AN ENLIGHTENED COMMUNITY
IF A NATION EXPECTS TO BE IGNORANT AND FREE, IN A STATE OF CIVILIZATION, THEN IT EXPECTS WHAT NEVER WAS AND NEVER WILL BE.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
- Put in place a balanced budget amendment to the constitution as well pay off the national debt. This was not put in the wrong platform. The staggering, almost unbelievable amount of money it will take in future years to pay off our nation’s debt to those here and around the world is the largest single roadblock to advancing our schools, public works projects and fix just about every other social ill America faces today and thus makes it the number one social issue.
- The overhaul of the entire public educational system of the United States by such means as:
2A. Altering the no child left behind act so as to achieve objective unadulterated test results not tampered with by state educational or political authorities.
2B. Return the classroom to those that teach by implementing a strictly enforced nationwide classroom conduct code.
2C. Completely restructure the tenure system in this country by requiring teachers to meet high performance standards rather than just accumulating tenure simply by showing up day after day. In addition, adopt a promotion/termination procedure according to a combo of time on the job & the last 3 performance reviews.
2D. As a replacement to tenure adopt a system of teacher ranks like military ranks, such as teacher, teacher 1st class, senior teacher and master teacher and link it directly to pay raises. Do this so really good teachers can stay in the classroom and don’t have to move into principal and superintendent positions to earn more money.
2E. Allow school principals to pick up the contracts of those teachers they feel would be a good hire.
2F. Launch the national engineering project. A project designed to entice and attract young America minds of all ages into the various fields of engineering through such programs as paying in part the college tuition and fees for any American student majoring in engineering, chemistry or physics that maintains at least a 3.0 G.P.A. Overall. - Require all colleges & trade schools to provide their student bodies an opportunity for make-up exams, provided they have incontestable proof of their inability to take the test at its first offering. If you’ve never had this problem you don’t know the massive headache it is.
- End homelessness in America through the passage of strong and meaningful public housing, mental health and drug treatment reform as well as establishing a mental health bill of basic rights and standards. Then back up such standards with realistically appropriate drug treatment funding and tough anti-vagrancy laws and codes. In addition, create a separate (federal) government run public housing system exclusively for homeless veterans and (if necessary) their families.
- Pass state and federal medical standards & regulations that would:
5A. Make a yearly physical examination for the top ten killers of men & women highly desirable for every American citizen and legal resident through tax breaks,
5B. Create state & federal tax incentives for those that become blood and/or organ donors,
5C. Ban the use of all harmful or addictive chemicals in tobacco products,
5D. Sanction the use of medical marijuana for those with chronic and/or irremediable pain and suffering,
5E. Create a national computerized network of all citizens health records including their blood type, current and past regiment of medications, allergies, surgeries & other health conditions. - Finalize both the abortion & right to die questions by passing the bodily rights amendment to the federal constitution, with both reasonable and wholly unambiguous rights & limitations for both issues.
- Passage of meaningful animal rights legislation that would ban all non-medical animal testing, as well as banning the use of all steel traps in hunting.
- Create a $5 national lottery that would allocate $3 towards the amount of the prize and $2 towards each of these following causes. (one cause per week on this rotating 26-week basis).
1) The American lung association
2) The 10 largest national burn centers
3) The American Red cross
4) The national debt
5) Feed the children
6) The American diabetes association
7) The wounded warrior project
8) The cystic fibrosis foundation
9) The wildlife conservation society
10) The multiple sclerosis society
11) Heart disease research
12) Asthma research
13) A.I.D.S. research
14) The American federation of the blind
15) The ten best run animal shelters in the country
16) Boys and girl clubs of America
17) The muscular dystrophy society
18) The national association of the deaf
19) The boys’ and girls’ clubs of America
20) The U.S.O.
21) The ten best run teen shelters in the country
22) The American cancer society
23) Habitat for humanity
24) World wildlife federation
25) The juvenile diabetes foundation
26) Teach for America! - The forgiving, on a nation-by-nation basis, of all third world debt in exchange for each debtor nation’s guarantee to funnel a third of the debt owed to the United States, to their own healthcare and basic education systems (grades k-12). Which they Would be held to.
- The legalization (on the state level) of prostitution as a tax paying, legal profession that is subject to local and state health codes as well as state and federal labor laws. But with a career path training option out of prostitution.
- Double federal funding of all forms of stem cell and cancer research.
- Offer tax incentives to video game companies that stop making ultra-violent video games.
- Support the passage of a standardized set of national requirements dealing with the handling of rape kits.
- Increase safety levels for lead to 30 parts per million.
- Pay half the tuition of any American medical student specializing in the fields of geriatrics, pharmacology, physician assistant, nursing, health care admin. or emergency medicine, that maintains their school G.P.A. at or above 3.0 while they are in college/medical school.
- Make sign language an elective in all schools just like Spanish or French.
- Invest in inner city pools as well as teaching All children to swim.
- Correct the gross injustices of parental laws where it pertains to child custody, paternity and child support to a more gender blind and equal system.
- Pass legislation requiring a minimum of 1 nurse per 2 people per floor and 1 for 1 in the E.R. in every hospital.
- Stop the over medicating of children with antidepressants and (in boys specifically) ADHD medications.
While the positions in the various platforms in this review shall indeed make up part of the overall party agenda, it should in no way whatsoever be seen by anyone as the final draft. Certainly, many issues have not even been touched on. While other positions already in this review need editing & additions. The party’s first executive council will take up these issues when it convenes.
IF A NATION EXPECTS TO BE IGNORANT AND FREE IN A STATE OF CIVILIZATION, THEN IT EXPECTS WHAT NEVER WAS AND NEVER WILL BE.
THOMAS JEFFERSON