My Letter to President Obama

Okay, we elected you, Mr. President-Elect. We're really happy that you made it to the White House, but now it's payback time, big guy.

I'm going to give you my Top Ten Issues to work on. How you do it is your business. But these are the issues that are most important to me.

1. Revoke all harmful environment deregulation from the Bush era. I need you to take back all those horrible laws and policies like the "Clear Skies Act" and "Healthy Forests." We know what they really were - giveaways to the corporations who wanted to do logging in our national parks and pollute our drinking water and air.
2. Stop all the wars. I know you've said you will create a plan to bring our troops home from Iraq. To tell you the truth, fighting a war in Afghanistan isn't going to help find bin Laden either. This is a matter of cooperation with those governments, not a policy of war.
3. Restore America's luster abroad. This is so important. I would like you to meet with foreign leaders worldwide and tell them that we want to be their friends again. Start with the top twenty most important countries, and don't forget the former Eastern Bloc countries like Poland and the Ukraine.
4. Use the Internet to involve the citizens. Help us redefine what it means to be a citizen of America. Help us think of ourselves in terms of being citizens instead of consumers.
5. Move our healthcare system toward cheaper, safer, more effective holistic healthcare and away from drugs and surgery. You haven't mentioned this in your campaign, but I think it is definitely one of my Top Tens.
6. Make it cool to work for the government. You said you could do this in a Rolling Stone interview. Public service should be a badge of honor. I know you see it that way. Now help the rest of us to see it that way also. Teachers and government workers of all walks of life should feel so proud to be serving their country. I believe you can help us make that happen.
7. Put your renewable energy plan into effect. From everything I can tell, you have followed the Apollo Alliance plan pretty closely. Solar panels, wind turbines, hybrid plug-in cars, getting utilities off coal (including "clean" coal), a mixture of decentralized and centralized power generation, etc. I couldn't be happier about that. Now put it into place, as an absolute top priority.
8. Rebuild our country's infrastructure. We need new bridges, roads, public transit. I know that these things need to happen largely within states and communities, but you can help with funding tweaks and using the bully pulpit of the presidency.
9. Put a strong focus on civil rights and women's rights. I trust you very much to do this, Mr. President-Elect. Give us Supreme Court justices who will uphold Roe v. Wade and let's continue our helpful policies towards minorities and women in the community and the workplace. I don't think quotas and most affirmative action are that helpful, however, but you've mentioned a number of ideas in your books and on your Website that make more sense for all of us than those older ideas of civil rights.
10. Put a sharp focus on Internet policies. Revise outdated laws like copyright and patent to reflect the Internet age, and please make net-neutrality a reality.