President Obama’s Action Agenda
Where Do We Start?
Part Two

Greg's Corner
by Greg Petty & Stephanie Ratliff
February 2009

Last month's article covered the first two items we believe President Obama and Congress must address to move America forward. The items were the economy/financial reform and healthcare. The following issues also need attention.

3. Environment
Immediate action to put the force of the federal government and supported federal institutions (NIH, Academy of Science, etc) behind climate change mitigation efforts. Impose a national carbon tax. Evidence is alarming that we may not have as much time as we think. Don’t believe me? Read NASA, Dr. James Hansen’s recent climate change report and EPA, Geological Survey reports on the climate warming threat to our country. We also recommend that everyone read Flat, Hot and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman. What we are talking about is no less than avoiding environmental disaster. Let’s get it started.

4. Iraq and Afghanistan
Begin our phased withdrawal from Iraq. Our efforts should focus on finalizing the training of their police and military forces to stand up as we stand down. This war has come at a huge cost of lives on both sides. It has lasted a year longer than WWII! The Iraqi government has had plenty of time to be competent and responsible for theirselves by now.

Unfortunately, some of our troops will have to go from Iraq to Afghanistan. This always was, and still is, the battlefront of the true war on terror. We must focus on obtaining much more help from our NATO allies and the rebuilding of civil society in the country. At the same time we must rebuild our military for the 21st century missions it will encounter.

The people of Afghanistan will ignore the Taliban when they see actual improvements in their daily lives, a sense of security and have something to hope for. It is all about winning hearts and minds. The capture of bin Laden, Zawahiri and Mullah Omar should be high priorities.

5. Rule of Law
America must now restore the faith of its citizens, and the international community, that we are truly a nation of laws and that we believe in guiding light principles espoused in our constitution. To accomplish this the Obama administration will need to:

• Close Guantanamo. Hold Federal trials for all prisoners prioritized by the seriousness of charges and time they been held. Follow the reasonable guidelines proposed by Human Rights Watch.
• Immediate cessation of extraordinary renditions, secret prisons and questionable interrogation techniques.
• Reiterate to the world that America will abide by the Geneva Conventions.
• Revisions to the Patriot Act so that all provisions comply with our constitution and all intelligence-gathering activities are routed through the existing FISA court.Abolish the Military Commissions set up for trials. Use existing military and/or federal courts for trial. As the Supreme Court has already ruled, we must honor habeas corpus.
• Rollback the claims of Executive Privilege claimed by the Bush Administration.

6. Executive Orders/Administrative Rulings
The Obama administration should begin an immediate review of all executive orders and administrative rulings initiated since 2000. The most egregious items should be rescinded as quickly as possible. We must inform the world we will be rejoining global conversations about all topics. They should know America will be reasonable and responsible about dealing with established scientific facts. Among the orders weakened were environmental standards for clean air, drilling, use of federal land, limiting medical research by regulating the number of stem cells and not negotiating in good faith with the world about global climate change. The list for review and rescission is extensive.

7. Education
Just as we need to organize and implement coordinated projects to rebuild infrastructure, transit and energy conversion to maintain our economic and political standing, so we need to approach the revitalization of our K-12 educational systems.

What we need is no less than a ground floor up review of school board funding models, physical infrastructure, educational standards, how and when to test. What are the best models to counter the social and economic obstacles to learning? How can we instill the love of learning in every child? How can we develop a student’s areas of strength and individualize their learning? We should help the states scour the world in search of the best practices and methods for teaching every subject with special emphasis on math and science. Without our citizens excelling in math and science we will lose our economic and technologic dominance.

Local school boards are part of the problem as are the massively inequitable per capita funding schemes from community taxes. We need new educational structures and oversight at the state level. America outlawed separate but equal education with Brown vs. Board of Education but state and local school funding methods and allocations allowed huge inequities in student spending and physical facilities. The results are the inequities in educational attainment we now see. The world is passing us by educationally (except for higher education) and we must reverse this trend. It will take all of us to fix our struggling system. Let’s allocate some of the stimulus money right away to get these efforts started in every state.

8. Science and Libraries
Strengthen our educational and scientific institutions and return us to the cutting edge of technology. Our technology "infrastructure" whether it is fiber optics, developing green technologies or highly trained and educated scientists, is falling behind the rest of the world. See number 7 above!

Direct infusion of stimulus funds to be used to support local library systems in every state. Like schools, public libraries are vital to our communities and are usually the first to have to cut back hours or programs just when they are needed the most… in hard financial times.

Stephanie Ratliff is a political activist in New Mexico, and also happens to be Greg's Sister.