Late Nights

as the readers of this blog know, at times of sleeplessness, my mind rambles onto whatever it happens to be thinking about at the time and often times finds it way to this blog. and this is moment is no different, so here is my most recent political ramble on the state of the country and what we should do to get back on track (and no, just tossing bush won't get it done)...

it's clear that we're in a recession, not a mental one, not one fabricated so i can whine about it, it is real. gas prices are blowing up, wars are raging, natural disasters are ravaging the country, and even with our first black presidential nominee, we're still facing ignorance and severe intolerance.

so here's what i propose the nation do...

we need to understand that we're not going to keep our factory jobs, our mill jobs, or "blue" jobs; and we don't want to. we want to grow, learn, advance ourselves to lead the world in technology, sciences, medical. but to help revive a struggling economy with a growing number of employed blue-collar workers, we must create a major jobs program not seen since the new deal. jobs programs to overhaul and reconstruct the transportation infrastructure of the nation, to rebuild the levies that have, or will, rupture, to reinvent devastated cities like new orleans into green beacons. not only will this provide jobs for thousands of struggling workers, it will help reinvent the parts of the country that most of us have forgotten about.

and for the rest of us, the green movement must be embraced and encouraged. though i don't think the government is good at directing science, we must not be ignorant to the impending climate change or bought by the oilmen. not only will have a strong environmental push be good for the climate, but for the economy. it will bring a whole new wave of jobs and technological advancements come about in the same way the industrial era brought us cars and electricity.

we must focus this new movement into development and refinement of new means of energy. the day we can remove ourselves from the massive world oil market is the day we can no longer fear more the need of "nation building" in opec lands.

we must make-over our public image in the world. first by responsibly withdrawing ourselves from iraq and refocusing ourselves in afghanistan. the military is strained and suffering, but it is still undoubtedly effective. the mission must reflect the true needs of a nation facing potential terrorism and security issues, and not used for vengeance and vendettas.

once we have established ourselves again as a respectable leader, washed our hands of hypocrisy, and opened our arms to a world grown smaller, we must ourselves realize that we can no longer afford to think of ourselves as the only nation worthy of this world. we must understand that we may no longer be the leaders of education, the leaders of manufacturing, or leaders of production...instead, we must now be the leaders of innovation, of experience. we must use our political capital to say, "we've been there before" to developing nations in respect to environmental damage. but we mustn't preach, we must help; we mustn't punish, we must accept.

of course, all of this is just the ramblings of my mind. and thank the blogosphere world that no one really reads this, or else i'd probably be the idealistic fool without a sense of reality, only of hope...and i'm okay with that