New challenges for a new year (2026)!

As they begin a new year, many people think about changes, fresh starts, and new beginnings. With that thought in mind, we look at the fate of working-class residents, citizens of color and those who are marginalized for various other reasons. 

We look at them through the eyes of a country that has become wealthy through the theft, robbery, and confiscation of one group’s land (Native Americans), through the forced and exploited labor of other groups (Africans and Asians), and through the spoils of wars, colonialism, neo-colonialism and other forms of monopolistic economics. 

We look at them through the eyes of a democratic republic wherein people elect officials to carry out their societal needs and wishes. 

We look at them through the eyes of universal human rights wherein all humans are entitled to not just life and liberty, but the things that enable life and liberty to become realities. This includes education, a healthy environment, modern healthcare, adequate food and shelter, and peace and safety.

It is with those thoughts in mind that we make AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE of this city, county, state, and country to use whatever resources you may have – influence, time, money, and organizational affiliations – to promote the proposals below. So, pitch them to local and national officials; pitch them through the media – print, electronic, digital, and social; pitch them in your church, synagogue, temple, or mosque; pitch them through your clubs and in the streets.

It is with the thoughts of affordability, democracy, and human rights that we APPEAL TO THE OFFICIALS of this city, state, and country to use every tool that they have and can create to promote the proposals below, whether they are already a part of your party’s or caucus’s agenda or stands alone as a singular request. Effect them by the intelligence you use and by the noise you make.

It is with the concern for the future of this society that we APPEAL TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS, CIVIL LIBERTIES, SOCIAL SERVICE, AND OTHER CIVIC-MINDED GROUPS to promote the proposals below. We challenge these groups to make such matters a part of their budgets, media campaigns, and protest agenda.

In the field of EDUCATION, drastic increases in the salaries of classroom teachers and their assistants is in order. They need to be paid on the basis of their importance to the society and their degree of professional training rather than as if they are just a class of older baby-sitters. 

Laws are needed recognizing and respecting teachers as the professional educators, rather than enabling legislators and other officials to dictate what is and is not provided in curriculum and instruction. The rights of students and teachers need to be recognized and upheld through full due process. Public education funding must be increased. There are obviously other proposals that are needed to promote education. For the time being, however, these four should take priority and addressed forthwith. 

In the fields of HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, there clearly needs to be an expansion of Medicaid not just to save rural hospitals, though saving them is critical to the entire system. Medicaid Expansion is needed to save the lives of thousands and to help even more people remain productive citizens. 

Secondly, more people need assistance with food, shelter, water, utilities, and other such things having become more than just the trappings of modern life in America. Programs which cover these matters need to be fully funded. Furthermore, creative minds need to design and implement effective human service programs, as well as ways and means to protect Social Security and other retirement programs. 

Thirdly, environmental protectional laws, which have been ignored or swept aside by the Trump administration, need to be re-asserted and enforced. 

Fourthly, laws need tightening and prosecutions sped-up for officials violating laws designed to protect the health and welfare of citizens, as in the case of the misspent SNAP funds. 

Other Crucial 

Areas of Concern:

There surely are other matters needing to come before our local, state, and national officials in other areas. For example, the laws regarding the sale, ownership, and carrying of deadly weapons are too lax and lead to thousands of deaths every year. Similarly, there are thousands of racist law enforcement officials employed around the country who should never have been hired – some of these would not have been hired if their application screening included the use of appropriate psychological tests. 

There also are the areas of voting rights protection, migrant and refugee rights, the proper use of military personnel, and so much more.