Day 2: January 2, 2009

Question 84:

Which three political issues are most important to you?

Responses:

• If I were American, 1. Implement universal health care (the present situation in the US re healthcare is obscene). 2. The prosecution of George Bush and his cronies for "Conspiracy to wage aggressive war" and "Waging aggressive war". These are actually indictments 1 & 2 at Nuremberg and for which, on being justly found guilty, most of Hitler's major cronies were sentenced to death by hanging, which sentences were carried out in 1946, according to law administered by the Allies. 3. End of excessive military spending. The US, with about 25% of world GDP, is spending about 50% of worldwide spending on defense. Actually Europe and Japan, with another 39% of the world GDP, spend another 25% of total world defense spending. So the US and its major allies which generate jointly about 64% of the world GDP spend about 75% of worldwide defense spending. What realistic threat is this spending going to counter?
• Independence from oil. Human rights issues on the global front --- especially human trafficking. Education -- raise the bar (and provide educators with real tools to do so), add 21st century curriculum (and why are cultural/global studies not begun in primary school???), lose ineffective tenured teachers, pay talented teachers more, demand parental involvement, get corporate America to kick in. Health Care. Sorry, that’s 4.
• Equality, healthcare, education

Song:
Big Sky, by Rachel Loy

Lyrics:

I've got this ego
that got knocked down
Walking real slow, staring at the ground
A million loners wake up every day
My life's not over, just twisted out of place

I stop in my tracks
to watch the clouds get tossed around
and suddenly that's all I can think about.

CHORUS
I got the big sky to hold me
I got my whole life unfolding
There's beauty in solitude
so don't tell me that I need you
I'm on the outside of being lonely
I've the whole sky to hold me

I take the train home almost every night
I talk to strangers, just feel alive
So I asked this lady, when I was feeling bold:
Am I going crazy or is this just getting old?
Half-smiling, she told me she misses being young
When every moment just drips with passion
She said, 'Girl, let yourself cry,
get rid of your fear of feeling lost
Don't calculate the cost."

CHORUS

Some time my spirit's stretched so far
you can see right through it to my beating heart
It's just a growing pain
Just when I think I'm going to shrivel up
I can feel the blood running through my veins
Oh, that'll never change

I've got the whole sky to hold me
temporarily lonely
I defeated the solitude, oh
just to find that I don't need you...

I got the big sky to hold me
I got my whole life unfolding
There's beauty in solitude
So I'm standing strong and new
I'm on the oustide of being lonely
I've got the whole sky to hold me