Let’s make America great again. When it comes to improvements, I’m all in. Here are some things on my wish list:
Let’s make America healthy again. Fortune ranked the U.S. 28th out of 188 countries on health. On infant mortality alone, we rank 26th. Ireland, Slovakia, and Poland do better than we do. Our support for the sanctity of life seems to end at birth. We also spend a lot more and get a lot less for what we pay – there are 50 countries ahead of us in health care spending efficiency. Many of the high-ranking countries – Sweden, Australia, Austria, Iceland and Japan, among others – have some form of universal health care. Maybe we should go study their systems, figure out what they’re doing right and bring it back to America.
Let’s make America clean and beautiful again, from sea to shining sea. Denying climate change spells disaster for our children and grandchildren. Cutting the EPA will make our country polluted. Cutting back on clean water rules and allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline to move forward – knowing how often there are spills – will be a disaster. Our national parks are in disrepair. Let’s invest in our land and protect it from toxic degradation.
Let’s make America free again. We have the highest rates of incarceration in the world. Is that because Americans are bad hombres? No, we Americans are just as law-abiding as people in other countries. Americans’ level of crime is about the same as other industrialized, stable nations, but we just like to lock ‘em up. We spend a lot of money keeping people in prison. Let’s take that money and invest in something else, like homeless veterans, support for public schools or mental health services, or just about anything else that will make our country greater.
Let’s make America safe again. With all those people in prison, you would think America would be a safe place to live. But it also turns out we have by far the highest rate of gun violence among developed nations, 25 times higher than other high-income nations. Clearly access to guns is not making us safer from violence. Let’s do something about it and regulate guns reasonably.
Let’s make America welcoming again. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” We are detaining, harassing and turning people away at alarming rates. This includes immigrants and refugees fleeing horrible conditions, but it also includes innocent book authors, doctors, journalists, academics and the Tibetan Women’s Soccer Team, for goodness’ sake! It most recently includes Khizr Khan, a Gold Star father, told his travel privileges were under review. Even tourists are not feeling welcome here, which may end up impacting New Hampshire’s economy.
Let’s gain back the respect of other countries. Right now we don’t deserve much respect: Our government looks like a bunch of crass bullies sliding toward outright authoritarianism. Our allies no longer see us as the leader of the free world, although our enemies are pretty happy. Constant lies and bizarre midnight tweets coming out of the White House are not the acts of a strong, respectable head of state. We need great leadership, and it’s not coming from the White House. Kudos to those few Republican members of Congress who are willing to stand up to this embarrassment of an administration. Let’s reach across the aisle toward a country we can all be proud of again.
(Julia Freeman-Woolpert live in Concord.)