Jonathan Souza's Ten Ideas To Get The United States Going Again

Yep, another one of my rants.  Why so long between rants?  Simple-I have to make the time to get a rant up and off the ground, then write it up, then edit it.  Since the Rants are always as topical as I can get them, I want to try and keep the rants relevant.  Joy.  However, since I am seemingly overworked/underpaid/undersexed, I'm always a bit behind what I want to report.  But, I promise to try and become more relevant, ASAP.

Anyways, to the rants!

I've avoided commentary on what happened on September 11, 2001 for one very simple reason-what I want to do to those that attacked us and sent men out to murder.

I want pikes erected outside of the White House.  On them, Osama Bin Laden's head, right next to Saddam Hussain's and the leadership of the PLO and Hezbolah, and every other group of terrorists and those that would commit such acts of murder and strife all lined up in a nice, pretty row.

This will take a while.  And while I have ideas on how to get there, I'll leave that to the people that know more about how to do such things than I do.

But, we have something else going on-the United States economy, not exactly in the best of all possible shape on September 10, is slipping badly.  And, like anything else, the war on the homefront will be just as important as the war on the battlefields of the world out there.  What the American people need now, more than anything else, is economic and personal comfort-the knowledge that while times are tough, the nation still stands and the jobs will come back and the kids can go to school safely.

However, what has been proposed, from stupidly anal airport security requirements (no curbside checking, prohibiting knives anywhere in an airport) that only penalize honest citizens to a national ID card system (when it's pretty easy for anybody to spend about $500 and get a driver's license and social security card that's of higher quality than what the government issues) that would rapidly become a joke.  These are the same "feel-good" solutions that people hated during the Clinton administration and will have the same results.  It will make us feel all warm and fuzzy that We Are Doing Something, but the holes will still be there, waiting for somebody to get through them again.

But, we do need security, and holes fixed.  We also need to stimulate the economy and get people going to work, on planes, and traveling again.  In short, we need to give our security, our economy, and our minds a jumpstart.

Call this jumpstart "My Ten Ideas On How To Help Us Get Going Again."  Or "The United States Marshall Plan".  Whatever you want to call it, it is well beyond time to get started on it. 

1. Tighten Up, Severely, Immigration
   This is something, in all honesty, that should have been done years ago.  Apologies now, for every person whom comes to the United States with innocent intent, but we're going to have to be very anal retentive about how foreign nationals move throughout the nation.  We should, at a minimum, track the entry and exit of everybody that comes into the nation, regardless of visa type.  Many of the terrorists came over on student or travel visas and they just vanished into the woodwork.  Anybody coming over on a student visa should be required to provide an accurate location of where they are living and working at, at all times.  They get a "one strike and you're deported" safety net-and they have to keep their grades up to stay in school.  Also, anybody traveling across the country who is not American or a naturalized American citizen should present their passport and valid visa before even being allowed past the security checkpoint.  
   
   America also suffers from two of the largest national boarders between two other countries-Canada and Mexico-that just about any other country short of Russia doesn't have to deal with.  Like it or not, everybody whom thinks that immigration from Mexico should be free, we're going to have to put defenses on those boarders-at least a serious wall, maybe even a minefield and automated guns.  Yes, people might call it "the new Berlin Wall", but the Mexico crossing is one of the most vulnerable points that could be used to get terrorists into the country.  And, international law does allow for violence in self-defense; which this most certainly is.
   
   Canada, as well, doesn't get a free lunch out of this.  While Mexico will most likely be how the manpower gets into the United States, Canada will be how they get materials in.  After all, we aren't watching for people smuggling drugs into the United States from Canada, while we aren't really looking for people coming in from Mexico.  Canada has to do their part, no question about it -- but the American end of the border has to be secured, as well.

2. Pass And Enforce a National Concealed Carry Law And The "Skywatch" Program
   Like it or not, the police will not always be there.  There were no cops on the four suicide flights on September 11th, and the hijackers were able to get away with their plans-armed with knives and box cutters.  While the plan to put armed air marshals on flights is a good and valid one, the plan does not go far enough, for two reasons.  First of all, unless there are literally hundreds of thousands of air marshals, there cannot be enough for each flight to have at least one air marshal, some might have none at all.  So, there will always be a window of vulnerability, one where the terrorists only have to get lucky once....and another plane is crashed into the Capital or the Sears Tower in Chicago.  
   
   Second, this doesn't eliminate all the threats possible by those that intend people ill will.  Don't forget, in nations such as Israel, terrorists also launch their attacks on the population with the AK-74 and hand grenades.  Which might be the next wave of attacks-a dozen terrorists, two or three on the cleaning staff of the next Super Bowl, sneak in AK-47s and grenades and some nerve gas, the terrorists get their weapons from where they hid them, and launch their attack on national television as they gun down thousands of people....this is unacceptable.
   
