Thoughts On Reform

        We the American people are a great people. We have the humility and the courage to look at certain aspects of our society, certain policies, that are illogical and inhumane... and transform them into some thing more advanced and fitting.

           Let us take military spending as an example. We currently outspend the next 12 nations combined on the means of military destruction. Most other nations accept that in the nuclear era, there will be no total war because it could not be decided without untold human tragedy, if then. The time has come to accept multilateralism and mutual nuclear deterrence, take our false God of war down from its pedestal, and transfer funds and attention from bombers and drones, to roads, bridges, and hospitals, as well as other examples.

            Another key example is the epidemic of overcriminalization. We Americans have the highest incarceration rate on Planet Earth. Our laws are labyrinthian and written in inaccessible jargon so citizens often can't understand them; And they deprive the citizenry of rights like ingesting mind-altering substances, a powerful tradition of mind-expansion going back to the time of our distant ancestors, to give but one key example of the infringements upon the liberties and dignities of the American people that have been enacted under the guise of 'Law'

          It is imperative that we release as many victimless and model prisoners as possible, and make conditions more humane for those prisoners we must retain. It is also imperative that we make the presumption of innocence a reality by using looser, humanitarian handcuffs to make the arrest procedure less painful and humiliating, so that trial comes before punishment... to give an example of what would be more extensive reforms, naturally.

            To most constructively move forward against the current contagion and possible future contagions, we want to encourage our citizens and residents to have a relationship with a doctor or nurse practicioner, even indeed especially if they're impoverished and under stress as these are citizens who are vulnerable to disease, which then spreads to other populations. So we want to make medicine available even to those who have no money to speak of.

             What kind of medicine? A new brand: more democratic and optimistic than the current Kafkaesque arrangements. Rather than seeing diseases as aberrations to be harshly purged through chemotherapy and the like, we should see disease as a natural and normal part of human life. We should provide artful, gentle therapies, respecting life wherever possible. We should be very slow to pronounce a patient brain dead, or think that a patient's life does not warrant existence. Life is sweet to them despite illness.

             There are many other issues calling for reform, and I will deal with these in the coming months. In the mean time, thanks for reading, and let's keep the torch of liberty aglow!