Despite sweeping in major victories–including a 70-plus representative advantage in the House–change is not today, it is for an unknown tomorrow.  Not even January 20, 2009, but some day we can’t know, yet. How will it all go down? How will we pass our days as we wait for the change?

Last night, citizens found a power that they never seemed to know they had before. Perhaps, a will that never existed previously, manifested itself. It would be all too easy to slip into the habits of the past. The inaction. The apathy. The television. The debt. The drinking. The Ignorance.

So I’m wish-listing today. How can we get America moving? Inertia is a tricky thing. Think of this election like you’d think of rocking a stuck automobile: Okay, we made a good push, but unless the driver hits the gas, back in the hole.

Words get cool again

We need to relearn a love of reading as a populace. We need a wider and deeper love for logic, rhetoric, and language(s). Our students who have gone into more debt than they should have to need options for digging out, and are they even getting what they need in today’s world? Obama called for service and sacrifice: what is he going to offer in return? I want to know how and when I can sign up.

Yes, even the red ones
Envigorate the states: The President-elect’s 50-state strategy for campaigning should be his executive prerogative for governing.

Easy on the guns

The right to bear arms is sacred, but assault rifles are stupid things to have in the streets.

Quit hiding the machinery

There is a complicated beauty to how our legal and legislative system works, but it is useless if no one can see it. The internet is a bastion for open government resources, but it needs to go to a new level. I agree with the camp that says the US gov should focus on making data available, as opposed to trying to present it themselves.

Be careful with the internet

Okay we all know the net is great, but it really won’t be as good without neutrality. Save the internet, don’t sell it. Privacy is the issue of the 21st century, and we need to get on the ball now with how/what gets recorded, sold, or stored about our activity online.

Rollback media consolidation

Corporations give, and they take. What they offer in resources, they brutally recoup through the elimination of competition.  Get tougher on antitrust issues and lobbying. Can someone from Iowa own its newspapers and radio stations?  Not in today’s market, where cross-ownership outsources local jobs to the coast, and drags quality local public discourse into the ocean. You won’t see this attitude in major magazines, because, well, many of them share the same building, and the building is expensive.

Pet issues, you say. But to me, strengthening America goes hand-in-hand with improving conversations between people who don’t usually talk. Voices for the voiceless, as they say in J-school. Speak up! The time is now to seize the opportunity to express yourself. What do you want to change tomorrow? Give me explanations, links, ideas…

http://www.rethink-dispatches.com/beyond-iraq/.

The About Us page reveals a cool multicultural, globetrotting vibe and an informality that sometimes belies the heavy-hitting content.

I like some of the video presentations: If you’re into brooding soundtrack black and white cinematography–like the movie Pi, for instance–check out The Dear Leader.

Don’t miss each issue’s high-minded links page.