   In my humble opinion, it is well past time for the United States to pass a national concealed-carry law, based on the laws of Texas and similar.  If you are a naturalized or native-born American citizen, not a convicted felon, and are willing to pass a simple written test and register, you should be able to carry any number of pistols and similar weapons on your person -- concealed -- at all times.  Also, any sworn member of any police department should be able to carry their firearms, concealed, across state borders (some states prohibit any out-of-state police departments from carrying firearms concealed).  While some reasonable locations (such as in inside of a hospital or chemical refinery) should be able to request that guns NOT be carried, you should be able to take a concealed firearm anywhere you want.
   
   Which leads us to the Skywatch proposal.
   
   John Ringo, the author of A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, and co-author of the "Roger Ramius" series, suggested that a civilian "Skywatch" be formed, initially of retired police and military personnel, with expansion into any citizen that wants to join.  The proposal works out like this-each flight under Skywatch would have one free first-class and four to six reduced-fare tickets for any military MP officer, SWAT team member willing to travel "in gear" (with their seats up-front near the cabin), sworn police and federal security officer, and civilians willing to maintain a yearly qualification license.  This qualification license would be require the person to be a native-born or naturalized citizen, pass a criminal background check, be willing to take and pass a firearms safety course including airplane tactics and safety, demonstrate accuracy with their carry weapon with a minimum of two hundred rounds on target, and a licensing fee to pay for it all.
   
   Skywatch members would be able to avoid security checkpoints and metal detector scans by both their ID card and other identification (probably a fingerprint/retinal scanner), including demonstrating that they are carrying safety-load rounds.  With the honest possibility of a free or reduced-cost flight, accountants all over the United States for corporations will dance in joy if they can get their companies to encourage or force their frequent flyers to take this qualification program.  This means that any flight in the United States could have anywhere between three to eight people, armed and ready to take down any terrorist by Any Means Necessary to save the plane and possibly people on the ground.

3. "Citadel" The Cockpit
   Like it or not, the opportunity to watch pilots at work now has ended.  And, it's time to make sure that nobody, except the flight crew, can get access to the cockpit again.  Right now, producing an armored door that pilots can lock is the first and best thing possible without major renovations of the plane.  Also, the pilot's union request to allow for their flight crews to be armed is one we should take up, and including that with the Skywatch would make for better security.
   
   But, any new passenger plane, approved for use in the United States, will have to have at least a bathroom and a small galley that can only be accessed by the flight crew and nobody else.  Perhaps an entirely separate air system to pressurize the cockpit as well, to prevent somebody from using tear gas or similar to incapacitate the crew.  Also, the passengers and cabin crew of any passenger plane shouldn't be able to get access to the cockpit-there should be a Big Red Button that tells the flight crew to land the plane now, but no other way to threaten or harass the pilots should exist.

4. Federal Take-Over Of All Airport Security
   Security at airports, now, is something of a national security matter.  So, the Federal government will have to take the security over.  Whatever else happens, the security has to be a real change, not just a bunch of Federal officials doing the same thing as more local officials did.

5. Cut or Repeal Capital Gains Taxes
   Investment in the country is needed, now more than ever.  But, with the previous downturn in the economy as the tech market bubble burst, the September 11th attack was like pouring gas on the fire of people getting their money out of the investment and stock markets.  Clearly, drastic action is needed to put the nation back on sound financial ground, and getting more money back into the stock market is the goal.
   
   Thusly, I suggest a massive cut, or total repeal, of capital gains taxes, retroactive to January 1, 2001.  This would allow a lot of people that lost money when the tech market and the stock market fell to either make good their losses or cover the financial bite better.  Also, it would give encouragement to jittery investors to risk their money again-even if they fail, they won't lose too much and the profits will be much higher.

6. Upgrade The Telecommunications Infrastructure Of The United States
   There were reports, in the wake of the Twin Towers attack, that the combination of the loss of switching stations at the Twin Towers, panic from people all over the nation, and the sudden rush of people wanting information from the Internet and similar nearly caused the telephone and Internet backbones to fail or collapse.  This might have been the goal of our enemies-crippling our efforts to gather and develop information, repair the losses and damages, and isolate people into panic-filled groups.  The sudden deployment of several viruses on the Internet might have also been a part of this attack plan-to collapse and destroy our major economic backbone of information technology.
   
