America is like a shooting star that once streaked across this planet in a dazzling display of brilliance but now is on the verge of flaming out. It's once world renowned energy, vitality and drive for excellence are no longer visible. This is a nation that badly needs to reenergize itself as it struggles to find its way into the 21st Century, weighed down by mounting problems.

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America, once a shooting star that streaked across this planet in a dazzling display of brilliance, is now on the verge of flaming out. Its world renowned energy, vitality and drive for excellence are no longer visible. This is a nation that badly needs to reenergize itself as it struggles to find its way into the 21^st Century, weighed down by mounting problems.

But all is not lost and there is hope because just below the surface of this country's faltering foundations there still remains a smoldering fire of creativity and innovative thinking; one that could be reignited and provide the impetus that this nation needs to enter into its own version of the Age of Enlightenment, that great movement which took place in Europe during the late 17^th and 18^th centuries. Thomas Paine called it the Age of Reason.

However, in the case of America, I'm not speaking of a cultural and intellectual movement but, rather, a societal and political movement that would, in effect, dramatically transform this nation from its current state of lethargy into one of positive, constructive endeavors that would put it back on a path to excellence; an Age of Enlightenment and Reason.

Let's try to believe that such a rebirth of spirit and creativity might just happen. And should that somehow become a reality, then here is the new Enlightened America that we will see:

It will be a nation that has replaced its extensive military empire, with some 175,000 troops deployed in 150 countries across the world, with a much leaner, but still very effective system of Special Forces and high tech resources located in certain strategic areas of the world; utilizing strike forces to quickly react to critical situations at a moment's notice.

New leaders in the Congress and the White House now realize that an agenda of perpetual war is a path leading to eventual bankruptcy and are steering America in a new direction. Massive standing armies and military invasions and occupations will be a thing of the past. This is a new America that will engage in military conflicts only if there is an urgent, imminent danger to the safety of this nation and its people, and only when such action is totally justifiable; and there are no other alternatives.

The launching of deadly drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other nations has been drastically scaled back and this military tactic will only used in the most critical, totally justifiable situations. The lives of many hundreds of innocent civilians in countries that are not engaged in a direct war with America will be saved.

American foreign policy is in the midst of undergoing significant changes; unbridled military hubris is out and diplomacy and cooperation with other nations to resolve conflicts and confrontations is in; this country will now have a Department of "Defense" that accurately reflects that label and the doctrine of "Speak softly and carry a big stick" will once again be the order of the day.

Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars have been transferred from the Department of Defense and other associated security agencies to funding the rebuilding of this nation's crumbling infrastructure and its deteriorating education system, as well as to a myriad of other critically important domestic needs.

The NSA spying agency has been drastically reduced and put under the tight oversight of the U.S. Congress; it will, from now on, be in the business of monitoring only the communications and movements of potential terrorists, both foreign and domestic, in cases where concrete evidence points to an imminent danger. The practice of intercepting the daily communications of the citizens of America has been brought to an abrupt end. The Homeland Security Department has been dismantled and, with it, the creation of a national police state in no longer being pursued.

Instead of the continued escalation of oil drilling, destructive fracking to extract natural gas, and the building of more and more toxic oil pipelines such as the Keystone XL, there is now a new Department of National Energy Development, a government/business entity with the responsibility to develop new sources of energy. The previous annual $4 billion in subsidies and incentives given to the nation's giant, highly profitable petroleum corporations has become a part of the funding for new energy development.

America is once again becoming the leader of the world in the development of these new energy sources, primarily the powerful, infinite solar power. The age of dependence on petroleum is destined to slowly but surely end, together with the associated regional wars and confrontations involving nations competing for future supplies of oil.

The Tea Party and its parent company, the GOP, as a result of refusing to adjust and relate to the demographic changes in which minority populations are rapidly becoming a growing force in national elections, have become small fringe political parties with the remainder of their supporters located primarily in the states of the South. Two new national political powers, the Independent/Progressive Party and the Green Party now have emerged as strong challengers to the embedded power of the Democratic Party.

Corporate America is now totally barred from any involvement in the U.S. government; corporate campaign contributions and lobbyists have been banned and play no role in governmental affairs or in U.S. elections. New legislation is in effect that strictly limits their role in America to the functions involved with national commerce. America has, once again, become a government of, by and for the people of America.

Capitalism, American style proved to be a highly faulted system that has severely damaged this nation's economic stability. Its corporations, based on new congressional legislation and regulations, can no longer slash millions of jobs of American workers, sending them to overseas nations, and then expect these same unemployed workers to purchase their products and services.

Capitalism, still a cornerstone of this nation, will have to play by a different set of rules. The enlightened members of the Congress have created new laws that use special tax concessions, tax penalties and various other forms of incentives and penalties to make absolutely certain that the corporations of America have an absolute, unavoidable responsibility to provide meaningful employment for this nation's workers.

This modernization of America's system of capitalism will be a major and critically important step in dealing with the dire situation in this country by which a very small minority of Americans, about 5%, control the lion's share of the wealth and income of the country while the a very large portion of the people in this country are forced to deal with unemployment, lower pay, longer hours, a lower standard of living, live on food stamps and struggle to just survive. More jobs for American workers and a much more reasonable and fair ratio of pay between CEO's and workers will, over a period of time, greatly balance the wealth and income among the people of America.

America is seeing a new generation of legislators and leaders enter the U.S. Congress and other key government agencies. This is a Congress that has many fewer millionaires and more and more lawmakers who truly represent the American people; problem solvers rather than problem creators are beginning to fill the halls of Congress.

The leaders of this nation have finally found ways to work together to arrive at solutions to the massive issue of societal violence caused by the illegal possession and unrestrained use of firearms by troubled individuals. They have realized that gun control measures that violate the rights of law abiding citizens in possessing legal firearms will never work and concentrated, instead, on strengthening laws for background checks already on the books and loopholes in the laws were fixed so that they now fully cover gun show and other random purchases.

And of most importance, new, coordinated efforts by federal and state agencies have been initiated to identify and address one of the primary causes of this problem; the need to raise awareness of the issue of mental problems that so greatly contribute to this violence; to develop effective ways to identify those individuals who show signs of being very troubled and to provide them with various forms of assistance and treatment. It's time to be proactive instead of reactive in carrying out the very difficult task of brining this situation under control.

Wall Street and the banking industry have undergone extensive reforms by which they can never again be bailed out by using taxpayer dollars. These banks and financial institutions can no longer engage in both commercial and investment banking functions, the latter that puts depositors' money at great risk .   Many of the robber barons of Wall Street are now sitting in prison cells. The American people can, once again, feel much safer in investing their money in the growth and profitability of companies rather than seeing this money being used as gambling chips in giant Wall Street casinos.

Could America actually enter into such an Age of Enlightenment and Reason? Not a doubt, not even a question that it could. Every one of the predictions described above is entirely achievable; every single one of them is well within our reach and capabilities. All it will take is the collective will and the energizing of this society, its people and its government. The only impediment that could prevent America from making such a monumental step into the future is --- America itself.

And, to be entirely realistic about this situation, there are a great many Americans who firmly believe that this could only happen as a result of a massive societal eruption. So, what's it going to be America?

Michael Payne