I have been a writer for years.  I majored in English in college, taught High School English in a public school for seven years, and then I turned education into a business with a private child care / preschool.  The writer in me has been living in journals, the spiral notebook kind and the electronic folder kind.   Sometimes I spill over into Facebook and share with my “friends” those things I would normally put in a journal.  I think its time for a new venue for my thoughts.   While I don’t want to turn Facebook into a political or social minefield, I really do have a few things to say, and it would be awesome if people could hear.

My friends have always said I need to write a book.   I think I’m too ADHD to write a book.  What I really need to do is get about 15 minutes with a microphone on the floor of the US House of Representatives or the Senate, and then I won’t need to write a book.   15 minutes.  That’s all I want.  15 minutes.

What would I say?  Wow…where to start?   I would start by saying “Why is everything in this country so complicated?   Why is it literally an act of Congress to get anything done anymore?  Why does so much of what we do and legislate in this country make no sense?” We have got to get it together, people! We need some clear thinking in this country.  It is time to fix some stuff, a lot of stuff, actually.   We need common sense.   And a lot of humor.

If I had microphone on the floor of the US Senate, I would say “Hey Guys – Let’s pick a problem, any problem.   Name one.   I bet we already know what we need to do; its not rocket science.  Now let’s figure out how to make it happen.  And no fighting or name calling.   No lying or cheating.   Let’s brainstorm about possible options.  Does anyone have a dry erase board?   Raise your hand if you want to go first.”

It is that simple.  But do we do it that way?  Nooooo.   We identify a problem and someone on side A says something that is immediately interpreted by someone on Side B as garbage, because Side B has already decided that whatever side A says is garbage.   I actually googled the occupational breakdown of the 114th Congress.  80 members are educators.   One of them really needs to be in charge, because if you get a teacher up in the front running this thing,  we got ourselves a ballgame.  We might be able to do this thing as a team.

This blog exists because this country is at a crossroads, and I now wake up every day with the urge to tell someone all the zillion things running around in my head.  I have three children in college, elderly in-laws that live with us, and a husband, who like me, owns and operates his own small business.  I am knee-deep in the American dream, and I just want to scream.  All day, every day.   I laugh a lot, because I really do love my life and my family and my job and my friends, but I really do want to fix so much of what I see as, well, not fixed, in our country.  So rather than scream I just write.  Now I’m writing in public.  I’m putting it out there.   Who knows…maybe someone will see this blog and invite me to come to the floor and hand me that microphone.   Believe me…I’m practicing.