Caroline Clemens

Veterans Day is noted as “eleventh hour of the 11th day of the eleventh month.” I didn’t know that until I googled it today. Made a national holiday in 1938 at the conclusion of WWI in 1918. There’s about 1.6 million women vets (bet you didn’t know that) out of 21 million. A big shout out to those veterans and to those that give out homes to the veterans! Veterans Day makes me grateful for many things. Of course, the number one is the continuation of freedom at home, right here in the USA! Thanks you to all Veterans.

Recently, I’ve also contemplated what I would do as a congresswoman, senator or even as the president. No one asks me so I’ll ask myself and blog about it. Maybe you have some ideas, too. It feels like we need some help right now with the economy, wars and energy. Those are big problems for sure. The following ideas are mine from living a few years on this planet, as a daughter, a mother, a nurse and now a writer.

I’ll touch on ten items. I would advocate for America First, her safety(1) and security of all US citizens with a strong 1st class armed services dedicated to helping, understanding, and using constitutionally correct policies. When we are wrong and a whistleblower calls it, fix the problem, don’t kill the whistleblower, or imprison them. Safe guard the US with a revised immigration system. We should know who is coming inside our beautiful country. Until the world has no terrorism we must be vigilant towards evil. Energy(2) independence is something we have not had. How many times did I hear about the Middle East in the 1970’s? I didn’t even know we had oil and gas here-except for Texas and Alaska. I remember when the pipeline was built. I’m for green energy, clean air, less waste overall and preserving nature. I think a simultaneous plan is the right way forward.

Some people know how to fix a poor economy(3). That’s why America was eager for a business person to be president for years. Remember Ross Pero? He had lots of ideas and people liked him. He seemed to be honest and an outsider. There are so many ideas of what to be in life. We can be inventors, entrepreneurs, You Tube heroes, social media gurus, business starters, builders, government workers, pilots, nurses, teachers, soldiers or even lawyers. What makes a good politician? I hope honesty and patriotism are numbers one and two. Leave me some comments. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Face it we got caught with our pants down! We don’t make many goods anymore-we sent it away for corporate profits in the 1990’s. I lived it. Pull on the reins and slow that horse down, bring him back to the green pasture of home.

Then there’s education(4). Here’s another gotcha moment. For a few years I wanted to home school, even had my kids enrolled but never did it. It was an out of the box idea. Now there’s tremendous support! I would advocate designated tax dollars go for private school, regular school or towards future college costs. The schools should provide for more than academia. Our kids sit too much. We need music, art, sports, playtime, yoga and life skills taught. Healthcare(5) is a burden and we aren’t even healthy. Many people are overweight and take too many pharmaceuticals. We need to take the riches out of this exploitation of humans. Get walking, dancing, playing and how about three days off per week with four days of work, schools included. Stop the clock going forward and backwards.

We have a physical(6) problem and Covid showed us this. Lock-downs further exacerbated things like depression and suicide with alcohol sales increasing and continued isolation doing immense harm. America must wake up, eat less and get moving! Set the phone down and get control. Infrastructure(7) just got a boost, so I hope more parks and green spaces will appear. Ocean health(8) would be number one on my list if we didn’t have threats of war. The environment needs our tender care. Every nation should come to the table about ocean viability with a clean up started. We need more farmers, they work so hard. People need to work the land and use less pesticides and chemicals. Maybe teach farming(9) in high school. Grow things like gardens!

Finally, I would redo taxes(10). Simplify them. I would institute a committee to make less laws, removing old ones that don’t apply or contain governmental over reach. The young people need our help before illegal immigrants enter the US. Two years of community college should be free while in high school. This saves valuable time and money. Next a BS degree can be two years in college and a masters would be three after obtaining the associate in high school. Win win. Students need a boost. They need a 50% reduction in living costs while in college. The war money we spent on Afghanistan (no longer needed) can be used to help our youth get a start in life. I would increase social security 145% like housing has gone up over the last several decades in which they have not increased money for our seniors. Shame shame. The war money would be used to help our youth and seniors. Lastly, I would like to focus on mothers, and especially, single mothers. I would set up a committee to address this issue and try to formulate better guidance and laws surrounding the families of America. Churches should be involved in this endeavor. Maybe ‘ll set up a foundation.

***I’d like to make a holiday for women and immigrants with the Statue of Liberty as the symbol. Now that’s out of the box. Face it though, there’s no women on money, no US Presidents have been women, etc., etc. Yet women are 50% of the equation for all of us here on Mother Earth!

What do you think about these ideas? What are your ideas for America? We certainly can’t take the bickering much longer nor divisiveness. Time to work together and be happy for it. Thanks for reading.

Kim Troike

Photos by Kim Troike

Boy With The Boot is in downtown Sandusky

Cherries and Theatre hanging on a wall.

Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake is my favorite!