It's a new century with a new Congress

Maybe now's the time, possibly the final opportunity, for the US Government to begin addressing some hard issues:

1. Dependence on foreign energy resources,

2. Enforcing existing immigration laws,

3. Acknowledgement that the Cold War is over and dismantling the Cold War military machine,

4. Figuring out what Americans are going to do for a living in the aftermath of former Dems and Republicans having sent all our industry overseas,

5. Shrinking the size of government and ending deficit spending,

6. Emptying the prisons of prisoners convicted of victimless crimes,

7. Shrinking the law enforcement structure,

8. Repealing the statutory products of the fear machine.

9. Illiteracy

Maybe it's time for special interests to be satisfied with their gains of the last half-century for a while and recognize life isn't perfect for any of us. Recognize, they might, that when all the folks who aren't ethnics, gays, Native Americans, illegal aliens go down the tubes, everyone goes.

Time, maybe, to look a bit deeper for what's worth doing next.