Fixing the World in a 100 words or less

Random good (?) Ideas

Warning! These ideas may make cause the following: critical thinking outside the box, viewing subjects from an alternative angle, brainstorming and problem solving. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. In these troubled times we are offered lots of problems but few solutions. Since I spend most of my time thinking I decided to consider some thorny issues and come up with a few suggestions.

Schools. Many schools are losing their sports, arts and music classes due to budgets. Well, how about pro sports supporting school sports- it’s where they get future athletes anyway. Arts and music? Same thing. Instead of coke machines to raise money ( and student weight) why not have private sponsors to promote art and music. Studies have shown how these programs help kids to learn better and keep them away from drugs, gangs etc. Sheesh this is a no brainer.

Roads. I already explored on how the government practically gives away money to build roads. If they really want to put their -excuse me- our money in the “cut addiction to foreign oil” rhetoric, pay 90 cents on the dollar to build mass transit, railroads and alternative transportation. To ensure the money is actually spent on these projects and not pissed away by bureaucratic waste, the government insists the money be paid back in say, ten years. This will encourage real change in higher ridership and create lots of jobs.

Afghanistan. What will save the country from thirty years of fighting? A demoralized and poor population? Help restore a non existent economy and slow the heroin trade? Pomegranates, almonds, and dates. Just ask Sara Chayes, a former NPR correspondent who has been working in the country for years. Never mind troops, oil, and propping up a corrupt government to bring stability to the area. Make it the fruit basket of the middle east.

“Estranged husband shoots wife, family.” This headline has become all too familiar. More and more churches are shunning quickie marriages (so is Las Vegas, you have to wait 12 hours to get a license instead of immediately). They require pre- marriage counseling to make sure the couple is compatible. Therefore, before getting divorced couples are required to get counseling to make sure the husband doesn’t go on a shooting spree. Men build monuments to themselves. The dissolution of a marriage can be seen as a huge failure, causing stress, anger and rejection by gun. Divorce runs women’s self esteem into the ground. An acrimonious divorce it’s not good for children either. This has got to stop.

Gun control. This solution was offered by a friend of a friend and the more I think about it the more potential I see in it. In order to own a gun everyone must have insurance. Prove to the insurance company that you’re not a nut job waiting to go off, or an enraged ex husband/boyfriend/ lover (see above) and that you know how to safely load, clean and store a gun and you’re ok. Let the gun and insurance lobbyist duke it out in Washington D.C. over this on. For the rest of us, it’s an additional buffer for public safety.

Somethings have got to change, I’m not sure how but these ideas should get the brain cells moving.