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~Memorandum~

7 January 2022

Attention Congress:
Listen up! We need change. Now. As quickly as possible.

First: Do not sacrifice the poor on the altar of the rich.

Touch not the small pensions paid to Grandma and Grandpa by Social Security and to our Disabled People. Instead, Improve said pensions. You know you can. Just one B1 Bomber, just one, would do it. Stop allowing insurance companies to become bloated with wealthy administrators.

Destroy not Medicare, but rather increase benefits and reduce costs to our elderly and 98 percent of our People. Let Grandpa have a hearing aid, Grandma needs teeth. Get all old people some eye glasses!!! What sort of person wants to see the poor beg for the basic necessities?

Be honest, Social Security is a great big fund and it is NOT going broke as many of you lie to us and say. People pay in, but big businesses are tired of paying in and want to stop their part all together. Every time a Repub has been in during the last 50 years and that's been quite often, the rich get more tax breaks. Trickle down theory has been proven to be just that. Trickle.

You know, it's not talked about, but undocumented workers pay into our government's funds. YOU KNOW they don't usually get it back. So. Stop lying and misleading most People. It is treasonous to defraud and lie to the People of the US. That's my opinion. For sure: If it's not illegal, it is IMMORAL. Here's a Novel Idea: Let's have some MORAL leadership on Capitol Hill. Oh, I know we have a few moral, honest Congress reps, but they are small in number and hampered by the greedy ones.

Let's go back to selling US Bonds, like in the past. Allow those who can invest in the future of our country. Let us all do so directly to the US Treasury by buying Bonds. When I was a child, even the middle class folks could buy bonds... You could by a $20 bond for $17. It was always worth $17, but if you saved it, in 10 years you could redeem it for $20 or more... Father never was able to keep them that long. But it was a way of saving for a rainy day. Let's go back to that way of crowd sourcing. Voluntary. Maybe a few rich folk would buy into the program, too.

Take money out of politics. Do more than just shut down the lobbying racquet. Remove the lifelong pensions given to Congress Representatives and Senators who serve only one term. Reduce the number of terms Congress can have. Take away the revolving door of industry and government bureaucrats ~ all of you know what I mean. No more giving them better health care than we get. Equal share in America's bounty. It's the way it's supposed to be. It's why our Democracy is failing. We see through the curtain and know that you know what's wrong. Fix it.

Put People, especially our returning veterans, back to work rebuilding America. Let us do great public works like the CCC did in our past. Fix roads and build bridges. Do what's right. Our country needs the work, in more than one way. But do not build any more nuclear plants. No more giveaways for profit driven companies. That's old hat. No more of that. Unbridled capitalism is how we've gotten into this mess. Imagine allowing profit from someone's illness. Wrong way to go.

No more giveaways of public funds to corporate and foreign interests! Stop subsidizing corporate farms who use GMO seed and poison our waters. No more requiring farmers to use seeds that they must buy from those who don't care about our air and water. Greed must no longer be a motivator.

Attend to the Needs of our Planet. Let's save Earth. You all know that we can't afford more nuclear plants. With all the obvious water and air pollution you can not call it clean energy. Consider Fukushima and Chernobyl. Proves that accidents will happen, man or nature derived. Either way, the radiation will continue for longer than humans will be here. Furthermore, they are a bad investment. Ask any insurance company. They won't insure them and haven't for years! That's why the government insures them. Hey, that's US!! You know, nuclear power plants don't make enough energy to pay for their costs. They are always asking for more money. They can't be brought online soon enough. And, there's no place to put their waste. Imagine building a house without a sewer connection. Then imagine, keeping the waste inside the bathroom. Radiates you and your whole family. Same idea, only worse. The nuclear plant's waste doesn't go away. Talk about deadly radon. That's all you need. Don't be fooled. Green it ain't.

Ensure that the very prosperous among US pay their share beginning immediately. Send them a bill! Base it on their bragging on the stock exchange. Above all else, this will move the rest of these needed actions along.

Hear Ye, all Ye in the Government of USA: Do these things and we can trust you again. Ignore these concepts and we will all perish. Our societies, our civilization will have ruined our planet for greed and profit. It's not fair to say nature would have done this without us. We have redirected rivers and moved mountains. We have poisoned streams with our power plants and changed our air with our coal and fracking plants. How can anyone deny these things? They're in denial or must not know our history at all. Meanwhile, we burn our forests and log the trees. What's going to put back our atmosphere?

For sure: Turning a blind eye to our troubles won't make them go away.

I was pushing a type of #BuildBackBetter long before Pres. Biden took office. He had been, too. It's the main part about Biden that I like. Our need to rebuild our infrastructure is all around us. It's in our face: all the crumbling bridges and roads. And. It's been like this a long time. It's getting worse in Portland, Oregon. You can't drive past any part of the embankments of the Fremont Bridge on the East side without seeing the deterioration of the concrete with plants growing out of the seams and the graffitti ruins the view. We've not even broached the subject of homelessness and lack of medical care in our nation. While the rich dine on surf and turf, the poor struggle on ramen and soup.

Views Matter. Both inside your mind and outside your window.

Bridget E. Smith, original editorial: 5 November 2011// edited 29 November 2021 /// edited 7 January 2022 //// edited again 11 November 2022. I've not changed my core values in more than a decade. How about you?