with everything that people do, think, or decide. To them disconnecting religion would be just one more religious attitude, very far from being neutral, and a very insulting one for people who yearn to see their beloved value system applied on practical purposes.
It might be easier to create laws that allow more latitude for religious thinking, and in general acknowledge better the diversity of human beings.
Puti
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Language pair: French; English
This is a reply to message # 59166
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| 59271 |
Re:Answer, part 1
> First, you would like to abolish the right to abort. Abortion in itself is not a bad thing, but it depends on the way people use it. Thus, would you like to abolish abortion, and then what kind of solution would you bring to women who have been raped and find themselves pregnant?
I think that legislation is an inefficient tool to solve the abortion problems, which should rather be dealt with at the point where they originate: we should create a society where people do not even think about violating each others' intimacy with raping or other crimes, and think about sexuality and procreation in the scope of decades and centuries. That should make abortions very rare and the remaining cases easier to solve.
Puti
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Language pair: French; English
This is a reply to message # 59166
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