   So, it's well past time to start upgrading, especially funding and supporting high-speed data access systems such as ADSL switching units in more remote areas of the United States, fiber-optic backbones, and decentralization of the data communications networks.  I don't think that we should spend tax money to do the upgrading (with the exception of modernizing communications and data linkages for military and federal operations), but hefty tax breaks to companies that upgrade their data transmission systems would be ideal.  

7. Time To Make Militia Training Serious Again
   Federal law dictates that a "militiaman" is any adult male of eighteen years or older, a legal citizen with his full civil rights, and is willing to do his duty.  The Founding Fathers, in every book and document they wrote, viewed Switzerland, with its citizen militias armed and ready for duty, as their ultimate goal and ambition.
   
   It's time to start training for that duty, again.
   
   My roommate and I, for years, have discussed how education should be fixed.  In my opinion, it is time to start militia training again in our high schools and colleges for our children.  Starting in the tenth grade, male and female children will learn the basics of militia duty-firearms safety and practice, military discipline, small unit tactics,  first aid,  and anything and everything a citizen needs to know to defend his home and family from attack.  Going to college means a mandatory militia ROTC course, and standing militia duty will require that members re-qualify yearly on their personal weapon-with the weapon's cost subsidized by the Federal government and ammo given at cost.  Militias will be organized on a zip-code basis (everybody in your zip code is a member of your militia unit), and yearly call-up for refresher training is mandatory with job protection.  
   
   (For those of you whom view all weapons as evil, you can -- once you turn eighteen -- not choose to join a militia.  But you WILL learn firearms safety, as well as your kids.)
   
   In addition, the weapons will have to be "common", as much as possible.  That means that every militia soldier will have, stored safely at home (with random inspection at any time) his or her M-16 rifle, cleaned and ready along with his gear.  As the United States military switches over from the M-16A2 to the OICW (which I have an opinion of that isn't relevant to this point), those same M-16A2s can be sold at cost to the militias.  And, since using your militia weapon for a crime means you can be prosecuted under the UCMJ (Universal Code of Military Justice, which puts you in jail for ten years for drunken driving), security of the weapons is one thing less to worry about.

8. Education Reform
   We're going to need a lot very soon-a lot of engineers, a lot of doctors, a lot of scientists, and a lot of people that are educated and able to think and deal with logic and rational concepts.  So, the days of "feel good" education is now over-our kids are going to need to be able to be logical and rational.  To solve problems.  To fix things, to be able to handle and work with concepts.
   
   In short, "outcome-based education" has to be tossed out the window so hard it bounces.  We need to teach our kids before they graduate High School-
   *How to do math from basic calculations to algebra,
   *Comprehend English grammar and spelling rules and usage (Ebonics no longer exists),
   *Understand how the United States government works, from the city to the federal level, and
   *Have basic survival skills, from balancing a checkbook to cooking their own meals.
   
   All to be verified and confirmed by national testing and standards.  It's well beyond time that our kids learn, early on, to fend for themselves and how to fend for themselves.

9. Cutting Income Taxes
   Yes, we will be going to war soon.  Here's my reply-so what?  We need to get the economy moving again, getting it going, and that means we need more money in the hands of people, so they can spend it.  Especially those that are in the lower income brackets, whom spend their money much more carefully because they have so little money to spend.  
   
   So, it's time to cut income taxes.  We need more money in the hands of people so they can spend it, and the trickle effect invigorates the economy.  It might even be worth totally eliminating the lowest income tax bracket that exists, so that if you make less than that bracket's requirements, you don't pay any income tax.

10. Help Each Other
    After the September 11th attack, donations and charitable help was record-breaking.  The American Red Cross had to turn away people from blood donations because they were literally overwhelmed with blood donors.  Soup kitchens and homeless shelters had so much donated food and supplies that many of them were overstocked for the first time in years.  
    
    If we can do this in times of disaster, why not all the time?  Go to the American Red Cross, get first aid and CPR training.  Put some money in the Salvation Army donation drum whenever you can, even if it's a quarter or two.  Got some cans of food you'll never eat?  Donate them to your local shelter, so somebody can have it.  Donate some of your time-an hour or two at the local library or school can do wonders.  
    
    In short, let's help each other, because it is long past time that we do so.

Like President Bush said in his address to the nation, our country is still strong and vital.  And, it's up to each of us, from the lowest to the highest, to make sure that the country maintains a vital strength and power.  

New rant, next week.  I promise it will be jam-packed full of all my thoughts.

PS-If anyone has a legal copy of the PlayStation Ghost In The Shell game, I'd be very glad to negotiate out a reasonable price for a copy.  Thank you.

You want to come here and hear my opinion, you're welcome to come by. If not, you can Go Away, and let other people in.

Check out the Previous Rant.

This page was created on 4/09/01.

Created by Jonathan Souza on Front Page 2000.