What do you want from our leaders?

I want them to understand the declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States.

I want them to be able to think clearly.

I want them to have moral character.

I want them to understand what it means to serve, and represent.

I want them to understand how well off they are compared to those they represent.

I want them to understand peace and compassion.

Then I want them to work on developing policies that will make the rest of the citizens of this country, after all it's We The People, just like them.



In all actuality, I think this would happen simultaneously, with perhaps a few of them leading the way as their numbers grow. That means that consumer demand for schools that really educate start now. Ah, but what is education? Well, I think it far more important that people learn to think than regurgitate facts. Anyone can memorize facts.  Education is also in-forming the inner person. That there are simple universal truths with no religious affiliation goes without saying. In other words, I think someone who graduates should be able to write legibly. They should be literate to a high degree. They should understand math well enough to know that the calculator that just gave them the  wrong number is wrong.  They should know what is age appropriate for them to know in the culture they live in. They shouild also know art and music.(I favor funding these programs before sports).
Let me emphasize this with a story.  My wife and I pulled our youngest son from the public school system many years ago. He had hearing loss they wanted to insist was ADD. But since I couldn't get medical agreement on that fact, no way was I putting my kids on drugs, which the school was pushing.  So I took him out, despite my own fears. Every year we had a meeting with the school, and every year seemed to be a loss.  Well, one night, I was preparing to  retire for the evening, and out came my young son. He was in Middle School age. He wanted to talk about feminism.

Say wha?

So I asked what he wanted to know. I love blabbing about the storehouse of information I possess, and my own opinions. Well, my son then described what he saw in the lives of not only his mother, but the mothers of his closest friends. He then laid out what he saw as examples of  feminism in their lives, and some of the issues and seeming contradictions in our society. About 20 minutes later, I realized a couple things. One was that my son only lacked a historical perspective on the subject. The other was that my son was learning to think. I could not have had that discussion with any of my work mates who were adults.

By the time my son had graduated high school, he had run a small business, he had played in a band and recorded two CDs, he had co-authored a book, sat on a board of a local teen center, and read every major Russian lit title and many lesser known ones as well.  I watched him, post graduation, hold the attention of a former English lit department chair for a couple hours at a holiday party we took him to. So despite what I think, and he as well, was lacking from his education, he has learned to think for the most part.

Government isn't broken. Because governemnet isn't an entity. it's us. It's we the people that are broken. We the people need to fix us.