First and foremost, there’s the economy; you’re going to have to fix that. (As if anybody could — but if anybody can, I think it’s you and that panel of economic whiz-kids. My money’s on you, so to speak.)
At the same time, you’ll be wanting to get us up off the SOFA (please pardon the pun) and out of Iraq so you can concentrate on the war in Afghanistan, the India/Pakistan conflict, the Israel/Syria relationship, North Korea, Sudan and Somalia. Plus you’ll presumably be implementing your plan to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp.
And then there’s energy: taking America green is going to create millions of jobs — very important (see “the economy” above). And infrastructure: repairing America’s roads, bridges, tunnels, harbors, water mains and what-have-you could also put some unemployed people back on a payroll.
Now, some people think that education should be right up there in the top three (or ten, or seventy-five; one loses count), and probably even more people feel that way about the environment, but as a person of a certain age, I believe I’d put health care next on the list of things to fix. Take your pick, though, about what order to tackle them in — just fix them all, okay?
Great. Oh, and don’t forget — I’m sure you won’t — to get your girls a puppy. Apparently they have someone there at the White House who can housebreak him or her, so at least you won’t have that to worry about.
So I was thinking that perhaps you wouldn’t mind spending a few minutes on the Federal Communications Commission. If you could find the time to fish it out of the deep pockets of the commercial interests and restore it to its rightful place as an agency of the people and a guardian of the public airwaves, I would be most grateful. Perhaps the new head of the FCC could be someone with a spine, who refuses to allow commercials to be louder than the programs they sponsor, and also refuses to let them take up more than 10 percent of the scheduled time of a program. Who knows? Maybe that person could somehow get embarrassing commercials muted, so a gal isn’t sitting on the couch with a new beau and listening to a discussion of erectile dysfunction or an ad for Extenz.
Goodness — forgive me for even mentioning such things. This whole letter is probably a mistake. I should have sent it to Santa Claus. Or God. Bottom line, Mr. President-Elect: I know you have a lot to do, but I have confidence in you. As for that list of yours, I just hope that you can, as the Blue Collar boys say, “git ‘er done!”
Susan Harper is director of the Commerce Public Library. She lives in Commerce.
